The weather forecast called for a single digit night. Woops. We awoke to negative 15.8 degrees F. Wow.
Last week I decided it was time to give The Baby Mustang her very own heated condo here in Siberia. Most folks who are interested in more holistic horse care are not supportive of having heated stalls and I tend to agree. The more natural of a setting we can offer our horses the better.
However, Snappie is in a different situation since her colic surgery so I had to change my strategy in order to make sure she can remain comfortable here in Siberia ;) Where the rest of the herd members each have a huge run attached to their cozy stalls, which allows them to move around and stay warm during cold periods, little Snappie is still on stall rest so she can't move around much to stay warm. We knew we had to change something after she had a tiny colic type session a few weeks ago (which we think was caused because she was cold and did not drink enough of her heated water). A blanket could help but she has an abdominal incision so we chose not to go that route at this point.
Now...I'm well aware at how horrified our little Snappie was at first: "Oh. My. Goodness! MOOOOOM! I'm a WIIIIIILD MUSTANG! I don't need a HEATER! How EMBARRASSING!" I'm sure she was afraid that all of the other mustangs wouldn't let her play in their mustang games :D But...as indignant as she seemed I know the truth thanks to my little Dragon Cam :) Here she is snuggled like a bug directly under her heater :) Before the heater she never slept in this spot...hehehe...she's a spoiled Baby Princess Dragon with her very own little heated condo :)
Another benefit of this new infrared heater is that when I close the Flowers in on really chilly nights, tucked into their stalls fluffed up with shavings, heated water buckets, and extra hay, the barn is a lot warmer because of all that body heat in combination with the new heater. Last night, for example, the interior of the barn was 25 degrees warmer than outside the barn! A cozy 10 degrees ABOVE zero rather than 15 below :) Definitely made me feel better knowing the girls were a little warmer than they would be otherwise.
In other fun Siberian News-there is a silly game I am starting to play at night whenever I close the girls into the barn. I close their exterior dutch stall doors one by one right after I've fed everyone in their stall feeders. Well, Chloe-who likes to remind me that she is a wiiiiiild mustang whenever she can- always hears me walking up to her stall along the gravel. She invariably acts all skittish and goofy and bolts out the door so that she won't be TRAPPED. Last night, as I stood behind the dutch doors, hiding so that she'd feel safe enough to walk back into her stall, and thinking that it was 11PM with minus 11 degree temps I couldn't help but wonder what series of events had led me to this point in my life. Playing Hide and Go Seek with a wiiiiiild mustang late at night in frigid temperatures :D Oh well...it made me laugh and I guess that's a good reward in and of itself :)
Other funny side effects of such cold weather is that our little fragile Bunny can't always tolerate the temperatures to make it all the way out to the yard to do his business. He does wear a 7th Generation diaper to help keep him and our house clean, but he's also gone back to his urban thug roots and leaves his mark on our deck: I call it GraPEEti :D
And here he is all cozy and snuggled and empty afterward :)
And a few pics of the rest of the crew :)
I guess I should stop procrastinating and get out there and fling frozen pony poo :) Have a cozy day everyone!
xoxo
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