Chrome's Monthly Progress Report

Date: 7-19-10
Age: 14 months
Height: Just shy of 14.1hh (a little over 4ft 8in/56.7in/144cm/1.44m)
Height Gain: Almost three quarters of an inch.
Weight: Approx 650lbs (294.8kg)
Weight Gain: About thirty pounds. Can you tell I increased his feed?
Progress: Chrome is doing great. He's on free choice hay and I ran out of beet pulp so I haven't been feeding it anymore. He's gained weight and looks great. I've taken him for a few walks and he's done fabulous. I've also loaded him on the trailer a few times and he did good. I haven't really worked on anything else. Oh wait! I did fly spray him while he was eating without having to put a halter on him! :D
Goals: My goal for this month is to start introducing him to things like saddle blankets, plastic bags, etc. The crazy thing is he does most of his de-spooking by himself!! Check out the hard work (I took pictures and he played hard) we did with a box yesterday below . . .

He completely destroyed the cardboard box. And thoroughly enjoyed it lol.

Here he dropped it and then walked through it. He actually put two hooves in it. I just missed the perfect shot. Learning to walk over unfamiliar objects and surfaces is a great lesson! Good thinking Chrome! ;)

Stuffing your face in a box is not something I would have thought of. :)

Even Zep got in on the action.

Zeppelin showing off his pretty neck action too. :)

Chrome's Monthly Progress Report

Sorry I didn't get a new picture. This is from yesterday.

Date: 6-19-10
Age: 13 months
Height: 14hh (4ft 8in/56in/142cm/1.4224m)
Height Gain: Half an inch.
Weight: Approx 620lbs (281.2kg)
Weight Gain: I'm beginning to think weight tapes just aren't very accurate for growing horses. I doubt very much that his weight hasn't changed. Weight tapes just don't really take into account the horse's height, bone size and growth. Chrome is in a narrow bodied, long legged stage so that's probably why it's saying he hasn't gained any weight. I don't care though because he looks good to me. :)
Progress: I'm now feeding Chrome beet pulp with his Safechoice and I saw a difference almost immediately. He's still getting a little over half a square bale of hay a day, but we've finally found a source of good quality round bales so soon he'll have free choice grass hay which will make him happy. He's gotten to where he's stretching his giraffe neck up to eat oak leaves out of the trees!! I know oak can be bad for horses so we're going to trim the lower limbs and I'm sure he'll stop when he has a round bale to munch on twenty four, seven. Other than that he's doing great. I didn't do anymore walking, clicker training or hoof work. Bad me. Between the heat index of 107F every day and my work schedule I just haven't felt like doing anything. I did hose him off though.
Goals: My goal for this month is to start walking him again and to keep working on hosing him off and fly spraying him. I forgot to mention that I fly sprayed him the other day while he was eating . . . without a halter!!! I'm not going to give myself anything else to work on for now until it cools off some. It's miserable. We haven't had rain in weeks and the tiny bit we got today just evaporated.

Condensing

Okay, after suggestions from a couple of my followers I have finally decided to condense all of blogs into one. I have been considering this for a long time but was really hesitant to do it because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep it all organized and devote enough attention to each of the critters and my projects, but I realized I never post in them anyway (because I have so many and no time)!! If I put them all together in one blog at least it will get posted to regularly.

It will still be called Living A Farmer's Life like the old one, but click here for the link to the new one. It is still very much a work in progress, but each critter will have their own page for more information. I'll also be labeling each post so if you only want to read about Chrome or Jackal or whoever you can click their label and it will take you to any post that features that specific critter. Anyway, I won't be posting in the individual blogs anymore so go check it out and please follow!