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Post by Jenni on Feb 1, 2017 11:50:06 GMT -5
Took a trip over to the vet last night to get Touchdown some much needed dental care. He had a couple of huge spikes on the right side of his mouth, one was gouging his tongue pretty good. The left side was just sharp. My vet said it had a been a good long time since anyone who knew what they were doing had worked on his mouth. Good news - he has all his teeth and they are still firmly planted in his mouth and he now has a decent grinding surface (which the vet wasn't sure was going to be the case on first glance). Now maybe he'll eat more hay. Vet was impressed at what a good patient he was. He said usually upper teens/early 20 geldings are real dinks - they don't take sedation well and argue. Vet aged him 20-25, put 22 on his coggins papers. He's such a good boy. He even backed out of the trailer without prompting. He does have a bridle path cut so I assume he was ridden last season. Makes me think someone rode him all year and then just dumped him this winter when he started losing weight (because he couldn't eat hay anymore), rather than the simple fix of having his teeth done (cost me $140).
Here is a short video of Caiden riding him from the pasture back to the barn a couple nights ago - bareback with a halter and lead rope. I love how he just quietly saunters along and just puts his ears forward when Kelsey and the dog come out from behind the side of the shed.
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Post by Marci on Feb 1, 2017 18:13:24 GMT -5
Looks like you got a jewel in the rough.
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Post by ride4fun on Feb 2, 2017 2:15:58 GMT -5
You get a bargain on the dentals. But my vet will do a basic manual float pretty cheaply and the $$ specialist does come out here with a heated trailer with all his tools which is nice.
So happy that the rescue group hooked you up with Touch Down, all the early indications are that he is going to be a gem for your family.
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Post by Jenni on Feb 2, 2017 9:32:54 GMT -5
R4F - my vet's prices haven't changed much in the 15 years I've known him. He works for himself with a small clinic in his barn. Unfortunately he is semi-retired now, mostly stopped doing farm calls this past year. He said his wife is pushing him to retire completely but he still enjoys it and as long as people are willing to come to him and work around his schedule of hunting, trapping, riding and vacationing why shouldn't he keep on? Between his prices and his knowledge I hope he keeps on for awhile. He charges $105 for the power float with hand finish, but the extra spikes and front tooth work cost me another $35. He's also the only one in the area who has concentrated only on horses and therefore the only one locally who knows what he is doing....
I also ended up bringing Fancy with that night because she must have kicked at someone and got her leg through the fence, skinning the front of her hind leg just below the hock. She had a flap of skin hanging off that needed to be removed. He decided he better drug her a little to do it so it cost me $25 for drugs and $5 for the "surgery" - cut it off with a scissors....
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Post by kerryc on Feb 2, 2017 16:57:59 GMT -5
You got a deal all the way around. Sounds like Touchdown is going to be great by riding time in the spring. Jenni did you sell Caiden's other pony and I missed it?
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Post by Idaho Linda on Feb 6, 2017 0:32:40 GMT -5
Nice!
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Post by Jenni on Feb 6, 2017 9:32:22 GMT -5
kerryc - We found Caiden's pony a home with some friends of ours who have a 6 year old daughter and an 11 year old daughter. The older girl has an older full size horse that she has been riding for a couple years but the younger girl was scared of the big horses and wanted something to brush and be led around the yard on. They don't live too far from us so we can go visit. Sounds like they are really in love with him. I talked to them a couple weeks ago and even the dad who is kind of "bah humbug" about the whole horse thing was smiling and talking about what a little character Smokey is. He is a sweet little pony with tons of personality.
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Post by DorothyB on Feb 7, 2017 23:56:55 GMT -5
If you are still feeding alfalfa cubes, I found (as someone else mentioned in your other post) that they soak faster with hot water. If I'm in a real hurry, I can soak them about 15 minutes then break up the hard pieces and be ready to feed in under 30 minutes. Otherwise, about 40 - 45 minutes soaking with hot water.
I have some pellets, but found that after soaking them for the same amount of time (can't remember now if I was cold soaking both?) that they still had dry in the middle of the pellets.
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Post by Jenni on Feb 8, 2017 9:50:16 GMT -5
After getting his teeth fixed he is now eating a much larger % of his hay. Probably 80% of what I give him. I'm not soaking his alfalfa cubes anymore because it's so cold out the mash was freezing to the sides of the bucket before he could eat it. I am still giving him about 2 lbs of unsoaked cubes at each feeding and he seems to be doing fine eating them. Its supposed to warm up enough this weekend that we might actually be able to get out and go for a ride so I am excited to see how that goes.
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Post by kerryc on Feb 9, 2017 15:45:13 GMT -5
Oh Jenni I am glad to hear that Smokey has a new job and family who loves him. That's always so heart warming to hear.
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Post by Idaho Linda on Feb 10, 2017 12:54:16 GMT -5
Pictures of that ride, please!
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Post by Jenni on Feb 12, 2017 19:36:20 GMT -5
Well I ended up working yesterday at my friend's stable as she had 300 people booked for sleigh rides so no riding. Today we had warmish temps but 25 mile an hour winds so not a great day for riding. I did take Touchdown for a short test ride myself. I hadn't actually ridden him with a saddle or away from the buildings. I found out he has a really fun lope, definite slow motion rocking chair type that should be easy for Caiden to ride, and he really broke into it easily. He has a pretty good neck rein and tight turn. He does seem like he's been ridden a lot by kids recently - has definitely gotten away with the "put your head down and pull the reins away from the kid so you can go where you want" in the past. Going to have to fashion a "rein keeper" for Caiden just in case. But he rode away from the others fine and when we came back along the fence line the ding dongs in the pasture started running and bucking and he barely even looked at them. Looks like we're going to have a couple nice eves this week and next weekend looks to be gorgeous (50 degrees in WI in Feb!) so we'll be riding for sure.
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