Face Flies

Last night when I pulled the ponies out of their new pasture I noticed Tommy breathing hard. I'm not sure what the deal was. I'm petrified of founder since I've never dealt with it before and neither Tommy or Skippy have ever foundered. So instead of putting them in the pasture I threw some hay. I'm thinking tonight I may pull them out and let them graze for just a few short hours. I'm wondering if that pasture is just too lush for them since the previous two pastures weren't really all that great.

I pulled Zeke out of his drylot last night. He was more interested in grass than sniffing around. He seemed much more relaxed this time out. I need to start messing with him more so that he gets used to everyone. I led him over to Maverick to see how they would react to each other. Zeke did his arabian neck crane and Maverick just stood there. I think both are a little lonely. I want to let them meet again and see how they behave.

The face flies are TERRIBLE! I've lost half of my fly masks out in the pasture. Either Chaos or King keep pulling them off everyone. I had the dogs withe me so I couldn't do a thorough search of the pasture. But I did find two fly masks. I think there's only three left missing. Both of King's masks with ears and then Dude's. I'm hoping to find them tonight. I don't wish for a hard freeze but I sure do wish for no more face flies.

Since I've lost half my fly masks, Maverick has been without a mask. I feel SO bad for him. Poor guy is standing in a drylot with no mask. I left his mask on while we were gone on vacation and it left a rub mark so I'm pretty hesitant to leave his mask on very long.

Maverick is NOT fond of his food ration. He really powered through the round bale. Now that I'm on to the small squares he doesn't get as much. He's starting to slim down. He was pretty fat after a full week of gorging himself. I also noticed that Zeke is sliming down too. I may need to put those two in together and just toss the round bale out and be done with it. I'm not used to feeding small squares so I have no idea what proportions are necessary. I know Maverick eats more than others. I wonder how I'll handle winter feeding with Maverick.

Nothing exciting really happened yesterday. When I went to look for fly masks Brego walked up to me to see what was going on. I think he wanted a mask on. He's such a doll. I need to get new pictures of everyone. I want to get pics of Maverick and Brego and show what a year's worth of good care does to a body. I also need to get updated pictures of Sam to compare. He's been with us now for 3 1/2 months and looks pretty good. It usually takes about six months to make them look ok. But since Sam has been on pasture 24x7 I think it didn't take as long to put the weight back on. And he wasn't half as bad as Maverick and Brego. But I really do need to get some more pics. This blog is just too boring with out pics!