Danni update

We've been looking for a good barn name for her and finally came to the conclusion that her name is the right choice but we changed the spelling to make it hers... Dani   :)  Yesterday we discovered the sweetness of Dani.  Had some company over and their little 4yr old girl, Sierra went into the pasture where Dani was... Sierra sat down with her and started picking her grass... Dani ever so softly would take those little tidbits of grass out of her little hands and munch them gone.  I wish I could display the 15 or so pics I took of these two in the pasture.  As her time with us grows, Dani is learning our habits as we are hers and we are finding out that this little mare loves companionship both human and horsewise.  She is now out on the grass from early in the morning till night time feeding and is developing a nice fill to her belly line.  Its easy to tell in the first picture what a beautiful mare she is despite her thin state now.  When it is time to come in at night to the barn, she is right at the gate knowing she is getting goodies... it didn't take her long to learn that one.  :)

Danni gets a friend

Today we introduced Alledina and Danni to each other.  Allie lives in the pasture beside Danni's paddock so when I noticed that Allie had begun hanging close to the fence line plus standing in her side of the stall beside Danni, we thought we would try and see what they would do.  It was a perfect match.  Both mares just put their heads down and started grazing side by side.  They were together all day today and by the end of the day, they were standing head to tail by the tree... Allie is 24 and is also a shy, non dominating mare so it was a good match.  Danni has also decided who her human is... my husband.  This morning after Don took off her blanket and giving her a brushing, Danni turned around to him and started nudging, then gently licking Don's hand.  Tonight, after we put her back into her paddock instead of diving into her goodies, she followed him to the gate, then put her head to him and nudged up against him... Don told me that she loves him...

Wednesday Jan. 12 = Danni is starting to show a little improvement.  She is now content in her space and loves to be turned out in the front pasture where she will graze content with her surroundings.  Her appetite is showing significant improvement in that she now finishes her supplements of 2 cups soaked beet pulp, 2 cups stablemix pellets, CA Trace minerals and small 2½ gallon bucket full of A&M and 2 large flakes of hay per feeding.  This morning was the first time she had actually eaten all the hay in her bin.  She loves her morning brushing before she is turned out to graze and shows me how appreciative she is of it by rolling in the grass the minute we let her loose...  but we can tell from the shine coming into her coat as well as the feel of it, that our efforts are worth it.

Danni 1/11

Today Danni nickered at me for the first time this morning and again this evening when we fed.  There is a sweeter look to her eye too.  She is starting to take notice more of her surroundings and realizing where her space is.  For the first time tonight she laid back her ears at Yancee our Appy gelding who looked over the fence into her paddock by her food bin.  Whereas yesterday and before she was still a little nervous about their proximity to her when she ate in the stall, she is now aware that her space is for her.  Am very glad to see that.   She still is not too fond of beet pulp but finished her whole bucket off today... Another first...  :)  Adding the A&M helped that way, she loves A&M.

Today we went for a short walk, or rather a play at walking... but by the end of a couple of times up and down our driveway she got the gist that she is to walk beside me at arms distance and not try to walk on top of me.  We also did a bit of grooming.  I discovered that she loves to be brushed and as I brushed her, her head dropped and eyes half closed, she was very much at peace.

Danny Rosezon

The new girls name is Danny Rosezon AHA # 424648  and I might keep her.  I really like her and her pedigree is "nice"...    I would like to breed her to Sureyn this year and see what they will produce, am thinking "nice"! ! !  She is 22, had one foal in 04 and its gorgeous.  The story on her is that her owner, Heather, gave her to this gal in Cold Springs NV... Heather paid for her transport, plus gave her to this gal.  Gal got the horse there and started stating on her arrival that said was she was too short, her nose was funny looking, her neck was not a good one and really, she should be used to breed ponies not purebred arabs... As the picture above shows, even in her thin state, she shows a nice hip, well set neck and beautiful head.  As for short... welllllll... Arabs were bred to be between 14hh to 15.2hh... I measured Danni at 14.3 so she isn't that short! ! !

It started snowing and the gal said she couldn't get the horses to drink the water... turns out, that they needed to break the ice but the gal figured that the horse would eventually figure it out.  The gal and her family members again called Heather to ask her what to do, saying they had no money and that Danni was laying down and started to colic.  At this time they also stated they did not want her since she was prone to colic... however, since she had never coliced with Heather or her other owner, this was a bit far fetched.  With Danni in a possible colic, the gal didn't have enough money to even buy her some banamine to help her out.  Heather again agreed to help pay for vet care but when she found out that the colic was caused by what the gal was feeding her and not breaking ice on her water, etc... she backed out of paying for a vet for a situation that was obviously brought on by the gals lack of care for Danni. 

Heather also talked to a neighbor who stated that Danni was laying down in the snow rolling and wouldn't get up, they weren't making sure she had water by breaking the ice, etc... She asked the neighbor to assess Danni to see what was needed and could be done... The neighbor went over there and found out that the so called hay they had bought was old oat hay, lots of mold, all water iced over and 7 horses on ½ acre, very inadequate fencing, etc  Heather had no trailer or means to haul..  expensive to haul from NV to San Diego... so she sent out and email via Facebook... I told her we would haul and could house the mare here for a while to fatten her up...  Heather bought her a months worth of alfalfa hay, a wormer and a bag of beet pulp.  We brought her to our ranch and took pictures, Heather was appalled at the mares condition and was very glad that she had retained papers on the mare... 


We put Danni in our back paddock, made sure she had lots of hay to eat along with her supplements of soaked beet pulp, some stablemix pellets, trace minerals and a good scoop of A&M.  


Danni is about a 2.5 on the scale, is showing prominent ribs and hip bones.  Her coat is dull and her eyes reflect a bit of a depression.  She is interested in her food but a slow eater and a little apprehensive about the new surroundings.  Her feet are long, and in definite need of a trim.