There’s always something to worry about when you have a horse.  Now we have to worry about weeds too.  I guess we always did.

What are weeds?  They are wild flowers that grow where we don’t want them to.  Sometimes they are just weeds.  Annoying weeds.  Hard to pull weeds.  But sometimes they are poisonous to our horses.

Now if your horse doesn’t have beautiful pasture they will sometimes just eat the weeds.  Sometimes when they do have beautiful pasture, they will just eat weeds.

Sometimes it takes a lot of one particular weed to kill a horse, and sometimes it doesn’t take that much to make them sick.

We have two that I see a lot of.  One is Coffee Bean, but I was told it takes a whole bag of them to really do damage.  The other one is sneaky.  It’s Creeping Indigo.  It creeps under the grass and you don’t notice it until it blooms.  The leaves look like clover, and it has the prettiest coral flower.  Horses absolutely love the sweet taste, but it will kill them.  I’ve found two little patches and I’ve been working on getting rid of it for 3 years.  But they pop up and yell “Surprise!” every once in a while.  It is in an area where the horses don’t graze, but I don’t want it anywhere, because it will spread.  There is an Indigo plant that grows upward, that is not poisonous.  Same pretty flowers.  The bad stuff creeps under your grass, or along the ground.

Are you aware of the poisonous weeds and plants in your area?  Do you even look for them?  Do you know what they are?  Do you even know how to dispose of them?

I know there is a book out on Poisonous Plants for horses.  A lot of them we wouldn’t even consider to be harmful to our horses.  When we moved here I did all this landscaping to pretty the place up, it was barren.  Boy did I have to rethink my choice of plants when I got that book.  “Do Over!”

It might be a good thing to invest in that kind of a book or look up on the Internet to find out what plants are poisonous to horses and what are especially common in your area.

It’s interesting to find out if you’ve been lucky so far, and will make your horses life a whole lot safer in the long run.

This for your consideration.

Red headed people have sensitive skin, so do horses.  It’s not something you automatically think about.

I have a beautiful, copper-colored gelding at the barn, who is allergic to everything.  At age 26, he is getting worse.  It wasn’t so bad when he was by himself, he would stand under the trees in the summer and stay cool.  If there was a tree in the pasture he would rub so I kept him in a pasture without trees, but there were branches hanging over the fence.  He was terribly lonely.  He had been out with another old horse and they made the perfect pair.  They both enjoyed taking naps and hanging under their favorite tree.  His friend was sold to a young girl who needed a horse like him.  Then depression set in.

So for several years we were hoping for a friend for him.  Well the six-year-old came in and he had a friend.  One who would rear, run, chase, and play.  I wasn’t keen on that idea, but he loved it.  The six-year-old looks like swiss cheese, but they both have a great time and Copper is in charge.

However, they go out and play and graze all day.  They are both good sweaters, but it’s taking a toll on Coppers skin.  Where he is sweating on his back, with the sun baking on it, he is losing his hair.  I’ve had horses with sunburn on their nose before but this is a new adventure.  Because there are two of them they are in a bigger pasture with trees.  I feel so bad for him.

I’ve been rinsing his coat and applying a skin conditioner, but the vet will be here in two weeks and once again she’ll give him an allergy shot.

It’s been a really hot humid summer so far and they are all sweating, thank you God.  What I am noticing is that where they are sweating, they are getting bleached more than usual.  I guess it has something to do with the salt laying on their hair.  Don’t know that for a fact, just seems that way.

Putting him back in his old pasture is not an option, its only two and half acres and is not big enough for two to graze for nourishment, they will take it down too quickly .  I have another old horse I can put him with (which would be more quiet like he used to be) but those two bad boys would not accept being separated at this point.

I think I’m more bothered by his condition than he is.  His owner is fine with it, as long as Copper is having a good time.

So things go along as they are until the fall gets here.  This happens in December, so I have a long way to go.  Even in Florida they start losing their summer coats and start getting their winter coats in August, so we’re almost there.

His coat has always been on the thin side, but with a beautiful shiny copper glow.  He’s pretty much bald on his back so I have to watch him closely.  Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you realize you haven’t.

I know, many of you are thinking, I wish my horses had two and half acres, but this is what they eat, with a little grain on the side.  Hay only when they are in the stalls, which is only during a storm.  They are pasture fed.  We fertilize, and they really maintain their weight.

So onto the next adventure.  I wonder what that will be?  Don’t ask.

Whether you are looking for a new barn to board your horse, or someone to care for your horse while you’re away, what do you look for?

I know I’ve spoken before about people you hire to horse sit, but it’s worth revisiting this subject.  We all like to go on vacation, but we all worry about leaving our fur and hair families with strangers.  Even if we know this person personally, they still aren’t us.

Now being far, we know that some things are right, somethings are wrong, and somethings are just done differently.  No one is going to do things exactly like we do.  If it isn’t life threatening, we can clean up the mess when we get back.

My friend was looking for a new barn recently and her biggest concern was if the people who would be taking care of her horses knew the difference between colic, and lameness.  It sounds pretty dumb, but so are a lot of people.  But I didn’t say that, and you didn’t hear that.  Well that’s a broad spectrum.  It’s easy when you walk in a barn if you know they are getting fed and cared for.  You look around.  If all the horses are fat, hydrated, and free from cuts, you know they are pretty well off.  If the barn is clean and safe, you know they are on top of things.  If the property is neat and cared for, you’ve got a good idea.  If the horses let you walk up to them and you can pet their heads, you know they are not roughed up.  If they fly backwards, you may have to look deeper.  Yes some horses have been abused in the past which leave a lasting impression, but if they all want to escape, that should be a red flag.

Check water buckets and troughs.  Make sure they are clean and the water is fresh.  Look in the feed room and make sure there is no evidence of rodent activity.  Make sure the feed is stored well.

Ask a lot of questions.  If people have nothing to hide they will be willing to speak with you about anything.  Ask how long they have been caring for horses.  Do they have a local vet and farrier (get names), and how often do they come to the farm.  Call that vet and farrier and ask them their opinion of the persons reliability.  If they keep a regular schedule on shots, and shoeing.

Ask the person how many cc’s of Banamine they would give a thousand pound horse? (Thank you Louise that’s a wonderful question).  Ask what signs they would consider to be a colic.  It’s your horse, and you are paying them, so don’t hesitate to ask.

Personally, I would think very highly of a person who cared enough to ask and check out that I know what I am doing.

If you are a person who is not going to visit your horse at least once a week, these questions, including the detection of lameness, are important ones.  I know every time I see a horse walk across the pasture I’m looking at his movements.  Every time I walk a horse in and out of the barn I listen to his foot fall on the concrete.  The one mare I have places three and slides one.  No lameness to be seen, but there is a difference in her movement.  I watch them run in the pasture and note what leads they are picking up.

You want to know that this person is observing your horse.  That they learn what is a normal and what is not.  What time they lay down to take a nap and how long they stay down.  How much water they drink in their stalls.  If they have finished their grain.  If they didn’t finish you want to make sure that the left over is removed and not laying there  to get moldy in the bottom of their buckets.

Ask about their worming schedule, how often and the rotation of wormers.

Ask about what feed they use, where they get it, how often they get it.  I know that my feed is made here in Florida.  I pick it up every two weeks, it’s stored in heavy-duty garbage cans, and it was made within a week of my purchase.  I know that the feed company does not make cow feed so I have no worries about the cow antibiotics getting into my feed by mistake and killing my horses.

Look to see if things are posted and up-to-date.  What horses get how much feed, and what supplements each horse gets.  Shot records are kept handy along with Coggins.  If anything happens to the person in charge, know that someone else can come in and pick up where things were left off.

Walk around the property, and as my friend said, especially to places that the owners don’t want you to see.

There are things that you have to take into consideration, like fencing.  It seems we repair things daily around here.  Especially with new horses coming in.  We have to reach an understanding of what is acceptable.  We don’t turn the electric fence on automatically, but when a horse stand there, takes the wire in his teeth and snaps it, it’s time.  You will be able to see if a place is being kept up, or just let go.  Now that’s a red flag.

If you are going away make sure everyone is on the same page.  Give a date of your return, but tell the person caring for your animals to keep taking care of them until you call them and tell them that you are home.  Miscommunication almost cost two horses their lives.  They were in their stalls, in the summer, and the person caring for them thought that the owner would be back in a week.  So after a week she stopped going to care for them.  The owner was to be gone for two weeks.  Horses had no food or more importantly, no water.  They were just short of death when the owner returned.

Be proactive in every detail of your horse’s life, don’t worry about what other people think, it’s your horse and you have to be able to sleep at night knowing that whoever is taking care of them is doing the best job possible.

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.