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A bunch more horse blogs

January 18, 2010 By 5 Comments

I have been looking for more blogs about horses and horse health and I should have thought of this but someone beat me to it – just ask!

I belong to a group on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/drdanbeatty) called This Business of Horses and wouldn’t you know it someone posted a question “Do you write a horse blog? Please let me know. Thanks!” Well 37 comments later and a whole bunch of blogs I have found a few blogs definitely worth following – here are a select few that I really liked -

Horse Life – Bitless, treeless and other riding advice and comments. I loved his recent post about Cold Weather care for the arthritic senior horse. Now I would say that any horse in cold weather should be treated the way he is suggesting in this post but especially our old timers. I would actually say they would need to be warmed uplonger in the weather that we have here in the winter. Overall, this is a good blog by Steve Wawryk, a Canadian horsemen who’s blog description states -

Horselife offers a wide range of products and services for the natural horsemanship enthusiast to the person who is interested in learning a no-nonsense approach to safe, balanced, real life riding.

Writing of Riding: My Equestrian Blog – A little artsy for my taste but a beautiful blog and well written. As Erica K. Frei the owner of this well crafted blog states “Here you can find my thoughts, theories and opinions on just about anything the comes to mind which could be remotely connected to horses.” and she is right there is a lot of information about a wide variety of topics on horses and horsemanship. Go check it out.

Stephanielynnperformance’s Blog – OK just for the Sheath Cleaning Song alone this blog gets my recommendation…too funny! I can not wait to see what else she has in store for us with this blog.

Barn Mice – I have to include this site because it is a collection of blogs related to horses and horsemanship – clever name as well, because like mice in a barn it is a community of people interested in horses. The main page has a bunch of good videos as well so check out the whole site as well as the list of blogs.

There are many more that I did not mention if you wish to see the whole list of blogs in the group just join the group on LinkedIn This Business of Horses or connect with me on LinkedIn via my profile – http://www.linkedin.com/in/drdanbeatty and we can get you into the group.

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Equine Rhino Vaccination – is it worth it?

November 6, 2007 By 5 Comments

It is the fall season and many people are inquiring about what vaccinations they should give their horse. Equine Rhino, Equine Influenza, Potomac Horse Fever, and Rabies are the common ones asked for in this area of the US. However are they worth it? Do you actually know what they do and how they protect? Did you know that many times they do not protect at all like you think they should?

Equine Rhinopneumonitis, one of my favorite diseases to bash the vaccine. Why bash the vaccine? Well to put it bluntly and simply, because it doesn’t work in protecting your horse. This is a herpes virus and like the herpes viruses in humans it can infect the animal for life. The virus remains dormant and the horse will not show signs of infection, this is called latency. However during periods of stress, such as show season, out breaks can occur. The vaccine for rhino does not appear to be able to prevent these outbreaks and is questionable as to whether it even helps stem the signs and symptoms. The disease causes respiratory signs, abortions and infrequently a paralyzing neurologic disease with similar signs as the infamous Equine Protozoal Myelitis (EPM). The neurologic form has been in the news for the past couple of years because there appears to be a very virulent strain causing the neuroplogic form that has closed racetracks in Maryland and has had a very large impact on the horse industry where ever it has been found. The vaccines for rhino do not produce antibodies in all horses, in fact, most vaccines produce antibodies in only 80% of horses. In the horses that it does produce antibodies, they last for a very short time (2 to 3 months); and even though it may produce antibodies this doesn’t mean the horse is protected from acquiring the disease. Currently the studies show that the vaccines are able to effectively reduce the symptoms of the respiratory form of the disease in about 50% of the horses. One last bit of bad news is that none of the vaccines out there are able to protect against the neurologic form of the virus.

So now you are asking, “Why am I vaccinating for this disease it appears that the vaccine doesn’t work?” Short of saying, “I don’t know.” it does appear that multiple vaccination (every 3 months) in high-risk horses, such as show horses, reduces the severity of the disease. In pregnant mares it appears to prevent abortion storms meaning multiple abortions on the same breeding farm; however the disease can and will still occur in individuals, because some horses do not respond at all to the vaccine. So if you are willing to give the vaccine every three months…oh wait there is a problem with doing this as well…. the immune system has a limited capacity for responding to vaccine. If you give it too many vaccines at the same time or space them too closely, you dilute the immune response to each vaccine. So giving multiple vaccines every two to three months over a long period of time will reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine which has a poor effectiveness to begin with. Not to mention that in dogs and cats it has been discovered that multiple vaccinations causes (let me repeat) causes immune system failure such as allergies, cancers and autoimmune diseases. Check out – Is Your Vet overvaccinating your dog? for more information. The horse is a different animal but there is anecdotal evidence in horses with allergies that reducing the number of vaccines up to totally eliminating them reduces the severity of their allergies to the point where they are unnoticable.

So lets bring this back to fall vaccinations…the last time your horse may have received a rhino shot was in the spring. The vaccine, if it produces antibodies in your horse, lasts 2 to 3 months, it is what now 6 months or 9 months later? How effective has that vaccine been in protecting your horse? So why are you wasting your money? So No – Equine Rhino Vaccination is not worth it.

Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: , , , , ,

The 5 keys to improving your horse’s movement

October 4, 2007 By 1 Comment

Here are the 5 keys to improving your horse’s movement. I will go into detail on each topic in the coming weeks and then I will also have it all prepared in an ebook soon to be published.

In order to improve your horses movement, besides the actual rider and trainer, and/or keep your horse moving correctly as well as its conformation will allow, you need to focus on these 5 key areas…

  • Nutrition
  • Dentistry
  • Farriery
  • Saddle & Tack Fit
  • Management

    • The details will be all available in a book called How to Avoid the Horse Chiropractor. Coming soon.

    Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: , , ,

    Head Position when eating – does it matter?

    July 25, 2007 By Leave a Comment

    OK I think I have read one of the bizarrest ideas I have heard in a long time. That Head Position matters to digestion in a horse. Here’s the exact quote -

    Feeding at chest level makes it easier for the horse to digest the food, which means he is getting more nutrients out of his food, than he would be if he was eating at ground level.

    I could not believe what I was reading when I read this – I said outloud – WHAT?!?!
    I was tempted to write this person to find out where they heard such a thing – and if any of my readers have heard this please comment and point me to the reasoning or research behind this.

    Let me take a moment to give you my opinion as to why I feel this is nonsense. First horses are grazers, they are not giraffes in which there food is in the trees, they are like cattle and deer and other such animals in which they graze the ground for their food. They were built this way, thousands of years of being on this earth has not changed the fact that horses are grazers. In order to be a grazer your head must be down to eat.

    Lets put some facts to the design of the horse as a grazer, the first part of digestion is the mouth and teeth and the chewing process, so I can only assume that the individual writing the article that included the quote I am refering to realizes that this could be the only thing associated with digestion that head position could remotely change – at least I can hope that they realize this. So what happens to teeth position when the horse raises and lowers its head, well interestingly enough it does change. If you examine a typical horses mouth from a side profile with the incisor teeth (front teeth) exposed with the head elevated to your eye level you will notice that the majority have a very mild overbite in this position, basically about 1/2 cm or so, very mild almost imperceptible. When the head is lowered so that the nose is close to the ground the lower jaw shifts forward allowing for the front incisors to meet more exactly which gives the horse a better cutting surface to graze pasture and cut grass to eat.

    So what does this do to the molars which do the majority of the grinding and first part of digestion, it also moves the lower molars forward about 1/2 cm or so. Well the molars consist of 6 teeth top and bottom on both sides of the mouth with each tooth being between 3 and 4 cm long by 2cm wide of chewing surface. The little 1/2 cm movement in the lower jaw means absolutely nothing when given this chewing surface not to mention that the jaw completely moves well well well beyond that 1/2 cm movement while chewing and it does not matter which position the head is in when the horse chews.

    So unless your horse has a jaw, neck, or even a breathing problem such as COPD, heaves, it does not matter what position your horses head is in for digestion and if the horse was designed to be a grazer what makes people think that they would have better digestion if their head is raised??? Feeding at chest level is a convenience for humans not a horse health benefit!

    Filed Under: Nutrition Tagged With: , , , ,

    Other Humane Issues for Horses besides Anti-Slaughter

    May 21, 2007 By 3 Comments

    OK Here I go again! The Anti-Slaughter issue is based on humane or more exactly in-humane treatment of horses. We are going so far as to make it a federal law to stop the slaughter and in-humane treatment caused by slaughtering, so what about the other in-humane activities that go on in the horse world and many times are accepted as general practice or as the way things are.

    For examples – (now I will be talking from experience with all these topics, meaning I have either witnessed the occurence or have witnessed the after effects of the “in-humane” treatment)

    Arabian Show horses – being gingered which entails applying ginger, a caustic substance to the anus of an Arab so that it is uncomfortable to place its tail down in the area. Although this is an “illegal” show activity, it happens many, many times as it helps maintain an appropriate tail flagging height.

    Western Pleasure – Chemically denerving or blocking of the tail, causing the tail to be limp, so no flagging occurs during a show. Consequently, the horse can no longer swat flies either. Or my favorite since I am an animal chiropractor – tying the head up for hours and hours. Why? So that the head hangs low, the muscles are too exhausted to raise the head up, so it “teaches” the horse to ride with its head down really low. Oh and this last one is legal!

    Racing – allowing young horses to heavily train so they can race when they are two. Reason – because otherwise you have to wait one more year to see if your investment will be a good one or not!?! Although the health of these horses are of the utmost importance when winning or trying to make a horse a winner, the big picture is lost by allowing them to train too early.

    Jumpers – polling – using a long pole to smack the front legs of a horse as he comes over a jump to “teach” them to tightly fold their knees to avoid brushing the bar.

    Saddlebreds – What can I say the entire process to make them do what they do. OK they have a natural gait but the techniques that “improve” or exaggerate those gaits can be very shocking and is widely accepted such as tail cutting and applying a tail set, which is cutting the lower ligaments of the tail allowing for exaggerated tail movement up over the back and applying a bar behind the tail and leaving it there for hours and hours to train the tail to be in that position. The shoes which create a long term defect in the feet, causing a pencil thin frog and crushed heels.

    Halter horses – Forcing yearlings to grow so fast and large that they look like 5 year old studs and I am talking about the fillys!

    I can go on and on about almost any of the sports and activities we do with horses. Are these next on the agenda for legislators? Are humane groups looking into these activities? Or is the horse world going to have to police itself and when the majority finds these activities inhumane will they stop or is the desire to win that much stronger?

    I really do not have an answer to these questions and I have to deal with horses that have these things done to them on a regular basis. Am I contributing to their inhumane treatment by working on them, allowing them to continue to perform? What do you think? Do these activities really affect the horse’s health or are they even really in-humane?

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