THOROGOLD STABLES NEWSLETTER

December 5^th, 2002

GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEA!!! You can purchase lessons (individual or packaged). Winkles has proven to be a fantastic schooling horse and Jane Nall is doing instruction-Western or English. We recently had a birthday party using Winkles and a couple other horses and it was great fun!

q If anyone has any items (new or used) for sale, please let me know and we can put it in the periodic newsletter. Also, info wanted for the newsletter would include but not be limited to clinics, shows, poker and trail rides.

q Still working on arena conditions--obviously this will be an ongoing dilemma. The DustDown product didn’t seem to be working as well as it had originally and even though Mic worked diligently to get the automatic sprinkler system working well, it is hard to stay at a comfortable space between too wet and wet enough. So, I found a new product…It’s been in the arena for a couple months now. It seems to be doing fairly well (once I was able to get it sufficiently drenched). It is a product that swells up and looks like snot (sorry). It retains the moisture and releases as need be. It is similar to what they have for absorption in baby diapers. Let me know what you think.

q It seems as though the bedding in the stalls has made the horses happier during these wet winter months. Thanks for your patience and keeping me posted on how each of your individual horses is fairing. 

q We got the indoor waterers installed for the box stalls and they seem to be working great. The loafing shed area attached to the new barn is also recently completed. Thanks to Mic and my son Aaron. We also got all the poles and barrels repainted. It was a group effort and took most of the summer. We also completed the wildlife habitat area and creek buffer area and pond on the South side of our property by the road. This was huge project-tons of small plants, trees, and shrubs. Hopefully they will grow and it will help so that we don’t further pollute the stream and the birds and wildlife will have a nice nesting area. Black sand worked well in our turnout areas in the new barn last year and so we replaced the hog fuel in the main barn with the same sand. Hopefully, this in conjunction with the angle and drainage will make for a dryer turnout this winter.

q We had a few Play Days this year that were a success and several Bill Basham Clinics that were well attended. Let me know if you want these to continue and if you have other things you would like to do. We also had an all day Dental Clinic with Sarah Metcalf and most of the horses have nice new smiles and bit seats.

STALL CLEANER REMINDER: Try to keep bedding toward inside and away from walkway so it does not go out into the runs.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: When feeding, pull bedding back from doorways when you check waterers.

GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO ALL FOR BEING CONSCIENTIOUS WITH LIGHTS AND KEEPING DOORS SHUT!!!

THANK YOU ALSO FOR CLEANING UP AFTER YOUR HORSES & FARRIERS!!!

OUR AGENDA of ITEMS FOR IMPROVEMENT

q Continued work on arena conditions

q For my birthday Mic ordered arena mirrors

q Monitoring devices to view horses from Internet!!!(For new barn)

q Snow dams for roofs

SPRING AND SUMMER ITEMS: Continue drainage issues, arenas, corral for new barn, new pasture areas, bleacher & standard/jump storage area to enclose window, possible enclosure of wash rack, trail class area 

Congratulations to Steve Bush and his family for the purchase of Cameo (Missouri Fox Trotter. She is beautiful and will be a great addition to their family.

You might notice that we have a new appaloosa baby and Cara Rathjen is his owner. We brought him back from Pomeroy and he was half dead. Cara is trying to get him nursed back to health and then will be selling him.

He’s had a rough life so far so if you know anyone that will be a good home for him let us know. He has incredible lines and a sweet demeanor.

If you have an opportunity or desire to read info about hoof care, there is a very good website @ www.hoofcare.com. One of the items listed was regarding Black Walnut trees and how poison they are to horses. Evidently, even though this seems widely known, there was a stable in Wisconsin that used the tree trimmings of the black walnut trees and 

Excerpts from Hoofcare.com:

We often assume a horse needs shoes without really thinking about why or how that affects a horse's overall health. Yet standard veterinary texts, such as books by James Rooney, DVM, and O.R. Adams, DVM, on equine lameness, refer to shoeing as a "necessary evil." What makes shoeing necessary in some instances is the need for additional traction caused by the weight of the rider, which in turn causes excessive wear to the hoof wall, especially on hard surfaces. What makes shoeing a potential evil is that it restricts the hoof in ways that might not be optimal for its long-term health. The compromise between the requirements of the working horse and the health of the same horse's feet might be to leave him unshod for a few weeks out of the year.

Barefoot Research

A recent study by Robert M. Bowker, VMD, PhD, Professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University, and Lori A. Bidwell, DVM, of the Rood and Riddle Equine Clinic in Lexington, Ky., helps clarify how allowing a horse to go barefoot for at least a small portion of the year could, in fact, help promote soundness. Bowker's training is in veterinary medicine and neurobiology. He also teaches first-year veterinary anatomy, morphology (the study of anatomical form), and how to do a neurological exam on various animals. This familiarity with the anatomy of a variety of species gives him a unique perspective from which to study the equine hoof . . .

Please be sure to confer & work closely w/your chosen Farrier & Vet in these matters.