One of my horses used to shake his head very badly in the summer months. He used to snap his head upwards and often strike towards his nose with his front leg. Fortunately this was greatly reduced by fitting a nosenet to the bridle and riding mainly in the early morning during the summer when there were few flies to bother him.

I saw a recent internet article describing surgery that had been performed on horses which had not responded to other treatment. This problem is thought to be due to pain in the sensory nerves in the face.  Surgery was carried out to insert small coils alongside the nerve. There was an 84% success rate in the 24 horses treated. Some of the horses required multiple surgeries and there was a side-effect of nose-rubbing in nearly 50% of the cases.

The credit crunch continues and the knock-on impact on the horse world is increasingly evident.

The Horse Trust in Britain is reporting a five-fold increase in enquiries in the last 6 months from horse owners  who are in financial difficulty and asking the charity to help with re-homing. However the charity is receiving reduced donations and have a full allocation of 100+ ponies, horses and donkeys. The daily cost per animal is approx 17 pounds. I’m sure this trend is being seen world-wide.

At the same time, animal welfare groups are urging horse-owners to  think about the costs for your horse during retirement. The campaign organisers are requesting that horse owners in England and Wales complete an anonymous Equine Retirement Questionnaire in an attempt to find out the scale of the problem. This is a very good idea and I can understand why it is being discussed at this time. However with many people worrying about their families and current investments, it’s hard to see many being able to start  a horse pension.

In the US for thoroughbred racing, both betting and purses were all significantly down in February and this follows a year on year trend.

A comment was posted recently on the site asking if we could help stop the mass murder and imprisonment of 33,000 wild horses and burros! The Wild Horse Foundation has a plan that offers a solution. If you do want to help, you should contact Ken Salazar at the Bureau of Land Management at the link below:

http://capwiz.com/madeleinepickens/issues/alert/?alertid=12943361&type=AN

I recently attended my first volunteer night with Charity Water and hope to attend once a month in the future. Most people in the West are fortunate to have a continuously available source of good quality  water and only experience occasional difficulties if there is a breakage in the mains water supply. Even with temporary water tanks for only a few days, most people quickly come to realise how much they take this vital resource for granted.

I had some limited but first-hand experience of carrying water on a regular basis as a kid when we first started to keep our own ponies and rented a stable with land but without a water supply. Fortunately my Dad did most of the carrying of water for the ponies from the nearby farm to our paddock for a number of years using milk churns. After some years, we did manage to get a water trough in an adjoining field, which halved the distance to carry the water. When we moved the horses to a small farm a few miles away, we did eventually manage to get running water into the stable area which was a great help. Even with this experience,  I can still only imagine how much work is involved in carrying water miles each day for your family.

I was pleased to learn that Brentina , a famous US Olympic dressage horse, is recovering well from recent colic surgery. The mare retired after the Olympics.

Colic is the number one killer of horses and any surgery, particularly intestinal surgery, is risky. I hope her recovery continues and she enjoys a happy retirement.