Honey Houdini

Little Honey is an escapologist and is managing to get through the electric fencing.  To be fair, it's not all that difficult to get through and I am a little spoiled having Buttons who respects any fence lines and electric fencing.  He has only came out of the field twice and both times he obviously thought I was late catching him in and he just wandered down from the field into his stable where I found him waiting for his tea.  The strong winds are slackening the tape on the fence and the battery pack is really not strong enough to power the length of tape that is running.  She actually only does go through at around 3.30pm, when the horses come in for the night.  She just wanders under the fence and waits at the main gate to get out of the field.  It's not too bad just now, but I need her to respect the fence and stay where she is put as come spring her grazing will be restricted and I don't want her wandering onto luscious spring grass.  I need to look at getting a better power supply.  We will be moving them onto their summer grazing in the next few weeks.  Their grazing will be restricted but they should be on the grass before there is any considerable growth in it.

Honey continues to do well.  everything is very new to her, the daily goings on at the yard, which are routine to most horses, Honey obviously hasn't experienced before.  The hose, wheelbarrows, tools, she doesn't like you mucking out or sweeping around her.  She is scared by new noises, she's very scared of the sound of velcro or the rustling of waterproofs.  Yesterday, I placed her haynet on the floor for a minute whilst I untied the other one.  To Honey, her haynet tied up with hay in it is fine, the empty haynet on the floor was most certainly not fine.  She is getting better day by day though.  If she is frightened she will try and run.  I like the horses to be able to have the opportunity to investigate and touch objects that they are unfamiliar with or warey of.  It's one of the ways in which they can process  and work things out for themselves.  Buttons can't pass anything without sticking his head in it to check there is no food or just have a good old rake through it.  He also likes to tip wheelbarrows over wherever he goes, he's like a little demolition man.  Honey has never wanted to come any closer, to even just look at what she is scared of, her only reaction so far has been flight.  We've been working on the velcro issues, as her rug has velcro on it at the front.  I just use the velcro on the cuff of my jacket, yesterday I was able to open and close the velcro with her standing next to me.  I stroked her neck and spoke to her and she visibly relaxed and lowered her head, her eye softened and she started licking and chewing.  When Buttons finishes his feed, he tosses the bucket away and it normally hits off the wall and makes a noise (he throws it quite violently).  He's always done this.  Since Honey arrived, she has jumped and ran to the back of the stable every time the bucket makes a noise.  However, last night when he threw the bucket, she lifted her head for a second and then carried on eating so she's obviously now desensitised to Buttons bucket throwing.  She's still very unpredictable when faced with sudden noises or new situations, but she is making very good progress and I am already very fond of her.  All of her pain and suffering has been caused by humans but she is showing that she is willing to try and trust again.

We are family

Whilst Wolfie is distracted talking to Honey, Buttons uses the opportunity to steal his hay

I'm going to start walking the ponies out through the fields, as long as the ground is soft, Honey will be comfortable on her feet and we will start slowly and build up gradually.  They need to exercise, especially as part of their laminitis management.  I want to get a little roller and long rein Buttons, he needs a job to do to keep him out of mischief.  Hopefully this year too, he will get his saddle back on.  Anyone who is getting fit in the New Year and wants to take a Shetland pony for a walk, you're welcome any time.

Dentist

Honey had her visit from the Dentist yesterday.  My Dentist doesn't like the horses to be sedated, but we decided it would be kinder for Honey and less stressful for her this time if she was sedated.  I gave her a sedative gel.  I have used various sedative pastes in the past, with little success.  Not on my own horses, but at various yards I have worked at.  I'm not a fan of sedating horses, or using calmers unless obviously there is good reason.  I used Domosedan gel this time and it was very effective.  It is easy to administer with the syringe under the tongue and took about 40 minutes to really kick in.  It lasted for approximately 2 hours.  One thing though is that they come out of it very quickly, so really you have a 2 hour window to get the necessary done.  It would be advantageous though if you had a horse that was very difficult to clip for example.  In this case, it saved Honey from having to deal with the vet again and have another injection.  The Dentist let me feel inside her mouth.  Her teeth were severely sharp, if I had pressed down they would have torn the skin on my fingers.  The inside of her cheeks are badly cut, but that should heal fairly quickly now that the sharp edges have been taken off.  He was happy that he had managed to rasp them back to a comfortable state and will see her again in 6 months time when he is back at the yard for his routine visit for the rest of the horses.  After the sedation had worn off and she was allowed her hay, I could already see and hear the difference in her chewing.  Buttons stood looking over the door the whole time the Dentist was working on Honey.  The Dentist affectionately calls him a little gremlin and was laughing at his beard.  Susan and Zoe think his middle name should be Tumnus after Mr Tumnus from the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe who has a gingery beard.  Buttons Tumnus Brownlie. 

At the moment I think Honey sees people as a means to an end.  She doesn't actively want the company of people, and I don't blame her, but she realises that she needs them to the extent that they are providing her with food and comfort.  She now has 6 weeks before any more appointments to just be a wee horse again.  At night I pick both their feet, give Buttons a scratch and a brush and just gently give Honey a rub using my hands.  She tenses and freezes when you touch her, but she's getting better day by day.  I found an itchy spot on her the other day and she enjoyed the scratch.

Double Trouble

Buttons and Honey

So Buttons and Honey have their own blog to document their daily adventures, Honeys recovery and managing laminitis.  Honey had her visit from the vet yesterday for her flu and tetanus vaccination.  It is thought that she has never been vaccinated so she is starting from scratch.  She will get another booster in 6 weeks time and again in 6 months.  Following that she will just need the annual booster like the other two.  She was terrified of the vet.  Her whole body was trembling, but it was over quickly.  With her not carrying much body condition it must have been uncomfortable with the needle going in.    The farrier also came.  He was very good and spent a lot of time with her and in return she was good with him.  She is warey of you picking up her feet but she managed well.  My farrier said that her back feet must have been horrendously overgrown as they are so deformed and contracted.  He said that he would be surprised if she had even been able to walk much at all before being taken into the centre.  He is hopeful though that with long term corrective trimming and the correct diet we will be able to get them into decent shape.  He just gave them a little tidy up and tried to balance them as best he could for the moment.  She had a lot taken from her soles during the first trims she had at the centre, so it's a case of taking it slowly and keeping her comfortable and reshaping, balancing and bringing the hoof back over time. Buttons had his feet trimmed as well, and the farrier was very pleased with the way his feet were looking and said there were virtually no traces of the laminitis in them now.  I'm very pleased.  He is happy for both ponies to be trimmed every 6 weeks now.  I've taken some photographs of Honeys feet.  They aren't great pictures, but you can see just how bad are feet are with the hind feet being worse.

Off Fore

Near Fore

Front feet

Back feet

Near Hind

Off Hind

She is on her heels at the back and you can see her rocking back when she turns instead of lifting her feet. I was going to take photographs of Buttons feet to compare, but my camera battery died, but I will get some.

Honey

She enjoys having doors that she can see over

Buttons

Nosey neighbour

This was taken on Monday.  They now graze right next to each other.

Honey was trimmed first.  I put her back in the stable and led Buttons out to get his trim.  The farrier was working at the front of the stable so Honey would be able to see Buttons, but she obviously thought at first that we were taking him away.  She started cantering around the stable like a little whirl wind screaming.  Once she realised she could still see him she settled and stood at the door quietly watching.  I knew there was a large chance that they would become pair bonded and maybe Honey will settle more with time when she gains her confidence and trust again, but it doesn't really matter if they can't be separated.  Where one goes, the other will go anyway, their needs are exactly the same so it really doesn't matter and Honey needs Buttons more than anything right now.

Zoe hasn't met Honey yet, but she is desperate to come up and meet her.  She will have two little ponies to love and dote on.  Now that Zoe's writing is getting better and she's a whizz on the computer (better than me), she could maybe write the odd post on her times with the ponies.

Buttons wearing his halo.  I took some photographs before Christmas for making cards.  He didn't like the reindeer antlers, but thought the halo suited him!