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Lacy

Lacy got her first bath since September today. I also clipped her fetlocks, bridle path and ears for the first time since then. She's shedding quite a bit, but is still QUITE fuzzy. I think she may be darker this year. She was shining like a new copper penny, a very rich color in comparison to her usually pale self. Very metallic too, kinda odd actually. Maybe once she finishes shedding she'll be light again, but for some reason I doubt it. I didn't have my cam as there was no one to hold her or take the pics, not to mention by the time she was dry the sun was headed down. I snapped a few with my phone, but it would take forever to download them and they're cruddy anyway. :roll: I wish I had the tools (and the guts) to clip her. Maybe I'll try to get the pics off of my phone. *sigh* It's not easy, but I'm bored. :roll:

accphotography Wed, 03/18/2009 - 22:15

Ok so it apparently took half an hour and a bit of a hassle, but I got about 107 pics off the phone and had a GOOD :rofl when I saw some of the pics I had taken. I have crazy pets. :laugh1

Still wet:
[img]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/…]

When did I get a curly?:
[img]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/…]

My girls :love each other:
[img]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/…]

Almost dry and bored with mom:
[img]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/…]

Trying to get the green on the other side:
[img]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/…]

Who me?:
[img]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/…]

She's a bit thin. :oops:

That's all folks. Unless I decide to post some of the crazy pet pics in the Dog & Kitty board.

TwinCreeksFarm Thu, 03/19/2009 - 15:51

Eh, she looks fine. You're just used to fat horses. ;) Pretty girl though, as always!

accphotography Thu, 03/19/2009 - 15:59

I've got to remember to take my stick with me when I go to the barn next. I'm pretty sure she's finished growing and I'm curious to know where she's at. If she does grow any more (height) it will be around May I suspect so we'll see. At last check, she was still under 14.2. I'm not sure if that's good or not. *shrug* I guess it's good if I decide to use her as a pony mommy. Probably good for me since most stallions of the type I like are quite a bit taller than what I would want to ride, so she'd bring them down I suspect. Showing wise it's bad though (at least for english classes). I can't ride her in pony classes, and she's really probably too short to be competitive in horse classes. *gah*

Thanks!!! Hopefully she'll pick up some weight once the grass really comes in. No, never mind, I know she will. She'll go back to a muzzle before I know it.

TheRedHayflinger Thu, 03/19/2009 - 19:04

lucky..the one day it has been warm enough to bathe my ponies, it was too busy of a day for me to do it! I'm just itching to get out there with shampoo, scrubbies and a hose...LOL

Did you have a rough winter where you live? Or does she just keep better on fresh grass? Deff. not the worst weight on a horse I've seen here lately! I've got one mare here that is an air fern year round....we have to keep her on a dry lot when fresh grass comes in, as she manages to get the grazing muzzle off!

accphotography Thu, 03/19/2009 - 19:14

Yes, we had an unusually rough winter for us. We weren't particularly good about getting out there to give her the pellets either. Really she hadn't lost any at all until about a month ago. She won't look like this long though as she gets really fat as soon as the grass kicks in (it's already started). It hasn't hindered her attitude at all though. She's still as full of herself as ever (darn prancing Thoroughbred she thinks she is). Hubby knows about as much about a BCS as anyone I know and he says she's probably between a 5 and 5.5 so she's definitely not in any trouble, I'm just used to seeing her at 6, 6.5, 7. :rofl In fact, in all my grooming yesterday I found she has pockets of fat on both sides just past her shoulder and on the front edge of her ribs. Silly girl. Even when she's thin, she's storing fat. :rofl

I know what you mean about being too busy. I'm shocked I managed to get this done.

Oh and for a taste of our winter:
http://www.accphotography.com/gallery/p…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
:mrgreen:

Morgan Thu, 03/19/2009 - 19:24

She is a beautiful mare! She looks fine to me too, mine are usually about that weight coming out of a winter on hay. I always figure the cycles are more normal than forcing a certain weight on them all year. My little mare is getting plump already though, time to get her back to work.
I am kind of dreading this week, I have to clean them ALL up before the vet comes for spring shots, coggins and teeth check, and as you've seen they are all paints. :sad At least V is washed and I detangled last week so not too horrible a job. Spring is "fun", warmer longer days, enough to do all the fun stuff but it brings 10 times more work with it... :hammer

TheRedHayflinger Thu, 03/19/2009 - 19:29

i'm in Southern OH (about 2 hours north maybe? or so? from you)...our winter here wasn't too bad..but we did have a week or two here and there of some bad stuff....the one storm several weeks back--snow, then ice, then snow, then ice....then warm weather...haha..anyway..during the snow and ice, I was stuck at work from Monday evening to Friday evening! Thankfully my mom was able to feed my ponies for me!!! I did get a tree down on my fence though :( So no back pasture for the ponies until we get it removed and the 3 or 4 boards it demolished replaced. They are just itching to get back there too! Grass is already poking through....so for now, they get hand grazed on our side and front yard until I get the temp electric fence out and up.

Can't wait to see non fuzzy pics of her :D

Morgan Thu, 03/19/2009 - 19:35

I just have to say, that is a really cute avatar!

accphotography Thu, 03/19/2009 - 20:17

I like the avatar too!

She probably won't look much different than she did in September, except she might be several shades lighter (she usually is, just not sure it's going to happen this year for some reason):
[img]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/…]

TheRedHayflinger Fri, 03/20/2009 - 12:03

Hopefully she picks up for you soon. I freak out if I'm even a half hour late in feeding my girls their "horse kibble" (that's what my mom calls it..lol..pellet feed and BOSS), even though they have free choice hay in front of them. My bosses at work know not to call me last minute to have me stay over..haha. I about had a heart attack when I got stuck at work for an entire week due to the snow and ice and my mom wasn't sure if she could make it home...so I was calling my grandma and neighbors to see if someone could feed them, keep an eye on hay and check water...thankfully my mom was able to make it home though *whew*

rabbitsfizz Fri, 03/20/2009 - 13:07

No you are right, she is a bit thin...the wet photos do not lie!!
She has dropped a bit since the last photos, but, honestly, I would not worry....the horse is built to get thinner during winter and put on weight in Spring, this is how their metabolism is geared, and it isn't as if she is [i]thin[/i]thin, after all.
A horse coming out of winter a little under optimum weight is not going to get laminitis, for one thing, and is in a better condition to bring back into serious work.
So since you are aware of it I would not bother about it, once the grass springs she'll be back to normal!!!
She's a lovely mare.

Maigray Fri, 03/20/2009 - 13:30

That's the way the Exmoors are - they drop hugely in winter, and some people do freak out a bit, but they balloon ridiculously in summer again. They're built for it.

It's worth noting that obesity is becoming a huge problem in horses anyway. Equus just reported in their February issue that researchers at Virginia-Maryland decided to do a little project on obesity in horses because they were seeing it more and more. They randomly selected a couple hundred animals in the area, and body scored them and found over half were overweight or obese. It wasn't from grain either - 30% were fed only on forage and almost half got less than 3 lbs. a day. The article talked about how forage today was more nutritious than from yesteryear and also that a lot of people have reseeded their pastures with non-native grasses that are much richer than native species.

Morgan Fri, 03/20/2009 - 15:50

Over restricting hay can have a negative effect too. When they have free choic they are less likely to store the fat or to over eat.
when there is too little their body sets up for famine , stores everything, and teh horses wolf everything in site.
The most effective way to trim them down is a large pile of low calorie hay (with a mineral of course). And if you want hay that will work for that come over here for some of this prairie hay. :lol: I find it a pain in the butt because I have some hard keepers and keep having to feed oats. I'm used to bermuda and not feeding any grain but that's harder to find here. :(

critterkeeper Fri, 03/20/2009 - 16:17

ACC - how old is Lacy now? I know Dawin grew until he was around 5 1/2 - 6 yrs, Luna is 3 1/2 now and still growing, but Destiny doesn't seem to have grown anything at all in 7 months (she turns 3 next month).

Heather Fri, 03/20/2009 - 17:31

My three out back started to drop so I put them on beet pulp once a day , the grass should explde here soon and they will all be obeses again. The ones out back dropped about like Lacy did, it was jsut over a 2 week period I started to notice and jumped on it before it got gross. They still have grass but its slim pickin. I am workin the 3 yr old under saddle and she needed more calories even thou she isnt getting super hard work yet.

accphotography Fri, 03/20/2009 - 19:28

Well hubby scored her again today and put her at a 5. He did confirm the fat pockets over her ribs for me too.

Honestly I don't expect her to maintain her weight easily with zero grass and just a few flakes (3 at most) of somewhat low calorie grass hay. When she does get her feed (which isn't that often frankly, bad mommy I know) she only gets 1lb of a 30% RB. Considering how fast she'll balloon (soon), I don't mind her going in a bit thin, just like I don't mind her going into winter a bit fat.

This is what she looked like almost a year ago:
[img]http://www.accphotography.com/gallery/d…]

Reid and I are both very confident she's not even close to that thin at present. To top it off, she was getting double the hay and 3lbs of sweet feed as opposed to this year half the hay and 1lb of 30%RB. :laugh1 I guess she's holding her weight better as she ages. :lol:

So I sticked her... 14.1-3/4. She's been exactly that for soooo long now and she looks like she's done to me. She's started filling out width wise so I really suspect that's it. I'm going to have to remember to stick her hip too but I may have to face the fact she might finish downhill. *sigh* She is a stockhorse after all, so she's right for her type... but that's not necessarily the type I want anymore. :laugh1

So what can I do with her if she stays "pony"?

Morgan Fri, 03/20/2009 - 23:26

[quote]So what can I do with her if she stays "pony"?[/quote]
Same thing you would anyway imo. I love my shorties. My riding mare is "pony" sized and can go all day and still be spunky at the end of it. Little stock horse=tough.

dakotakdq Sat, 03/21/2009 - 18:43

shes is a lovley mare, hairy or not :love

accphotography Sat, 03/21/2009 - 20:08

Ok I took the stick back out today. No clue why, but today she showed half an inch taller putting her at 14.2 1/4. I don't think that was accurate so I will check it again. But, she was exactly one inch taller at the hip than at the wither. I really don't know if she'll make up that other inch or she will just stay downhill. You'd never know it watching her movement, she's very uphill, especially at the trot.

Jenks Sun, 03/22/2009 - 08:34

She must not be standing square when you're sticking her - she sure doesn't look downhill in the photos! 14.2 is not a pony in the quarter horse world, nor in the paint world. She'd make a great working western horse I'd bet... You are just used to those TBs!

accphotography Sun, 03/22/2009 - 13:53

We made sure she was standing square. I think it's the way I pose her for photos that makes it deceiving. When I look at her in person I can see the downhillness. No I agree she's perfect for a western horse. She's already shown predisposition for cutting, reining, WP, etc. People think the ridiculously slow WP gaits are so unnatural it's wrong... not for this horse. :laugh1 By the same token she can go into an extended trot that could make a grown man cry. She can also jump with some pretty cute form and lots of energy. I'd love to find someone who could show her in pony hunters. Heck, even someone that could show her in open hunters. (After some training of course.)