First Snow 10-23-2020

Today was Lilly's first day of Wyoming snow. When I arrived she was eating hay out of the front feeders (good sign). She saw me and neighed and came over to wait for me. She is still pushy when I come get her. But it is not with malice it is with - come on let's go get my food. She was a little bit wet on the top of her back. I was not prepared (forgot to add towels to my first aid bag) so I took the sleeve of my hoodie to wipe off the water and to dry and warm up her coat. It worked! Eating also did its job. I could feel the heat radiating off her as she was eating. This helped her dry her hair even faster after I took off the initial wetness. She dried very fast and got fluffy again. She was not shivering or acting cold so she was okay.

The rule is - melted snow on back = bad. Snow laying on top of horse = good. It means their bodies are doing a good job insulating them. Hopefully the melted snow on Lilly is just a one time thing. I made sure to brush her today to help get the dirt out of her coat so it can raise up and do its job better. I will be keeping a close eye on this.

I wanted to try a new routine for her to eat. I had the food prepared in the round pen before going to get her and leading her to it. It worked well - EXCEPT when she kicked at it - she got lots of sand in it. This is NOT GOOD. So I knew I needed a better place for her to eat and a better solution.

When I came back in the evening I found a solution (just forgot the picture). I will get pictures today. I kept her on her lead rope and had her eat in the field. I also put part of a tire around her slow feeder! This was a GREAT way to get her to stop almost flipping the slow feeder over. It also made her kick less at it. It was a great solution! I am excited to try it again today and I will take pictures. I lead her to her food and got her to stand still (she DID NOT LIKE THAT) in front of it before I let her eat. We needed to make lots of circles before she calmed down. She only stood still for a few seconds but we are going to work on it more and more every day. I also let her eat some of the grass in the field. She really liked that.

Eating hay makes their internal heaters turn on. That's why it is important for them to eat and eat when it is cold. You can see Lilly's back is all dry now!