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Posted on 06/19/2006 8:46:45 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
This is a horse chat thread where we share ideas, ask for input from other horsemen, and talk about our riding and horse-keeping. We have a lot of different kinds of riders and horses, and a lot to share. In the previous threads we have had a great time talking through lessons, training, horse lamenesses, illnesses and pregnancies... and always sharing pictures and stories.
I always have a link to this thread on my profile page, so if you have something to say and can't find the thread in latest posts… look for it there and wake the thread up!
I also have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and MissTargets will now be pinging everyone most mornings. Let MissTargets and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list. As FreeRepublic is a political site, our politics and other issues will probably blend in…. There are many issues for horsemen that touch politics… land use, animal rights/abuse cases that make the news…. Legislation that might affect horse owners.
So... like the previous threads, this is intended as fun place to come and share stories, pictures, questions and chit-chat, unguided and unmoderated and that we come together here as friends. There are lots of ways of doing things and we all have our quirks, tricks and specialties that are neat to learn about.
Previous threads:
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - thread ONE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread TWO!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread THREE!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FOUR
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FIVE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SIX
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SEVEN
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread EIGHT
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread NINE
New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!
It sure is a lot of dead horses. I can't even imagine... and they went down so fast!
It's quite a blow for that stable... people will always wonder if there's something lurking there. Around here, there's a stable a lot of people avoid just because they had a bad epidemic of Strangles.
I wonder if they mismeasured or accidently double dosed with whatever that weevil pesticide was.
Sounds to me it's either from the treatment for weavils or maybe from storing in the silo, something started growing in there and contaminated the whole batch.
It's funny, at least to me, that they can't figure out the cause quicker if it was something in the feed.
Becky
Maybe it didn't get mixed in well, and there was a spot that was more concentrated...
Very hard to say. But I'd be very very surprised if it turns out that the feed was contaminated "before" it got to there place.
Becky
Initial tests show toxins in horses' stomachs
Brazos County stable owner Bradley Raphel said Wednesday that he had been following a standard practice when he treated a silo of horse feed with a chemical pesticide last weekend.
The 72-year-old said he did nothing different when applying the chemical tablets designed to kill weevils: He used the same treatment, in the same amount and applied it the same way as he had hundreds of times before, he said.
| MEMORIAL SERVICE PLANNED • A memorial service for the horses will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Carousel Acres Equestrian Center and Stable, where many of the horses have been buried. • Donations can be sent to Carousel Acres in care of the horse fund, 5200 Koppe Bridge Road, College Station, Texas, 77845. Money will go to medical bills for the surviving horses and replacement costs for all others. |
"Actually, it's not even supposed to get into their feed. All it is is a gas that extracts oxygen out of the silo and deprives weevils of air," Raphel said Wednesday. "How that has transferred into the feed, I don't know. Nobody seems to know the answer to that."
More than two dozen horses boarded at Raphel's facility - Carousel Acres Equestrian Center and Stable in southern Brazos County - mysteriously died earlier this week. One-by-one, 24 horses fell ill and died overnight Sunday. Another three died after being taken to Texas A&M University's Large Animal Clinic.
Eighteen more remained under close watch late Wednesday. Two were at the A&M Clinic where they were listed in good condition, said A&M College of Veterinary Medicine Dean H. Richard Adams.
Raphel said the other 16 still were at the stable and had been placed on a watch list because of possible liver damage from high nitrogen levels.
Veterinarians late Wednesday had yet to determine the cause of death for the animals, but they continued to point to the likelihood that the horses' feed was contaminated by an environmental toxin.
Adams said that necropsies had been done on each of the three horses that died at the A&M clinic. All three were found to have phosphine gas in their stomach cavity. The gas is a product of a fumigant that is released from a tablet used to treat the horses' feed, Adams said.
The fact that the gas was found in the stomach and not in the lungs suggests there was residue on the feed, the dean explained. But Adams said it remained unclear why there would be residue on the feed because a gas wouldn't normally stick to such a substance.
Veterinarians were awaiting additional test results, and Adams said it could take several more days before a definitive cause of death is established.
"I believe we're going to find out something else happened - what that is, I don't know," he said, discussing the possibility that moisture in the silo could have interacted with the gas and caused it to adhere to the feed.
Raphel said Wednesday that representatives from both A&M and Purina, which is the brand of feed that was given to the horses, had come to the stable to collect samples for testing. He and his wife Beverly Raphel - co-owners since 1998 - anxiously await the results, he said.
Meanwhile, veterinarians from A&M and the community remained at the stable, offering around-the-clock care for the 41 horses still boarded there, he said.
The horses' medical bills already total hundreds of thousands of dollars, Raphel said, and the price to replace the dead horses will be "astronomical." But despite worries about the staggering costs before them, Raphel said he and his wife remain grateful for the support shown by both A&M and the community.
The stable has had calls from across the country, and the Raphels have received a constant supply of donated meals, he said. Some have even called to donate horses, Beverly Raphel said earlier this week.
"We didn't know how many friends we had or how many horse lovers there were out there," Bradley Raphel said. "We're most appreciative. We certainly want everyone to know that."
• Holly Huffman's e-mail address is holly.huffman@theeagle.com.
Sad. I would think next to fire, something spreading thru your barn would be a stable owner's biggest fear.
It would be mine!
Yes, we'll go to OSU. I've had a horse to New Bolton and they did a wonderful job but OSU is about an hour closer. I have to admit I'd love the opportunity to visit Barbaro but don't think he's taking visitors anyway. Just read a newspaper article on his recovery during lunch and am just amazed by this horse's strong heart and will to survive.
I'm sorry to hear your horse didn't heal so well. From what I am hearing this surgery is very common and may actuallty be done without general anesthesia, which would be much easier for all involved.
Well, be sure to take the camera :~)
In the above, his head is to the left. Close up below.
Hey, if it worked, that's all that mattered! Actually though, I've seen this tactic used by Pat Parelli in some of his seminars. They turn all the horses loose in the arena and send them off to run to their hearts content, and of course they're happy to do it at first. But when a horse tries to stop at any place besides with his person, the other people in the arena make him keep going, kinda like mother mares do to other mare's foals. When the horse finally sees "his" person, the person will make eye contact and either walk or run backwards to try to draw the horse to them. If the horse comes, he gets to stop when he's standing by his person, but if he doesn't, he gets to keep running. It doesn't take them too many minutes to figure out that the easiest place to be is with their person. It's a pretty cool demonstration.
How strange! I can't really tell what part of the horse I'm looking at though. Was that picture taken from the side or from the top looking down on his back? Is the peeling under where the cantle would sit or is it under the flaps? Did you happen to wash his pad and maybe it didn't get all the detergent rinsed out of it or something and maybe it's a reaction to that?
Well, that's a given.
I remember y'all gave them a bath before you went, didja use shampoo? If ya did, maybe all the shampoo didn't get rinsed out. I'm grasping at straws here.
Sorry for the disorientation! It's from the top, looking at his spine, his head is off to the left and his right hip is at the top right. The curve you can see in the upset hair would be the back of the saddle/pad.
LOL! Well, he ain't exactly the boneyest horse there ever was so I didn't have any real good anatomical landmarks to go by if you know what I mean. I kinda figured that was his hip, but I didn't know where it was in relation to the rest of him. ;o)
It may be a combination of a friction/heat rub and a chemical irritation. If he had some shampoo or detergent or fly spray up under there, the rubbing may have irritated his skin just enough to kinda 'rub it in'. Just a guess.
Didn't use shampoo on him before the ride(s), just hosed him off. Did use fly spray, but I don't think we sprayed until after saddling.
I will say the dirt that stuck to them when they were 'sweated up' up there was gunky. clay-like, almost oily. And he didn't get hosed off well enough when we got back, so maybe that sweat and gunk dried him out?
It might be heat blistering from the ride too, he was good and sweaty, it's right under my big ole bumm, and it was a longer ride than we usually do. And I had a thing happen at the end of the ride where I had the cinch loose and the breast collar not quite tight enough, and the saddle moved way back when we did some trotting up some hills. I stopped after about ten minutes of that and moved it forward again. I should go set the saddle on him and see if this spot is under the 'right' spot or under the 'too far back' spot.
You can even see one of the wrinkles in the pad corresponds with the wrinkles on him.
Dang, looks really ouchy. He's not ouchy now, but he sure was right after the ride. Can't see that in the pics, of course, but the pad feels really crusty. And I thought I was the one that was obsessive about things being clean. I usually hose it out every third time out or so, but maybe I haven't been good enough about it. I don't think it's ever felt as crusty as it does now. Combination of more sweat and that gunk we got up there.
Maybe this burn/rub, rather than muscle soreness, explains his backsoreness we detected after the ride. I guess I'm relieved it's not a pressure sore (I don't think), that's harder to solve than a new pad, and maybe the hair won't come back in that tell-tale white. I've been wanting a new pad anyhow, this one was getting pretty flattened and was worn out.
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