General Chat

who would like to join me for some horsey chit chat???

Julia (in Cambs)

Thanks Shelley!
Ha Ha Running bear!!

Julia we have fab horses on the mountains semi wild with flowing manes have a few pics this sounds like we have all wildlife only here! no but some animals I never saw in the Midlands. I am in S.Wales.

Hello Julia, yes I had horses, but gave up riding after my last boy took ill and died in 2005.......and I took up with GR......do you ride now.....

hi. I have 3 horses here, 2 are mine and one is a livery. I ride whenever i can although the weather over the last 3 months has ruined it some what!
Julia (in cambs)

hi julia
i got a big softy at moment!
but he going up for sale!

i ride me mates dressage horse too,& jus started to help with an appaloosa!
sue

Julia in Cambs., I am sending you a PM

Julia in Derbyshire

Have only ever had someones horse to spend the summer out in our field, and fed it. Lovely natured beast. Horses are sooooo beautiful.

Hullo Julia,
Have been dying to ask someone this. What do you do with all that snow and ice about and you have horses? Are they kept in a stable all the time and only taken out for exercise? I don't have horses only two female donkeys but my neighbour has five horses and a rescued pony. She does a bit of dressage. Where I live in Aust. it has been 40+ on and off with the occasional cool spell since December and it hasn't rained since November so snow and cold is not something we understand. I would be interested to hear what your main health problems would be as mine are keeping the girls weight down so that they don't founder .With a lot of bare earth about and no feed in the paddocks sand colic can be a problem at the end of summer.

NEAREST I GET IS
THELWELL'S BOOKS

i wii
mr Ed (sorry could not resist it)

Hi All,
i thought there must be a few horsey people on here!!

Marjery- during the snow I kept mine in for a couple of days when it was at its worst but usually let them out to stretch thier legs even if only for a hour, they usually wanted to come straight back in again as there was no grass to eat!! one of the worst bits is trying to get them up to the field safley as we have to go over some concrete walkways which were deadly in the snow and ice.
With regards to Founder, i think thats what we call Laminitas? it does cause a problem particulary for native breeds as they are not designed to eat good pasture. My welsh Sec D mare gets it particularly badly apparently, i only got her last July so am dreading the spring grass flush which is when it is usually a problem for her, it has been hard to keep weight on her over the winter as the stuff I would usually feed isnt suitable for laminitics due to its high sugar content although so far she has been ok.

Moonchild, sad to hear of your loss, I lost my old mare in Septameber last year, i had her for 14 years and she was 31 when she went, a really hard decision to make but definatley for the best, its only now when I look at photos of her that I realise how much she had gone down hill and lost her spark :'(

Poshpixie-Dressage! not my thing, i havn't got the patience.also none of mine are ever clean enough to take out to shows LOL!! what are you doing with the apaloosa, is it just being broken?

Lovely to hear from you all-anyone else out thier that wants to join in, I would love to hear about what you've got and what you do with them

Julia (in Cambs)

One thing I don't miss about winter is cracking the ice on the troughs......lol....... we were lucky because he used to sew his hayfields with grasses suitable for horses, so his hay was always in demand......we also got our straw from him as he grew wheat......

We put our horses out as well for an hour or so, and in the snow would put out seperate piles of hay, enough for each horse plus one extra pile so they would not squabble over it.....

That is very interesting hearing how you deal with the snow.
We grow oats on our property which is cut and baled for hay while the sap is still in the stalk and not gone into the head to make seed. It is sold to feedstores for fodder for mainly horses. Our donkeys get half a biscuit of hay at night time and they love it. They get chaff,bran,dolomite,sulphur,sunflower seeds, a pinch of ginger powder, chopped carrots all mixed up with cider vinegar for breakfast. Delicious. To combat Laminitus (founder) they also get 10gms of Founderguard. I don't know what it is but ,touch wood ,it has kept founder at bay since 2004. It neutralizes their stomach juices and prevents the enzymes going down to their hoofs and coming out in abcesses. I will have to have another read of the tin to refresh my memory.
We paint their hoofs with a hoof oil mixture to stop them drying out and flaking in summer. Walking over the ground when it is over 38C is like walking on a hot plate, their hoofs get very hard in summer, and in winter we spray a bit of iodine on the bottom of their hoofs. So far we haven't had any seedy toe in the ten years we have had them doing this. Some people soak the feet in a copper sulphate solution once a week for the same thing.
I agree with you, losing an animal is very sad. I have just had to have my elderly donkey euthanised because her teeth were so worn down she was virtually starving to death. She was almost forty.

Hi Julia, Moonchild and Marjery

I own a horse, she is a partbred Arab, I bred her from a mare I owned. I've been riding since I was 7 but didn't get my own horse till I was 20, my girl is 19 in June, We do a bit of showing and dressage.

When the snow was around she didn't go out for a couple of days but I put her out for a couple of hours after that to stretch her legs, she and her friends just stand at the gate saying ' you're having a laugh, where's all the grass gone!!!!' lol

Recently two friends of mine lost their horses, one at Christmas and another a couple of weeks ago. Very sad.

Marjary, never heard of Foundergaurd, the only thing we do for laminitus is to resrict grazing in the spring and summer

x

hi all

mates dressage horse is out of action as £2,500 OPP on his leg!
he stayed at vets to keep him calm,as he bit nutty, we goin to pick him up this thurs! after a lot of sedation!
the appalosa is jus to help out as he,s on loan but doesnt get any attention,
he seems quite able to do allsorts & will put him thru paces soon to see what he can do!
we dont suffer with laminitis but we have the fields topped regulary,
had a few years with bad mud fever, but we dont wash legs off anymore &
so far so good!

More snow again today :( thats another day in for them!
I managed to get out for a ride at the weekend, the first proper one for ages as the weather and ground has been so bad. my mare was full of beans which was great as there are still a couple of stubble fields that we are allowed to ride on, we got soaked and frozen through but it was brilliant!!
roll on the better weather and lighter evenings so I can ride after work, this time of year is all the hard work without the fun!!

Hello Yvonne, that is what we had to do, restrict the grazing, it used to be a nightmare with the natives when the lush spring grass came through.......my 15.2 Welsh/Hackney only had it once thank goodness, but my 15hh Welsh/TB had it frequently in the years before he died,.......not through the grass, because he was on box rest for a time due to an op he had and was kept off grass.......but due to a disease he had......Equine Cushings, and that is what did for him.....

....because a side effect of Cushings is laminitis - despite very careful management and feeding, his pedal bones rotated.......not so far as to penetrate the sole, but enough to make him a bit footy......and I could not have the shoes removed because it would cause more rotation of the pedal bone.......case of damned if you do, and damned if you don,t.....he was a schoolmaster for dressage and eventing.....

We used to bring the sheep in to eat all the spring flush of feed and trample it down in the donkeys area because they don't really like green grass they prefer dried up anything else. In winter they are restricted to their pen and have a lot of barley straw to pick at and are let out for a pick for a short time just for exercise.
My neighbour who does dressage has lost three horses in the last nine years. One had navicular disease I cant remember what he died of, the second had a twisted bowel and died at the vetinary School and the last one had swallowed something sharp which turned into a big abcess in his stomach and killed him. Two of her horses have been ex race horses and the one she has got now is a stock horse but has been trained for dressage and can do everything. Only she is not quite up to his standard and has had a nasty tumble off him and is nursing her bruises so I hear.
We bought a very nice appaloosa for our young grandaughter a few years ago. He could do everything, dressage, jumping, eventing and Pony Club and could even bow to the judge. He was a lovely dark brown or black with a lot of white bird droppings on his rump, a blanket I think it is called. I had all of my four grandaughters taught to ride when they were young. One decided she didn't like horses, two were keen for a while and have now moved on to other interests and the youngest is horse mad only she lives in the city and has been having riding lessons regularly for the last few years. I would love to buy her a horse only there is no where to keep it and to stable it would cost $100 a week without feed where she lives.

Hi All,

re Founderguard, I used something called Laminaze last summer, couldnt really tell if it helped as she was also on restricted grazing, although it does seem that supplementing Magnesium can help which is mostly what Laminaze seems to be.

Poshpixie-I hope you friends horse has made a full recovery and that picking him up goes well! £2500!! horses are so expensive especially when things start going wrong!!