Digger, who came to live at Sky Ranch in November, 2015, is the perfect example of the importance of dental health. He was skin and bones when he arrived. His caretakers had been giving him hay, and the other horses in the pasture with him were doing fine with it. He wasn’t. When Dr. Troy Osborne, our vet, was called out to Digger’s former home, he was told the owner was planning to euthanize Digger because of his emaciated condition. The absentee owner, who had inherited Digger, didn’t want to pay the expense of having Digger’s teeth done. The vet told the caretakers he believed Digger had more good years ahead of him if he could get his teeth cared for. The caretakers were concerned and were grateful there would be a home for Digger at Sky Ranch. After Digger came to live here, Dr. Osborne worked on his teeth, which included pulling a couple of them. When his dental work was concluded, Digger was put on a diet of Senior Feed and soaked alfalfa cubes, and he quickly began to thrive.

Digger is in his 30’s, but we think he looks and moves like a much younger horse. He’s happy to be alive and well fed. Digger’s “trip to the dentist” really paid off.

Spring is here! Seems the rain is about over for this year, but we are so grateful for the inches we got over the winter. The grass is dwindling, but there is still enough to keep the horses’ heads down for part of the day. We’ve grown used to the green of winter but now await a golden California summer. All of the horses are doing well. They recently had their yearly shots, and the shoer was here for hoof trims. When it warms up a bit, each of the horses will get a bath and say good by to the excess itchy winter hair that confounds the grooming brush. Let’s hear it for summer!

Sheldon is getting as much of the “forbidden” grass as he can! He nibbles at the edges of arena where there are little tufts of grass. A little grass won’t hurt him, but he has a thyroid condition, and too much green grass can make him seriously ill; he could founder and get laminitis, a very painful condition. But Sheldon doesn’t seem to take this limitation on his life too hard. He lives life large. His gait is rounded and powerful and if anything spooks him, he’s off! All of our horses are seniors (Snitch, at 20, is the youngest), and age has put some limitations on the way they live their horse lives, whether it’s soaked alfalfa cubes instead of regular hay due to dental issues, or having to take anti-inflammatory medicine every day. But they seem to enjoy every meal, every turn-out, and then the return into the barn at 4 for dinner. I think for our horses, a life with limitations, can still be an enjoyable one.

Spring is here. Maybe some of you are still peeking out of snow drifts, but it’s on its way to you also. Take heart. Princess Anne (barn kitty extraordinaire), Archie (dear dog), Sheldon, Starlight, Digger, Snitch, Party Girl and all of us here at Sky Ranch send warm April greetings to all. The beautiful flowering bush is just to point out how beautiful the Central Coast is in spring! Spring reminds us there is hope and also to go play outside.

And yes, it was raining, it was pouring…seemed like non-stop. There are many trees down, and that’s always a little heartbreaking. Many had been weakened by our long years of drought and just couldn’t hold up to the winds and rain.  We had power outages, reminding us of how dependent we are on all of our conveniences, and we now have streams running where there had been no streams before!   And beautiful wild flowers are popping up all over the ranch. Sheldon doesn’t care much for the rain. He’d rather stay inside as it pours down. When he relaxes his lower lip like that, I always imagine he’s making an editorial comment or just wants to be adorable! We need the rain and supposedly have more coming. But today it is sunny and we are loving it!