The Novice Horseman

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.

The floundering economy has touched the horse industry in so many ways.  My own personal concession is I had to sell one of my horses.  I did this last November (before Iggette passed) to try to cut the rising cost of my board bill as well as the vet bill.  I didn’t want to sell Princess (pictured) and it was a hard decsison to make.  Actually I was supposed to sell one when I purchased my gelding over 2 years ago.  I just didn’t ever get around to it.  Quite honestly if we lived on our acreage instead of in town, I wouldn’t have sold her.  But she has a very nice owner who decided to stay at the barn where I am, so I get to see her all the time.  After Iggette passed away, I was left with 2 horses.  Even with my board bill being reduced by 2 horses, the money crunch can still be felt.  I have made some small adjustments in my horse keeping to save some money.  Here are a few of the ways that I chosen to save money.  Please keep in mind that my choices may not work for you.  Make your decisions wisely.

1.  My boarding has fluctuated over the years.  For 4 horses, I changed all of them to pasture board only.   After selling Princess & Iggette’s death, I changed my board to pasture with stall rights for inclement weather.  This is cheaper than full board in a stall.  Not all barns offer this option, but a good choice might be a paddock with a run-in shed.

2.  My horses are school horses.  I receive a small payment each time one of them is used for a lesson.  This pays my farrier bill most of the time.  There are times when it’s been too cold or too wet to have lessons.  On those times, I have to supplement the difference from my pocket.

3.  Since I don’t actively show or ride the trails, I have my farrier trim my horses hooves.  I am lucky to have horses that have good feet and  I’m a big believer in barefoot is better.  Trimming costs less than shoeing your horse.  This is a truly personal choice.  You, with the help of your farrier & your vet, have to make your decision based on your horse’s needs.

4.  I worm my horses myself.  I use a paste wormer and shop around for sales.  Sometimes I buy from the catalogs or on-line and sometimes I buy from the local co-op.  When buying from the catalog or on-line, be sure to compare the cost + shipping versus the cost + local sales tax.  You may be suprised how close these can turn out to be.  Try to find free shipping specials.

5.  I give my own shots.  I have bought shots from both the local co-op & from my vet.  If you don’t use the vet, make sure to tell his office what vaccinations you have given your horse.  This is to keep your records up to date.  I do not recommend this for the true novice.  You need to be trained on how to give shots.  Next time the vet is out, ask him to show you.  Also, check to see what shots are recommended for your particular area.

6.  If you have a trailer, haul your horse to the vet whenever possible.  This saves the farm call.  With the ever increasing fuel costs, the farm call fee is only going to go up.  Keep in mind that some vets also charge a mileage fee as well as the farm call fee.

7. I have owned mares for years.  I also don’t breed my mares.  I don’t have the added costs of  a pregnant mare or the cost of trying to raise a foal.  There are just wwwaaayyyyyy to many horses out there to consider breeding for one.  I can always find a good horse.

There are lots of ways you can cut your horse keeping costs.  The one thing to remember is to keep your horse’s well being in mind.

Even though Iggette is gone now, she still has lessons to teach.    Let’s talk about securing the stall door & gates.  Most people look at the latch on any typical stall and wonder how in the world can a horse open it.  Well let me tell you, Iggette was quite an escape artist.  She learned this little feat while at the first stable and continued it at other stables.

The small pasture I originally put Iggette in just didn’t work out as planned.  She was the only horse there and horses just don’t fair well by themselves.  So I moved her to a shed row with 3 large paddocks and each paddock was shared by 4 stalls.  Everyone who had stalls here rotated paddock time.  Iggette had other horses to visit and a mare next to her.  I felt like I had her in a pretty safe place.  The stall was big, it was in good condition, the stall door was a partial door so that she could stick her head out and socialize and the paddock was secure.  The stall & paddock gate had “horse-proof” latches, so I knew she would be safe.

I’m one of those anal types when it comes to checking & rechecking for closed & locked doors.  When I left everyday, I must have checked the stall door 5 times, the feed room door 10 times and the paddock gate 20 times.  I absolutely wanted to make sure that my horse came to no harm through my carelessness.  Can you imagine the shock I felt one day when one of my friends called me at work to say my horse was out.  Not just out of her stall, not out of the paddock, but out in the open field!!!!  This field had no fence and it was only a few yards from a busy street.  I rushed from worked to the stable.  As I drove up the long driveway, I saw my friend out in the pasture trying to coax Iggette AND her friend to come to her.  I went to the tack room and got a bucket of grain.  If Iggette was anything, she was a chow hound.  I just knew she would come to me with this temptation.  To my surprise, Iggette thought much more of her freedom at the time than what her belly would normally tell her.  Everytime I got near her, she would turn tail & sprint off in the opposite direction.  Remember I told she was hard to catch and she was certainly living up to that on this day.

I talked with my friend while trying to catch up with these two.  She told me she didn’t know how they got out.  She came out to feed her horse which was in the paddock next to mine.  She noticed that my horse was not anywhere to be found.  She looked for her and just happened to catch a glimpse of her through an alleyway between our shedrow and the one behind us.  That’s when she called me.  Since we weren’t having much luck trying to catch them, we changed out tactics.  We decided to try to herd them into a semi-enclosed area.  There at least, we might have a chance putting a halter on them.  Funny how things work out.  Iggette led us right into the alleyway and actually caught herself.  I was quick to put a halter on her and my friend caught the other horse.

I put my horse back in her stall.  The other horse, we just left out in the paddock since it was her time to be out.  Iggette had another idea.  I was standing not far from the stall talking with my friend, all of a sudden Iggette’s stall door flew open.  Iggette promptly walked out and went over to her mare friend.  She actually herded the mare back into her stall & closed the door on her.  She didn’t lock, just pushed it shut.  Then she returned to her stall and closed her door.  My jaw just about hit the dirt.  My friend & I looked at each other in total amazement.  How did she do that?!

It was time for a little investigative work.  I locked Iggette’s door and all of the others in our paddock area.  In no time, Igggette’s head popped over the door and started jiggling the latch with her lip.  You’ve seen how a horse will curl their lip when you scratch just the right spot, well that’s what her lip looked like.  It was only about 30 seconds later and she was out of her stall.  She went next door and got her lip working over that latch.  Soon, her friend was out and they both went over to the gate.  Iggette once again got the lip going.  Fortunately for us, I had figured out where she was going and just got to the gate before it too went flying open.

An escape artist had been born.  Now the hard part was going to figure out how to keep Iggette in her stall and keep her safe.  We start with making sure the “horse-proof” latches have a way to lock it closed.  Get a swivel snap or double ended snap & secure the stall door latch.  A simple $2 piece of hardware can give you piece of mind.  It may be more of a pain to the open the stall door, but wouldn’t you rather have a friendly face meeting you at the stall instead of you meeting your worst fears opening an empty stall?