VHS Beloved

VHS Beloved

Spring 2008

Beloved unfortunately has had another difficult winter to get through and yet again has had to cope with the loss of her best friend, Sylvia. Beloved is struggling now not only with her arthritis but also her shoulder, making it difficult for her to bend down to graze and eat. Her bed has been adapted with her water been raised on a bucket and her stable been bedded down entirely with a thick bed. She has the choice of hay and haylage on a night and although she is short on teeth she enjoys spending the time chewing up the forage and spitting it out on the floor for us to tidy up in the morning. The loss of Sylvia in January has hit her hard, she has been off her food and is very lonely and depressed. She hasn’t taken to any of the other horses at the centre at the moment but is now allowed to wander at will with Tim who seems to be keeping her company.
Yet again she is losing her winter coat, which again has turned her into a mountain goat this winter. With her afternoon grooming sessions she has been given ten minute massage sessions to try to help with her bad shoulder.
Her feed has been changed a few times this winter but at the moment she is given whatever she wants to eat, which seems to be:
1 Chaff
1⁄2 Build up
1⁄2 Country cubes
1 Sugar beet
Supplements
Garlic
Grand Meadow flex
Echinacea
Soya oil

Spring 2007

Beloved has really fought against all the odds to come through another winter and slowly she is loosing her winter coat, as she did she looked like a very hairy ‘mountain goat’, which makes her look very unlady like!
Sadly she lost one of her best friends Vicky in December 2006 and it took her weeks of moaning to get over this, she was helped by Sylvia, and now they are always together.

Her diet remains the same as the winter going into spring as she has very few teeth.
2lb 16+ cubes
4lb wet sugar beet
2lb chaff
Cortaflex
Soya Oil
15ml garlic

We hope Beloved will enjoy some lovely warm summer months.
Thank you visiting Beloved and if you would like to help with her upkeep please visit our adoption site.

PAST HISTORY

Year of birth 1973

Beloved is currently on livery at the center and has various growths which makes her unable to be re-homed. We now feel she should remain at the center until the end of her days.
She is fed Leisure mix, Pasture Nuts and Sugar Beet to maintain her condition. She is unable to eat hay due to a growth in her throat, so she is on hay replacer.
At 30+ and a former JA pony, she is really going to enjoy her retirement and has bonded with Misty.

Beloved
Summer 2006

‘B’ is one of the ‘old ladies’ and now spends her days in the hay field which is warm and sheltered. She adores Vicky and Sylvia and this makes up the old ladies!

Her arthritis has suffered through the long cold winter and now has to have a pain killer to lift her off hind when trimming is done, we hope to be able to help horses like B by purchasing a sling to assist them when they find it a little too painful to lift their old limbs.

Her diet changes in accordance to the grass growth, so please call the centre if you would like to get an exact diet programme for her.

Poor little B also lost 2 teeth when the dentist came in June, so now she is on a paste diet. Despite this she loves life and enjoys nothing more than a doze in the sun with her friends.

Last year we really thought B would not make the winter and staff often asked why she hadn’t any new rugs, this was purely that it would be silly to buy her 6 new rugs (as they all have, 3 indoor and 3 outdoor) if she wouldn’t be with us. However, thankfully she proved us all wrong and the growths that were troubling her, disappeared from her throat and have never returned.

As you can see she really is very much loved and very spoilt, she even has her own mirror to approve that she has been groomed properly

Summer Feeding
B’s weight does fluctuate, so her feed changes regularly, at present she has
1lb Country Cubes
1lb 16+ cubes
1lb Pasture nuts
15ml Garlic (pm)
1⁄2 sash of bute (pm)
100ml equivita
3 pints of water is added and left to stand for 2 hours (pm) and her breakfast is made up late afternoon.
All the horses feeds are kept in freezers to prevent rodents helping themselves and it also keeps them cool.
Routine
B and the other old ladies, hear the staff arrive and make their way to the gate for their breakfasts, they are brought straight in at 8.00 am and fed and thoroughly groomed, fly spray, suncream and coat condition are added and effol to their feet.

They then go back into the ‘Hay field’ which is warm and sheltered and is gently sloping, as Vicky one of her best friends finds it a little too difficult to walk to the higher paddocks the ‘old ladies’ will stay in the hay field.