I am the person with the lein on the horse, that horse came here last
August, a 22 year old mare, ematiated skeleton, hobbling along, but had the
slickest, shiniest coat I'd ever seen in my life. They said she was recovering
from an abscess in a front toe, but when the farrier checked her, she had
special shoes on, and he said she had foundered recently. I didn't link
the coat to the founder, but did find it odd that a horse that was so
malnourished was so shiny. The mare's feet are doing great now, took
special shoes off, and started light exercise. She has finally gained
enough weight to cover all bones. (it was hard to put weight on her feeding only
hay, but didn't want another founder.)
By the way, I live in Florida, central Florida, and all my pastures are
Argentine Bahia, it's a very low protein grass (between 4 and 7 %) vet said you
can even put ponies on it. Right now it has just started sprouting up, so
I'm still feeding hay.
