The Not-So-Secret Diary of Diva the Shetland Pony - Dark nights

I’m not sure why I was surprised, but the clocks going back an hour really caught me out this year. I just wasn’t ready yet for my winter yard routine.

I work late two nights per week, and so when it gets dark before I finish work I tend to leave the horses in for the day. The other horses all come in earlier than mine and once it is dark, mine seem not to appreciate staying out.

I am very lucky that the yard has a horse walker as I put it to good use on the days the horses stay in. They are already used to going on it for a good length of time and on days I leave them in, I build it up so they get a good exercise. Diva, in particular, really loves going on the walker and gets really cross if I don’t open the door quick enough. There is a lunge ring in the centre of the walker, and if you check out the Equesure Facebook page there is a video of Diva trotting unprompted through the door to put herself on it.

One slightly difficult thing is that with Diva, Mabel and Julius all being very good doers I have to balance the amount of hay they can have between what they need and enough to keep them occupied through the day. I do tend to use haynets for Diva and Julius to slow them down a little, but Mabel isn’t a greedy horse with hay and so has hers on the floor.

I also start to feed some fibre beet to ensure they have moisture in their diets as they are missing out on the grass. I monitor Diva’s feed intake very carefully, as winter is the time I can work on her waistline so she comes out of the winter a little slimmer than she went in. This seems to be the opposite of me!