All the Creatures

Today we have a guest blogger

Guest post written by Tim Brewster

When I told my wife that I thought we should get our daughter some horseback riding lessons for her birthday as a surprise, she disagreed with my, to put it mildly. She just really hated the thought of our daughter riding horses. For some reason my wife thinks that horses are really dangerous, no matter how many times I’ve told her that these horses at these riding places are trained to be really calm and are used to working with kids.

Well, I went online to see if I could find some more information so that it would help me convince my wife that horse riding lessons are safe.

I did find a website for a riding lessons service that talks a whole lot about the safety of the lessons and how they train them to work with children. I showed it to my wife and that made her feel a little better. I think I can convince her by our daughter’s birthday.

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Most animals will bite you if they feel threatened or use as a last resort to protect themselves. Unfortunately there are also animals that use the threat of biting to control other animals and humans, horses are one of them.

Horses will bite other horses to show who is in charge in a herd situation. They will also think that their human handler should be treated the same way as another horse unless they have been properly trained. While a horse bite on a horse is not that noticeable a horse bite on a human is very nasty. Click here for a very graphic photo of a horse bite on a human. You have to scroll down a bit on the page but the photo looks like the horse got a good hold of the person. The same website is selling a book on how to re-train biting horses.

I had a good friend once who was boarding her horse at the same place I was. Her horse was laid up for an injury so she leased this huge gelding named “Boogie.” While getting him out of his pen one day, Boogie bit her in the neck. She has scars of the incident. Needless to say that Boogie was not leased by her any longer. It was the only time that Boogie did anything like that and he ended up being sold a few years later to someone who just loved him to death.

Yes, horses can and do bite, but so do cats and dogs. You just have to be aware of it and know those training techniques.

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A few years back I was fortunate to help rescue a small shetland pony from it’s sadly knowledgeable owner. The owner lived across the street from us. Normally the pony would graze their 1 acre pasture until the bought an angus calf. Then the pony and calf would share the pasture. One day I saw the pony penned up and the calf had now gotten large. I thought nothing more about it until 6 months later. The angus ended up in their freezer and the pony still remained penned up.

My daughter was now 6 years old and had expressed an interest in ponies. I went across the street to find out where they got their pony from and ended up with their pony. You see the pony had foundered during the time the calf was with them. In order to fatten up the angus for the dinner table, they fed large amounts of alfalfa and the pony had enjoyed it too. Unfortunately the free feeding of alfalfa had caused the pony’s hooves to founder and the owners solution was to pen the pony up……………for months on end. They got their solution from another “horse expert” in the neighborhood and never had a vet look at the pony.  After hearing that story, I was only too happy to take the pony out of that situation.

After getting the pony home the first order of business was to get it’s hooves trimmed (they had them trimmed over a year ago!!!). After finding out the condition of the hooves from my farrier the next order of business was to balance the pony’s diet to encourage good and fast hoof growth. I added a good quality biotin supplement and powdered gelatin to the pony’s feed. After 5 weeks I had the farrier come back and trim the pony’s hoofs again. This time he asked me what I did since he noticed a marked difference in the amount of blood in the hooves. I told him and then another 5 weeks past and he came out for another visit. This time he was amazed…..no blood in the hooves at all!!! In just 3 months I had managed to improve that pony’s feet to the point they were no longer ouchy for the pony and the pony could now start it’s training for becoming a riding pony.

My daughter showed the pony in English classes and won a few ribbons with her. After my daughter outgrew the pony we found a wonderful home for her.

A friend of mine now owns that pony and she is a pasture pet and companion for her other horses. She continues to keep an eye on her hooves.

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