Weather was lovely over the weekend, C was back so both Rosey and Charlie Too got worked both days. They managed to drag me away from the furminator long enough to do some work as well, they said it was so Max and Jamie didn't feel left out but funnily enough as I left the yard both of them were desperate to get their hands on it. I am going to have to buy another two, it's getting silly (and I don't want to share).
Not much to report about Max, he was very good, I am planning a couple of sessions of in hand in the bridle and then hopefully the OH will start hacking him around the fields.
We finally got round to trying the Pee Wee bit on Jamie. Jamie is very unsettled with a bit, personally I have nothing against bitless and think that he is ok in the Dr Cook's, the OH felt that when he sat on him in the Dr Cooks he curled back a lot, and he had no connection with the mouth. He also felt he had no steering and brakes. As he is the one that is sitting on I have to respect his wishes hence trying the Pee Wee which has been used successfully with ex race horses. From what I have read horses either love it or hate it so I wasn't holding out much hope.
We fitted it and immediately Jamie was more settled in his mouth, usually with a bit he will open his mouth and roll it around with his tongue. We let him stand with it for a bit and then took him for a walk around the fields, this also seemed very good, the OH then did a little bit of inhand work from the bridle and apart from the fact that he doesn't know what he is doing, so he didn't know where the go button was, it was very good.
The OH then admitted he didn't know what he was doing so I took over, Jamie had the tendancy to come a little deep but was not curled round, I was able to send him onwards and ask with an upwards rein aid at the same time to ask his head to come up. Need to do a few more sessions of this and possibly lunge him while he was wearing it and then OH can get on.
I also fitted a saddle for Jamie, one of the benefits of being a Saddle Company fitter and having an adjusting machine, I can quickly tweak something and make sure it is perfect for him. Tried the saddle on Rosey as well and it is ok so if the owner ever allows C to ride her then we have something that we can use on her as well.
All in all a lovely weekend.
Monday, 28 March 2011
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Not one horse worked
Weather was beautiful, horses were all chilled out, I had loads of energy but not one horse worked. And the reason was?
I have a Furminator!!!
OMG I knew this was addictive but when you actually get your hands on one and you have 8 horses in front of you to get hair out of, suddenly nothing else matters. And your OH tries to get you to stop but you just want to do five minutes more. He wants you to stop because he wants to have a go but it's mine I tell you, all mine!!!!
I have a Furminator!!!
OMG I knew this was addictive but when you actually get your hands on one and you have 8 horses in front of you to get hair out of, suddenly nothing else matters. And your OH tries to get you to stop but you just want to do five minutes more. He wants you to stop because he wants to have a go but it's mine I tell you, all mine!!!!
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
The Fructans Debate
There has been an interesting discussion on EE about magnesium and spring grass, as is often the case someone put forward the 'trouble with grass is fructans' argument, and referenced research to support this point.
I recently attended the laminitis awareness seminar, during this seminar various research was talked about and one of the nutritionists from Dodson and Horrell (who was actually refreshingly non salesy) put forward a counter argument or at least explained why the research did not necessarily prove what it was trying to prove.
I thought this raised an interesting point about having to take research findings in the context of real life, it is very easy to read something and understand it to be the truth, taking it on face value, when actually this would never apply to you or your horse.
I am signed up to the Equine Science Archives which is an excellent resource and very good value for money for a years access. The following two extracts are taken from their publications in 2010.
Laminitis Latest (Chris Pollit research)
"The discovery that fructans can be used experimentally to induce laminitis has allowed him to examine the changes that occur in the foot in the early stages of the disease. Alimentary overload with oligo-fructan is a valid experimental model for inducing acute laminitis. He points out that using oligo-fructan (OF) to induce laminitis in experimental horses has advantages over the previously used method of giving a large dose of starch. OF given at 10g/kg predictably causes laminitis every time. But the signs are less severe than with the starch model and none of the animals have to be killed."
"An extract of Streptococcus bovis, the bacteria that multiply dramatically in the large intestine in response to fructan, has a similar effect. However, Pollitt has not yet been able to prove that toxins released by the bacteria actually reach the laminae to be able to have their effect. "We`ve never been able to show any bacterial product at the lamellar zone so far."
What I understand from this research is that if the horse ingests enough fructan (10g/Kg) it will reliably result in laminitis. We can induce laminitis by introducing fructan but the gut bacteria proliferation in response to the fructan is as yet unproven to directly impact on the laminae. So we still have no idea how something that impacts on the gut, also effects the feet.
Contrast this to Dr Hollands analysis of Pollits research (Article entitled Laminitis Awareness):
"Experiments have shown that giving large meals of starch or fructans can cause laminitis. Large amounts of these carbohydrates suddenly arriving in the horse’s large intestine disrupt the normal population of bacteria in the gut, leading to a cascade of inflammatory and toxic events.
However, Dr Hollands, nutritionist at Dodson and Horrell, explained that this process is unlikely to be involved in the majority of cases of pasture-associated laminitis.
Firstly, grass contains little starch. Of the pasture plants commonly found in the UK, only clover has significant amounts of starch. Grasses store glucose that they can’t use straight away as fructans.
It has been shown that laminitis can be induced by giving a large bolus of fructan (5g-12.5g fructan/kg body weight). That’s about 3.75kg fructan for a 500kg horse.
How much fructan would a horse eat when grazing? Grass contains higher levels of fructan during the winter. Mixed pasture might contain 150g fructan/kg dry matter of grass in the winter (compared with 6.6g/kg in the summer). If a 500kg horse eats an amount of grass equivalent to 2.5% of his body weight, (12.5kg), his total intake of fructans would be about 1.9kg.
So the full daily intake falls short of the levels that have been shown to cause laminitis. And what’s more, as horses are “trickle feeders”, that fructan intake is spread out over 24 hours. So even in the winter when the fructan levels in the grass are highest, the horse is only likely to eat something like 50g fructan/hour. In the summer the figure is likely to be about 5g fructan an hour - a thousand times less than the amount needed to cause laminitis.
What’s more, recent work has shown that fructans are fermented in the small intestine, and so are even less likely to reach the hindgut in sufficient quantities to cause food-induced laminitis.
So how does grass cause laminitis? “We need to move away from thinking about individual components of the diet “ Dr Hollands suggested. “In the end it is the calories that are the main risk factor.”
From this explanation of Pollits research I now believe that in my horses world it would be very difficult for them to consume the amounts of fructan that Pollit had to introduce to trigger laminitis, in fact in the summer, they would be consuming 1000 times less fructan than Pollit had used.
So, what do I see in my own horses? In my experience my horses cope best with a minimal grass diet which means I restrict them both in terms of slowing down their grass consumption rate (by a grazing muzzle) and by keeping them on a sparse paddock so they have to work harder to get the grass. The sparse paddock contains the 'stressed' grass which is generally believed to produce more fructan than older tall stemmy grass. Because however they are restricted their overall calorie intake is reduced, they are also moving around more to get the grass so their energy expenditure is higher. Personally I think I come down on the side of Dr Hollands and that it is far more important to be concerned about overall calorie intake than fructan.
I recently attended the laminitis awareness seminar, during this seminar various research was talked about and one of the nutritionists from Dodson and Horrell (who was actually refreshingly non salesy) put forward a counter argument or at least explained why the research did not necessarily prove what it was trying to prove.
I thought this raised an interesting point about having to take research findings in the context of real life, it is very easy to read something and understand it to be the truth, taking it on face value, when actually this would never apply to you or your horse.
I am signed up to the Equine Science Archives which is an excellent resource and very good value for money for a years access. The following two extracts are taken from their publications in 2010.
Laminitis Latest (Chris Pollit research)
"The discovery that fructans can be used experimentally to induce laminitis has allowed him to examine the changes that occur in the foot in the early stages of the disease. Alimentary overload with oligo-fructan is a valid experimental model for inducing acute laminitis. He points out that using oligo-fructan (OF) to induce laminitis in experimental horses has advantages over the previously used method of giving a large dose of starch. OF given at 10g/kg predictably causes laminitis every time. But the signs are less severe than with the starch model and none of the animals have to be killed."
"An extract of Streptococcus bovis, the bacteria that multiply dramatically in the large intestine in response to fructan, has a similar effect. However, Pollitt has not yet been able to prove that toxins released by the bacteria actually reach the laminae to be able to have their effect. "We`ve never been able to show any bacterial product at the lamellar zone so far."
What I understand from this research is that if the horse ingests enough fructan (10g/Kg) it will reliably result in laminitis. We can induce laminitis by introducing fructan but the gut bacteria proliferation in response to the fructan is as yet unproven to directly impact on the laminae. So we still have no idea how something that impacts on the gut, also effects the feet.
Contrast this to Dr Hollands analysis of Pollits research (Article entitled Laminitis Awareness):
"Experiments have shown that giving large meals of starch or fructans can cause laminitis. Large amounts of these carbohydrates suddenly arriving in the horse’s large intestine disrupt the normal population of bacteria in the gut, leading to a cascade of inflammatory and toxic events.
However, Dr Hollands, nutritionist at Dodson and Horrell, explained that this process is unlikely to be involved in the majority of cases of pasture-associated laminitis.
Firstly, grass contains little starch. Of the pasture plants commonly found in the UK, only clover has significant amounts of starch. Grasses store glucose that they can’t use straight away as fructans.
It has been shown that laminitis can be induced by giving a large bolus of fructan (5g-12.5g fructan/kg body weight). That’s about 3.75kg fructan for a 500kg horse.
How much fructan would a horse eat when grazing? Grass contains higher levels of fructan during the winter. Mixed pasture might contain 150g fructan/kg dry matter of grass in the winter (compared with 6.6g/kg in the summer). If a 500kg horse eats an amount of grass equivalent to 2.5% of his body weight, (12.5kg), his total intake of fructans would be about 1.9kg.
So the full daily intake falls short of the levels that have been shown to cause laminitis. And what’s more, as horses are “trickle feeders”, that fructan intake is spread out over 24 hours. So even in the winter when the fructan levels in the grass are highest, the horse is only likely to eat something like 50g fructan/hour. In the summer the figure is likely to be about 5g fructan an hour - a thousand times less than the amount needed to cause laminitis.
What’s more, recent work has shown that fructans are fermented in the small intestine, and so are even less likely to reach the hindgut in sufficient quantities to cause food-induced laminitis.
So how does grass cause laminitis? “We need to move away from thinking about individual components of the diet “ Dr Hollands suggested. “In the end it is the calories that are the main risk factor.”
From this explanation of Pollits research I now believe that in my horses world it would be very difficult for them to consume the amounts of fructan that Pollit had to introduce to trigger laminitis, in fact in the summer, they would be consuming 1000 times less fructan than Pollit had used.
So, what do I see in my own horses? In my experience my horses cope best with a minimal grass diet which means I restrict them both in terms of slowing down their grass consumption rate (by a grazing muzzle) and by keeping them on a sparse paddock so they have to work harder to get the grass. The sparse paddock contains the 'stressed' grass which is generally believed to produce more fructan than older tall stemmy grass. Because however they are restricted their overall calorie intake is reduced, they are also moving around more to get the grass so their energy expenditure is higher. Personally I think I come down on the side of Dr Hollands and that it is far more important to be concerned about overall calorie intake than fructan.
Monday, 14 March 2011
Letter To Molobolo On Ebay
Molobolo,
It is customers like you that give Ebay a bad name.
On 21st February you placed an order via my Ebay shop, this order was dispatched on the 23rd February. The address you supplied was slightly unusual in structure but was verified as ok by Paypal.
You then contacted me to say your goods had not arrived and because of this you had had to order the same goods from another supplier, at a higher price. I am not sure from this whether you were hoping for a refund however I told you that I was sorry the goods had not arrived and posted another item on the 7th March, first class. I also asked you to confirm that I had the correct address and you replied that the address was correct and that this was where 'all your post gets successfully delivered to'.
I support the Royal Mail and my local post office however with the best will in the world sometimes things go wrong and orders go missing or get damaged. This is a risk and I the customer take, by sending things out via a standard service it keeps the costs down for all of us. The vast majority of my parcels get delivered safe and sound.
On the 9th March I contacted you to make sure your second parcel had arrived safe and sound and did not get a response. I was a little surprised to discover later that same day that you had left me negative feedback saying 'I paid for this item not received it'. I take my 100% positive feedback very seriously and will always strive to resolve any issues, as I demonstrated by sending out a replacement item.
Something about you manner of communication made me a little curious so I took it upon myself to look up the feedback you have left for other people you have purchased from. Out of 19 feedbacks that you have left 10 was negative, 3 was neutral (and revised) and 6 was good. Of the 10 negative all stated that you had not received your order.
I have a couple of suggestions of what may have happened here. Firstly, you may well be having a problem with your post going missing at your halls of residence, if this is the case I suggest you take this up with your college and maybe see if any other people are having similar problems. Alternatively, if post is not going missing then I suggest that you may be fraudulently saying that parcels have not arrived in a bid to get replacement items or your money refunded.
I can not possibly say what happened here, I have however asked Ebay to look in to this, and contacted all the other sellers that you have left negative feedback for and suggested they do the same, I would hate to think that things were going missing at your college.
As an older women of the world I would also like to give you a piece of advice, I note from your feedback that you recently ordered a New Breast Enhancer Enlargement Massager (which unfortunately didn't arrive). I am sorry to have to tell you that it is a well known scientific fact that these devices don't work. You could however nip down to Tescos and buy a couple of chicken fillets.
Regards.
Barefoot Basics
It is customers like you that give Ebay a bad name.
On 21st February you placed an order via my Ebay shop, this order was dispatched on the 23rd February. The address you supplied was slightly unusual in structure but was verified as ok by Paypal.
You then contacted me to say your goods had not arrived and because of this you had had to order the same goods from another supplier, at a higher price. I am not sure from this whether you were hoping for a refund however I told you that I was sorry the goods had not arrived and posted another item on the 7th March, first class. I also asked you to confirm that I had the correct address and you replied that the address was correct and that this was where 'all your post gets successfully delivered to'.
I support the Royal Mail and my local post office however with the best will in the world sometimes things go wrong and orders go missing or get damaged. This is a risk and I the customer take, by sending things out via a standard service it keeps the costs down for all of us. The vast majority of my parcels get delivered safe and sound.
On the 9th March I contacted you to make sure your second parcel had arrived safe and sound and did not get a response. I was a little surprised to discover later that same day that you had left me negative feedback saying 'I paid for this item not received it'. I take my 100% positive feedback very seriously and will always strive to resolve any issues, as I demonstrated by sending out a replacement item.
Something about you manner of communication made me a little curious so I took it upon myself to look up the feedback you have left for other people you have purchased from. Out of 19 feedbacks that you have left 10 was negative, 3 was neutral (and revised) and 6 was good. Of the 10 negative all stated that you had not received your order.
I have a couple of suggestions of what may have happened here. Firstly, you may well be having a problem with your post going missing at your halls of residence, if this is the case I suggest you take this up with your college and maybe see if any other people are having similar problems. Alternatively, if post is not going missing then I suggest that you may be fraudulently saying that parcels have not arrived in a bid to get replacement items or your money refunded.
I can not possibly say what happened here, I have however asked Ebay to look in to this, and contacted all the other sellers that you have left negative feedback for and suggested they do the same, I would hate to think that things were going missing at your college.
As an older women of the world I would also like to give you a piece of advice, I note from your feedback that you recently ordered a New Breast Enhancer Enlargement Massager (which unfortunately didn't arrive). I am sorry to have to tell you that it is a well known scientific fact that these devices don't work. You could however nip down to Tescos and buy a couple of chicken fillets.
Regards.
Barefoot Basics
Sunday, 13 March 2011
A Mixed Bag
Had a mainly good weekend, gave myself a kick up the backside and worked Max Saturday and Sunday. Saturday he was perfect they had had access to a bit more grass and he came in all chilled out and sleepy. Today not so good and I had to tell him off when he spooked and lept at absolutely nothing at all. He is definitely a horse that is better when someone or another horse is in charge and once I had said 'no' he actually settled a lot quicker than in the past when I have tried to let him sort himself out.
C worked Rosey and Charlie Too both days, I have been teaching her some rope skills and found out today that she has been playing on her own and dispensed with the rope entirely which was great to see, using her body language she was really working well with R. C has a weeks work experience at a local BHS riding school next week, will be interesting what she makes of that, and what they make of her new found 'alternative' skills and ideas on horsemanship. Her riding has certainly improved and hopefully they will recognise that.
The Pee Wee bit I ordered for Jamie has arrived. Jamie is very unsettled with a bit in his mouth, being a TB he has quite a small mouth and a very shallow smile I am hoping that the straps that hold the bit steady and the narrow mouthpiece will suit him. Having done some research it looks like a bit that horses either love or it does nothing for so it will be an interesting experiment.
C worked Rosey and Charlie Too both days, I have been teaching her some rope skills and found out today that she has been playing on her own and dispensed with the rope entirely which was great to see, using her body language she was really working well with R. C has a weeks work experience at a local BHS riding school next week, will be interesting what she makes of that, and what they make of her new found 'alternative' skills and ideas on horsemanship. Her riding has certainly improved and hopefully they will recognise that.
The Pee Wee bit I ordered for Jamie has arrived. Jamie is very unsettled with a bit in his mouth, being a TB he has quite a small mouth and a very shallow smile I am hoping that the straps that hold the bit steady and the narrow mouthpiece will suit him. Having done some research it looks like a bit that horses either love or it does nothing for so it will be an interesting experiment.
Monday, 7 March 2011
Viruses, coughs and broken wind
Horses are all fine, me on the other hand is still struggling with the remains of flu that has left me with a cough and a general lack of energy. It has been four weeks now, funny how when you work for yourself you don't catch any bugs but as soon as you get paid sick leave you promptly pick up something that floors you.
Managed to walk to the 6th floor of my building and keep breathing today so I think I am on the mend. Horses are all well, Max and Jamie have been put on the back burner due to my flu but Rosey and Charlie Too have been worked by C. Rosey's owner made an appearance last week, reading week apparently, don't uni students get enough holiday? Typical L turned up at just the wrong time (ie when we had every other horse tied up in the yard and Rosey had been put to bed), rode, got Rosey sweaty and then announced 'I need to go now because I am going to the cinema/dinner/a cocktail party' so handed back the horse for us to cool off and then put to bed (again). I think her idea of full livery is very different to ours.
Bumped in to a friend from school today, 2.4 children, skiing tan, hair arranged by hairdresser not by wind/riding hat, clothes devoid of any animal hair, no mud on shoes and to finish me off wearing heels (and could walk in them). Worse thing was that she immediately recognised me and yet I didn't have a clue, my colleague to her credit said it must be because I have kept my youthful looks ........
Managed to walk to the 6th floor of my building and keep breathing today so I think I am on the mend. Horses are all well, Max and Jamie have been put on the back burner due to my flu but Rosey and Charlie Too have been worked by C. Rosey's owner made an appearance last week, reading week apparently, don't uni students get enough holiday? Typical L turned up at just the wrong time (ie when we had every other horse tied up in the yard and Rosey had been put to bed), rode, got Rosey sweaty and then announced 'I need to go now because I am going to the cinema/dinner/a cocktail party' so handed back the horse for us to cool off and then put to bed (again). I think her idea of full livery is very different to ours.
Bumped in to a friend from school today, 2.4 children, skiing tan, hair arranged by hairdresser not by wind/riding hat, clothes devoid of any animal hair, no mud on shoes and to finish me off wearing heels (and could walk in them). Worse thing was that she immediately recognised me and yet I didn't have a clue, my colleague to her credit said it must be because I have kept my youthful looks ........
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