Before the Pete Update I must share this item that appeared on Facebook today….

All I need to know in life I learned from my horse:

When in doubt, run far, far away.
You can never have too many treats.
Passing gas in public is nothing to be ashamed of. …
New shoes are an absolute necessity every 6 weeks.
Ignore cues. They’re just a prompt to do more work.
Everyone loves a good, wet, slobbery kiss.
Never run when you can jog. Never jog when you can walk. And never walk when you can stand still.
Heaven is eating at least 10 hours a day… and then sleeping the rest.
Eat plenty of roughage.
Great legs and a nice rear will get you anywhere. Big, brown eyes help too.
When you want your way, stomp hard on the nearest foot.
In times of crisis, take a poop.
Act dumb when faced with a task you don’t want to do.
Follow the herd. That way, you can’t be singled out to take the blame.
A swift kick in the butt will get anyone’s attention.
Love those who love you back, especially if they have something good to eat.

Any how ……

the last two days Pete has progressed tremendously…..
In part I think it is due to two things….I moved his residence to a lot with some grass and temprorarily drier conditions….the other is the source of the drier conditions which has been the lack of rain in September and early October.

We had a bit over six tenths of an inch of rain yesterday…..

Pete had been walking a bit better with only one foot lately being obviously sore. Since I have moved him to the old cattle maternity lot he has had more grass and as a result has stayed out on the pasture a bit more rather than standing around in the stalls….he is away from the other horses and so he can not stand in the stall next to them….

At any rate he has shown some improvement….Stewart remarks every time he sees him about how well he is gaining weight…..I can tell he is better than when he arrived but seeing and handling him daily I do not notice the gradual changes….His ribs no longer stick out but he still needs more weight on his topline….His butt seems to be getting a little bigger and he has shown more interest in life….He nickers every time he sees my van coming home becuase he knows he is soon to be turned out in the yard and given his daily concentrate ration….

He gets a good bit of beet pulp and a little bit of a lot of other stuff….he basically gets the sme ration as Perkins who gets at least twice as much as Star Baby….Perkins has always been a hard keeper and Star Baby will stay fat on not much of anything.

Pete is also getting a dose of Source daily….

Two days ago when it rained, it had stopped raining when I got home and the grass was still wet. Pete cam to the gate to be turned out and I looked down at his feet and since they were wet……

I could clearly see between 3/4 and an inch of new sound hoof wall growth extending down from his coronary band. It appeared to be bright and solid and strong….and all four feet looked the same.

Julie, my farrier, will look at him again on Friday.

I complemented him on his new growth, and turned him out…..

He amazed me by walking off soundly and heading for the house to see if Marie had any horse cookies…

Later in the evening when I was leading him back to his paddock so that I could open the gates which blocked the driveway, he was walking so fast that I had to step along to keep up with him….I was thrilled to see him walking so well…..

Then last night, when I opend the gate to turn him out into the yard…….
he broke into a trot as soon as he cleared the gate and trotted toward the house and then bucked and farted and ran across the yard…..

He had his tail up on his back and was prancing all around and obviously felt better……

I yelled for Marie to come see but she was in the back of the house and I had to go all the way to the house to make her hear me….I think her hearing is slipping to as she either can not hear me or is totally ignoring me……others often complain about my volume….

Anyhow when she finally showed up with his cookies Pete had calmed down and was grazing in the yard but came right to her for his cookies.

I was so happy for him that i left him in the yard all night and he was out there grazing when I let the dogs out at 4:00 am….

When I went out to go to work he had gone to the barn and was lying down and all I had to do was change the gates….

I am so glad to finally see him feeling better….