Composting Manure

Don't know what to do with the 10 tons of manure that your horse puts out annually? Great article from the MA Extension on composting manure. Read this doc here:
COMPOSTING MANURE

QUESTIONS ON FEEDING THE HORSE

A respone I wrote in response to a question about how to feed the horse. Thought there might be some of my readers who would benefit:

BASIC GUIDELINES for feeding light horses:

Feed 2 - 2 1/2# of TOTAL FEED per every 100# of live weight. This is per day. So, for a 1000# horse he/she would need a minimum of 20# of food a day. The BASE of this, if not ALL of it should be FORAGE ... hay, grass, weeds, brush, bark, herbs etc. Simple. 20# of Timothy Grass hay will give that horse approx. 16,000 calories a day minimum. If Alfalfa hay then it will be closer to 20,000 calories a day. A 1000# horse at maintenance will need at least 15,000 calories just to maintain weight. If more calories are needed then either increase the intake of forage, add some fat (vegetable oil) or start adding a little bit of high fat, low sugar/carb grain. To this diet, in order to make sure adequate vitamins and minerals are taken in, add an organic multivitamin and free choice minerals and salts. That plus fresh water at all times *should* be enough for the horse to maintain - GENERALLY SPEAKING for an adult, healthy light horse. A horse in light work will need upwards of 18,000 - 20,000 calories a day; a horse in medium work will need 20,000 - 25,000 or more calories.

That being said - every horse is individual and every horse will have different needs one from another. This is just a base guideline from which to formulate. The BEST way is to feed as much organic as possible so you know that the horse is getting the nutrients needed. Processed, chemicalized, etc. feeds lose their viability of nutrients the more they are processed (even tho they may be "enhanced" with added vits. and minerals).

What Kind of Leader are YOU?

In her book Naked Liberty Amigo Publications,
Copyright 2005, Carolyn Resnick describes
leadership in horse herds. She observed three
kinds of leadership personalities; Dominant Leader, Submissive
Leader and True Leader. - WHAT KIND OF LEADER ARE YOU?

"Dominant horses
show no interest in leadership issues such as where
the herd should go for food or how to escape from
danger. Rather, they are interested in dominance
issues such as maintaining or raising their position in
the pecking order." Dominant leaders gain
respect but not love.

Submissive horses
appear sweet and gentle, yet
avoid the fight altogether and back up or back off at the
slightest push. Submissive horses are loved but
not respected.

A horse with true
leadership supports "the
needs of the whole community, from the strongest to
the weakest individual". She brings the herd to food
and looks out for safety. The true leader views the
purpose of leadership "to keep the herd together in a
unified manner for the common good" and "to
maintain peace and keep the horses focused." A
true leader is both respected and loved.

What kind of leader are you in your herd?

VACCINES & LAMINITIS

Once again, this spring, I've noticed a dramatic increase on the number of laminitic horses around Vaccinating time. So much so that I am researching frenetically to put together a viable article on this topic.

Last year at this time I received an overwhelming number of "emergency" calls that came in similar to this, "Hi Gwen. Just thought you might want to know that "Lady" has Laminitis! She's REALLY sore in her fronts! I called the vet and he said she had Laminitis. He thinks that she may have to go into shoes ..." Blah, blah, blah. With every call from one of my own clients I had to seriously question what *I* might have done wrong to cause Laminitis in my normally very sound barefooted clients! When trimming a horse for maintenance hoofcare I don't change the angles or do much else other than to bring back the toes a wee bit (by beveling a 45* angle) as nature would do and level the heels a bit. I never touch sole, rarely touch the bars and generally speaking on my regular clients I rarely rocker the toes as they maintain their own rockers nicely. So what in tarnation causes the horse to go laminitic with a regular maintenance trim!?!?!? I rack my brains, worry myself sick and begin to doubt myself every time. But EVERY CASE it came up (I finally got a bit savvy about it this spring whereas last spring I was stumped for awhile before figuring it all out) that the horse in question had just received Spring Vaccinations within a day to a few prior to the trim!

Last spring, as I stated, I got alot of "emergency" calls from "new" clients ... ones who were calling me for the first time. Again, looking back, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM had *just* received their spring vaccinations a day or two prior to the laminitic attack! This spring, as a current example, I pulled the shoes and trimmed up a horse who was very sore in her recently re-set shoes. Her hooves were very imbalanced, she was very long in the toe and low and forward in the heels; the shoes were not fitting her correctly and the owner asked me to pull them and trim her. So I did. That was in March. In that case I did change the angles of the hooves dramatically and while the horse was a bit tender for the first few days it didn't take long to get another phone call from the owner stating that her horse was moving better and she was more comfortable than she had been for a couple of years! Over the following 5 weeks or so the horse continued to improve and it was noted by all in the stable where she resided as well as by her trainer. The 2nd trim, 5 weeks after the initial trim, I did VERY little to the hooves except to bevel the wall at a solid 45* angle, level off one of the heels and that was it! About a week later I got a note stating the horse was very lame, laminitic and was going back into shoes! The vet felt that since the angles were so altered that it was a "mechanical" laminitis due to the trim. I have to question that strongly as the angles were altered 5 - 6 weeks prior to the laminitic attack and if any 'mechanical laminitis' were to pop up it would have been then. Developmental laminitis lasts for up to just 60 hours before the Acute Laminitic stage. It was weeks past that 60 hrs. time frame. However, upon further questioning, the horse had received Spring shots just shortly before the 2nd trim. That tells me that the Laminitis was metabolically caused; not mechanically.

It seems, upon researching, that horses who have metabolic issues, are going to be more sensitive to vaccinations than those who are healthy. While many horses "appear" to be healthy (ie. easy keepers) it may well be that those "healthy" horses are acutally experiencing upsets in the glucose metabolism and also the hormonal systems which are going undetected. The overloads of carbohydrates, sugars, chemicals, additives, etc. all wreak havoc in any animal's system. More and more research is being done on this topic with more and more alarming findings. ( AHVMA )

My caution to all, now, is this .... IF you have your horses vaccinated do NOT have hoofcare work done within a couple of weeks following the vaccination day. Plan your vaccinations in between hoofcare appointments. Better than that see what vaccinations you can eliminate from your regular "scheduled" routine. It's been recently found that Americans are over-vaccinating their animals (and kids!). There are some excellent websites with good, solid information. Google up a search on "over vaccinating" or just plain "vaccinations" and see what you come up with. Your horse DEPENDS on you 100% for his/her total well-being. It behooves us to learn as much as we can and not just "believe" everything we hear. (including reading this! *grin*)

I will be publishing an in-depth article on this topic shortly. Keep an eye on www.thepenzancehorse.com and www.barefoottrim.com for updates. Thanks! Happy and Safe Horsemanship to You! (and lots of Blessings, too!)

The Journey

This written in response to a forum at NHE:

If one comes from many years as a horseman I think that NHE and its philosophies are a journey into another thought realm and lifestyle. Just as we help the horse to change his or her perceptions of the world around humans we humans must change our perceptions as well. Both species being those that are comfortable with the familiar and both species those that dislike disharmony. Trying to blend two different species together into a singular realm of presence is nothing less than a stupendous effort on both sides. Probably more so for the human than for the horse. But, it is that singular realm of presence that is that which we strive. It is wrought with frustrations and tears and many questions; most of which the horse, if listened to very carefully, can answer for us. We only need to get into the mind existance of the horse, himself, to understand that reality in which our horses live. To do that we must become small in thought ... singular, momentary, that "now" thought and leave the anticipations of what might become or what has past behind. It is a difficult journey at times and filled with what may seem impossible tasks at times but the spirit of the horse, if we seek that, will lead us along the way with the guidance of Our Creator.

Control that Animal!

Control? OK, here's a question ... do we REALLY HAVE CONTROL of a 1200# animal? Ever?:) -- Gwen"

Hi Gwen,

I gonna stick my neck out and answer this one, ...and the answer is a short and simple "No!"

We can attain a simple, very primitive form of 'control' through the use of pain, ...for a while, ...until the fear and the adrenaline kick-in to over-ride the pain, ...and then we've got B-I-G problems 'cos sometime, and somewhere, it *is* going to happen! -The horse *is* going to be pushed over the edge and is going to do whatever it takes to get out of the situation it's in ...-and I certainly never even want to be around when that happens!!!

The only way that I can see of "controlling" a horse is through its mind, -through contact, -through working together, -through learning from each other and through creating a partnership, as pain and force will only work for a limited time at best and will never bring out the best in the horse!

Say that I own an island. I have food, equipment, supplies, ..everything I need, not only to survive and defend myself, but to live very comfortably, ...-and then, one day, another person is washed up on the beach and I take them prisoner and tie them up in a way that limits their movements.

Allow also for this scenario that I am equipped with guns and Tazers and cattle prods and whips, etc., so I can force them to work for me and to do whatever I want, quite literally "on pain of death".

I can stick metal bars or other gags in their mouth, bind their mouth shut with straps, I can force them to carry heavy loads, I can prod them with sharp artefacts or whip them when they don't move fast enough, I can force them to run, I can force them to stand still while I set various straps on them to control the position of their heads, adjust the length of their stride and then force them to run in un-natural ways; I can blind-fold them and make them jump obstacles that they can't see, ....I can, in fact, do whatever I like, both to them and with them, ...but one day they *are* going to snap, they *are* going to rebel, they *are* going to "have a go at me" ...-and what do I do then, -especially if they are bigger than I am??? ("Ahhhh!!!", my pistol is still in my holster and I've let them get too close!)

Now, as this mythical prisoner is a human, the chances are that they would have been able to find out where I slept and would have killed me in my sleep, , but horses don't tend (normally anyway!) to work in this way, even though elephants do, so isn't some sort of "open revolt" the only choice that they have? ...Do we not generally try to do with our horses as "I" have done with my mythical prisoner on my island in the above scenario, ...-and are horses and humans really that different in their natures??? -Prey or predator, we all have similar survival instincts!

Of course, there is something else that I could have done with the person who was washed up on the beach.... -I think! ...Isn't there????

Gordon.