Lilly's Weaning Timeline

Lilly's Weaning Timeline

On August 8, All the King's Horses took Lilly and a few of the other older foals to the "cow farm." 

8/8/2020 Lilly's Next Big Step Weaning

On August 13, Lilly learned to eat grain for the first time.

8/13/2020 Lilly Eating Grain for the First Time

On August 19, Lilly's mom leaves her and goes back to the other farm. Lilly is now weaned!

8/19/2020 Lilly's Mom Leaves

🎶Happy 4th Month Birthday to My Sweet Lilly🎶

 

🎶Happy 4th Month Birthday Midnight Lilly Belle 🎶

4 months old 8/26/2020

Newborn 4/26/2020

1 Month 5/26/2020

2 Months 6/26/2020

3 Months 7/26/2020

4 Months 8/26/2020

Happy birthday to my wonderful Midnight Lilly Belle. She is one month closer to coming home. She has had a lot of big events in her life this month!

I will do a recap of her first 4 months and all the milestones she has accomplished.

Milestones:

4/26/2020 Lilly Born

5/7/2020 Lilly gets her full name - Midnight Lilly Belle

5/6/2020 Lilly gets us as her new family :-)

5/13/2020 Lilly has such long legs

5/13/2020 Lilly loves being a big "sister"

5/22/2020 Lilly is growing 

5/26/2020 Lilly is 1 month old Happy Birthday

5/28/2020 Lilly's Best Friend

5/28/202 Lilly is gaining some independence

6/3/2020 Lilly grows into her long legs (at least for a little)

6/14/2020 Lilly learns how to wear a halter 

6/26/2020 Lilly is 2 months old

7/13/2020 Lilly loses her best friend Dolly

7/13/2020 Lilly makes a new best friend Hugo

7/22/2020 Lilly starts learning to lead

7/26/2020 Lilly's Photo Shoot

7/26/2020 Lilly is 3 Months old

8/3/2020 Lilly Update

8/8/2020 Lilly's Next Big Step Weaning

8/13/2020 Lilly Eating Grain for the First Time

8/19/2020 Lilly's Mom Leaves
8/20/2020 Countdown Officially Begins

8/20/2020 Preparing for Lilly's Travel Across USA

8/26/2020 Learning to be Tied

 Lilly's Training in Pennsylvania

I want to document Lilly's Training. 

Horse training is really all interactions (or lack of interactions) horses have with the humans and other animals around them. It is important that horses have good interactions with humans their whole lives because they live every day in the present not in the past or in the future. I want to track all the skills that Lilly is learning. :-)

6/14/2020 Lilly Learning the Halter

7/22/2020 Lilly Learning to Lead

8/13/2020 Eating Grain for the first time

8/19/2020 Learning to Live without Mom

8/26/2020 Learning to Tie & Picking up Feet (Happy 4th Month Birthday Lilly)

9/1/2020 Lilly's First Bath - Not a Fan! 

 Lilly Learning How to Tie & Lift Feet 8/26/2020

Rebecca posted about the babies learning how to tie today! She is learning so much! 

Look at how beautiful and black she is getting!

 Learning About Horses - Different Types of Brushes

Lilly is coming home in 47 days and I need to be prepared for her. One of the things I will be doing every day with her is grooming. Grooming helps us bond as well as keep her skin and hair healthy. So I wanted to find the best brushes I could that would work the best. I found a company Eqclusive that makes grooming kits specific for different horse hair types. But they are in England so shipping would be expensive. The packs are made with HAAS brushes. BUT they do not reveal their secret brushes in the pack or the order to use them..... So I looked up who sells HAAS brushes in America and found Riding Warehouse where they talk about the specific HAAS brushes for each part of grooming. I also found another blog with a review of the Eqclusive pack for black horses - Brace Yourself. So with these three resources I am putting together my own HAAS grooming kit. 

I am comparing them below:

Making My Brush Kit
Eqclusive Set	HAAS Brush	What the Brush Does
Eqclusive New Generation Curry Comb	1. Haas Striegel New Generation Soft Curry Comb Blue	Made of a flexible yet durable plastic, this curry comb's "teeth" maximize the massaging effect while grooming. The softer plastic is also great for removing caked on mud and dirt from your horse's coat without causing irritation
1st brush removes the dust and that matt effect that each of those horses has	2. Haas Parcour Horse Hair Bristles Body Brush	Used to remove dust from deep within the coat. This brush stands up to the toughest grooming jobs and effectively removes dust and dandruff to reveal a soft, shiny coat.
2nd brush removes sweat, sweat combined with oil and really clears the skin underneath the coat	3. Haas Lipizzaner Brush Haas Lipizzaner Brush (had to get from Amazon)	Removes sweat and oil to really clear the coat. The border is lined with longer bristles which work to remove dust while the shorter bristles in the center provide a more gentle cleaning and lasting shine.
3rd brush removes all the dirt that was brought up by the previous two brushes to the top coat	4. Haas Cavaliere Medium Horse Hair Bristles Body Brush	This brush removes the dirt brought up by the previous brushes. lift dirt, loose hairs, and dander from your horse's coat.
4th brush still removes residue in the top coat and gives a gloss	5. Haas Fellglanzburste(Coat Gloss) Grooming Body Brush	Removes any final bits of dirt whilst providing a shine to the coat. It is ideal for removing dust and dirt from the body and legs while enhancing the natural shine in the coat.
5th brush gives a final show ready polish look	6. Hass Diva Exclusive Horsehair and Lambswool Center Brush	The final brush makes the coat super glossy for a show finish! Combining the softest horsehair and lambswool, this luxurious brush leaves your horse's coat silky smooth with an incredible shine that is sure to be the talk around the stable. The black wood-look-alike back and exclusive silver writing add a touch of elegance
HAAS Mane and Tail brush	7. Haas Brenig Madoc Grooming Brush Purple	Gentle 5 cm bristles effectively lift mud, dirt, and dander from your horse's coat, mane, and tail to reveal soft and silky hair.
SleekEZ for Horses	8. SleekEZ Horse Grooming Shedding Blade 10"	Shed loose hair and dirt from the coat year round without irritating the horse. Provides the perfect massage and relief for animals, while giving them a beautiful, shiny coat in the process.

I also watched videos (and read blogs) on how to groom horses with the brushes. Here is the video from Brace Yourself I like her technique that she used she had the curry comb in her other hand to clean the brush between brushing the horse (EXCEPT FOR THE DIVA BRUSH) it was a great way to keep the brush clean during brushing

1. Parcour - made out of a mixture of grey and black horse hair - creates an superlative cleaning effect
2. Lipizzaner - made of an exclusive horse hair mixture - removes dirt whilst giving a gloss to the coat
3. Cavaliere - made of robust main and tail horse hair - creates a shiny coat
4. Coat Gloss - made of light, soft, thickly woven horse hair - finishing brush good for sensitive horses
5. Diva Exklusiv - made from lambswool with a soft horsehair border - perfect for glossy finish

Horsin' Around 

I absolutely LOVE how shiny he is!!! WOW! I can not wait!

It is also really important to keep them clean so watched a few video the best one is from Eqclusive. You should wash them monthly. 

Things to Prepare:

• Tub with warm/hot water
• Tub with cold water
• Soap or shampoo that you use for your horse (this helps them not be allergic to their brushes after they are cleaned as well as the brushes are made with horse hair so it makes sense to clean them with what you use on your horse's hair)
• For best results - use the Haas Striegel New Generation Soft Curry Comb Blue
• Get your brushes ready
• Fill tub/sink with warm/hot water and a little of the soap to make sudsy water
• Place brushes brush side down in to soak
• Use curry comb rub the brushes as shown (about 1:15 in video)
• DO NOT USE CURRY COMB ON DIVA BRUSH!!!!!!! Use ONLY your hands. The brush is too soft
• Soak brushes again for a few more min in the warm sudsy water
• Drain water
• Remove any soap from the brushes using COLD running water and curry comb and your hands
• Shake brushes to drain them
• Special instructions for DIVA brush
• squeegee out the water on the DIVA brush with your hands (about 2:58 min)
• rinse again under cold running water
• shake water out
• Once washed and drained make sure there is NO soap left if there is go back to previous step and put them under the running cold water again
• Once soapless and Drained place them on your radiator or in your stable to Drip Dry
• Brushes usually dry within 12 hours so it is best to dry them overnight

Now I run into the problem of how to carry all these brushes with me every day. Since they are not cheap - I do not want to leave them at the boarding place - PLUS I have nowhere to leave them. So I need to have a way to carry them all as well as the other things she needs. So I am now looking for how to carry it all in an organized way.

I feel very confident in grooming Lilly and caring for the brushes! Looking forward to her first brushing session! 

 Oh me! Oh My! Travel Paperwork is daunting

Finding what Lilly needs to successfully enter Wyoming was hard. Pennsylvania DOES not do brand inspections BUT Wyoming does. So moving your horse from state to state when they do not have the same requirements can make it challenging. It is also VERY hard to find the correct information. I scoured the internet searching high and low for the information. So hopefully other people find this helpful. 

1. Call your Brand Inspector (Wyoming)

Phone call with Laramie's Brand Inspector Roger things he said I need

• Coggins test
• health inspection
• person - write me a bill of sale
• we use coggins and bill of sale to write the brand inspection
• give him a call when the horse gets here - he will come out and do the inspection 

He also gave me other tips

• in Wyoming - you need to have a brand inspection done - any time you take and transport even to another county you need a brand inspection
• lifetime brand inspection - good for the horse the whole time you own the horse - never have to have it inspected again

I used these websites to try to find information about Wyoming and Pennsylvania.

Wyoming Horse Transportation Rules

• Brand Inspection A Forms and L Forms are the only forms that allow animals to cross a state line. o A health certificate from a licensed veterinarian is required to cross a state line. 
• Keep in mind that health inspection costs vary and they must be written and used within 30 days of travel. 
• A negative Coggins test performed by a licensed veterinarian is required to cross a state line as well. 
• Keep in mind that it takes 3-4 business days for a Coggins test to be completed and costs will vary.

Pennsylvania Rules

While waiting for Roger to return my call, I called the Wyoming Livestock Board they told me that I will need a 

• Health Certificate
• Coggins Test
• some kind of paperwork showing ownership. They recommended I call the brand inspector for my county as he will have all the information on what paperwork is required. So I already called him and I am waiting for his return call. 

This is more information I found in my search before I talked to Roger

It is recommended to get a lifetime brand inspection (Form L) (which I will definitely be doing) so I do not need to contact the brand inspector every time I want to take my horse to another county within Wyoming. 

Brand Inspector - proof of brand inspection lifetime brand inspector - need to have title paper come and go as you please what paper - notarized bill of sale  

Brand inspection and brand recording fees

 Lilly's Travel From Pennsylvania to Wyoming

The process to finding the company I wanted to use to transport Lilly was nerve wracking - but thankfully one that I also started early. I started looking the moment I started buying Lilly as I knew I would need to transport her from Pennsylvania to Wyoming.  

I first did internet searches and found so many companies that transport horses. I also found so many different prices. 

Than I decided to ask Rebecca at All the King's Horses who she would recommend. She had never used a company that transported to my neck of the woods. But, she said that she was having some horses shipped from South Dakota and after their trip she would let me know if she liked the company.

After the horse's successful trip, she said that she would recommend the shipping company Ride the Line Equine Transport. She said they did a great job on getting her horses to her safe and healthy. She also said they sent pictures. I LOVE PICTURES!!! So I contacted them in June to find out more about them. 

Total Cost: $1350

Trip Length: 3 days

Availability: every month

Type of accommodation: Box Stall

Stops: overnight stops every night

Lilly would have: access to hay and water the whole journey and she would have a box stall. 

Extra bonus: They send PICTURES during the trip!!!!

I felt good about them so decided to go with them. :-)

I contacted them again yesterday (8/20) to schedule the trip.

 The Count Down Officially Begins 8/20/2020

Update - She is being picked up October 8 the journey is 3 days so arrival is Sunday October 11!!!!

I am so excited! I can not contain my excitement!!!! Lilly is coming home!!! 

So with Lilly's successful weaning we can now plan for her to come home! There are a few things that need to happen between now and her homecoming. 

1. Continue her training

2. Obtain Health Certificate from Licenced Veterinarian

3. Obtain Negative Coggins Test 

4. Obtain Transportation Paperwork

5. Book trip from Pennsylvania to Wyoming

I'm so excited!!!! 

 Lilly's Mom Leaves 8/19/2020

Check out the color on Lilly! She has lost more of her fuzz and you can see how really black she is getting! 

Today was a big day for Lilly and her colt friend, Turtle. They were the next foals to have their moms leave and be fully weaned. So today marks a momentous event in her life and helps her be one step closer to coming home! So excited. Rebecca reported yesterday night that all seems to be going well. She is going to check on them again 8/20 in the morning when she feeds them to make sure everything is going smoothly. 

I am glad everything is going so well. All the King's Horses really try to do the right things for these little babies. I am excited to get an update from Rebecca on how Lilly is this morning. Fingers crossed everything continues to move along and Lilly stays happy and healthy. 

 Learning About Horses - Young Horse Nutrition

In my quest of knowledge I found out about a webinar "Young Horse Nutrition" from Kentucky Equine Research featuring Dr Clarissa Brown-Douglas PhD. It was being held in Australia (7pm Melbourne time - so 3am my time) so the time difference was a bit of a problem as I was teaching during it so I could only be in the live part for 30 min. But I rewatched it and this is the information I got from it. 

1. Equine growth rates and monitoring growth
2. Nutrition for foals
3. Feeding weanling and yearling
4. Developmental orthopaedic disease - prevention and management
5. Bone development

1. Equine growth rates and monitoring growth

• high growth rates undesirable
• balanced growth is vital

• similar growth between birth and 18 months
• mature size around 4-5 years
• future of horse determines how rapidly they are grown
• slow and steady growth important for skeleton soundness
• monitoring weight gain against a growth curve allows
• KER GrowTrac

Birth weight

• birth weight @10% of mature weight
• Heavy horse @7% mature weight
• Shetland ponies @13% of mature weight
• Bone mineral content at birth @17% of mature BMC
• Larger mares deliver larger foals
• Mares 7-11 and those that have foaled before have larger foals
• Colts heavier than fillies
• Foals born early in season smaller than later born

Foal to Weanling (0-6 months)

• rapid growth
• 5 weeks of age - double birth weight
• Average Daily Gain (ADG) 0.8-1.5kg, declining with age
• 6 months - 43% of mature weight 83% of mature height
• ponies mature earlier than larger horses
• Birth month effect on growth
• winter born foal smaller than spring/summer
• winter born foals grow faster at 3 months than spring born

Weanling to Yearling

• seasonal factors, nutrition, genetics
• weaning can influence growth (ADG - average daily gain)
• ADG declines throughout winter months and increases in spring
• spring pasture flush
• onset of puberty
• 12 months 61% of mature weight 92% of mature height

2. Nutrition for foals

• future equine athletes
• period of rapid skeletal growth
• minerals being deposited in bone
• poor nutrient intake = poor skeleton
• nutrition mistakes result in reduced performance potential
• feed for different growth stages
• foal
• weanling
• yearling
• sales prep

• Nursing supplies 100% of foal's requirements for 6-8 weeks postpartum (normal mare)
• digestibility of mare's milk 98%
• TB foals drink average 14.7kg milk per day
• Frequency of nursing
• 1st day nursing @ 10 times/hour
• 1st week nursing @ 7 times/hour
• 4th week nursing @ 3 times/hour
• 17th week nursing @ 1.5 times/hour

Orphan Foals

• if orphaned at birth, colostrum should be fed before starting on milk replacer 
• but only permeable to passing large immunoglobulins for 1st 24 hours after birth
• nurse mare is ideal solution
• if orphaned a few days after birth start on equine milk replacer
• bottle feed, teach to drink from bucket
• older foals may develop adequately on diet of high quality forage and creep feed
• orphans on milk replaces can be weaned at 10-12 weeks of age but must be accustomed to hard feed already

Eating Solid Food

• Some foals start to nibble hay or grain within days of birth
• 1 wk old spends 8% of day eating solid food
• 4 wk old spends 25% of day eating solid food
• 21 wk old spends 47% of day eating solid food
• 5 month old spends 73% of day eating solid food
• foals can learn from dams to eat solid food
• Foals kept in stalls with dam more likely to learn faster to consume grains or hay than horses on pastureCreep Feeding

• provide nutrient dense source of feed to nursing foal
• have higher daily gains
• had lower weaning stress
• Advantageous for some circumstances
• unsure of milk production
• mother excluding foal from feed
• higher desired growth rate
• pre-weaning desired adaptation to a post-weaning nutritional program

3. Feeding weanling 

• MOST CRITICAL stage of growth for preventing DOD (Developmental orthopaedic disease) is weaning to 12 months
• Skeleton is most vulnerable to disease
• Monitoring growth rate is vital
• different diet scenarios for different breeds

Weanling Feeding Scenarios

• Slow and Steady 
• Warmbloods, Arabs, Ponies, Heavy, non-sale Thoroughbreds
• good pasture - Balancer pellet
• poor pasture - quality hay + Breeding feed
• Sales or Show Prep
• TB, Standard Breed, Futurity Quarter Horse, etc
• Quality forage
• breeding feed, or balancer plus added grain, beet pulp, oil, Stabilised Rice Bran

4. Developmental orthopaedic disease - prevention and management

• term used to describe a group of diseases that affect the skeleton of growing horses
• often causes young horses to be removed from sales or sell below their value
• include
• physitis
• inflammation of the growth plate also known as epiphysitis or physeal dysplasia
• occurs when endochondral ossification is interrupted in the metaphyseal growth cartilage
• signs are usually seen in the distal radius and tibia and distal MCIII and MTIII (cannon bones)
• affected physes have the typical flared appearance
• often warm to touch with or without associated lameness
• horses generally present between 4 to 8 months of age
• most outgrow condition as bone remodels

• osteochondritis dissecans (OCD)
• disturbance in articular cartilage resulting in necrosis of thickened cartilage causing joint pressure, strain, and fissures in the damaged cartilage
• Dx lameness, swelling, and radiograph
• most common reason to fail pre-sale radiographs
• surgery considered is lesion displaced
• surgical removal if economic benefit of a "clean" joint outweighs the cost of the procedure and convalescence

• wobbler syndrome
• Angular limb deformities

Factors that contribute to DOD

• nutrition
• genetics
• environment
• management
• injury
• stress - mechanical

OCD and body size

• evaluate the relationship between size and skeletal problems
• 318 foals from 12 individual foal crops
• 6 Thoroughbred breeding farms in Kentucky 2013-2017
• Survey radiographs (winter/spring of yearling year) showed 16% had OCD (most in hock) and 24% sesamoiditis
• heavier and taller foals had greatest incidence of OCD
• during their first month, foals that were heavier than the population median (50th percentile) had 3 times greater chance of developing OCD

Irregular Growth Rates

• fluctuating growth rates with periods of slow or decreased growth followed by growth spurts may affect DOD
• non-uniform growth rates can occur due to dietary and environmental stress and puberty
• a pattern of slow, early growth is more appropriate for foals that will not be sold as yearlings
• delaying rapid growth until after the 'window of vulnerability' for bone and joint disease (<12 months of age) significantly reduces the risk of growth related orthopaedic disease

Nutrition play an important role in pathogenesis of developmental orthopedic disease in horses

• Deficiencies
• Excesses
• Imbalances

Mineral Deficiency or Excess

• Deficiency or excess of the major bone and cartilage forming minerals: Calcium, Phosphorus, Copper, Zinc
• Horse can tolerate fairly high levels of minerals
• Excess in calcium, phosphorus, iodine, fluoride, and heavy metals lead and cadmium may lead to DOD
• Calcium (+300% daily requirement) may lead to 2 degree mineral deficiency - interfering with absorption of other minerals P, Zn, I

Inappropriate grain choice or inadequate fortification in grain

• most common scenarios:
• feeding a feed for mature horse to growing horse
• feeding straight cereal grain with no additional vitamin/mineral mix
• feeding a premixed feed below the recommended intake
• feeding a premixed feed diluted with straight cereal grains
• these errors can be easily corrected by feeding a concentrate feed balancer

Mineral Imbalance

• Ratio of minerals to one another is as important as the actual amount of individual minerals in the ration
• Ratio of calcium to phosphorus should never dip below 1:1 and ideally should be around 1.5:1
• Ratio of zinc to copper should be maintained at around 3:1 to 4:1

Best method of diagnosing mineral deficiencies, excesses and imbalance is through RATION EVALUATION

Feeding practices that contribute to DOD

Overfeeding

• leads to rapid growth rate and increased body fat, which is believed to be a factor in the manifestation of DOD
• Larger foals are more likely to develop OCD lesions and inflammation of growth plates
• Hock and stifle OCDs tend to occur in heavier foals indicating that biomechanical forces probably involved

Avoid Overfeeding

• NO simple rules about how much grain is too much
• forage availability and quality will dictate grain reg
• ration evaluation helpful
• to reduce total intake - grass hay over lucerne
• balancer pellet over complete feed
• regularly weigh and body condition score young stock, ideally would like to see the last two ribs on weanlings and yearlings
• NOT NOT FEED THEM too much
• high protein intake is NOT a factor in DOD

Excessive Calories linked to DOD

• Excessive energy intake = rapid weight gain = increased incidence of DOD
• source of calories may also be important
• Hyperglycemia or hyperinsulinemia implicated in pathogenesis of DOD
• Hyperinsulinemia may affect chondrocyte maturation, leading to altered matrix metabolism and faulty mineralization or altered cartilage growth by influencing other hormones such as thyroxine

Glycemic Response and OCD

• overall 11.5% multiple joints, mostly stifle, hock, fetlock
• about half of lesions identified through routine radiography in Jan-Feb
• Plasma glucose and insulin was higher in weanlings with OCD than unaffected weanlings
• a high glucose and insulin response to a meal was associated with an increased incidence of OCD
• OCD foals were larger
• foals with extreme glycemic responses had atypical incidence of OCD
• high response = high OCD
  
• low response = low OCD
• Glycemic index of the feed a possible factor
• based on results of study - it would be prudent to feed weanlings concentrates which produce LOW glycemic responses

How to reduce the risk of DOD through nutrition

• Broodmare nutrition
• monitor growth rates
• balanced nutrition during growth
• feed low glycemic feed

5. Feeding the yearling

• once horse has reached 12 months less likely to develop DOD
• lesions that are clinically relevant as yearlings are typically formed at younger ages
• correct nutrient balance is important
• growth monitoring important
• if clinical DOD evident, manage nutrition and growth rate

Yearling feeding considerations

• colts may need more calories than fillies
• good spring grass - careful not to over feed
• balancer pellet
• sales or show prep - increase caloric intake but monitor BCS
• quality forage, lucerne hay
• breeding feed plus oil, beet pulp, stabilized rice bran

6. Bone development

Maximising bone development

• maximum BMC not achieved until at least 6 years
• birth 17% of adult BMC
• 6 months 68.5% of adult BMC
• 12 months 76% of adult BMC
• height or long bone growth is the developmental priority for young horses
• Energy, protein, minerals, and vitamins are first directed to maintenance requirements, and any additional nutrients are used for skeletal growth

Exercise and bone development

• free choice exercise and forced exercise increase bone mass
• weanlings that underwent forced exercise up to yearling age had increased cannon bone mass when compared to non-exercised horses
• TB weanlings - controlled sprint exercise plus free pasture exercise associated with increases chondrocyte viability and bone size and strength
• in many cases this positive effect persisted throughout subsequent 2 and 3 year old racing

• Triacton - helps prevent bone growth lose during winter

Conclusion - Nutrition for Growth

• slow, steady growth important for skeletal soundness
• growth of the young equine athlete must be carefully managed
• adjust energy intake accordingly, DO NOT OVER FEED
• Forage is foundation of all young horse's diets
• Remember adequate protein
• Balanced vitamin and mineral intake
• choose low glycemic energy sources

Lilly Eating Grain for the First Time 8/13/2020

 Lilly Eating Grain 8/13/2020

The babies are being weaned from their mother's milk. In preparation for being weaned, Rebecca at All the King's Horses has started the foals on grain. This will take the nutritional place that the milk is currently supplying the foals with. 

Do you see Lilly? She is the only one looking at the camera! I can always tell which one she is because of the shape of her star. She is also losing even more of her foal coat. Her black is coming through even more! 

Lilly is eating Purina Strategy GX. 

Learning About Horses - Horse Life Cycle

Horse Life Cycle - Birth to Weaning 

Different horses develop in slightly different ways - but these are the general age guidelines. The average lifespan of a horse is 25-30 years. A senior horse that reaches 36 years old is roughly the equivalent of 103 in human years!

Fetus - A horse is a fetus for 340 days inside its mother.

Foal - Birth to Weaning a horse is with its mother from birth to about 4 (3-6) months.

Weanling - a horse is a weanling once it is weaned from its mother at about 4 months of age until about 10 months. 

Yearling - a horse is a yearling from 10 months until about 23 months (2 years old)

Adolescent - a horse is an adolescent from 2 years until they are 5 years old (in the horse world called an adult)

Adult - a horse is an adult from 6 years until about 14

Senior - a horse is an senior from 15 years to 25 years old

Elderly- a horse is elderly 26+ (in the horse world called a senior)

We can use physical and mental responses that horses and humans have to compare them to each other. 

The first year of a horse's life they mature a lot. They are like a 9 year old human. They are still kids but are ready to do a lot more learning. 

Here are some of the Oldest Horses

Shayne, Irish Draught/Thoroughbred cross, 51 years old

Orchid, Thoroughbred/Arabian cross, 50 years old.

Badger: Arabian/Welsh cross, 51 years old.

Sugar Puff: Shetland/Exmoor pony cross, 56 years old.

Old Billy: draft horse, 62 years old.

Lilly's Growth and Development

Lilly as a Fetus inside her Mom Lucky September 22, 2019

Lilly as a NewBorn Foal  April 26, 2020

Lilly 1 month May 26, 2020

Lilly 2 months June 26, 2020

Lilly 3 months July 26, 2020

Lilly 4 months August 26, 2020

Lilly 5 months  September 26, 2020

Lilly 6 months October 26, 2020

Lilly 7 months November 26, 2020

Lilly 8 months December 26, 2020

Lilly 10  months January 26, 2021

Lilly 11 months  February 26, 2021

Lilly 12 months March 26, 2021

Lilly 1 Year April 26, 2021

 Lilly's Next Big Step 

Weaning

8/8/2020

The weaning process has started. Today, Rebecca moved all the older foals, their moms, and the "babysitter" horses from their home to their "farm." They have started the weaning process. They will leave the everyone there to bond with the "babysitter" horses. Then they will gradually start taking the moms back to the other farm and leaving the babies with the "babysitters." 

 

Lilly Update 8/3/2020

Lilly Update August 3, 2020

Lilly got herself into some trouble the other day. She got stung by something on the face. She is now healed up great - but hopefully she learned to stay away from stinging things! Rebecca from All the King's Horses sent me a new update about Lilly. 

 

Her next big step is moving to the "farm" to start the weaning process! One more month closer to coming home!