general horse care
Holistic Horse Health: Can pigeon fever be prevented?
Pigeon fever is a bacterial infection that normally manifests as superficial abscesses. The chest of the horse is the most common location for a large abscess and the swelling resembles the chest of a pigeon. The condition normally shows up in the dry summer months when the bacteria is picked up from the dirt by [...]
Horse Temperament: Is your Earth horse lazy?
The Earth horse temperament does not enjoy strenuous work but when healthy he is not lazy. Some of the most successful performance horses I have known have been the Earth horse temperament. Not to mention the consistent lesson horses that work for hours each day without complaint. The Earth horse temperament can appear lazy because [...]
Healing Horses with Regenerative Therapy
Many moons ago, when I was still in vet school, I worked at a racehorse training barn. I learned many cutting edge techniques working at this farm. One of them was a crude form of “auto-sanguinous” therapy. This basically meant drawing 60cc of blood from a horse’s jugular vein, and then immediately injecting that blood [...]
Holistic Horse Health: Is your horse’s gut smart?
Imagine my surprise when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal comparing the gut intelligence to that of the brain. I was introduced to this concept years ago when I read the great book, Molecules of Emotions, by Candice Pert. As it turns out, your horse’s gut is smart and any holistic horse [...]
Holistic Horse Health: Blue green algae as a feed for horses
As I was finding yet one more use for my empty algae containers I got to thinking. Since I started on a holistic horse health program about 20 years ago Simplexity blue green algae has been one of my most consistent recommendations as a feed for horses. Blue green algae has been part of the [...]
New Year’s Resolution: Do You and Your Horse Have One?
Are you busy making New Year’s resolutions for you and your horse? Are you hoping to go more places, win more prizes, or have more fun with your horse? More importantly, is there something that has held you and your horse back from your dreams and aspirations? Some of the barriers that I see in [...]
Holistic Horsemanship – Are you soft around your horse?
Don’t you love those little zingers you get from God. Here I am, not even through my first cup of coffee, having my morning meditation time with God and he zips in one of those zingers. With my horses I am always wanting them to be light and soft in their responses. I was asking [...]
Horse Temperament: Is your Fire or Wood mare bitchy?
I like to say , if your mare is mean then give her green. Green foods, that is, in the form of chlorophyl rich foods and herbs that will balance and support the liver. I have noticed my Fire horse temperament mare, Cerise, has been more irritable this year during our extreme drought. I have [...]
Holistic Horse Health: Why I feed probiotics
What is the first rule in feeding horses? Don’t make drastic feed changes. This is true because horses depend on a population of friendly bacteria to maintain healthy digestion. Drastic feed changes can alter the balance of healthy bacteria which can lead to colic or laminitis. Stress, drugs and weather changes can also alter the [...]
Natural Horse Health in Winter
When winter weather hits our natural human tendency is to do what we can to protect our horses from the cold, damp, and wind. This is a wonderful nurturing and protective instinct, and at the same time I frequently see people overdoing that protection, often at the expense of their horse’s health. This may seem [...]
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