Grass founder

Black walnut is dangerous. The leaves, nuts, bark, wood. It causes laminitis within hours.

Have you taken them off the sweet feed? I would. Sugar only makes feet worse.

My blog also has a recent new address. The posts are still transfering so there may be a couple glitches www.bitlesshorseblog.com

I was at your blog yesterday, and bookmarked it so that I'd have easy access to it. I read one of your blogs, but didn't have time to read more. The whole thing looks great!!

LOVE your new avatar!!! What a great pic!

Yes, Preacher and CK are off sweet feed. They were taken off a couple of weeks ago, when my farrier thought Preacher had foundered. It was the "backup" that I needed in order to ask the guys at the greenhouse to quit feeding sweet feed.

On a side note...I sure hope your friend wasn't insulted when I asked if she was your mom!! I am horrible when it comes to guessing ages. You look so young, so I figured that your friend could be young enough to be your mom. My apologies if I offended her.

Thank you.
My best friend Lisa took that picture the same day as my old avatar. I always loved it.

Oh no Chris does have a son who is my age but he has no interest at all in horses. Since she has the van when we go on tack store road trips we take her vehicle. It's funny I had a lady the last time I was doing a commercial carriage deal ask me if I was a grade 10 student at the highschool she taught at. I had to laugh, I have been out of highschool for almost 5 years now. The other day I had a man at the gas station ask me if I was 26 hahah.

AHA!!! I found out this morning that there is, indeed, a walnut tree along the fence of the paddock!! The guy that looks after the horses the most, Heinz, came out to talk to me this morning, so I asked him. The tree hangs over the fence, along with a number of other species of trees, but Heinz said that he's seen "them" eating the green leaves off the trees, so the walnut would be included in that. I don't know who "them" is - if it's all three, or even just Preacher. CK seems rather short to reach all the way up to those branches.

Looks like Fanny will be moving to her new home on Good Friday!!! Now that I know there is a walnut tree looming over the paddock, I am really looking forward to moving her. One week to go!!!

Eeek! Thats scary! I would be fencing off that tree quickly or cutting it down.

The tree will have to be cut down because it's right along the paddock, on the outside of the paddock, but hangs over the fence.

My boss's son, David, was at work yesterday and we got talking about horses. My boss (well, it's really my boss's husband) used to own horses when David was a kid, and he really misses having them around. I told David to tell his dad to buy Preacher and CK. They just bought a huge 75-acre piece of property that used to belong to David's great-grandfather, so by the time he left, I had him planning out fencing and everything. LOL!! I know his dad would love Preacher and CK. He already met them once.

The barefoot trimmer was out this afternoon!! Preacher has REALLY improved just from the supplement, and the trim helped even more! Chantelle did a nice barefoot trim, explaining everything to me as she did it, and discovered an abscess on the bottom of one of his feet. She cleaned it up and was happy to see that he was abscessing. The bar on that particular foot was pulled back quite far (if that's the right way to word it), and the abscess was under it.

Since Preacher is feeling so much better and moving around easier, he is really chasing Fanny around a lot (okay all of you in the UK, don't laugh too hard at that sentence). He was driving her away from every hay pile she went to. Poor girl. He parked himself in the doorway of the barn and won't let her in...and it's raining!!

Chantelle loved CK and wants to buy him. She has a friend who might be interested in Preacher. This friend is also a barefoot trimmer and rescues horses, so maybe his founder issues won't scare her off. It appears as though he can recover quite nicely from this, and when he does, he will be one go-getter of a horse. He is gentle and quiet and loves to cuddle, but he also has a dominant side and I think that once you were on him, it wouldn't take much to make him go, and he'd go fast!

Thats fabulous news Cyndi well done you! I think what you've done for those animals is brilliant, you've almost certainly saved their lives. Don't ever forget that. You have my deepest respect and admiration

You are very kind, lightertouch. I have found this whole experience to be very humbling. The horses ask so little of us, just to be taken care of. It almost brought tears to my eyes, both of joy and relief to see Preacher moving around more comfortably.

You have done wonderful things Cyndi! I can't believe how far you have come since you first bought your bitless bridle and came to join everyone! Where would we be now? You keep this forum alive with your experiences.

Just call me the drama queen! LOL

I don't know about drama queen but there must be a novel in there somewhere! Seriously, well done for checking on Preacher and CJ. I hope all works out well for them. Please let us know how things go.

WAY TO GO!!! You are my hero!!!

You are all too kind!! Seriously, I am just a regular girl like any of you, with a soft spot for animals, especially those in need. I'm not doing anything different that any of you would do if you were in my position. I'm sure that all of you are shining examples of horsemanship and have done things that have made an impression on others.

Now stop with the compliments before they go to my head!! LOL

Would be really interested in thoughts on this site, and Lisa St.John's theory that laminitis is caused by fungus. I love the idea of feeding your horse fresh foods. I've done some of that with Fanny, Preacher and CK, and they LOVED the "salads" I'd make them. I'd top it with their supplement and they'd eat it all up.

http://www.lavsage.com/articles/lavender-sage-nutritional-program/

Laminitis can be caused by many, many things. If a fungus was indeed introduced and cause the capillaries in the laminae to die it would indeed cause laminitis.
That site looks interesting. However there is not enough solid evidence to give us accurate measurements for how much of what we would have to feed a horse as per weight of the horse to aid the functions they claim it to aid.

No one really knows the cause of laminitis, do they? It's just one of those mysteries of horse life, I guess.

It is an interesting site. I haven't read through the whole thing thoroughly, but have managed to read a couple of things. I'm part of a couple of on-line "communities" who endorse the feeding of raw fruits, veggies, seeds and nuts (someone in one of those communities mentioned Lisa St.John), but as you said, it's hard to know how much exactly to give. I only gave a handful of each thing, and then added the supplement. I just thought that keeping raw leafy greens in the diet throughout the winter can't be a bad thing. Lisa suggests that at different times you have to change up the herbs. How do you know when to do that? It'd be difficult for someone like me to know something like that. I suppose it keeps people buying herb mixtures from her though

There are many, many causes of laminitis. Mostly when the horse ingests something and it kills the good bacteria in the hindgut due to the PH changing drastically it can cause the intestines to swell and shut off blood flow to certain parts of the body. Unfortunately feet are first.

Why would you change herbs up? That makes no sense. First of all if you are giving a herb you would be giving it for a specific reason as different herbs do different things to horses. If you suddenly changed that it could take as much as 2 months (thats a guideline for natural supplements working) to see any effect for a new herb or possibly none at all. I just think the sites suggestions is a little bit of a guessing game. Theres not much research I see there plainly posted for me to make proper assumptions of the products they are endorsing.
The no teeth floating they claim the herbs and fresh stuff will prevent is sooooo not true! A horse should have his teeth done once or twice a year depending on the horse. True horses outside 24/7 require it less but it should not be ever looked over, no matter what the horse is being fed. Even if you look at wild horses skeletons as I have studied they have hooks and ridges and waves.

Didn't read the part about the teeth I agree with you. Unless a horse is foraging around in the bush and eating branches, etc., their teeth will need care more often.

That reminds me, when the vet was out to do Fanny's vaccines, he didn't check her teeth!!! I totally forgot about it at the time, because I was thinking about the move and so on. Drat. You'd think that'd be something he'd automatically check. He floated her teeth last year, and according to him they were pretty bad. I don't know if she'd ever had it done before then.

A lot of vets do not automatically check teeth because when most of the vets were trained in school teeth were not a concern. You also seen a lot more skinny, malnourished horses back then. I used to get Naigens done 2x a year and I think I might be taking that route with Indigo, shes 18 this year and the vet is coming out on the 24th. Shes got a pretty bad hook that I wish I would have spotted months ago but didn't. Shes not skinny by any means.

P.S- So are you gonna write me that guest blogger post?? I got people who would love to hear your story.

Where would I start with the blogging??!! LOL It's such a long story! I thought you were looking for a short note here and there. Not sure I can do such a thing as a short note

I want long, it can be in parts if you want. Write it all out and make it into parts, if you got pictures, even better. People need to be inspired by a story like yours Cyndi!

If you did a blog, I'd love to read it! When you grow up and live with certain attitudes it can be difficult to see things with a fresh pair of eyes. You've brought that to this forum. Not bad on a forum that is already embracing new concepts.

I agree with Fin. I would love to read a blog by you Cyndi! I already read so many blogs that offer so many ideas I love to find new ones. They are kind of like a riding journal. You can go back and see what issues you were having back then and how they are now.

I've been blogging in another on-line 'community' since I first got Fanny, but I have it set up so that only I can read it. It is ultra personal and I didn't want others to read it and think I was a wimp, a diva, a whacko, or whatever.

I'm sorry for not getting back to you yet Sydney, but life is just a little too much right now. I'm tired and depressed and my blogs will all look like I'm totally feeling sorry for myself. Feel free to copy any of the things I've written in here and put them on your blog page. I've been pretty personal in here, trusting that none of you think I'm daff, and I wouldn't blame you if you did think I was daff!