summertime meal plan

Sometimes it’s hard for me to accept that my thoroughbred is actually a little fat LOL. She was so very very thin when I got her, ya know? 

It was kinda the same with Charlie too, especially bc I always had this perverse paranoia that bc of his enormous frame, it’d be a nightmare to put condition back on him if he ever seriously backslid. 

#hillsnacks

As it is, I’m about a decade into proper horse ownership now and am hopefully finally figuring out how to stay ahead of the seasonal nature of management and nutrition. Bc spring grass is one hell of a drug, guys, omg. 

the most spoiled + demanding princess lol

Especially given that Doozy didn’t really lose any condition over the winter this year, it seemed like a fairly safe bet this past spring that she miiiiiight be ripe for transforming into one of those jumbo squishy plush stuffies that are so popular with the kiddos these days lol.

anyway. snacks. Doozy switched to the Tribute Kalm ‘N EZ in early spring

I’m a huge fan of the Nutrena Pro Force Fuel that she’d been on (and that Charlie had also enjoyed for most of his life with me), and would 100% recommend it to anybody with a big or hard keeping thoroughbred. 

I’m also generally reluctant to tinker around with changing feeds a lot. Basically, if it ain’t broke, I’m not inclined to fix it, ya know?

it’s got pretty solid numbers for being low sugar / low NSC, suitable for moderate to hard keepers who may have sensitivities or metabolic conditions

Except the farm where Doozy lives has a pretty sophisticated feed room that’s stocked based on the manager’s consultations with an actual nutritionist, and all options are available as part of full board. So before the spring grass fully arrived, I asked the manager for recommendations.  

basic pellets, we still soak doozy’s feed but it’s probably not necessary

Based on her experiences, we decided to switch Doozy to the Tribute Kalm ‘N EZ pelleted feed, 4lbs. per day split over two meals. It has similar protein levels to the Nutrena, slightly less starch, a lot less fat, and about half as much sugar.

the only way “doozy” and “calm” “kalm” appear together

Obvi as a slightly change-averse individual, I reserved the right to revert back if it seemed like Doozy was losing condition or looking worse or whatever… But honestly I think she looks great! 

Things can change quickly if the grass stops growing — especially around here where that happens often in drought conditions — but there’s plenty of room to increase her volume on this stuff first before we’d need to consider switching back or making any other change.

and let’s not forget the snacks:
platinum performance; via calm; sucralfate (requires vet rx); electrolytes

Regardless, I’m glad we made the decision when we did bc it wasn’t very long after that when Doozy had her accident. Can you imagine what she’d look like on all that fresh grass plus zero work PLUS the normal high octane feed??? lol… 

purina enrich balancer (in the tupperware container far left); purina replenimash; triple crown stress free fortified forage

Especially considering my, um, ahem, *absolute inability* to resist indulging my demanding mare’s every snackish whim. Ahem. 

What can I say? I just like spoiling my animals lol… I’m a huge pushover and Doozy 100% has my number! So snacks are a major part of our daily routine.

guidance calls for 4-6lbs per day as a supplement, but i just use this little bucket

I’ve written about the Triple Crown Stress Free Fortified Forage before, and Doozy’s been enjoying it since early 2025 after I was all inspired by Carly. I especially like this stuff bc… at the end of the day, it’s just forage. Ymmv, but imo for the typical horse without any dietary sensitivities, there’s really no downside and no limit to this stuff. 

Doozy basically has free choice access to the forage at the trailer on show days, and I generally bring a bucketful to outings where she’ll be shipping for more than an hour at a time. It feels like a nice way to make sure her belly is full for travel, ya know?

a typical snack / lunch / third meal, clockwise from center top:
1/3lb ration balancer, small scoop electrolytes, scoop platinum performance, 1lb replenimash

The Purina Enrich ration balancer is also a holdover from Charlie. It’s not really nutritionally necessary for Doozy’s diet, but is a tasty and substantial additive. If I’m just preparing the forage and the balancer, I’ll do 1lb. Lately, tho, since we’ve added the Replenimash, I’ve cut back to about 1/3-1/4lb (or sometimes leave out entirely).

The Replenimash, also a Purina product, is … basically just an indulgence haha. And if you’re thinking to yourself, ‘Wow, it sure seems like she made up for the low sugar / low NSC feed with all these snacks…’ well. You ain’t exactly wrong LOL.

just mix and add water!

But. Eh. My thoroughbred, my rules! This stuff also contains a full serving of the Outlast gastric support product, as well as additional electrolytes etc. 

The final ingredient in Doozy’s Snack Package is a scoop of the Platinum Performance, which as far as I can tell is essentially fancy flax. It’s one of those really solid all-in-one wellness supplements that particularly supports a healthy coat and hoof. 

the forage is best for when she’s going back into her stall for a while, keeps her occupied

The frequency / volume / mixture of Doozy’s snacks varies from day to day. Obvi on days I don’t get out to the barn, she doesn’t get anything at all. 

Otherwise, honestly it’s kinda a vibes thing LOL. For example, I like giving the forage for times when Doozy is going back into her stall after we’re finished, or if she’s going to be getting on the trailer. She gets Sucralfate (via oral syringe) for gastric protection prior to trailer travel too.

regardless, doozy is a fantastic eater, cleans her plate every time!

The big wet sloppy mashes + electrolytes have seemed attractive lately with the oppressive heat dome conditions. I can also imagine the same for extreme winter conditions too. 

Otherwise, a quick scoop of the ration balancer can just be a nice little experience for Doozy, a nice reminder for her that “at least I have snacks!” Or a useful vehicle if I want to give her something like the Via Calm supplement (active ingredient: tryptophan), which doesn’t make much of a difference under saddle for us but helps take the edge off on days when the farrier is coming at exactly turn in / turn out, for example.

she’s a good drinker too, good girl <3

Obviously, tho, the main driver of Doozy’s regular nutrition is forage — plenty of hay (which is grown at the farm) in her stall, round bales in the winter, and grassy paddocks that are rotated carefully and conscientiously throughout the summer. 

The only time she’s ever really lost condition with me was two summers ago, when drought hit hard and early and the grass was dead and gone by August — well before round bales go out. So perhaps my snack regimen now is a bit of an overblown overreaction to guard against that, should it happen again LOL. 

Doozy ain’t complaining tho! But just to be on the safe side, we mayyyyy or may not have just had both her saddles reflocked to ensure a comfy fit at her peak plushness haha. 

the 'boring' stuff

Obviously having a great clinic ride with Doozy was the blockbuster news from this past weekend. But as promised -- there was a fair amount of nitty gritty 'boring' preparation that went into helping Doozy be prepared and successful for Sunday's lesson.

cold wet horses on a cold wet day -- see dooz hiding behind stella?

And obviously the urge to document is pretty strong around these parts (lol), so here's a rundown of what Doozy did on Friday and Saturday. 

Bc basically... I was honestly really really not confident that we'd be able to do the clinic. Like, it felt like a crapshoot right up to the moment we were literally at the gates waiting to go in. 

pretty excited to learn how to keep developing this fancy prance!

Doozy had three days off from Tuesday to Thursday bc I had to travel for work, and then was feeling a little cold + wet on Friday -- when the weather ended up being a bit more miserable than predicted and all the poor ponies were nekid in the nastiness :(

in the meantime, i like letting ground poles do the work for me!

At least this meant she was pretty willing to leave her pasture and come in to the warm dry barn! Which, I'm happy to say, is a skill she's normalizing even if it's still a work in progress. 

wheeeee canter poles!!

We were able to ride up to the indoor as a nice group of three horses, all of whom were happy to just do low key rides and be nice company for Doozy. Tho, the ride got off to kinda a bad start when for some reason all the horses spooked at a barrel jump set up by the door. 

and the other lead too!!

I don't know exactly what the issue was, but the light was kinda weird (overcast and rainy outside, with one LED light like directly over the barrels illuminating them strangely) and Doozy definitely felt a certain sort of way about it. I finally opted to just hop off and move them, at which point Doozy just like... realized they were just the same barrels as always, and ceased to care. 

operation 'traffic skool' = mission accomplished

And from there, the ride just went back to being the same exact type of ride we've been having: really pleasant trotting of figures and ground poles, including a new pattern of proper trot poles that Doozy figured out easily. We also cantered around a bit, including some nice efforts off both leads over single ground poles. 

fun little video of her schooling session

Also notable: Doozy was able to cope with trotting among multiple trotting horses, experienced having a 4th horse join us while we were mid-ride, and existed in the center of the ring while two horses cantered around her. 

learning to appreciate the pets <3

It's possible that I overthink the details (as was gently suggested by one of the juniors in our group haha), and it's possible that Doozy would have been just as successful in the lesson even if I were less intentional... But, eh, to me - the absence of any big issue is validation enough.

lol hard to tell but we're hand walking in the jump ring!! 

Anyway, being the overthinker that I am, I kinda tortured myself about taking advantage of our 3 quiet baby-sitters to get out to the jump ring. On one hand, it felt like a crucial step if we had any chance of doing the clinic... But otoh, Doozy's uncharacteristic spook at the barrels, plus the cold+wet+fussy+hadn't-been-ridden-in-3-days bit put me off slightly.

and then a nice little walk down the back paths to get home again

But luckily my friends won out, again telling me to maybe "under think" it, and so I dismounted and walked out with the group. There was a lesson underway with 5 or 6 horses who were trotting and cantering while we wandered around (with Doozy's nose firmly behind our pal Rosette's tail haha). And it was a bit much, but Doozy kept it together shockingly well.

the baby-sitters club <3

She had one little moment when we were heading in the direction of the gate where she wanted to jump around and flag her tail... But then was quickly redirected to sniffing through jump cups and poles and standards. She definitely seems to be a horse that appreciates physical landmarks vs vast openness! 

So I took it as a good sign that she could disengage from her gate feelings and interact with her surroundings. We left the ring quietly after about two laps (one in each direction), and made it home without incident. Yay!

don't worry, charlie got attention too!!!

The next day, Saturday, was super simple. My parents visited, and while Charlie came down to see them in the barn, we left Doozy out to visit on her turf. Walked out to the field to snuggle and stuff her with muffins, then left her there. She's never been hard to catch (actually usually walks up to me), but I still saw this as a nice little 'coin in the piggy bank' moment. 

he's obsessed with my mother

After my parents left, I went and grabbed Doozy for real. She came in decently well, but now with fewer leaves on the trees we can still hear Stella's hollering all the way up in the barn. So she was a bit agitated on the cross ties. But I just took my time anyway. Figuring, "this is kinda the test," ya know? Like, come in, be not-super-happy about it. But #cope.

doozy got hand delivered muffins and snuggles too!!

Then for the ride itself, we went out on our first solo adventure in a while. Just a tiny little loop around the farm -- mimicking what we'd done the day before. Up the driveway (where we encountered 3-4 lesson horses being led past us down another lane - something that, again, Doozy didn't love, but #coped anyway), toward the indoor, but then past it, down the lane toward the jump ring, but then turned left toward home instead of right toward the ring. 

pink star = Doozy's pasture; blue star = the barn; heart = indoor ring; yellow star = jump ring
orange lines = our little circuit, ridden counter clockwise

I admit to kinda wimping out on riding up to the jump ring. Mostly bc... I figured if we had a bolting episode, it'd just make it harder for us the next day in the clinic. It was enough that she'd seen the ring in hand on Friday, and then was able to ride (alone!) around the same paths to the ring on Saturday. I figured we'd be fine for Sunday, when we wouldn't be alone. And we were!

my sweet ponies <3

So ya know. Maybe it sounds boring to just do like an 8min circuit around the farm lanes and paths. But, eh, it was nice to do something sorta easy after the challenge of leaving her possessive pasture mates, and then be able to return her fairly promptly back to them feeling like she maybe accomplished something in the meantime. 

Or maybe I'm overthinking it LOL! So far, so good tho haha. 

quick hits: xc + a clip

It's been a bit quiet-ish since our 2021 season(ish) officially ended, but actually -- Charlie and I have kinda just been steadily humming right on along. 

charlie and the pony god of mischief. those ears, i die.

Just enough activity to keep it fun and fresh and interesting (for as long as the weather lasts), but not anything so big and important to feel like.... a thing worth sharing. 

tried to share my bday treat with charlie again this year (flashback to last year) but turns out, he's not a fan of rice krispie treats, sorry bro!

Especially bc.... let's be real, my documentation process revolves around media -- specifically photos and videos from our rides. Mostly bc media makes it easier to remember the moments and thread together a narrative -- vs trying to conjure up a list of bullets. 

pictured: mikey doing mikey things

Which is probably why I've had like 3 Molly lessons that need written about, bc omg we've been on a nearly weekly cadence! But, no media. So -- no write ups. Yet. One day, I promise (probably), I'll sit down and put proverbial pen to paper to hash them out. Just... Not today :) 

pictured: the kind of shot you get when the uninitiated try to snap action photos free hand

For now, here's a quick hit list of stuff we've been up to lately, other than those lessons. First up! Charlie and I jumped around some cross country jumps omg!! Like LOGS and STUFF! 

pro tip: even the, uh, pros often use burst mode for a reason, yo --- timing in action is hard!

My aunt was in town for Thanksgiving and wanted to see Charlie. In an effort to not bore her to actual tears trotting circles for 20min, I enlisted a teenage barn mate and her adorable pony god of mischief (Charlie's new neighbor and star of THIS unforgettable video!) to go play xc!

and thus, pictured screen-shotted: why screen grabs from video will almost always be better for the purposes of social media lol -- gotta snap that knees to nose! moment!!!

To be perfectly honest, it hardly even constituted a proper "schooling" session. It was kinda cold out, and while my aunt loves a good hike, I was dubious of her patience and west coast tolerance for the weather lol.

it's cool, tho, even the uninitiated (said with love <3) can capture some cute moments!

Plus my barn mate hadn't jumped in a while either, so eh, we figured we'd just bomb around a short loop thru the fields, put on a little show, and have a good ol' time. 

plus, obvi, what's not to love about this big ol' dad bod on the move?!

And Charlie, bless his good natured heart, was on fire lol. Well, ok, he was lazy and almost got us killed plodding around stumbling over clumps of grass in our warm up. But a quick smack 'n cluck woke him TF up, and he was All Systems GO, Ma'am, after that. 

there's definitelya joke in here about "the pics i take of other people vs the pics they take of me" .....

And it was exactly my favorite kind of ride. We got out there.... hit a couple logs, a couple N houses etc. Watched while my barn mate went off and jumped some stuff. Cruised through the water (at Full Charlie Throttle, natch). And finished over our favorite N log table (above). 

landing looks about on point tho -- lol run, charlie, RUN! 

And ya know. Aside from getting somewhat gleefully run TF away with by my darling racehorse, it was just good clean fun. Perfect! And my aunt loved watching too -- definitely felt seeing Charlie's actual power and speed in-person gave a whole new dimension to what she normally thinks of our videos. 

d'aww but those ears <3 

The ground is still really good out there too -- actually a bit drier than we'd normally expect this late in the year. Which means it might hold up for jumping a while longer still (fingers crossed!). So who knows, maybe there will be more repeats? 

changing gears -- slighly more miffed ears here, after katie pulled out the BIG clippers aw haha

Bc.... It's actually been pretty freakin mild out. I'd hoped to hold off on Charlie's second clip until it was well and truly blanketing weather, but.... Eh he's just been too warm in our schooling rides, and especially in our Molly lessons. 

it's for a worthy cause, tho, charlie!!

So I picked a warm day on the calendar for a bath, and Charlie got properly clipped. Unlike his first clip of the season, I'm expecting this one (done by a different person) to actually last us through to spring, hopefully. And omg I just LOVE how sporty and crisp he looks!!

don't believe his sad face, i *swear* he's relieved to not be sweating bullets constantly anymore 

Charlie sweats fairly heavily on his neck and shoulders, then just moderately under his saddle and girth, and across his flanks -- even in only mildly strenuous work. Honestly, I like that Charlie sweats so freely. But he gets to looking like a shaggy crusty mess really quickly in winter. Not to mention the discomfort of being damp in the cold, or having dried sweat matted into his coat. 

plus obvi the fresh clip makes him feel all big and important -- like he's gotta show off to all the other horses

So.... We just go right on ahead and take ALL that hair off. All the neck, all the shoulder, then just a gradual descent to his stifle from the wither. More or less. Bc guys.... This Irish clip pattern is legit pretty hard to fuck up, ya know? 

You can be as aggressive or conservative with the neck or shoulders as you want -- while still preserving plenty of hair for the inevitable wintry conditions we'll start seeing soon. 

ooh. and a baltimore city fox. the end. 

Hopefully not that soon, tho haha. We'll see I guess. For now, at least we're poised to enjoy the conditions while they last! 

merry almost christmas!

Well the holidays are officially upon us around these parts, and idk about you but I'm 100% looking forward to a little time off!

time off to include: riding in the day time!! 

And as you may or may not have noticed, we're already full blown into the holiday spirit haha. Bolstered in large part by Hillary from Equestrian at Hart's secret santa gift! I'm a little late in posting this, but we've been fully enjoying the gifts (esp those treats, Charlie is pretty sure they're made of pure crack cocaine LOL).

thank you Hillary for your lovely gift!

Thanks so much, and thank you Tracy from Printable Pony for hosting and coordinating every year!!

my parents bake charlie special horse muffins for every special occasion now <3 

Charlie's actually been getting a few gifts already this season, including some homemade muffins from my parents.

these muffins are beyond belief, so sweet and made with love!

Before his (second) retirement, my stepfather spent his (second) career as a muffin maker extraordinaire and is an extremely talented baker. These days he's been plying his craft by developing a horse-specific muffin recipe. And honestly it's pretty amazing haha <3

charlie obvi approves

I'm sure Charlie would be equally pleased with something a bit simpler, but damn he does love these things! Such a nice treat, right?

our ground is alternating between mucky wet or frozen solid.... but hey, daylight helps!

Anyway, tho, we're finally getting into winter proper too. Winter officially began this past Saturday, with the days starting to lengthen again. Talk about a double-edged sword, tho, haha.

I'm already so sick of all the nighttime riding, but we're only just now starting to brace for actual winter temperatures. Combined with fully frozen ground, le sigh.

it really is a pretty time of year to be out there tho

Up to this point, we've been able to ride basically wherever there's light, which includes both outdoor arenas. Now tho, the rings are starting to freeze, esp the jump ring that's just plain pale sand. At least the dressage ring has darker footing and as such stays a bit warmer longer.

if this is all we get for now, it's good enough !

Even that has been freezing a lot lately. Meanwhile, the indoor footing just got redone and is a bit too deep for my tastes at present, so we've been avoiding it completely other than the occasional walk-only ride.

Meaning, our nighttime rides have been pretty boring with no good place to do any real work. And early weekday morning lessons are on hiatus bc.... there's no ground to do anything with, sigh.

these migratory birds that pass through our farm are amazing

At least in the daytime we can hack out -- which obvi we've been doing a lot of lately! Even that is just walking too, for the most part, with the ground either too sloppy or too hard for anything more.

But it's still so much nicer than endless circles inside four walls haha.

lots and lots and LOTS of wanderings for now haha

I'm taking the week between Christmas and New Years off from work tho, AND the weather is actually looking pretty good!! So maybe we'll be able to ride outside in the daylight AND maybe at speeds faster than a walk haha. Fingers crossed ;)

merry christmas, inside and out!

Which is obviously really exciting haha. I don't have too many family events left for the season, either, and they're all local anyway. So most of that time off can be used for literally whatever I want, yessss!

For now tho, I'm just looking forward to tying up loose ends at work and then settling into a nice long staycation !! :D  Anybody else taking time off for the holidays? Do you have to travel or can you stay home and relax a bit? Hoping you all get to have a wonderful season with friends, family, and ponies <3