To shoe or not to shoe

There are many theories about shoes, no shoes ect. Personally I feel barefoot is best if you can. Most people have the misconception that you have to have shoes on to show your horse. I can tell you from first hand knowledge that you CAN go to the keuring and IFSHA shows with no shoes on. I personally have shown ALL of my horses at the keuring with no shoes.



Look mom no shoes!!



 One of our 12 year old mares that has had 7 foals went back to the keuring to prove that she still had what it takes to be amazing. The comment from Jan Hendricks was how amazing her movement was. She was barefoot. This same mare that same year competed in the IFSHA shows. She was undefeated at her Regional show and WON 3 Championships, and 3 reserve championships at the National and World champion show. I got many many comments on her feet. Most were shocked that she moved so well barefoot. Others were impressed to find out that I had gone against the norm and had her barefoot. The following year she competed in Dressage and went from showing Training level all the way up to 2^nd level and didn’t score less than 60 on any of her tests as she moved up the levels. ALL with no shoes. There was not one penalty to being barefoot. There was only advantage. She has healthy frogs, strong hoof walls, correct balance as her training develops, and a tiny perk is that her ferrier bills are very low.



Shoes cost about $8 each so by not putting them on your ferrier should charge you about $32-$45 less per visit. If they are not that much cheaper for a basic trim then get them to break down the shoe cost. Not to mention the extra time they have to take to either make a shoe, fit a shoe, nail the shoe to the foot, take the shoe off to trim at each visit. Needless to say I’m informing you that you do not have to have shoes to show. Your horse may have a condition that requires shoes, but don’t feel like you need shoes to show your horse in IFSHA or FHANA/FPS.

Here is a link to an E-book that further explains barefoot/natural trimming for your horse.

Bare foot trimming E-Book

Horse Trauma

I have been using and selling Essential Oils with my horses for a few years now. There are many uses for the oils, from emotional to physical.

One that I rely on is Trauma Life By Young Living

Here is what they write about this formula on their web page:

Trauma Life™ is a calming, grounding blend of therapeutic-grade essential oils formulated to help release buried emotional trauma resulting from accidents, neglect, the death of a loved one, assault, or abuse. Left unchecked, emotionally draining episodes may be at the root of fatigue, anger, and restlessness.

I have personally used this oil on my horses. The most common use is weaning. It’s always a traumatic for a foal to be separated from it’s Dam and visa versa. The stress can cause ulcers, anxiety, and long term emotional effects. The foal has to be weaned, that is common practice in nature and in foaling operations around the world. So why should they have to have emotional scars. I have found that our foals are much more adjusted after separation after using this on them a few times a week following weaning. I use the aroma therapy application. Just open the top and let them smell when they need it.

I also used this on a mare that lost her foal to a tragic accident and on a foal who’s mom died. Post surgery and accident is another time when I use this oil. I have found that using this after a very scary encounter helps them also. For example a horse that fears bathing, clipping, or is overly reactive to regular training steps. When a 2 year old developed a fear of blankets because she was shocked by static and bolted through a fence. A few times sniffing and a reintroduction to the blanket and she was back on track with her blanket training.

To order this oil click here http://youngliving.com/essential-oil-blends/Trauma-Life You will have to create a new account. Choose your Country, Click on Customer, for Sponsoring Distributor Member Number Enter 1111482 My name should appear as your sponsor. (email Allison@sableranch.net if not)

Select the Independent Distributor if your going to order a lot.

Preferred Customer if you would like to have regular automatic shipments.

For more information on using Essential Oils with your animals check out this e-book that is written by a fellow Young Living Sales person. Essential oils E-book for dogs cats and horses

Get ready to ride

It's time to get the winter rust off and get back to riding

I’m not quite the grey mare but I’m sure not the ripe 2 year old… with that being said preparing for riding season is not just about getting my horse back in shape again. I have to include a plan to get my body loosened up, moving right, and strengthened up again. So where do you start. You can spend all kinds of money at the gym over the winter and still not be ready to ride.  I would start with Pilates. It’s entirely focused on the core strength, flexibility and control…. That is exactly what you need to ride well. Classes at a gym or specialty facility can be very expensive. So bring the gym home with a cheap yoga ball. The smaller the ball the harder you have to work.

The yoga ball is not just for your horse to play soccer with!

 

Picking a stallion for your mare

There are many ways to pick a stallion for your mare. You can pick the stallion of your dreams, the guy next door or use a calculated way to pick a stallion for your mare.

I have put together a page on my web page that goes through how to use your mares linear score sheet and the stallions offspring reports to pick the best match for your mare. There is an even easier way. I can do the homework for you and give you several possibilities of stallions to mate your mare with so you can have a shot at the baby of your dreams. Either way check out the page on matching your mare to an FPS stallion.

There is a new way to get information on your Friesian mare and Approved Stallion combination. In the KFPS members log in page where you look up the inbreeding coefficient they give you the 5 scores that they expect your offspring to get at the keuring. Frame, Race Type, Legs, Walk and Trot. There are no guarantees in breeding but this program takes what your mare got and combines it with what the stallion is producing. We have not had a 3 year old that has given the exact scores that the system has produced for them, but it will give you another educated guess as to what you might expect.

Click here to learn how

Click here if you want me to do it for your

How to read the stallion offspring reports

Have you seen the notices that the new FPS/FHANA stallion reports are printed yearly? The information is online by the end of the year, and a combined copy usually follows early the following year.  Ok but what does that really mean to you as a Friesian mare owner. It means that the scores from last years Keurings are counted up, calculated, and put out in an easy to read chart. Ok so it’s not easy to read if you have never read one before but one you get familiar with them you'll get a lot of information at one quick glance. So I’ve put together a page on my web page that shows you section by section how to read the stallion offspring reports from the FPS/FHANA. Soon you will be glancing at these charts knowing what they say. And when you want information about a stallion you will know if this is the chart you should be looking at.

Here is the link to the explanation page.

http://sableranch.net/stallionreptexpl.html

What do the premiums mean

At the keurings your horse will be judged and given a premium. The premiums are not how they rank in the class that you are in but they are the ranking or placing in the overall heard. There are 1^st premiums, 2^nd, 3^rd, no premium. If they are entered into the studbook then they receive a premium. If they are not invited into the studbook, so stay in the foal book. They will not receive a premium and not invited will be recorded on their papers. Some reasons for not getting promoted from the foal book to the Studbook are: Height, soundness issues, deformity, genetic condition, too much white, any other color than black. If your horse doesn't meet the height requirements http://sableranch.net/height.html they will not be considered for advancement out of the foal book. If they are unsound or have more than a 50 cent piece white star on their forehead it is not advised to attend the keuring because they will not advance. Not having the correct markings, color and height does not mean that you have a bad horse it just means that they will not advance at the keurings. They will still be able to compete in other aspects of shows or be fantastic pleasure mounts. The Keuring is not the only reason to buy a Friesian but if you are planning on going to a keuring you should be aware of some of the aspects that will restrict the horse from advancement before you invest in the entry fees and training to get there.

I have put together a very informative web page  on Premiums that cover the explanation of the premiums and the different titles that the KFPS/FHANA gives out. The titles covered are Sport, Prestatie, Preferent, Sport dam, Star, Kroon, Model ect.  Click here to view the page http://sableranch.net/premiums.html

How to read your linear score sheet

At your horses first keuring over the age of 3 they will not only be judged for a premium (See Premiums blog entry), they will also get a linear score sheet. This sheet breaks down the characteristics of your horse and gives it a numerical value. This is a very helpful tool in helping you pick a stallion breed to your mare to improve on some of the offspring qualities.

I have put together a very informative page on my web page that shows you how to read your linear score sheet. Just click here to view that page and other helpful pages.

http://sableranch.net/linearscoreexpl.html

Growing that Mega Mane on horses that don't seem to grow a mane

Ok I'm normally the pessimist about the gimmicks that are online. BUT I've now tried it and seen it work. We have a filly, now mare, That never seems to have any hair. Her grandmother is blessed with 4 ft of mane, her mom at a young age of 5 had hair down to where her shoulder met her leg... sooo why was this filly so "bald". I know how to keep and protect hair so that what can grow will grow. I’ve added 6 more inches to her grandmother and inches to many more of our horses. But what about the one's that don't seem to grow anything more than strings. I always thought it was genetic and they either have it or don't till I found this E-book that really gave the her the help she needed.

Day 1 of the Hair test this is cleaned and picked. Notice the tiny forelock

After the first use I noticed that less hair was coming out in the brush. I don't mean that she was balding and loosing chunks before. I'm talking about those pieces you always get when you tend to the mane. I didn’t say brush because that is not what I was doing, I was picking and separating the “right” way. Now even when I brush it seems like more hair is actually attached to her neck. It’s oddly cool what a difference it makes when you loose less hairs.

1 month after we started - notice the forelock there actually is one! notice the thickness. And as promised Grandma is in the back showing off her mass amounts of hair

 

Grandma

The next thing I did was compare my one month photo’s to my start photos. Not only was the mane longer where she was not growing for months before, but it was fuller and fluffy. She had stringy short sparse hair, but she started to look normal and even more than that she looked like she could become like her mom and grandmother. Obviously not in a month but there was hope where strings once hung.

I’ve attached the photos of the first day and 1 month after and I’ll keep posting her progress photos. The photo of her at 1 month has her grandmother in the background so you can see for yourself that I did know how to keep a horses hair prior to this trick. As I mentioned I could keep it but I now know how to grow it where there was no hope to grow hair. Grandma is seen on the Right. I can't wait till she looks like Grandma

Here is an update photo of our test girl and some photos of other horses that I have tried it on.


Here is the mare we stared with on March 2013, we are getting there.

 Others that we tried the program with. 1st one is around a year of treating and the 2nd was about 7 months of "repair".



  Contact me directly at allison@sableranch.net to get the link to the book and my tips from trying it. I would post the direct link to it but the site that is hosting it is not working correctly. If you e-mail me and don't get an RSVP check your spam box. ** This book is not free**