The Novice Horseman Blog

It’s the last weekend of March.  Mother Nature has teased us more than once with beautiful springtime weather.   This weekend did not qualify for that in Oklahoma.  We have had one doozy of an early spring snow.  In my area, that has been 4″-6″ of the white stuff.  The farther west you live has turned into as much as 26″-28″ of snow.  I know, some of you from the north are saying “Waaaaa, whiners”.

My horses have been shedding their winter coats for about a month now because of the warmer weather and lengthening daylight.  So, how much effort should be put into to removing the winter coat?  I have been grooming cautiously, using the curry comb as sparingly as possible so as not to loosen too much hair.  Then, I remove only what winter coat is already loose & laying on top of the coat.  This leaves your horse’s winter coat mostly intact for these late snows & low temperatures.

On the worst days, they also stay in a stall or in a paddock with overhead protection.  This gives their coats time to dry out.  Cold blustery weather & a soaked winter coat are not a good combination.  A thoroughly wet coat does not give much protection.  A drier coat provides a better thermal barrier against the elements.  My horses are not real happy about being penned up for very long.  But I now they are better off staying dry as long as possible.  As soon as the snow stops, they are allowed to go back out to the pasture to romp & play.

Is your area prone to late snow fall?  Is the temperature steadily rising or does it resemble a roller coaster?  You need to judge these for yourself.  Groom cautiously now.  Protect your horse from the last of the winter elements.  There is plenty of time to put the springtime shine on your horse.

At one time, I actually managed a self-service barn.  It wasn’t very large, just 10 stalls, a large tack/feed room, riding arena & about a 5 acre pasture.  This property was one of several that was at end of the flight path to my town’s airport.    The largest of the properties was about a 30 acre pasture.  This made a significant greenbelt region in town.

The wildlife varied.  In the spring & fall, there were the migrating birds that landed looking for food in the pasture.  There was even a red fox that showed up but never stopped.  It made its hurried travel through the pasture to get to cover in the next property.  There were the urban possums & rabbits.  You could catch a glimpse of an occasional owl at dusk in the fall.  The one critter that seemed to make it’s home somewhere near (or under) the buildings was a skunk.

I was running late to feed Iggette one night.  I turned on the light in the feed room and there I was, having a stare contest with a skunk.  I almost killed myself backing out of the feed room before it decided to spray everything in sight.  When safely on the other side of the doorway, I noticed that the skunk was not concerned with my presence.  It was merrily eating the cat food that someone had left for the barn cats.  I waited until the skunk had it’s fill and waddled back under the hay & out of sight.

For the next few weeks, the skunk & I came to an understanding.  I had put my lunge whip next to the door.  When I turned on the light & if the skunk was there eating, I tapped it on the back with the whip.  It would look at me and then move under the hay.  Fortunately, it wasn’t my hay so I could do what I needed to do in the feed room.  Each time I left, it would reappear to eat.  Each time I would come back, I would tap it on the back and it would move back under the hay.  The amazing point is it never offered to spray me or the room.  It was never aggressive.

One night, my husband came with me.  I was behind him when he turned on the the light to the feed.  I don’t think I ever saw anyone move as fast as he did getting out that room.  He bumped into me, almost knocking me down.  I thought he had seen a snake or wasp or something like that.  My husband is irrationally wary of wasps, hornets, etc because of an unfortunate encounter with hornets as a young boy.  I asked him what was the matter.  He looked at me & replied “SKUNK!”  I told him I knew there was a skunk.  I told him to move and reached for my whip.  By now, the skunk knew the routine and just moved back without being tapped.  It stayed put until I was out of the feed room and then moved back to the food.  My husband was utterly amazed at our strange routine, but he didn’t offer to help with anything that was inside.

This strange relationship went on into the winter.  Then the skunk disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.  I never saw it again.

With humankind ever encroaching on nature, some wildlife is adapting to urban ways.  This incident gave me cause to do some research.  Wild skunks usually stay away from humans.  Skunks can carry rabies.

Where am I going with this?  I highly encourage vaccinating your horse for rabies as part of your annual shots.  I started giving my horse a rabies shot shortly after the skunk moved in.  I continue giving my horses a rabies shot every year.  I have persuaded most of my friends to give rabies shots to their horses, whether they board in town or have a place in the country.

You protect your dog & cat from rabies.  Why not protect your horse.

As always, don’t forget to let me know what YOU think.

I went to a seminar recently put on by my vet.  We were introduced to the 2 new vets that had just joined the team.  We were also reacquainted to the team that is behind the scenes; the office help, the vet techs who accompany each vet on calls and the barn manager who looks after your horse if he needs to stay for more intensive care.  I really appreciate each & every one of these people.  They do a great job.  A presentation was done by each of the 2 new vets.  One was on the importance of proper wound care.  I could go on for days about this subject because my horses have given me plenty of practice.  But I would like to talk about how you can possibly prevent some injuries.

Lord knows, both Iggette & Zip had their share of injuries.

Iggette had one injury to the left hind leg caused by a loose fence. The wire was down in one spot of her pasture and tangled in some weeds.  This happened all too soon after I purchased her.  Doctoring a leg & changing dressings is not what I envisioned for my bonding experience with my first horse.

A few years later, she caught her shoulder on an exposed nail head in the gate post.

Iggette also injured her front feet from pawing at the fence & getting caught on the barbed wire.  Each time this happened (twice on each leg), Iggette found herself in the stall with a cast for weeks while recovering.  I don’t know who disliked stall rest worse, Iggette or me.  Iggette NEVER liked being in a stall.  She walked circles the entire time she was confined.  This meant  ground in manure which was next to impossible to pick out.  It was just easier to strip it & start over with clean bedding.

Zip had a puncture wound to a hind pastern.  The vet said I was real lucky it didn’t cut a tendon.  Then just a few months later, she sliced herself on the under side of the jaw line.  This took about 30 stitches to close.  The cause of these 2 injuries were never found by either my trainer or myself.  We looked for hours & did not find a spot of blood or the tell tale sign of horse hair on a fence post or tree branch.  Zip’s injuries were costly & required weeks of stall rest to heal.

With colder weather just around the corner, your horse may start spending more time in the stall.  You can prevent some injuries by just being observant of their surroundings.  Take time to really look over your horse’s stall, barn & pasture whether you own your barn or you are boarding.

Over the years, I’ve learned what to look for to make sure my horse’s environment is relatively safe.  I’ve listed a few of the things to look for below.

BARN & STALLS:

• Hammer down any nails that have backed out of the wood.
• Look for any loose or broken boards in the walls that need to be replaced.
• Check the stall doors & latches to make sure they are working properly and the hardware is securely in place.
• Make sure the bucket hangers are in good shape.  You don’t want to find your horse with the bucket as his hat or using it as a kick ball.
• Keep the aisle clear of clutter.  A loose frightened horse and a cluttered aisle way are not a good combination.
• Make sure the tack room & especially the feed room have a good lock on the door.  You don’t want your baby helping himself to a midnight snack.  An open feed room to a horse is like turning a kid loose in a candy store.  They just don’t know when to quit and more importantly . .  they won’t.
• Check the fence charger to make sure it is working properly.
• Check the electrical wiring for damage to the insulation.  Rodents (rats, mice & squirrels) will chew thru wires.  While most wiring is not in the reach of horses, frayed wires can be a fire hazard.
• Check for leaks in the roof while it’s raining and mark them for repair on a dry day.  You really don’t want rain in the feed/tack room or over your hay storage area.

 
FENCES:

• Walk the fence line of both paddocks & pastures to look for loose wire.  Look at the posts to make sure the wire is actually attached and not just hanging somewhere near it.
• Make sure the gates are hanging properly.
• Check for broken planks on board fences or broken fence posts.
• If you have an electric fence, make sure the insulators are all in place and that the wire is not shorting out.  I had a little paint mare that would actually touch the electric fence everyday just to see if it was working.  If it was off, she would poke her head through the fence to get the grass on the other side.

PASTURES

• Keep the trash picked up.  This goes for the barn also.  Blowing trash to some horses is the absolute most terrifying monster there ever was; even if the piece of trash is just a small candy wrapper.
• Make sure to mow as necessary to keep the weeds down.  Tall pasture grass/weeds can hide a lot of potenial hazards.
• If you have had really bad weather (heavy snow, ice, high winds, floods etc), check any trees on the property for damaged branches.  Dead branches falling from the trees can happen months after it was damaged.
• Remove as much of the debris as possible.  Any debris that is allowed to stack up in the pasture can become the home for unwanted animals & reptiles.  This is a whole other type of hazard to your horse.

If you are boarding your horse, let the owner/mananger know of anything you find that is in need of repair.  You could even offer to help with some of the minor repairs.  If you own your place, fix the minor things as they are discovered and schedule a weekend to tackle the bigger repairs.  The sooner repairs are done, the safer the environment is for your horse.

In my opinion . . . . . It’s not if a horse will get hurt . . . . it’s just when and how bad.  Protect your baby, and your wallet, as best you can by just being observant.