Lady, One Week After The Move

Im sorry again but i have just looked all the way back through jadeyyandladyy's previous threads and A. last year jade said she was only 17? and B. the pics then werent much better...

and im amazed that people keep reporting her but nothings been done. I cant help but think about the horse. she doesnt deserve this.

people keep saying jadine loves her, but im afraid letting an animal suffer isnt love at all.
 
amymay said:
But she's had something....

So is it the other way around then? Friends fed, but no owner to do the remainder of feeds................
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That would be my best guess. Friend is up there anyway doing her own, so looks in on lady and feeds. It is hard for jade to get to yard, defo not twice a day, maaybe once, but not always, so hoss sometimes has second feed, sometimes not.
 
lexiedhb said:
That would be my best guess. Friend is up there anyway doing her own, so looks in on lady and feeds. It is hard for jade to get to yard, defo not twice a day, maaybe once, but not always, so hoss sometimes has second feed, sometimes not.
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Seems most likely.
 
Judging by the post in AAD it sounds like the whole family have a cavalier attitude to animals, get rid of one dog because its not calm enough and then get another puppy??? I mean really whats that about.
 
BBH said:
Judging by the post in AAD it sounds like the whole family have a cavalier attitude to animals, get rid of one dog because its not calm enough and then get another puppy??? I mean really whats that about.
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Jade didn't get rid of a young dog - her cousin did. The dog in AAD is her brothers. So you're not quite correct BBH.
 
Hey Jade hun, hope your ok. I think you''l most likely see a huge improvement in your horsey over the next few months but like some others say start your winter feeding regime early and this will help her over the worse months when its very cold, bad grazing etc. Will she be stabled at night in winter? If not i'd consider giving her 3 hard feeds a day and ad lib haylage and keep her well rugged. What size rug is she? i have a 450gram turnout rug with detachable neck thats hardly been used but my youngster is growing out of it think by winter this yr it will be way to small its a fantastic rug. If your interested pm me your address and i'll send you it for your lovely Ladey. I know you love her to bits. x
 
V1NN said:
Hey Jade hun, hope your ok. I think you''l most likely see a huge improvement in your horsey over the next few months but like some others say start your winter feeding regime early and this will help her over the worse months when its very cold, bad grazing etc. Will she be stabled at night in winter? If not i'd consider giving her 3 hard feeds a day and ad lib haylage and keep her well rugged. What size rug is she? i have a 450gram turnout rug with detachable neck thats hardly been used but my youngster is growing out of it think by winter this yr it will be way to small its a fantastic rug. If your interested pm me your address and i'll send you it for your lovely Ladey. I know you love her to bits. x
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Nobody who loves their horse lets it starve and get in that poor state.
 
amymay said:
No, her mum didn't want to home Buster from her cousin because he was too boisterous.....
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Yet a puppy is fine :confused:

There's nothing I can say re the management of this horse that hasn't already been said. It' going to cost money and effort to get your horse right Jade, and I hope for her sake you manage it. You've had some great advice and offers of help from people here, so here's to hoping you take it, and your mare starts improving. Moving yard certainly seems like a step in the right direction...
 
Having looked at the link to previous threads, the horse has actually improved. The pictures from last year where you were riding where IMO much more shocking.

The mare is still though very poor.

I take it she's retried? She clearly isn't managing to injest enough calorie at the moment which can often happen with older horses, so feed her up, rug her well and don't make her burn excess calories.

I bought a horse that I was told was always a very poor doer and always had been.

This is him last summer, in moderate work, hard feed was a handful of readygrass and a handful of pony nuts:
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The year before, diet consisted of haylege, build up mix, sugarbeet and grass:
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It's amazing how different things effect different horses. What has the vet said about her condition?
 
In all fairness to Jade i've had a bit of a look through her previous posts and her album of Lady which show pictures of her looking significantly better. I wonder if the horse could be older than you originally where told? especially as her teeth are worn right down you say? Did you have much experience of horses and horse ownership before you got Lady? If i could only have you at my yard i'd offer you some ongoing help with her but i'm in NE Scotland unfortunately. I seem to have a knack for getting weight on anything! lol. Perhaps Jade if you are really struggling to afford her you should perhaps consider getting a sharer to help with some of the expense of keeping a horse? I see in one of your previous threads you say Lady had a sore back you thought, was this ever investigated further by a vet or physio? Pain could also cause the horse to lose weight. I wish you and Lady all the best in getting weight on. Forgot to say that rug is 6ft 3. :) x
 
Hopefully Jade will see that people do not mean to be hard on her and are only thinking of the horse. Any idiot can get a horse looking better going into summer. I just hope, Jade that you really can afford to give Lady what she needs over the winter. If not, you need to be really honest with yourself. Can you afford the hay or preferably haylage, that she will need? My good doers easily get through 16 kg of quality haylage a day in the winter. The poor doers need about 20kg. I know most guides say around 10kg but I have never seen a horse do well on that amount on poor grass. This will cost you around £30 per week. More, if prices go up again. You can add the cost of hard feed to that and you could be looking at £45 per week on feed alone. You also need to avoid the other horses taking the feed intended for her which will be difficult if other liveries are not prepared to feed as much as you are (some will not need to but their horses will still tuck into your girl's haylage). It could be a real problem if you end up having to fork out even more money to ensure Lady gets what she needs. If I were you, I'd be talking to the other liveries right now, anddetermining whether any of them need to feed ad lib too. You then need to make arrangements to separate the horses into those that want ad lib hay, and those that don't. Too late doing it when winter comes. :)
 
Im going to try and answer as much as i can on this post. Im not very good at explaining, but ill try my best.

Field sharers and feeding-At the old field, me and my friends would all share the duties. This included the feeding. Friends would feed mornings, i would feed evenings. Friends would Sometimes go down at lunchtime and feed, but this was not very often. (hence why i said she was fed 2-3 times a day). When i noticed Lady was losing weight, and found out my friends werent doing morning or lunchtime feeds, i immediately found somewhere else to keep Lady but couldnt move her until last week. With Lady being a poor doer, little grass and one meal caused her to lose weight quickly. While the move was being organised, i would spend an extra 2 hours taking lady out in-hand to get longer grass in another field.

Distance-Someone mentioned the field was 45mins walk away. No, it was 40mins drive away. I managed to get a field just down the road from my house with lovely grazing.

Stabling-Lady cannot be stabled. Ive tried before, but she gets extremely stressed and tries to get out. I dont want her to lose weight from being stressed :(

Vets-I am getting the vet out to see lady and also to do her teeth. I did get the dentist out but he was unable to do her teeth without sedation. Someone asked if her teeth were worn right down. No, theyre not, her front teeth have worn a little (enough for a gap between the contact of the top and bottom teeth) But with longer grass, Lady is now able to get the goodness she need.

Riding-No, i am not going to be riding her until she has improved dramatically. I dont want to be burning off any valuable calories. She is also getting rugged in evenings so she can stay warmer.

Sorry if ive missed anything, but i would like to say thank you for all the advice and kind offers. Everything has been taken on board. I might update in a month or so, with Lady looking well. I will not let her get in this state again, she is in a better place with experienced people to guide me and help me along the way. (not the people regarding 24/7 muzzling. This is none of my business, but the horse is fed and given supplements and allowed to graze for about 30mins after being ridden) Please can we let this thread die down now, im sorry for any upset ive caused, i know youre only worried about my horse and trying to help, Ive moved Lady in order to get her better and KEEP her better. Everything is getting better now and they can only continue to improve.
 
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Wagtail said:
I have to agree with Amymay. There is never an excuse for a horse to get this poor. There is no such thing as wintering badly if a horse is well fed and rugged. Most the horses I have cared for and owned have been TBs. Some have been in their late twenties. All of them come through winter with a good covering over their ribs and rump. Yes, it costs me a fortune. On average £21 per week per horse in haylage alone. Some eat around £30 of the stuff. If she drops weight this winter despite ad lib hay, then you could try some Allen and Page Fast Fibre. It is excellent.
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Unfortunately I would say that there is such a thing as wintering badly. My own old horse has wintered reasonably badly, coming through most of the winter fine, then dropping condition in march/april. A difficult time as the grass is coming through and he will start to eat less of the feed and haylage I give him. My other two are good doers which makes life difficult. Old horse is on his own in small paddock with stable overnight, and gets ad lib haylage and a large feed overnight with balancer. He has two large haynets of haylage and there is always plenty left. During the day he goes out withthe fatties and I put hay out. He is not really interested in the hay, having just filled his boots of brekkie and haylage overnight.

So the fatties eat it. I tried keeping him on his own during the day with haylage, and he paced up and down, trod the haylage into the ground, and lost weight.

Yes indeed he costs me a fortune and more so as I put out hay just in case he wants it, and more, which the fatties fill up on! He has been well rugged and very well fed all winter, but nothing will stop age and he is now 30. He also has a hairy belly (as in Jades first pic) and his topline is horrendous - he was a polo pony and topline had always been an issue even at 18 when I got him. So having lost weight, he now looks what most of you would consider pretty dreadful. But look from the topline down, and its a different story - I fear lady suffers wih the same thing, no top line, no fitness or muscle - she will never look brillaint and is probably too old to develop it now.

That said, she shoud lstill be fed appropriately.
 
Hello Jade, I'm pleased that you've responded to everyone's concerns in a mature fashion and that you understand that everyone is only wanting what is best for Lady.

A couple of concerns I have though is that if bucket feeds were missed at the previous home there should have been ample hay/haylage available and there wasn't despite the advice given previously.

As for riding Lady when she has improved, I'd really be questioning whether this is a good idea after seeing previous videos of her when she was lame and misbehaving on a hack, I really think her ridden days are over and suspect she is older than you believe.

Remember that the grass won't last forever and you'll need alternative forage, I really hope that she does improve BUT it will take time effort and money to keep Lady healthy, and if she is much older or has underlying issues this might be even more difficult and you may still need to make difficult decisions regarding Lady's future if this is the case. I hope you can post pictures next winter of her looking really well. Do keep in touch though, there is a wealth of experience on here that it would be a shame to miss out on.
 
The farmer supplies hay for £2.50 a bale :)

And regarding her age (which i forgot to explain about) in a previous post i said she was 17, because the dealers i got her from told me she was younger than she really is. I rang up farmkey who had her freezemarked when she was one year old, we calculated her age and she is now 20 years old
 
Well done Jade I hope she continues to repay your efforts to keep her well:)
I am dead envious of your hay prices. It is more than twice that (I am in Surrey) round here. If your prices go up you may find it cheaper to feed good haylage as I found this worked out more ecconomical.
I think you are being quite brave as you get a lot of flack (including some from me in the past:cool:) and you keep coming back and trying again.:) Good luck and looking forward to your new pics.x
 
I didn't post previously as I would have given you a bit of a hard time as have the majority of posts on here. I have my opinions on the condition of Lady but I would have only been reiterating what a lot of people had already said.

However your recent post was very mature and sensible considering your age and the emotive situation you are in. You certainly stirred up a hornets nest but you appear to be aware of your mistakes and will be doing everything you can for the welfare of your horse.

For that you deserve some praise so well done and good luck with her
 
Hate to say it but I've seen people reported to welfare organisations with horses in allot better condition than your mare...just be careful posting pictures of such a poor animal aren't used against you.
Also the fact that this isn't the first time you have shown your horse in such a bad condition rings alarm bells to many people on this site.

Contact someone like Spillers or Dengie. They offer free feed advice and at least you will be feeding the correct feed in the correct qtys. You may have to mash her food if her teeth are bad?
Get some really good rugs to help your mare keep heat so she isn't using her body fat to keep warm...i would even be using one this time of year to keep the wind, rain and early morning chill off her...however check under her rug everyday.
Stop riding your mare until she is is better condition with muscle...at least you won't just be riding a bag of bones.

If you saw this mare at an auction you would hope that she would find and experienced home or the meat man to take pity on her...it's quite shocking to find out that someone does own her and that the OP saying that she loves her is enough to keep her mare fit and happy!!!
 
No excuses,never ever found a leopard that changed it`s spots. That old mare needs removing before mid august to either a proper caring home or PTS. Next winter will be her last IMO,and at her relatively youthful age that is shameful.
 
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