I LOVE MY HAIRY LEGS
No heavy duty stockings to keep them warm and dry , no need to stock up on shaver blades and no expensive creams to keep out fungal infection or to treat it , for those of you a bit confused at this point I am referring to my lovely Gypsy Vanner’s Fluffy Dusters that adorn their legs .
I have been asked by many folk what I do with the horses legs in the winter when they are standing in mud day on day , ” Do they get infections ?” they ask , my answer is simple !! ”Leave them alone. ”
This winter in the UK has been the most harsh since records began , straw was as is near on impossible to get hold of hence most of mine have been out all winter , this is the beauty of the breed , they thrive where my Arabians would have been shivering and dancing on the spot because their feet were cold , it is said that horses don’t feel the cold of snow in their feet but watching my Arabians do a good River Dance audition- I tend to differ .
Too many people fiddle with their horses feathers during winter conditions , they bring them in and wash the mud off with warm water and shampoo – thus striping any natural oil protection away, that is when the likes of mud fever strikes as it can get to the skin, then what do they do? Tthey start clipping bits of feather off to clean what is underneath – yet more skin exposure and more infection risk that spreads , they keep scrubbing and adding cream and so it goes on .
This is only my recommendation for feather but it has worked so far -
Gypsy Vanners out for the winter, if the legs are healthy before hand , leave them alone , if you do bring them into the stable for the night the mud will dry and fall off, ok you wont have white fluffy feather but that can wait until spring , there will be horses that rub feather during the winter as warm feathers can be host to lice and mites but your vet will advise you as to what you can spray on to eliminate these before they rub raw patches .
I now have several hairy mammoths in my fields , normally due to human nature and how we pamper our animals I would have taken them in at the first snow fall , but the next day the the snow had been replaced with a sheet of sheer ice that made it dangerous to lead them to the stables that are some distance from the field , but with a constant source of fibre in the way of hay they look grand , this again is the beauty of Gypsy Horses .
I have only had to stable one of our Vanners and he is my Stallion Made in England , we had an amazing Stallion paddock erected in the summer , but come winter the posts shrunk and the fence became loose, after several attempts to re erect the fence in frozen ground we gave up , please come back to see my next post -The Stabled Horse !!
Tags: Gypsy Horses, winter horse care