Our French intern has arrived and she's really wasting no time getting to work! She helps out in every way, from training, to barn chores - she does it all.
And she has a passion for horses! She has been riding since the age of eight and has obtained Galop 6 in the French Federation of Equitation. As you can see, she really knows how to get Max to step out!
Gaia has also been helping out with lessons and even taught our summer "Mom & Me" how to play "one, two, three, Redlight" in French! The kids loved it!!
She's getting real knowledgeable on barefoot trimming, as she's always helping out when Joanna, our holistic horse person comes around.
She loves to take alot of pictures, too and she's blogging about her time in California, so you can follow Gaia on her own blog (it is in French, though, so good luck reading it!) You'll be seeing lot's more of her here! We are really enjoying working with her! Gaia comes to Kids Horsin' Around through a foreign intern program, the Council on International Education Exchange, (CIEE) and is here to learn about equestrian school management, schooling, training and lesson programs.
So Jack's back on ulcer medicine - Ranitidine 11 tabs twice a day. He was treated about half a year ago when he started showing signs of gastric ulcers i.e. grinding his teeth, weight loss, dull coat, picking at feed. One month of Ranitidine and he improved tremendously. Lately though, his mood has been awful (down right grumpy!! Way out of character for him!), coat very dull and he's getting very thin. So back on Ranitidine two days ago and already I see a difference in his coat and attitude!
Max is also on Ranitidine twice a day since his episode with what appeared to have been gastric ulcers, although we never made it as far to get the endoscopy. The Gastrogard we gave him for a week and a half seemed to cure him of what ever it was he was suffering from.
To get the horses to take the eleven pills twice a day is not that easy. You can't just ram them down their throat like you might do with a dog. Twice each day I have to:
Grind the pills in a mortar and pestle
Soak the grinds in hot water to dissolve
mix in 1/4 cup molasses, grated carrots and apples
the above mixture is then added to soaked beet pulp & alfalfa pellets
The horses are really enjoying the new turn-out we recently built for them. It's about one quarter sloping acre with trees! The group that gets along best is Tango, Flash, Zim, Star, Sugar and Emmy.Jack gets in and tends to bully everybody - everybody ends up with bite marks on their backs. Tommy Boy was alittle too anxious when he went in, so we didn't leave him there alone yet - he's back in his roomy 24 x 24 paddock. Connor is too old and infirmed and even gets beaten up by the minis! Max was too sick up until a few days ago, but he's in there now and enjoys running with the herd. He still needs to add weight.
We're continuing to clear a path around the perimeter of the property to make a totally circular turnout so the horses can run continuously (and escape the bullies). I'll have to scan a blueprint of the proposed turnout. It's going to be very cool!!
The GastroGard appears to have done the trick!! Good thing, too, because the next step was to take him to San Luis Rey Equine Hospital for a fiber-optic endoscope (Gastroscope). Wow!! And I thought the GastroGard was expensive!!!!
I did have a few offers of psychic readings - and I was honestly thinking seriously about that!! I was desperate to help Max!
Luckily, Max seems to have responded (slowly) to the GastroGard. He's eating his own food now, and he prefers the tender, green leaves of the alfalfa - I'll give him just about anything as long as he eats!! He probably lost 50 -75 lbs! Everything seems to be coming out the other end just fine, too!
Tired of rotational deworming? Or just like to try something that is perhaps less chemically invasive? less prone to resistant-buildup? In all my years of being around horses, and struggling to keep on a good deworming schedule or dealing with a horse (Max!!) that would rather flip over backwards (almost) than take a dewormer paste, I can't understand why nobody ever told me about diatomaceous earth as a mechanical/physical internal parasite control!!
This stuff does just about everything good and nothing bad!! You gotta love that!!!
Diatomaceous earth is the remains of microscopic one-celled plants (phytoplankton) called diatoms that lived in the oceans and lakes that once covered the western part of the United States. Apparently, it works by slicing open the internal parasite with microscopic razor sharp edges, then the powdery diatoms sucks the life out of the parasite leaving them dehydrated and dead!
I have started top dressing soaked beet pulp with one cup of diatomaceous earth for each horse. This is all part of my move away from processed, sugary feeds and towards formulating a more natural feed based on the horse's individual needs.
Max is still on Gastroguard - sixth day now - and doesn't have the up and down, turning around episodes anymore! Yeah! He is still not eating much, and what little he does eat, he prefers to steal from his neighbors! He has a whole trough full of food untouched, yet he will squeeze his head through the pipe rails (at the expense of his beautiful mane) to pinch a bite from Connor's trough! There must be some psychological battles going on here as well!!
Yes, this looks like your standard case of colic, and he certainly is suffering from some sort of major stomach ache, but I don't think this is your typical "colic".
This horse does not have a history of colic.
Max is a 20 yr. old American Saddlebred; he's been in my care for 8 yrs. Prior to that, he was a lesson horse at L.A. Equestrian Center (or so I'm told). He's had a nice cushy life with me; I've used him on lazy trail rides, and low key arena work - he's high spirited and an alpha horse. Until recently, he was on Bermuda grass and Creekside Life Stages only. With the coming of Joanna the Holistic Natural Hoof Practitioner, his diet has been modified gradually over time to cut out sugars, and move more towards formulating for specific dietary needs, i.e. still mostly Bermuda grass with a mash of soaked beet pulp, biotin, sea kelp, Red Cell.
It started about three weeks ago...
He was out for a lesson and something just wasn't right - he's a fast, forward moving horse, and that day he was notably slow, sluggish...off!
He was put on paddock rest and observed. He hung his head and licked his lips alot. Doctor called out; vital signs all checked out good.
Within a few days, green snot began running out his left nostril. His stance was odd - he stood with his nose almost on the ground with his head tilted to one side. Doctor called out; again all vital signs checked out good, sinuses not terrible congested; and he was put on sulfur based antibiotic SMZ (Sulfamethoxazole 800 mg and Trimethoprim 160 mg) 16 tablets twice a day. In a few days, the green rheumy nose cleared up, but his stance got worse. His eating was off, he began to go down and lay completely flat several times a day. He was still passing good manure and still eating alittle.
Doctor called out; took a blood sample on June 1st (Max had hepatitis about three years ago with similar symptoms); I'm thinking maybe he has hepatitis again, 'coz he's just not getting any better! We got the results the same day - all blood levels normal! Vital signs still normal; gut sounds still fairly normal - considering he's now not eating and looking very gaunt! Doctor thinks maybe ulcers.
On June 2nd, yesterday, we started dosing Gastroguard. This video was taken today, after a second dose of Gastroguard. No improvement in his condition. He's up and down like this several times an hour; and stands with his head to the ground, tilted to one side. Not eating - no manure at all today.
I gave him Banamine tonight after calling the doctor; tomorrow we will oil him. I'm wondering if there is such a thing as chronic colic and if so, what causes it, or more importantly, how do you control it?
Has anybody had similar symptoms with a horse? And what did you do about it? It doesn't really seem like a standard colic, but what else is there that manifests like this?
Test results on Max's blood work show no abnormalities; liver looks good, so not hepatitis. We're going to try Gastroguard for ulcers. Max looks awful - he's up, then down completely supine, 2o times a day. He's not eating. Stomping. Looks very gaunt! I hope this Gastroguard works.
Spent almost the entire day trimming back poisonous Oleander bushes from the perimeter fence in the new turn-out. Husband Bob and daughter Kristin helped, as well as Jessika (who turns out to be quite the little task master!) and Donnie - thank goodness, because it was a tremendous amount of work. We trimmed back about 150 feet of shrub brush over hang; then meticulously raked up every old, dry Oleander leaf that had fallen along the fence line over the last 10 years. (It's extremely toxic - even the dry leaves!) When we thought we had gotten every last leaf, we brought out the leaf blower (and blew any remaining leaves back through the fence into the neighbor's yard - they are his trees, after all!!) I still felt like I should bring out my vacuum cleaner just to be sure.....
We loaded two truckloads of clippings, then order pizza for delivery.
I was happy to find that Jessika and Donnie like Hawaiian Pizza, too, because nobody in my family will eat it, so I can never order it for family pizza dinner.
Dinner a la fresco!!
Tonight, we have Jack, Zim, Flash and Tango in the new turnout.
Max is still very sick - I've called the doctor (well...I texted him!) and he'll be out tomorrow to draw a blood sample. I bet he has hepatitis again!!
Need to ask the doctor tomorrow what he's found out about hyperthyroidism in horses (i.e. Jack)
Today, Jessika and I took Max and Tango to Fallbrook Riders Field for a change of pace. What a great place to ride, even in 96 degree heat!! Full size dressage arena, super-size stadium jumping arena and a cross-country course with every imaginable obstacle to maneuver up, over or around! A local field for local riders! We are very lucky to have it!
Anyhow, Tango was not on his best behavior. But Max, who just turned 20 yrs., and we've been working together as a team for 8 years, is really coming into his own. He is a fine horse, with his one (major) fault being he doesn't have great brakes! We keep working on it, but he just doesn't like to stop.......
At this time in his life, he has decided he likes to jump! So we're starting out together in a small way, jumping! I'm lovin' it, he's lovin' it!
But Tango, the young whippersnapper, has a ways to go!!
Been awhile since I've posted to this blog - been working on the Wild Horse Conservation blogsite.
Meanwhile, Jesskia's been faithfully working with Jack, trying to get him to lift his feet and walk gracefully over a ground pole without clipping and stumbling each hoof as he drags it over the pole. Honestly, we were thinking "maybe dressage is too high an aspiration for this guy...if we can just get him out on trail without him falling over his feet, that would be good!" As you can see, Jack has had an "Ah ha!" moment!! Here he is trotting over a cavaletti with barely a brush of his hoof! So, we're all really proud of Jack.
And...we decided it was time for him to try playing with a friend. Jack has always been turned out alone because when he was first brought here, he did not play nicely with the other geldings. But he and Max have often sniffed noses at the fence and since the both have full shoes, it would be a fair fight if there was to be one, so Max joined Jack in the turn-out. They got along very well, and in fact, the encounter was rather unspectacular!
For whatever reason (certainly not because of age!!), I kind of move along a slow and steady path of more classical training, like the kind you find in books. And then, along comes Jessika and throws in a creative twist that gives me pause for thought. Like today! She calls me down to the arena and tells me to bring my camera. And there she has the jumping standards up and Max in the arena free jumping!! Old, hollow-back, high-head Saddlebred, Max! Now I had a dressage diva once try to lunge Max over a small cavaletti and he refused. She said, "he would never be able to jump! He just wasn't built for it"! So I never gave it another thought.
But there he was, jumping and lovin' it! (or the treats he received after each jump!) Max was clearly enjoying this new challenge. And honestly, it's not something I would have ever thought to do with him, having already been told he couldn't do it!
That may sound like a major character flaw, not being gutsy enough to try new things like that, but in my defence, I didn't grow up with horses. I learned late in life, from books by Jane Savoie and Betsy Steiner; and the occasional lesson (from the dressage diva), and I would not want to push my old horse to do something an "expert" told me he couldn't do. I am cautious
In general, I'd have to say I am more conservative, by-the-book when it comes to training horses. So it's really nice to have (young!) Jessika come in and throw me these curve balls - the horses sure seem to have fun with it! (Although I draw the line when she gets out the scissors and wants to get creative with their hair!!)
"Horses are not nasty, mean, naughty or malevolent, they are just plain confused and the blame rests fairly on our own shoulders. We have a moral responsibility to train them as best we can." - Dr. Andrew McLean, Australian Equine Behaviour Center.
Followers
"Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily." Johann Friedrich Von Schiller 1759-1805, German Dramatist, Poet, Historian
Our French intern has arrived and she's really wasting no time getting to work! She helps out in every way, from training, to barn chores - she does it all.
es to Kids Horsin' Around through a foreign intern program, the Council on International Education Exchange, (CIEE) and is here to learn about equestrian school management, schooling, training and lesson programs.
For whatever reason (certainly not because of age!!), I kind of move along a 
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