Northernhorse.com Blog

One of our journalists/photographers and her husband is in need of a place to park their truck & camper that would be close to the grounds  at the Kentucky Horse Park for the World Equestrian Games. Their camper unit is self contained – they don’t need any hookups or power. They will be attending the WEG event during the day and sleeping in the camper at night. Nice quiet folks. They won’t be partying or making a lot of noise. Willing to pay a reasonable fee.

They would really like to be able to bicycle to and from the event so within a few miles of the Kentucky Horse Park would be nice.  They would like to be there the first week of October. We can supply references.

Please let us know if you know of any campgrounds with spaces available or if you know of a little spot that someone would rent for the week. You can email lynn@northernhorse.com if you have a spot that could work.

Is the horse looking in my direction or towards the horizon?

Thanks to my friend Jim for this little puzzle.

Our dread of the tall grass and the mosquitoes that it contains has encouraged us to do more “drive-by” checks on the herd in the north field than usual. Not exacting a bonding experience with the horses but it works well for all problems visible from the knees up. The beautiful moisture we have had this year (we haven’t had the great excesses some areas have had but just a really nice amount really) encourages scratches and the pasture has some low, swampy areas which adds to the problem. Chips, the stallion has a bad case of scratches on both hind legs.

I brought him home. I googled “scratches”. It seems that every cure has it proponents and opponents. Some folks have success with some things, others with other things. So I thought I would just see what is working for folks in our little Northernhorse world. Please share any success stories you have in treating scratches on your horses. I am hoping for a quick recovery. I already have the 4 saddle horses hanging around the back yard – I call it the Jenny Craig pen. It would be nice if Chips could get healed up and go back to the pasture asap. Besides I don’t want Keeper figuring out that she isn’t a gelding and falling in love. LOL

Today we took Keeper to a Chiropractor. Keeper has been taking it easy for about 6 weeks or so since the trip to the mountains where our attempt to put 2 pairs of horses together went wrong and she hurt something. At first I hoped it was just a bruised sole or perhaps an abscess as there were lots of opportunities to bruise something on the stumps and roots and rocks and trees – not that she had to use that stage to demonstrate her eligibility to be on “So You Think You Can Dance”. Continue Reading »

Is there anybody who really needs more rain? Out here in west central Alberta we are getting a whole lot of rain. The puddles are full and the dugouts are full and the creeks are up. The horses and I don’t like the wind and cold that seems to have to accompany the rain but after experiencing those dry years I try really hard not to complain about the moisture. And… if we get some good weather that lets us get the hay off in good condition there should be lots more feed this fall. I’m sure most all of you will appreciate that. Continue Reading »

Doreen’s latest blog post starts out:

It has been a busy week for wild foals in trouble.  We got a call from Kathy Bartley of the Bear Valley Rescue Centre stating that some people found a very young wild foal with badly swollen back legs.  They didn’t want to see the baby get torn apart by wolves and so they phoned Kathy to see if they could help.  As WHOAS is more experienced with wild horse rescue and knows the area, Kathy phoned us, but offered to come out and help too. Bob had to wait until after work but in the meanwhile I cleaned the SUV, and put a tarp and blanket in the back, along with a lariat, foal halter and several lead shanks.

Your can read more on Doreen’s blog on the WHOAS website.

My friend grieved over the loss of her beautiful little Arab this weekend. It wasn’t like we didn’t already know that Eagle Bay had “issues” but Kathy’s exceptional care had kept him going in spite of his problems and he looked and acted so healthy whenever we saw him that we never thought of him as being so fragile that we could lose him right now or so quickly. Kathy was much more aware of his fragility and even her friend and vet Dr. Burwash acknowledged that Eagle Bay enjoyed years of life that he probably wouldn’t have had without her care.  He lived a great life,  travelling up and down some of the most beautiful trails in the world, dining on the best of pastures and hay, his needs pretty much always coming before Kathy’s own. Continue Reading »

Diane was kind enough to get back to us and thank everyone for their suggestions.

Lynn – thanks for putting my request on the website. Many useful suggestions.  We
are using Cut Heal spray – he doesn’t like the taste of it – with hydrotherapy twice a
day.  We have made an apron with legs (out of blue jeans) that we put on after washing.
It is heauy enough for now to be working.  Again thank everyone for their help.
Diane

What follows is the original post for help.  Thanks to those who shared their ideas. You can still add your ideas and knowledge to this post. We could even repost it once in awhile or repost the ideas on a permanent page for sure.

We got this call for help this morning. If you have any ideas that might help please share them with us.  You can  post it in the comment section below or email lynn@northernhorse.com.

I need help with a month old foal that got cut up in barbed wire a few days ago.  It is across the chest & shoulder, the vet sewed it up, but it has broke open.  He wants to chew at himself.  We put on old shirt on him to cover it & keep clean.  Hydrotherapy & spray are helping.  How can we stop him from chewing ???   Help

This isn’t about horses but I found some of these statistics interesting. Having worked on the web since it first hit town, I think I am quite accustomed to change but sometimes it is quite shocking to see how fast it really is happening. I was cleaning out the garage yesterday and found a book about the early web that brought back memories of gopher and mailing lists and Archie and Veronica – all stuff that seemed so excitingly new at the time but that would seem terribly awkward now. We have come a long way in a short time on the web and in lots of other technologies in our fast changing world.

There is a lot about my work that is really fun and interesting but I think the best part is when we post an ad for a Nurse Mare and another for someone wanting a nurse mare and a few hours later you get an email like this:

It is so cool to be able to help.