Sascha's Heavy Horses and Horsemanship

08/06/2026

Somebody was almost late for dinner!

07/06/2026

Feather mites

Our lovely clydesdale mare, Lotty, had suspected feather mites at the start of the year.

Signs were:
✔️ Stomping at the ground
✔️ Rubbing and scratching her hind legs
✔️ Chewing her front legs
✔️ Open sores under her feather
✔️ Didn't want her legs handled

Mites can be common in draft horses. They live in the pasture and hide under the long feather on their legs.
This time we chose to try Maldison 50.
We are happy with the results.

How we treated her
🌟 Washed her legs in Head n Shoulders shampoo and conditioner
🌟 Clipped all her feather off
🌟 Rinsed her open sores with Bedatine solution
🌟 Applied zinc based cream to sores for 48 hours.
🌟 Once the sores had closed, we used a sponge and brush and soaked her legs in the Maldison 50

Lotty is now happily no longer itchy, her feather has grown back and the sores are all gone. We now just spray her legs with Maldison 50 in a pump bottle once a month. It seems to be helping with the biting midgees as well, so that's a bonus.

05/06/2026

Today was the absolute worst weather with cold, biting, gusty winds.
But training horses must go on.
This guy put some fantastic work in and took it all in his stride, even pulling the big log for the first time today.

03/06/2026

Working on a little project with our lovely stallion, Imperial Griffin.
Is it rough? Yes.
Are we having fun? Also yes.

01/06/2026

We have been supporting the Gatton Heavy Horse Show for many years as competitors and as entertainers and each time its been amazing to be able to perform there at Liberty with the mighty Monty

A huge thank you to Sascha's Heavy Horses and Horsemanship for your incredible demos with Monty - they were inspiring and entertaining for all of those who watched it!

30/05/2026

Our windy Saturday

29/05/2026

***Warning: medical pictures****

Melanomas

Monty was off to the vet this week to have a large, melanoma skin cancer removed from his sheath.
Melanomas are a common cancer found in grey horses (but any horse can get them). They are from the pigment producing cells called Melanocytes. Simply, when these cells run out of pigment (no more colour = turn hair white) they are prone to creating malignant cells instead, leading to a melanoma growing.

Usually, they are benign and don't bother the horses, so usually, I will leave them alone.
But our poor Monty had one that started to grow at an excellerated rate and was making him uncomfortable- so it had to go!

Thankyou to the team at UQ VETS at Gatton. To Dr Albert and Dr Ligia Lucia Pentzke for the surgery, to the nurses for the after care and the barnstaff for looking after him.
He is happy to be home and back to work in a week or so.

23/05/2026

Time for Rita to start her 'Adventures Era'. Today she accompanied Monty off to the farrier for some practise out in the real world.
Putting into practise lots of little lessons into one experience

✔️ catch and lead
✔️ float
✔️ Tie up
✔️ Eat from a haybag
✔️ Farrier - even standing next to Monty for his hot-shoeing and not being bothered by the smoke
✔️ travel at night

She handled it all like a pro

22/05/2026

My happy place is following tails