the Sage By Nature blog

To Charles Darwin, it was not necessarily survival of the fittest but survival of the adapters. Those who fit. As with many things in life, adaptation and flexibility are key. Thus, I went out and bought a new blanket for my horse Sage and put it on her today. And felt immediate relief.

I think that even Darwin might approve. Me, the proponent of horses going natural, buying a new blanket. I never said they didn’t require shelter, though, and unfortunately right now, this waterproof sheet (glorified-and-expensive-tarp) is currently my horse’s only shelter from the freezing rain, snow, and wind.

Sage has been steadily losing weight since she was put in with the geldings after her wooden shelter crashed (from the weight of unusually heavy December snow) – not that she didn’t need some weight loss, but now she has absolutely no extra fat on her, and it has been a very cold winter. The horses were eating local grass hay, and the geldings were dominant over her, so I am not sure if it was just the hay quality or the fact that she wasn’t getting enough to eat that led to the weight loss (or both combined). In any case, I started to worry, and worry more when one of the geldings colicked recently. When the snow melted, it exposed very sandy soil which they were being fed on, so potentially all three could get sand colic. Sage colicked when she was three years old, and it was a very difficult and painful several days for both of us, so I am rightly fearful of any recurrence.

So, I decided to take her away from her horse company and put her in her old pasture (which is right next to the geldings so she will still see and talk to them). There is one scraggly fir tree there that will be pitiful shelter – hence the blanket purchase today. I weighed everything and stressed over all the issues with this, and I finally came to the conclusion that her eating and nutrition was paramount. And my peace of mind was at stake as well because I felt the stress of all this worry.

Sage’s old pasture has had no one on it for over a month so it is not as muddy, and there is grass to graze on in between feedings – important things for a horse recovering from ulcers. I can also now feed her the premium hay I bought for her without worrying about it ending up as some other horse’s expensive manure.

So the lesson here is never say never and also be open to change when you need to be. Natural care of your horse, especially when boarding him or her on someone else’s property, takes flexibility and a willingness to adapt and fit yourself and horse to new situations as they arise. When I turned Sage loose with her new sage green blanket on (no kidding, it only came in sage green), it flapped in the breeze as she happily galloped off back towards her hay pile with the geldings looking on longingly. Whether they were longing for the gorgeous blonde or the pile of hay, one can only guess.

It may be another month or more before the shelter gets built, so now at least I can sleep peacefully in the knowledge that my horse is not soaking wet with wind blowing on her as she eats her fill of nutritious hay. And I will be dreaming of an early Spring.