"Treading Water"

Sometimes, I'd be better off / move forward, actually by doing nothing. A few days ago I took some money from savings and bought 2 more pipe panels and a canopy to attach to my gelding's pen and provide shade, shelter and give some more room... Jer and I set it all up, tied and taped the support shafts of the "roof" to the panels. Majic loved it. That night, the up-turned dome turned down, it just bent the other way. We staked the panels so they wouldn't move and cause the collapse. Then, the next day a storm rolled in. The wind made the canopy "invert" again. Majic seemed to find it all amusing. We took the roof part off and stored it inside. Yesterday, we had to move horses around for irrigation and we had to remove the uprights that held the canopy. Today, the irrigation water poured into that pen over a berm and I had to pull all of the stakes and open the pen more to cover a drier spot, then start moving sand into the pen... I would have accomplished more if I had just played with my toes for 2 days.

Bare Hooves

I have concerns about things that are extreme. The belief that horseshoes and nailing shoes onto the horse's hooves can bring about the death of a horse seems like an extreme idea to me. Granted, a "hot nail" run into the quick can cause founder or a deadly infection and shoes left on for 6 or 8 months will distort and damage hooves - but these are rare happenings with skilled farriers. I've been an advocate for leaving horses barefooted since 1973 when Jim Keith taught hoof care workshops for my students at Fox Fire Stable in Tucumcari. I'm also open minded enough to know that sometimes, a shoe (and I love composite or rubber ones) needs to nailed on properly to humanely support or protect the horse's hoof. Glue often just does not work (and how toxic might it be against the porous hoof surface?) and boots rub and suffocate the hoof and leg when left on continuously. I once nailed shoes on backwards on a gelding who was totally immobile from pain (something I learned from a friend) and no bar shoe was available. He walked away! and after he healed, could go without the shoes again. The hoof needs contact with Earth energy and the ability to expand. Turning a horse out barefooted can show you how his hoofs need to be trimmed. Using copper (Yin/yielding) instead of steel or aluminum (Yang, rigid) for gardening tools grows healthier gardens; maybe copper coatings could help horses. I just feel that reinventing the world is sometimes redundant and just improving our day to day caretaking can have the biggest effect. Keep horses barefooted!! Yes. And help them anyway you can when they are compromised. Don't hate farriers.

Equine Herbal First Aid

I just made the labels for the Equine Herbal First Aid Kit we will be offering from the Naturalpaths Store by next month. Will work all night making the medicines. You won't need gloves to use these ointments, there will be nothing toxic about any of them! I've been treating a mare with allopathic (from the lady's Vet) ointment that has carcinogenic warnings on the label. I sure wear gloves! And another wound "requires" cortisone cream... I know of horses that are vaccinated with 7 way combos plus Rabies while being sedated for teeth floating, then de-wormed with Ivermectin. And people wonder why horses have endocrine disorders, get Laminitis, Founder and get cancers...?

Treating Adverse Vaccine Reactions by Jean Dodds, DVM

Treating Adverse Vaccine Reactions by Jean Dodds, DVM

Citronella

I am getting tired of smelling like citronella (and rosemary, cedarwood, myrrh, patchouli, etc. all combined)... it repels the mosquitoes, but I just reek of it these days and even my car smells like repellent (and our couch, our clothes, my shoes - I really soak them with the oils because the bloodsuckers seem to prefer my ankles). The horses now are oily with the stuff and it's really necessary. We spray the dogs, too, when they go out. All of this, of course, is non-toxic, pure essential oils in water with vinegar. If we choose not to use chemicals to battle heartworm (unproven anyway, except for detrimental effects) to vaccinate for vector-borne disorders (all the horses I know of that got West Nile through the years had been vaccinated) - if we are proactive, we repel the bugs and build strong immune systems in ourselves and our animals! It really is a life choice - this reactive/allopathic battle modality OR the proactive/holistic nourish and strengthen modality. I am so certain about my path. I have seen horses with severe Strangles cured with Colloidal Silver while the horses next door never got it because their water had silver in it, too. I've seen soaked Kombu dressings heal wounds with no scarring (ones that supposedly needed sutures) and Anise seed with milk of magnesia stop a colic. Hmmm... maybe I'm not so tired of smelling like herbs and oils. Maybe it's the perfume of good health.

Alternative Pest Repellents

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