Milton waits in hope of an early breakfast.
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Milton’s Practice Cart
Driving Thursday
Greg built practice shafts out of PVC pipes and a set of lawnmower wheels. It’s light, maneuverable, and doesn’t cost $100s of dollars if Milton declines be a driving horse with a violent hissy fit.
So far, Milton has accepted all of the introductory exercises. We have not rolled the shafts to either side of him, nor hitched. We need a third set of hands for the former, and expert supervision for the latter.
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
New Equipment: Whip
Saddle Seat Wednesday
Snowbee dressage whip from Carousel Tack Shoppe.
Lost at show (I always bring two). Replaced. Amazed to see how worn the old one had gotten.
I’m not beating horses with them, I promise. The whip is used lightly on the horse’s shoulder to indicate the canter depart: tip (the head) & tap (the shoulder). Although, I am more likely to use outside rein-outside leg as canter aids. I tend toward leg before hand.
Speaking of outside rein and not being in hunterland, for years I was told never to use the jumping bat/dressage whip on the shoulder. Always behind the saddle. The idea was to motivate the horse forward. One of so many reasons I am not in Kansas anymore.
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Feed Adventures, Part 2 of 2
What do you do when it’s the Monday before Thanksgiving and you are on your last bag of feed? You panic and call every feed store in central Alabama.
My bad. I let the supply get low. In my defense, we went through it faster than we had initially calculated and the store that promised to order more did not. They are dead to us.
As my calls went further and further afield, the feed stores had less and less variety. Until I arrived at one store that had no stock. They ordered as needed. Half of the places I called offered to order for us. Yes, fine. I have an order in at the local co-op. It arrives a week from Friday. That doesn’t help me NOW.
Stop. Regroup. I need to be heading toward population centers rather than away. Unfortunately, the towns likely to carry interesting feeds are at least a two-hour drive.
If I’m gonna spend all day driving to get feed (and grateful to have that option), why don’t we combine the car drive with a driving lesson? Plus, Franklin, TN, is the type of horsey area that would stock yuppy feed.
I was right. Of the two feed stores in town, one had 4 bags, the other had 11. Coach Kate kindly offered to buy it for us. In fact, I was halfway through my song and dance when she said, “You’re working up to ask me to go get some.” Yes, Ma’am.
Was she free over the weekend for a lesson? Well, no. She was busy Friday through Sunday. They didn’t have plans for Thanksgiving. Why didn’t we come up Thursday? That’ll work. We don’t generally make holiday plans and the horses had enough excess on board that they could handle tight rations for a few days.
So that’s what we did. We drove up to Franklin, had a lesson, ate lunch with friends, and came home with a backseat full of feed. (Thank you!) On our 20th wedding anniversary, we did a 40-mile bike around NYC. Playing with horses on Thanksgiving was positively normal. For us.
Props also to the nice man from Triple Crown. While I worked the local angle, Greg called the company directly. The sales rep was able to find two bags headed to one of the stores I had already called. We could pick up them on Saturday. Fine by us. Better feast than famine.
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Feed Adventures, Part 1 of 2
We are messing with feed again. We are now feeding Triple Crown Naturals.
When I got back from Nationals [Show Tweets], I noticed that Milton had become NQR while I was away. He was super itchy, his skin felt every so slight inflamed, and one of his bumps had sprouted a bump. Something was wrong in his world.
Mathilda used to be picky about where we bought her food. She was on Purina Omolene 100. This is a huge company that sells feed all over the country. A bag is a bag is a bag, no? No.
In the summer, we could buy from either feed store. In the winter, we could buy it from T-store. If we bought it from C-store, Mathilda refused to eat it. No one at either store would confirm a difference, but she was adamant, so we humored her.
In her defense, a) the bag tags were different and b) my feed researcher tells me that Purina gives a nutrition guarantee but not an ingredient guarantee.
Now is right about the time of year that Mathilda would hold her food protest. Could that be it? At the driving clinic [Weekend], Greg overheard anecdotal discussion of soy allergies. Why not give that a try. We ordered a bag, due in 4 days. Meanwhile, we bought a new bag of Purina Omolene 100 from the Mathilda-approved location. Bingo.
From
Purina Omolene 100 from C-store
To
Purina Omolene 100 from T-store
=
Immediate, noticeable improvement in Milton.
Since it was on order, we went ahead with the switch to Triple Crown Naturals. Perhaps even the “approved” Purina Omolene 100 still had small amounts of whatever-the-hell. We could always go back. We switched Rodney over also. He’s been fine with whatever we feed him, once we got him off the hi-test [Square One]. However, if Milton will react badly to a feed, I don’t want it in the field where he can steal bites of it.
They have been on the new feed for two weeks now. No one is worse. Not itchy. Not crazy. We think we see positive trends in body and brain for both of them, but we are as prone to wishful thinking as anyone else. They are ridiculously shiny, but probably from the oils and additives that get chucked into expensive feeds. They are working well, but that could be from unrelated factors. Correlation is not causation.
From
Purina Omolene 100 from T-store
To
Triple Crown Naturals
=
Less clear. At least equal, possibly better, in both.
We are going to stay with the new feed for a while.
I am not happy about the non-GMO designation. There is way too much food alarmism in the world today. However, it’s the way we found to test the soy-free theory.
Nor am I advocating food allergies as a source of all problems. Purina is a great feed. We’ve used it for years. However, we appear to have been gifted with two of the world’s most sensitive equine stomachs.
One other nice thing about Purina is that everyone sells it. You can always find a bag. I was not looking forward to using a feed that would be hard to find.
On that bit of subtle foreshadowing, I leave you until tomorrow.
Feed Posts
Milton has been sensitive to feed before. The switch to Purina Omolene 100 had been working. Soy sensitivity was mentioned. There was an interlude of alfalfa cubes somewhere in here. I was never behind the experiment, so I don’t think I reported it.
Meanwhile Back at the Ranch: Feed
Feed Bag Comparison
Clean Cups!
& for your amusement
The Mysterious Secret To Opening Feed Bags
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Letter Art: Z is for Zoonoses
The term zoonosis (plural zoonoses) means a disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans. The name is derived from the Greek “zoi” or “zoe,” meaning life, plus “nosos,” meaning disease. An equine zoonosis is a disease that humans can contract from members of the equid family.
“Shared Diseases”
by Katherine Walcott and Peter Timoney, MVB, FRCVS, PHD
The Horse
January 2002
pp 57-60
Alright, a 14-year-old article is a reach, but Z is hard. Once you get past zoo & zebra [Text Art 2015], there’s not much out there.
~~~
2016 Alphabet
Y is for Yin & Yang
X is for Xerophagy
W is for Whip
V is for Vest, Again
U is for Ulcer Meds
T is for Training Level
S is for Swim
R is for Reins
Q is for Quote
P is for Polo Wraps
O is for Opinion
N is for Nature
M is for My Missing Motivation
L is for Leadline
K is for Knabstrupper
J is for Jenny’s Jodhpurs
I is for I Love You
H is for Halter
G is for Ghost Gallery
F is for Fence
E is for Eventing
D is for Do
C is for Carrot
B is for Brush
A is for Apple
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Clydesdale Humor
For someone who is ambivalent about alcohol, I’m certainly giving corporate PR icons a lot of blog space lately [Foto Friday: Horses in the City & Hitching The Clydesdales]. But they’re such cute PR icons. The top photo is a repeat from Tuesday. I wasn’t sure how many people saw it at the bottom of a 25-photo post.
(Wheelers get hitched first & have to wait on the rest of the team.
He never moved a hoof.)
Goofy Faces Gallery
#followthehitch
~~~
The last Saturday of the month is reserved for the State of the Blog. Skipping it this month. Nothing riveting to say on the subject. Previous State of the Blog posts [list of links].
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 