A couple of firsts and a worry

So on Sunday it was wormer time again. If anyone ever reads my previous posts you will see that last time the wormer was an issue. We put it in BG’s food and would she eat it – no. No matter how much food we added to dilute it, it took several meals to go down which I doubt is a very efficient way to give wormer, and then she still spat lots of it out. So I decided I would have to master the normal, syringe in the mouth, approach.

I have never done this before. I have seen it done a few years back, on a 17hh grumpy horse who threw his head around and attempted to spit loads out so the owner was trying to keep his head held up. I went on YouTube for some tutorials just to ensure I was remembering the method correctly.

I thought about trying a syringe with something tasty in so she would learn to like it, but never got as far as trying it. Sometimes it is better to plunge in the deep end.

So BG had her tea and then I gave her a while to get most the food out of her mouth. Then I moved her into a corner of her shelter so she would have less options to run away or spin around, and got my husband to hold her.

The syringe went straight in! But she pulled away before I had a chance to push on the plunger. BG was by now throwing her head up or turning away and at one point pulled around so we had to reposition her. Despite that it was all much easier than I thought it would be with her. The syringe eventually went back in, (how can you tell if it is over their tongue when you can’t see?) and I pushed the plunger as quickly as possible before BG could pull away.

She didn’t spit any out, although I held her nose up for a bit just in case. She obviously didn’t like the taste and it took a while for her to get over it, pursed lips being pushed up in the air as she made the funny snorting noise horses make when they do that. All in all an achievement I think, lets hope next time goes just as well.

This morning’s first was that I took BG for a walk out of the field on my own. I have only ever gone with other people and my husband tends to lead her most of the time, but today I just felt was a good time to try. We could have done with P2 getting upset and running around on the other side of the hedge. BG got a little on her toes from this, of course just as a car came past. Luckily the grass verges are quite wide there and BG stood nicely behind me as it went past.

I did head back then as I thought this might not be a good idea with P2 upsetting BG, but he seemed a little calmer so I tried again. I didn’t go too far but we did it – our first trip out on our own.

BG had the farrier this morning. We had her hooves trimmed in the field rather than the shelter and she stood perfectly. Hopefully she won’t be too sore tonight, the farrier didn’t trim them as short as last time since I mentioned she had been sore. Unfortunately the farrier doesn’t reckon the crack on her near-fore will grow out any time soon. P2 didn’t stand so nicely for the farrier, he is a little kid that is still learning a lot of things. With his head in a food bowl he was better than the previous times I have seen though.

And the worry, there is a rumour the farmer we rent the field off is going to sell it, and there isn’t much other grazing around.