Over complicating horse ownership, an interesting post!

Firewell

Firewell

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I have just found this blog on FB and I think it's pretty interesting...

http://www.doctorramey.com/separating-owners-horses/

I do think this vet is right tbh! I know competition horses can be more high maintenance than happy hackers but I know I worry about things I probably shouldn't be worrying over. I wonder how many of us need to stop over analysing, over paying for services/products we don't need and go and brush, ride, compete and enjoy our horses.

I do like to get the yearly dentist and back man for my peace of mind. I know my horse needs to be shod every 6 weeks, wormed regularly and vaccinated but beyond that I wonder how much more faffing around with he needs. I stopped giving him lots of expensive supplements a while ago. He gets hay, one type of horse feed and a digestive supplement.
I do still feel bad about stuff though... maybe he *needs* a memory foam gel pad under his saddle. Maybe he *needs* the acupuncturist I got once who injected vitamin B12 into his chakras (sp?), maybe he *needs* pads under his shoes when I do fast work on ground that's a bit stoney....
Even at the feed shop the other day I thought maybe I should put him on a joint supplement, is he deficient in something?
Tonight I thought I should go out in the rain and swap his green rug for his red rug because his red rug does have a hood and it does get chilly at
4am....
I do like spoiling him as yes it satisfys me but there is a line isn't there.. how do you know when to draw the line.
I think horse ownership is stressful now and stupidly expensive. Where are the days when you chucked on your only saddle with a numnah, hacked to the horse show and then chucked the horse back out in the field with some hay and waved goodbye until the next day.
Now I'm tempted to travel my horse in magnetic rugs, use massage pads before warming up, ulcer guard before loading, the list goes on :/. Are the horses better off now than they were back before we had the advertising, technology and media that we have today?

I don't know the amswer but it is interesting and a real shame if it's putting people off owning or competing who would actually give a horse a great (albeit simpler) life.
 
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I think... many of the things we have access to now are of benefit to the horse. But, sometimes, we utilise all of the 'new' tools we have at the expense of good riding and horsemanship...
 
Totally agree with the vet, people are easily led by marketing especially if endorsed by a high profile rider. I have friends who feed grass and some oats and chaff (chop) and their horses look and go just as well as another friend who needs a mansion to just house her commercially prepared feeds and the buckets of every supplement you can think of.

I think a lot boils down to the level of knowledge the owner has. The more you have learned the less you'll stress and call in experts.

If you think your horse is a bit sore, rather than spend a fortune on physio's give your horse a thorough body brush groom for an hour every day for a week.

My horse gets her teeth looked six monthly as she does have a tooth that erupted at an angle and needs both edges rasping smooth. Other than that, she gets wormed four times a year, the farrier trims her every five weeks and she has a multi mineral block in her paddock. She's 11, I've owned her since she was 6 months old and she only sees the vet for annual injections.
 
I don't disagree with this at all but I do also think it depends on the horse and how it is at the time.

I have a 5 year old ISH who is relatively tough and currently (touch wood) pretty injury free, he is mentally very sensible and easy. He has standard rugs, he regulates his temperature efficiently, he doesn't mind the rain and mud, he eats simple systems food twice a day and has no supplements. He looks great, is calm and happy and does his job very well.

I have a 12 year old tb with arthriris is his hocks, is mentally a mess, is desperately precious about mud and wet and feels the cold. I must have tried every type of calmer, joint supplement, vet visits, spend my life worrying about the correct amount if rugs etc.

Some horses are simply easier to look after and not worry about than others.
 
I agree on one hand and disagree on the other!

As is their job there is a lot of influential marketing making owners part with their money. People equate feeding with love, for example, so you're a "bad" owner if you aren't feeding your horse. Just look at all the feeds and supplements specifically targeting overweight horses; it's ridiculous.

Like the poster above said it comes down to knowledge. If you don't gave an example or mentor then it's usually aquired the hard way, if at all. That's why so many people jump on bandwagons and fads... However you can't know what you don't know so it is easy to be led by "experts" who can talk the talk.

I don't think things were always better for the working horse when less was done. Simple things like routine dental care and saddle checks/fittings than not.

I agree with Dr Ramey that shoes aren't required but I don't agree with his opinions on therapy. Personally I believe that (trained, qualified, registered and insured) hands on therapy like chiro and massage do make a difference and is a requirement for working horses.

To me the bottom line is to never stop learning and soak in as much as possible whenever possible - even if it's just to learn what not to do. The more knowledge and confidence on it that you have the better a position you are in to make informed decisions. If you know why you are doing something then you're not left doubting and questioning yourself. Paralysis by over analysis is not good!
 
Whilst I agree there are things we do now that are to the horses benefit,I can never quite get my mind around the constant stream of so called experts onto yards to my mind they all have a living to make and will invariably find an issue to justify their existence. I am a great believer in if it aint broke dont fix it!!
A good example would be my mare that was eventing at a high level she was on a yard where the physio came out every six weeks and all sorts of issues where supposedly remedied to make her go better lol. When I decided enough was enough and stopped them altogether she actually improved no end.
I really think this interventionist attitude has gone to far as it is not uncommon for riders to have several people basically doing the same thing over and over again to their horses and most of them will be correcting something somebody else had already altered .
I have one physio who comes out when we think there is a problem. One saddler who I trust and between them my horses get consistency which is what they need.

Dont even get me started on supplements suffice to say a lot are fed to counteract an imbalance brought about by feeding something else.
The companies market them like they do sweets by the check out in the supermarket and people fall for it.
If we believed what the marketing people tell us its amazing the horse has ever evolved into what we have today and if you believe the hype why are our vets busier than ever!
 
I do agree with the sentiments of the article. Good old horsemanship seems to be disappearing. Spotting little nuances of a horse being off....not lame but not sound...seems to be few and far between. I am a bit fascinated by this notion of the "back man" once a year and it seems to be a predimantly UK thing. It's completely and utterly illogical as its only as good as the day the person see's the horse. Perfect today does not mean perfect tomorrow just the same as humans and pain. It makes far more sense to get the Physio or whoever as required.
 
Years ago I used to jump my horse on all sorts of surfaces without a backward glance, would canter on every grass verge on a hack and never gave a thought to whether my horse was in an outline and working properly from behind. Me and my mates used to hack to this huge open space, wait until the dog walkers had walked the length of it and were an adequate distance away then gallop like the clappers. If there were straw bales we used to jump those without a backward glance! I had more fun in those first five years of horse ownership than I have ever had since, just long carefree days of sun and riding. Bliss.

Horse ownership these days has changed so much and is immensley stressful and very expensive. And the feed manufacturers over complicate things to make more money, and everything has to be on a balancer, etc. etc. The thing is when you have been using supplements for a long time its very difficult to take your horse off them as its worrying that things will deteriorate fast and you may not get the same level back again. I would like to give up the 'Magic' Calmer my horse is on but I worry that something bad might happen if I do and I will end up in a pile on the road or something! I started using it when I moved yards and he became a different horse but of course that could be down to the yard move. Or it could be down to the calmer - who knows.

Sometimes I think I would like to just retire my horse and give up horse ownership due ot the stress of it all, and the financial drain in between contracts and all the worry that gives me, but then I think of all the happy hacks I have with my boy and all the competitions and fun rides and just spending time with him, and that is so priceless to me as I love him so much (maybe too much some would say but then who are they to judge).

So I keep going but worry all the time. Its only natural though that with veterinary research coming on in leaps and bounds and horses owners more knowlegeable than say ten or fifteen years ago, that we think more instead of just getting on with things and enjoying our horses like we should !
 
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if it ain't broke don't fix it. i think people who compete are always looking for ways to better performace, when it probably comes down to the fact you just aren't as good as the people beating you. a supplement really isn't going to add marks to your dressage test. it is training that will do that, or getting a better horse. I have never felt the urge to buy a supplement.
 
I dont agree with the comment about horse owners knowing more nowadays IMO its the other way round far to many who are easily led through lack of knowledge! 20yrs ago you could count the number of specialist equine vet practices on one hand now there everywhere but are horses really better looked after ? its a matter of opinion!
 
I embrace it! Something is working as while everyone is waxing lyrical about the good old days...horses in their late teens were well and truly past it. Now they live longer and stay well and sound. I follow the same route as most posters on here in terms of dentist, physio, farrier and saddler checks. To me, it helps keep my horse well. I will borrow my YO magnetic rug if I feel my horse has done a lot and that's it. In terms of feeding, it seems to me that a lot of people are returning to a more simplistic regime. Mine is on pure feeds and Haylage. My one big concession (and one I don't like doing) is to boot him up completely on the field. Fed up with him knocking himself being an idiot, thought he would learn his lesson but he doesn't!
 
I think that there is more information available to people who probably don't have the basic understanding that was there in the "good old days". In some ways this more information is good but in other ways it can lead you to ignore the most simple, obvious explanation. I also wonder whether we spend less time with our horses due to working longer hours generally etc which can make it easier to miss the small things.

And lets face it - if there was genuinely a quick-fix-cure-all we'd all want it. I think the trick is to be smart enough to know when a) you're wasting money on something that is not beneficial to your horse if you can't afford to and most importantly b) you're doing something that is actually detrimental to your horse. If you can afford it and it doesn't have a negative impact on the horse then what does it matter?
 
Rr
Luci07 said:
I embrace it! Something is working as while everyone is waxing lyrical about the good old days...horses in their late teens were well and truly past it. Now they live longer and stay well and sound. I follow the same route as most posters on here in terms of dentist, physio, farrier and saddler checks. To me, it helps keep my horse well. I will borrow my YO magnetic rug if I feel my horse has done a lot and that's it. In terms of feeding, it seems to me that a lot of people are returning to a more simplistic regime. Mine is on pure feeds and Haylage. My one big concession (and one I don't like doing) is to boot him up completely on the field. Fed up with him knocking himself being an idiot, thought he would learn his lesson but he doesn't!
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This is what I can't comprehend why people think horses nowadays live longer and stay sounder. There is no difference now as there was forty years ago. I trained in yards with a large number of elderly horses all well in their teens and all sound.

My own school had many in their early twenties and they certainly did not have all the crazy extras that many modern horse owners believe they desperately need to use. Many of these were well into their twenties.
 
Agree to some degree with article, but when common sense is used there are a lot of benefits found in modern technology that are useful to today's horseowner and should be utilised when there is a genuine need.

Today's horses with the use of modern technologies tend to stay sounder for longer, they have their hooves in a lot of different sports and work ALL year round instead of just for "the season"and in general they seem to have longer more useful lives free of discomfort and pain, unlike many of their predecessors.
 
I agree I think it's a balance and depends on the horse. My horse now has had me go the extra mile for him because I have been swayed by hype and I do think his chiropractor visits have made him feel more even. However my old horse we owned from 7 until the day he died of colic at 26 and he never saw the back man (physio/chiro/osteo) or saddler once in his whole life. He was still jumping 1m10 courses at 23 and 3ft courses the week before he died and he loved it and was as sound as a pound.
Here where I am in America it's very common to inject hocks for maintenance purposes. They were shocked I hadn't had my horse injected at aged 8 and shouldn't I think about doing it.
To me there's a line. I'm not paying to get his hocks injected, there's nothing wrong with his hocks! I'd rather ride him sensibly, not go mad on deep or hard surfaces and maintain him that way thanks very much :p.
 
Elsbells said:
Today's horses with the use of modern technologies tend to stay sounder for longer, they have their hooves in a lot of different sports and work ALL year round instead of just for "the season"and in general they seem to have longer more useful lives free of discomfort and pain, unlike many of their predecessors.
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Disagree with you here, the modern horse tends to specialise in a particular sport whereas we used to use the same horse fro a broad range of disciplines. They also competed year round as the indoor arenas were all there and open to competitions.
 
Tnavas said:
Disagree with you here, the modern horse tends to specialise in a particular sport whereas we used to use the same horse fro a broad range of disciplines. They also competed year round as the indoor arenas were all there and open to competitions.
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Not in my youth at Tnavas, but then I am an old thing.
 
Of course modern horse ownership is over-complicated, as is modern life in general. How else would all the new "technologies" stay in business, other than by convincing us that they are essential? It is only by claiming that horses now are better off/sounder/longer lived/jump higher/run faster/etc./etc., that they can make us buy their products. In fact horses nowadays DON'T run faster, jump higher or are sounder than horses in the past (just look up some statistics). And the majority of horse owners are not riding horses that need to perform at terribly high levels either. We're all mugs (not me, I feed mine hay and nothing else, have remarkably trouble-free horses and haven't spoken to a vet in 10 years), but that's the way advertisers like us.
 
Great article advocating the K.I.S.S. or keep it simple stoopid approach. But then everything is over complicated nowadays as there is so much information that we can easily lay our hands on and in turn be swayed by.

I bemoan the lack of common sense today as rather than thinking for ourselves a lot of the time, we can 'google' the answer or ask on a forum.

Those of us who are *ahem* older and experienced in horsecare cannot help but be influenced by the information available. I know I see ads and think "I wonder if that would solve x, y, z" I don't buy it but am sometimes seriously tempted!
 
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Elsbells said:
Not in my youth at Tnavas, but then I am an old thing.
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Me too - in my 60's every horse on the yard did a bit of everything. None of them specialised and some were competing at the Horse of the Year and also International Horse show. Show ponies might have been the exception.

Ours Hunted, Pony Clubbed, Games, Show Jumping, Cross Country, Long Distance Riding, Dressage and Eventing. I couldn't afford more than one horse. We had shows at the centre I trained in monthly and in between a load of us would hire a lorry and driver and head off to another place each week - we went showjumping or cross country every weekend. This was in the 70's

Nowadays riders seem to specialise in one particular sport.

Cortez - same here. Mine get basic feeds have a mineral block in the paddock and haven't seen the vet for over 20 years bar inoculations.
 
I try to keep things simple: feet trimmed once a month, teeth/vaccines once a year, feed only hay and a small carrier feed for mineral supplement. I was browsing around in the BHS Manual of Horse and Stable Management, and was both entertained and a bit taken aback at how much in concentrates they suggest feeding horses at various levels of work, even while they warn against excessive rations as suggested by commercial feed companies. Some of the other management practices described seemed overly fussy and actually rather old-fashioned to me, but perhaps my perception that management is trending towards simplification now is partially formed through plain cultural differences.

However, during the competition season, my pony does get the physio leading up to and after major rides, because I'm starting to ask him to achieve beyond the norm, and I want a second eye to be sure I'm being fair. I think one big difference is that we are now "bothering" with horses that would probably have been written off, before. A laminitis-prone pony with some sort of loose screw in his head being aimed at advanced sorts of competition in one discipline, well, that's either admirable, or very very silly, depending on whom one asks. Possibly your garden-variety horse-owner is a also bit more ambitious now, in terms of competitive goals?
 
If you have a problematic horse, I think you're more likely to try anything and everything. My quarter horse, who I owned before my draft cross, had more mental and physical issues, so I was always trying things out with her. I think NOT doing dressage with her really helped the most, but before I came to that conclusion, I was trying all sorts to try to get her to like it. LOL. Selling her to a trail riding home and buying something more amenable to dressage made everyone happier, whereas supplements, massage, reiki, magnetic boots, whatever else, didn't do sh ** t.

Now I have a 21-year old horse who I just started on a senior balancer this past year, as it looked like she needed something extra to help her keep weight on. Which the balancer has done -- she looks great -- so no need to go nuts with a load more supplements. Otherwise, she gets her teeth done every 6 months because she had one pulled, so they wear unevenly, her yearly shots, and she's shod every six weeks, just normal shoes on all four feet. She got a body worker a couple years ago because I had been riding in a saddle I knew was problematic for a little longer than I should have (oops). But after I stopped riding in that saddle and got her a wee massage, she was totally fine.

I guess I trust my judgment and my knowledge of my horse, who I have owned for 16 years, well enough to know whether there is a problem or not and respond accordingly, rather than throwing things at the horse for problems that *might* happen, or feeling like I don't know if there is something to worry about, so I'd better have body worker/physio/reiki person/whoever out just in case.

Oh, yeah, Firewell, preventative hock injections. People in the US are a little crazy with that. I fell out with a friend in college because I thought they were a totally BS thing to do and waste of money for a sound, happy horse and she thought I was doing a great disservice to my horse in not doing them. That horse is still sound, ten years and no hock injections later.
 
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spookypony said:
I try to keep things simple: feet trimmed once a month, teeth/vaccines once a year, feed only hay and a small carrier feed for mineral supplement. I was browsing around in the BHS Manual of Horse and Stable Management, and was both entertained and a bit taken aback at how much in concentrates they suggest feeding horses at various levels of work, even while they warn against excessive rations as suggested by commercial feed companies. Some of the other management practices described seemed overly fussy and actually rather old-fashioned to me, but perhaps my perception that management is trending towards simplification now is partially formed through plain cultural differences.

However, during the competition season, my pony does get the physio leading up to and after major rides, because I'm starting to ask him to achieve beyond the norm, and I want a second eye to be sure I'm being fair. I think one big difference is that we are now "bothering" with horses that would probably have been written off, before. A laminitis-prone pony with some sort of loose screw in his head being aimed at advanced sorts of competition in one discipline, well, that's either admirable, or very very silly, depending on whom one asks. Possibly your garden-variety horse-owner is a also bit more ambitious now, in terms of competitive goals?
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Re read the manual as you will find the information given is for the 24/7 stabled horse/pony.
 
Tnavas said:
Re read the manual as you will find the information given is for the 24/7 stabled horse/pony.
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Ah, was leafing it through backwards looking for something else, so probably didn't see the beginning of that section! :D ...Actually, just went to check, and there's no mention of it being stabled 24/7 in that particular section.
 
spookypony said:
Ah, was leafing it through backwards looking for something else, so probably didn't see the beginning of that section! :D ...Actually, just went to check, and there's no mention of it being stabled 24/7 in that particular section.
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The manual hasn't changed much over the years and when first published many people stabled 24/7 and worked their horses far harder than today.

I've always thought it a lot too but if you also read into it more it does suggest the amount of fibrous food being at least 70% or thereabouts of the ration, so the amounts would also include hay or grass.

My UK manual is around 40 years old!
 
Firewell said:
I have just found this blog on FB and I think it's pretty interesting...

http://www.doctorramey.com/separating-owners-horses/

I do think this vet is right tbh! I know competition horses can be more high maintenance than happy hackers but I know I worry about things I probably shouldn't be worrying over. I wonder how many of us need to stop over analysing, over paying for services/products we don't need and go and brush, ride, compete and enjoy our horses.
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Thanks for posting this Firewell. I read all of Dr Ramey's posts. He speaks so much sense.

I have certainly been guilty of buying things I didn't need and falling for products that were supposed to work wonders in some very unscientific way. Now though, I am older and wiser. I like what Dr Ramey said about what our horses want. Spending more quality time with ours is so much more important than whether he is wearing the latest style of boot or rug.

Dr Ramey seems to make a good point about people being pushed away from having a horse at all by the pressure to spend,spend, spend on them. That's a shame.
 
I'm a bit on the fence on this one.
I do think that a lot of supplements and other items are cleverly branded to make owners panic that they are missing something. My TB when in full work and out competing has a scoop of chaff and half a scoop of conditioning cubes, because that's what he needs.
On the other hand, he has the chiro, the physic, the dentist etc. and he is pampered in a lot of ways.
I expect him to do a job for me (some days thats improving something whilst schooling, others its going clear round a xc course), so I look after him accordingly and do everything I can to make it easier for him to do his job well.
As a lot of previous posters have said, there's a line somewhere and every horse owner treads it differently! There are a lot more products on the market now, and I think as long as you can see through the marketing rubbish, there is now a wealth of information and helpful gadgets and gizmos that are really beneficial.
 
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