Sunday, July 15, 2018

Remy And Blue In Midsummer

Blue seems to have lost some weight, though perhaps not enough. He still favors the front of his front hooves, which means he still has a touch of founder, but he is making progress and can run like the wind when he feels like it:

I leave the grass muzzles on each day until about 5:00 PM, when I bring the boys in for a quarter cup of grain. I remove their muzzles and lock them in the barn overnight with lots of hay. They seem to like the arrangement now that they are used to it:

During the day, they are free to run, play and graze, as long as they keep their muzzles on:

Most days they leave the muzzles on, but even when one comes off, they now allow me to put it back on without a fight:

During our recent heat wave, I left the grass muzzles off. It was just too hot to be wearing them and the grass was hopefully not too rich in that hot weather anyway:

The yellow ribbons have worked wonders for me. I can stand on my porch with binoculars and quickly make sure the muzzles are still in place just by noting the yellow ribbons;

And the boys seem to be accustomed to the new apparatuses on their heads:

The pasture grass is just the right height now for grazing in a muzzle - not too long, not too short. The blades poke through the reduced opening in the front so they can bite them off and eat them:

In this northern climate, I have to feed hay six months each year. That means I'll only have to put muzzles on them half of each year:

Remy took a drink of cool water, then used the stock tank to scratch an itch on his head:

And the two friends still run and play when they feel like it:

In the barn at night, however, shy Blue sometimes becomes a bossy hay-hog, threatening to kick Remy if he comes too close. I've solved the problem by putting hay down on each side of a cow stall divider. They each stand on a different side, so they can't fight. As you can see, however, it doesn't stop Blue from trying to get all the hay:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.