The eye.

Lookit StickGelin gooooo!  I drew StickGelin as an abbreviated way to explain to someone what I'm looking for when a horse moves.  Call it the stick explanation maybe. 

Gelin, who is moving beautifully here, is not floating on a pink and blue magic carpet.  The pink and blue represent the relationship with the ground that his leading hind leg is about to have.  (leading= the one pointing forwards)  Ideally, once that hoof lands and he uses his leg to draw him forward over the earth, the area in pink underneath his body is where the magic is going to happen.  The horse both pulls itself forward and releases the body upwards at the same time- once the leg passes vertical and enters the blue area under the horses body the body is propelled forwards only.  A horse on the forehand will have a hind leg that only functions in the blue area, a horse in piaffe only in the pink area.  The ability to "party the pink" can be seen in even the young horse, it's just not as developed as in the older, more trained (or incredibly talented) horse.  If a horse isn't moving in this manner, I don't see it as a horrible thing, it simply tells me that the gait needs work.

A good video example of a well functioning hind leg that lifts the body of a very talented horse:
http://youtu.be/_x6_9ccOqKw


But waitaminite.  Gelin has a front half too?  Yes, he does.

The front half of a well moving horse in a way moves similarly to the hind end.  It's not propelling the horse, but it will show freedom towards the front and does not linger underneath the body of the horse.

So what does it look like when you're doing it wrong?

Although the legs might be thrown forward, look for the energy of the stride being shortened towards the front, and instead pushing out the rear propelling the horse downward into the ground.

The Chair.

My mother passed away while napping in her favorite chair, a sliding rocker.  That's pretty much how everyone wants to go, isn't it?

My brothers and I while cleaning the house, are all standing, facing the chair. 

"Do either of you want it?" I ask.

Nope. 

It was a quandry.  I couldn't simply throw the chair away.  1-It was her favorite.  2-She DIED in it.   I didn't exactly want it in my living room, because, well, see #2.  I decided to bring the chair home with me.  I put it outside, facing the pasture.  "Here ya go Mom!  You can watch Bucky for a while!"  She loved to watch Bucky, who wouldn't?

The thought of her contentedly watching Bucky in the afterlife gave me a certain amount of peace.  I told Randy that when I was ready I'd hold a small ceremony to burn the chair.  The summer passed, and that did not happen.

Now it's fall, and we're finally able to close out the estate.  It's brought about some mixed feelings for me as I never expected or wanted to be in this position, that of having an inheritance.  As much as I'm grateful, it makes me sad and uneasy.  It's not how things were to have been.

And then, yet another unexpected turn of events in what has proven to be an unusually eventful year.  Many of which were unpleasant.  This one was not.  A parcel of land came up for sale near our house.  The owners bought this land in 1971 with dreams of eventually building, but never did and had decided to sell.  In their absence I've hacked over it many times.

What would being able to purchase that land mean to me?  Almost too much.  Over the years I feel I've spent a lot of time and effort to try to become a decent dressage rider.  Not "Ruth going to work for Rehbein effort", but working hard, traveling a lot and trying my hardest to learn effort.  For years upon years.  One of the things that required me to work harder once we moved to the North Ridge is that I don't have a ring to ride in at home.  I hacked in the fields when I could, trotted in a crop 20m circle around Posey's trees, have even trailered out routinely but it's not the same as having a 20mx60m flat space on site to work in.  I tried to not use it as an excuse, to me it meant I had to be more creative when I rode.  I was OK with it.  Until this spring.

I had been on what I was calling "my sabbatical" from riding as I was feeling burned out and had lost my  passion.  I still rode.  Not nearly as much.  More like barely.  Whenever I rode I would still work diligently.  Meghan's voice "go back to straight!"  Ruth's voice "Pirate!" ( ;) ), among many others!  But there was still part of me that was dragging my feet.  The final nail on my coffin was when the footing was re-done at the outdoor arena where I would truck in to ride.  Gelin didn't go well in it.  He'd go well at home, but the footing there was deeper than he was used to and it felt like he was struggling.  I didn't have the heart or drive to ask him to work in it.  So we hacked.  And hacked.  And had a great time.  Even then I still practiced while hacking.

All the while thinking "I've spent the past 20 years wanting to ride dressage, WTF is wrong with me?"

Being able to buy this land means I get to have a riding ring.  It didn't truly sink in at first, but as the days have passed and now that the P&S has been signed, the reality has awoken.  I get to ride a diagonal.  On good footing.  I can set my jumps up and scare the crap out of myself.  The dream has changed from hacking to "I hope I can put some mirrors up so I can make sure I'm not doing that funky thing I do at sitting trot!" 

If my mother hadn't passed away it would not have been possible for me to buy the land.  It's the most amazing gift I've ever been given and I'll never forget that.

When it's all said and done, I'm going to take her chair and put it in a quiet corner near the ring, under the canopy of the maples.   So she can watch.  Thanks Mom, I hope I can make you proud.

NSC's

NSC amounts. Here's where you can find some of them online for feeds available in New England.  Nutrena has many of them now listed on the individual guaranteed analysis of each feed at their website.

Blue Seal:
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=36354&d=1344344733

Triple Crown:
http://www.triplecrownfeed.com/article/horsenutrition-carbohydrates-in-equine-nutrition-horse-nutrition

Poulin:
http://www.poulingrain.com/resources/Poulin_Horse_Feed_Carbohydrate.pdf

Find the Iodine!

I recently subscribed to FeedXL and after entering all pertinet data was horrified to realize that my horses were deficient in iodine. I thought I had my bases covered with my vitamin/mineral supplement, but I did not. Most vitamin mineral supplements seem to be designed with the assumption that the horse is recieving an iodized salt supplement and mine were not.

http://www.equinews.com/article/the-nitty-gritty-on-salt

During the winter I worry that they don't consume enough salt due to the cold temps so I add salt to their daily mashes. Salt in the form of sea salt or electrolytes, neither of which has iodine. They do have salt blocks available, one is trace, the other is just plain salt. They seem to show no preference.

The NRC recommendation for iodine for the adult recreational horse (2007) is .35mg/kg of feed. (roughly 3.5mg a day for the 1100# horse, 4.1mg for my Gelin) More is not recommended and the big caveat is that deficiencies show the same symptoms as excess- the only way to tell which is which (without a blood test) is to drag out the calculator and start crunching the numbers.

The average trace mineral salt block containing iodine has 70ppm of iodine, or 70mg/kg. To put it in perspective, if your horse were to meet its NRC recommendation for iodine by consuming the salt block alone, it would go through one 4# block every 36 days. That's a rate of 1.7 ounces a day, which does fall under the recommended salt consumption of the horse of 1-2 ounces a day. ( I'm not sure how long my last block lasted as it was turned into a toy and was smashed to pieces.)

Interestingly enough, iodine, despite having a narrow range of tolerance in the horse, doesn't always make it onto the guaranteed analysis of the feed tag. So if you don't see it listed, but see ingredients such as calcium iodate or potassium iodide, and you're concerned about the overall iodine levels your horse is recieving, call your feed rep and ask. My very quick glance through some commonly fed supplements show that their level of supplementation runs between 1mg to 2mg a day, which by itself isn't enough.

I've ended up putting my horses on a kelp product that provides an iodine analysis. Kelp can range wildly and run exceedingly in regard to iodine content so I wanted to be sure that I wasn't feeding too much.

And thus ends my PSA for the day. Find the iodine. Whether it be in the salt block, supplement, or feed, just make sure it's there!

Why yes, I have put formaldehyde on my horses!

Over the years I've tried almost every combination of sole hardener and or thrush remedy on the market. Sugardine. Venice Turpentine. Thrushbuster. Apple cider vinegar. Bleach. Durasole. White Lightning. Today. Tomorrow. Pete's goo. A few of which contain aldehydes.

*Technically speaking* we all know that sometimes the best remedy is a proper trim and diet. If the horse has wee little contracted heels and thrushy frogs sure you treat for thrush, but you also have to try to get those heels to open up too. If your horse has paper thin soles, well, maybe it would be best if it wasn't chronically laminitic and currently rotating and sinking. That sort of thing.

I'm lumping thrush and hardening under the same category because after trying multiple products over the years I find that one product addresses both issues better than anything else.

http://www.keratex.net/hoof_gel.htm

It's not even marketed as a hardener or thrush remedy. It's called a hoof protectant. But the result is a harder, thrush free hoof.

Why I like it best is that the majority of all the other products on the market create a "shell" on both sole and frog. There are times that creating such a shell might be desireable. I know of no better product to apply to a flimsy sole than Durasole. Apply it to the clean sole by the drop and use a wire brush to scrub it in. Wear glasses so it doesn't flick into your eyeballs. It's amazing how much relief the "shell" it creates provides the horse. It's particularly useful on an overtrimmed sole or the recently deshod horse.

Alas, but that shell! What I've found that shells can be great, and with repeated applications you can get them pretty thick. The drawbacks are twofold- one it creates the opportunity to have retained sole. The shell does not act like regular sole or frog and does not exfoliate like regular sole or frog. Exfoliation is a good thing, retained is not.

And under the shell, things can work their way in and hide. I have repeatedly found products that create a great looking frog, but through a crack, etc., thrush has found it's way to the inside of the frog and underneath that exterior the interior is being eaten away. The shell will pop off, revealing a ratty tattered frog underneath.

Keratex Hoof Gel does not do that. Soles harden but exfoliate. Frogs plump and grow but do not periodically "shed".

I still use the Today product or Pete's goo if I want to knock down a particularly rabid looking case of thrush, but for daily maintenance of the hoof, the Keratex Hoof Gel is my product of choice.

And for everything a reason.

For years Ian has had a jekyl and hyde personality between summer and winter. Although I had chalked it up to "horses are more wound up in the winter" I still tried to find ways to prevent it, as it's annoying as hell to me and must be uncomfortable for him.

It starts predictably at the same time of the year every year. He becomes uncomfortable in his own skin- spooking while standing out in the pasture, tight in his body, unwilling to move well under saddle. Under saddle I describe it as "it's like his hind end falls off".

Over the years I've tried everything. More hay. Blankets. Joint stuff. More grain. (oddly enough, more grain does seem to help) But still it's never *quite right*.

This year, same thing. He went from Mr. Wonderful to Mr. Tight and Insane. I did all my usual things. Do what you always do, get what you always get. Yup.

So I tried some Gastrogard. Magic. Back to his quiet, nuzzly, summer self.

Is the answer to keep him on Gastrogard all winter? (or even the Blue Pop Rocks gastrogard?) My wallet cringed!!

I can't keep hay in front of him all day, both he and his pony would be founder fat in no time. I tried to think of what I could keep available to them all day long that wasn't particularly tasty.

Straw.

Googling found that horses on an all straw for forage diet showed a higher incidence of ulcers. BUT, horses bedded on straw showed a lower incidence of ulcers. http://www.kohnkesown.com/ulcers1.pdf The assumption is that in conjunction with their regular forage, the straw gives them something to nibble on all day.

Bedding on straw? Would hurt my wallet about as much as the Gastrogard!

My compromise was this: After I clean the stalls I put one thin flake of straw on top of the shavings.

I sat back and watched, fingers crossed that they wouldn't gorge and create an impaction colic.

They didn't gorge. They lightly pick at the straw all day, which is exactly as I intended. The rest gets trodden into the bedding. I go through about a bale of straw a week for all 2.3 of them.

So far, Ian does seem happy.

Horsie electrolytes, homemade or???

Ever the frugal horse owner I scoured the internet looking for a good homemade electrolyte recipe, hoping to save myself some cash. I found one I really liked.

26oz (1 canister) non-iodized salt
22oz (2 canisters) lite salt (salt/potassium chloride)
2T epsom salts (magnesium sulfate)

Mix thoroughly, feed as you would any other electrolyte. I mixed up a few batches and fed them out, utterly proud of myself. Then I bothered to add up the expense. Totalling the prices of the ingredients as purchased at the local grocery store came up with a total of $5.79 for 49 ounces, or .12 per one ounce serving.

A 15# bucket of Apple-A-Day electrolytes through Smartpak costs me .12 per one ounce serving with a lot less work. Plus it smells yummy.