Horses fighting the chemical generation.

Those of you that know us know we have horses.
Those that know horses understand they are a blessing and a curse.

For the last couple of weeks we have been plagued by problems.

Three of our four our now stabled after various complaints.
Badger went "footy" indicating a mild bout of laminitis.
Comet also went "footy" and added an interesting allergic reaction t the mix as well.
And Mouse almost definitely has Equine Metabolic Syndrome, which is fun.

It all started when we noticed mouse was not losing her winter coat. It was June, we had already had a good week of 20-24oC weather and she was still wearing a 6 inch hair suit.
So I got the clippers out and shaved the pony!
We brought her into the stable and upped her exercise to two 30 min lunging sessions a day and limited grazing of 3 hours max on short grass.

Mouse on June 11th 2010. Note the winter coat, the distended "pot" belly and lumpy crest.

She seemed to improve and we thought we'd cracked it, then she started to get "footy" and was obviously lame in both front feet.

Laminitis.
How frustrating when we are so careful with her exercise and diet!
We initially thought she maybe had Cushing's disease, which is often caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland, but luckily a blood test was negative.
EMS is the most likely cause. The weight gain which included uneven fat deposits on her crest and shoulders specifically, the laminitis, the hairy coat.
The blood test was inconclusive but that's not unusual.
We have been given three choices by the vet.

Number 1 is too wait and see. If she is doing well on her current regime, it might be worth just monitoring her carefully.
Number 2 is to re-blood test under stricter conditions, so fasting then feeding a high concentrate of glucose then blood testing within 2 hrs.
Number 3 is to start her on meds and see what happen.

More on this in a sec!

Now the other two horses were frustrating!
Badger obviously had a touch of laminitis despite being on a bare paddock and being in work, and Comet was also footy and in addition to that developed a really nasty skin rash which he rubbed raw!

Interestingly these horses developed their problems within a week or so of being wormed.

Usually we get worm counts of dropping done and only worm infrequently as the worm counts necessitate.
But this last winter, Badger managed to get Pin worm, because we were feeding them in the snow, he was soiling in his hay and instead of leaving it would make sure he ate every last bit! But Badger is a pig ;)
.

A little look into reactions to wormers yielded some interesting results some of which you can see HERE.

I'm not saying the wormers contributed solely to these problems but we feel is was definitely a contributing factor.
Interestingly enough worming did not become common in horses until the 1960's and as late as the 1980's was still only seen as an occasional medication. Now drug companies urge you to worm every few weeks with more and more potent chemical wormers as natural immunity to some parasites is lost and worms become immune to regular wormers.

Another factor which played its part was our grazing set up.
As all our horses are barefoot we tend to notice changes that affect feet more than the owner of a shod horse might.
In this instance, when Badger developed mild laminitis it may not have been detected had he been wearing shoes. It may have only shown in a reluctance to go forwards when ridden rather than a clear footy-ness.

We've been talking for a while now about adopting track grazing systems as promoted by the likes of Jamie Jackson. 
The theory is that horses have only been kept on pasture for our own convenience and that a track system which includes various goings, hay, shelter  and water along the way to keep them moving, is much more natural.
Wild/feral horses adapted to graze sparse tundra and mountainous pains, not prim beef fattening grass!
But here's the rub.
Too little grass is almost worse than too much grass!
We all have one if we keep horses.
The "diet" paddock.
The one that's kept really short, almost bare for the fatty on your yard.
Trouble is that the grass at this time of year keeps growing so the grass your fatty DOES get is sooopah charged with sugars.
Hence, the ponies who seem to get fat on nothing.
Far better apparently to give your horse restricted access to LONG stemmy grass, which is far more like the grass a wild horse would get.

With all this in mind, and Mouse's EMS, which will necessitate a Zero grazing regime, we are embarking on a green and natural overhaul of our horses lives.

Zero grazing is easy, all you do is feed the appropriate amount of hay for your horses weight/height and type and a feed balancer like Top-Spec Anti Lam for all the right vitamins and minerals.
However its hardly natural to confine a horse to his stable for their whole life so we need t make some serious changes.

The first one is to give each stable its own "yard". This way a horse like mouse who may need to spend prolonged time off any grass can have extra outdoor space outside the stable.
The next one is to develop a series of tracks for the horses to graze. Different types of going incorporated into the tracks (stone, bark, grass, pea gravel etc) means that barefoot hooves get a good "work out" everyday. The tracks encourage the horses to keep on the move rather than putting their heads down on pasture and not moving **ehem..cough...badger!**

The over worming of horses can have detrimental effects elsewhere.
Who uses horse poo in the garden???
So now you have highly toxic anti-parasitic chemicals on your veg as well!
            
That's it for us.
We're going back to worm counting every couple of months and looking into natural remedies. For these three, Mouse with her compromised metabolism, Badger with his delicate feet and Comet with his sensitive skin, its no longer worth the risk.