Category Archives: Horse care

Slow hay feeders for your pasture

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, Horse care, horse health and tagged with , ,
Curly feeding from a Nibblenet

I replaced our metal hay feeder with two Nibblenets. The bags have 1.5" openings which contain the hay quite well. They limit waste and keep the horses busy much longer.

I hate hay waste. It’s like throwing dollar bills onto the pasture and watching your horse crush them into the ground. Of course, there’s a lot about owning a horse that reminds me of that!

But hay waste is even worse because it also creates work. It’s bad enough that the paddocks need to be cleaned every day. When you add in racking up wasted hay, there goes my riding time!

For the past several years I’ve used a metal hay feeder in the paddock. It worked reasonably well at keeping the hay out of the mud but it had some issues. The most problematic was that it was increasingly unstable and I worried that at some point a horse would knock it over and get hurt. So when it finally broke I decided to look into some other options.

This time I wanted more than just a container for the hay, I wanted something that would slow down consumption, at least a little bit, so that the hay we fed would last a bit longer. Horses digestive systems are designed for continuous eating in small quantities. While I believe in getting at least close to free choice hay as a way of keeping their digestive systems happy, I don’t believe they have to eat large amounts continuously.

Slow Grazer feeder

The Slow Grazer Feeder is also available in a DIY kit

There are several designs for slow feeders on the internet. The Slow Grazer is a nice design and if you are marginally handy, they will even sell you a DIY kit. This is actually a great idea because shipping a feeder like these could cost almost as much as the feeder itself.

Lots of companies sell small hole haynets but I wanted something that didn’t have to be hung on a fence or attached to a tree.

I finally found a great comparison chart of hay nets.

Using this I narrowed down my selection and based on size, availability and durability ratings, chose a Nibblenet. You can read my whole review on Tack Guru, but let me say briefly, that they are a real success.

Read my Nibblenet Review on Tack Guru

You can read my Nibblenet review on Tack Guru.

Although I’ve read that some horses need to be transitioned to the small hole hay feeders, our horses figured it out in less than a minute. I did fluff the hay up the first time and pulled some out of the holes, but they were chowing down without any problems.

I’ve had them out now for about two weeks. They are easy to fill, hold a good amount of hay and are very well made.

I don’t miss the hay rack at all. In fact, I’m considering buying a smaller Nibblenet for my trailer.

Hard ground, abscesses, and no time to ride

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, hoof care, Horse care, horse health and tagged with

The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy. Usually at this time of year my clients withdraw into a quiet hibernation and we start planning for the new year. This year, there’s been no stopping.

I’m not complaining — work is a good thing! Especially as it coincided with some freezing weather that left the ground rock hard and lumpy. Although I love where I board my horse, it’s weather like this that makes me long for an indoor that has soft, even footing.

Today, the sun came out and the temperatures are going to hit the low 50s. I had planned to wrap up my last proposal and go for a nice long ride. But, it’s never that simple. When I arrived at the barn to feed I found Freedom was three-legged lame. Based on the heat in his foot and the digital pulse, my best guess is that he’s brewing an abscess, brought on by bruising form the uber hard ground.

It has crossed my mind to put his hoof boots on him a few days ago. He looked a bit ouchy when he was navigating the paddock. Now I wish I had.

I’ll still spend my time at the barn. There’s lots of clean up that can be done now that the ground has thawed. And I can give Freedom a massage while I’m soaking his foot. But I can’t help but be a bit annoyed that my long anticipated ride will have to be deferred until he’s feeling better. I sure hope that the warm weather lasts until then!

How do you evaluate feeding options?

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, equine nutrition, Horse care and tagged with ,
FeedXL Review

Read my full review of www.FeedXL.com at Tack Guru

Recently I’ve been taking another look at what I feed Freedom. I’m not riding as much now that hunt season is over and my client work has piled up. It’s quite a change from hunting season where I fed him lunch a lot of days just to keep the weight on him. But it’s also gotten colder and despite his blanket, I know how easy it is for him to drop weight.

To help figure out a good Winter feeding regime, I turned to www.FeedXL.com, an equine nutrition software program. I’ve found it very helpful as I was able to try a number of different options and evaluate them by nutritional profile and calories. The only thing that’s missing from the program is non structural carbohydrate levels, which is why I’m putting together the chart in this post.

Certainly in my opinion, it was $20 well spent. Most importantly because it revealed a few nutritional holes in the regime I was considering.

So, how do you come up with a feeding program for your horse?

 

 

No wonder the pasture always needs to be cleaned

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, Horse care and tagged with , ,
Horse Manure

The average horse produces 9 tons of manure every year

Okay, so how many times a day does the average 1,000 pound horse poop? According to the UMass Extension Center for Agriculture, it’s between four and 13 times, depositing approximately 35 pounds of manure. Add to that 6-10 gallons of urine and you’re looking at 50 pounds of waste per day!

Reading that study made me very, very glad that our horses now live outside. In fact, unless it’s very hot or rainy, we don’t put shavings in the stall any more. Just as well because soiled bedding is heavy, adding another 15-20 pounds of waste. I guess that every time we clean stalls we should look at it as a workout instead.

No matter where you pick it up, the sheer amount is staggering — each horse produces about 9 tons of manure per year and 3.5 tons of urine. If you add in bedding, you can count on moving 12 to 14 tons of waste per stall. That’s a pretty good reason to encourage them to use the great outdoors.

Certainly it’s a sisyphean task to keep our pastures clean. Every time I go to the barn I remove at least one wheelbarrow of waste, sometimes two. And yet every day when I return it looks as if I were never there.

Do you feed hay in your trailer?

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, Horse care, Trailer Safety and tagged with , , , ,
Easy fill hay net from SmartPak

Is filling up your hay net part of your trailering routine?

I’ve always shipped my horse with hay — and usually with either shavings or straw on the trailer floor. However, recently I was reading a forum post where several people indicated they did not trailer with either hay or shavings. The main reason was that hay and shavings can blow around while the trailer is moving and, at least in most trailers, the horse is not able to stretch or lower his head to clear his respiratory tract.

Of course on the “pro” side of feeding hay is that it keeps your horse occupied and gives their stomachs a buffer if they are the nervous type. When I got Freedom he was terrible in the trailer — if the trailer stopped for even a minute he would weave so badly that the whole trailer shook. I remember the day I brought him home I stopped to get lunch and the trailer was parked outside a McDonald’s. It was shaking and swaying like crazy and I noticed people giving it a wide berth.

Once he started to eat hay I knew he was calming down.  Now he’ll scarf down a whole bag of hay (I use a hay bag rather than a hay net) on the way to and from a hunt (about 40 minutes total). With him, I can imagine that not having hay might make him fret.

Floor coverings are a trickier issue. My big Trakehner, Kroni, once fell in the trailer giving me a heck of a scare (Trailering safety: a near miss). We were trailering back from the end of the season hunt and it was cold out. Best I can tell, he peed in the trailer and the shavings froze. He slipped, fell, went under the dividing bar and stood up on the other side. While I had shavings in the trailer, I didn’t have that many. I was very, very lucky that he didn’t get hurt! Now I generally use old hay/straw to absorb pee. I think it’s a lot less dusty, too.

One suggestion that I read was to ship your horse with a fly mask on to prevent debris from getting into their eyes. I think that’s an excellent idea which I think I’ll adopt.

So what does everyone else do? Hay or no hay? Hay bags or nets? Shavings or not? Let me know!

Aortic rupture caused Hickstead’s death

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, Horse care, horse health and tagged with ,
Hickstead's death was caused by a ruptured aorta.

Hickstead's death was caused by a ruptured aorta.

A necropsy revealed that an acute aortic rupture caused Hickstead’s death on November 6th. While this will end speculation, it still leaves questions because very little is known about what causes aortic ruptures.

An article in The Horse, quotes Janice Bright, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM (Specialty of Cardiology), associate professor of cardiology, Colorado State University who explains:

Aortic ruptures usually occur very close to the junction of the aorta with the heart. This may result in acute hemorrhage into the pericardial sac. Because there is such a large volume of blood that flows under very high pressure within the aorta, aortic ruptures close to the heart often result in very serious clinical consequences, including sudden collapse and sudden death.

Why it happens is far less understood. Some vets believe that a congenital aneurysm might be the cause; others believe that there is a gradual weakening caused by a degenerative disease. Another theory is that migrating parasites, such as strongyles, could weaken a horse’s heart which could cause structural weakness to the wall. Or that a deficiency in copper — copper is needed to make strong bond between elastin and collagen in blood vessel walls.

According to Eric Lamaze, Hickstead felt fine during the competition, even during his last jumping efforts. Right up until the moment when he collapsed. It could not have been prevented and there is nothing that could have been done to save him. I know that when Kroni died, I took a small amount of comfort from the fact that there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. I hope that Hickstead’s connections are able to find some comfort, too, knowing that it was beyond their control.

 

A guide to trace clips

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, grooming, Horse care and tagged with , , ,
Peasridge clipper

The Peasride Clipper Advice site provides handy diagrams of different ways to clip.

I rarely do a full clip on my horses since they’ve always spent lots of time outside. However, each year, I do a slight variation on the trace clip depending on how the mood strikes me and how long it takes for me to get a straight line.

One of the resources I’ve always used is the Peasridge Clipper Advice site which shows handy diagrams of the different clip styles.

Here are some of Freedom’s “looks” over the years! I’ve still not decided how I’d like him to end up this year although I’m leaning toward a “Chaser Clip.”

 

Freedom Irish Clip

Here's Freedom sporting an Irish Clip

Freedom with a Medium Trace Clip

Freedom with a Medium Trace Clip. I've never quite mastered the swoosh over the hip.

Freedom clipped with a modified Trace Clip

Here is with a modified Trace Clip

Dealing with temperature swings

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Blankets, Commentary, Horse care and tagged with , ,
The first clip job of the season

A modified trace clip will help keep Freedom cool on hot days but give him some protection during cold nights.

The weather here has been crazy. Last week a freak snow storm took down power lines and trees and we had temperatures in the 20s . . . this week we’ve had temperatures in the high 60s.

It’s bad enough when you’re a human — we can dress appropriately. But for horses, it’s harder for them to acclimate. So, out came my clippers. I would rather take some hair off and blanket Freedom than have him overheating.

Freedom had a pretty dense winter coat, at least for him. It wasn’t enough to keep him warm on Saturday night, when it went down to the low 20s. He was shivering when I went to the barn early Sunday morning. But by Sunday afternoon, when were were hunting, he was hot and showing it. The high that day was about 65 and after a short uphill gallop, his breathing sounded ragged and harsh and he was panting.

Tuesday was forecast as a hot sunny day and I worried that if the hunt were fast, he’d just melt. I didn’t have much time to clip so I

No, a small animal wasn't killed in the barn aisle, it's just the remains of his winter coat.

No, a small animal wasn't killed in the barn aisle, it's just the remains of his winter coat.

just took off the essentials: I shaved his chest, his neck, the hair on his belly and the hair under his jaw. This modified trace clip (sometimes called a bib clip) really helps a horse cool down but leaves enough winter coat to also help keep them warm.

I usually take a bit more off as the weather and our work intensity dictate but at least I got the first “cutting” done. I know that Freedom will appreciate it!

In addition to making him more comfortable with the clip job, when we have temperature swings like this I also try to make sure that Freedom is drinking enough. This is when I add a bit more water to his beet pulp and add a little salt to every meal. This is classic colic weather and one of the keys to avoiding problems is keeping your horse hydrated. I’m lucky that Freedom is fine having “soup” for breakfast and dinner because horses sometimes don’t drink enough when the temperatures drop.