Another age seems to have gone past since my last post!  I want to tell you about a follow up we had from Andrea from Dengie feeds.

This was a pony club event and Andrea returned this time with 'Harry the Gut'!  Harry is a life size replica of the horses digestive system.   As you can see from the photo it is quite colourful and user friendly.  (Being a bit squeamish myself I didn't want to upset our younger members.)  The length and size of it really makes you realize why horses have so many digestive issues and how a lot of the way we keep horses can cause difficulties.  Andrea gave another great talk as we followed the long and twisted path from mouth to bottom!  We all found it interesting  and informative.  Thanks Andrea!

Feed Clinic

I never know what my next blog is going to be about but something interesting always seems to come up!
On Sunday, we had a lovely lady, Andrea, from Dengies come to do a clinic for us.  It was arranged by Denes Country Stores and was really interesting.  Andrea bought with her a weighbridge and she also has a life size horses digestive system called "Harry the Gut".  We didn't meet "Harry" this time but hopefully Andrea will bring him to one of our pony club sessions.

Andrea looked at ten of our horses and each one went on the weighbridge, some a little more willingly than others! Regarding the use of a weigh tape it was interesting that on one horse the tape was quite accurate and on another it was 100kg out.  We decided the tape has it use to monitor weight gain or loss but is not necessarily accurate for exact weight.  She then did a visual condition test and gave us advice on which Dengie products would be suitable.  As an old fashioned horsey girl it is hard for me to move away from the traditional cereal feeding but the Dengie way makes a lot of sense and I am going to give it a go.  I will keep you posted on our results.

Many thanks to Andrea and we look forward to reporting on "harry the gut"!

Rug review

I don't usually get too exited about rugs.  I normally buy for necessity and cost or use gratefully recieved hand me downs.  I can often be seen, as the first cold weather comes in, rumaging in the rug room looking for that 5 foot stable rug that I'm sure I didn't throw away!

This year however, a few things have caught my eye and I thought I would share these with you.

The Weatherbeeta under rug combo full neck  is great.  One of my liveries had one and I was so impressed that I bought one for Bonnie.  She can never keep  her rugs straight but this under rug has stayed put and the neck part doesn't seem to be too restrictive which Bonnie would definitely object to.  I bought it for just over £50 and if it lasts a few years I am more than happy with that.  For great value I was tempted by the Evison Equine UK extra heavy weight turnout rug with detachable neck.  It is really warm and has really sensible buckles and clips and a velcro neck which comes off!  At £56.70 which included vat and next day delivery I am really impressed.

For pure indulgence, we all love the Horseware rambo fleece rugs. As you can see from the picture we all have one showing the range of colours, navy, chocolate, charcoal and of course, my favourite, the original gold.  They cost about £70 but we all feel as a special rug its a must!

Sometimes its the little things that help us through the winter.  Hopefully we are nearly there!