Sharing the Journey
By Vicki Fraser of Equine Body Shop
As this Equine Quarterly goes to press, I want to join with the local horse community in congratulating our fellow horseman Mark Lyons, and his mustang Christian, on their success in winning their competition at the Extreme Mustang Makeover Sept. 20-21st in Ft. Worth, TX. We're all so proud of you both.
I had a great response to my article last quarter about riding Treeless saddles, met some amazing people, rode with them and their horse partners. Had Mapquest mis-adventures that included sticking my truck and gooseneck trailer in a muddy ditch on a minimum maintenance road (another story). Made friends and fit saddles for people that I hope will be lifelong friends. I made a statement that these saddles fit most everything from a pony to a Percheron - so, you guessed it, the first phone call was from a POA owner, the second from a woman who has a team of Percherons. Fit the same model saddle to both owners and horses. I'm going to be VERY careful about what claims I make - I obviously will be called upon in the next week to back them up.
I've been searching for the "best" for my horses since I moved out of the house at 17 and bought my first one. That search included everything horse related - saddles, obviously, but also everything health related. I'd say that although I had read every horse book available at least once, in my first 5 years of horse ownership, I learned the most from the vet visits. These, usually a result of some hole in the fabric of my understanding of horse care. I won't give any examples here - think about everything you've learned in your own experience with horses, dogs, cats or kids.
I met a fellow horsewoman not long ago. She is a barefoot trimmer, a research lab scientist, nutritionist, accomplished dressage competitor - the list goes on. She was standing in my barn one evening looking at my horses and she turned to me and said, "Lucy looks ulcery". I'm not sure ulcery is a word, but we both knew what she meant. This might not seem like a big deal to you, but the mare she was referring to had suffered ulcers and colic as the result of injury in the past. If anyone has dealt with ulcers, you know that one highly recommended treatment is about $39.00 a tube - and a month's treatment will run about $400.00, as many times through the lifetime of the horse as it takes. I knew the mare had been stressed as I started her training, but was trying to "manage" it. Hoping I didn't have to treat her for a month, again.
I'm feeding the highest quality brome hay I can find and a well-known premium feed formulated for prevention of colic and intestinal issues. So, I asked her what I should do - start the treatment? "Oh, no".
She advised me to feed soaked, WHOLE oats and Black Oil Sunflower Seeds as the fat source. I of course questioned the "whole oat" part - we'd been taught from birth that the oats had to be crimped or rolled and triple cleaned. Nope, soaking them releases the phytates (Google that, would you) and we should also be soaking the whole grains we use in our own food, for the same reason.
She gave me the source of free-choice, chelated vitamans and minerals which is something I've been searching for for over 25 years. The minerals I had been using were originally formulated for cows. I pretty much had to wring her arm to get her to tell me where to get the products because she's a distributor, but doesn't want to "sell stuff to people". She's used it on her own horses for years.
To refresh your science, chelation means to firmly bind a metal ion (your mineral) with an organic molecule (ligand) to form a ring structure. This is REQUIRED for the minerals to move across the intestinal wall - in short, for the mineral to be available for use. Most of us consumers are under the impression that a mineral is a mineral and that one form is as good as another. It's just not true.
What she recommended I start with is called a Basic starter pack - 4 different products: 2 mixtures of Calcium-Phosphorus, Izmine, which is naturally chelated and contains more than 70 naturally-occurring micro-trace minerals, enzymes, electrolytes and bio-nutrients, and Natural Trace Mineral salt. These are the minerals. Then a product called Dynamite Plus for Horses, the chelated vitamans.
So, to summarize - get rid of my "fortified" feed (the one that has the inorganic stuff in it). Feed soaked whole oats and Black Oil sunflower seeds. Feed quality grass hay. Give free-choice minerals, and supplement with chelated vitamans. Period. Within a week, the bloated hind-gut look to my mare had gone away. It's now been almost 90 days. My horses have gained weight (I started with 2 lbs. of oats twice a day between two horses) and I've cut that in half. I'm considering cutting the oats again, and keeping the fat source the same. My horses have all the energy I can ask for. Horses gain weight on hay. The grain is there as an energy source. If you aren't using them, they don't need grain. I know, I know - it what we do. We own horses, we feed grain. But in nature, the grain they would get would be taking seed heads off of tall grasses. They wouldn't stumble across an alfalfa field either.
I'm probably riding 35 miles a week during this late part of the season, that goes up if I get to do a CTR or two, and my horses have all the energy and focus I could ask for.
It's not polite to talk about money in this society, but I'll tell you - the money I invested initially has been more than worth it. I've cut my feed bill for grain by 2/3rds. I've not had to treat for ulcers and haven't had a colic from the mare. My last vet bill for the ulcers and colic was about $2,000.
I was so excited about these products that I became a distributor myself.
Go to www.dynamitemarketing.com website. Call me if you have any questions or if you want to look at my horses or the minerals and the feeding set-up itself.
Let's get this stuff to the animals that need it.
Equinebodyshop@gmail.com or Vicki @ (402) 253-2116 or (402)630-4633
I've said to many people that these saddles will go from a pony to a percheron - so here's the proof. Amy and her amazing percheron are practicing "whoa".
Deacon is not happy, his mare is in the back pasture eating and he's modeling a customer's black Aspen...
Alicia and her Pony of America - Dollar. The smartest spotted horse I've ever known