All the Creatures

I find it so amazing how us humans are so weight conscious. For ourselves we worry about diets and finding weight loss products, yet for horses we fret over them not getting enough food. When I visit many of the horse related message boards online, at least one or 2 of the threads are about their horse’s weight. Most think that their horse is too skinny when in fact when they post pictures of their horses, they look just fine, great in fact. I think that the “skinny horse” syndrome came about because of the many visuals on TV of horse that were confiscated by local Animal Control. It got everyone wondering if their own horse is too skinny.

If you are wondering if your horse is the right weight or not, you can do a Google search on the words “horse fitness scale” and see the results. There are a few tests you can do on your own horse to see if they are the right weight.

All the Creatures

I never thought that looking for a grooming item would be so hard! Let me tell you what I am looking for. I have a 19 year old mare that is just beginning to exhibit Cushings with the long coat that is hard to shed out. With her medication, most of it is under control but she still has a few areas that were resistant to shedding out completely. Each night, after she has finished eating her dinner I would enter her stall and groom her out to remove as much hair as possible. Since early spring this had become a ritual with me and she was looking forward to our grooming sessions. I have clippers to completely clip her but as most horse owners that clip their horses know, it is much more than just clipping a horse, it involves a bath. A whole body clip takes about 3, few hour sessions, to get it done right. I was not up to that kind of work. But I did remember that years ago there was a grooming comb that was made for dogs that had teeth and a razor that was used for stripping out a coat. So I started looking for one.

The first place I looked for such a comb was at my local Petco. Did they have them, yes they did but it was not quite what I was looking for. It was a furminator and I was not about to pay $54 for it!!!! $54!!!! That price was outrageous. I was hoping for some sort of sale price but no deal at that place. I checked a few department stores but none of them had anything. Next up I checked eBay. I was always able to find what I am looking for on eBay and this time it was not different. They had the exact same type of shedding the Petco had and almost the same price. So where do I look now?

Since I knew that the furminator was the only shedding comb on the market right now that might do the job that I wanted I Googled it. Of all the places to find it…….I found it at buy.com and here it is. Not only did they have it but it costs only $25 and free shipping.

My search is over and hopefully it works on my mare.

All the Creatures

Does your horse have brittle hooves? Do they break off easily during hot dry summers? Have you tired hoof quencher? Hoof quencher is made by the same people that gave us “mane n tail,” it is a hoof cream that comes in a pump bottle, at least mine does. I use it on my horses that have hoof cracking problems due to dry conditions. I apply it after I pick out their hooves. I do what most horse owners do and just put it on my hands and then slather it all over the hoof. I remember when I use to use a brush to put it on. Once I started to put it on with my hands I noticed that my own hands were no longer chapped and my own nails were getting stronger. I would not go as far as saying that the hoof quencher is a substitute for a human deep wrinkle cream but it does soften hands and puts moisture back into cracked hoofs if used once a day.

All the Creatures