Ladies Who Lunch

Mathilda’s day

7 am: Good morning. Waiting in her pen for morning carrots. Rodney let out into the field. Pen cleaned & closed for the day.

A year ago, the few minutes it took to get her feet trimmed left me, mare, and blacksmith exhausted. She is doing marvelously better. Still, holding her feet up long enough to get shoes is no longer in her repertoire. To combat sore feet in the summer, she wears booties while in during the day. To cushion her feet under the booties, we had used a combination of vet wrap and duct tape. Rita at Carousel Tack Shoppe recommended inexpensive tube socks. Great! I deeply wish I could get you a picture of the black mare wearing black booties with white bobby sox. Alas, I have not yet been able to sneak a shot past her camera phobia.

8-ish am, or when I finish my breakfast: Breakfast served. Check water. Hay snack.

2 pm: Lunch. Hay snack. Check water buckets. Pour half-filled buckets together. Put empty buckets aside to drain. Restock with buckets from Rodney’s stall.

After much discussion, we lowered her lunch ration to see if we could eventually shift back to 2 meals a day. Nope. I thought she had lost a tiny bit of weight. Not the direction one wants to be going when heading into winter. Mathilda’s owner wasn’t as sure about the weight loss. However, since it was mainly my convenience at issue, I unilaterally ended the lunch experiment and put her back up to 3 squares.

7 pm: Pen cleaned. Water buckets emptied, rinsed out & refilled. Leftover hay swept into the stall. Rodney brought in. New hay served.

8 pm: Booties off. Dinner. Barriers taken down. Be good. Don’t party too hard tonight.