HORSEY TIPS .

FEED AND MAINTENANCE OF THE O.A.P. HORSE.

The most important thing for the old horse is to be able to eat properly! as they get old everything begins to stop working properly, their digestive system doesn't work as well and their teeth deteriorate!
I can not stress enough how important it is to have their teeth checked every six months by a good equine dentist, if the dentist you use says there is not much he can do for them as they are old! CHANGE HIM!
If your old boy/girl can't chew their food properly, not only will they not get the benefit of the food you are giving them but their digstive system will not be working as well as it used to be and they will have problems trying to digest food, especially hay, which can eventually cause a colic compaction!
I have had personal experience of this as I lost Needlepoint (Troy's mum) at 27 years in January 2003.
I now use a fantastic Equine Dentist called Nathanial Heal who does all our horses here at Shannon Leigh and has given my 34 year old mare Jarva a new lease of life and she has never looked as well in the last five years as she does now, she had major dental work carried out ( which previous dentists said she couldn't have done!)and has kept all her weight on over winter and looks like a 15 year old! I feed her Dodson and Horrell Sixteen Plus, Sugarbeet, Alpha-A and she gets Ready Grass ad-lib, as since losing Needlepoint I do not feed her Hay or Hage, and she needs fibre from the Ready Grass but its already chopped and therefore easier for her to digest, she also gets Equilibra 500 and Red Cell and lots of specially chosen little carrots! :-)
If you notice your horse leaving half chewed bits of hay ( known as quidding) it means they have a problem with their teeth and need a dentist!
All horses from a young age need to have regular dental checkups every six months!
Here is Nats number 07774299582, he may know someone to recommend that is in your area if he can not do it! :-)

HOW TO GROW A THICK TAIL - Everytime we brush a horses tail we pull out lots of hair and break the hair off halfway down! This is why a horses tail will be thicker halfway down than it is at the bottom! Every hair that is pulled out will take approximately two years to grow back! As brushing a horses tail is only for cosmetic reasons (unlike grooming the body of a horse to get scurf and dead hair out!)there is no need to brush their tails except for the 'Dock' which is the bone at the top of the tail! They will need washing occasionally and it is after they are washed that we can brush them! After you have washed their tail ( baby shampoo is very good, especially for sensitive skins!) rub in a coat conditioner or mane and tail detangler, then very gently with a human hairbrush (denmans are the best!) brush one tangle out at a time slowly starting from the very bottom working your way up the tail! (if you start at the top you will be trying to brush out several tangles instead of one or two!)It is best in the winter to keep the tail cut nice and short,( plaiting it just below the dock to the bottom like a childs hair will help keep it clean and tangle free!) and by the spring you will have a nice thick tail! :-)

HOW TO KEEP A MANE LAYING THE CORRECT SIDE. Traditionally horses manes are to lay on the off (right) side of a horses neck. Most common suggestion is to plait it over to the right, but this only trains the mane in different directions, instead of straight down the neck! Instead of plaiting, bunch the mane in one inch sections with bands making sure the band is at the bottom of the hairline, otherwise you will be training it to stick up! You will have to re-do each bunch regularly as if they rub their mane and the bunches get moved it'll be training the mane the wrong way again. You will probably have about 30 little bunches along the neck and usually it'll only take about 3 days to work! If your horses mane lays completely on the wrong side, by bunching it this way it will always lay on the correct side! It is more difficult if your horse has a very wide maneline on his crest as it will fall on both sides, and by pulling it to thin it and then bunching it, will help!

PULLING DIFFERENT TYPES OF MANES AND TAILS. If your horse has a very fine mane and you just want to shorten it, take a section of mane in one hand and with the other hand use a small pulling comb and back comb the mane lots of times to the required length and then hold the comb at the length you want the mane and wrap the remaining hair left in your hand around the comb (keeping the comb at the length you want the mane to be) and then slowly pull out downwards ( if you yank the mane out, your horse is more lightly to object) If you try to pull out too much at a time your horse will find this painful, so be patient and only do small amounts at a time! If your horse has a very thick mane and you want to thin it (even if it is short) then you take a small section in your hand and with the other hand only back comb once or twice then wrap the remaining hair in the other hand around the comb and pull out. Basically the mane you back comb breaks off at the length you have back combed it too and the mane you wrap around the comb pulls out at the roots, so if the want to shorten a mane without thinning it, back comb it lots and if you want to thin a thick mane only back comb it a couple of times before pulling it out!
Pulling a tail is the same principle, except you back comb close to the dock. If a horse has not had his tail pulled before then there will be enough length to wrap around a comb , but if he has had it pulled previously and it has started to grow out you will find it hard to wrap the short bits of hair around the comb, so get some washing up type gloves, as this gives you great grip and doesn't make your fingers sore! and back comb using your fingers (to the dock) and with both hands pinch the hair and pull out! The best way to judge where to pull the hair out on the tail is to fold the hair underneath the dock and see what the shape would look like and then you know how much needs to be pulled out!

TRAVELLING TIPS. If your horse travels badly and he sweats up, trembles, stumbles or leans on the partitions! Then there are probably only two reasons! The first could be because you are not giving him a smooth drive ( hopefully this is not the reason!)Breaking and going up and down the gears should be done smoothly and slowly, great thought should taken to thinking in advance to situations, such as coming up to traffic lights and roundabouts, always expect that the lights will change to red so you don't have to slam the breaks on!( I nearly had three horses in the cab with me once when a bus decided to run a red light in front of me, not a very nice experience!!!!) Also try not to drive near the gutter as the camber in the road will tip the horses that way, it is tiring for a horse to keep it's balance let alone try to keep straight if he is leaning away from the kerb! ( if you travel one horse in a trailer, either take the partition out completely or travel them on the side nearest the middle of the road , not the kerbside!) The second reason is usually why they get stressed travelling and that is that they don't have enough room between the partitions! The one and only reason we have partitions in a lorry or trailer is to protect a horse from the horse standing next to it! NOT to support it! The more room a horse has the easier it is for him to keep his balance and the more comfortable he will be! Two things usually happen when he hasn't got enough room, one is that he will lean on the back which can cause his tail to get rubbed raw ( even with a tail guard!)this is because he hasn't got enough head room and is leaning back so as not to bump his head!The second thing he may do is stumble ( or paddle up the side of the partition) this is very upsetting for them (and us!)and so many people will make the partitions tighter to try and support them when they need to do the complete opposite and open the partitions up to give them more room to stretch all four legs out! My horsebox is built to carry three, but if I travel one horse I open the partitions right up and they have the whole area for them to decide which is the most comfortable place to stand ( they are always tied up!) If I travel two I put both partitions together in the middle so both horse have an equal half of the box to themselves, and if I travel three then the biggest horse gets the most room, as we have to take into consideration the length of the horse as well so he can stand at an angle to give himself more head room. We never tie foals up as this is very dangerous as they could break they necks! we tie mum up and the foal will stand with his head at the milk bar as this is his comfort zone and he feels safe in this position ( this is the only time you travel two horses without a partition together)Also it is best not to travel mares and foals with travelling boots or bandages as the mare will be more aware of where her foals legs are and is less likely to stand on him accidentally! I do hope this will be of help to someone that may have had a problem with travelling a horse and I wish everyone ( and their horses) stress free happy safe journeys! :-)