First farrier!

We decided to get Assuan's feet trimmed up by the farrier, just to make sure that he's nice and even. He also needs to start getting used to the way Neil (our farrier) will be pulling him around in the future.

Keeping in mind he's just under 10 months old, I don't think he was too bad.

Neil also suggested a good book for us to read, it's called 'No Foot, No Horse' and is available from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Foot-Horse-Soundness-Performance/dp/1872119484/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296482343&sr=8-1 just in case any of you are interested.

The video is uploading at the moment, will be up online shortly.

Even more snow!

We've had even more snow, and we were down the yard a little later in the day, so there was some daylight for some better pictures than last time!

Sneaky sneaky, having some of Solie's hay

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Weather has really dropped recently, and as forecast, it's snowing.

So, we promptly got Assuan out to play in the snow, here's a few pictures and a video.....

Getting comfortable

Ok, so it has been a few weeks now since the blog has been updated. This is mainly because Assuan has been slowly settling in, making friends, getting used to his surroundings and just getting comfortable.

There's a batch load of photos and videos from the last few weeks that need to be uploaded, and I will get around to it soon (along with some captions)

So, the important stuff, what's been going on. We've stared to do some training with him using the training halter; not pushing him too hard, he is still a baby after all. It's taking time, few steps forward, few steps back.

He's been going on some nice walks, around the track, down through the woods and around the yard. Sometimes a little stubborn when we're leading him, decides he wants to stop and occasional gets himself stuck, but we're getting there. Jo's started doing some walk, trot and canter with him and he's starting to respond to the voice commands really well.

We think maybe he things that Chloe is a foal, he keeps trying to play with her; it has resulted in the odd nip and some tears!

The fireworks didn't seem to bother him too much, although we were told they really upset him before we had arrived. Our presence must have settled him, when another large show started up the road, he had a few looks and then decided it was all just too much - so he decided to hit the deck and have a nap!

Vet is coming down tomorrow to give him so more vaccinations; got a few questions we need to ask them too. Assuan still has a little cough and the occasional runny nose, plus we need to sort out a worming plan, etc.

Oh, he's 7 months old today!

Test results are in!

Got the results back from the ring worm test yesterday afternoon, negative as expected, same as the result from the swab taken from Assuan's nose for strangles.

So clean bill of health, apart from still a bit of travel fever. Nose is still running a little bit, but will hopefully get over it soon.

As for the feed situation, got some maintenance cubes yesterday, used them in a feed which he immediately started to nibble on and was all finished this morning. He ate all his breakfast quite quickly this morning which is good, we can slowly weene him over to the stud mix now.

The hardfeed has appqrently given him some 'spark' this morning, so I will see later when I go down the yard. All things seem to be going ok now (touch wood!)

Oh so lonely

Assuan has been going out in an isolation field so he can eat lots of good grass, we're restricting his grazing to be safe.

He's been a bit lonely in the field on his own, calling out to all of the nearby horses trying to make friends. So much so that he decided to jump through a barbed wire fence and get stuck between paddocks.....

Managed to get him out without any further injuries; he's cut all his legs and his chest quite badly, my main concern was tetanus, what with not being sure about his vaccinations. I managed to call Tolo and discuss if Assuan had been vaccinated against anything, he hadn't. I immediately called the vets, explained the situation and they come down to give him a couple of shots, one to start the tetanus and another to attack anything he'd caught from the barbed wire. Next few days we're going have to clean out the wounds and put wound cream on until they start to heal up. Poor little thing, I felt really guilty as though I'd let him down.

The Vets visit.

Vet come down today, taken a few skins samples to make sure they're not ring worm and taken a swab from his nose to make sure it's not strangles. It's all precautionary and we're going to put Assuan in a precautionary quarantine until the results are back - best be safe than sorry.