Oh neat! Thank you!

Lmao

I’ll definitely get sunscreen on her nose. She will probably have to be warmed up to a fly mask over time before she’ll wear one for the duration of outside time. She’s really picky about things touching her face.

I am gonna get her a salt block and some electrolyte mineral stuff tomorrow when I pick up her weight supplement. My local TSC is the only place that carries her weight supplement reliably, so I have to ship there anyway lol

Omg thank you! That means so much! She’s definitely come a very long way!

No problem! The barn and pastures could definitely be better, but they’re good enough for the old girl’s needs. She’s actually not my horse, but her owner and ai have this deal going on where she pays board, and I make sure everything else is taken care of and do all the interacting with Sandy. Sandy’s owner hasn’t been out more than a few times in the past few years because of a lot of health and personal reasons. I started volunteering at the barn and then someone got me into contact with her when I expressed a desire to interact with Sandy. It’s been good for all parties involved. :)

There was a nice shady spot in the pasture that pic was taken in. I usually put her in that pasture if it’s open because it is the only one with shade. Her stall in the barn is also out of direct sunlight in the heat of the day. She wasn’t outside for more than 15 minutes while I was there today, however. We both got way too hot for it. We did her stretching and grooming in the barn by the big box fan that was set up lol.

Oh yes!

Me too! They’re by far my fave animal!

She is! She wasn’t always sweet, though. When I started working with her about a year ago, she had no idea how to be loved or interact with people appropriately. She had just been standing in her stall with minimal human contact. She was so nervous of people and other horses and objects she had forgotten existed, like brushes. Now she loves when strangers visit her stall and say hi, and she gets excited when I show her my grooming bag.

She can still be a total bitch at times, however. Her breed is known for their attitude and she certainly has it. She seems to save her attitude for just me, which I’m thankful for because I know how to handle her if she decides to be unruly lol.

She gets zoomies every so often. She’s really old, though. Most of the time when I put her in an outdoor pen, it’s to do her exercises before she can graze and she usually tries to get me to chase her around a little as a form of play. She usually doesn’t go any faster than a trot, though.

I gave her a bath a while back and she had crazy zoomies afterwards. She cantered around for a few minutes and had an absolutely great time lol.

I didn’t expect her to wanna play chase today because it was so hot and humid, but I think she could tell that I had something I wanted to do and decided to impede my task for her own amusement lol. She can be very mischievous.

Thank you!

Oh wow! That’s a crazy coincidence!

26, though idk when her birthday is exactly. I’m hoping to get her to 30.

Thank you. I’m hoping to get a few more years out of her. :)

I was hoping to be able to ride her, but she’s improving slower than anticipated, so I probably won’t get to ride her. But that’s okay. I’m happy as long as she’s happy.

As for her situation, it’s a lil weird and sad. Her owner doesn’t ever come to see her or anything. She just pays for the boarding fees and vet/farrier visits, and that’s it. Apparently she has a lot of personal issues that are preventing her from coming out. When I started volunteering at the stables last year, I was told that I could take Sandy out of her stall and brush her because nobody else does anything meaningful with her. There’s an old guy who lets her out to graze for a bit some days, but that’s not really enough interaction to make a horse happy. So I took it upon myself to treat her like the queen she is and make her old age great. She was close to feral when I started working with her. She had no idea how to be loved and had no manners. I was determined to change that and now she’s so happy and one of the better-behaved horses in the barn. I started her on a supplement for her weight and I schedule her farrier appointments and attend them. I can also attend any other appointments that she may need. I go out to see her at least 3x/week to at least say hi and give her a quick brushing. Her owner and I talk and she pays me back for everything I provide for Sandy. I’d offer to buy her, but the boarding fees are the only thing I can’t afford right now. If her owner ever can’t pay me back, that’s fine because the board is what I worry about. I have everything else covered if need be.

So I do exercises to keep her old muscles and joints moving. We do lunging (me making her walk and trot in a circle), I make her walk backwards, I make her stretch her neck in different ways towards treats, and if we have the space for it, I walk her over ground poles and weave through buckets. It isn’t super intense but it uses all the important muscles. She is very undermuscled and I’m trying to build a little back up on her. She’s also recovering being very underweight as well.

I try to exercise her at least once a week. She’s old enough and in poor enough shape, that if she were to get out of her routine, she’d end up deteriorating relatively quickly. Keeping her exercising will keep her healthy and she’ll live longer. She’ll never be super fit, but I’m trying to get her as good as she can be.

Thank you! My surgeon is really good, and I expect the surgery to go well. I am taking an entire month off of work to recover, so I’ll have more than enough time to heal

She has that effect on a lot of people once they see that she’s a good girl lol.

And thank you!

Thank you!