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Posts that discuss healthcare issues for horses.

Shoes or Barefoot?

Shoes or Barefoot?

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Horse shoe

There is a huge debate these days about whether to go traditional and put shoes on your horse or leave them au naturel, barefoot and free. After all, horses in the wild don’t have shoes and they do just fine, right? So why do we even shoe them at all?

Domesticated horses do a lot of things that wild horses do not. They bear extra weight; they travel over rougher surfaces, such as asphalt. They work for us, whether in a field, on a trail or in a rodeo arena. It makes sense to give them some extra protection. However, more and more people are coming to believe that horses can do all those things barefoot, and many experts agree. If you practice proper hoof care, have the hooves trimmed regularly, and provide any dietary supplements you, your farrier and your vet decide may be necessary, most horses can go barefoot with no problem.

When we got Valentine, he was shod, except for his right rear where he had lost one (or “thrown a shoe” as they say). That hoof was so nicked up, and he was so sensitive on that foot, that we didn’t think it was a good idea for him to go bare. When we got Moonshine, she was barefoot all around and had been for some time. Her feet were pretty nicked up too, but the previous owner said she hadn’t had a trim for a while. The farrier said her feet looked really good, so we left her barefoot and just had her trimmed.

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Our Horses Are Bleached Blondes

Our Horses Are Bleached Blondes

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Hot sun

Man, it sure is hot here in Tennessee. But I want to put to rest right here the myth that “dry heat” is somehow superior to humidity. I believe I am qualified to decide this issue because I currently live somewhere where it’s humid, and before this, lived most of my life in the “dry heat.” As I sit here in east Tennessee, my atomic clock/weather station says it is 97.1 F with 49% humidity. I was just outside filling the horses’ water bucket, and it’s darn hot. The humidity has been much higher, and it was very, very uncomfortable. However, 120 F, dry or not, is much worse, believe me. Besides, ask a Phoenician how dry it is in Phoenix right now. They have what’s called the “monsoon” season when the temp drops down to a balmy 110 or so, and the humidity hikes up to 50% or higher. Nasty.

Anyway, that’s not my real topic today. My real topic is heat and horses. My poor horses can’t fit in my air-conditioned house (don’t think I wouldn’t try if I thought they could), so they have to battle the heat in their own ways. Luckily, our pasture has a lot of wooded areas and is mostly surrounded by trees, so they have lots of shade. We make sure they always have lots of fresh clean water (which isn’t easy, given their habit of backwashing grassy water into the bucket all day). I cannot stress enough the importance of making sure your horse has plenty of water! Our horses sweat A LOT, so of course, they need to keep rehydrating. From how many times I refill their tub (plus the buckets of water they have in their stalls at night), I believe they are drinking about 30 gallons of water a day between the two of them. But that’s okay, they have unlimited refills here. And there’s always the pond if they feel like a dip. They’d have to be pretty desperate, though, because our pond would be better described as a rather deep mudhole. But they’ve been in it before and could again.

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Say Ahhh…Part 2 – Worms and Deworming

Say Ahhh…Part 2 – Worms and Deworming

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Zimecterin Gold Dewormer

Hold on to your pocket protectors – we’re going to get a little scientific here.

When we first got Valentine, one of the most important first tasks we had to do was deworm him (Say “Ahhh?”). This truly is an important part of horse maintenance and should be done on a regular basis (usually every eight weeks, depending on where you live and other factors). Even the most cavalier horse owners I’ve met do not fail to deworm their horses.

We use Zimecterin Gold because it was the broadest antiparasitic we found. It contains 1.55% ivermectin and 7.75% praziquantel. They advertise that it kills roundworms, tapeworms, bots and “the arterial stages of S. vulgaris.” There are lots of different brands out there. I live in a small town and am new to the whole horse thing, but all of the dewormers I’ve seen have the same active ingredients: Ivermectin or ivermectin with praziquantel. But what are ivermectin and praziquantel? And why do we need to use them?

Ivermectin is an anthelmintic that kills a broad spectrum of nematodes by causing muscle paralysis in parasites. That’s what the Internet says. Nematodes are roundworms; I had to look up “anthelmintic.” I think just about anyone would have. According to Wikipedia, anthelmintics are “drugs that expel parasitic worms (helminths) from the body, by either killing or stunning them.” I didn’t look up helminths. I just assumed that it means “parasitic worms.” You can look it up if you want.

Praziquantel is an antiparasitic. It kills tapeworms, which ivermectin does not.

A side note on ivermectin: there has been a lot of talk recently, especially on the Web, about fatalities in horses given various brands of dewormers containing ivermectin. It appears that these are rumors started in emails and have very little foundation in truth. Occasionally a horse will die after being administered a dewormer. Some of these are overdoses – these are usually foals because ivermectin is very well tolerated in most animals, even at higher doses. Some are animals that have a sensitivity to ivermectin. The most likely cause for a dewormer fatality, strangely enough, is when a horse really needs deworming, because he hasn’t been treated in a while. If the horse has a very large population of parasites and they are suddenly all killed off, the toxins released by the dead parasites can kill the horse. (So if you have a horse whose deworming schedule you’re not sure of, please check with your vet before administering any dewormer.) As far as the ivermectin rumors go, the best advice I’ve heard is to check with a reliable source. Ask your vet – he or she should be up-to-date on any recalls or such if there are any. You can even call the company that manufactures the dewormer directly. But please, please, do not skip treatment to avoid potential dangers from medication. The chances of your horse getting a bad dose of medication are very slim. The chances of your horse being infected with potentially dangerous parasites is close to 100%.

The parasites which you are trying to prevent live their life in a cycle between pasture, horse, and manure. The eggs lay around in the grass in your pasture (or the pasture of the hay supplier you buy from). They are eaten by the horse with the grass or hay. They hatch into larvae, go on holiday in various parts of your horse’s anatomy, mature into nasty, sometimes very large and numerous, worms, and lay eggs in your horse which are passed through into the manure, which ends up in your pasture, starting the cycle again.

Roundworms are a very common equine parasite, and some studies suggest that all horses are infected with these worms. Like most parasites, they take up residence in the intestinal tract, and roundworm infection can cause symptoms from chronic weight loss to severe diarrhea. Like all the parasites we will be discussing, untreated roundworm infection can even cause death. An interesting fact about roundworms is that part of their life cycle is to burrow into the intestinal wall, where they can live in a dormant state for months or even years. That is another reason why a consistent deworming program is vital to your horse.

Tapeworms are, as the name suggests, a long, flat worm. When this worm infects a horse, it does so in large numbers at the junction of the small and large intestine (known as the ileocaecal junction). Here, this giant mass of worms can cause all kinds of havoc, including bowel irritation, twisting of the intestine, or even rupture of the intestine. A large percentage of colic is caused by this parasite.

Bots are not tiny little androids. They are also not worms. “Bot” is actually short for “botfly,” a large, bee-sized fly. This fly, like other flies, congregates on your poor horse, driving him crazy. They also lay their eggs on the horse. Since the horse is bothered by the flies on him, he will lick or bite at them, thereby bringing the bot eggs into his mouth. Then – and this is really gross – the eggs hatch into larvae, which burrow into your horse’s lips, gums and tongue. This apparently doesn’t bother the horse (just the humans), but then the larvae migrate into the horse’s stomach, which does cause problems, ranging from stomach upset to a perforation of the stomach, which can cause death. I knew I hated those darn flies.

S. vulgaris is the short name for Strongylus vulgaris, a scientific name for a group of parasites that also include Strongylus equinus and Strongylus edentus. The common names for these parasites are large strongyles or bloodworms. All three of these parasites enter your horse in the same way – they lurk in your pasture in the larval form and are ingested by your grazing horse. Once inside the horse, the larvae travel through the horse to their favorite spots: for S. equinus and S. edentus, that is the liver. For S. vulgaris, it’s the intestinal cavity. Of the three, S. vulgaris is the most dangerous. While the other two can cause significant damage to the liver, S. vulgaris causes far-ranging damage. Their ultimate goal, the large intestine, can, of course, be severely affected by the residence of these parasites – they bite off pieces of the intestine, which can cause gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea and the bane of all horse owners, colic. It can also cause anemia from blood loss. (By the way, none of my sources mentioned this, but it probably causes pain or at least discomfort for the poor horse too.) However, the scariest and most serious effect of these parasites is the fact that they cause damage to the arteries as they are traveling to their destination. It takes about two weeks for the larvae to get from the mouth to the mesenteric artery, which is the main artery that feeds the intestinal tract. After about 4 months in that location, in which time the larvae grow into the adult worm, they travel to the large intestine, where they feed and lay their eggs. While they are traveling around in the arteries, they leave marks on the walls of the arteries, which can lead to blood clots. Blood clots are as bad in horses as they are in humans – when they break loose, they can cause serious debilitation or even death.

So be sure to deworm your horse. Which leads to the next big question: how? As you may remember, when we were first faced with the task of deworming our brand-new horse, we chickened out and went with on-feed dewormer. This may work for you, but it didn’t for us – Valentine likes to swish his feed onto the ground, and since the dewormer is a powder, he probably didn’t get as much of it as he should have. On our next try, we used the Zimecterin Gold paste. First, we asked a couple of people how to get the syringe into the horse’s throat. Boy, did they laugh! It turns out that there is no need to get it all the way back there. Have you inspected your horse’s mouth at all? (I hope you have – there’s important information in there, and not just his age.) You’ll note that there is a large gap between the front teeth and the back – that’s where the bit lies when your horse is bridled and ready to ride. Just stick the syringe in there, back as far as it will go (not out the other side, please) and squirt away. We’re told that the horse cannot spit it out. He can drip it out a bit, though, so step back. We tried to offer Valentine some apple after this, to appease him and to help get the paste into the tummy, but he wasn’t having any of that. He seemed miffed.

For the best information on deworming – what, when, how – please ask your local veterinarian.

Strongyle information was taken, in part, from Animal World Network.

Death to Flies!

Death to Flies!

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No to flies!
Fly photo by Manlake Gabriel on Unsplash

Time for a report on fly control. First, a little history.

When we first got Valentine, it was the dead of winter. It was very cold, and we were very new to all aspects of horsekeeping, including manure management. We didn’t have a clue what to do with the poo he filled his stall with every day. So, what we did was…and I’m embarrassed to admit this…chuck the manure over the wall of Valentine’s stall into the stall next to his. It was meant to be temporary until we figured out what to do with it long-term. We don’t do that anymore – but there’s still a pretty big pile in the vacant stall. The thing is, we have a really nice trailer to load it up in and take it out to the pasture. But we had to disassemble that trailer to get it onto the other trailer to move it out here (Bill has a “thing” for trailers). And we haven’t found the bolts to put it back together again. So it sits in pieces next to the barn and the pile of manure sits in the vacant stall awaiting the assembly of the trailer. It’s a sad, sad cycle.

Anyway…so knowing that there would be a lot of fly attractant sitting around the barn (and by the way, we are moving it out a wheelbarrow at a time, but it takes a while), we knew we’d have to be pretty aggressive with fly control. We decided on a multi-faceted approach:

Feed-through fly control. As the name implies, this is a supplement that you add to their feed. There are several different kinds. Solitude IGR, EquiTrol, SimpliFly and similar products contain a horse-safe chemical that is passed through the intestinal tract into the manure where flies lay their eggs, preventing the formation of the larvae’s exoskeleton when they molt (gross, huh – but they are FLIES). There are also a few herbal-type supplements that are supposed to make your horse unappealing to biting insects, such as Inside-Out. (I’m thinking of trying one of those myself, I’m entirely too tasty to mosquitoes and such.) We chose a formulation offered by a local feed store. It’s of the first variety, the exoskeleton knocker-outer. We add 1 teaspoon to their food every night, and they don’t complain. We’ve been feeding it to Valentine for about two months now with no problems.

Fly Parasites. It sounds strange, but we bought bugs to eat other bugs. Not only that, but these fly parasites look like tiny little flies themselves. But instead of harassing your horse (and you), they eat fly pupae. Yummy! We ordered them by mail through Arbico Organics (there are several companies that sell these). They send a batch of Fly Eliminators once a month. The first batch we got was already hatching; the new batch we got last week isn’t hatching yet, but once the bugs start hatching, you open up the bag they’re in, distribute them at dusk around places where flies might want to lay eggs, and let them go to town. We see no flies around our giant manure pile, so I tend to think they are working quite well.

Spot-On Fly Control. If you have dogs, you’ve probably used a product like this to repel ticks and fleas. It comes in a little tube that you squeeze on your pet from neck to tail. For dogs, it comes in a 1 ml tube; for horses, 10 ml. We use Equispot. You squeeze one ml on the poll, one ml on the back of each leg, then the remaining 5 ml along the back from ear to the top of the tail. Frankly, I’m not impressed with this product – the flies don’t seem to be deterred from any of these areas at all, and still congregate around their eyes. But I haven’t stopped using it to see if it will make a difference, either.

Fly Sprays. We started using a fly spray to supplement the Equispot about a week ago. There was a lot of stamping going on – the horses were frequently stamping the ground to shake flies off, and this can actually cause injury to the horse – so we spray their legs with Bronco Fly Spray before they go out in the morning. The first day, we tried to do it after they were already out in the pasture. I don’t recommend that, because they’re not fond of being sprayed with anything, and it’s a lot harder to aim the spray when they’re moving out in the open than when they’re in a 12’x12′ stall.

Wound Care. Flies are unfortunately attracted to open wounds. Your horse is going to get owies, and you, of course, don’t want to spray a strong insecticide on an open wound – that would really sting. There are fly repellants especially formulated for open wounds. Since they’re “gentle,” they’re also good for, ahem, sensitive areas. Our poor horses were being eaten alive on their bellies, so I posted a message on Horse City’s forum asking for advice. I was told to use SWAT ointment. It is also working very well.

There are other options as well: good old-fashioned fly strips, bug zappers, and fly masks. We haven’t tried any of these yet, but we may in the future. In the meantime, we’ll continue our current methods of fly mass murder.

Death to all flies!

Never Say Never

Never Say Never

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Mr. Hand

Okay, remember back in February when I brought up sheath cleaning and proclaimed it was never gonna happen? (And You Thought Victoria’s Secret Was Racy?) Well, after further research, I now think it’s gonna have to happen. Luckily, I have found some expert guidance. Try not to spray sweet tea out your nose:

Mr. Hand

  1. Check to make sure there are no prospective boyfriends, elderly neighbors, or Brownie troops with a line of sight to the proceedings. Though of course, they’re going to show up unexpectedly ANYWAY once you’re in the middle of things. Prepare a good explanation.
  2. Trim your fingernails short. Assemble horse, hose, and your sense of humor (plus, ideally, Excalibur cleanser and perhaps thin rubber gloves).
  3. Use hose (or damp sponge) to get the sheath and its inhabitant wet. Uh, that is, do this in a “civilized” fashion with due warning to the horse; he is apt to take offense if an icy-cold hose blasts unexpectedly into his personal regions.
  4. Now introduce your horse to Mr. Hand. What I find safest is to stand facing the horse’s head, with my shoulder and hip snugly against the horse’s thigh and hip so that if he makes any suspicious move such as raising his leg, I can feel it right away and am in any case pressed so close that all he can do is shove, not really kick. The horse should be held by an assistant or by your free hand, not tied fast to a post or in crossties. He may shift around a good bit if he’s not happy with Mr. Hand’s antics, but don’t be put off by that; as long as you are patient and gradual, and stick close to his side, he’ll get over it. Remember it would be most unladylike of you to simply make a direct grab for your horse’s part. Give the horse a clue about what’s on the program. Rest your hand against his belly, and then slide it back till you are entering the Home of the Actual Private Part. When you reach this first region of your destination, lube him up good with Excalibur or whatever you are using.
  5. If the outer part of his sheath is really grungy you will feel little clods and nubblies of smegma peeling off as you grope around in there. Patiently and gently expedite their removal. Thus far, you have probably only been in the outer part of the sheath. The Part itself, you’ll notice, is strangely absent. That’s because it has shyly retired to its inner chambers. Roll up your sleeves and follow in after it.
  6. As you and Mr. Hand wend your way deeper into the sheath, you will encounter what feels like a small portal that opens up into a chamber beyond. Being attentive to your horse’s reaction, invite yourself in. You are now in the Inner Sanctum of the Actual Private Part. It’s hiding in there, towards the back, trying to pretend it isn’t there. Say hi, and wave to it. No, really, work your finger back and forth around the sides of it. If the horse won’t drop, this is your only shot at removing whatever dried smegma is clinging to the surface of the Part itself. So, gently explore around it, pulling out whatever crusty topsoil you find there. Use more water and more Excalibur if necessary to loosen attached gunk.
  7. When Mr. Hand and the Actual Private Part have gotten to know each other pretty well, and the Part feels squeaky clean all around, there remains only one task: checking for and removing the bean. The bean is a pale, kidney-shaped accumulation of smegma in a small pouch just inside the urethra. Not all horses accumulate a bean, but IME [in my experience] the majority do, even if they have no visible external smegma. So: the equine urethra is fairly large in diameter, and will indeed permit you to very gently insinuate one of your slimmer fingers inside the urethral opening. Do so, and explore upwards for what will feel like a lump or “pea” buried no more than, I dunno, perhaps 3/4″ in from the opening. If you do encounter a bean, gently and sympathetically persuade it out with your finger. This may require a little patience from both Mr. Hand AND the horse, but the horse will be happier and healthier once it’s accomplished. In the rare event that the bean is too enormous for your finger to coax out, you might try what I did (in desperation) last month on the orange horse. Wrap thumb and index finger around the end of the Part and squeeze firmly to extrude the bean. Much to my surprise it worked and the orange horse did NOT kill me for doing it and he does not seem to have suffered any permanent damage as a result. I have never in my life seen another bean that enormous, though.
  8. Now all that’s left to do is make a graceful exit and rinse the area very thoroughly in apology for the liberties you’ve taken. A hose will be MUCH easier to use here than a bucket and sponge, IME. Make sure to direct the water into the Part’s inner retreat too, not merely the outer part of the sheath. This may require you to enfold the end of the hose in your hand and guide it up there personally.
  9. Ta-Da, you are done! say “good horsey” and feed him lots of carrots. Watch him make lots of funny faces at the way your hands smell. Hhhmmm. Well, perhaps there is ONE more step…
  10. The only thing I know of that is at all effective in removing the lovely fragrance of smegma from your hands (fingernails, arms, elbows and wherever else it has gotten) is Excalibur. Even then, if you didn’t use gloves you may find you have an unusual personal perfume for a while. So, word to the wise, do NOT clean your horse’s sheath just before an important job interview or first date. And of course, there is the FINAL step…
  11. Figure out how to explain all this to your mother (or the kid next door, or the meter reader, or whoever else you’ve just realized has been standing in the barn doorway speechlessly watching the whole process.)

Now, go thou forth and clean the Part.

(Copyright 1998 Patricia Harris; please email pat_berto@yahoo.com for permission to reprint)

How bad can it be, really? For me, I mean.

Serta or Tempurpedic?

Serta or Tempurpedic?

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Handful of pellets

At some point – preferably before you get your horse, but at least soon after – you will have to decide what kind of bedding you want to use for your horse. Of course your horse’s comfort is an important consideration, but since, unlike your dog’s bed, this bedding won’t just be slept on – that’s right, horses are not “housebroken” – there are other considerations too, such as absorbency and siftability (is that a real word, or did I just make one up?).  When you greet your beautiful, elegant equine companion in the morning, you will see that he made a small project for you to work on that day. More likely, two or three projects. He probably even has some stuck to his face. Sweet.

There are several options for horse bedding, beginning with the base – the stall floor. Our barn floor is just plain old dirt, but some barns have permanent flooring. You can also put in rubber floors – we are looking into that. They are easier to keep clean than dirt, and more comfortable for your horse than dirt or cement.

On top of whatever kind of floor you have, you need the multi-purpose bedding. This should provide comfort for your horse and absorb whatever he may leave in there for you to muck out. There are basically three choices: straw, wood shavings, and wood pellets.

Straw is the classic barn bedding. Upsides: It’s cheap and easy. I think it’s pretty comfortable too – we used it at first, and Valentine never complained. Downsides: it’s not very absorbent, and it’s hard to sort the wheat from the chaff, so to speak…when you go for the poo, you get a lot of straw too.

We haven’t used wood shavings for Valentine, but we do use them for our goat, Joey. They work great for Joey, because he hardly ever uses his little house as an outhouse, so one pack of shavings lasts forever. Upsides: They smell great, and cedar shavings, at least, naturally repel fleas. Downsides: We didn’t try these because we decided they wouldn’t be cost-effective. You’d have to buy a lot to fill a stall, and replace the soiled bedding with new shavings at a pretty good clip.

We finally settled on wood pellets. There are several brands out there. When we were researching this topic, the brand we found was Woody Pet. They don’t sell this brand anywhere nearby, but we checked at our local feed stores and co-ops and found a similar product sold under different names, such as Equine Pine and Eagle Valley ABM Advanced Bedding Management. We also asked other horse owners and the people at the feed stores and co-ops, and the consensus seems to be that this stuff is the best thing since sliced bread. So we shoveled out all the straw and put in six bags of wood pellets…

Pouring bedding pellets
We emptied six bags of Equine Pine into the 12×12 horse stall.

…watered them down to fluff them up per instructions…

Fluffy bedding
After watering the pellets turned to almost a sawdust consistency.

…and presto! Soft, fluffy, absorbent and sweet-smelling bedding! Which equals a sweeter-smelling horse. If you love on your horse like I do, you’ll appreciate that.

Equally importantly, the stall cleans up faster and easier than ever before. The sawdust – which is what you end up with after you wet the pellets down – sifts right through the fork and all you’re shoveling out is poo. The urine soaks into the sawdust until the sawdust has reached maximum absorbing capacity, then it clumps together and you can shovel it right out. My big sweetie always pees in exactly the same place, so I just shovel that spot out every couple of days and add more.

The Dreaded Thrush

The Dreaded Thrush

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Hoof ThrushThe farrier came out this morning, and it’s official: Valentine has thrush. I’m actually relieved, partly because I know for sure now, and partly because the farrier didn’t seem all that concerned. Whew!

If you remember from my earlier post, Valentine had foot issues. He’d been sort of limping, he had stinky feet, and over the last few days, he wouldn’t let me clean his feet. I decided it was time to call in a professional. So Gabe came out and took a look. His diagnosis was that Valentine’s right front hoof has thrush, and that’s why he wouldn’t let me touch his other feet – it hurts him to to put weight on the right when I lift up the left. Gabe suggested we use Kopertox, but approved what we’ve already been using (Hooflex Thrush Remedy). I told him the pasture was pretty muddy, and asked if we should keep Valentine stabled while he’s being treated. He thought that was a good idea. He also suggested that, once the mud has dried, we trot Valentine up and down the road in front of our house to knock the mud loose, since Val won’t let me lift up the feet for cleaning.

So the plan for the next week or so: keep Valentine in the stall to keep the feet dry; treat with thrush medicine at least twice daily; graze him on our lawn (which is desperately in need of mowing anyway); and amuse the neighbors by “walking” my horse up and down the road.

Gabe also told us that thrush is very common here, because it’s such a wet place – it’s a fungal infection, and as you probably know, fungus loves wet. I also may have mentioned that it’s very muddy here. The mud is actually clay (I’m sure I could get a potter’s wheel and a kiln and have a nice pottery business on the side), which means that once it’s up in that concave hoof, it’s there to stay. Along with anything that gets mixed in with it – hay, rocks, the omnipresent poo. So once this thrush is cleared up, we will dose Valentine’s hooves with thrush medicine once a week to prevent a recurrence.
Have I mentioned that I really hate mud?

Spring Arrives in TN; Flies Rejoice

Spring Arrives in TN; Flies Rejoice

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It has been so nice in East Tennessee this past week. Think 70’s during the day with a few light sprinkles. A week ago today it was SNOWING, for goodness sakes. The forecast for the foreseeable future, according to the local Dopplercast 9005 Weather Watch Storm Center (I made that up), is 70’s during the day and possibly even 80. Yeah! Mikki and I enjoyed Valentine this past week, as well as just being outside in general. As I walked across the yard in slow motion (just like the movies) with some springtime song playing in the background, I noticed the dogwoods in bloom (I don’t know what they are really but let’s call them dogwoods because that sounds nice), pretty purple flowers, bees buzzing about, wasps wasping…around me…get it off, get it off, GET IT OFF!

Flies on Valentine

Just today, this very day (well actually since it’s after midnight, technically yesterday now) Mikki and I noticed a ton of flies bothering our expensive investment large family pet. We knew the flies would come. The flypaper hanging from every beam in the barn warned us of that. Now that the little critters are hatching, it’s time to get serious about a fly control strategy. Up for consideration: better manure control, evil fly-eating but horse-friendly parasites, fly strips (hung outside the barn since they are an attractant), on-feed fly larvae killer (such as Solitude IGR from Pfizer, containing cyromazine) and a solar fly trap (not sure what that is yet). Poor thing (the horse, that is) is being pestered something fierce and it’s only going to get worse. We’ll try a few of these “fly control” systems out and report back what’s working and what’s not working.

Oh, by the way, today is Parenthesis Day (in case you didn’t know). Okay, I made that up too but I did use parentheses 8 times in this post (in case anyone is counting). Oops, 9 times now.

Stinky Feet

Stinky Feet

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A very important grooming item is hoof care. I have to admit that I have been very lax in this area. It’s supposed to be easy to do, but I tell you, I did it today and I’m beat.

Here’s the deal: You have to convince your 1,000+ lb. (in my case, about 1,200 lbs.) animal to lift his foot for you and then you hold it and pick out the bottom of the hoof. It’s a very strange-looking piece of anatomy. It should be concave, and in the middle is an anatomical structure called a frog. Here’s a pretty good photo of a healthy (and shoeless) hoof:

clean shoeless hoof
(credit: www.barefoottrim.com)

All around the frog is the stuff your horse has picked up and packed in there that needs to be picked out, without damaging the frog. Valentine’s hooves, I’m ashamed to say, were quite packed with all kinds of stuff: mud (mostly), manure, straw and even a couple of rocks. There is a pretty good chance, based on the odor emanating from the junk I picked out, that he has thrush. That’s a nasty little fungus that grows in a hoof that isn’t kept clean. Here’s what his hoof looked like while I was cleaning it:

Hoof Cleaning

I’m also sorry to say that Valentine seems to be limping on his right rear leg now. He’s appeared to have a limp on that leg since we got him – that was the hoof that cast a shoe before we got him – but it’s more pronounced now. I think we’ll be calling the farrier out. Updates later.

Too Much Information Can Be Bad for You

Too Much Information Can Be Bad for You

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The Internet is both a curse and a blessing. Since I got Valentine, I have spent literally hours trying to get as much information on horses as I can. I joined several sites with forums, and I think they are great – real people talking about real horses with real-life answers to questions they have. It’s also reassuring to know that even experienced horse owners are perplexed sometimes. But if you go to “expert” sites – and I’m not suggesting you don’t – you’ll end up completely paranoid! After reading about all the bad things that can happen to horses, I’m afraid to leave Valentine alone! He could eat sand and get colic; fall in his stall and not be able to get up; trip in the pasture and break a leg; eat some poisonous weed; be bitten by a mosquito and get horse flu (I’m not making that up); eat possum poo and get myoencephalitis (not making that up either); or do almost anything at all and end up lame. It’s like having a half-ton toddler that can run 30 mph. What have I gotten myself into?