Plants, Feet, and Shots...oh my!

I was curious about this plant that's been springing up all over the pasture in various locations:

It looked innocuous enough and added some green to the pasture. The horses avoid eating it, but merrily ate around it. My dog as well had no issues running through the stuff. While I was waiting for Calvin to get his feet done today, he was poking through these bushes and I figured now was a good time to handle his feet. I grabbed a hoof and my arm lightly brushed up against this green plant and holy hell...I felt searing pain! Yet when I looked down at my arm...nothing? Hmm. So I endure the pain and move Calvin away from this location, the pain hasn't really subsided so I begrudgingly wandered over to the hose to wash it off. Only then did I discover my arm had boils! What!? But whatever, it's probably fine so I just washed it off and decided to ignore it (kinda like I do with all my pain). 

I feel your pain little man! 

So the nasty boil things go away fairly quickly (or not...I didn't look at it for hours) and turned into just a regular rash. I got on Google and searched for this demon plant and I found out it's "burning nettle," which is not to be confused with stinging nettle (because it burned, obviously). I learned that they are native to Europe...so thanks a lot Europe for bringing your evil plants over here. Couldn't you have just stuck to bringing beautiful horses over? 

Okay enough about an insignificant plant burning nettle. How was Calvin today? Well, we had a full day of Calvin activities! First, Calvin had his feet trimmed and he was SO GOOD! Turns out that he just wants to be by his buddies and having him tired (I turned him out and forced him to exercise beforehand) also helped. However, my trimmer informed me that his feet are not as good as they used to be :( His white line is stretched and fungus has gotten all up in there resulting in more separation. This isn't Calvin, but gives a picture of what's going on: 

Arrows pointing to stretched white line (looks like dark brown fungus line here), bracket emphasizing which part is considered the white line. This area is supposed to be "tight" and basically non existent. 

Truly wild mustang hoof, notice the "tightness" of white line                                          Here's a trusty diagram for reference

He's also not building as much sole as he used to and his soles look much thinner due to this. His frog also is not as strong as it used to be. All of these things can be due to a number of factors, but most likely is due to feed. My trimmer thinks that the feed is too high in sugar content here since all the other horses are fat and hooves look terrible too. They only feed orchard in my pasture, which is fine, but rotation is always better. Also, his pasture is cleaned daily, but since they poop pretty much in one location (by the food area) it gets stepped in frequently. So standing in moist poop is, of course, no bueno. On top of his feed is could be less exercise, less rough terrain, etc. No place is perfect unless I keep him on my own property...which based on my location is near impossible. *Sigh* all the more reason to move some place where horse property is cheap! 

After his pedicure, Calvin got his shots today and his teeth got the all clear, despite loosing so many of them, he didn't have to have them floated. I rode him in the arena today and since he wanted to be distracted by everything, we had a long and sweaty workout! Our workout consisted of trotting for about 30-40 minutes straight until he finally decided he wanted to relax. Maybe next time it'll only take 20-30 minutes ;)

Anyway, I need to hit the trails again soon to whip his feet back into shape! I miss the mountain trails!

MIA--Catching up on February!

Oy Vey...

These last few weeks have not gone according to plan. I've been wanting to gradually increase Calvin's workouts so that he starts to get in shape, but that didn't happen.  First, I got really, really sick which knocked me out for an entire week. After that week, I had to take antibiotics which left me really weak and tired. This lead up to this week which has been full of mid-semester school work and actual work-work. If you asked Calvin though, he'd probably say that he's enjoyed this time off as he gets to just chill with his pasture mates eating food 24/7.

    I wonder if spring is coming? ha! (this was one of 4)                 "Mom, stop taking pictures and let me eat this"

I went to see him today, I didn't have much time to spend other than doing barn chores, but I did end up turning him loose in the big arena where he ran and ran. Then when he's done he comes right back to me like "okay I got it out of my system, I can be done now." 4-year-olds...

Wanna know how I got these scars on my face? Being a curious baby horse! (and yes that's a wheelbarrow full of poop he's posing in front of...kind of fitting)

Anyway, he's getting his hooves trimmed tomorrow and his teeth floated again. I'm not sure I mentioned this, but he's not very good for the trimmer. I've worked with him in so many ways and he just doesn't want to stand still while getting his feet done. I've tried making him work every time he yanks his foot away hoping that it gets through that being obnoxious=more work. No dice. Then I tried backing him up at the advice of my trimmer as punishment for being obnoxious. Nope, didn't work. The only conclusion I could come to was: 1. he didn't like my trimmer and 2. he doesn't like being separated from his buddies. Now if any of you followed our story from the beginning, we know that Calvin is too attached to his horsey-pasture mates. Therefore, when he doesn't see horses he gets antsy. At our old facility, he always had horses near him when his feet got done. But at this new place, he can't see them from all locations and he gets nervous. I told this to the trimmer and we finished his feet next to his pasture mates with *much* more luck. Sigh.

He's really great at supervising...

Sometimes I wonder if he'll ever learn that being separated from his pasture mates isn't the end of the world. However, I do think my trimmer is somewhat at fault--he could be more patient with a "wild" horse. It's not his job though to train Calvin, so I can see how he's not willing to be patient sometimes. Anyway...it puts me in a difficult spot because I can trim Calvin's feet no problem so training him to be better with the trimmer is hard. Ah well, we'll just call it a work in progress. Now in terms of teeth getting done, I'll have to take some quality pics of him all drugged up (i.e. under sedation). Unless of course he decides to be a perfect angel who doesn't need sedation...one can dream, right?

Year Anniversary!

This month is my 1 year anniversary with Calvy! I can't believe the year went by so quickly and we've made so much progress. Here he is the day I picked him up and the day I went to look at him, he had just turned 3 years old:

Scrawny boy!

Here he is at 4 years old now, taken just the other day. What a difference a year can make! He's actually starting to look less like a scrawny baby and more like a normal horse. It also helps that his tail his finally growing out. Thanks to free-feeding grass hay 24/7 he has maintained a nice weight and his coat looks wonderful as well:

So shiny!

Love this little mustang adventure. I've learned so many things owning a mustang vs. the domestic horses that I've had before. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything :)