Wednesday 15 October 2008

Kittens

Wyndham Livery has kittens again – this is a fairly regular occurrence. This litter is a little unusual however. The kittens are exceptionally bold and friendly. Generally the kittens at Wyndham do not venture out of the barn until they are quite a bit bigger, but these five (yes there are 3 black and 2 ginger kittens in the picture) are explorers. They can be seen all over the yard and will climb up your leg for a bit of fuss if they get the chance. When returning to the yard after a hack, it is wise to have a good look at the track to check for kittens under your horse's hooves!

Sally always seems to find homes for the kittens because all the cats at Wyndham are so friendly. They keep the vermin away from the feed stores and entertain us as well.
I often find a cat curled up in the hay store when I go to fill Dee's haylage net. They also like to curl up on the piles of bedding.

Talking of bedding . . . I've decided to put Dee back on flax rather than the Woody Pet bedding. Woody Pet consists of pellets of highly compacted wood, and is great with regard to absorbency, but it does not look make a comfortable bed. It does not seem possible to get it to make a thick and soft bed. As the nights get colder, I would like to think that Dee has warm and comfortable bedding to snuggle into. We have already put Red back onto flax because his stable seemed to be especially messy with the Woody Pet, and is better with the flax. Woody Pet may be good summer bedding – we can decide on that next spring.

2 comments:

Victoria Cummings said...

What adorable kittens - I have an attraction for black cats - they seem to be more loving than any others. So, isn't it typical that we horse owners have strong opinions about things like Woody Pet? I can't stand that stuff - it turns into this glue-like mess in my stalls. I do really like other kinds of wood pellet bedding. My favorite is made by ABM, but I can't get it in New England, so I buy Borreal which is Canadian. Then, I add a top layer of US pine shavings. The pellets absorb and breakdown in a soft layer and the pine shavings are fluffy for lying down at night and keep away the flies. And I'm equally fussy about the quality of the shavings - which makes everyone at my feed store think I'm a bit nutty - but my horses know the difference! If they sleep well, so do I.

Anonymous said...

What is it about horse properties and kittens? I took a similar shot a couple of years back where a friend was working... if possible with even more black kittens :D

They are absolutely gorgeous.