My mom has decided that sending me pictures is a good reward for finishing chapters in icky physics. So, I got another set today! Yay! 2.5 weeks and I'll be there with them! I'm glad the snow is melting and I can't wait to put up new fence to extend their pasture to the back of the property. Chico looks maybe a tad bit on the thin side, but it's hard to tell. He was this way last spring too when he was healing up from his huge gash. I'm sure it take a toll on their bodies to be healing something constantly. I want to try giving them free choice minerals this year in addition to their salt and mineral salt blocks. I have read that a lot of horses' diets are lacking in copper and magnesium (or was it zinc?) and that these are very important for hoof growth. And in fact, horses that have the proper ratio of minerals, tend to be able to maintain their hoof growth with wear (so they don't really need to be trimmed as much) which is mainly due to the fact that they quit overeating. It seems that overeating is sometimes a mechanism to make up for the lack of certain important nutrients. And very few horses these days truly have everything they need despite the fact that we feed them all kinds of specialized diets. This is mainly due to the fact that the horses cannot travel to a source of nutrients they might be deficient in...they are trapped in their pastures. And our knowledge of exactly what they need and our ability to actually give it to them is always changing.
Not to spout off about stuff, but this is just on my mind...things to do this year: find source for these individual nutrients.
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