It is good that I felt obligated to my leaser and fetched Lady home for winter. She does need to put on 20-30 lbs. I was a bad horse-mom. I thought she would be on lush pasture so I only sent just a little grain to give her some joint supps in when she was caught to ride. Then it was out of sight out of mind and I didn't tell DL that Lady normally gets a lb of grain daily when she is on hay not grass when Mason was harassing her when they tried to have her share the huge pasture so they put her in a nice paddock. Plus I think that the ranch hay is more diet hay and all the regular horses there get 3-4 lbs of grain instead of the 1-2 lbs mine get since our hay is pretty rich for being grass hay.
I'm sure DL would have asked me or just fed more grain if she noticed Lady dropping weight but Lady is one of those horses that is very hard to judge their weight. She has a big belly, probably had a foal or two years ago and then years of eating hay has left permanent gut fill, plus she has kind of fat pocket or 'crest' on her neck -- but she always has backbone sticking up. One really has to feel her ribs and look and feel closely around her tail head and the hip bones etc to judge her body condition and I didn't tell DL any of that.
Lady still looks great at first glance, even to me when I picked her up. but she was standing with her body curved at home later and I noticed ribs so then I did the full check and she is not bad, but is thinner than I like, especially as winter approaches. Lady isn't minding getting a little extra grain and some 30% fat supplement for now. I'll have to show DL the places I check for weight loss or gain if we can coordinate and do camp again next summer.
* So today I'm feeling Lady's ribs going, hmmm I thought I felt more rib yesterday. She really really is very hard to judge her body condition. But can definitely stand to gain a few lbs and is enjoying extra groceries.
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