Posted on 08/07/2007 7:33:14 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, usually about our horses, sometimes about our dogs, gardens and other stuff we do. :~)
I have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and MissTargets will ping everyone most mornings. Let MissTargets and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list.
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.
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
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread TEN
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 11
New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!
Ok then, I didn’t know if lunging her at the trot would mess up her gait.
Becky
Well, I don’t really think it would since that’s what she does when she’s moving around the pasture at liberty. I don’t know what triggers her to move at a gait when under saddle, she just does it. I do know that shoeing can effect gait so I’d try to leave her kind of like she is as much as possible. She’s in an NB shoe on the front and a regular rim-type shoe on the back. She was wanting to be a little trotty in NB shoes all around so the trainer suggested that a longer toe/lower heel in the back and that seemed to take care of it.
Becky’s looking forward to being the talk of the town I think ;~)
I’m headed to a Senior Horse Care seminar tonight... Not sure what they’re going to cover, but it’s free :~D
Have fun! Let us know what they said!
Alabama is kind of a nice place :) might be worth a visit. Hope you had a good day even with the dentist and the housecleaning.
lol :-) It was a nice day, just really busy. I’m about ready for bed.
Have a good night, pleasant dreams :)
First, the Purina guy: The COB I've been feeding is probably the wrong thing, but with the added vitamin now, I'm more balanced than I was. Feeding as small a quantity as I do, it is really inconsequential.
Nevertheless, I'm going to switch back to a regular feed that is lower in NSC. I'm torn though, whether to switch to the Equine Senior® or the Mare & Maintenance® Supplement. I like to just have one feed bin for all three horses. Bay is the primary decision factor, Cyn can eat anything and she's easy, so is the pony, I just don't want to feed the pony too much. If I fed the Senior, if I'm feeding less than 3 lbs a day to the horses, they aren't getting a balanced amount of the vitamins/minerals. If I am feeding the high quality hay, like I do now, and I just need to feed a little grain, then the Mare and Maint. might be better, though it's very concentrated, I'd want to feed only about a cup of it at each feeding. I'm not sure which is best, really... they may get fat on that much senior.
Neither the Purina guy or the vet who was there thought sugar or diet had anything to do with the Bungus in Bay's feet. And... he said, it's not as high in molasses as I think, It's lower in NSC than Strategy and the other feeds, so that's not really an issue. It also has oil which adds to it's stickiness.
From the vet, what I learned... That joint supplements ~may~ be helpful, don't hurt anything certainly, but may be worthless. This is not really anything different than my vet has always said, though this vet put a finer point on it. He said not only has it never been proven that anything fed to the horse ever enters the joint, a blind test was done on all the major joint supplements and 11 out of the 20 supplements on the market did not have ANY Chondroitin or Glucosimine in them, and 7 out of the remaining nine had less than was indicated on the label. Only two even had the reported amounts on the label. And of course, they wouldn't tell us which those were. The Nutraceutical industry is completely unregulated, even if you get human grade supplements.
He said the only therapeutic joint therapy was injections right into the joint, or bute.
Bute alternatives also - not proven to do a dang thing. If you really want to help the horse, give Bute when the horse needs Bute. Skip MSM, Buteless, Devil's Claw, and all that.
I have to say I thought I was doing some good feeding Bay a joint supplement, he's never been a stiff arthritic horse, but I thought I was preventing problems by feeding an MSM/Chond/Gluc. supplement. I think I'm going to stop.
And I'm happy to not feel like I should try the other Buteless NSAIDs. I've never had trouble with Bute, and it's proven to work.
Other things I learned. Do fecal tests, either once or twice a year, and learn what the worm load is, May and October. If we've been at the same place, same pasture for a long time, have wormed regularly a long time, and aren't bringing new wormy horses onto the place, there may not be worms there, and we may not need to worm as often as we think... And older horses develop more immunity to worms so they don't need it more often as they age, they may need it less.
Same with vaccines. Do what you think is right, but older horses only rarely come down with many of the immunized diseases. He said the only disease he wouldn't risk not vaccinating even an older horse for is Tetanus. If a horse gets tetanus, they're going to die. Almost everything else, at least for this area, is either very rare or not often fatal. On the other hand, they are very low risk vaccines so it just depends what we want to risk over a few bucks. I won't probably skip vaccines, they just aren't a big deal for me, but I probably won't freak out if they go a little longer than a year. We can wait till the farm call makes sense, we don't need to have the vet out just for shots.
Anyway, that's grist for the mill! Two guy's opinions on some issues! What do you think?
Copied from HF:
From what you have said here, I guess I’d go back to the COB in very small amounts and add the M&M. I’d forget the ES.
Interesting about the supplements and worming.
Beings as the tetanus is something they don’t catch from other horses, but comes from injuries, and we just never know when that is going to happen, I’d sure not be remiss in getting them that shot...altho there is two types of tetanus shots, one that is just for short term when they do get an injury, and may not be current on the other...but the two times I’ve been late with shots is when one of mine has gotten injured then I’m scrambling to give both types of shots...it’s just easier and less worry if you stay current on that. It is one you can give yourself, and not have to call a vet.
Becky
Yeah.... I can agree on that with the Tetanus.
You should take a fecal in and see, on the worming. I’ve never felt real confident randomly rotating wormers around blindly... I think it’s good to know what they’ve got, and treat that.
That stuff is really potent... 30% protein. He said it’s too much if I’m feeding the blue green orchard grass, but would be good if I fed local hay. It’s expensive, but you don’t feed very much, so a bag goes a long way.
I did do some research years ago on wormers, and came up with a plan of action, that isn't really random or blind:). I rotate between 3 different types, that are right for the worms we would have for my area. When Dr. Antle was still alive he did do fecal checks everytime I took the horse in and and they were always in good shape.
Becky
Well, I’m currently feeding the mares a cup of a pelleted 32% protein supplement to them now in addition to their sweet feed twice a day. The young ones get half a cup. But the analysis on the bag of the stuff I’m using now is really kinda sketchy. I think it’s really just meant to boost the protein level and balance the diet if you’re feeding just oats and corn, which is what I want to get away from. So I’m sure that the Born to Win is probably more balanced for a mostly hay/pasture diet.
Oh and I did find out that there’s a Purina Nutrition seminar in my area later on this month. I went to the “Events and Promotions” link on the Purina site and found it, so I was really tickled about that. I’ve already called and registered. It’s at 6:30 on Nov. 27th. Hopefully I can get Kari to go with me.
I’ve been to several of those types of seminars, and I learn something more at each one...I’ll have to check when they are having one around here:)
Becky
http://forum.horse.com/tm.asp?m=501144&mpage=1&key=;
LOL:)
(BTW, how do you make a link with the title of the the thread rather then the address?)
The title of this thread is great:
thought it had been quiet today...WB We’re talkin’ ‘bout you!
Becky
I have a nifty add-on utility that makes the link for me, I just right click a page and say "Make Link" in either HTML, for here, or Forum Code, for the horse forum. But I don't know if there is such a code for Macs.
If you want to type it by hand, the code is this:
HTML, For FR:
<a href="http://forum.horse.com/tm.asp?m=501144&mpage=1&key=%F1%BA%B0%86">I thought it had been quiet today...WB We're talkin' 'bout you!</a>
So it's basically <a href="url">Text you want to display</a>
For the horse forum it's just square brackets instead of > ones.
[url=http://forum.horse.com/tm.asp?m=501144&mpage=1&key=%F1%BA%B0%86]I thought it had been quiet today...WB We're talkin' 'bout you![/url]
~holds face in hands~ ;~)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.