Lola's Feeding Plan and Her 'New House'

It was another good week for Lola...she had more visitors, she is at her full feeding rate of Equine Senior, and she has a 'new house'! We did have a couple bad marks this week though. First, we discovered that Lola has some bad manners that need to be taken care of ASAP and she has become a kicker. Get well notes can be sent to Danyn for taking one in the hip! My dad needs a congrats for dodging a hoof while cleaning out the stall. We are now beginning some ground work and teaching manners to Lola because that type of behavior will not be tolerated. Our other bad mark of the week was a small case of thrush. Thanks goes to Danyn for coming out to help me clean out the hoof and treat it. Lola's hoof is doing much better now after another 5 days of stall rest. (Source: 'Fast Facts' http://www.thehorse.com/pdf/factsheets/thrush/thrush.pdf)

Lola's Feeding Program
Currently, Lola is being fed 8 lbs of Equine Senior (4 lbs in the AM an 4 lbs in the PM) plus she is getting hay 3x/day. Equine Senior is a forage based feed that will can be used as a complete feed, which means hay doesn't have to be fed with it), or as part of a feeding program with hay. Because Lola was severally malnourished it was important to begin her feeding program very slowly and work on getting her gut moving again, with Equine Senior we can do this because of the quality sources of forage that is included in it. For example, under normal conditions a person can change a horse's diet over a period of 7 to 10 days; in Lola's case it took us 30 days to reach a full feeding rate! Obviously, the goal to feeding Lola is to not only provide the nutrients she needs such as protein, vitamins, and minerals but to also provide enough calories for weight gain. To add weight to a horse, or to anything for that matter, we need to feed enough calories to EXCEED maintenance. With Lola's feeding program we are doing just this...we are not only meeting her maintenance caloric needs but we are exceeding them. Eventually, we will wean Lola off the Equine Senior and switch her to Purina Strategy. Strategy will be a wonderful fit for her once she begins to add a little more weight. But we have to talk about that feeding program at a later date!! At the moment the good majority of the calories is being provided by forage (hay and in Equine Senior). This week we are going to start adding in Amplify, a 30% fat nugget, at 1/4 lb per day and slowly increase that amount until we get about 2 lb of Amplify per day. Amplify will provide another source of calories...FAT! To learn more about Amplify visit: http://horse.purinamills.com

Lola's New House
It was a busy day at the Kotz Hotel on Saturday, October 24...well at least so I've been told; I was actually out of town judging at the Block & Bridle LNA Show in Ames. The construction project has been in the works for a few weeks now. Dad and I knew that Lola has not been very happy in her stall, and a good indication of that fact was when she dumped about 8 gallons of water in her stall! Dad and I have been talking about how we needed to build a shelter in the dry lot for her so that way she could take cover when the wind picked up or the rain came down but she would still have the opportunity to head back out when the sun decides to peak out. Dad had throwen out a few differnt ideas for shelters that we could do and one evening when he was talking to a friend of ours, Kenny Bergfeld, the two of them discussed options. Kenny told my dad about the shelters he has built and that they were reasonable in price. Best part it that it could be on skids and be portable! Just what my Dad and I wanted! So Dad and Kenny talked and a date was set. On Saturday morning a big blue Dodge pulled into Lola's dry lot and it was full of materials and supplies to build a new shelter for Lola. Kenny Bergfeld stepped out of the Dodge like a modern day John Wayne, but instead of a six-shooter he was packing a nail gun. When Dad heard the Dodge pull in he stepped out of the house with the utility belt fastened and circular saw in hand, he peered out over the deck to the dry lot with a gaze like Clint Eastwood...The two men were ready to work! Luckily there would be two strong, intelligent woman (Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane type women!) to keep them inline and moving through out the day! These woman are known as Janell Kotz and Hannah Bergfeld. Ok maybe it really didn't happen that way but it sounded good right?

So, the construction crew consisted of four people: Dad, Kenny, Kenny's daughter Hannah, and my Mother....Mom was a very integral part of the day making numerous trips to Menards as she dealt with a very uninterested employee in her pursuit to find a 12-foot board, and she also made an extremely important run to Rhody's Food & Spirits to ensure the other team members were well fed with delicious, warm burgers. Plus you will also not notice my Mother in any of the pictures because she was always the one behind the camera....this seems to happen a lot....but we do appreciate her for all the great photos we have. The construction crew worked hard through out the day building the frame, setting it up, and putting the tin on. From what I've been told by my Mom our Clint Eastwood (Dad) and John Wayne (Kenny) were even having nail hitting contests to see how many swings it would take each one of them to get the nail in....At one point during the day Jane McCall stopped by to check on the construction! She was happy to see the construction taking place and that Lola would have a shelter out in the dry lot so she wouldn't have to be in the stall all the time. After many hours the project was finished and the final product looks amazing! The shelter is going to be perfect for the winter because it will allow Lola to stay out in the dry lot for the majority of the winter days! It should be noted though that we did have one minor accident though...Kenny had a minor run in with some boards and his cheek seems to have lost the battle...no guts no glory I guess!

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