Willow wants to be friends with every one. She is very similar to Bliss in her ways. All Lady’s Foals have been the same, friendly and very easy to manage. To Lady’s annoyance, Willow seems to be spending more time with Bliss and Misty. Lady will suffer it for a while, when it has been to long, the with her ears back she walks towards Bliss and Misty to let them know. Of course it is not their fault, Willow just likes to be with the youngsters.
With Woody loosing her Foal, I was concerned that Willow would lack the company of another youngster to run about and generally interact with. She is doing that with Bliss and Misty. Willow seems to be having a great time racing around the field with them. You may have seen Willow rearing up and giving little bucks, when she is with the youngsters, this is to try to get them to run with her. I will need to get another Foal, for when Willow is weaned off of Lady, so that she has the company of another foal over the Winter.
Because of the weather forecast, when the Horses came in for their feed tonight we had intended to keep Lady, Willow and Woody in for the night. I had been watching Lady and the Foal on the camera. With Lady being so restless, even with the rain coming in, it would be better for them to be out in the field. When we went to get them out, Woody was laying down and had not eaten her feed. Normally if we get Lady out of her stable Woody will get up straight away, wanting to be out with Lady. Tonight she stayed laying down. On checking her half an hour later she was laying flat out. I was thinking that she may be getting a little better, as she has been eating well. As I have said before, her condition has to be taken day by day.
Going on from my Sons encounter with the Bull, that I told you about on Monday. A Lady I knew some years back, was very seriously injured by a Friesian Cow. She was a Farmers wife who milked their herd. She was a Lady in her late fifties, and had milked Cows all of her life, so she was very experienced. At milking times Cows get into a habit of going into the milking parlour on their own. On ringed fenced farms, you only need to open the gates. Most times the Cows are waiting and make their way to the parlour. There is a hierarchy in herd, some Cows get very annoyed if it is broken. On farms where is needed to go on the road, the Cows still know there way to the parlour, but you need to walk with them in case one decides to take an unwanted detour. It was on walking back with the Cows that the Lady got injured. She was following behind the herd, but needed to get in front of them. as she was passing them, one of the Cows turned towards the Lady, pushing her into a hedge and started to gore her. There was no one there to help her, but somehow she managed to get away, sustaining, broken ribs and head injuries. She was hospitalised, but did make a full recovery.