In Search Of Padded Girth

Na - you probably don't. The extreme temp changes this winter have about killed us and our ponies. To have it hit 86* one day in January and 3 day later have it down in the teens??? GAH!

And having weather like this confuses the plants and the HAY, too. My close by hay supplier will be out of hay before he has his first cut and now, they aren't sure that the frost we suddenly got after all the warmth didn't kill the first growth of coastal hay (it didn't kill it, but can make it go dormant again and really slows down the growth, making cutting time not guaranteed). I lost plants that should have been OK , but plan on purchasing replacements. Once established they should do ok next winter (Goji Berry & Butterfly bushes). The Honey Berry bushes seemed to make it fine up against the house (not planted yet) and I haven't checked the blackberries lately... Nothing else started or planted yet, and I'm very glad of that now.

I thought we'd gotten snow the 12th of March - and now not finding my pics at all... AH, found them - they aren't "done" yet. Sorry not doing them right now, going to bed, LOL! The last snow and freeze was in between the births of two of our foals (1 on the 1st & 1 on the 17th). And the temps are dropping fast towards freezing again tonight (tho not supposed to go that low!). Some ponies are shedding, others are just itching. Lice are out/about - treating most of the ponies this next week, I HATE lice. Seem to burrow into the pine trees or the sand here...

This is the 3rd year in a row - and a lot more ponies seem to be infested this time around - though it's funny - not all get them. I have not figured that out.

I had one mini that got lice every winter. He was a no spot appaloosa, read all white! Any horse with white legs seemed to get lice with their long winter hair. When we clipped and bathed in the spring we got rid of them, only to have them return the next winter.

Do you notice lice more on horses with white hair?

Seems to vary. So far the one who doesn't have the lice is the cremello mare - but she's not been around any trees at all - all winter. Most of our almost solid pintos have white legs and the one who we think brought lice home in 2011 (after going on a led excursion in a wooded area and along a river bed) had no white at all except for a very small head marking. One of the most heavily infested last year was a solid colored silver black mare that was almost overweight, not quite...

A lot of the info I've found on equine lice say it's only found on horses that are in poor health and poor weight, but I haven't found that to be true either, though if left untreated and a horse becomes heavily infested, they will start to do poorly and can then start losing weight.

Our vet told us there weren't specific lice that infest horses. Then I showed her the lice that showed up as soon as we clipped. I had the same experience with one horse bringing the lice into our herd, then others getting them. Maybe they just show up better on white horses. We seem to be able to get rid of most of them during the warm months when hair is short and horses get bathed often. Thanks for your insights!

OP... Do you mind if I hijack this thread for a second??? How do you measure to order a new girth? My girl got a bit pudgy this year and I can't do up her girth (well I CAN but it's TIGHT) and I was thinking about keeping an extra one on hand for situations like this. Would measuring the one I have buckle to buckle and adding a couple inches be correct?

That sounds like it would work just fine. You could also ask about putting an elastic insert in for pudgy days.