Judgment Failures of a Food Lady.

Shaggy remains, well, shaggy. He's also still underweight. I've had him for approximately 12 days now, and he looks as though he has gained some weight, but still not enough to make me happy. I've ridden him three times lightly now, walk jog, mostly lots of turning and moving off my legs. He's sort of challenging as he's dead headed and then overly sensitive, hot and cold. He has no buck or rear, he never says, "no," he just throws temper tantrums at odd times which are mostly head tossing and becoming dead to my cues. He walks, trots (hammering-ly) and I know he'll canter, but he has no muscle and I feel we'd both die if I attempted. He won't move his hindquarters off leg pressure but he does turn at calf pressure. He does not back up. He barely knows how to whoa. However since he is not gaining weight like I believe he should be, I am officially laying off, like I really should have in the beginning. Over zealous I suppose.

On the Henneke Body Scoring Chart, I'd put him at a 3.5 but I don't know my stuff very well. I've only been looking recently. Here's a link to the actual chart and here's a link to an image pertaining to the areas used to judged body score. Here's Shaggy as of tonight. It was dusky so pardon the image quality. Also that line going from  his shoulder to the right was where I smacked him with a wet lead rope. Grass is very appealing. The other patches? No idea, the more hair I get off him the more weird things I'm finding. He does not seem like a very healthy horse in general. More about this to come...

He's being fed beet pulp, complete pellets, and alfalfa pellets. I'm not sure what to call the exact measurements but I'd put the dry mix at 2/5 complete pellets, 1/5 alfalfa pellets and 2/5 beet pulp. It is all mixed together in an 8 quart bucket and soaked in hot water for 15-20 minutes until all water is absorbed. He is fed this twice a day. In terms of hay - I'd be feeding an orchard hay or alfalfa/mix (one flake of each) if I could but orchard and alfalfa are so expensive, and my friend literally cannot afford it. The little guy pretty much gets to eat as much as he wants. I throw him 2 flakes in the morning to get him through the day while I'm at school (he's a very slow muncher) and then he gets thrown a flake whenever I see he's got none left to eat. Because he's so slow this normally translates into: 2 flakes with morning grain (7:00am), 1 flake when I get home (3:40pm), 1 flake with night grain (7:30pm) and then 1 flake at lock-up (11:00pm - 12:00am). Here's his grain in the sequence dry, soaking, soaked.

The pictures make him seem so much skinnier and then I feel terrible for even trying to saddle him while he's so skinny, but when you're beside him he seems much more solid and not so delicate. I wonder if the flash/lighting of the pictures exaggerates the ribs or if I should really feel bad for hopping on those three times. Either way he is getting a good 14 days of nothing but groundwork. I might tack him up for our 4-H riding lesson and check him up and lunge, but I will tie him and ride Lily instead. Regarding his overall condition, and speaking of 4-H, there is a vet (apparently a Californian vet) coming randomly to our city, and she will float and vaccinate/worm and do a general checkup, price depending on how many people show up.We get this deal because we are 4-H, she is already here (for whatever reason, I don't know) and because it's a clinic-type deal. My mare Lily is definitely going to get her teeth checked and vaccines done, and Alisha said YES YES YES to getting Shaggy done cheaper than normal. Right now the fee is $50.00 per horse, but the more horses she does the cheaper it will be. Our 4-H leader is assuming $30.00 per horse if this generates the turnout that it should. I think this is a great deal and will save us some bills as well as getting Shaggy checked out without creating a tense situation between me and my parents or me and Alisha. Until then (Easter Sunday) I am stuffing him with grain and grooming the hair out of him. Literally. Look at all this hair from 30 minutes groom time with a metal curry (carefully over his thin frame, naturally).

There's a schooling show on May 15th that is going to be semi-formal,with your basic in-hand, english, western, and pattern classes, plus road/show hack and mini classes. I'm going to haul both horses there and putter around with Shaggy, maybe throw Lily in a few classes and just play. I was going to try and do some in-hand with Shaggy but I think for now the atmosphere will be enough on him. I'll just help out where I can, take some pictures, and acclimate him to the scene. He's a real trooper and I know he'll take it in stride anyway.

One thing I can definitely say about our relationship so far is that he has identified me successfully as "the food lady." I walk toward him purposefully, and he goes "oh dear" and semi-avoids me. I come toward him with anything resembling a food pail or treat and he's all googoo eyes at me. He has the girliest whinny ever, and when I hear it from the house, I just know it's him saying, "Hey food lady, bring me some grub!"