Day 13 of Prison

 Best picture (above) I've taken in a while!  For once it's not blurry.  I'm so ready for a new camera or to get this one fixed.  I wish I had never dropped it!  Just warning you guys I took all of these pictures at noon today so the lighting is awful in most of them.  Noon is the second worse time to take pictures.  The only worse time is at night in the dark!  Even though the lighting is bad and the pictures are blurry from the defective camera I'm sure you can all see past that to the gorgeousness that is my horse.  :)  Also, taking pictures at noon made me realize something.... I'm going to have to learn how to take pictures of him all over again when he's gray. His face is absolutely glowing in most of these pictures!  Eek!  I probably just won't be able to get away with taking photos of him at noon.  :)

First off, his weight is looking much better!  I know he never really looked thin in the pictures I posted (because the camera apparently adds weight to equines just like humans), but trust me he was a bit too lean going into winter.  Now I can still feel his ribs, but he's looking much better.  I'm loving the Amplify (fat supplement) so far.  Thanks for the suggestion!  You guys are great!

Secondly, I'm still loving his mohawk!!  I love how one side is black and the other side is silver (you can see the silver side in one of the pictures below).  I can't wait for it to grow out a little more so I can shape it a bit.  He is going to look even more adorable, if that's even possible.  Sorry, I'll quit gushing over how cute he is and let you guys see the rest of the pictures from today.

 

 Jackal goes out with me when I feed/exercise/water the horses.  He's not allowed in the pasture without me because donkey is a professional dog stomper.  Notice how close Jackal is to me.  He's learned to watch out for dangerous pony feet.

 This is hilarious!  He was sniffing manure piles and was turning or something and stepped wide with his hind feet.  I've never seen him stand with them that far apart.  It makes him look really wide!

A couple of hideous, blurry shots (above).  The trotting one I have to explain.  When he was younger I taught him, using clicker training, to line his shoulder up with mine, sort of like a dog heeling.  He learned it at liberty, so now when he wants a treat (even if he knows I don't have one) he will line his shoulder up with me, arch his neck and act really cute.  If I run away he trots after me and tries as hard as he can to keep himself perfectly in line with me.  In the trotting shot above I took off really fast so I could get a little distance between us to snag a quick photo.  Tell me that isn't the cutest way to beg for treats.  :D  He did it for several minutes before he gave up and wandered off.

I ran away (so he'd quit trying to heel) and squatted down (I took a lot of these while sitting on my heels for a different perspective).  He immediately wanted to know what I was doing and trotted to me.  I love how the shadows turned out on him.

 Then it was time for a nice roll.

 Weird shot!

 One weird thing I've noticed about my lazy horse is that he rolls on one side (only once, not multiple times), then stands up and immediately lays down on the other side for one roll.  He doesn't spend a lot of time rolling and wiggling and scratching like some horses and he never rolls all the way over (not in a long time).  I'm wondering if it's because he finally grew some withers or if it has something to do with his sore/weak/locking stifles.  Or maybe it's something else.  Maybe he is just lazy.  He's walking fine with even track up on both sides, so he's not lame.  I've been wanting to have a chiro out sometime to check out his back and stifles, so maybe he/she will have an answer (if I can find one).

Cute!  Look at his lip.  :) 

Then he jumped up and immediately trotted off.  He's going to look so gorgeous when he learns to use himself properly.  The above shot shows the potential.  :)  More impulsion Chrome!  Put some effort into it!  Hehe.

 Yeehaw!!  Finally an action shot that isn't gross and blurry and unfocused.  Isn't he cute!

Then he had to stop for a bite of hay.  Love that neck!  Also Led Zeppelin is chilling with him looking adorable.

In the above picture Zep was rolling and Faran walked over to him to see what he was doing (or maybe to interfere, not sure which).  Then they both spotted the neighbor's cows and I snapped this shot.  Cute!!

 

This is the side where his mohawk is silver.

So prison is still going well.  There is only one maple tree that still has it's leaves.  It's being very stubborn.  It got really cold and windy recently (which is why I haven't ridden Chrome and also my back is hurting again, I'm a wimp), so maybe it will finish dropping the leaves.  I can't wait to rake them up and burn them so the ponies have a safe pasture again.  We are cutting down several of them when the leaves are gone, but my mom doesn't want me cutting the two beside the pond so I may have to fence those off (which is going to be difficult with how close they are to the pond).  There is one that is in the yard, hanging over the barn, but we can cut a few limbs off of it to keep the leaves out of the pasture.  It needs to be pruned anyways because some of the limbs are basically laying on the barn.  One small maple tree is on the neighbor's property hanging over the fence, so I'll ask him about that one.  He's really nice so he probably won't mind us cutting it down.  He doesn't use the backside of his property.  It's just overgrown trees.  I also found a holly tree that we will be cutting down.  It is so gorgeous covered in red berries, but it is very poisonous.  I'm still looking at the rest.  Most appear to be sweet gum, various oaks and some persimmon trees.  We can't cut down the oaks (not that I would want to because they are gorgeous), but in all the years we've had horses here we have never had a problem with acorns. We even had cows and they never had a problem.  We sold one cow back to the previous owner and she died from eating acorns on his place, but not on ours, so maybe we just don't have enough to cause problems.

Anyway the only other thing I wanted to mention is the drinking situation.  Chrome still hates the well water.  I tried everything!  Different flavorings, putting hay in it, mixing pond water in it, etc. and he still won't drink it.  So I have been going out several times a day.  In the morning when I get up, at noon, at three, at five and at nine at night to lead Chrome down to the pond.  They say you can't lead a horse to water and make him drink, but that doesn't apply to Chrome.  He drinks every time for me.  Even when he doesn't seem thirsty if I ask him to put his head down he will drink just to make me happy because he knows it will be a few hours before he can drink again and he knows I will stand there for as long as it takes until he drinks.  I'm also putting water in his feed and beet pulp.

I got a gallon of pond water and poured it in his feed bucket and then counted his swallows so I know how much he's drinking.  Now I count as he drinks from the pond each day.  He averages about four to six gallons a day, so that's pretty good.  He's not showing any signs of dehydration.  His urine is normal.  The tent test (pinching the skin on the neck to see how quick it snaps back) is perfect.  His capillary refill on his gums is great.  So even though I hate that he won't drink out of the trough with well water I don't think it is hurting him.

Well that's all for today.  Sorry for getting so wordy.  :)