Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Colic

For Father's Day all John got from me was a Papa Bear mug and a trip to the wilderness. He was happy. :) He doesn't drink coffee anymore, the weirdo, but he still likes his mug. Henry, my step-dad, went with us too. We had fun.

Scout looks like he's paying respect to the aspens:

We all appreciated the shade, even though it was early in the day.

Water was much appreciated as well. I love the ripples around Huckleberry.

John was being a dork, try to ruin my picture. I finally got Huckleberry to look at me! What a gorgeous meadow. We found the trail we were told went up the mountain there by following the faint four-wheeler tracks in the grass. The horses were back at the corrals resting.

I wish my camera picked up the yellow flowers better. They're so cheerful!

If you look closely you can see Henry behind John, hiking with his pack.

On our last ride on Sunday we saw a mama bear with two cubs! (Black bears, we don't have grizzly.) At first I wasn't sure if she was a burnt stump but then she stood up and looked at me, then ran off. One tiny cub followed, and the second was a little slow to figure out what was up. It ran the wrong way, climbed a little ways up a tree, then thought better of it and followed mama. 

I just stood where I was on Sawyer at the lead of our group, about 100 yards away, not crowding them, giving them room to decide what to do and where to go. Of course I was making a lot of noise hollering at Huckleberry to LEAVE IT! COME HERE! LEAVE IT! I was so afraid he was going to chase them but apparently he's not totally stupid. Sawyer stood like a rock.

Sawyer... He colicked again a week ago.  I had the vet out to tube him with lots of water and mineral oil. It took him almost 3 days to pass the mineral oil. He was dehydrated at the time of the colic but had super hydrated poop during those 3 days, just small quantities. If I didn't keep him moving his gut noises would slow or stop... I have been giving him salt and such, and he's drinking like a champ. I worry that he either has a partial blockage (the vet ran into something in his stomach with the stomach tube - maybe just dry feed) or his peristalsis isn't working like it should. 

I am over thinking his diet, of course. It might be time to stop feeding hay. Long fibers not well chewed won't help. But he does love his alfalfa. I'm going to try out some Chaffhaye, maybe. It's moist, fermented, chopped alfalfa. Can only get it in Spokane, of course... Also adding soaked chia and flax for mucilage and fiber, to help him poop maybe? He won't eat the senior feed if I soak it, so I'm going to get some sweet feed and see if I can moisten his food if I add that for flavor. Picky dude. Add some probiotics. Maybe Epsom salts for slight laxative effect and magnesium? Tastes bad though, and I'm not sure daily use is a good idea.

I think continuing to ride him is good for him. Movement obviously helps. Within reason, of course. I hike half of our rides if they're very long.

Any suggestions/thoughts?