We got past winter.  Yay!

So much of the country had a hard time shaking off this past winter, but everyone is now into summer.  But what happened to spring in a lot of these areas?  My friend in Michigan was still fighting to stay warm and now the heat index is over 100 degrees.  So I guess this becomes my yearly Public Service Announcement.

Horses in different parts of the country are feeling the effects of no spring too.  So what do we do?  Pay attention!

We need to make sure that they have plenty of fresh cool water available at all times.  With the rain and the heat in Florida our troughs do not stay clean.  If your trough is dirty, clean it.  You may think, I just cleaned it three days ago, but monitor it closely, it can turn green and funky real quick.  Everyone enjoys a glass of cool water.  If you look in your trough and you wouldn’t drink out of it neither will your horses.  They will drink enough to stay alive, but not hydrate the way they should.

Make sure they sweat.  A non-sweater is a very dangerous thing.  Horses, like people, sweat to cool their bodies.  As the air passes over the water on them it cools them down.  If all the other horses are sweating, and yours isn’t, do something to correct the problem.

If you ride them and they are over heated, which is another major problem, hose them down until their body temperature drops.  Don’t just rinse them and throw them out.  Hose them until you can feel the difference.  Don’t forget to scrape the excess water off of them.  You may think you are doing them a favor by leaving it on, but with their body heat, it just becomes hot water on their already hot bodies.

If you are planning a ride, hose them before you tack up.  It gives them a head start on sweating and the cooling effects.

Remember the Heat Index.  When the humidity number is higher than the temperature, they can’t cool themselves.  Be mindful.

If they’ve been sweating during the day, hose them off in the evening.  The salt on the hair and skin will irritate them, and what I’m finding is, it will help make their coats bleach, and dry out.

Watch those horses with pink skin, especially on their nose.  Sunburn hurts, I’m sure you’ve all experienced it yourselves.  I had a new horse come in two weeks ago and I noticed a small patch on his nose was getting burned.  I didn’t have a long fly mask to put on him so out comes the zinc oxide (found in Desitin baby butt cream) and I put it on his nose.  I told him he looked like all those buff life guards at the beach.  He didn’t mind it at all.  We used to use it to keep flies away from the horses eyes.  We would paint a circle around the eyes (but don’t put it so close that you get it in the eye) and our horses would look like Indian ponies.

Keep an eye on their feet.  To much heat and dry ground will suck the life out of those hooves and too much wet will soften and cause them fungus or just plain hoof rot.  Watch for white line disease.  Know exactly which product will dry, which one will moisturize, which one will heal, and stay on top of that.

Fly Sprays.  There are so many different ones on the market these days, and there are so many different bugs attacking our horses.  Know which one works for you.  Some say they will work for days.  I’ve never found one that does.  I also alternate between two different ones, a water based natural one and an oil based spray.  If I’m going out trail riding, or the bugs are really bad, and my horse is going to sweat while working, I reach for the oil based.  If the bugs are light and the horses are just hanging in the pasture I go for the water based.  Remember, don’t over use and don’t be stingy.  Watch for any signs that your horse is allergic or gets a skin irritation from the spray.

Fans in the barn – make sure the wiring is safe and the rodents haven gotten to them.  Clean the dust and dirt out of them before using them.  Fires happen and kill horses.  With all the flammable contents in our barn we must be extremely careful.  Get those cob webs down, they burn and help fires to spread.  Our bedding, and our hay makes it an inferno.  Fire extinguishers should be placed by each door, so you can grab them as you walk in.  Halters with lead lines should be accessible.

Okay, now that I’ve totally unnerved you – have a great summer, and don’t forget to stay hydrated along with your horses.

My girlfriend, from my teenage years, called this afternoon.  She needed to sound off about a person we have known for 40 years.  This woman has always been a “loose horse.”  She had many wonderful horses over the years, but they have all crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  She is horseless and not happy about it.  I know this woman well, and you just can’t please her or reason with her.

Now we are all getting longer in the tooth, but this woman is 79.  Would never pass a vet soundness check.  But she wants a 10 yr old horse.  Doesn’t want a Chestnut, I don’t know why, she’s had them for years, and is more particular that ever.  My girlfriend found her several nice, sound, horses, but one is 14 and one is 18.  No!!! she won’t go look at them.

Now I just had a boarders horse that came in and he just turned 6.  He’s retired due to injury.  It really stinks when reality sets in.  I sat here and thought –  if he lives 30 more years, like so many of them have when they come here, he’s going to out live me.  Nothing is cast in stone that I would not leave this world tomorrow, but what a sobering thought.  I’m taking in a horse, guaranteeing this woman that I will care for her horse, and I can’t add – for the rest of his life.  She will have to rehome him again down the road.

I know I stopped breaking babies for myself awhile back because they would out live me.  We didn’t pay for a 25 year roof when we had the new roof put on the house.  First of all roofs don’t last 25 years in the Florida sun so why pay for that, but I really won’t care about the roof in 25 years.  I just bought a new truck.  My Road Side Assistance is good for 5 years or 100,000 miles.  Well I stand a good chance of making the 5 years, but the truck I traded in was 7 years old and only had 43,000 miles on it.  Don’t think I’ll make 100,000 miles.

This woman needs to take a good look at herself and her life.  It’s time to deal with reality.  Nobody wants to look old, act old, or admit old, but it happens to all of us.

I told my dear old friend to just not get involved.  You are not going to win.  This woman is a little short of a six pack and you are not going to find any horse to please her.  Sometimes you just have to listen, smile, and nod, as my vet always says.  Reading this woman the riot act is just upsetting my friend and not even registering with this woman.  Like I always say – It’s like teaching pigs to sing, it just wastes your time and annoys the pigs.

We all want to help people out.  The people who are buying, the people who are selling, and especially the horse.  But sometimes it’s just best to “Step Back and Bow Out.”  No hurt feelings, no craziness, and no waste of time.  You’re not going to win anyway.

By the way, reality stinks.

Just ran into this a few weeks ago with another horse, and now I have some one looking at the trees and not the forest again.

My neighbor, who leases one of my pastures for her two brood mares, called and told me the water wasn’t working.  Now I love this neighbor.  She’s a knowledgeable horse woman, and just a nice person on top of it.  Whenever we get together we can spend hours talking horsey stuff.  So as usual, we stood over the watering trough and just hashed out stuff that’s happened in the last month.  Some people meet for lunch, at bars, we meet at the trough, in the pasture, at sunset.

So we’re talking and she mentions that her daughter started barrel racing this particular mare again.  Legged her up, took her to a show, and she ran the best set of barrels ever.  However, the mare has been off since.  She’ll go fine and then not.  They had her hocks injected, no difference, had x-rays done, didn’t find anything.  So I asked if she had checked her back?  No, did I think that could be a problem?  Could definitely be an issue if something is out.  Then she mentioned this mare is a total witch, and has horrible heat cycles.  “Light bulb” moment.  I have gone through the same thing with Zoey every summer for the past four years.  Her ovaries!

I explained that Zoey will walk fine, trot slightly off, but when it comes to the canter, she will either not pick up the lead or hop on three legs.  This woman’s mare is doing the same thing.  She said the thought had crossed her mind about her heat cycle (which seems to be constant), but figured it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with lameness.  Oh yes it can!

I left her with a feeling of this could possibly be the problem.  There was hope.  I explained that first I would have her back checked by a neighbor of ours that is my horse chiropractor.  She would be able to tell her if it’s her back or ovaries.  Then it’s off to acupuncture and Chinese herbs.  It’s always worked for Zoey.  She was going to make two phone calls today and get right on it.  It’s like night and day.  One day I have a dead lame horse and a week after treatment, I have a horse that never had a problem in her life.  Go figure.

Now this may not be this mares problem, but all the signs say that there is a good possibility that it is.

We have to share our knowledge and experiences.  It may help someone else or it may not, but it certainly is worth a try.

It’s an old saying, but sometimes it’s true.  You’re sitting right on top of the problem, but with all the stuff around it, you don’t see the obvious.

This horse came in several weeks ago for a lay-up.  The woman has had him for three years, and for three years she’s been trying to find out what is wrong with him.  He doesn’t want to pick up his left lead.  No big deal, a lot of horses are right or left-sided just like people who are right or left-handed.  He gets sore behind the withers.  Okay so she had a custom saddle made for him.  When he runs in the pasture he has the leg motion of a Freason.  He is a Thoroughbred, but when he is ridden he travels with his nose to the ground like a Western Pleasure Horse (which is not normal, so don’t get me started).  Now a horse with a sore back usually will put his head up and hollow his back, not raise it.  Humm…..  But the worse problem is that he falls at a canter.  Yup does a nose dive and plows the ground with his nose.  He’s 17 hands and tries hard not to fall on his rider.

She’s had him to numerous vets.  Had three different chiropractors treat him.  Many x-rays.  Everyone is treating what they see but not finding the cause.  They have treated him for EPM and other things, but nothing has changed.  She felt if she gave him some time off he would straighten himself out.

I told her if she brought him here we would find out what was wrong with him, but I didn’t guarantee that he could be fixed.  Since no one has been able to fix him, we both agreed that we thought it might be nerve damage.  She’s put way too much money into this horse, that is now dangerous, and no better than when she started.

After a week here, he was no longer back sore, and he was comfortable with me, so I put my hands on him and had a good close look.  Kind of a long pencil neck, and a scapula that was way too high on the left.  He was a little under weight, his ribs were showing, there was a lump but not anywhere that would be in the way, I didn’t give it much thought, I could get the weight on him.  He was only six.

Just a complex of red flags, but nothing added up.  So whenever I’ve had a training problem or a health issue in the past that the vets can’t put their finger on I call my friend Myra who is an Animal Communicator and an Equine Medical Intuitive.  Learned this years ago when Bobs horse was having issues and three vets, twenty-one x-rays, acupuncture, and a chiropractors couldn’t figure it out.  I told the vet at the last clinic I went to that I was ready for Physic Friends Network and he gave me a number of a ninety year old man in California to call.  The vet said call me and let me know what he says.  Seriously!!!???  But I did and that’s when I believed.  He told us stuff that he couldn’t have possibly known.  So if you find a person who is legitimate, they can be a big help.

It turns out that this horse was in a bad wreck, but this we assumed.  So the pain behind the withers is being caused by a broken rib that did not heal right.  If you follow that lump up to his spine, that’s exactly where the pain is when he is ridden.  Instead of dropping away from the pain he is pushing the saddle and rider up away from the pain. The pencil neck is caused by extensive damage to his vertebrates.  There is no muscle above or below them.  The vertebrates are larger than normal with arthritis and putting pressure on the nerves that lead to that shoulder.  He goes to move that left leg forward and it just doesn’t go past a certain point, because the nerves do not tell it to.  He picks his legs and knees higher so he doesn’t fall, since he can’t move that shoulder forward.  The scapula is where it is because the tendons, ligaments, and muscles are not working or holding it where it belongs.

It’s been four years since the wreck so the chances of him getting those nerves to work are not good.  But we are doing therapy with him with special supplements to encourage the nerves to regenerate, but the best we can hope for is a trail horse.  Right now he is dangerous to ride and he knows it.  When walking him down hill he is very slow and careful.  It’s such a shame because he is beautiful with a sweet personality.

So we had a situation, just like people are with doctors these days, the doctors treat the symptoms, but do not always find the cause.

So sad, but at least we know what the problem is and what the prognosis is.  I promised her that I would get to the bottom of this and I did, even though it’s not what I wanted to hear.

Don’t let those trees get in the way of seeing the forest, and don’t settle for not knowing.  If this horse had been treated after his wreck he would have been a beautiful TB show horse.  But because OTTB horses have just become throw away or recyclable, you don’t treat them, you just dispose of them and breed again.

Don’t get me started.

Remember that cereal commercial where the kids are trying a new cereal and they were afraid so they said “give it to Mikey, he’ll eat it”, or something like that?  For years we walked around saying “give it to Mikey.”  Now cereal is mostly sugar and even chocolate.  When I was a kid it was just good for you.  It didn’t matter how it tasted, it was good for you.

It’s pretty much the same with horse feeds.  When I was a kid (yes I was a baby goat), the horses at our barn got oats, just oats.  It was blown into a big storage bin in the loft, came down a shoot into a machine that crunched it.  I’m not sure now if it crimped it, cracked it, rolled it, steamed it, but it did something to it to make it easier for the horses to chew and digest.  The horses at that barn were fat and in great condition.  They worked six days a week, sometimes a good six hours for the day.  Some barns fed whole corn.  It was whole grain, no additives.  You could tell what it was by just looking at it.  Now it’s pellets and for all we know it could be ground up cardboard.  Horses back then worked for their keep.  They did their days work and the fun days were when they went to horse shows which was just a couple of times a year.  Pretty much all of them lived well into their thirties.

They weren’t pets, companions, show horses, or lawn ornaments.  They worked like the rest of us.

So many things have changed in the last 50 years, and I’m sorry to say, not for the better.  Yes we have a better understanding of nutrition, health care and medical attention, but horses are not necessarily living healthier, longer, useful lives.

Most of the horses lived in straight stalls back then.  Big enough to lay down, but not good for turning around and watching the world go by.  They weren’t pure bred anything, they were “grade” horses.  Strong and healthy horses.  Only remember one horse out of hundreds, that passed through the barn, with Navicular.  Never heard of EPM.  None had ever needed shots in their joints.  None of them had ulcers.

What have we done to our horses?  We’ve bred them to have small feet and by three years old they can’t carry their own weight.  Okay I’m off headed to my soap box.  Back to my point.

Now what was my point?  Oh yes, I remember.  The older horse and his nutritional needs.

For fifty years I have been dealing with older horses.  And in the last thirty there have been feeds specially formulated for their needs.  There is only one problem.  In the last thirty years the older horses didn’t find them palatable.  They made then extruded so they would be easier to chew when the teeth were gone or gum level.  They put everything in those feeds to keep the Senior horse healthy, with a balanced diet.  Again I say there is only one problem, they don’t eat it.

I’ve had two horses come in here in the last week.  Both a little on the thin side.  One was 27 and one 6.  The older one, I was told, was not a good hay eater, picked at his grain, and didn’t graze much.  The younger one was just under weight and was put on Senior and another designer feed to put the weight back on.  They both got Beet Pulp also.  They had both come from different barns in the last couple of months to the barn that was sending them to me.  They had put on some weight but still needed more.

Now when my mare was thirty-two she had dropped weight and muscle.  I am now experiencing the same muscle loss, but the weight is coming and not going.  Age does strange things to the body.  Anyway, I tried pumping food into her.  Her teeth were gum level and things were hard to chew.  I bought several different grains and supplements.  I put each grain in a separate bucket on the lawn and let her choose which one she preferred to eat.  She was more or less healthy and happy, but just plain old.  About twenty years later they came out with a Senior Feed.  Since I’ve always had old horses, I tried it.  They didn’t care for it.  They’d pick at it and walk away.

What is the point of giving them what is good for them and watching them walk away from it.  It does them no good if it sits in their buckets and you have to throw it out.  So then and there I learned that whatever you can get an old horse to eat, is what is good for them.  Scientifically not, but getting something into their bellies is not a bad idea.

This theory has held up for the past fifty years.

So here I get this older horse, who is not a good eater.  I had a bag of a Senior feed that came in with the younger horse.  I had examined the feed and it looked like it was coated with a lot of molasses.  Should be palatable and good for them, but when I put it to the test it didn’t hold up.  So I started with small amounts of my Sweet Feed added to the Senior and Beet Pulp.  All of a sudden this horse, which was not a good eater, in two days started cleaning his bucket and looking for more.  Over the past week I have been steadily increasing the sweet feed and decreasing the Senior and now I have a horse that is waiting by the gate for his meals, and eating it in one shot.  He’s still not big on hay but we have enough pasture that he grazes and naps throughout the day.  The Beet Pulp will cover the fiber and help put weight on him.

My point is that “Mikey” won’t always eat it.  It doesn’t matter how good something is for a horse, Or a person, if they won’t eat it, it won’t do them any good.  Over the years I have found this to be true every time.  No matter how good and healthy Senior Feed is, they just don’t like it.  I don’t care what brand it is, they just don’t like it.

If I’m on my last leg I want to be able to eat the foods I really enjoy.  Not because they are good for me and will keep me alive, but because it gives me great pleasure to eat them.  So as much as I’m not supposed to eat shell-fish (cholesterol), I will cheat once a week or so and have just a little.  And at the end bring on the Clams, Shrimp, Oysters Rockefeller, Muscles and especially the Lobsters.  I’m going out in style.

We really do not know what goes on in a horses mind.  We have to take the expressions and body language and assume.  I don’t like to assume anything, but we just put the pieces of the puzzle together and go from there.

A woman called me two weeks ago and said that her instructor and vet recommended that she retire her horse.  He’s a 27-year-old Thoroughbred with injury and old age issues.  He’d never pass a soundness test, but he’s what I would consider “serviceably sound.”  Things just don’t work like they used to, but he could go on a trail ride.   He protects what aches.  He’s like many of us.  We don’t walk like runway models any more, and we don’t walk with an even gate, but we get along just fine with a little hitch to our giddy-up.  So we discussed her bringing him up here for retirement.  She told me she’d like to bring him in on the following Sunday and would call me at the end of the week to confirm it.  She wanted to take him on one more trail ride with her barn friends before closing the book on him.

Well Friday came and went.  Sunday came and went.  No call, no horse.  This happens often.  People think they are ready to retire and let go of their best friend, but when it come time to do it, they just can’t.  So I don’t give it any thought and just go on with my life.

Tuesday comes and I’m working in the garden and I get a call.  Could you please unlock the gate?  I realize it was the same stableman who brought the other Thoroughbred two weeks ago.  So I asked “are you bringing someone or picking up someone?”  I’m bringing Sky.  Well my reply was one of confused shock.  I told him that I had spoken with the owner but never heard back from her and wasn’t aware that the horse was coming.  Of course his reply was that he thought all the arrangements had been made.  So we brought him in and turned him out.  We had a nice conversation about his health, feeding, and any odd behaviors.  I like this guy.  The horse came with nothing but a halter, lead, Coggins, and shot record.  All the gentleman was told was to load up Sky and bring him to Dade City.  He asked “where Lou is?”  Yes.

When he was settled I went in and called the owner.  I told her I had a surprise guest.  Well she was as shocked as I was.  Okay, that made me feel better.  She had talked about bringing him up, lost my phone number, but just didn’t get to it.  She said she’d be up the next day to bring his things, and pay his board.

The horse was interesting.  He immediately, upon being turned out, dropped his head and started eating.  This after the gentleman told me he was not a good eater and didn’t graze much.  He recognized Lou (the Thoroughbred from the week before)  from his barn so making friends became easy.  He wasn’t sure about what the pig was, and he acknowledged Copper.  He kept looking around, which is normal.  But he got really upset when the other two horses (Copper and Lou) in the next pasture would get out of sight.  That falls into the normal category.  He didn’t want to come up for dinner, so I brought dinner down to the bottom fence so he could eat near the others.  I walked him up to show him the water and he took a mouthful and went back down.  He was very worried.  He paced and screamed all night when he couldn’t see the other horses.

I can only imagine what was going through his mind.  We don’t know how much they think, but I think that they piece things together to figure out if they are safe enough.

Okay lets look at what he might have been thinking.  The person that brings me my food has just taken me and put me on a trailer and brought me to this strange place with strange humans, dogs, and horses (not to mention a pig).  I know one of the horses here that was taken out of our barn and never came back.  My owner has not been seen.  Will I ever see this person who brought me all kinds of goodies again?  She was a nice person who loved me and took care of my grooming.  Is it going to be like the last time when I was put on a trailer, taken from my home, and I never saw those humans again?  I’m alone in a strange pasture with the sounds of Coyotes in the distance.  Am I safe?  I’m old and don’t see as well as I used to.  My legs are sore and I can’t run away from danger like I used to either.  Will the other horses tell me if there is trouble?  It’s dark and all the new humans are not to be found.  Somebody help me!

He was still worried the next morning.  Ate most of his breakfast but was still walking around unsettled.  He calmed down a little by lunch time and started grazing when he saw all the activity by the barn and the other horses, dogs, and pig (which he still wasn’t sure what it was, it smelled funny and made strange sounds.)

Then came the turning point.  He thought he heard his owners voice.  That familiar voice that called him and brought him treats.  He picked his head up and his ears were straight forward, but he didn’t run to the gate like he always used to.  She told me that he used to call to her as he came.  She was horribly disappointed, but he stayed by the fence with his new horse friends.  We had to walk to him.  He circled her before coming to take his treat.  He loved on her for a while and then walked back to the fence to show her his new friends.  He grazed a little and then would come back for another treat.

She asked me if he was mad at her?  I’m not sure.  I’ve seen this reaction before.  Do they get mad at their people?  Disappointed?  They don’t scream at us and tell us how we upset them by sending them away alone.  By not explaining that we will still be here, and that they are not sold or discarded.  Tigger did the same thing when he left and went back to my friends sale barn.  He became very depressed.  How many times do horses get sold and sent to different places?  Some of them do better, and some of them worse.  Do they feel abandoned?  Sad?  Do they feel the loss of the people they knew?  The barn they knew?  The other horses they knew?  They are a herd animal, and they’ve been ripped from the known, and thrown into a place and situation unknown.  What are they thinking if anything?

The bottom line has a good ending.  When the owner was leaving, she kept calling him and taking to him.  She was telling him everything was alright, that he would be fine, and that she would be back.  Did he understand and believe her?  He didn’t come and follow her like she expected.  He put his head down and grazed.  He would pick it up every now and them and listen to her voice.  He then went and rolled.  Everything was going to be okay.  He finally relaxed.  She was a little heart-broken because he didn’t come running after her, but then she realized that he was happy in his new home, with his new friends.  She will be back to see him and take him for a little trail ride.

So what do I see from all this?  When I came home last night from Church and went out to feed, he was waiting for me at the gate.  I didn’t have to bring his food down by the other horses.  He ate by the gate and cleaned up all his food.  So much for a horse that picked at his food and took hours to eat.  He drank and grazed up by the house all evening before I went to bed.  He occasionally looked to see where the other horses were, they were off in the distance, but he was okay with it.

I think he knew that everything would be alright.  That his person knew where he was and it was okay with her.  This could be his new home now.

This is what I experienced with this horse and others.  They are just expected to go along with whatever we humans choose to do with them.  No explanations.  They have to figure it out by themselves.  The sight and touch of the people who are familiar is so important for giving them confidence that everything is safe and okay.  He’s at peace and so am I.  Some settle in right away and are just fine.  Some who have been bounced around and sold time after time just accept it and go on.  But some worry and question “Why!?”

I can only observe and imagine.