PE Content - Horsin' Around with Patti Roberts

Birth Announcement: New foal at Signature Farms in Murrieta

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:43:55 -0800

Last Wednesday night, probably just after I left the barn at 9:30 pm my beautiful purebred Arabina mare Muskova gave birth to a beautiful filly by the stallion Dubious Gold. The filly, named Sol Shine before she was born, is healthy even though she was born 3 weeks earlier then expected. Muskova was in a large paddock with another broodmare, Vision, and Nyls, a wonderful old gelding, when she gave the unexpected birth instead of the specially prepared foaling stall! All was well though as the other horses were very respectful of Mom and baby. Usually a group of kids will pitch tents and keep me company for several days as we take turns through the night waiting for the foal to be born. This was easy!

Baby was up, dry and nursing by the morning feeding and I didn't lose a moments sleep. Remembering a dear friends horrible experience with a foal falling into the water I asked Shari to change out the low lying water trough to a tall barrel. Between the few moments of asking and changing guess what happened! Of course, the foal fell into the water. Fortunately she scrambled out but she did scrape up her knees and got soaking wet.

As a three day old Solshine got out of the only tiny space left in the special foaling stall! I was lucky again, no harm done and we got her back in almost immediately. I suppose it would be easier if Mom didn't chew holes in the stall all the time!

Weather continues cold....more on blankets!

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:12:33 -0800

OK, so after stating that I was not going to blanket my horses this year I decided to clean and repair what blankets I do have. I was amazed at how many different styles have been accumulated over the years; open and closed fronts, blankets cut way back and ones that ride over the withers, different weights, linings and materials. Right now I am thumbing through tack catalogs trying to figure out what my various styles are called! I was thrilled at the low prices in one book, only to realize it was dated 2004):

I was wondering what your favorite winter blanket styles are for your kind of horse and why.

To blanket or not to blanket?

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:14:29 -0800

Hello fellow horse owners!

How are your horses doing with this crazy weather? It's hot then it's cold then it rains a little. My horses are growing and shedding winter coats on a weekly basis. So the big question is, should you blanket your horse or not? From what I understand horses have a huge tolerance for weather changes not really needing additional insulation until the temperature drops to 115 (burrrrr good thing we are in Southern California). Blanketing certainly makes grooming easier and keeps the coat short but I was told once you put that blanket on you have changed the horses inner "thermostat" and you need to maintain the blanketing process for the rest of the season even when it warms up a little. On, off, on, off, on, off.....what do you do? Mine get wooly in the winter months!