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: