Good-bye ladies...

News, news, NEWS, remember?

Well, yesterday three of the mares went north. A month or so ago someone contacted the farm owner interested in locating horses with Royal Zaltar breeding. He'd sold her a mare 15 years ago, and was wondering if she still had her, or knew where any of her foals might be.

The answer? There are several of the same breeding grazing right out in the front pasture.

Long story short, he came down and looked at the mares and liked three of them very much.

We said goodbye to ASA Copper Pennie, ASA Sauds Foxie, and Sauds Sahara Fyre FS yesterday morning. I (of course) forgot my camera. :( I took a few cell phone pictures, but haven't managed to get them to upload, darn it.

They loaded up like the ladies they are, and with promises of pictures and updates, and to contact her if he ever decides to sell them, they were off for new lives.

It was hard to see them go, but good to have three of them settled somewhere where they'll be well-cared for, safe and valued.

Pennie & Foxie

Mares & heat cycle question

I've been meaning to ask the vet about this (and still will), but thought since I'm thinking of it now, that I'd post here and see if any of you wonderful folks out there have seen this behavior.

One of the mares (6 year old maiden) has been periodically rubbing her hind end raw. She has no discharge to indicate a yeast or other vaginal infection, and there's no smell. She's wormed regularly, and she's the only one of the eight rubbing. She started this last spring, and my initial thought was worms.

During the winter the horses are kept mainly in the upper lot and small front pasture. They scavenge after dropped grain under their feed buckets and on the ground/mud around the corn bin, so picking up worms wouldn't be unlikely. And it certainly seemed like worming her took care of the problem - but only briefly.

I finally put two and two together, and timing-wise, I'm pretty sure she's rubbing only when she's cycling.

She's simply determined to rub for about a 1 week period (long enough to scrape most of the hair off her butt on either side of her tail and make a nice raw marks), and then she stops.

Washing her hiney off with iodine soap or betadine solution, and then applying salve - Corona or Nitrofurazone - seems to help somewhat. (At least it minimizes the amount of chafing & hair loss.) She doesn't get cranky, has a good appetite, and in a little less than a week she's obviously not uncomfortable or itchy anymore.

I've seen mares colic (and I thought I have it bad when I get cramps!) when they start to come in season, and I've seen all sorts of degrees of "mare-ish" - but this is a new one on me. Anybody have any thoughts??