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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!
You can say that again ;~)
I've been pleasantly suprised with the one I've been keeping on Grace 24/7. It's got one big rip in the side of neck covering where she hung it on some barbed wire and then enlarged the resulting hole by hanging it on a eye-bolt in the barn trying to scratch herself, but the rest of it is in pretty good shape, although a bit grubby because she rolls in it. I think it might actually keep her cooler because it's light colored and she's nearly black.
Duct tape :~)
I've used the EquiSpot too and have found that it doesn't work very well on flies but it's hell on ticks. They'll just dry up and fall off. Permectrin II works as well though and it's a lot cheaper. It's an oil that you mix with water and spray on. Again, it doesn't work all that well on flies but it works really well on ticks. The Tri-Tec 14 spray by Farnnam is about the best spray for flies I've found. I spray Grace with it every other day or so on the parts that aren't covered by the fly sheet. I also spray it on the others when I'm trimming their feet and need them to be still. Otherwise they're constantly stomping and twitching at flies.
LOL! Yeah, that stuff'll fix most anything won't it? I've been meaning to sew it up but I just never seem to remember to bring a needle and thread to the barn.
In other news, I had to take Grace on a last minute run to the vet's yesterday afternoon because I think she was trying to colic. She would have probably been fine, but she just wasn’t acting right after she ate. She kept standing around with her neck stretched out and curling her upper lip, then she just laid down, right outside the barn gate, and stayed there for several minutes just grunting, then she started to roll and that’s when I decided she might be trying to colic. It was right at 5:15 and they close at 5:30, so I went ahead and took her, rather than risk her getting worse later in the night, especially since I wouldn’t normally see her until the next afternoon. She pooped a couple of times getting into the trailer, so she wasn’t stopped up, but I would still rather be safe than sorry.
They listened to her gut sounds and her heart rate and said her gut sounds were good but her heart rate was elevated, which is usually a sign of pain, but it can also just be stress, and she stresses about getting in the trailer, so who knows. They went ahead and gave her a shot of banamine and a gallon of mineral oil just as a precaution. Maybe I was being a Mother Hen, but I was just afraid that with it being so hot and the grass so dry and all the water troughs sitting out in the sun all day and getting hot that she wasn’t drinking enough water and had gotten an impaction colic. This afternoon I’m planning on moving the trough out by the fence down into the shade of the barn. That ought to help keep the temperature of the water down a good bit.
I stopped by the barn this morning on my way to work and she's fine, so I was glad.
I understand with Grace... I don't mess around with colic either. They just don't give you many clues and I'd rather be safe than sorry too.
RE the chemicals... I want it for flies, we don't have ticks, so phooey, I guess I'm stuck. I use the permectin concentrate too, before rides, around the house here we really only have the little house/face flies, no biters, so I get by OK if I spread the poop frequently and put fly masks on them. We found some of the biting deer flies up in the hills on our ride though! Every time we stopped for a break, not so much when we were moving.
Now that I think back on it, Grace might have been experiencing a mild case of choke, because it was right after she ate when she started the neck-stretching and lip-curling. She wasn't coughing though and she wasn't straining in her neck like I've seen some horses so when they choke. I read somewhere else, I think it may have been on the Cushings/IR group, that some horses react differently to choke than others. Some will almost pitch a fit and others will almost refuse to move at all. Her neck-stretching and laying down may have been that kind of reaction. We'll never know for sure I guess. I'm just going to watch her closely this afternoon when she eats. Not too long ago, I switched everybody over to plain oats from sweet feed, trying to reduce the sugar in their diets, so it may have had something to do with that. The oats may just be really dry. Nobody else had any problems with them though.
About the biting flies getting you when you were stopped but not when you were moving, they're kinda like that here. Here they will follow you some but they seem to mostly plaque the lead horse, so I try not to be in that position. The lead horse gets all the spiderwebs too. But you don't want to be the last horse either because that's the one that the yellowjackets will get when you stir up a nest of them. We don't really have to worry about them until late summer and early fall though. Then they get MEAN!
I do think Bay was getting them going down the trail more than the others were... he was stopping to rub his face a lot... often at the most uncomfortable times. Like going down hill! It's really unsettling to be going down a steep hill and have his head disappear between his knees!
Good to know about the yellowjackets! At least there's some benefit to being at the head of the group ;~D
RE choke, I'm not all that familiar with it, I've not had one do that since way way back... when my trainer used to feed grain after they'd eaten hay. She thought it would slow them down eating the grain, but as it turns out, they'd just get plugged up with a lot of roughage, and then still eat the grain too fast, I guess.
HaHa:') I'm going to Walmart later.
I spray the horse and then spray me with off. After a few minutes we are both sweating . Bugs stay away. I guess we stink:')
I use OFF out on the trail too. I spray us both before we leave out and always have a can in my saddle bags for reapplications or really diehard flies. It works well and it's relatively inexpensive when used just for that. You're right about the smell though. It's pretty nasty.
We have to watch Queen when we feed any sort of food that is all pellets cause she chokes on pellets. It is pretty scary. I was told horses cannot throw up. She was choking once and I thought she was going to fall over! How do you do a heimlich (sp) on a horse?
Harbor freight and walmart sell a key chain device by coleman that is supposed to work for keeping bugs off without chemicals.
HMM. Stand behind him, wrap your arms around him and make a two handed fist and do upward thrusts, above his belly button until he coughs it out? :')
HUh. I wonder if they work. There is a Harber Freight right as you get into Austin. It's right next to a 2nd time around store. We stop there sometimes. All kinds of toys:')
Want me to send you one?
Well, it's officially hot, even here. 96 degrees!
Homer pulled the weirdest stunt and set us both on edge, again. He disappeared again. We were both home. Couldn't figure out why or when he'd bolted. We were about to go drive and look, against my husband's better judgment, when we heard him, under the house, whining. He wouldn't come out. We thought he was stuck under there. Finally decided he wasn't and sprayed him with a hose till he came out the hole he'd gone in at. We thought he was gone again, and this behavior makes no sense.
Wow. That's odd. Do you think something spooked him? Maybe one of the horses when after him, or there's some large animal in the area that doesn't smell right? How strange!
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