How To GET Connected To Your Horse
Connection for a hunter jumper is when the rider puts the horse in balance so he’s ready to accelerate or collect his stride in an instant and he’s able to run fluidly without loss of rhythm or change of pace. Connection for a hunter jumper is achieved by riding your horse from your inside leg to your outside hand. Your inside leg creates the energy from the horse’s hindquarters which flows forward through the horse. If that energy isn’t contained the horse remains hollow with flat gaits and will tend to go faster and faster. The energy must be properly regulated by the outside hand so the horse becomes connected.
When a horse that is a hunter jumper is a round and soft and properly
Prebiotics and Probiotics What is the Difference?
Horses are commonly feed probiotics which are microbial that are designed to be feed and supplement the population of beneficial cells that primarily exist primarily in the large intestine.
Prebiotics are a nutritional supplement for for the bacteria in the horse’s hind gut, to bolster health in that region. These prebiotics are composed of complex carbohydrates. They provide a a vertical food source that maintains beneficial bacteria in the hind gut. Prebiotics are sources of nutrition for the cells in the cecum and the large intestine. Still prebiotics and probiotics have a symbiotic relationship . The goal of using both is health improvement of the host immolation of the intestinal flora through different mechanisms. Probiotics support digestion and improve immune function.
The purpose of both is either to replicate or stimulate the activity of beneficial bacteria in the large intestine, prebiotics play a role by adding nutrients that escape the fore gut in digestion. Prebiotics are essentially nutrients for good bacteria and allows them to grow and reproduce bringing the maximum population in to the hind gut.
Prebiotics and probiotics have a symbiotic relationship, the goal of using both is health improvement of the horse’s modulation of the intestinal flora through different mechanisms, support digestion,and improve immune function. Prebiotics are essential nutrients for good bacteria and allows them to grow and reproduce bringing maximum population to the hind gut.
Even though we know that when horses are out to pasture grazing the often pick up bacteria beneficial containing micro flora and masses of natural yeast. The amount depends on the time of year and the condition of the pasture and how much grazing time the horse gets. probiotics and prebiotics play an important role in your horse’s life and his health.
Selnium The Quiet Killer
Horses need selenium to survive. Selenium is a trace mineral found in the soil that horses utilize as a component of an enzyme that protects cell membranes from damage by normal cell metabolism. It also works in conjunction with vitamin E. In general horses require about one to three mg. of selenium each day.
Selenium deficiency occurs when soil in pastures is deficient and the horses don’t get enough from grazing. Most deficiencies can be made up if the proper amount of hay and grain concentrates are fed during the day. Symptoms of low selenium are a decreased immune system, muscle breakdown, which is known as nutritional muscular dystrophy, or white muscle disease.
Too much selenium is toxic, causing hoof problems, laminitis and hair loss of the mane and tail, and eventually death.
In the U.S . Polo Tournament last year, in April of 2009, 21 of 36 horses from the Lechuza Caracas polo team died from a compound that their vet prescribed for the polo ponies. He was trying to make a compounding drug that is similar to the drug Biodyl, which is not approved in the U.S. The prescription was filled at the Franks Pharmacy, which is a compounding pharmacy in Florida.
Only the 21 horses given the injection got sick and died. The others were fine. It was an awful scene. The first few horses got sick and died in their stalls. Then some of the horses started falling down on the polo field. Play stopped and all the horses that were left were loaded up and taken home and by the next day all 21 were dead.
At first officials didn’t know whether the vet who wrote the prescription had made a mistake or if the pharmacy had filled it wrong. An internal investigation of the pharmacy revealed that there was too much selenium in the compound and that was the cause of the horses’ deaths. Officials considered it an accidental overdose and no one was charged.
The necropsy showed that the blood and livers of the ponies were 10 -20 times the normal amount. The vet that wrote the prescription said he was not allowed to administer the shots. The whole thing was a tragedy.
Horse owners who have to add the selenium in supplements to hay, grain and pasture, need to make sure that they are not giving their horses too much. This kind of an overdose is rare, but it is a reminder to all horse owners to read the labels on what they feed their horses. Mixing supplements and not following dosing and feeding instructions can be deadly to your horse.
Ask your veterinarian if there is a need to check for selenium levels or if there is a feed recommendation he or she would make.
Anhydrosis Commonly Called Dry Coat
Anhydrosis is the inability of a horse to sweat. Since horses depend on their ability to sweat to regulate their body temperature, much like humans, it can quickly become a serious condition. When suffering from anhydrosis, some horses retain some ability to sweat in certain areas. The majority are unable to sweat in most areas of their body.
Anhydrosis may be caused by the under activity of the sympathetic nervous system. There are sweat glands called eccrine glands (the most common sweat glands, all over the skin) which are innervated via muscarinic acetylcholine receptors therefore antimuscarinic drugs can cause the horse to stop sweating.
Anhydrosis usually affects horses living and working in consistently hot, humid weather. One would think horses in the the southern United States, parts of Asia, and other sub tropical areas would be more prone to anhydrosis, also referred to as dry coat. But that is not necessarily the case. The problem can occur anywhere, including all over the U.S.
Unfortunately my horse Baylee had anhydrosis a few weeks ago but it didn’t follow the usual pattern. It has been hot and humid here in Northern Ohio and I have been riding Baylee in those conditions all summer. He was fine until we brought him in to take off his tack. Suddenly he was breathing so hard he couldn’t catch a breath and when the saddle came off there was no sweat. This was most unusual for Baylee who has a thick double mane and sometimes sweats in his stall.
We took him to shower off and he drank from the hose. Then we lead him into the arena and he rolled. He was still breathing too hard so back to the shower we went. He doesn’t like to get his head wet, but I told my husband he had to wet his poll. Despite a slight objection, he let us do what we wanted and fortunately he drank more water from the hose. His breathing had slowed down but I thought it best to walk him slowly in the ring and of course he rolled again. Now he was breathing normally and we put him in his stall and gave him some hay and plenty of water.
I knew my vet was at the Jumper Hunter Grand Prix in Chagrin Falls, so we went there and paged him. He has been Baylee’s vet since I’ve had him, and was disturbed that this had happened to his patient. He said to put him on electrolytes and to go back and mash his food and put plenty of water in it.
Back to the barn we went. We followed the vet’s orders and Baylee, who was completely fine by now, loved us for giving him this watery mix. He actually got two portions. We re-filled his bucket of water and left. He had taken a gallon of water in while we were away for about an hour. The next day we went to see him and he was fine. There have been no more incidents since he’s been on the electrolytes.
I have ridden him in weather just as hot and he hasn’t run out of breath, and he is sweating like a horse should during a workout. He’s in great shape but I have a ways to go. At the end of the ride he’s sweating, but I know he could keep going. I look like a drowned rat and I’m the one breathing hard.
We had taken him out earlier than usual that day, and he may simply have not had time to eat and drink enough before his workout. That is entirely on us. We now also know that above 75F a horse has to expend more energy to stay cool. Keep that in mind. Your horse has to be fueled up and well watered/hydrated before any decent workout, but in hot weather it is particularly critical.
Half a Dozen Lessons and Scared to Ride
I found this in Yahoo Answers from a year ago. What a shame. This little 11 year old kid is afraid to ride after starting at a well known “stable and pony club” in Europe. Let’s compare her experience, little that we have, with our suggested methods. First, her words:
I don’t own a horse for starters and I began riding at XXXXXXXX last year. I was really happy to ride horses when I started but now I am even scared if the horse moves out from the wall by a noise in a private lesson. I’m going to give up now if I can’t do anything about it because I can’t even canter and only trot jumps that are 2ft. I have been riding for a year now but only get lessons every 1mth – 2mths.
Look at this! She gets lessons every one or two months and thinks she should be jumping two foot obstacles. She is riding horses that spook during private lessons! After a year of this she is scared and disappointed. She does not say anything about the ground side of instruction. This place sounds like a jumper factory looking to weed out all but the future performance prospects.
I went to their website and found that they give an hour to “pony riding” and then an hour to care and feeding. Last mentioned is some “safety in the yard.”
This child turned to strangers on Yahoo for help. Much of the advice was to push herself more. Another was very supportive with something like “keep going, the worst is you could break all your bones and then die.”
All this poor kid wants is to ride a horse happily and safely.
What would we do with her? First, start over. Learn about the need to ride a properly trained and “bomb-proofed” horse, especially for beginners. Understand something about that big animal that was born to be scared and react suddenly as a self preservation mechanism. Get some time on the ground learning about leadership roles, what she needs to do and what the horse expects. There are “school horses” because most people don’t have their own horse at first. It is the stable’s responsibility to make sure the horse is suitable for the rider. The level of activity has to be matched to the starting skill level of the rider, and hopefully the horse, as well. Any horse that jumps from its path from a “noise” is not well enough trained for a new rider. This is the stable and instructor’s fault, and very dangerous for the rider.
I hope this poor kid got a chance to go elsewhere and learn to ride properly, if at all.
Aqha Can’t Decide Their Position On Unwanted Horses
The AQHA retains a full time lobbyist in Washington D.C.to advocate for it’s member’s position on to the members of Congress. They feel they must use a lobbyist because that is the only way to get your positions heard. That is all well and good.
AQHA is in a quandary on one hand they know that something has to be done with the 80,000-100,000 abandoned horses each year. So they tried to educate the members by sending out alerts, but the membership didn’t respond. I am a lifetime member of have never received an alert.
AQHA is opposed to legislation criminalization of transportation of horses to processing for human consumption. They fought on the state level in Texas and Illinois to keep state laws from being enacted or enforced to prohibit processing. AQHA along with other breed registries and veterinary organizations filed an amicus ( friend of the court) brief on behalf of Cavel Inc.the plant operator in Illinois.
These unwanted horses present a huge problem but by representing AQHA membership in favor of transport of horses for human consumption and trying to reopen two slaughter houses certainly doesn’t represent my view nor does it represent the ever growing rescues that are popping up all over. Since I never got an alert on any issue including land for trail riding, maybe the overall membership isn’t being contacted.
All I can say is I have not be contacted. I would love someone of the executive committee to talk to me and I bet most other Quarter Horse owners would welcome that opportunity
What I can’t understand is the AQHA’s conflicting statements and actions about unwanted horses. ” None of the current legislation addresses this concern. Secondly, we believe that end-of-life issues for horses are a personal decision that should remain the right of the individual horse owner”
“In an effort to find a conservative solution the AQHA became a founding member of the Unwanted Horse Coalition whose mission is to reduce the number of unwanted horses and improve their welfare through education. We continue to educate our membership on the merits of breeding and owning responsibility”.
Those words are from the AQHA the largest horse breeding registry in the world. If they can’t figure it out a solution maybe I will take a crack at it for them.
Let’s face it these breeding organizations continue to add more categories for older riders. They have had a futurity program which was totally based on breeding the best stallion to the best mare so the offspring could be trained and compete by the age of three. The national reining horse association encourages this because Quarter Horses are naturally cow sensitive so they make great cutting and reining horses. The damage all breeders who race or compete their horses and train so young certainly isn’t helping the reputation of caring for horses.
My suggestion is lower the breeding programs and put those savings into building barns and stalls pastures and give a willing owner seed money to start operating it. They could then apply for (501)(c)3 Status. The ever rising prize money could be used to geld the stallions and these organizations have plenty of cash. just think of how costly setting up for one show is and pulling down plus ticket prices.
My solution may not be perfect and may not solve the whole problem but it certainly is far more humane than the captive bolt solution.
I know this will never happen because the real problem isn’t unwanted horses, it is breed registries and big time trainers looking at their bottom line and money always wins!
The Perfect 5
So what is a Perfect 5? Well, some veterinarians use a scale of 1 to 10 to describe a horse’s fitness, and so can you. Picture horses from scrawny to really fat. We have all seen them, even if only on TV. Underfed, sickly, abused, horses that you might find in a serious rescue situation. Prominent ribs and pelvic bones, really making a sad sight. These might be called a 1 on the scale of 1-10.
At the other end are really obese animals. They may have true medical issues, including Cushing’s Disease, but more likely are simply over-fed and under-worked by lazy or misguided owners. People who feed a lot of grain, particularly sweet feeds, are not doing their horses any favors. Occasional treats are fine, but constant feeding of lots of apples, carrots and “cookies” or sweet mashes does great harm. the simple carbohydrates (sugars) in these foods can upset the bacterial balance in the intestines, releasing toxins that damage the hooves, as well as just adding pounds. Overweight, particularly in larger breeds, can lead to laminitis and ultimately founder. Since many horses with founder are euthanized, it is important to keep an eye on their weight to help prevent this dreaded problem.
In the middle, horses that are fit, show a bit of visible rib “ripple”, have a nice tight bottom-line and good muscling definition, with a clean, muscular top-line and are bright, alert and move freely, are in the 4 to 6 range. They are just right. So a good way to picture these healthy specimens is as a Perfect 5.
Just like people, horses need to balance calories in with calories out. A horse at pasture, is likely to be in motion, wandering and playing as he grazes. Living most of his time in a stall, the “domestic” horse needs feed management. More people are likely to notice their horses getting too thin than too fat. People in the US used to think thqat being “plump” was a sign of prosperity, particularly when not having enough to eat was more common than having too much. Some people thinbk their horses should demonstrate their great care by lookng “well fed.”
Too bad their horses are likely to suffer more illness, lameness, and shorter lives than they might otherwise. Excess weight damages joints and leads to strain on every part of the body, just like in people. Rich, sweet spring grass, carrots, grain and other sources of simple carbohydrates must be controlled.
Horses need regular exercise as well. Keeping him healthy is far easier and less expensive than getting him healthy again.
Horses Need to Eat Almost All the Time
Horses seem to be eating all the time. The have to be fed because they have a digestive system that needs to be filled a good deal of the time. In the wild, they will graze for 18 to 20 hours a day. My horse seems to never stop eating. He gets grain early in the morning, then goes out to pasture, comes in, and at noon he gets a decent amount of hay. If his stall has been cleaned he will lie down and nap, if it hasn’t been cleaned yet, he will entertain himself by flinging his feeder around the stall, waiting for his 3 PM grain, and then his 6 PM hay again.. When he is exercised he gets an extra flake or two of alfalfa/timothy mix in the early evening. His vet calls him a “perfect five” for his weight and conditioning.
Horses are non ruminant herbivores; the rumen is the first part of the stomach also found in goats cattle and llamas. Horses have a cecum, the part of the large intestine called the hind gut and it is the area that breaks down long stem fiber. The cecum is what allows a horse to utilize nutrients present in forages. That’s why you hear “forage first” because the equine digestive system requires at least one half pound of good quality forage per one hundred pounds of his body weight. If your horse weighs twelve hundred pounds he needs at least six pounds of hay per day for a healthy gut. But he may still die slowly of starvation. Six pounds is only half of one percent of his body weight. Ideally a healthy 1,200 pound horse should get 18 to 24 pounds of hay or hay and grazing forage per day. If he is exercised a lot he needs more to keep the gut healthy and maintain proper calorie intake.
So what happens when there is a hay shortage? Many horse owners feed grain or commercial mixes or supplements to provide the missing nutrients. If there is a local hay shortage, we sell a high quality hay in a bag as a replacement. This is a healthier way to compensate for hay shortages than making up calories with processed feeds that don’t provide the nutrients and fiber the horse needs. Horses should never be fed more than fifty percent of the diet in concentrates that aren’t complete formulas. Beet pulp and alfalfa cubes can compensate to some extent, but they are more expensive and still don’t create the total balance your horse needs longer term.
Since horses need 1.5- 2.0 % of their body weight in dry matter, our twelve hundred pound horse needs eighteen pounds of good quality long stem forage a day. The fiber needs to be longer than one inch. If there is a shortage of hay or the hay is of poor quality, feed beet pulp which needs to soak twenty minutes before feeding it to your horse. Hay cubes which also need to soak at least twenty minutes is another alternative. Lucerne Hay Products, which we carry is what is called silage and again it can be fed year round. You can find it on our products page on our website. Forage
Seeing the World Through Your Horse’s Eyes
Horses see everything from a different perspective than humans. I can’t see what is coming up behind me but I can see an object right in front of my face. It is just the opposite with horses because they are prey animals and we are predators.
People forget that horses don’t think like us and they don’t react to things the same way we do.What is familiar to us may be an object that scares the horse half to death. I’ll give you a perfect example. Baylee and I were riding in the outdoor ring and I was doing flying lead changes and running barrels. It was hot so I decided to walk him out for a while and in the middle of this huge arena we both saw a bird. It happened to be where we stopped. It didn’t bother Baylee at all, he has seen and heard birds flying around the barn a million times. He sniffed at it and then it began to cry, an awful cry, because it was hurt and couldn’t fly. Baylee went nuts. He jumped sideways so far I couldn’t believe his reaction.
Horses spook for a million reasons, as I thought about my horse I think the unusual cry is what upset him so much. Some horses spook because they are overly sensitive and that is just their personality. Much of the behavior can be trained out of them but depending on their horsenality as Pat Parelli calls it, you have to do the best training and take what you get.
On a trail ride or anywhere you are riding when the horse spooks you must stay relaxed. that is extremely difficult for a new rider or a rider coming back from an accident. Stay with him and take a deep breath and sit up and sit up and stay relaxed in your back and hips so can move with him. Try to keep riding forward and turn him in each direction until he begins to settle down. Learn the one rein stop which throws the horse off balance and is good to do it when you begin to circle. Once he is stopped and you don’t think he will behave there is no shame in dismounting and giving him a lesson right there.
Horses are smart and many of them learn to spook as an evasion tactic. A clever effort to avoid work and often times it works and they don’t have to do something they dislike. If he is spooking to avoid a jump or avoid work your correction must be immediate and focused.
You have to know your horse and train him properly so he builds confidence so he can stay calm in almost all situations.
