Horse Injury Care

If you've ever wondered what to do if your horse's intestines fall out you'll want to take a look at this article from Bloodhorse.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/76301/managing-penetrating-injuries-in-the-field-aaep-2012

Also apparently puncture wounds are treated similarly cross species - it's best NOT to take the penetrating object out. Let the professionals do it, usually after radiographs.

Depressing Post About Horses Turned out for the Winter

Here's a depressing post about horses on an island that apparently work all summer long puling carriages, then are turned out for the winter.

http://bree1972.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/do-they-know-1082010/

There are hundreds of these horses and their manes are shaved before they're turned out for the same reason people used to bob horse's tails back in the day - for fashion. The post states the horses will have manes all the same length in the spring and if they don't have manes over winter they can't get burrs in said manes.

These horses are losing two important functions of the mane; protection from the cold (and the sun as horses can get sunburns and even melanoma, especially grey horses) and protection from insects. It's sad.

I wonder what they'll call this filly

Many racehorses get their names from sort of combination of their parents' names. This little filly is from Run Away and Hide, out of Office Party. It seems like there would quite a few funny names she could be saddled with, but not so many that are dignified.

Some random stuff

I've downloaded the Wii version of Doctor Mario so you may never hear from me again. (I did manage my two thousand words of my novel, two hundred words of my entertainment column, formatted some newsletter stuff, did my Wii Fit for 36 minutes, read a story by Kelly Link and got the kids fed so I there's some hope for my future.)

In closing I leave with these links.

Save the Boissiere House. Gosh I love this house. It's the kind of place I fantasized about when I was girl. (I'm sure I'm not the only girl in the world who dreamed of an old abandonded house next door with a mystery inside just waiting to be solved.)

An NY Times article about a horse academy at Versailles that I loved. Again, the kind of thing I dreamed about as a girl. I was particularly struck by this quote:

''The number of women reflects the considerable feminization of horse-riding,'' Bartabas said. ''Today in France, 80 percent of horse-riders are women. In fact horse-jumping and dressage are the only sports where men and women compete on an equal footing.''

We kind of have to include other horse sports like racing and eventing but he's right. One of the reason other sports annoy me is because they seperate the boys and girls. I know they've got their reasons but this is just another reason to be a fan of dressage etc.

And finally, from the piece I wrote for the saving money website today, a warning about the dangers of antifreeze to your pets. If a cat walks through spilled antifreeze and licks its paws it gets enough of a dose to be fatal. http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/clientED/antifreeze.aspx