Thursday, December 9, 2010

Dudie & Brownie weekly photos & update


It has been a long time since I have posted. Dudie and Brownie are both doing great. My boys are not riding much since school is in session and it is winter. I have added a vitamin lick/supplement called Equipride in the past month. http://equilix.com/ I am not sure if I see major differences yet or not. I guess we will see in anther month or two.

Dudie is exclusively on complete senior feed by Ranchway, with a little hay thrown in to satisfy his craving for munching. He gets 8 lbs of Senior per feeding. He really has no teeth that function (this we found out after having all the horses teeth floated in October), so he can't get his nutrition from hay anymore. He is so healthy he is on the heavy side now. I am not sure if I want to cut back on the feed quite yet, since he may drop some if we finally get snow this winter. He loves to run with all the other horses in the afternoons, but still gets fed separately in the round pen.

Brownie is on mostly hay with 2 lbs of Ranchway Senior feed to keep his weight up in the cold weather. He is doing very well. When I went out to take pics today, he was so frisky and full of energy that I could hardly get him to stop race dogging around the field....LOL It was hard to get him to stand still enough to get a good picture. I will include the standing one and a silly frisky one. I am so pleased with their looks, it is hard to tell they were so unhealthy when they arrived here in April!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Dudie & Brownie weekly photos & update


Well, it looks like I am averaging a bi-weekly update at this point. This is county fair month and my boys are in 4-H so we are very busy this month!
Here is this week's picture of Dudie. He is looking so good I can hardly tell him from the other horses anymore!!!! Hooray! His top line is filled in, his flanks & haunches are fuller! He is full of energy and very friendly! His feed routine is 9lbs of Equine senior by Purina, 4 lbs 4-way grain by Ranchway, 2 cups rice bran mash by Manna Pro and 1 flake of hay per feeding. We put him in the round pen to eat, but then he is free to run with the other horses the rest of the day.

Today was a milestone day! We rode Dudie for the first time! He did GREAT and seemed to enjoy it alot! Here are some pictures of his first ride day!
This is D riding Dudie in the round pen. We decided it was safest to ride him in a controlled area to see how he would do. (bareback with only a halter and lead ropes, we figured he didn't need any extra weight from a saddle quite yet) He did great!


Here D is loping Dudie in the round pen. Dudie responds to leg pressure very well, it is obvious that he has had some good training, we can hardly wait to see all the things he can do!



Then we were feeling confident with him and D took him into the pasture and even did some tricks like crossing a bridge and going over logs etc. Dudie seemed to love having a job to do and getting extra attention today!



Here is a pic of Brownie from this week. He is gaining muscle as he is being ridden weekly (often several times). He looks so healthy now! He is so fun to ride and J loves him very much! We are so blessed to have these horses!
His feed is 3 flakes of grass mix hay and 2 lbs of 4 way grain twice a day.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Dudie & Brownie Weekly Update

We have had a very busy two weeks, so I didn't have a chance to post last week. Here are this week's pictures. Brownie is looking great as usual; I catch myself searching for him among my other horses because he is as healthy looking as all of the others. He is still getting about two pounds of 4-way grain with each feeding of hay to continue a slow weight gain. We have ridden him three times a week or more for the past several weeks. He really likes to run and is very easy to handle. He is so gentle, that when we've had several different families over recently, many of their children have enjoyed riding him (even though they are beginning riders).


Dudie is still improving; he is getting nine pounds of Equine Senior, two to three pounds of 4-way grain, two cups of rice bran, and a full scoop of Amplify (a high-fat weight gain supplement) at each feeding. He is not getting hay right now because he was just stomping on it. He is shedding out very nicely now, though his neck is not. He is much friendlier and really likes to be brushed. We have been letting him out of the round pen to be with the horses after his morning feeding. He seems to like running around with them. They don't seem to be picking on him anymore, so he is obviously much stronger now and able to hold his own.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Dudie and Brownie Weekly Photo and Update

This is a picture of Dudie today (his weekly photo shoot :-) I am finally seeing some good improvement in him! We gave him a bath to help him shed out some of the winter hair he is holding onto because of the malnourishment. He really seemed to like it! His feed routine now looks like 9 lbs of Equine Senior, 2 lbs of 4-way grain, 2 cups of rice bran and a splash of corn oil (this is fed twice a day).

He is no longer weak and sickly, so he is now able to hold his own with Edward who was determined to beat him up the first few weeks we had him. So glad to see him getting healthy!


Below is a picture of Brownie this week! He is doing GREAT! Son # 2 rides him often (and in 4-H) and they are a great match! Brownie is so perfect for this boy! Brownie is such a blessing to us, we had friends over Monday and several other kids rode him around the front yard. He is so gentle and well behaved, very fun for the kids! His feeding routine is reduced to 3 flakes of grass/alfalfa mix hay and 2 lbs of 4-way grain twice a day. His weight is pretty good now, though I would like to see another 50 or so pounds on him, but we can take it slow now and add muscle along with the fat! I am very pleased with his progress!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Dudie & Brownie weekly photos & update

Here is this weeks photo of Dudie. I am a little late taking it since I have been very busy this week. I think I am seeing some improvement in Dudie (finally). When I brush him, it doesn't feel like I brushing bones so much now. About 3 days ago I switched his feed again. He is now getting Equine Senior feed by Purina (1 full scoop...the 3 lb size), along with the 2lbs 4-way grain, 1 1/2 cups soy meal, 1 1/2 cups rice bran, 1/4 cup corn oil and hay. I also bought him a horse lick so that he can have calories and vitamins all day long. He pretty much leaves his hay on the ground and won't eat it, so I decided that he needed the senior feed to make sure his diet is well balanced. I am slowly increasing the senior feed to the full amount he will need and keeping the other stuff too. We will see how this works :-) I am hoping that in time, I can bring his weight up to fully healthy and then cut the supplements back to minimal except during the winter months. Maybe I am dreaming? I hope not :-)


Brownie seems to have held his weight well, even with 3 full days of riding at the 4-H Memorial riding clinic last weekend. He should start to gain some muscle with more regular riding!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Dudie & Brownie weekly photos & update

Here is a picture of Dudie this week. Dudie...well, does he look better or not? I think he looks just a little better, but it is slow progress for sure.
Each feeding, his diet consists of 2 lb alfalfa pellets, 3 lbs 4-way grain, 1 1/2 cups soy protien power, 2-3 flakes of grass/alfalfa mix hay and now I have added 1 1/2 cups of rice bran.
He is NOT eating all his hay, he stomps quite a bit of it around the ground. Now that he is not so 'hungry' he seems to be getting picky and even in his grain bucket, if I put the alfalfa pellets on top, he noses them out to get to the grain first LOL. I now put the pellets on the bottom so he eats them last and he seems to eat most of it. I just started the rice bran a few days ago, so no visible results yet on that



Brownie looks GREAT (to me :-) and the boys are loving to ride him!!! Brownie is currently getting 1 lb of grain, 1 cup soy and 1 cup rice bran every feeding in addition to his flakes. I figure this will continue the weight gain but help him get more muscle as he is worked instead of just alot of fat. I don't really feel or see much ribs on Brownie at all anymore.....I am watching to see how the riding affects him. I do think he needs a little more weight and alot more muscle to make him fully healthy.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Dudie & Brownie weekly photos & update

This is the current picture of Dudie. I see huge improvements in Brownie but I don’t think I see much in Dudie. I need to re evaluate the feed and see what I can change to help Dudie gain more weight. Dudie is currently getting 2 lbs alfalfa pellets, 3 lbs 4-way grain, 1 cup soy protein powder, a splash of corn oil and 2 fat flakes of hay at each feeding! I am going to look into rice bran.



Below is the picture of Brownie for this week. He is looking really good! I am happy with his progress!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

1st ride on Brownie!


Today we saddled Brownie and rode him for the first time! He is GREAT! He was fun and easy to ride and seemed to enjoy having a job to do and working with us! Son #2 will be working with Brownie the most this year in 4-H! What a blessing this horse is!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Dudie & Brownie weekly photos & update

Here are today's pictures of Dudie & Brownie. Brownie is looking GREAT! Dudie, still not sure. Dudie is up to a scoop and 1/2 grain (3lbs), 1 cup soy powder and 2 lbs alfalfa pellets along with his hay. We will see how he does with that. It is also slowly getting a bit warmer, so that might help too. He is getting all his grain because we hold the bucket, but he is probably not getting all the hay he needs so I am going to have to kick Brownie out of the round pen and integrate him with my other horses so that Dudie can get ALL the food I put in there. I do realize that he was worse off to start and he is older, I am just impatient and I want to see him filled out and healthy faster than I am seeing. I think he might look a tad better this week. The cold weather and snow are not helping him gain weight. His body is having to work too hard and burning too many calories that he is just not taking in right now. I guess it will just take time.

I went out and let Brownie out of the round pen so he is now with my other 3 horses. They are getting along GREAT! He is so happy to be out and is enjoying running around with this wind blowing today......It appears that he might even decide to be the new herd boss around here.....he is so full of energy that he is pushing Teddy around out there. LOL I am very happy with Brownie's weight gain and I think we can start riding him next week and giving him some exercise!
After we let Brownie out, we gave Dudie some more hay and a fresh bucket of grain. The weather has been so yucky, I think he just can't keep the weight on....just too cold! It will be easier to know for sure how much he is personally eating now that he is in the round pen alone. Praying that I can figure out how to put weight on him.....I really want him to look as good as Brownie does! I wormed them both the other day with a different wormer, thinking that might help too.....I also added some soy meal powder for extra protein for them too.


Thursday, May 6, 2010

Dudie & Brownie weekly photos & update

Here are the pics I took today. The yellow on Dudie is Fur-all spray. I let them out of the round pen a few days ago to run (and to see how they would do with my other horses) Brownie LOVED it! He ran and ran with my big boys and they all got along well. Sadly, Edward decided that Dudie was weak and he started biting him and chasing him. I quickly put him back in the round pen and sprayed his bites as a precautionary so nothing would get infected and they would heal quickly. Thankfully none of them were bad, just bite marks mostly. Dudie needs to be in the round pen anyhow, to make sure he gets ALL of his food each meal.


Dudie & Brownie have been here over 2 weeks already! I weighed everything tonight so that I would know exactly what I have been giving them. Here is what I did.

I talked with the guy at the feed store before they got here and this is what he suggested. The first day, they each got 1 lb 4-way grain, 1/3 c corn oil 1 flake alfalfa and as much grass hay as they would eat. The second day I upped it to 2 lbs 4-way grain, 1/3 c corn oil, 2 flakes alfalfa and as much grass hay as they would eat.....that's what they got the first 2 weeks. Twice a day of course.

Thursday, I was not happy with the weight gain (not fast enough for me) so I changed it. They are now each getting: 2 lbs alfalfa pellets, 2 lbs 4-way grain (this fills about 1/2 of the 8qt bucket), the rest of the bucket is filled with soaked beet pulp, and 3 flakes of alfalfa each meal. They seemed to be gaining a little, but I am hoping to see better results this next week. I am not an expert feeder.....I just go by instinct and results. That is what I did with Teddy 6 or 7 years ago, but it has been a LONG time and my horses are all easy keepers now. I am having a bit of a learning curve right now. I am getting more comfortable with them and feeling more confident that they will not colic on me, so I am getting more adventurous with my feeding :-)


Below is the picture of Dudie. I think he still looks bad and I am not happy with his progress. Hoping to see more improvement by next week!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Dudie & Brownie weekly photos & update

Ok, here is a picture of Brownie (ignore the date, my camera reset and I forgot to change the date). We have had him a full week now. I did get a couple pictures today in between the snow showers. Such strange weather! At one point we had over an inch of snow sticking on the ground!
The angles are not that great and the lighting is not great either. Can you tell any difference? I think I can see a difference in both of them. They don't seem to have such jagged bones sticking out, they seem to be a bit more fleshy looking. I am sure it will take several weeks to really compare pics and see bigger changes.

We were a little busy with our La Mancha goat that was giving birth today. She had 1 beautiful little doeling!

Below is the picture of Dudie. Wishing I had been able to get better pictures. Oh well, another day. It is so cold and the weather is horrible!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Dudie & Brownie weekly update

This is day one of our journey with 2 sweet new horses!
This is a picture of Dudie. He is a a 25 year old AQHA gelding, who participated for many years in the Pony Express re-ride in California carrying over 1000 letters in a mochilla that were sent all over the world. He was dearly loved by his family for 23 years. His calm and gentle nature was perfect for beginning riders and he actually was the first horse for three generations in this family. As Dudie loved his job of nurturing beginning riders, he was offered to a therapeutic riding facility not far from his home when there were no longer any children to ride him. Unfortunately, the facility had some economic woes and did not properly care for Dudie. When the original owner went to check on him she found him and his brother, Brownie, in deplorable condition and so she brought him home. Within a week, this family had some life changing events take place and we offered to bring Dudie and his brother to Colorado to regain their health and become loving members of our family. We are hopeful that Dudie will recover enough to once again be the wonderful “first horse” for our children.


Brownie, who is a 21 year old quarterhorse gelding and a half-brother to Dudie as they share the same sire. He was purchased by Dudie’s family when he was approximately six years old. At the time, he was a rather wild stallion with little training. His owner’s had him gelded and sent him to a trainer where he was a quick learner. Soon, he was back at home with his family where he lived for fifteen years and was used extensively as a trail horse in some very rugged terrain. When the youngest daughter left for college, Brownie went into semi-retirement with Dudie at the same therapeutic riding facility. Although Brownie was in slightly better condition, his time at the facility took its toll. We are confident that Brownie will be ready to participate in 4H with our sons in a few months. We will keep you posted on his progress.


First impressions, I was wondering if Brownie would be easy or not because he was hard to handle the first day or two and would hardly let us catch him....I found out that he is a love and I so enjoyed brushing him today! Dudie on the other hand, I thought would be really easy, but he seems to have it in for me....I have to watch my backside around him or he tries to nip me......we go in the pen with a training stick to fend him off. He may just be cranky and hungry....I am hoping he will get used to us and we can relax around him. I brushed him today too, but when I would get near the front 1/2 of him, I had to be really wary and hold his halter to avoid him nipping. He has not actually nipped me yet, but he has tried and narrowly missed my behind the other day as I walked by so I have to watch out for him LOL. He always puts his ears back when we are near his face. I am praying that he will get to like us....I am trying to befriend him. I am guessing that he is just REALLY hungry and protective of his food. I am feeding them each a 4 way grain with molasses (gradually increasing the amount by 1/2 lb each feeding up to a max of 3 lbs) and adding corn oil. They get 2 flakes of alfalfa and 2 flakes of grass hay each feeding as well.