And people wonder why their horses are foundering

Wow it's started already this morning. my very first customer to come in the store buys some grass seed and straw then happens to notice the logo on my work shirt has a barrel racer above it. Ding ding ding it occurs to him that I am a horse person so he begins to ask me questions. Now this I don't mind as I sad before I'm all about educating people as to proper care of their equine family. Well this guy starts asking me about feeds and hay. So I tell him about the feeds we caryy and hay we supply. He wants to know the price of Alfalfa so I tell him and he says ok I'll take a bale of that and a bag of the mare & foal feed. "Cool" I think he's got a mommma and baby that he's really taking care of. I ask him what kind of horses he's raising and he says "Oh I dont have any babies, this is for my 8 year old pony and her 18 year old pasture mate. My vet reccomended I feed them this twice a day. The pony is foundered and the 18 year old is super skinny" SCREEEEEEECCHHH my helping instinct comes to a hault. WHAT??? Feed a foundered horse a 16% protein 6% crude fat feed AND alfalfa hay... what kind of vet is this????? The guy continues babling on about how his poor pony is lame and he can't understand why she wont get better when the vet reccomended something that is supposed to work. I stop him right there and say ok first off you need a new vet, no vet in their right mind if going to tell you to feed a hay and grain both so high in protein twice a day to a foundered pony. Secondly pull that pony off of the pasture, STOP giving it that feed and hay and get it some help. Call a new vet to come examine the pony , call a farrier to do corrective trimming and keep it up todate on it's trim. I also reccomended to feed it a supplement called Remission which is geared towards horses and ponies that have foundered or are prone to foundering. The all natural ingredients in it help the symptoms to go away and also keep them from having a flare up. I calmly explained that all he was doing was feeding the pony to death "Really? ... I'm killing her by feeding that much????" So I gave him the run down of founder and it's consequences if left unchecked. he looked at me and said "I need the number of a good vet and farrier" So I gave him my vet's number and my farriers number. He bought a tub of the remission and some B-L to help ease her pain until the vet got there. Said he was going home putting her in their round pen and calling Doc right up. I'm atleast thankful he wasn't starving the horse to death......... he was just killing her with love and kindness. And AND he's taking responsibility and FIXING his mistakes. THANK YOU LORD for allowing this man some common sense!!!!!!!! I know in yesterday's blog I ranted about folks not feeding properly, now on the complete opposite end of that are the people who feed too well..... how can there be such extremes????? Don't get me wrong I'd much rather see a horse with a huge belly than none at all, it is after all easier to work fat off than put it on. But why can't peple use some common sense and thought when feeding horses? They need a BALANCED diet too.... well let's see what the rest of the day brings... yall might be having an update!

Let's Talk Supplements

I've noticed that while I carry an enormous selection of equine supplements in my store, not many people seem to purchase any for their beloved equine family member(s). I have a 21 year old qh mare whom I religiously feed her joint supplements to. A rescue pony who gets 2 daily servings of a weight builder supplement and 2 performance horses who get a join supplement (b/c I barrel race and as we all know those quick turns have a tendency to be hard on the joints) and they also get a coat supplement. What gets me about it is people are fanatic about stuffing themselves full of things like calcium , msm , chondrotion and glucosamine yet they don't think that horses might need that to be comfortable too...... I figure it's because people don't really know what supplements are for what , what they do or are used for.. etc etc etc. So With that said lets learn :)

Hoof Supplements
An inadequate diet eventually will make itself felt throughout the horse's body. He'll usually have a dull, staring coat, poor muscle tone, no energy, and the growth of his hooves will be slower than normal, resulting in splitting, cracking, and difficulty holding a shoe.
Hoof supplements usually contain biotin as the main ingredient. Biotin also known as vitamin H or b7 has the chemical formula C10H16N2O3S. is a water-soluble B-complex vitamin which is composed of an ureido (tetrahydroimidizalone) ring fused with a tetrahydothiphene ring. A valeric acid substituent is attached to one of the carbon atoms of the tetrahydrothiophene ring. Biotin is a cofactor in the metabolism of fatty acids and leucine, and in gluconeogenisis. Biotin is also helpful in maintaining a steady blood sugar level. Biotin is often recommended for strengthening hooves and hair coat. As a nutrient, biotin is involved in glucose metabolism, the processes of cell growth and division, and the utilization of other B vitamins such as niacin. And because it contains sulfur, an element needed for the formation of the reinforcing bonds between strands of collagen, biotin plays a role in the health of all connective tissues as well as the hair coat and the hooves. Reliable research supporting the use of biotin to encourage better hoof growth in horses has been slow to surface. Most of the reasoning behind supplementing equine diets with this vitamin comes from studies in other species. In many animals, various types of hoof and/or foot lesions have been treated well by supplementing biotin, therefore it's a reasonable assumption that it could in fact provide the same results in horses, in the past 10 years research has shown this to be correct. In a 1991 study, for example, 42 Lipizzan stallions at the Spanish Riding School in Austria participated in a double-blind examination of biotin supplementation. Over two years, 26 of the stallions received 20 mg of biotin daily in their feed, while another 16 stallions received a placebo. The conditions of the horses' hooves - which had been crumbly, thin, and had a tendency to crack at the weight-bearing border - showed significant improvement after they had been on biotin for nine months. There were fewer hoof cracks, less crumbling of the horn and greater measurable tensile strength. This and other similar studies have at last demonstrated that there's something to this biotin stuff.Feeding biotin at a level that has an impact on hoof growth is not really a matter of correcting a deficiency. In essence, it's taking a nutrient and feeding it at a level beyond normal requirements, at which it really becomes a therapeutic medication. Fortunately, biotin, like all B vitamins, is water soluble, which means it's not stored in the horse's tissues. The body uses what it needs and eliminates the rest in the urine. So there's very little chance of a horse developing biotin toxicity. (This bit of info came from the following website http://www.petplace.com/horses/do-supplements-give-horses-healthier-hooves/page1.aspx)

There are many various brands of biotin based goof supplements
Farnam has
Horseshoers Secret which contains 15mg of biotin per 6oz scoop
Horseshoers Secret Concentrate = 25mg per 2 oz scoop
Vita-min Biotin = 6.25 mg per scoop
H.B. 15 = 15mg per scoop

Select Supplements
Nu-Hoof Accelerator = 20mg per 2 oz scoop
Nu-Hoof Max = 30mg per 2oz scoop

Those are just a few of what I offer in store. There are many many others.

Joint care



The harder a horse works or the older they get, the more stress is placed on their joints. Stands to reason that you would want to protect those joints. Most joint supplements are now a combination of ingredients for optimum joint health and repair, though you can still purchase each ingredient separately. We'll start with the main ingredients

Glucosamine helps to repair damage to tendons , joints and/or cartilage. Glucosamine is a type of sugar charged molecule used in the production of proteoglcycans. Proteoglcyans are essential for the building of joint cartilage as they maintain the amount of water found in cartilage. Cartilage needs to be squishy and absorbent, bouncing back to it's original shape when compressed, or you are left with dry, brittle cartilage in knees and hips that can be painful.


Chondroitin is a natural component of joint cartilage and chondroitin sulfate is believed to block certain enzymes that tend to break down cartilage. While experts disagree on how much chondroitin is actually absorbed when taken orally, preliminary findings suggest that chondroitin supplements are linked to the stabilization and sometimes the functional restoration of certain arthritic joints. Chondrotins and hyalurionic acids are used to "lube" the joints. They help to replace the fluids in between the joints to stop the popping and creaking often heard when a senior horse moves.

MSM
in a nutshell MSM is a great supplement that helps with the joints and also helps to "push" other supplements into the horses system at a quicker rate. B/c there is such vast information on MSM, instead of typing all of it out or copying and pasting from another site and referencing it I'm taking the lazy way out and just posting a link :)
http://www.sheld.com/sehorses.html

Basic Everyday Health Supplements.

There are many supplements used for just overall health. There's Nu-Image which is a skin and coat conditioner , Clovite , Nu-Image dark , Red Cell , Yucca , Healthy Coat by Manna Pro , and many many more. As I said above, we as humans are constantly showing vitamins and minerals into ourselves to make us feel better and perform better. Why not do the same for our horses?

Poptart A Rescue Pony

Poptart is a 52'' bay pony mare who came to me in April of this year. She had been used on pony ride for 3 years and apparently during those 3 years, never fed. She came to me a 1 on the body score chart . She was so pitiful that when laying down she looked like a wooly lil buffalo. The lady I bought her from wanted 300.00 for her and even though she was far from worth it I forked over the cash and loaded the lil snot (at that point called Lacey) in a trailer and took her home. She had a spark in her eyes that said "I'm a fighter and when I get better I PROMISE you I'll be a dang good pony" . That spark and the spunk she showed in the followinf days earned her the name of Poptart. She's be down in the pasture snoozing when I'd go to feed the other horses and I'd shake a bucket of feed and she's pop right up off the ground and beat he big horses to the fence. I'd whistle if they were in the back and she's always be the first one down, never failed. Such spunk. Because I didn't know the Tart's history well I started her out by worming her with Safeguard and then at my vet's recomendation worming her with an additional dose 2 weeks later. We started her off on 2 cups of 10% Supreme Co-Op horse feed twice a day until she had gotten used to eating grain again. All the free choice hay she could get and thanks to my job position a vendor gave me a free 22# tub of high fat supplement called Penwoods Body Builder. She soon was putting on weight and living up to the promise that showed in her eyes. Poptart still has a long way to go to being 100% healthy and fat. As it is now she's probably at about a 3 almost a 4 with 5 being the ideal scale. What irks me about the whole thing is the people who owned her continued to work her on the pony rides even in the condition she wa sin. She has scarring over her back where each vertabrae is from sores caused by the pressure of a saddle and rider on her back when she was literally a walking skeleton. How can someone claim to love their animals and yet allow them to slowly starve to death? Whats really sad is this woman had about 20 other ponies in the same lot at the Tart and ALL of them looked that way, one of them she wnated 800 bucks for..... I hope there have been others that have gone to her and escued some of these ponies. If I can figure out how I'll up[load before and after pictures of Poptart.

First Blog! And I must say this should prove to be fun ;)

So Fugly Horse Of The Day inspired me to start this and lets hope I can do a remotely good job at keeping this blog up. If I can even be half as creative and everything that Fugly is I'll be happy:) So To start off let me give a brief background of myself and it will let yall know why I'm doing this blog.

My name is Heather and I'm 26 years old. I live in TN and manage the equine section of a farm store. I've had horses for numerous years and have made it my life to educate myself and other as to the proper care, handling and stabling of horses. I started a degree at MTSU in Horse Science and unfortunately have yet to finish it, though as of Spring 2009 that will be remedied when I start classes again. As the equine mgr of this store I am employed at I see my fair share of good, honest hard working horse folk and like everything else those good people are often times shadowed by plain old idiots. It's these idiots and the havoc they create for me that gave me need to start a blog. Lord knows my co-workers are tired of hearing me rant to them ;) So my first rant is going to be about wounds and wound care....

Today first thing this morning before we even get the lights turned on to the store a woman comes beating on the door visibly in a panic over something. We get the lights on the registers up and running and unlock the door. As I'm opening up the door shes pushing past me talking about a mile a minute. "I need vet wrap, where is vet wrap??? I need Penicillin and syringes, i need tetanus shots... etc etc " She's talking s fast I barely understand whatshe is wanting me to find her. So I calm this woman down and ask her what exactly is she needing it for. Turns out her horse somehow got hung up in the bars of his stall and ripped from his knee down to the cornet almost down to bone, she claims you can see bone on part of it. they don't know how long he had been hanging there like that but he had been there for a bit (her exact words) b/c he had urinated and thrashed around enough to get cover in manure, the urine and shavings and also be drenched in sweat. So she is wanting all this stuff b/c after they cut the bar and freed this poor horse she's going to Dr it until he's well. Well right there I wanted to stop her, smack the shit out of her and say "Are you FUCKING STUPID?????" First off if a horse has had his leg caught in the METAL bars of a stall why are you coming to the local feed store instead of calling your vet? There is no telling how much internal damage that poor horse has sustained. Secondly how do you think you can doctor a wound as severe as what this gelding has and do a good job of it? It's been open so dirt and germs are more than likely abounding in the wound... penicillin is NOT going to cut it for antibiotics, you'd need something stronger. And did I mention she said the horse still had not gotten up after they cut him loose? Whats sad is I see and hear things like this on a weekly basis. Sometimes even on a daily basis. You know some minor wounds are ok to treat yourself but leave the big nastys to a vet , don't come to the feed store and expect us to tell you how to bandage a gaping wound that probably needs stitches and xrayed. CALL A DVM For those that don't know what the letters mean that means CALL A DAMN VET!!!! Ugh idiots kill me sometimes. It's folks like this woman and many other customers I've had in the last couple of years that make me believe that before you buy a horse you should have to take a test and pass it with flying colors and then be allowed to buy a horse but you have to be checked on periodically for 6 or more months before you are turned loose to go at it alone. And sadly just since that woman came in this mornig I have had a phone call askign what to do if a horse has a huge oozing knot on the side of it's jaw that has not gone away after 2 weeks..... sigh my resposne.... Call the vet and please find the horse a new home