Upsetting

Poor BG is still tender on her near-fore. It is heart breaking to see her hobbling on it and not being able to make it better for her. At least she only seems tender on her near-fore now, on Saturday and Sunday it was all four hooves.

Sunday BG was put in her field shelter for a nine hour stint. I ensured she had a nice big bed so that she had something soft to put her hooves on, moved one of the water buckets in with her and put up a hay net, soaking the hay for a bit first. My husband also re-did the entrance block to the field shelter. We have wooden bars we put across the entrance, last year P1 booted one of the boards, split it and let BG go free. So we re-did the bars and then put electric fencing around the outside to try and prevent P1 getting close. P1 is very itchy at the moment so it wouldn’t surprise me if he tried rubbing on the bars.

During her nine hours in we popped up every couple of hours to ensure BG was okay and had enough hay to keep her going. The hay we gave her in the afternoon she ate very little of. She was a little agitated when we got up on the final visit which is unusual for her, she wanted to get out. We checked her over and let her loose for the night, she was tender leaving her field shelter but so glad to be free, she looked a little stiff too.

In one of our breaks from BG we took a trip to an Equestrian shop. I have been wanting to get BG a new head collar for weeks, even months. The one she has is around six years old, the stitching is all coming undone and the buckles are so rusty they are hard to use. The only thing was I didn’t know what size BG would need, the label on her current head collar is long gone. If anything that head collar is too big, it is on the tightest setting and hangs loose on her nose. She did have a green one that fitted probably a bit tightly on the loosest setting that she never liked (I think it was because the padding on the nose bit made it quite heavy for her) which said it was Cob size. So I took her current one with me and measured it against those in the shop, turns out it matches a cob sized one too. So she has a new, black head collar. I did take a peak at the leather ones as they look more ‘proper’ but the Cob ones were quite heavy so I decided against those.

I also bought BG a rug. She has not had a rug in the eight years I have known her, she has never really needed it. Despite hitting -10 degrees Celsius last winter she was still fine, it was just on the one really wet and cold day I got up there to find her shivering a bit from the damp. As BG is getting older I am assuming she will suffer more as the years roll on, so the rug might not even get used this year, but it will be there for when we need it in the future. It also gives me time to get her used to having it on.

The lady in the shop was fantastic. I explained what I was looking for and she agreed all I needed was a light weight water proof and took me to show me the ones they had in store. Unfortunately they didn’t have any second-hand ones (as I am unsure of BG’s size I didn’t want to spend a fortune) but I got a nice reddy/ brown coloured rug.

We measured BG for a rug a few months ago and made it that she would need a 5’3”. Then I noticed P1 who is around the same size is in a 5’6”. We aren’t so good on the measuring size, we measured her for a girth and had to take it back three times as our measurements were clearly off and it was the wrong size. So we measured BG again on Sunday and made it 5’9” and held a 6’ rug alongside her (ears went back and she snorted) that looked too big. So, I settled for a 5’9” and I am very pleased to say it looks the right size. I am also very pleased to say we got it on BG with no fuss, we just took it slowly. Her ears went back as it went over her lower neck and up on her bottom, but she never pulled back (when her hooves are sore she is generally a little mellower about things).

So far this is a long entry in itself so I had probably better finish it off now. Just a final note to say BG was in her shelter for 10 hours yesterday and my amazing husband used his lunch hour to check on her and top up her hay, and I finally have the vet appointment booked. I just need BG to come sound now, I feel so upset as I watch her nod up the field on her sore hoof.