Purina Equine Research Blog - From our farm to yours.

No break in R&D for the new year!

2012-01-19T12:09:00.003-06:00

We are trying to get readjusted after the completion of our exercise physiology test in December. After our last data collection day we moved all of the exercise horses out to pasture for a well deserved break. Our broodmares and open mares have all been moved into the barns in preparation for foaling. We started our artificial lighting program for breeding season the second week in January and are almost ready to go!

Last week we started a long series of palatability trials with our taste testing horses. You can see in the picture some measured out ingredients we are testing to evaluate preference with our horses. They are offered two types of feed at feeding time, both feeds are the same except for one different ingredient. All they need to do is tell us which one they prefer by the amount consumed.

Dedication to Animal Nutrition

2012-01-05T07:36:00.003-06:00

Today marks the 31st anniversary of Barb Tremayne's employment with Purina. Barb is a registered veterinary technician who joined the company in 1981. Barb began her career with Purina helping to develop products such as dewormers and fly sprays for Ralston Purina's Health Industries division. She then moved to Veterinary Services, where she remains today. It is difficult to describe all that she does in a day, because she is definitely our "jack of all trades", our own Miss Fix-it. She does it all, from assisting me in taking care of the animals here at the research farm to performing laboratory analysis on samples collected from all of our research units. She also does all the ordering, inventory and equipment maintenance, along with countless other tasks through the day. Barb is a huge asset to our operation and we couldn't do what we do without her.

In today's world loyalty, passion and dedication are often lacking in the workplace. Barb's committment to helping make the lives of animals better through nutrition is a great example for us all to follow. Thanks Barb for all that you do!

Five Horse Nutrition New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-03T10:46:00.009-06:00

Happy New Year! One again, it is time to make those New Year’s resolutions that inspire us with new hope for the New Year. Sure, most resolutions get broken before the month of January is even through, but I still think that making resolutions is a good exercise that encourages us to set concrete goals and work towards improving some area of our lives. Thanks to this inspiring tradition, I have come up with a list of New Year’s resolutions that relate to feeding horses. Perhaps you already do many of the things on this list; if not, hopefully there is one resolution that you may consider implementing in 2012.

1) Weigh (in pounds or kilograms) all feed (concentrates and hay) offered to the horse.

If you really want to know that your horse is getting all the nutrition he requires, the first and most important step is to know exactly how much he is eating. Get an inexpensive fish scale that can easily be used in the feed room. To weigh a “scoop” of concentrate, get a plastic grocery bag and put one full scoop of feed in it. Hang the bag of feed on the scale, and you will know exactly what one scoop weighs. Be sure to do this with all of your feeds, because all feeds have a different density and will weigh slightly different. Pellets, for example, typically weigh more per quart than textured mixes (i.e. sweet feeds). For hay, you can determine the weight of an average flake using the same method with a larger trash bag. Make a note of these weights for easy reference.

2) Monitor bodyweight on a monthly basis.

This is so easy to do and can be a crucial part of your horse’s health maintenance program. Not only will it help you determine the right amount of feed to feed your horse, but it will also help with determining the correct medication dosages (i.e. dewormer) and potentially alert you to certain medical conditions (sudden weight gain or loss can be a sign of a problem). You can do this with either a specially designed weight tape for horses or with long (non-stretchy) rope or string to measure both the heartgirth and body length in inches. Use the equation "Weight (lbs.) = Girth² (in.) x length (in.) / 330", or go here for a handy online calculator from The Horse to determine the weight from these measurements. Keep in mind that daily weight fluctuations up to 50 lbs. are normal in the average-size horse, but anything more than that should be addressed. Personally, I do this at the first of every month and make a note of it on my barn calendar. I have a senior horse that is a hard keeper, and keeping track of his weight is especially important so that I can make necessary adjustments to his diet based on the season, his workload, and his current bodyweight.

3) Get your hay analyzed.

This is so easy to do, but many people feel like it must be too complicated or they won’t know how to interpret the analysis. However, if you buy hay in bulk, it is very important to have a general idea of the nutritional value of your hay. This way, you can determine if your hay quality is truly appropriate for your horse and how to choose a concentrate feed that best complements your hay. I use and recommend the services of Equi-Analytical Laboratories for forage testing, but there are many others. Equi-Analytical has clear instructions on their website on how to take and submit a representative forage sample. If you need assistance with interpretation, there is some information on their website that can help. In addition, you can contact your local equine extension agent, a private nutrition consultant, or your local Purina Equine Specialist with any questions you may have.

4) Eliminate unnecessary supplements.

Does your feed room shelf look like this?

If so, you are spending way too much money on supplements that are probably not doing what you think they are doing. The equine supplement industry in the U.S. is not regulated, meaning that manufacturers can basically make any claim they want about their products without having any data or proof to back it up. Unfortunately, this makes it extremely difficult for the average owner to determine what it true and what is simply marketing hype. Many horses will not need any supplements at all, as long as they are fed a balanced ration that meets their nutrient requirements and provided free-choice access to salt. But there are some horses that will benefit from some type of supplement, such as electrolytes, a forage balancer vitamin/mineral mix, and/or a joint supplement. The key is to find a reputable manufacture that consistently produces a quality product that is backed by research. Unfortunately, these quality supplements are few and far between. It is definitely a “buyers beware” market, and the best plan is to put your money into good quality feed products that will minimize or even eliminate the need for supplements in the first place!

5) Evaluate your overall feeding program and switch your horse to a more appropriate feed product if necessary.

Do you feed the same “10% pellet” that your grandpa used to feed? Have you been feeding the same product for the past 5 years or more? Do you feed the same feed to all horses on your property? If you have not evaluated your feeding program recently, there is no time like the present. With all of the new research and feeding technologies we have been coming out with at Purina over the past few years, it is likely that there is a new product out there that may fit your horse’s needs better that what you are currently feeding. Take a good look at the products available at your local Purina dealer and check out Purina’s website to familiarize yourself with what is currently available. Read the feeding instructions on the bag to be sure you are feeding the product correctly. Talk to your dealer or contact us if you have any questions about your feeding program. We’re here to help you make the right choices for your specific situation.

Happy Holidays from our Research Team!

2011-12-21T09:02:00.005-06:00

Every year, I put together some wacky Christmas card that involves my animals. But the picture I took of my pony Jackie, wrapped in Christmas lights, is by far my favorite! She was a very patient and quite bombproof pony, who would stand anywhere for some food. Some Equine Senior in the snow was all it took to get this one done. My husband also came up with the greatest byline for this photo, "Redneck Electric Fence!" Although Jackie is sadly no longer with us, she lives on in our Christmas memories and in the hearts of the many kids she gave pony rides to.

On another note, as we wrap up 2011 and look forward to 2012, we continue to be very busy at the research farm. We are writing protocols for our new projects and we already have 40 weeks of research on the calendar and booked for the new year. That does not include our 5 months of foaling and the rebreeding of our broodmare herd. Yes, we are ambitious, but we really love what we do.

Mike and I are also trying to get caught up with writing all of our final research reports. Its an important step and we struggle to keep up! Afterall, in 2011, our team completed 15 research projects at Longview, have 3 ongoing projects at Universities, completed 7 field trials, successfully helped to launch our Equine Senior Active (http://www.stillactive.com/) product, and published 4 extended abstracts with two more full-length papers in the works.

So now is a good time to reflect on our successful 2011 and look forward to 2012. And in between, we wish you the happiest of holidays, and hope you have some time to spend with your families- human, animal and otherwise!

Our crazy crew at AAEP

2011-12-07T14:48:00.004-06:00

Right before Thanksgiving, our horse business group headed to the AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners) convention in San Antonio, Texas. In addition to being a sponsor of the convention and serving as an educational partner of AAEP in general, we hosted a very large booth that we kept manned between ourselves and our local Texas sales team. This is always a very busy, yet fun event for us as we run from meeting to meeting, attend scientific talks and speak with more vets and vet techs about our products than we can count! Oh, and don't forget we get pretty high on the candy we keep in the booth as well. We tell ourselves that it is for our guests at the booth, but all those mini Snickers, Reese's peanut butter cups, jolly ranchers and more really just keep us going through the long days! Below is a video I took of Dr. Kathy Williamson giving a quick demonstration on the ease of pumping our Well Gel product. This is an enteral diet for horses that pumps easily through a nasogastric tube and is a great tool for vets in their practice. I took this video on our last day and in the last few hours of the trade show, so you will have to excuse my commentary and how I made up the word "fantastically."

The pictures show our snazzy booth and great crew that made the week fun and productive.

Sensitive Stomachs - Gastric Ulcers in Foals and Adult Horses

2011-11-09T08:03:00.001-06:00

Gastric ulcers are a very common cause of poor performance, abdominal pain, anemia, poor appetite and lack of thrift in horses. The reported prevalence of gastric ulcers varies depending on the source from 70 – 94% in adult horses and 25 – 57 % in foals. Invariably, horses in heavy training or competition are the most likely to have ulcers. Foals that are ill and/or hospitalized are likewise at greatest risk.

As grazing herbivores, horses produce gastric acid continuously. Under normal conditions, the lining of the stomach is protected by several mechanisms from the effects of gastric acid. Gastric ulcers occur when one or more of these mechanisms malfunctions or is overwhelmed. Our current knowledge of the pathways that lead to gastric ulcer disease is based on studies in humans. Research in horses is ongoing to determine which factors such as diet, exercise, stress, illness and medication affect the ability of the stomach to resist the erosive effects of gastric acid.

The clinical signs of gastric ulcers in horses can be very ambiguous. Colic and loss of appetite are most commonly reported, but many horses with severe ulcers will be completely asymptomatic. Definitive diagnosis of gastric ulcers can only be made by gastroscopy (endoscopic exam of the stomach). Many field practitioners do not have access to this expensive piece of equipment, therefore many horses are presumed to have ulcers and positive response to treatment is considered a positive presumptive diagnosis.

Foals on the other hand display clinical signs that make a presumptive diagnosis fairly easy. In general, most foals that suffer from ulcers also have a concurrent illness or are undergoing severe stress (orphaned foals). Additionally, foals with gastric ulcers will often grind their teeth and roll onto their backs with their forelimbs tucked up. Other signs include diarrhea and poor appetite (failure to nurse).

The treatment of gastric ulcers is a two pronged approach. First, therapy is aimed at decreasing the amount of gastric acid produced. This is accomplished with the use of proton pump inhibitors which block the release of hydrochloric acid into the stomach. There is currently one proton pump inhibitor drug available on the market for the treatment of gastric ulcers in horses. GastroGard (produced by Merial) is a special preparation of the drug omeprazole (commonly known as Prilosec in human medicine). This preparation took years of research to develop. The problem to be overcome was getting the drug past the harsh acidic equine stomach and into the small intestine intact where it could be absorbed. A special microencapsulated form of the drug was developed by Merial to accomplish this. No other oral form of omeprazole is available that will reach the small intestine intact where it can be absorbed. The second aspect of treatment is to protect the already damaged stomach lining using a drug called sucralfate (commonly known as Carafate). This drug forms a gum like substance in the stomach that sticks to the ulcerated and eroded areas forming a kind of plug (think of the Little Dutch Boy with his thumb in the dyke). Treatment is extremely effective, particularly if initiated early.

Clearly the best thing possible is to prevent the development of gastric ulcers. There are several things that may accomplish this task. First, remove horses from their stalls. Stalled horses are far more likely to develop ulcers than horses out on pasture. Regular exercise and small frequent meals (try dividing the concentrate portion of your horses’ diet into 3-4 feedings a day instead of two) will also aid in decreasing the risk. Provide frequent access to hay or pasture throughout the day. Additionally, recent studies performed at Texas A&M University and confirmed by other institutions have shown that horses receiving alfalfa hay as a portion of their ration each day are at decreased risk of developing ulcers as compared to horses that receive grass hay only. These findings were very surprising to the veterinary community. It had previously been believed that a continuous intake of grass hay was the best method of reducing the risk of gastric ulcers. It is now believed that the high level of calcium and protein in alfalfa hay has a buffering effect on gastric juices which helps to protect the stomach. Therefore it is recommended that horses receive at least one or two flakes of alfalfa a day (divided up for each feeding) to help reduce ulcer development. It is also a good idea to provide horses with some alfalfa to consume during trailering. Finally, if you anticipate a stressful situation for your horse (competition, travelling, surgery etc.), UlcerGard, a lower dose form of GastroGard can be used prophylactically to prevent ulcers.

Gastric ulcers in horses and foals are quite common and can pose a very serious health risk. They can also significantly impact the performance and quality of life of the horse. Great advances have been made in our understanding of the prevalence, development, treatment and prevention of gastric ulcers. If you have concerns about your horses’ gastric health or ulcer risks consult your veterinarian for prevention, diagnosis and treatment advice.

In the thick of it.......

2011-11-04T14:31:00.004-05:00

Dr. Gordon put up a couple of posts about a test we started at the farm. In her last two posts she details how we started this particular test, now we are right in the middle of working our horses on their exercise program! I made a quick video of the daily workout for our exercise study here at the farm. You can see the horses being set up with a heart rate monitor so that we can see how hard they are working, then see them progressing through a workout. All sixteen horses on the test get work 3 days per week at this stage, we will increase the intensity as they become more fit throughout the test. We had rain all day yesterday so there are a few muddy horses in the picture, but it sure was nice today!

Success is sweet!

2011-10-07T07:39:00.003-05:00

Our sixteen horses ran very well this week on the treadmill and we are excited to be getting this exercise physiology project underway. And now that all of our preliminary treadmill data are taken, we review our horses' basic physical fitness and set their exercise regimens that will begin on our Equi-ciser in two weeks. Next week, they start acclimation to their specific dietary treatments and from there we have about 14 more weeks of Equi-ciser exercise, ultrasounding, weighing, body condition scoring, blood work, treadmill testing, and more as we determine how these horses are training and how diet affects fitness level and increases in athletic ability. Above is a picture of one of the horses cooling down after a bout on the treadmill. After a warm shower in the wash stall, the horses would steam in the sun getting hand-walked during the beautiful fall mornings we have been having in St Louis. Doesn't get much better than that!

Running for the roses at the Purina Research Farm this week!

2011-10-03T11:27:00.007-05:00

One of our favorite things to do at the research farm is conduct exercise physiology studies. We have a phenomenal set up with a high speed treadmill and Equi-ciser that we use regularly for experiments, training, weight maintenance and other research related matters. This week we have 16 horses running on the treadmill as part of a larger study that will take place until the end of December. The horses are all performing individual Graded Exercise Tests that involve running for a short time on the treadmill to determine fitness level. As the horses exercise, we measure heart rate, the volume of oxygen consumed, blood levels of different metabolites and more. It is very exciting to be taking all these measurements while a horse is running at almost 30 mph right next to you! In the pictures, you will see horse #510 (aka Chub) who is a seasoned treadmill horse for us. He is being led onto the treadmill and then getting fitted with a mask to measure his O2 and CO2 rates. I am also very proud of a young horse that made his treadmill debut today named Hank. We have a new set of young horses we have been training on the treadmill, and as you can imagine, this takes a lot of time, careful attention to detail, and patience. Hank entered the lab wide-eyed on his big day, but put in a textbook test. And all of this would not be possible without our fantastic crew of researchers that have prepared the horses, written the protocol, labeled all the blood tubes, processed all the samples, etc. It continues to be an exciting time to work for Purina and conduct research to develop products to help horses. We ran 4 horses today and have 12 more to go this week!

Field study "cuties" and a great dealer.

2011-08-24T14:24:00.002-05:00

Mike Jerina has been posting recently on his visits to California and North Carolina to check up on some farms conducting field trials for us. And while Mike was away in those states, I have been here in the northeast checking up on our field trial farms in CT, NY and NJ.

I am happy to report that all the horses on the trial are doing extremely well and the horse owners and barn managers are excited about this new product we are working on. The top pictures in this blog are of some horses on the trial- looking super.

As part of my trip to NJ, I stopped in at Garoppo's feed and pet supply in Newfield. Not only are they helping us out with this field trial, but they are one of our Purina Certified Expert dealers, and they do a fantastic job. I posted some pictures of the store and they have the cleanest, neatest warehouse I have ever seen! They do a great job of offering feed on the floor in the store and their inventory for all animals is amazing. I certainly couldn't help myself when I was there and spent over $200 on all kinds of items like flyspray, dewormer, a huge pink rubber ball for my yearlings to play with, etc. Come to think of it, I didn't even buy any feed! One great purchase was a Thundershirt for my dog, Emery. It basically snuggles her and makes her feel more secure during thunder storms- and it really works! And it is much easier than the pile of pillows I usually bury her in or the polo wrap that my husband tried. So a big thanks to Pat and Judy Garoppo for assisting us with our trial and having such a great store with a diverse, yet perfectly targeted product offering. I am a happy researcher and customer!

More on water...

2011-08-22T09:04:00.007-05:00

I wanted to follow up Dr. Karen Davison's post on water and electrolytes with something I saw in the field lately. In the pictures above, there are two water buckets. These buckets were side by side in a very nice, well kept barn. The top water bucket was offered with electrolytes in the water daily, and the other was "clean" water but had recent bird excrement that had fallen into it.

Which bucket would you rather drink from?

According to one of the barn managers, the horse was not a good drinker and did not like to drink the electrolyte water. Which leaves us the water with the bird poop- that can be a potential health risk to the horse drinking it.

Therefore, in this situation, I would recommend two things. 1) Clean, scrub/disinfect and refill any water buckets with bird excrement in them and try to keep birds out of the barn 2) remove electrolytes from the bucket the horse will not drink out of, and feed electrolyes as outlined in Dr. Davison's article below- as needed and either with feed or syringed to the horse individually.

Keeping horses hydrated during hot weather is very important. Make sure you are not getting in your horse's way and provide fresh, clean water at all times.

You Can Lead A Horse To Water....

2011-08-15T16:33:00.003-05:00

With more than 50 days over 100 degrees and record drought here in Texas, water intake and electrolyte balance is a routine question horse owners ask about. I thought I'd post an article with some information on this along with a funny picture I took over the weekend of Homerun, a 4 year-old cutting horse playing in a water sprinkler. This is how you survive a hot, dry Texas summer!!

Water is the main component of the body. In fact, an average 1000 pound horse is roughly 660 pounds (80 gallons) of water. About two-thirds of this water is inside cells, called intracellular fluid, and one-third is outside cells or extracellular fluid. To function normally, the body must keep the amount of water in these areas in balance and relatively constant. This is termed water balance. The water in the body contains dissolved mineral salts called electrolytes, primarily sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium and magnesium. These dissolved electrolytes exist as ions, which are charged particles that conduct electric currents, thus the name electrolytes. Electrolytes are used to maintain voltages across cell membranes, and are distributed through the body in a highly ordered way. Any disruption of this order can result in severe body dysfunction, including heart and gastrointestinal problems, muscle cramps and impaired brain and nerve function. Sodium and chloride concentrations are normally higher in extracellular fluid, while potassium concentration is higher in intracellular fluid. Electrolyte balance is tied very closely with water balance.

Water and electrolytes are excreted from the body primarily through sweat, urine and fecal output. The body attempts to maintain a balance between dietary intake of electrolytes and excretion rates. Kidneys adjust the volume and concentration of urine based on the water and electrolyte balance in the body through an intricate hormone signaling system. Electrolytes are not stored in the body, so the amount needed daily must be provided in the diet. If dietary electrolyte level is lower than needed, the kidneys will conserve and reabsorb electrolytes. If dietary electrolyte supply is more than needed, the kidneys will flush any excess. This very complex mechanism keeps water and electrolyte balance tightly regulated under normal circumstances. However, when the relationship between intake and output is challenged, normal mechanisms may not maintain the balance.

Hard work, especially in hot and humid conditions will challenge normal water and electrolyte balance mechanisms. Under these conditions, horses can lose as much as four gallons of sweat per hour, which carries with it approximately 10 tablespoons of electrolytes - primarily sodium, chloride and potassium. Human sweat is hypotonic, meaning the concentration of electrolytes in the sweat is lower than the concentration in the blood. As people sweat, sodium concentration in the blood rises. This triggers the thirst response causing the person to want something to drink. Horse sweat is hypertonic, the concentration of electrolytes in the sweat is higher than the concentration in the blood. As the horse sweats, sodium concentration in the blood remains unchanged even though large amounts of sodium are being lost in the sweat. Without the rise in blood concentration of sodium, the thirst response doesn’t kick in. This is why dehydrated horses often show no interest in drinking, which simply makes the situation worse.

Hay and pasture contain high levels of potassium and a normal diet will provide adequate potassium to meet requirements of most horses. Usually, only hard working horses that sweat for prolonged periods need additional potassium supplementation. Most commercial horse feeds contain 0.5 – 1.0% added salt (sodium chloride) which, along with free-choice access to a salt block, will supply adequate sodium and chloride to meet requirements of horses in light activity. Horses being ridden regularly and sweating moderately on a daily basis cannot eat enough salt from a salt block to meet their needs. Providing 2 – 4 tablespoons of loose salt daily in the feed will meet the increased requirements. For horses that are sweating profusely, a mixture of 2/3 sodium chloride and 1/3 potassium chloride (Lite salt), would provide adequate sodium, chloride and potassium to replenish the higher losses. Commercial electrolyte supplements are also available, but should contain sodium chloride as the primary ingredient.

Providing daily electrolyte supplementation beyond what a horse needs to maintain balance can be very counterproductive. The kidneys will become very efficient at flushing the excess electrolytes out of the system and then on a day the horse really needs a higher level, they won’t be available. The current recommendation for electrolyte supplementation is to provide additional electrolytes the day before, the day of and the day after a horse is going to work very hard and sweat a great deal. It is also very important that electrolytes are only given to well hydrated horses. Since you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink, dehydrated horses should receive fluids intravenously to be sure water balance is adequately restored.

Checking things out

2011-08-12T13:55:00.003-05:00

I have spent the past couple of weeks going between Longview and the work we have progressing there, and the field where we have several tests happening also. Once initial testing is complete at Longview we ask people to help us out by trying the resulting products we come up with on their farms. After they have fed the test diet for an extended period of time we look for feedback on the pros and cons of the new product so that we can understand if there are any more changes that need to be made.

The people that help us out by trying the product are great, their feedback is invaluable in the process of creating a new product! I took a couple of pictures at a farm in California last week that has several horses on one of our prototype diets, the owner is fantastic to work with and she is equally impressed by the new diet she is trying out for us. The beginning of this week I went to three farms in North Carolina to get feedback from them as well. They were also a great group of people to deal with, three very different types of operations, with different types of horses. NC had positive feedback for the same product also, which is always good for us to hear.

Getting positive feedback from the field verifies for us that we have done the correct groundwork and research to develop a new diet that will be successful for it's intended purpose. It really is a rewarding experience to be involved with, when you get to watch the product go from idea all the way to the bag! It takes quite a bit of time to do it that way, but taking your time ensures it is done the right way.

Efficacy of Yeast Products in Equine Diets

2011-07-27T07:32:00.001-05:00

In the past several years, multiple sources have recommended yeast products for inclusion in equine diets for many purposes, including improving fiber and phosphorus digestibility, increase feed efficiency, support hindgut bacteria, and even prevention and cure of gastric ulcers. However, a close look at the published data available on the efficacy of supplementing yeast culture in the diets of horses does not support the claims of positive effects in horses fed quality diets that meet nutritional requirements.

AAFCO defines a number of yeast products as feed ingredients, including dried yeast, yeast culture and yeast extract. Dried yeast may be either active or nonfermentative. Yeast culture is a dried product composed of viable yeast cells and the media on which it was grown. Yeast extract is a dried or concentrated product of cell contents from ruptured yeast cells.

Studies in ruminants suggest that addition of yeast products to ruminant diets promote bacterial growth in the rumen. It is generally believed that yeast additives either directly facilitate fiber digestion and dry matter intake, or contain metabolites or compounds that stimulate bacterial growth to facilitate fermentation and animal performance in ruminants. Since horses have fermentative capability in the hindgut, it has long been proposed that yeast products may have beneficial effects on digestion/fermentation in the hindgut, resulting in enhanced fermentation and increased fiber and/or nutrient digestibility.

According to the 2007 National Research Council’s Nutrient Requirements of Horses, “Unlike observed effects in ruminant studies, supplementation of yeast in horse diets tended to show some beneficial effects on fermentation, but results were equivocal across studies.” There is great variation in published results of feeding yeast products to horses – most studies report minimal to no increase in cecal or colonic bacterial cultures as a result of feeding yeast products, although a few studies have reported beneficial effects when yeast products were fed with very high starch diets, or with low quality forages. Some studies have reported no improvement in nutrient apparent digestibility when yeast products were fed to mature horses, but others have reported some improvements in fiber and nutrient digestibility. However, the reports of improved digestibility of nutrients with the addition of yeast products are most often seen when yeast products are added to nutritionally deficient diets. The Purina Equine Research team recently completed a thorough, long-term study that looked at the efficacy of yeast in enhancing fiber digestion in horses, as well as several other parameters, and the data indicated no effects of yeast on fiber digestion. This data is currently being prepared for submission for publication in a scientific journal.

Yeast products can be a source of quality nutrients, including essential amino acids and B-vitamins, so adding yeast products to a nutritionally deficient diet will result in improved performance in horses, just as addition of any ingredient that supplies deficient nutrients to a ration will result in improvement in performance. However, when yeast products are added to diets that are nutritionally balanced and fortified to meet a horse’s nutrient requirements, the additional nutrients provided by the yeast products will be of no benefit. At this time, there is insufficient data to support the inclusion of yeast products in horse feeds for benefits other than those simply provided by the nutrient content of the yeast products, and there are many other feed ingredients that provide quality nutrients for optimal nutrient content in horse rations. Purina Premium Horse Feeds are nutritionally fortified and balanced with quality protein sources as well as specific essential amino acids, minerals and vitamins to meet horses’ nutritional requirements when fed as recommended.

Gastric Ulcers - a pain in the stomach

2011-07-22T13:41:00.005-05:00

I received several requests this week for help with horses suffering from gastric ulcers. Unfortunately, performance horses are especially prone to developing ulcers because of the way they are fed and managed. Even exercise itself can contribute to ulcer formation. We know from previous research that horses maintained on full-time pasture have almost no incidence of gastric ulcers. If a horse has been diagnosed with ulcers, they must be treated with medication such as ranitidine or omeprazole in order to allow the gastric mucosa to heal. There are also several feeding and management practices that can help prevent ulcers from returning or occurring in the first place. Below is an excerpt from an email I sent to a horse owner looking for help with a horse suffering from ulcers.

For a horse with gastric ulcers, one of the best things you can do is to allow constant access to forage. Not only does this keep some quantity of feed in the stomach at all times, but also the act of chewing produces saliva which can buffer the stomach contents. Allowing 24/7 access to pasture is the optimal scenario, but if this is not possible, then the use of hay nets that slow down the rate of intake to more closely mimic natural grazing behavior can help. One such hay net that I like and recommend is the “Nibble Net”. The type of forage is also important, and including alfalfa hay in the ration has been shown to decrease ulcer incidence. Some horses can tolerate 100% alfalfa hay with no problem while others may do better with a 50:50 grass/alfalfa mix. I would recommend slowly replacing some of the timothy hay with alfalfa. Depending on how he tolerates the alfalfa (maintains normal fecal consistency, no undesirable changes in attitude under saddle), you may even replace all of the timothy and consider replacing some of the chopped forage with alfalfa. This would increase the amount of “chew time” he has, as horses usually consume chopped forages fairly quickly. I do not expect him to have trouble with alfalfa hay, as long as it is introduced slowly.

For the concentrate portion of the diet, a high fat/high fiber feed is recommended. We have had very good luck with Purina Ultium in ulcer-prone horses, especially those which are in regular work. Ultium is also very calorie dense and will help with weight gain. The fiber level in Ultium is actually higher than most Senior feeds, and because this horse can also consume some forage, a senior feed is not necessarily required.

I would NOT recommend that this horse receive oral paste electrolyte preparations, as these can exacerbate ulcers.

Minimizing stress in the horse’s environment is also something that should not be overlooked; this may include increasing turnout time, insuring the horse is not isolated from other horses, and/or preventing “overtraining” (strenuous exercise on a regular basis without adequate rest periods).

As far as dietary supplements go, most of them are untested and unproven in the horse to improve gastric ulcers.

Following some of these suggestions can really make a positive difference for those horses that suffer from ulcers.

Another Friday Funny...

2011-07-15T06:20:00.002-05:00

We have had a crazy busy week (and spring for that matter) here at the farm. I found it amusing this morning when the first thing I found pulling into the farm was a lot of water in place where there should be none! Happy Friday morning! Looks like we get to dig up our pasture and try to find the leak and repair it before the sun gets up far enough to really get hot.

Lola was fascinated by the bubbling water coming out of the ground in her pasture, she was having a good time pawing and playing in it!

Friday Funny - O Lord, Won't You Buy Me.....

2011-07-08T12:55:00.004-05:00

Someone sent this to me in an email, and I wish I knew who to give credit for these lyrics because I think they are great. Enjoy!

Sung to the tune of Janis Joplin's "O Lord Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz"

Oh Lord won't you buy me a horsey that bends
My friends all ride warmbloods, I must make amends
I practice my leg yields each evening 'til ten
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a horsey that bends

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a horse that won't buck
I'm tired of trying to land standing up
I spend all my time brushing dirt off my butt
Oh Lord won't you buy me a horse that don't buck

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a horse that won't bite
I count all my fingers and toes every night
I feel like a carrot when I'm in his sight
Oh Lord won't you buy me a horse that won't bite

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a horse that stays clean
I brush him, I groom him, I've considered chlorine
His colour's too chestnut for a horse with grey genes
Oh Lord won't you buy me a horse that stays clean

Oh Lord won't you buy me a horse with some guts
This spooking and shying is driving me nuts
And while you are at it make me less of a klutz
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a horse with some guts

Oh Lord, won't you give him some hindquarter drive
This horse is soooo lazy, not sure he's alive
We bend and we circle 'til way way past five
Oh Lord won't you give him some hindquarter drive

Oh Lord, won't you give me a mule that gaits well
No trotting, no pacing...he four beats like h***
Lop eared and no withered; man it'd be swell
Oh Lord if you'd give me a mule that gaits well

Oh Lord, won't you give me a mare with a brain
One that keeps working when hormones are strained
The gelding's in therapy, the stallion is drained,
Oh Lord won't you give me a mare with a brain

Oh Lord won't you buy me a horse that don't eat
No grass or no hay, now that would be neat
No rain means no pasture, my wish I'll repeat
Oh Lord won't you give me a horse that don't eat

Oh Lord, won't you give me a horse with no bills
My vet and my farrier are first in my will
Work hard all day long just to pay for his pills
Oh Lord, won't you give me a horse with no bills

Oh Lord-please-make his IQ just a 3
The horse I got now thinks he's smarter than me
Well, he doesn't just think it, he's right, don't you see
Oh Lord-PLEASE-make his IQ just a 3

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a horse with some spots
I'm bored with the bay ones and chestnuts and such
Leopards or snow flakes or peacocks with socks
Oh Lord won't you buy me a horse with some spots

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a horse with good feet?
No head bob or hip hitch, no screwed up right lead
I could finally ride more than I soak, wrap and knead
Oh Lord, my achin' backside would rejoice, INDEED

Oh Lord won't you buy me a horse with a saw?
One who can measure and manage an awl
A horse that can eyeball and set a post straight;
drill holes, screw hinges and hang a tube gate
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a horse with good tools?
These crooked fences make us all look like fools!

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a saddle that fits
My arse is so tender I can't hardly sit
Something soft to my tushy and wide for his back
Maybe deep seated, cushioned and in shiny black
Ooooh, Lord, won't you buy me a saddle that fits

Fireworks and Horses

2011-07-01T08:08:00.003-05:00

The 4th of July is just days away. If you are like me, you dread nightfall, because that is the time when your crazy neighbor decides it is time to shoot off a truckload of fireworks in the field next to your horse pasture. The first time my horses heard fireworks, I thought they were going to run through the fence. Now I've learned to bring them in the barn and turn up volume on the barn radio to help keep them safe. I came across this article from The Horse with some good tips on how to prepare your horses for a fireworks display:

The Horse | Fireworks and Horses: Preparing for the Big Boom

I think the key is to know your horse so that you can predict where he will feel most comfortable and secure. For some, that may be in the barn with their buddies, while others may prefer to be out in their pasture. Making sure that your fences are in good repair and there is nothing that a scared horse may run into is a good idea. And if your horse truly can become a danger to himself, consider talking to your vet about whether or not it is safe to administer sedatives.

Enjoy your 3-day weekend everyone, and stay safe! Happy 4th of July!

2011 Equine Science Society Symposium

2011-06-27T13:17:00.018-05:00

Recently, the Purina team travelled to Murfreesboro, TN, for the Equine Science Society Symposium. If you’ve never heard of the Equine Science Society, you can learn more about it at their website. The Society is comprised of equine scientists from both academia and industry, and the bi-annual symposium is a place where any significant research in the fields of nutrition, reproduction, exercise physiology, genetics, management, and many other fields pertaining to equine health and management are presented. Basically, anyone doing any “real” research involving equine science will be at this meeting. Many cutting edge ideas and technologies in nutrition and other aspects of horse management are presented here first. This is why I personally had to be there, even if it meant hauling my 8-week old son along with me. He handed the trip very well, by the way, and check out the amount of stuff we needed for just 4 days (good thing we drove and did not fly)!

I also was there to present the data from two of Purina’s research studies in the poster session. One of the studies was entitled “Evaluation of the safety and performance of an enteral diet formulated specifically for horses”. This was the culmination of the research that went into the development of our new liquid diet for sick horses, Wellsolve Well-Gel, which is now currently available to veterinarians. The other study was entitled “Milk composition in mares fed a fat and fiber-added concentrate”. This data was compiled as part of the research that was done for the development of Ultium Growth. Dr. Mary Beth Gordon presented the majority of the data from the Ultium Growth project in an oral presentation, which covered the growth characteristics and the glucose/insulin dynamics of foals on the trial. She did an excellent job presenting the comprehensive data that spanned the course of two years. This data showed that feeding foals a typical sweet feed such as Omolene 300 will not cause them to become insulin resistant. Her final summarizing comment that “carbohydrates are not always evil” was met with hearty applause by the scientists in the audience! Dr. Kathy Williamson also gave a presentation that discussed our use of a GPS tracking system to assess the activity level of the foals on the Ultium Growth research trial. All of these studies were published in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science.

In addition to me and Drs. Gordon and Williamson, Drs. Raub, Davison, and Young, several members of our sales force, and Mike and Andrea from the research farm were in attendance. I am very proud of the fact that I work for a company that remains active in equine nutrition research and emphasizes proven science over fads and hype, which seems to be the norm for many feed and supplement companies these days. I know it is often hard for horse owners to decipher what is real from what is just a “good story”, because marketers do such a good job of making outrageous claims sound so…legitimate. If you ever question the validity of a claim, just ask to be shown the science that supports that claim. At Purina, I can assure you that we go to great lengths to ensure that any claim we make is backed by solid research and proven results.

EHV-1/EHM Update

2011-06-27T13:07:00.001-05:00

It appears that the EHV-1/EHM outbreak is coming to an end. New cases are trickling in but in the last few weeks, they have all come from herds/farms that are already under quarantine. The USDA issued its final situation report on June 24th, which is a clear indication that the spread of the disease has been stopped. California, the state which has had the most confirmed cases (22), has reported that they have had no new cases in over 2 weeks.

Horse owners are still cautioned to use common sense and utilized basic biosecurity measures when co-mingling horses, and are reminded that the proper quarantine of newly arrived horses or horses that have been travelling to shows can help prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

The cooperation and quick actions on the part of the many state veterinarians’ offices, the NCHA and local equine practitioners are the reason why this didn’t turn out to be a bigger tragedy. Their efforts are to be commended.

Sometimes you just need a spa day....

2011-06-23T16:02:00.003-05:00

Its summer time in St Louis, and its always a great time to catch up on horse haircuts! Pictured here is one of our research horses at Longview, getting vacuumed and cleaned up. This horse is also doing palatability research for us right now, so it has a "tough day" of taste-testing feeds in the morning and afternoon, being turned out on a drylot/stall combo the rest of the time, with periods of grooming in between!
Notice the stacks of hay outside the stall doors- all the hay is individually weighed for each horse at each feeding. As researchers, its important for us to monitor everything going into each horse. Those piles of hay are ready for the PM feeding. All in a days work!

More research feed going out the door...

2011-06-15T11:57:00.007-05:00

Last week, Kent Lanter and I traveled to our horse feed plant in Guilderland, NY. We were there to make a test run of a new feed formulation we are doing research on. This is a different feed than the one we made at Mulberry in April- we have lots of irons in the fire!

As usual, the plant did a great job prepping for our test and having everything on hand we needed. Its always great to work in the plants and get to be involved in the manufacturing process from set up to sewing up the bags! Special thanks to Jim Hopkins, Gary Slater and the rest of the GNY team.

After our successful manufacturing test, the feed was shipped out to 9 different farms across the country to be fed to over 100 horses. Feed is also being shipped to our research farm at Longview where it will continue in trials with our own horses.

And for those of you that know Kent Lanter (aka MacGyver), I was especially lucky to have him in my neck of the woods last week. During his visit, he helped me to feed my horses, do barn chores and fix a window in my sunroom that had been broken for quite some time. Hand him a screwdriver and that man goes to work!

Have a great day! Mary Beth

Blog back up!!

2011-06-14T15:46:00.002-05:00

Sorry everyone for the blog being down!

It was erroneously flagged as spam and was shut down.

We have a lot to catch up on and we will be filling you in over the next few days...

We had a great time at the Equine Science Society Conference, our summer intern has started at the farm and our team has been out and about traveling all over the country.

More to follow this week!

MB

Lesson Horse Joys (not so much!)

2011-05-27T11:56:00.005-05:00

Along with my real job as an equine nutritionist, I also train a few horses and give riding lessons. Unfortunately, my little lesson herd has become fairly geriatric, and in the past year I've had to give up one of my wonderful horses to a perfect home where she could tote beginners around and be loved forever, and another of my girls is now only giving lessons to small people who are not ready to jump much larger than crossrails. So, for the last 10 months, I've been trying to find one nice horse to add to my happy lesson horse herd. While some horse people absolutely love shopping for horses, I hate it! My modus operandi is usually to wait until a horse finds me that I fall in love with, and after about a 10-minute trial ride, I just write the check and take him or her home. I don't like sifting through websites and classified ads, calling other trainers and friends, traveling to try out horses, sitting on unfamiliar saddles, getting my hopes up, getting my hopes crashed, etc, etc, etc. Just not my idea of fun!!! However, unless I want to get out of the lesson business entirely (which I don't want to do because I really enjoy giving lessons and I love my peeps), I really do need another horse.

Late last summer, I thought I'd found the right horse. The woman that I bought my personal horse (Conor) from, had another little Quarter horse that she thought would be good as a lesson horse. I went and rode him, and while he was fairly green, he was quiet, sweet, and had a really good mind. I figured that I could ride him a few months, teach him to jump, and then start putting some more advanced students on him. I took him home, named him Clancy, and started teaching him the things he needed to know about being a lesson horse. Well, in the 30+ years I've been giving riding lessons, I've never encountered a horse like Clancy. He just never could get the hang of jumping. I always start a newbie over trot poles on the ground, and then gradually move up to a crossrail, and take it on from there. My favorite moment is when the horse figures out that the jump is not actually a barrier, it's a fun thing that they get to jump over! Well, Clancy never did make that mental leap. While he was willing to hop over the barrier, you could just tell he was wondering "why on earth do these people keep asking me to go OVER the barrier when it would be so much easier to just go AROUND the barrier? And isn't that what a barrier is for - to keep me on this side?" So, much as we all enjoyed Clancy's sweet face and kind personality, I ended up selling him early this year to a friend who is using him on a ranch where he gets to work cattle and doesn't have to leap over any barriers ever again, and he's doing just great.

However, I had to go back to the lesson horse search, which was no fun at all, until I discovered Craigslist!!! There are lots of horses for sale on Craigslist, and they are close to home so I don't have to travel so far, and there are lots of horses in my price range! I found a couple that sounded good and had nice pictures, and made a few phone calls. The one that I was most interested in had a picture of the owner standing on the saddle, and I thought "this horse has the kind of attitude that I like!" Not that I condone standing on the saddle - probably not a really safe riding position, but I like a horse that will put up with that kind of thing. So I took a couple of friends on a little road trip to try him out, and came home with a lighter checkbook and a new set of Quarter horse papers. Eoghan (pronounced "Owen" in case you're curious) is an 8 year old ranch broke gelding, and we'll see how he gets along with an English saddle and jumping over barriers. So far, he's ok with trot poles and a tiny crossrail. After a week, he's already beyond Clancy in jumping potential (but that's not saying much!). He's also learned that I and my peeps are good sources of fine things to eat, including carrots, horse cookies, and even a banana (I've never had a horse that liked bananas, but Eoghan was looking at the one I was eating with such interest that I just had to share). He seems to be very happy with his new home, and as soon as his quarantine is over, he'll get to go out to pasture with his new herd. If I was a better blogger I'd have already taken a picture or video of Eoghan to post, but I haven't, so I'm posting a picture of Clancy instead. And next time I post a blog, I'll include a picture of Eoghan - maybe one of him jumping (I'm very optimistic)!

EHV-1/EHM Update

2011-05-24T16:22:00.002-05:00

I just listened in on a very informative webinar presented by The Horse and sponsored by Intervet Schering-Plough. Drs. Lunn and Morley from Colorado State University presented updated information on the outbreak.

The current numbers: 121 horses have tested positive for EHV-1. 142 premises have been identified as potential exposure sites, of those 42 have horses that have been confirmed to be infected with EHV-1. It will likely take at least another week or two to determine the exact extent of the outbreak, but the feeling is that the quick action taken by local and state veterinarians has really helped to minimize the spread of the disease as much as possible. It is still being recommended that a risk-benefit analysis be undertaken when deciding about the whether or not to hold horse events or move horses right now. It may not be a prudent to do so until the middle of June. Be sure to check with event organizers for scheduling changes and new requirements for entry to the event facility before leaving home.

For the latest updates, please be sure to keep checking the information available for horse owners at: http://www.aaep.org/EHV_resourcesowner.htm

EHV-1/EHM Update

2011-05-23T15:36:00.002-05:00

Things are fairly quiet right now with regard to news about this situation. The USDA has not issued a new situation report since the 19th of May. California is now reporting a total of 17 cases confirmed. This may just be a lull as state veterinarian's offices and local veterinary diagnostic labs are working to gather information and analyze samples from suspect exposures and cases. I am attending a webinar tomorrow afternoon being given by Paul Lunn and some of his colleagues that should provide some more information and I will update you again afterwards with any new information.

May 20, 2011 EHV-1/EHM Outbreak - Update

2011-05-20T08:44:00.001-05:00

8:30 am CST

USDA reports that 33 horses in 8 states have been confirmed as EHV-1 or EHM cases.

Late yesterday afternoon, two important communications were sent out regarding the EHV-1/ EHM outbreak. The first was issued by the AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners) and the AHC (American Horse Council) stating that these two groups and their members and stakeholders would be working in close coordination with state veterinarians to forward data on this outbreak to the USDA: APHIS: VS (United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Service). The USDA: APHIS: VS has agreed to act as a data collation center, and to provide equine practitioners, state officials and other stakeholders with accurate information regarding the incidence of EHV-1/EHM and the extent of the outbreak. This is a very important step in working to contain this outbreak. On the heels of this announcement, the USDA: APHIS: VS released its first situation report. The May 19 situation report contains the most accurate information available regarding the number of horses, premises and states affected to date. I have included the link below.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahss/equine/ehv/ehv_2010_sitrep_051911.pdf

EHV-1/EHM Outbreak - Afternoon Update

2011-05-19T15:48:00.001-05:00

DVM Newsmagazine reports that 29 cases have now been confirmed in 8 states. The original 400 horses that competed at the NCHA Western Nationals in Ogden Utah came from 29 different states. The state veterinarians in all of those states of origin are working to track those horses and assess their current health status and subsequent movements. Here is a current state by state report from www.dvm360.com:
• Arizona — One confirmed case; • California — 10 confirmed; • Colorado — Six confirmed cases; five that attended the NCHA event and one that was in contact with sick horses; • Idaho — Two dead, no confirmed cases; • Montana — 30-35 horses under observation, no confirmed EHV-1 cases reported; • Nebraska — Five farms quarantined, no cases confirmed; • Nevada — No confirmed cases; • New Mexico — One dead, one suspected and no confirmed cases; • Oregon — One confirmed case; • Texas — 20 under investigation. The one confirmed case was a horse from New Mexico that was taken to West Texas for treatment. • Utah — Five confirmed cases; • Washington — Three confirmed cases; • Wyoming — No confirmed cases
(When I add this up I get 27 cases in 7 states –however, another report states that 4 cases have been confirmed in Canada)

The Wyoming State Veterinarians’ office has issued new requirements for horses travelling to the state. The new requirements include a valid health certificate issued within 72 hours of the time of travel listing a temperature for each horse, and statements by the veterinarian (written on the health certificate) certifying that the horses are not infected, have not been exposed to and are not currently exhibiting clinical signs of EHV-1. A link to the press release is provided below:
http://wlsb.state.wy.us/NewsReleases/WyomingRequirementsHorses[1].pdf

The Arizona State Veterinarians’ office has confirmed one case of EHM in the state. The horse is under quarantine at its’ home farm. State officials are attempting to contact the owners of other Arizona horses that competed at the NCHA event in Ogden Utah which is considered to be the epicenter of this outbreak.

In case you haven’t heard…The National Cutting Horse Association has cancelled all NCHA-approved shows for this weekend (May 20-22). Whether or not future shows will still be held is still up in the air. In a letter posted on the NCHA website, the president of the organization asked its’ members to report any reliable news about the outbreak to the NCHA offices in order to help them make the most informed decisions regarding future events. Go to www.nchacutting.com to learn more.

EHV-1/EHM Breaking News

2011-05-19T08:30:00.001-05:00

8:30 am CST

In response to the current outbreak, the state veterinarians’ office in Colorado has issued new transport requirements for horses entering the state. Horse owners wishing to travel to Colorado with their horses must first contact their veterinarian, who then must contact the Colorado state veterinarians’ office to receive a permit number which will be required on the health certificate accompanying the shipment. This policy is being implemented in order to track the origin and destination of horses in order to quickly implement quarantine measures should they become necessary. Here is a link to the press release outlining the new policy: http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=text%2Fhtml&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1251713839578&ssbinary=true

It is strongly advised that if you are planning any interstate travel with your horse, that you contact the state veterinarians office at your destination to determine if any new policies or restrictions are in place governing the movement of horses. Additionally, if you are planning on attending a show or other horse event, call ahead to be sure that the event is still taking place as scheduled and to determine if any new requirements for entry into the facility have been implemented.

The veterinary teaching hospitals of Colorado State Univeristy and the University of California-Davis have closed their equine and camelid hospital services to non-emergency cases. This is being done in an effort to minimize spread of the virus. These hospitals are NOT quarantined at this time. Washington State University veterinary teaching hospital IS under quarantine at this time due to the presence of a confirmed case that was discharged prior to detection. All horses in the hospital population during that time have to date tested negative for EHV-1.

New Mexico is reporting 2 suspected cases. These horses are under quarantine.

Dr. Paul Lunn of Colorado State University, perhaps the foremost authority on EHV-1/EHM, has given some radio interviews that contain essential information for horse owners regarding the outbreak. Links to the broadcasts are below:

http://brianallmerradionetwork.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/051711_ban_equineherpesvirusupdate_4m53s_nafb_csu_cda.mp3

http://brianallmerradionetwork.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/051711_ban_equineherpesvirusupdate_4m53s_nafb_csu_cda.mp3

Here is a link to a very informative report from TheHorse.com. This story includes updates and comments from authorities in numerous states.
http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=18262&src=EM

Be sure to continue checking in with the AAEP at their EHV-1/EHM Resources webpage. The AAEP continues to update this page with new information and resources daily, particularly in the “Related Items” section.
http://www.aaep.org/ehv_resources.htm

I will continue to monitor the situation and update you regularly.

EHV-1/EHM Outbreak Affecting the Western United States and Canada

2011-05-18T15:55:00.002-05:00

At this time, 17 horses in several western states (Idaho, Utah, California, and Washington) and Canada have been diagnosed with Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy (EHM), a neurological disease caused the Equine Herpesvirus 1 virus (EHV-1). The origin of the outbreak appears to be a NCHA event held April 29-May 8, 2011 in Ogden Utah. More than 400 horses competed at this show.

At this time, it is recommended that the movement and co-mingling of horses from different herds be restricted in an attempt to contain this outbreak. Owners of horses that have travelled to events (particularly in the western states) recently should monitor their horses closely for signs of infection.

Often the first clinical sign of EHM is fever. Horses can also first display signs of respiratory disease such as nasal discharge and coughing. Neurological signs include incoordination (usually of the hind limbs), urine retention or dribbling, lying down and being unable to rise. It is highly recommended that horses have their temperatures taken twice daily to detect possible infections in the earliest stages.

EHV-1 can be spread by inhalation of droplets from coughing or snorting from an infected horse or by direct nose to nose contact. People, equipment (buckets, feed pans, manure forks etc.), grooming utensils and tack can also spread the virus if they have come into contact with or have been used near a horse that is infected and shedding the virus through their nasal secretions or coughing. EHV-1 does not infect or cause disease in humans. The virus can persist in the environment for several weeks under the right conditions.

Treatment for EHM is largely supportive and includes intravenously administered fluids, anti-inflammatory agents and nursing care.

Horses suspected of being infected or that have fevers but no other signs of EHM may be treated with an anti-viral drug called Valtrex (valacyclovir). This drug is very expensive but has been shown to prevent EHM when given prior to exposure to EHV-1 or before neurological signs develop, in most cases.

Horses that are suspected of being infected with EHV-1 or who may have come into contact with an infected horse should be quarantined. Facilities housing horses that have been diagnosed with EHV-1 should also be quarantined. Extreme care should be taken in moving between quarantined and non-quarantined horses and facilities. It is recommended that non-quarantined facilities and horses be worked with first before moving to the quarantined area. Equipment, tack, and grooming supplies should not be transported between facilities and personnel should change clothing and boots after working with suspect or infected animals. Use of hand sanitizer and hand washing is also required after working with affected horses to prevent human’s from carrying the virus from horse to horse.
Unfortunately, at this time there is no evidence that currently available EHV-1 vaccines offer any protection against EHM. Therefore, vaccination does not preclude the possibility of EHV-1 infection and/or the development of EHM.

If you are concerned that your horse has EHM or may have been exposed to a horse infected with EHV-1, contact your veterinarian immediately.

The link provided below is to the AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners) web page on EHM and EHV. This web page contains further links and resources for you to better understand this disease and outbreak.

http://www.aaep.org/ehv_resources.htm

We will keep you posted via this blog and our Purina Horse Facebook page as updates on the outbreak become available.

Legends done until next year

2011-05-05T11:25:00.003-05:00

We had a good showing at the Legends of Ranching sale last weekend, our horses all went to good homes and the students that trained them were very appreciative of the opportunity to work with some of our horses. We have the next batch getting ready for their turn in Colorado, (we send 4 a year). They have to do a little research work for us before they go, or sometimes they have to stay back to help with growth and development projects for a period of time before they can leave. Our foals from this year are growing like crazy, they are all able to wear a halter and lead fairly well. The next step will be to get them weaned in a couple more months! Unitl then rate of growth is tightly monitored, and we watch them very closely.

This picture is Kool Dory going through the ring at the sale last weekend, the student that trained her, John is leading her.

Help People, Help Horses in Alabama

2011-05-03T08:40:00.004-05:00

As you know, the recent tornadoes in the South have devastated areas of Alabama and surrounding states. Our own Equine Specialist, Rhonda Bowles (from Ashville, Alabama, pictured above) is lucky to be alive and her family and farm are OK. The area around her however, is in desperate need of help. One farm that was integral in our research of Omolene 500 in 2008 was 5W Ranch owned by Donna Preskitt. Her farm has been demolished by the storm. Our hearts go out to everyone there. We have sent feed for horses that is being distributed, but further financial donations would be helpful. If you would like to help, please send donations to:

RHONDA BOWLES
22401 US HWY 441
ASHVILLE, AL 35953
*********************
MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO
“HARDIN CHAPEL BIBLE CHURCH”

Also the following youtube link shows the devastation in Hackleburg and Phil Campbell areas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBnisypTrzM&feature=related

Rhonda is going there today with the Sheriff to help catch surviving horses that are reportedly running loose.

Please donate if you can.

Ready!

2011-04-30T10:06:00.002-05:00

We arrived in Fort Collins yesterday to see our horses before the big sale today at Colorado State University. They all look great, the students have done an outstanding job of getting them prepared and we are excited to see how they sell today.

Kool Dory was hanging out in her stall last night where we got this picture, she actually won the student competition between all of the horses in the class!

You can view the auction (and bid if you feel inclined to do so) at Superior Livestock Auctions online at 12:00 pm central time.

Think back to August 27th........

2011-04-25T13:36:00.003-05:00

It really does not seem that long ago, I have a quick video clip attached of that morning at about 5am. We are loading the first of four of our horses from here at Longview that were going to Colorado State University for the training program that leads into the Legends of Ranching Sale. This gelding is Kool N Lucky, and this was the last time I saw him in person. I am really excited to see him and the other three horses that went to Colorado this year because the transformation is amazing. The sale is this weekend and we are making preparations to head out West to see our horses again before they are sold and go to their new homes! The program assigns a student to a green horse and with guidance trains them for general purpose riding use. The students then organize and participate in the Legends sale/auction to sell the horses they trained in the program. I am looking forward to meeting the students that had our horses, and seeing the horses again.

Dr. Vineyard is a new mommy!

2011-04-25T13:19:00.002-05:00

My husband Mort and I are proud to announce the arrival of our new baby boy Owen. As I spend time enjoying my precious new boy and losing more and more precious sleep (!), I'll be taking a blogging hiatus until I return from maternity leave in June. I hope everyone is having a wonderful spring!

Initially Cocoa Teal Birth Announcement

Shutterfly has cute baby announcements and Valentine's Day cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Growing, but stil needs a name....

2011-04-15T09:08:00.006-05:00

Dottie's foal is growing and doing great but he still needs a name. I know, its totally unacceptable that he doesn't have a name yet, but a name is something that stays with you the rest of your life and when you're special like this little guy, it has to be a good one.

He is a month old now and we took he and his mom to the vet yesterday since she was teasing very strong on Wednesday evening. When we unloaded the foal, the vet techs commented on how stout he was for his age. Good genetics supported by good milk from mom and a little extra support from Purina Strategy GX - Professional Formula Horse Feed is doing the trick! Mom is eating 10 lbs of Strategy, 15 lbs of Coastal Berumagrass hay, 6-7 lbs of alfalfa hay every day and the "little guy" is nursing mom and eating right at 1 lb of Strategy GX since he is 1 month old now and he nibbles the alfalfa and grass hay as well. We're in a drought down in south Texas so grazing is more about roaming around and not so much about nutrition.

The vet ultrasounded Dottie when we arrived yesterday, finding a 40 mm folicle on one ovary and a 20 mm folicle on the other so she will be bred today and should ovulate by Saturday which would be perfect. We are breeding Dottie back to this baby's sire, so we will have three in a row, full siblings. Hopefully, soon we'll have a name for this little guy. Coming up with a registered name is easier than the barn name for me. I'll entertain any suggestions you may have, maybe we can get him a name before he gets started under saddle!

The Legends of Ranching

2011-04-13T11:32:00.002-05:00

Some might be wondering why we have information about a horse auction called "The Legends of Ranching Sale" on our website. The horses that we raise here at the farm stay here to work with us, developing new products, and then go to individuals that would like to purchase them. For the past several years Purina has been actively involved with this sale and has had horses in the sale. We send 4 long yearlings to Colorado State University in late summer/fall each year. Students train the horses to work under saddle, and the horses are then sold in an auction the following spring, which is the Legends Sale. The sale has many of the top ranches in the country offering horses for sale. You can see more information here; http://equinescience.colostate.edu/content/view/125/75/ We are excited for the opportunity to be involved with this event, and enjoy the chance to show off some of the horses that are bred and raised here at Longview. The sale is covered by Superior Livestock Auctions, which gives everyone the chance to place bids over the phone or on the internet. Superior's site is; http://www.superiorlivestock.com/ Keep checking back, there will be more posts to follow as we get closer to the sale and I will post pictures of the horses and the sale!

Manufacturing research feeds

2011-04-12T11:43:00.004-05:00

I had a fun and productive day yesterday with Kent Lanter and Steve Furst at our Mulberry horse feed mill in central Florida. Kent and I traveled there to oversee the manufacturing of a new feed that is being shipped out for a large research project. Kent is our "mad scientist" so to speak that helps us on the process research side and to figure out how all the different ingredients us nutritionists want to put in a feed will actually end up as something a horse will eat! Steve is the plant manager with a huge amount of experience and always runs a great mill with a crew that is willing to work with us on new feeds and designs.

I always like spending time in our mills and it makes me proud to see how things are running smoothly- from ingredient testing, to mixing, pelleting, blending, packing, etc. Its nice to work with all our dedicated employees that are ensuring the feed is made correctly and with our high quality standards.

We made three different rations yesterday, 30 tons of feed in all that is now enroute to its research location. I wish I could tell you what it was, but of course, that is top secret while we are in the development phase. I can tell you this- if this product performs as expected, it won't hit the market until 2012 at the earliest! It takes time to do good research and develop new and innovative products that are good for the horse. A lot of formulating, testing, retesting, field trials and more.

So enjoy the pics of our Mulberry mill at sunrise and all the feed ready to load on the trucks! That's all you're getting for now....

And I have to give a shout out to Dr. Kelly Vineyard. This is actually a research project that she has been working on- and she was not able to make it to the mill because she is officially on maternity leave! Baby Owen Robert Vineyard was born last Tuesday, April 5th and the whole family is doing very well.

Have a great day!

Nine is Fine!

2011-04-07T15:19:00.003-05:00

Number nine out of ten expected foals arrived yesterday, he got to go out and explore the world this morning. (He thought the human with the camera was the most interesting thing apparently) Our foals get 24 hours with mom in a stall before their first turnout. It gives the mare and foal a chance to really bond, lets the foal get plenty of milk without having to chase mom, and gives their eyes a chance to start adjusting to being in the daylight. This gives them the best possible chance to get a healthy start before being exposed to all of the good stuff in the real world!

One more foal to go and all we have to do is get the mares bred back for next year!

New Product Release for Ultium Growth!!!

2011-04-01T12:54:00.005-05:00

It is with great pleasure, that we announce the release of two new Ultium Growth products: Ultium Growth- Black Foal and Ultium Growth- Chestnut Foal. Through years of nutritional research, we have finally determined how to feed broodmares to influence foal coat genetics and ensure your foal is born in your desired color! See the pictures below of our babies, each a chestnut (yes I know some of you Quarter Horse people would want us to call this sorrel) and a black foal, each born from a mare feeding the appropriate “color marking” feed. Stay tuned to this blog for more information on when these feeds will be available in your area. And yes, we are working on more Ultium Growth color feeds- especially for grey, bay, palamino and even pinto horses.

PS. April Fools!

Avalanche!

2011-03-31T15:11:00.004-05:00

We are getting into the thick of it now, there are eight foals on the ground for us. We have two more mares that are due in the first part of April, so we might get a short break of checking mares all night! All are doing quite well so far, and they are a good looking bunch! The pictures I have plugged in are two foals that are two weeks old now. We are working on getting our mares bred back for next year and it is a lot of work! Our oldest foals are already starting to consume Ultium Growth, and they love it!

Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Conference

2011-03-29T09:00:00.014-05:00

Last week, I traveled to the Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Conference in Timonium, MD. It was great to see a lot of my colleagues in the horse nutrition world and they had a wonderful line-up of speakers.

The joke of the day was that many talks seemingly revolved around trying to "kill" horses! The topics were as follows:

Laminitis- presented by Dr. Teresa Burns from The Ohio State University Vet School

Ionophore Toxicity in Horses- by Dr. Ken Marcella

Mycotoxins in Horses - by Dr. Lon Whitlow from North Carolina State University

Fescue Toxicity in Horses- by Dr. Rhonda Hoffman of Middle Tennessee State University

Toxic Plants- by Dr. Anthony Knight- Colorado State University

Young Horse Nutrition and Overfeeding- by Dr. Josie Coverdale from Texas A&M

Nutrient Management Update- by Ann Swinker from Penn State University

So, as you can see, a lot of discussion about what is bad for horses, complications of feeding horses wrong or bad things and what to do about it. The most fascinating talk for me was the Toxic Plants talk by Dr. Anthony Knight. We also ate lunch together and it was great to be able to ask him questions about poisonous plants and which ones pose more of a risk than others. His take home message was two-fold: 1) Dose Matters! There can be a big difference in a horse eating a little bit of a toxic plant versus a whole pasture full of something poisonous 2) Water hemlock is THE MOST POISONOUS plant to horses. It only takes 6-8 oz of the root to kill a 1000 lb horse. Scary.... I had read Dr. Knight's books on poisonous plants, but it was wonderful to see his talk in person and get a refresher course. We specifically chatted about creeping indigo, as it is native to south Florida and I've seen my horse grab mouthfuls of this toxic plant at horse shows before I could steer him away. Good to know this is one of the lesser toxic legumes and my horse isn't about to go into convulsions!

If I were to give you one take-home message from each of the other talks, it would be this:

1) Laminitis- Remains devastating to the horse community, but cryotherapy (ice therapy) is very helpful in the acute stages for decreasing the inflammatory response. Its not always easy to implement, but get those hooves on ice as soon as possible and keep it up as your vet recommends.

2) Ionophore toxicity in horses- make sure your feed is manufactured in an ionophore free manufacturing system/plant such as our Feed Guard Model follows. To us at Purina, it is not worth the risk to our horses to make feed in a plant that has ionophores. Also, don't feed cattle feed to horses, as this is a common way horses get poisoned with ionophores.

3) Mycotoxins- again, you need to be informed on what you are feeding your horses and make sure the feed ingredients are tested for mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are naturally occurring molds that can be tested for. Every load of corn that goes into a Purina plant is tested for mycotoxins- if its not clean, it gets rejected. Again, Feed Guard helps to protect your horse from mycotoxin exposure.

4) Fescue Toxicity- this is not a new topic to horse owners, but important as a reminder all the same. Broodmares should not be maintained on endophyte positive fescue pasture, and if its unavoidable, the dopamine inhibitor Domperidone given during the last 20 days of gestation can help. If possible, only use endophyte free fescue in horse pastures.

5) Young Horse Nutrition/Overfeeding- rapid growth does not appear to increase the risk of OCD; it is the overall plane of nutrition and other factors of genetics and management that play contributory roles. Resist the temptation to rapidly decrease nutrient planes on young horses with OCD problems- they still require a BALANCED ration for growth.

6) Equine nutrient management- For those of you in the mid-atlantic states of MD, PA, NJ, etc. the regulations on manure management for large and small farms are in place and need to be learned about. Best management practices (BMPs) to minimize nutrient and sediment will need to be employed and it can be confusing figuring out where your farm fits in and what you need to do. Work closely with your ag-extension agent in your area for help.

Overall, it was a very educational day and good to spend time with colleagues and friends. If you would like more information and/or a copy of the proceedings from this conference, please visit: http://www.manc.umd.edu/ Have a great day!!

Ration Balancers - What are they and how do I use them?

2011-03-25T17:24:00.014-05:00

You may have heard the term “ration balancer” before, but do you know what it means and how to use it in a feeding program? Even though I’d been around horses most of my life, I had never heard the term until I was in graduate school. Ration balancers are a relatively new concept in feeding horses, and they are some of my favorite products in the Purina line because of their versatility of use. A ration balancer is a concentrated feed (usually in pelleted form) designed to be fed at a low feeding rate (~1 – 2 lbs/day) that supplies protein, vitamins, and minerals at the correct level to balance either a grass or legume-based forage program. There are several scenarios when you may want to consider feeding a ration balancer, like Nature’s Essentials Enrich 32 (to be fed with primarily grass forages) or Enrich 12 (to be fed with primarily legume forages).

The Easy Keeper

Does your horse maintain bodyweight on plenty of good quality forage? Is he currently not in work or only ridden lightly? Then he is the perfect candidate for a ration balancer. Many people think that these types of horses do just fine on forage alone, but this is not the case. Yes, these horses do not need extra calories from a grain concentrate, but they still need essential amino acids like lysine, vitamins, and minerals like copper and zinc that are not present in adequate amounts in forage. Even though it may look like a horse is “fat and sassy” on forage alone, they could be suffering from a deficiency that would not show itself until the horse becomes stressed (i.e. exposed to a virus, hauled somewhere new, etc.). A ration balancer won’t contribute a significant amount of calories to the horse’s diet because of the low feeding rate, but it will provide the essential nutrients to “balance” a ration based on forage. You can almost think of a ration balancer as a horse’s daily multi-vitamin (+ protein). Many easy keepers are also suffering from metabolic syndrome, and Enrich 32 is low in soluble carbohydrates and appropriate for horses requiring a carbohydrate-restricted diet.

Feeding below the Recommended Feeding Rate

Did you know that feed manufactures have a minimum recommended feeding rate for their feeds? At Purina, we pay close attention to this. We formulate feeds to be fed at rates ranging from 0.3 lbs – 0.9 lbs/100 lbs bodyweight, depending on the specific formula. This information can usually be found as a sentence on the feed tag stating “do not feed less than 0.X lbs per 100 lbs bodyweight per day”. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize this and end up underfeeding their horses. For example, if you are feeding a 1000 lb horse 2 lbs per day of Strategy (this might equate to ~1/2 “scoop” per day, depending on the scoop size), you are most likely not meeting all nutrient requirements, since the recommended feeding rate is 0.3 lbs/100 lbs bodyweight. I see this even more commonly with complete feeds like Equine Senior or Omolene 400. The minimum feeding rates for complete feeds are a bit higher at 0.6 lbs per 100 lbs bodyweight. This means that a 1000 lb horse should be receiving 6 lbs per day. Many horses are fed well below this level. This is where a ration balancer comes in handy. Enrich 32 works really well to “fill in the nutritional gaps” of a diet where a horse is only being fed a small amount of concentrate.

I find that I use a combination of Enrich 32 and Ultium frequently for Warmblood horses in light to moderate work (i.e. low level dressage). Warmbloods tend to be easy keepers, but those that are working do benefit from some of the unique attributes of Ultium. However, if you fed the minimum recommended amount of this calorie-dense feed to an easy-keeper 1500 lb Hanoverian (6 lbs/day), that horse could quickly become obese! In order to be sure all nutrient requirements are met while avoiding unwanted weight gain, this horse could be fed 1 lb Enrich 32 and 2 – 4 lbs Ultium per day. This program can work quite well in many situations and is not just for Warmbloods or limited to Ultium, but for any easy keeper breed with any feed you prefer.

Feeding Straight Grains or other Unfortified Ingredients

Many people like to feed straight oats, barley, beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, etc. These are all great ingredients, but unfortunately they are not nutritionally balanced by themselves. Another great use for a ration balancer is to supplement this type of a feeding program. Basically, the plain ingredients are used as calorie and fiber sources, and the ration balancer is used to “fill in the nutritional gaps” of these ingredients, supplying essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals.

Feeding as a protein supplement

Sometimes, a horse may benefit from additional high-quality protein in the diet. Perhaps he is returning to work after a long lay-up and needs to rebuild muscle. Perhaps he has lost muscle due to an injury or illness, and needs some additional protein in his diet to help him recover. Enrich 32 can be used in this type of situation as well, simply by top-dressing ½ - 1 lb per day over the horse’s regular daily feed.

But isn’t 32% protein TOO MUCH???

This is something that horse owners usually are concerned with if they are not familiar with a ration balancer. To understand why 32% protein is most definitely not too much, you must consider two very important things: 1) the horse’s daily protein requirement, and 2) the recommended feeding rate.

To easily illustrate this, let’s take a hypothetical 1000 lb Quarter Horse in light work. See the table below to see where the dietary protein and lysine would come from:

So, as you can see, the amount of protein contained in the recommended amount of Enrich 32 is actually LESS than the amount of protein in the recommended level of Strategy for this particular horse. You can also see that the majority of protein would be provided by the forage, but to meet the lysine requirement, additional protein is necessary. Feeding either Enrich 32 or Strategy would meet the horse’s daily protein and lysine requirements, and the decision on which to feed should be based on his body condition and calorie requirements.

There are a variety of uses for a ration balancer, and many times it is the most appropriate choice for you horse. If I had one Purina feed product that I could not live without, it would definitely be Enrich 32!

Hopefully.....

2011-03-22T11:17:00.002-05:00

I hope we are done with snow! This picture is a week old but I felt like it had some relevance after seeing Karen's post with her new arrival. Dr. Davison is in a different part of the country than we are. The pictures are a day apart and Dr. Davison's foal looks nice and warm, while our foals were getting limited turnout in snowy conditions! It makes me think about how different conditions require different management and feeding methods even when you are in the same time period. Purina has products for all situations, but it is important to remember that each situation is unique. We understand the types of challenges our customers face and have a team of people ready to help you get the most out of whatever situation you have just a mouse click or phone call away.

The farm has had several more foals since my last post, keep checking in over the next couple of days for new foal pictures!

New Babies - Cute Little Growing Machines!

2011-03-15T17:51:00.013-05:00

Spring is so fun, nice weather and new babies arrive for us to enjoy! Mike has been posting the new arrivals at Longview Animal Nutrition Center so I thought I'd share mine. Our own broodmare mare, Dottie (Do It Stylish), a Quarter Horse mare, had her second foal for us on Friday, March 11. She had a bay stud colt and mom and foal are doing great. The first foal we had out of Dottie last year was a chestnut filly, a full sister to this year's colt. Dottie is bay and the sire, Freckled Leo Lena, is chestnut. It's always interesting to see what you get come foaling time.

Dottie has been eating Purina Strategy GX Professional Formula horse feed throughout the pregnancy. We choose to feed Strategy GX because my husband trains horses and we have over 20 horses including mares and babies, yearlings, and performance horses of all ages and levels of work. Purina Strategy GX is formulated to meet the nutritional needs of a wide range of horses and works exceptionally well while letting us have a pretty simple feeding program. It is also a great nutritional value, which is important when you are feeding so many.

During the last 3 - 4 months of Dottie's gestation, we gradually increased her feed about a pound a month so that by the time she foaled, she was eating 7 lbs per day. In addition, she eats 15 lbs of Coastal bermudagrass hay and 6 lbs of alfalfa. Dottie is 18 years old this year but her teeth are in great shape and she is doing very well eating Strategy GX and good quality hay. We don't like to let her get overweight, which she has a tendancy to do, so we are careful not to over-feed her. Dottie was a body condition score of 7 - 8 when we bought her, which is 50 - 75 lbs overweight. We adjust her feeding rate to keep her in a body condition score of 5.5 - 6.

If you aren't familiar with the body condition scoring system, go to the Purina horse website at horse.purinamills.com , click on "Products" at the top of the page, then click on "Body Condition Score Chart" on the products page. This chart is a tremendous management tool. With very few exceptions, horses should be maintained in a body condition score of 5 - 6. This is very important with broodmares because when they are thinner than a score of 5 they will tend to cycle later in the year, take more cycles to become pregnant and be at higher risk to lose a pregnancy if they do become pregnant. Mares that are fatter than a body score of 6.5 don't seem to have foaling difficulties but with advancing age, the overweight mares seem to become harder to get in foal as well. This may be related to developing insulin resistance due to being obese. So, not too fat...not too thin, but just right (5 - 6 body score) is the goal for optimal reproductive efficiency in broodmares.

When Dottie foaled on Friday and her baby began to nurse, Dottie's calorie requirements increased to nearly double what they were just the day before she foaled. That is a big increase but you don't want to drastically change a mare's diet soon after she foals because mares seem to be at higher risk for colic soon after foaling. So, we already had increased her feed some before she foaled and we will gradually increase it, about 1 lb per week, until she is eating 10 - 12 lbs of Strategy per day. That is the amount that maintained her body condition well last year. These cow-bred Quarter Horse mares are pretty efficient. The amount of hay offered also increases after foaling since the baby is now out on his own, the mare has more capacity to eat more hay. The amount of Strategy she needs may be on the lower end if our hay is better quality than last year's or it may be on the higher end if we don't have as good quality hay. We'll adjust her feed as we get new hay and evaluate the quality of that hay.

Did you know that the average foal weighs 10% of their mature weight and stands at 60% of their mature height the day they are born. That means that over half of their skeletal development has already taken place before they arrive. Then, they take off from there. By the time they are 6 months old, they will have grown to around 50% of their mature weight and nearly 80% of their mature height...talk about growing machines!! This growth must be supported by sound, steady nutrition.

Dottie's foal is already showing curiosity about his surroundings and even at a few days old, he has "eaten", actually "gummed", a few Strategy pellets at feeding time. That is one of the good things about Strategy GX, it works very well for mom and it provides balanced nutrition for her foal as well. As he gets older and does begin to eat, we will adjust the amount of feed offered so he will be able to eat one pound of Strategy GX per month of age per day (1 lb at 1 month, 2 lbs at 2 months, etc.). This will provide the nutrition to support growth and development that mom's milk will lack. We don't want to over-feed him and make him overweight either, just want to make up the difference between the nutrition he needs to grow properly and what mom's milk provides. Keeping the growing foal in a body condition score of 5 means you are meeting his calorie requirements for growth but not over-doing it so they are laying down excessive body fat. We want to achieve his genetic potential for growth but not try to push him to grow faster than his body should.

We haven't named Dottie's foal yet, but when we do I'll post new pictures and an update on his nutrition program as he grows.

The Truth About Food Allergies in the Horse

2011-03-11T16:34:00.005-06:00

I spend a significant amount of time working with horse owners and veterinarians on specific nutrition questions they may have. One of the most common questions I get goes something like this:

“I just had a blood test done on my horse, and it came back that he is allergic to corn, oats, and barley. What feed does Purina make that doesn’t contain any of these ingredients?”

I don’t like getting this question, because I know the owner (or vet) will most likely not like my answer. Here’s why…

Food allergies are rare in horses and difficult to diagnose.

There are very few documented cases in the scientific literature of a true food allergy in the horse. It is believed that the overall incidence in the horse population is very low. Many symptoms that are mistakenly attributed to a food allergy in reality are environmental in origin. Allergies to pollens, molds, insects, and ingredients in topical preparations are much more common. Food allergy symptoms are usually not affected by season, and they are not affected by changes in the environment (i.e. bedding, housing location, etc.) If a horse starts to display signs of an allergic reaction (hives, runny eyes, puffy legs, itchy tail, etc.) and there has been no recent change in the diet, then it is most likely an environmental or contact allergy that you are dealing with.

Serum allergy testing is not an accurate way to diagnose a food allergy in horses.

In fact, there are several published veterinary reports that specifically recommend against using serum allergy testing as a diagnostic tool for food allergies due the high false positive rate. Unfortunately, many veterinarians in the field are still using these tests as a “quick and dirty” way to determine if a horse is allergic to something he may be eating. Yes, it is quick, but it is also dirty because the information it provides is basically irrelevant. I cannot blame the vets for doing these tests; they can be useful to identify environmental allergens. I just wish the labs that perform these tests would take out the section on “food-born” allergens; this would eliminate a lot of confusion for both owners and veterinarians.

The only reliable way to diagnose a food allergy is with an elimination diet.

Unfortunately, performing an elimination diet it is not very convenient or easy to do. But for a horse that is suspected to be allergic to something in the diet, going through the steps of an elimination diet is the only way to give them the relief they need without compromising their health and potential usefulness as a performance horse (i.e. putting them on a hay-only diet that is imbalanced, deficient in nutrients, and can't support the demands of exercise).

How to perform an elimination diet:

1) Put the horse on a hay-only diet until allergy symptoms disappear (this may take up to 8 weeks). Ideally, a hay variety that he has never been exposed to should be fed. If symptoms do not disappear, try another variety of hay. If symptoms still do not disappear, it is probably not a food allergy that you are dealing with. Do NOT feed anything else during this time, including grain concentrates or supplements.

2) Introduce one new feed ingredient per week and monitor for the reappearance of allergy symptoms. It is best to start with whole grains/individual ingredients rather than a commercial concentrate, which may contain many different ingredients. If you suspect a beet pulp allergy, then you would want to start with plain beet pulp. Other ingredients to try would be plain oats, corn, barley, soybean meal, etc., depending on what you suspect could be the cause of the food allergy. You may eventually introduce a commercial feed to determine if that particular feed works for the horse or not.

3) If the horse starts to exhibit symptoms when a new ingredient has been introduced, discontinue feeding immediately. Now here’s the important part: once the symptoms have subsided, reintroduce that same ingredient again. This is the “challenge” that is necessary to confirm that this ingredient indeed is the source of the food allergy. If the horse starts to shows symptoms upon reintroduction, then you can confirm that the horse indeed is allergic, or at the very least has an “adverse reaction”, to this ingredient, and it should be avoided in the future.

The “take-home” message here is that food allergies can and do occur in the horse, but they are rare. And while a seemingly convenient way to test for food allergies, serum allergy testing will not give you accurate results. Performing an elimination diet is the only way to confirm whether or not your horse is allergic to something he is eating.

Friday

2011-03-04T11:20:00.002-06:00

I can't believe its Friday again already! Springtime has a way of making the days really start to slip by quickly when you have foals on the ground and mares to get bred back. We still only have our three little ones, the next mare in line was actually due yesterday but is not really giving us much indication of being ready to foal. The new foals have all had the chance to wear a halter and start to get used to people leading them as of today. Our research work is piling up (to bring you the best new up to date products!) and we have a quarter horse breeding operation to run on top of the research projects, so there is no shortage of work to do here at the farm.

And Then There Were Three

2011-02-25T15:04:00.003-06:00

Phone calls in the middle of the night can be unnerving to some, but this time of year for breeding and foaling operations it is just part of life- and most of the time it means new life. Margaret checked in on our two mares, Snakey and Patty last night close to midnight and found two healthy happy new foals! We weren't too far off on our guesswork. We spent the morning getting everybody weighed and measured, stalls cleaned up, and getting our foals checked out. Before we knew what happened it was lunch time, and this afternoon things got organized for a test that will start on Monday. Busy Friday!! Pictures are of John holding Snakey with her 117 pound filly, and Patty is hanging out in her clean stall with her 120 pound filly.

Sneaky

2011-02-24T10:16:00.002-06:00

When you work with horses surprise is never in short order. At the last check around midnight neither of the mares we suspected yesterday (Patty or Snakey) was looking much different, and this mare (Lucy) was just kind of hanging out. Lucy is actually the first one due based on a 340 day preganacy, but the other two have been showing more advanced signs of starting the foaling process. Lucy had her filly (107 pounds) at about 4:30 this morning, by 5:45 she was nursing well and fairly stable standing up. This afternoon we will check the foals IgG levels to ensure a good antibody transfer from mom in her colostrum. The filly's sire is Sixes Pick, owned by the 6666 Ranch in Texas. Lucy has been consuming Ultium Growth for the last couple months of her pregnancy, and will continue to consume it through her lactation. This little filly will start to consume Ultium Growth at about 28 days of age and will be raised on this diet up to 2 years of age, at which point she will be switched over to a diet appropriate for a mature horse. We measure growth on all of our foals while they develop. It is always a good idea to have your veterinarian check out the foal and the mare after birth even if everything appears OK, I like to have Dr. Williamson (our staff vet) come look things over and make any necessary recommendations that can help us out. The picture is Andrea saying hi to the new little one at about 3 hours of age. (sorry for the red eye!)

Stay tuned, there might be more fun tonight- you never know.............

Tonight Maybe!

2011-02-23T14:45:00.004-06:00

Snakey is still holding onto her foal and not really showing us any signs of foaling for this evening, BUT another mare is! Patty has had some wax on her teats today and has been restless all afternoon. Tonight might be the night. The side view picture is Patty, and then I also included a picture of the wax on her teats. Wax can be an indicator of foaling, but is not a sure sign. Some mares can wax for days before foaling, and some will wax 24 hours prior to foaling. When you look at the overall picture of things she is telling us (wax, restlessness, relaxed musculature) chances appear to be good. We will check again later this evening to see how things progress!

Almost there!

2011-02-16T21:49:00.001-06:00

I took a quick video this afternoon while we were looking over our pregnant mares. We like to look usually at least two times a day to note any small changes that might tell us that the foal is on it's way. This mares nickname is "Snakebite" (or snakey) her registered name is "Easy Pure Pride" and she is in foal to a stallion named "Sixes Country" this year. All of that wonderful snow we had last week is now gone and has been replaced by gooey clay! Of course all of the horses decided to take a roll in it and make themselves a total mess.

Looks like some job security to me!!

My Other Obsession(s)

2011-02-15T12:16:00.005-06:00

Hi all. I know...Long time, no blog. I apologize for my absence.

Today I am working from home sidelined with a terrible late winter cold. No worries though because it is providing me with plenty of opportunity to indulge one of my other obsessions (besides horses) and that is sled dog racing. Before I came to work at Purina, I was fortunate enough to spend several years working with my husband doing exercise physiology research with sled dogs. These magnificent animals are capable of running over 100 miles per day indefinitely when properly fed and conditioned. The two most famous long distance sled dog races are the Iditarod (which occurs in early March) and the Yukon Quest (which is going on right now-check out http://www.yukonquest.com/ ). Both races are over 1000 miles long and cover some of the most remote, beautiful and brutal wilderness left on earth. These amazing dogs which average 45-50 lbs. and are mixed breed (very few purebred Siberian Huskies or other northern breed dogs are competitive racers) can burn in excess of 12000 calories per day while running. Their metabolic capacity is roughly 4 times that of Lance Armstrong.

And they absolutely love what they do. There is nothing more thrilling than seeing a group of sled dogs getting ready to start a run. They are all barking and tugging and carrying on, but as soon as the driver (musher) says Alright! they are off in silence. I am including a video of this phenomenon in my post. This was taken about 3 years ago. The musher is Jon Little and we were located in Big Lake Alaska at Happy Trails Kennel owned by 4 time Iditarod champion Martin Buser. This beautiful kennel has an incredible view of Denali (also known as Mt. McKinley) when the weather is cooperating and there are no clouds around the peak.

Sorry guys. The video I loaded may be too large to play. I am going to try to put it on You Tube and provide a link. Give me a few minutes....

I think I have it now...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRJgOZYQoD4

Riding and Research

2011-02-14T11:11:00.006-06:00

Well, I had a busy weekend as I took my horse Pizzaz to a dressage show in Wellington, FL. One of the greatest things about south Florida in the winter is the awesome show series for dressage riders and hunter/jumpers alike. And of course, there is the polo action which is fun too.

Our ride on Friday occured in the pouring rain and the footing was so deep and slippery in the warm up that we basically decided not to warm up and just go for it in the ring. I could not get him as collected as we needed to be in the test, but ended up winning our class (only 2 riders at that point) with a 60.5%. On Saturday, we scratched because it was still raining in the morning and the footing was so bad. On Sunday, we rallied for a 65% in Second Level Test 2 and won that class as well. The rain was quite a problem for the many riders in the CDI competition that were trying to get qualifying scores for the Pan Am Games- there was a lot of frustration, worry and upset as riders scratched due to abominable weather and had to withdraw from the competition.

On Saturday night, I went to the $150,000 Spy Coast Farm Jumper Grand Prix at WEF, where our Ambassador Laura Kraut won the competition on the magnificent Cedric! I just love this horse, how Laura just fell in love with him as a young horse and how he really POPS off the ground over every jump. He really has it all- talent, heart, an amazing partnership with his rider and of course, good feed!

I also found out early this morning that a scientific abstract I wrote for the Equine Science Society Meeting was accepted for our upcoming conference. The paper details the insulin sensitivity of our growing foals at the farm fed different diets for their first two years of life. This research helped to develop our new Ultium Growth formulation. Once the paper is published, I will direct you on how to find this info.

Enjoy the pics of my horse and the waterlogged show grounds!

Getting Closer....and Closer

2011-02-09T10:55:00.003-06:00

The mares that we hauled down a couple of weeks ago are already starting to show some of the early signs of their impending parturition. I will be posting pictures throughout the next several weeks of what we watch for as indications of the beginning of the foaling process. (and of course the foals as they hit the ground!) This is one of our mares, she has had 5 other foals and is a great mom. Her due date is March 7, but you can tell by looking at her belly that she is close!

Horse Crazy 10-year-old (me)....can you relate?

2011-02-07T11:46:00.006-06:00

It has been quite a while since I have posted, and I apologize! But I am back and aim to become an active contributor again!

This weekend, I came across something too good not to share. I was cleaning out my old closet at my parent's house and came across something I had totally forgotten about.

A little background....this letter was written to my parents when I was 10 years old. I had just "discovered" horses through a friend at school and had recently started taking riding lessons with her (I was a city girl and my parents knew nothing about horses). At the time, my parents only allowed me to take a riding lesson every other week because I was very busy with other activities (church activities, piano lessons, etc.). But all I wanted to do was be around the horses; everything else came second in my mind! I wrote this letter laying out my arguments for why they should let me take a riding lesson every week....in 10-year-old logic of course!

Luckily, my parents gave in and let me take riding lessons more often. How could they not after reading this! Little did they know that their support of what they must have thought was a "passing phase" would turn into a life-long passion and fulfilling career for their daughter, who was not afraid to beg for something that she wanted so badly.

So, thanks Mom and Dad!

More Winter!

2011-02-01T14:06:00.002-06:00

I don't know about the rest of you in the midwest, but I don't remember the last time we had a storm like this! We have had freezing rain/sleet for almost 24 hours now, there is thunder with the sleet, and we are supposed to get a massive amount of snow by tomorrow morning. We have tried to get as prepared as possible for being snowed in, the picture is Andrea feeding our Thoroughbred girls their afternoon hay in a couple of inches of sleet. Margaret will run checks later in the evening to make sure all of the horses are still doing OK. The barn crew always gets a smile out of the weather people with their recommendations of "do not venture out unless absolutely necessary" or "dangerous conditions outdoors" It doesn't matter what day it is, or what the weather is- if you have horses you better be ready to be out in the worst of it (and like it)! I can't wait to see how much fun we will have tomorrow.......

Good Horses and Good Food in Louisiana!!

2011-01-24T14:53:00.006-06:00

I had the wonderful opportunity this past weekend to visit our friends at Live Oak Arabians in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Live Oak http://www.liveoakarabians.com/ was having one of their regular sales, and featured in the sale were some horses that had been raised completely on Ultium Growth. Phil Witter, the fourth generation owner of the family farm helped us with the preliminary testing of Ultium Growth before it was available to our customers. After extensive research at our facility (literally years) we go to the field and find professional top rate farms that are willing to help us test the diets in the "real world". Mr.Witter and Live Oak were willing to put approximately 40 young horses on a test in 2008, feeding Ultium Growth and a control diet, and raise them completely on those diets to maturity. All the while allowing our research team access to his farm and horses to monitor their growth and health. You can see some of the test horses and work we did here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_eCLPk8Idc along with Mr. Witter's comments. The horse business group at Purina truly feels like doing the right thing for the horse is what will make us successful in this business, Ultium Growth is an outstanding example of that philosophy. It shows how we can grow healthy, strong, vibrant, young horses better than ever. The fact that people like the Witter's are willing to trust Purina with their foals on a brand new diet is inspiring to say the least, and they help make the world a better place for the horse because of it! In the picture above are some of the people that made it happen, we are presenting Mr. Witter with a plaque of appreciation at the beginning of the sale. Dr. Appleton is a nutritional consultant that was present throughout the test, Dan Robichaux is the Purina District Sales Manager for the area, and Buster Smith owns the local Purina dealer that helped handle the feed- Dodge City Farm Supply in Denham Springs Louisiana. Each one of the people in the picture were absolutely instrumental in getting this test to work, from checking on the horses (Thanks Stacie!) to making sure the feed was where it needed to be when it needed to be there (Thanks Buster and Dan!) The biggest thanks goes to the Witter's for opening up their door and helping Purina do the job the right way! In the picture left to right: Phil Witter (holding the plaque); Dr. Stacie Appleton (also holding the plaque); Me!; Dan Robichaux; Buster Smith.

Winter is Still Here!

2011-01-20T13:49:00.002-06:00

Snow started last night and kept going until this afternoon. We got some pictures throwing a little extra hay out this morning to keep some roughage in front of the horses in the cold. The temperatures are supposed to plummet this evening, last I heard was down to 3 degrees above zero. The last thing you want is to have health problems when the weather is like this- it pays to take all of the necessary precautions.

Lucky Timing!

2011-01-20T13:34:00.003-06:00

The weather really helped us out yesterday, it was a little chilly but we managed to get our 10 pregnant mares down to the barn. They spend the summer months on pasture where they can just hang out and be horses. We like to get them in to the barn where we can keep a close eye on them when they get close to foaling. To get the 10 mares down from pasture we had to do some minor rearranging (like all of the other horses on the farm) to make the necessary space in the right places.

Once down to the barn each mare gets a nice stall to spend the night in with daily turnout. Night checks are a little easier when you aren't chasing the horses around in a pasture in the dark! Now all we have to do is wait, which is the toughest part of all when you get this close to foaling.

Monday, Monday

2011-01-17T11:21:00.003-06:00

With the holidays being over its back to work! Just another Monday here at the farm, we are getting ready to haul our mares down from pasture in preparation for foaling. We usually like to do it a little earlier but the weather has not been very cooperative! (big surprise this time of year)

Stay tuned- pictures of the pregnant mares coming into the barn later this week......

Merry Christmas! Don't forget the horses!

2010-12-24T07:42:00.005-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are enjoying the day with family and friends and eating plenty of those "once-a-year" goodies. Don't forget goodies for the horses either! Mine always get a bag of carrots for Christmas. If your horse is "sugar-sensitive", stay away from treats like carrots and apples. Some great low-carb treat alternatives for your horse include alfalfa cubes, hay pellets, sugar-free peppermints, prunes, celery, and commercially available low-carb treats (i.e. Skode's Horse Treats).

Please click on the link below to watch a Christmas video message from all of us here at Purina, and become our Facebook friend if you haven't already!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1608949977072#!/video/video.php?v=1608949977072

2010-12-23T14:11:00.001-06:00

Happy Holidays from all of the horses at Longview!

2010-12-20T07:55:00.003-06:00

Where did fall go! Fall was very busy for us here at the farm, we have have worked through several studies, hosted our veterinarian conference, and have been preparing for winter. Winter has hit us already with some unseasonably low temperatures, a little snow , and some ice. Being a farm manager means thinking of your employees and animals constantly, and moreso during inclement weather. Working outdoors when temperatures are in the teens and the wind is blowing is downright uncomfortable but entirely necessary, the horses have to eat! Keeping your horses comfortable and healthy can be a bit of a challenge as well! We take breaks to warm up (and drink lots of hot coffee!) and check the horses a little more frequently to ensure they can get to water and feed without trouble. We take comfort in the fact that there are other horse people enduring the same thing we are to take care of their animals, it just comes with the territory.

American Association of Equine Practioners and Well Gel launch!

2010-12-17T11:24:00.011-06:00

On December 4-8 our Horse Business Group headed to Baltimore, MD for the AAEP convention. We had a large booth in the trade show and we also attended various scientific sessions and meetings. It is always a busy trip for us, but a great chance to see and catch up with all the veterinarians and veterinary technicians that we work with.

Most importantly, this year we launched a new product in our WellSolve product line, WellSolve W/G Well-Gel. This product is a nutritionally complete supplement for horses that is designed for enteral or oral administration, formulated to supply 100% of the horse's nutrient requirements when fed as directed. The proprietary formula allows for easy administration through a nasogastric tube, and it will be available to veterinarians starting in January. The research on this product has been led by Dr. Kelly Vineyard and the product has been successfully tested and utilized in equine vet clinics across the country. Well-Gel will be distributed via veterinary supply houses such as MWI, Milburn Equine and others.

We had a Well-Gel "ease of tubing" demonstration going on in the booth and as long as we didn't let Randy Raub handle the tube, we all stayed pretty clean.

Once again, our horse themed bags were a hit and we gave away over 1000 of them in 3 days.

Enjoy the pics!

Mary Beth

What May Be Floating Around in Your Barn?

2010-12-16T17:39:00.001-06:00

Winter brings cold temperatures and inclement weather. We want to keep our horses as comfortable as possible, which to us means keeping them warm and snug indoors when the wind is howling outside. So, we blanket them, put them in a warm stall, close all the doors and windows and feed them extra hay…they will be so warm and happy, won’t they? Well, they may be warm but they may also have trouble breathing.

Barns are often built for warmth and protection more than air flow and ventilation. Measurement of respirable organic particles or particulate matter in horse barns has shown potential danger for horses housed inside. The combination of structural design, hay and bedding stored in or near the barn, tractors and equipment running through from time to time, activities such as sweeping aisles and cleaning stalls, and possibly a connecting indoor arena can result in the level of airborne organic dust reaching damaging levels. Airborne particles in numbers greater than 2.4 mg/cubic meter (M3) of air have been shown to increase the incidence of airway disease in horses. In a study measuring air quality, most horse barns measured 40 – 60 mg/M3. The breathing zone during feeding was often 30 – 40 times higher. Measured particles included dust, endotoxins, mold spores, ammonia and silica from arena dust. Hay has been measured at 19.3 mg/M3, and bedding, especially straw bedding, can be even higher, making hay and bedding major contributors. All these airborne particles can wreak havoc on respiratory function in stabled horses.

Horses have an amazing respiratory system that is exceptionally equipped to function during exercise. Respiration rate (RR) varies dramatically from rest, 10 – 12 breaths per minute (bpm), to intense exercise, where it can increase to 150 – 180 bpm. Tidal volume (TV), the volume of air that is inhaled and exhaled with a normal breath, ranges from 4 – 7 liters per breath at rest. During strenuous exercise TV increases to 10 – 12 liters. Minute volume (MV) is the total volume of air inhaled and exhaled per minute (MV=TV X RR). Horses at rest have MV averaging 100 liters per minute, but during very hard work MV averages an astounding 1500 liters per minute. Even at rest, this is a tremendous amount of air flow into and out of the lungs. When the inhaled air contains high numbers of respirable organic particles, the potential for irritation is high. Add exercise and the increased respiration rate may cause deeper penetration of particulate matter. In addition to air quality concerns, winter also brings frigid air temperature. Research has shown that cold weather exercise can cause asthma-like airway disease in performance horses. Repeated work in cold temperatures can lead to chronic airway inflammation.

Non-infectious respiratory disease with airway inflammation in horses is a common clinical problem when horses are stabled. Some studies suggest that 25 – 80% of stabled horses suffer from Recurrent Airway Obstruction (RAO), commonly known as “heaves”, and Inflammatory Airway Disease (IAD). Horses may suffer from chronic coughing, decreased performance, difficulty breathing and abnormal lung sounds. Signs do not become apparent until a large number of airways are affected, and therefore many more horses may be affected than is realized. Once particulate matter is in the lower airways, the body sees it as foreign material and mounts an immune response. Inflammation is an important immune system weapon but can have negative effects as well. Airway walls thicken, become hypersensitive, spasm and lung function is impaired. Blood oxygenation decreases which causes increased respiratory rate and tidal volume. Most horses with RAO will develop an exaggerated expiratory “push” and a “heave line” which is a ridge of muscle along the lower abdomen that develops when the horse works harder to exhale against collapsing airways.

The most effective treatment for non-infectious respiratory disease is to prevent exposure to respirable organic matter and to limit hard work during extreme cold temperatures. If horses cannot be kept outdoors, then the focus should be on reducing airborne particles in the barn. Improving ventilation and feeding low-dust feed can make a huge difference. Feeding hay in feeders at ground level instead of hay racks above the grain is one step that may help, but hay should be thoroughly soaked in water and fed wet to effectively reduce dust and molds. Affected horses may not show improvement until hay is totally replaced by feeding a complete feed with hay built in. Purina Omolene 400 and Equine Senior are low-dust feeds containing quality fiber sources to replace hay. Many horses with RAO or IAD cannot tolerate any hay, even wet hay, and do much better eating one of these products. Keep in mind that horses eating hay in adjoining stalls can still cause problems for affected horses.

Any time you notice coughing or labored breathing in your horse, make an appointment with your veterinarian for a thorough exam to determine the cause and the appropriate course of action to provide relief.

Purina Dreamride in the Flint Hills

2010-10-26T16:21:00.004-05:00

It's been a busy fall so far, and it's hard to believe that we're only a month into it! Karen and I had a wonderful time on the Dreamride in the Flint Hills, one of the Pink 50 events here in Kansas (even though we got pretty wet on the afternoon ride - I'm still working on conditioning the saddles!). Then came the trip to Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington to spend time talking to horse people from all over the world about feeding horses, and watch the eventing, of course. Next was the Veterinary Conference that we host in St. Louis every year, and finally RFD TV Monday Night Live in Nashville. After all that whirlwind, it's good to be back home working on formulas, tags, writing, proofing and editing, posting on Facebook, and all the other regular day to day activities.

Back to the dreamride - this was the 11th annual Purina Dreamride, and I believe the 7th ride that I've been on. It's always a great time - seeing friends, eating great food, talking to horse owners (about feeding their horses, of course!), and riding through the tall grass prairie in Kansas. There's only about 4% of the original tall grass prairieland left in the US, and it's a rare privilege to be out there on your horse enjoying some of the most beautiful landscapes in the midwest. On top of all that, this year the ride went pink for the Purina Pink 50 Campaign. So the theme of the ride was raising awareness and support for breast cancer research, and there was pink everywhere you looked! Shirts, hats, bandanas, saddle pads, even polo wraps and boots on some of the horses were pink! What a great event. I was so proud to be associated with Purina and this important campaign, and also appreciative of the work that our own Ernie Rodina does to put on this wonderful event every year.

If you have not had the opportunity to attend one of the many Pink 50 events throughout the country, you can check our website http://www.horse.purinamills.com/ to see if there are any more scheduled in your part of the world. And if not, you can still participate by purchasing a pink bag of Strategy, Omolene 200 or Equine Senior. I'm thinking I might have to go buy a couple of pink bags just to have the bags (we feed bulk Strategy at our barn, so I don't usually have any bags), and maybe have someone make totes out of them! I saw on FB that people are doing this - some folks have such good ideas.

Is it allergy season?

2010-10-25T17:37:00.002-05:00

I've always thought of spring as allergy season but I've been hit hard with some type of allergy reaction over the past couple weeks; sinus headaches, runny nose, etc. Just miserable. I've also gotten an increase in the phone calls and e-mails from horse owners concerned about allergies from which their horses seem to be suffering. So, I'm posting an article I've written on horses and allergies to help horse owners sort through how to deal with the various manifestations of alleric reactions in horses.

If you’ve ever experienced a horse with allergies, you know it can be a frustrating situation for both horse and horse owner. Frustrating for the horse with runny eyes and welts or itching and rubbing constantly while nothing seems to provide relief. Frustrating for the owner because you are trying desperately to find out what caused the problem and how to fix it.

Allergic reactions are essentially an immune system in over-drive. An allergy is an abnormal reaction by the immune system against a normally harmless substance. The first exposure to the allergen causes white blood cells to produce antibodies that prepare the immune system for the next encounter with that same allergen. No outward signs occur at this point. The antibodies attaches to mast cells that are found in the respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract and the skin. During the next exposure, the allergens will combine with the antibodies and release chemicals, such as histamine or leukotrienes, which produce the allergy symptoms. The resulting allergy symptoms depend on where in the body the chemicals are released, and are generally some manifestation of inflammation.

The most common symptoms in horses associated with allergies are skin irritations such as hives, welts, and itching (urticaria) or respiratory problems such as recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) which is very similar to asthma in people. Weepy eyes, nasal discharge or digestive upsets can also be symptoms of allergic reactions. These symptoms can be caused by contact dermatitis from exposure to organophosphate pesticides, heavy metals, dyes, bedding, topical medications, soaps, shampoos, blankets, wool and neat’s-foot oil. Other causes include atopy, an inherited predisposition to environmental allergen sensitivity, and “sweet itch” which is hypersensitivity to insects such as culicoides. Food allergies are commonly suspected but rarely prove to be the true cause of allergies in horses. Even in people, true food allergies affect only about 6 – 8% of children and 2% of adults.

An allergic reaction to protein normally causes what are historically referred to as "protein bumps" on horses. Instead of large soft welts, protein bumps are usually hard little bumps like a large BB under the skin. They may be a reaction to a certain protein, not necessarily of dietary origin, but may be from a protein injected in the skin when insects bite. Other skin reactions cause scabby eruptions on the skin that usually itch, causing the horse to rub enough to lose hair and even cause sores. These may be from an allergic reaction or a bacterial infection. Scabs can be cultured to determine if there is a bacterial infection and a regimen of antibiotics may resolve the issue.

Allergy symptoms such as hives, runny eyes, nasal discharge and coughing may be more indicative of an inhaled allergen. Removing long-stemmed hay and using a complete feed that is formulated to replace hay often helps alleviate these problems. Other management options including immersing hay thoroughly in water before feeding, feeding in a trough at ground level, wetting stall bedding or changing the type of bedding, and providing as much pasture time as possible will help minimize exposure to respirable dust and molds. In almost all cases symptoms due to inhaled allergens will improve if the horse is kept outdoors. Even short amounts of time in barns or trailers will exacerbate symptoms.

Determining the cause of allergy symptoms can be quite an exercise in trial and error. In humans, the gold standard for diagnosing food allergies is a double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge. A reaction is expected within a few minutes to 2 hours after ingestion but this is a very involved and expensive procedure. Other allergy tests include a skin prick test or a patch test where extracts of various foods, or other potential allergens, are injected into the skin. Reactions (called weals) at the injection or prick site are measured to determine sensitivity level. Many horse owners opt for a blood analysis that will measure antibody levels to various potential allergens including insects, molds, pollens, plants and foods. These blood tests are a tool that may help identify potential triggers for allergy symptoms but often have a high rate of false positives, especially for identifying food allergens. Rarely do the allergy symptoms resolve when the diet is adjusted according to the results of these blood tests.

The only reliable diagnosis of a food allergy is an elimination diet. One difficulty with this is finding a diet that contains none of the identified potential allergens but still meets the horse's nutrient requirements. Sometimes that is absolutely impossible because of the long list of potential allergens. A horse that has previously been on a good plane of nutrition can be fed a hay-only diet for one to four weeks to see if the symptoms resolve. If they don’t improve then the symptoms weren’t caused by a food allergy and you have to look for other causes. If symptoms do resolve, then very gradually introduce one new food at a time in an effort to build a balanced diet that will not trigger an allergic response.

There is anecdotal evidence that feeding omega 3 fatty acids from a fat supplement such as Purina Nature’s Essentials AmplifyTM supplement may help resolve symptoms of skin irritation and inflammation. Feeding 1 – 1.5 lbs per day of AmplifyTM to horses suffering from sweet itch has been reported to result in cessation of itching and hair re-growth within 45 days.

If your horse is exhibiting allergy symptoms, get your veterinarian involved. They can help relieve discomfort associated with the symptoms and help you determine what changes in environment or management may best help manage through the symptoms. Then, just wait for a new season when most symptoms will spontaneously disappear....until next season.

Meet Leo and Willie - the Veterinary Services Lab cats

2010-10-22T15:39:00.002-05:00

Leo (under the jacket) was named after my predecessor. Willie (gray tabby) was named after the founder of Purina - William Danforth.

We found these two brothers at about 6 weeks of age in a concrete form that was about to be filled with concrete during a construction project here on the farm. Now they live in luxury and are very spoiled by all of the Longview staff. Many employees drop by just to visit with Leo and Willie.

Dream Ride in the Kansas Flint Hills

2010-09-28T08:05:00.002-05:00

This past week was a great week. I started out in St. Louis for our Horse VIP meeting where I was able to catch up with some of our ambassadors that have been with Purina almost as long as I have. Clint Haverty, very successful reining horse trainer from Krum, TX made his first trip up to see our research farm and he's been feeding Purina Strategy GX for nearly 15 years! It is great to see how much of an impact what we do here at Purina has on those that get to see it first hand. Hearing about the knowledge, research and dedication to the horse that goes into our products from someone else or in an advertisement just doesn't do it justice. Seeing what we do first hand and meeting the people that make it happen, like Mike Jerina, that's impressive, even for a long-time customer and very successful trainer like Clint. Thanks to Clint and all the other attendees for taking time to attend our meeting and reminding us how important what we do is to them and their horses.

Now, to get to the title of my blog....

After the VIP meeting in St. Louis, I went to Kansas for the 11th Anual Dream Ride in the Flint Hills. This event is a wonderful trail ride hosted by Ernie Rodina and his great crew. This year's event was a Purina Pink 50 event, where the emphasis was on breast cancer awareness. There were pink shirts, pink ribbons, pink splint boots on horses, pink saddle pads....it looked like a sea of pink rolling over the Flint Hills. This was special because it was not only a coming together of people who enjoy the outdoors and their horses, it was a coming together for the common cause of helping fight breast cancer and so many people on the ride had been impacted by this terrible disease in one way or another.

Now, if you love to ride and you have never been to the Flint Hills of Kansas, you are missing out. I know because I've been riding for all my life, mostly in competition of one type or another, not as much as a trail rider, but I've seen some beautiful country from the back of a horse. This was my first trip to the Fint Hills and it was absolutely special. You get to see that there are still vast, wide open spaces in this world. And, the folks that come to this trail ride, including the Best of America By Horseback crew, are great people. There's just nothing like spending a weekend horseback amongst the nicest people you'll meet, provided the best food you 'll eat and listening to fabulous campfire music. I so appreciate all the hard work that went into this event for all of us to enjoy, I totally enjoyed my ride.

I have to thank Dr. Katie Young for providing me with a great horse to ride this weekend, Ghus (Celtic spelling for Gus I think?), is a beautiful bay gelding that was just a joy to ride. I spent the weekend riding Ghus in Katie's fabulous dressage saddle, and by the way, I've never ridden a dressage saddle before this weekend and found it to be quite comfortable. I was glad though, that Ghus was smooth and dependable other than one little fun "celebration" he did after we crossed a gully, since there isn't quite as much leather available for grabbing in situations where you'd like to grab a little leather! Katie took pictures and video of the ride and I'm sure she'll find a flattering shot to post on here for me :-)

Katie and I enjoyed visiting with people on the ride about feeding their horses. There was a fabulous gelding there that was long-time Purina Equine Senior guy. You'd never have guessed he was 28 years-old. He was so bright, sound and happy on the trail ride, really cool. It was also neat to see all the people feeding out of Purina Strategy GX and Equine Senior bags at the trail ride, all pink bags for the Purina Pink 50 Campaign for breast cancer awareness month.

Just a great weekend on the Dream Ride in the Flint Hills of Kansas. What a fabulous time!

A Busy Time of Year - Heck isn't it always busy...?

2010-09-22T11:21:00.003-05:00

We just finished up two big guest events here on the farm. First we hosted a group of 25 veterinary students from Purdue and Michigan State University. They were primarily interested in livestock research and medicine but there were some who had an equine interest as well, and they all really enjoyed the chance to see our equine research facility.

Next we hosted about 140 horse owners and feed dealer employees for a two day conference. Lectures were given by myself, Dr. Karen Davison, Dr. Randy Raub, Dr. Kelly Vineyard, Mike Jerina, Dr. Kent Lanter, as well as Equine Specialists. (Equine Specialists are uniquely qualified and trained members of our sales force, most have a background in the horse industry and many have advanced degrees in animal science and nutrition). The guests had a great time attending a reception and dinner in their honor, followed by a day here at Longview featuring lectures about feed manufacturing, feed tags, nutrition and other aspects of horse health and management. A Q & A session allowed them to ask any questions they liked, and they ranged from inquiries about how to feed a particular horse to how to best prepare a mare for breeding. It was a great event and I really enjoyed getting to meet all of these wonderful horse people from around the country. As usual, our top-notch staff at the equine research facility had the horses, barns and exercise physiology lab looking their best and were on hand to answer questions about our herd and our day-to-day operation. Thanks to them and my fellow Horse Business team members for another successful event.

Next up here at Longview ---we are hosting close to 500 equine veterinarians, veterinary technicians and 4th year veterinary students for our annual Equine Veterinary Conference. The conference features guest speakers who are the top veterinarians in the country in their specialty disciplines. Attendees receive continuing education credits for their attendance, as well as the opportunity to learn more about equine nutrition and findings from our recent and ongoing research projects. This is an event I really look forward to as it allows me to reconnect with colleagues and make new contacts with"soon-to-be" veterinarians. The students really enjoy the event because it allows them to meet future colleagues (and potential employers) in a fun and relaxed environment, and it also provides a much needed respite from the rigors of their final clinical year (think the interns on the old TV show ER). The veterinarians also enjoy a brief interlude from their practices and the opportunity to enjoy the one of the best times of the year in the St. Louis area.

2010-09-03T08:07:00.002-05:00

Wow. It is already September. College football (a favorite of mine) debuted last night. Leaves are already turning. And I have hardly noticed that the summer has gone by. We have been so busy here at the farm, researching new diets and hosting events for customers and employees all the while keeping up the with daily work of operating an equine facility.

I was lucky enough to be the designated escort for Dr. Temple Grandin when she was here at Longview last week. She is an extraordinary person with a breadth of knowledge on many subjects. A conversation with her makes you truly appreciate the incredible journey her life has been. We were very grateful that she would make time in her busy schedule to visit with us. She was very excited about her upcoming trip to the Emmy Awards presentations in California and extremely proud that a movie showcasing her life and work was so well received. She felt it was a big step in her continuing mission to educate the public about animals in agriculture and humane animal handling practices. Congratulations on 7 Emmy wins.

Temple Grandin

2010-08-31T19:52:00.006-05:00

Last week I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Temple Grandin when she spent a day at our research farm. If you are not familiar with Dr. Grandin, she's had a huge influence on the livestock industry with her innovative designs of livestock handling facilities, is a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, and has conducted a great deal of research on animal behavior and management. She has also authored numerous journal articles and books, and is a consultant on facility design, livestock handling and animal welfare around the world. I've read one of her books and found it absolutely fascinating. So it was quite an experience actually getting to hear her talk about her thoughts and research results. She spent the day visiting the various species' units, and it was so much fun talking to her about our horses and facilities!

If you have not read Dr. Grandin's book "Animals in Translation", I highly recommend it, and I'm planning on reading "Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals" as soon as I can. Of course, the movie about her life on HBO was also great, as evidenced by the multiple Emmy wins on Sunday night! And it was pretty cool seeing her live on TV at the Emmy Awards on Sunday night. I've got to think she had to just about fly directly from St Louis to California to make it to the show! What a privilege that she made time in her schedule for us.

Anyway, Dr. Grandin has remarkable insight into animal behavior, due to the similarities in perception and thought that she shares with animals. For instance, being autistic, Dr. Grandin thinks in pictures, not in words as most of us do, and research indicates that animals also think in pictures. This, as well as other unique characteristics due to the autism, enables her to look at the world and understand how animals perceive their surroundings, and share these observations with those of us who are not as in tune with what the animals see and how they react to what they see. I have to admit, owning and riding a very spooky horse (he's named "Boo" for a reason, after all) has been an education for me on viewing the world from a prey animal's perspective, but Dr. Grandin does an excellent job of verbalizing how and why animals react and behave the way they do. I think anyone who spends any time working with animals would benefit from Dr. Grandin's books or lectures. I know I did!

Flying the Friendly Skies

2010-08-20T17:01:00.003-05:00

This week I went to Saint Louis to participate in a Purina meeting. On the flight home I was wearing my Purina Strategy Healthy Edge logo shirt. As I was getting off the plane from Saint Louis to Dallas/Fort Worth the pilot was standing in the door to the cockpit. I thanked him for a good flight and he asked me about my shirt. Turns out he is a horse owner who feeds Purina Strategy GX to his horses. He lives in Missouri and competes in ranch sorting and team penning events. He went on and on about how much he loved how his horses looked since he began using Strategy several years ago. It was pretty fun to meet a fan of Purina and always interesting to see where you can run into horse owners...even flying the friendly skies.

Two Purina Ambassadors on WEG USA Reining Team

2010-07-28T10:33:00.006-05:00

Shawn Flarida

Congratulations to Purina Ambassadors Shawn Flarida and Craig Schmersal for qualifying to represent Team USA in the reining competition at the upcoming World Equestrian Games. Shawn will be showing RC Fancy Step and Craig will show Boom Shernic in the upcoming international competition to be held in Kentucky in September. Both horses are fed Purina Ultium Competition Formula horse feed and we are very proud to be feeding these tremendous athletes.

GO TEAM USA!!!!!
Craig Schmersal

KESMARC-Florida - Roman's underwater treadmill experience

2010-07-26T11:26:00.004-05:00

Several months ago, my local dressage GMO hosted a benefit event for our local horse rescue, the Horse Protection Association of Florida (www.hpaf.org). One of the fundraising activities was a raffle in which several horse-related services and items had been donated as prizes. The “grand prize” was a week-long stay at KESMARC-Florida (http://kesmarcflorida.com), which is an equine sports medicine facility located in Ocala, FL. One of the many therapy services they offer is the Aquatread (underwater treadmill), which is excellent for strengthening and conditioning the equine athlete. I had my eye on this grand prize, so thought I would increase my chances of winning by purchasing 10 tickets. Well, my strategy worked and I actually won the grand prize! I was so excited, because I travel quite a bit and sometimes it is hard to keep Roman (my FEI dressage horse) in shape while I am away for more than a few days. I also knew that the change in routine would be good for him, as all horses need variety in their training program for both physical and mental reasons.

I must say I was a little nervous about leaving Roman for a week, simply because he can be a little sensitive to changes in his environment. But the manager, Lee, made me feel comfortable about bringing him and didn’t seem to mind when I insisted on bringing his own feed for the week. She also offered to let me watch as they trained Roman to the Aquatread for the first time. This made me feel more comfortable; I definitely wanted to be there to make sure he handled this new experience well.

When I arrived at the beautiful facility (the property was formerly a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm), I was greeted by Brittany, Roman’s “person” for the week. All horses at KESMARC are assigned to a specific person who will groom, feed, and pay extra attention to them on a daily basis. I was relieved find out that Brittany was a 2^nd year veterinary student at the University of Tennessee, and I felt like he’d certainly be in good hands. After unloading Roman’s feed and going over my long list of instructions (I admit it, I am an overprotective horse owner), we were ready to hit the treadmill. We headed to the Aquatread room, where I passed Roman over to the experienced staff who patiently and methodically introduced him to this big water-filled chute (the Aquatread), which he was not especially fond of at first. I was very impressed with how they approached this process, and in no time Roman was walking through easily. Once he was comfortable standing in the water on the belt, they hooked the chest bar in front of him and turned on the treadmill. It was pretty awkward for him at first (what would you think if you were standing in a pool and the ground starting moving underneath you?), but he started to catch on fairly quickly. Once he got into a rhythm, it was amazing to see how the muscles over his back were working. I took a short video of the experience, and I am happy to share it here!

I left that day feeling comfortable that Roman would be in good hands. I let Brittany know that I’d like to get an email update sometime during the week. Little did I know that Roman himself would actually be able to compose and send me a personal update! His “update” was so clever and hilarious that I must share an excerpt below:

Hi mom!

So…I must admit I wasn’t that fond of the idea of letting you go to Denver without me. Though as time has passed, I am “tolerating” this place more and more each day. I will graciously allow you to leave me here whenever you please! You will be pleased to know that I’m still working hard for you in the aqua treadmill each and every day. After the 15 min of hard work, the real fun begins! That’s when the girls arrive! They make our time apart okay! The girls are awesome! They LOVE LOVE LOVE me! These girls can’t keep their hands off me! They fight over who gets to hand walk me everyday! They come in hoards and stand by my stall and gawk at how amazing I am, they groom me EVERYDADY (as an excuse, of course, to put their hands on me ;-) and and and I’ve got them thinking that I’m “sooooo sad and homesick that I can’t stomach the idea of grain.” Man, grain tastes so much better when lots of pretty girls are feeding it to me out of their pretty little hands!!!!!! ;-) This is the life! I always knew I was meant to be a rock star!!!

After reading this, I knew Roman would be just fine. And I suspected that in addition to a successful veterinary career, Brittany may have a future in some type of equine-related creative writing!

When I returned a week later, Roman seemed very happy and content. He looked great, and it was nice to be able to bring him home and resume training immediately. We’re gearing up for a big show in a few weeks, so a week out of work would not have been very good for our program. But with the conditioning he received at KESMARC, we didn’t miss a beat. And I think our medium trots are now better than ever! Thanks KESMARC!!!!

Changing Seasons means Changing Diets

2010-07-15T08:20:00.007-05:00

Looking at Mike's post showing how different a horse's environment can be from one season to the next is a great reminder of how very different a horse's diet may need to be from one season to the next. Forage, hay or pasture, makes up anywhere from 70 - 100% of most horse's diets. Mike's pictures show the full range of forage quality in pastures from season to season; from being just a place to buck and play in the snow during winter to providing excellent nutrition in the green grass of spring and early summer. Depending on your horse's age and activity level, what you provide for your horse in addition to pasture may change with the season as well. Sometimes this just means adjusting feed intake down a bit when the horses are transitioned from hay to pasture. Pasture will usually provide a higher level of nutrition, especially calories and a horse grazing pasture will get fatter than the same horse eating hay. For horses that are working at a moderate or high level, this may mean decreasing your current feeding rate by 1 - 3 lbs per day. Maybe you were feeding 7 lbs of Omolene 500 during the fall and winter while competing and feeding hay, but now with good pasture, you may keep the same level of work and condition by feeding 4 - 5 lbs of feed. Purina premium feeds are formulated to meet nutritional requirements when fed with good quality hay or pasture when fed at least 0.3 lbs per 100 lbs of body weight (3 lbs per day for a 1000 lb horse) of the feed. Some other feeds have higher minimum recommended feeding rates than that. If you are feeding a feed and you find that your horse is getting fat even on the minimum recommended feeding rate, then it is time to change to one of the Purina Nature's Essentials Enrich products. Enrich products are formulated to meet nutrient requirements in very low feeding rates, 1 - 2 lbs per day for most horses, so they provide the protein, vitamins and minerals without excessive calories for horses that maintain body condition on hay or pasture and little or no additional feed. The Enrich 12 is for mature horses eating good pasture or straight alflalfa hay, Enrich 32 is for younger horses still growing or any horse eating mostly grass hay or moderate quality pasture such as late summer/early fall. Another great option for horses eating good pasture that may need a little more than Enrich but can't quite eat Strategy, Omolene or Ultium without getting too fat is new Purina Strategy Healthy Edge. It is a super product for less active, easier-keepers that still need more than 1 - 2 lbs of Enrich. Purina Strategy Healthy Edge has a great nutritional balance that keeps awesome bloom and hair coat with lower calories than other Purina premium products designed for performance horses. It is a great fit for many horses, especially those that you want to keep in show shape, that do well on higher fat and lower starch, but don't need all the calories that come in a high-performance feed such as Ultium. For more information on choosing the right product for your individual horse or forage situation, go check out our Purina Feed Product Recommender at http://horse.purinamills.com/products Have a great summer, enjoy the green grass while you have it!

Where Does the Time Go?

2010-07-14T13:51:00.005-05:00

Seems like just the other day we were complaining about how cold it was outside and now here we are with a heat index of 105 degrees! Our horses are enjoying summer pasture today, but were thinking a little differently about it in January when I took this picture with snow on the ground. The difference reminds me of how different management of your animals can be in just a six month period. In January you might be concerned with keeping your water source from freezing and keeping enough hay in front of your animals. July presents a completely different set of challenges, managing heat/humidity and delaing with insects just to name a few. Our location close to St Louis gives us both extremes in summer and winter with a lot of humidity mixed in. We are typically checking horses at least twice a day to ensure they are not having issues when we get into extreme weather. The barn crew was sharing a laugh this morning when the weatherman explained that you should not be outside unless you absolutely have to. With horses it does not matter, you are out in the best and worst of what mother nature has to offer!

Practice what you teach...

2010-07-09T18:07:00.003-05:00

Another week come and gone, lots of interesting questions from horse owners this week on feeding a variety of horses, from weanlings to senior horses. This morning at the Davison Ranch (Really we have a ranchette since it is 40 acres, seems like you really need at least three digits of acreage to have a ranch, most "ranches" in my area of Texas are at least 4 digits, 1000 acres or more. Anyway, I digress...back to the original blog...) my husband left to go judge a cutting horse show for two days. I worked in the office all day; talked to a few horse owners, a couple great Purina dealers and a couple Purina sales reps...not a bad gig when most days you get to talk to horse people about horses. The young lady that works for my husband fed this morning but was off this afternoon, so I closed up shop in the office at 5 PM and went out to practice what I teach all day, every day....feed horses.

I loaded up the Ranger and drove around the place looking at hungry faces of all ages and activity levels; our weanling, Texie, who is growing beautifully; a yearling we hope will grow up to be a nice barrel horse; the two-year olds here to be started under saddle; the three-year olds in cutting training; several geldings between 4 and 10 years old under various levels of activity; a nice 6 year-old mare and a 7 year-old stallion, both in cutting training; and our 17 year-old broodmare, Texie's mother who is in foal again to Freckled Leo Lena, Texie's sire.

So, what do we feed? Well, since we have such a variety of horses and have our help feed some of the time so we need it to not be too complicated, but we are of course, very particular about providing excellent nutrition, Purina Strategy GX Professional Formula is the very best choice for our horses and our operation. I fed from 3.5 lbs per day to the less active, mature horses to 5 - 7 lbs per day to the young growing horses and horses in training. We also feed both Bermudagrass hay and alfalfa hay, for most a 50:50 blend but for some geldings not doing much, we feed straight Bermudagrass hay and when our broodmare was still nursing, we fed her straight alfalfa hay. We adjust the amount of Strategy and the amount and type of hay based on age, activity level and individual body condition. The goal is to keep all horses between a body condition score of 5 - 6 (See the Body Condition Score Chart on http://horse.purinamills.com if you aren't familiar with it). When Purina has taken care of all the nutrition research and provides the proper balance and ratios of nutrients in Strategy, there is no more guess work, all we have to do is adjust the amounts according to body condition of each horse. Don't really need a Ph.D. for that do you? Pretty simple but very effective.

Now, I'm going to go load the trailer and be ready to go to a barrel race tomorrow. I hope everyone has a great weekend and gets to enjoy your horse in whatever activity you love.

Good start to the day...

2010-07-06T08:20:00.002-05:00

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, hard to go back to work after a long weekend for many of us. I got up early this morning and helped my husband work horses on cattle this morning. He trains cutting horses and starts early in the morning before it gets too hot. I went out to help, really to get to work a horse myself but you have to help before you get to play. If you've never gotten to ride a cutting horse, you should put it on your bucket list because it is really a blast. They are such athletes and have such reaction to the cow, just too much fun. It is also very cool to watch horses who are well bred so they have the genetics to want to do the job you need them to do, are well cared for and are provided the nutritional support to do the job. All that goes together to let them become the best they can be with good direction from a good trainer.

As you can tell, in our family, we're all horses all the time. So, my husband is still out there working horses, it's starting to get hotter already and I'm back in my cool office getting ready to write an article for the NRHA Reiner magazine and answer phone calls and e-mails from horse people. Pretty good start to the day....

Anhidrosis

2010-06-29T22:58:00.004-05:00

Unfortunately, it is that time of year again...it is hot, humid, and just plain miserable here in Florida. But what’s even worse than dealing with the intense heat is dealing with a horse that has stopped sweating. Anhidrosis is common problem that has no quick and easy cure. Horses stop sweating for different reasons, and they respond to treatments differently. Personally, I have dealt with this issue in horses on my own farm, and my management approach is multi-faceted. Since I never know what a horse may respond to, I just try everything I think may have a reasonable chance of success!

Before I outline my management approach, I must stress that if you suspect your horse is anhidrotic, please contact your veterinarian for an exam. There are many conditions that can alter a horse’s ability to thermoregulate - some that can be easily treated and some that are very serious. Also, keep in mind that an individual horse’s sweat production can vary, and there is actually a test that can be performed to confirm whether or not your horse is truly anhidrotic. There are also reports that anhidrotic horses often have high circulating levels of epinephrine, meaning that there is some underlying stressor (i.e. pain). So, call the vet first.

Managing the anhidrotic horse:

1) One-AC – Start supplementation with the commercially available supplement “One-AC” according to package directions. This is a powdered supplement that contains vitamin C, L-tyrosine, and B vitamins. Tyrosine is a precursor to dopamine and may help re-sensitize sweat gland receptors. The success rate is variable and reported to be between 30 – 80%. Best results are achieved when supplementation begins before the weather gets very hot.

2) Reduce heat stress – this is very important, especially during the first 2 – 3 weeks. This includes stalling during the hottest part of the day (if the barn is well-ventilated and cooler than being outdoors) with multiple fans to maximize air circulation. Consider installing a mister or put a sprinkler outside in the paddock to provide some “artificial sweat” that will help with evaporative heat loss. Frequent hosing during the day will also help reduce the heat load. All strenuous exercise should be stopped, and if the horse must be worked, only do it very early in the morning or late in the evening when the weather is cooler. The theory is to try and “re-program” the horse’s thermoregulatory mechanism by taking the stress off of the over-stimulated sweat glands.

3) Electrolytes – insure the horse is receiving adequate Na, Cl, K, Ca, and Mg in the diet. If you are feeding a fortified concentrate feed at the recommended levels paired with plenty of good quality forage, then all you need to be concerned with is NaCl. You should supplement 1 – 2 oz (2 – 4 Tbsp) of plain white salt or a commercial electrolyte supplement every day to provide the necessary NaCl (beware that many contain more sugar than salt).

4) Overall diet – be sure that the horse is receiving a balanaced diet and insure he is not consuming excess protein (>25% protein in the total diet). This scenario would probably only occur if a horse was eating a high proportion of alfalfa/legume hay and a large volume of concentrate feed on a daily basis. If the horse has a high calorie requirement, feeding a high-fat diet may help to reduce “metabolic heat”.

5) Acupuncture – at the University of Florida, clinicians are now utilizing acupuncture as a treatment for anhidrosis. I have seen it work. The key is to find a qualified and experienced DVM who is trained in acupuncture to treat your horse.

6) Dark beer – sure, why not? 1 bottle or can of dark beer (i.e. Guinness) per day for 6 days (that’s one six pack). Dark, unfiltered beer actually contains B vitamins and antioxidants, which could potentially be the reason for those anecdotal success stories you hear about feeding beer to horses. Hey, it can’t hurt…I just pour it over the feed, right after I take a big swig (for testing purposes only)!

The only proven “cure” for anhidrosis is to move the horse to a cooler and drier climate. Unfortunately, this is not always a convenient option. But if a horse is very severely affected, it may be the only choice that is right for the horse. In the majority of cases, though, anhidrosis can be managed successfully if you pay close attention to the horse and are careful to keep him comfortable when the weather is especially unbearable.

Catch Me if You Can

2010-06-28T07:28:00.002-05:00

When we complete a project here at Longview with a group of horses, we understand they need a break just like people do! Earlier this spring after completing a palatability trial (taste testing session) for several weeks we turned the horses out for a little fun. They had a three week break just hanging out in pasture being horses. The clip below is right when they went out, do you think they liked it?

TGIF

2010-06-25T08:04:00.002-05:00

For many people, Friday is a day of winding down the week and getting ready for the weekend. For me, Fridays are often the busiest day of the week. I help our great customer service team answer phone calls and e-mails from horse owners around the country. We get a steady flow of great questions throughout the week but it seems like Friday is the busiest day. I think alot of horse owners are like me, busy with job/family and trying to get everything done during the week so we make our trips to the feed store on Friday evening or Saturday. I think if horseowners are contemplating a change or have a question about feeding a specific horse, they want to have the information before they go to the feed store on Saturday so we get the calls on Friday. That's fine with us, keep those calls and e-mails coming, we're always happy to help out. If you have a feed or nutrition question, you can always contact us through 800-207-8941 or e-mail us through our website at htpp://horse.purinamills.com. Our customer service team, Dawn, Beverly and Pat are well trained and happy to help animal owners of all types find the best nutritional solution for their animals. If you have a horse-specific more technical nutrition question, they will forward you through to me. Have a great weekend!

Smorgasbord!

2010-06-24T14:38:00.003-05:00

The visitors we had earlier this week had a chance to see all of the horse feed products we have to offer. When the visitors leave, the products come down to the horse unit where our horses get to indulge on the samples!

Another Day at the Farm

2010-06-24T13:19:00.004-05:00

One of the things I enjoy most about working for Purina at their research farm is simply that; working on the farm. I think many people associate Purina with other big corporate giants and do not grasp our agricultural heritage. This picture was taken from my office window. We turned horses out on it last week after they had finished cutting and baling the hay for the beef department. This pasture has been used in some capacity for over 80 years here at the farm. We understand our customers because we live the same lifestyle they do!

Morning at Longview

2010-06-24T07:05:00.003-05:00

6:45 am. I really love to arrive early for work here at Longview. Even though it is still early the crew is already heading out to feed all of the animals. But still there is a peacefulness about it, and it offers me a great opportunity to think about the day ahead and make plans for how I will get everything done. I also wonder what will happen today because everyday is different here.

We are weaning at the farm, so I expect that in an hour or so I will begin to hear some whinnies from the pasture behind my office where the mares are brought. We like to do our weaning slowly, removing one mare at a time from the group, leaving the foals where they have been since birth - in familiar surroundings. Very low stress for the foals (just the way I like it) - many don't realize mama is gone until it is time to go back into the stall for the night but by then they are pretty mellow about the whole thing. The pasture where the mares are taken to is a considerable distance from the barns so whatever noise they make doesn't travel and they don't hear the foals calling in return. After about an hour or so all is quiet again.

Looks like another great early summer day here at the research farm.

Mineral or Salt??

2010-06-23T18:23:00.002-05:00

I was at a cutting horse show last weekend and was asked a good question that I thought might be of interest to other horse owners. The question was, "If I have good pasture and mature horses that aren't being ridden very much, do I need to give them anything other than a trace mineral block? The answer is, Yes. Check the label on your trace mineral (TM) block...they are 98% salt in most cases. If it is hard as a salt block, it is a salt block. TM salt blocks have trace amounts of trace minerals, they don't have macrominerals like calcium or phosphorus and they only have enough of the trace minerals like copper and zinc, to make them red or brown. A horse can't eat enough of one of these blocks in a day to meet their mineral requirements or make up the difference between requirements and what pasture provides. So, if you have a horse that is not growing, working, reproducing or lactating and pasture is keeping them in good shape, they still need at least a true mineral source, Purina FreeBalance Horse Mineral being a great one. FreeBalance mineral is 95% mineral. You can easily tell the difference between it and a TM salt block, similar in color but FreeBalance is a softer block because it is only 5% salt, you are paying for mineral, not salt with these blocks. FreeBalance is also available in a loose form if you prefer. Now, free-choice mineral (along with a regular salt block) is a much better option than no mineral or a TM salt block, but if you really want to be sure that your horses eat every day exactly what they need, check into Purina Nature's Essentials Enrich 12 or Enrich 32. Enrich 12 if your pasture is great quality or you are feeding alfalfa hay, Enrich 32 if your pasture is marginal quality or you are feeding grass hay. These are concentrated "forage balancers" that meet nutritional requirements when fed at 1 - 2 lbs per day. Because of the low feeding rate, they don't contribute a significant amount of calories but they provide much more nutrition than if you fed 1 - 2 lbs of oats or even of a very well balanced feed (most feeds are formulated to be fed at a minimum of 3 - 6 lbs per day). When you feed a low amount these feeds, you are shorting the nutrition. With Enrich products you can meet the nutrition without excess calories. So, for your pasture ornaments that maintain good condition on hay or pasture alone, provide a true mineral source along with a regular salt block and access to clean water.

Welcome to our farm!

2010-06-23T16:37:00.009-05:00

This week, our horse group hosted an equine nutrition conference for horse owners at LongView Animal Nutrition Center, which is our research farm in Gray Summit, MO. I really enjoy these events, because I get to meet so many interesting and successful horse professionals who have been personally invited by one of our Equine Specialists to attend. I also love the opportunity it gives us to “show off” our facilities and our people! I realize that it is probably impossible for most people to truly understand the level of commitment that Purina has to making exceptional horse feed….until they come to the research farm. I think that once someone actually sees first-hand what goes on “behind the scenes”, the immense amount of time and energy that goes into making our feed becomes obvious. Since we’d never be able to have every single horse owner in the country come to the farm in person, the entire purpose of this research blog is to serve as your personal “behind the scenes” view of our farm...so you can get a feel for our daily activities and our commitment to “do best by the horse” in all things.

If you were at our LongView conference this week, your daily agenda would have included the following lectures by our experts:

Ingredients and Process Research
Feed Quality
Equine Reproduction and Growth
Equine Sports Nutrition (this was my lecture topic)
Equine Digestive Physiology
Body Condition Scoring

In addition, you would taken a farm tour and seen our:

Horse palatability lab
Exercise physiology equipment, including a demo by one of our treadmill horses
Herd of 70+ research horses of all ages
Veterinary services lab
Dairy, beef, and other species research units

It’s hard work putting this type of event together, but totally worth it. I hope that as time goes on, you will understand and appreiciate that we take equine nutrition research seriously at Purina. Stay tuned, there’s a lot more to come!

My Research Reality....for today

2010-06-22T16:11:00.007-05:00

What is neat about this blog is that all of our followers can see first hand all the great research we are working on at Purina. But my day today didn't really involve exciting hands on work. It instead involved reading literature about digestibility of feedstuffs in horses. This picture on the left shows a small portion of some of the heavy reading I did. Digestibility in horses can be a tricky thing. We have done some very extensive and detailed trials at Purina measuring exactly what is going in and what is going out of our research horses on a daily basis. We collect manure and urine in special collection harnesses and we measure feed intake to a 10th of a pound. But when those animal studies are over, we move onto the analysis phase where we organize and interpret all the data, run statistics on the numbers to look for differences and overall, see if our results match our research hypothesis. Right now, we are analyzing data from a very large digestibility trial that had multiple collection phases and has taken almost 2 years to complete. We will spend the next few months analyzing the thousands of data points we collected. It may not be exciting to many people, but I really enjoy this part of the process. I like analyzing the numbers and really seeing if something works. How did the test product really perform? Are the differences between treatment and control diets significant? What does it mean physiologically to the horse? These are all questions we work to answer everyday. And although it involves just working in front of my computer and reading all day, its fun nonetheless.

Western States Horse Expo

2010-06-14T21:30:00.002-05:00

I spent the weekend in Sacramento at the Western States Horse Expo. Didn't realize how big it was until I got there - I was proud to just find the building where the booth was! Great crowd at the booth - lots of good questions from the horse owners who stopped to talk to us, and it was pretty busy all the time. Plus there was a booth that sold fudge just down the aisle, which made the days more pleasant.

I found out the morning of my first talk that it was going to be outside in the sunshine (with no computer or screen), so the Powerpoint presentation I'd planned on was not going to be much help. Oh well. The folks that came to hear about Equine Nutrition were great, and asked so many questions that I really never got the chance to make the formal presentation anyway! The second talk also went well, except there were so many questions that by the time we headed back to the booth, the Expo was officially closed and the buildings were locked. Luckily, we found a nice maintenance person to let us into our building, since car keys are somewhat necessary to get back to the hotel!!

Our ambassador Stephen Bradley was at the Expo as a clinician, and it was nice to catch up with him. Hopefully we'll get to see Stephen and Joshua competing in Lexington this September. I'm going to try to arrange for Stephen to come to Kansas after his eventing season is over this year for a clinic. I've watched him teach several times, and would love to clinic with him.

Richard Shrake was also a clinician, and I am always amazed that even though I've probably only met him a couple of times over the past 10 years, he always remembers my name and is just one of the nicest people. We have some really lovely Purina Ambassadors!

After an evening at home, I'm now in South Carolina for another clinic. Tomorrow will be teaching young riders during the day, and then talking equine nutrition to the riders, parents and auditors in the evening. I'm hoping for air conditioning, since it was 97 degrees here today, but if not, I may have to use the hotel pool at the end of the day!

You never stop learning

2010-06-10T00:15:00.007-05:00

One of the things I love most about my job is the opportunity I have to interact with other nutritionists and to learn “what’s new” in animal nutrition. It is an ever-changing field, so you must stay current with the latest research. Today, I attended the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition’s Clinical Nutrition and Research Symposium in Anaheim, CA. This meeting was not just for horses, but for all companion animal species. It was my first time to ever attend, and what a great opportunity it was to hear what the “hot topics” are in small animal nutrition as compared to equine nutrition. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there are many similarities, and I feel like I am taking some valuable information back home with me. For example, including soluble fiber in dog and cat diets is a big focus right now. The small animal nutritionists are using some alternative sources of fiber that to my knowledge no one is currently using in horse diets (so, is this a potential new ingredient for horse feed??). Also, there was a study in dogs that looked at feeding a probiotic supplement to reduce the incidence of diarrhea. The supplement used in the study had no effect on the frequency or incidence of diarrhea and may actually have had a negative impact on fecal consistency (so, do we need to be more careful about feeding probiotics to horses??).

There were a few horse-specific presentations, and they all somehow related to glucose/insulin regulation in the horse. There was some good evidence to support the recommendation I always give to owners with insulin resistant (IR) horses – “you MUST limit pasture intake”. It is well-documented that grass pasture can induce a significant spike in insulin levels that would not be good for a horse with IR. Luckily, most horses can tolerate pasture grass with no problems. However, we now know that there is a population of susceptible horses out there that we must monitor pasture intake to prevent pasture-associated laminitis and other related health concerns.

I find these types of meetings to be highly educational and very beneficial, as keeping up with “what’s new” in the nutrition world is the only way to stay on the cutting edge.

Time to wean

2010-06-09T08:55:00.004-05:00

Texie is the first foal by the really nice stallion Freckled Leo Lena that my husband raised and showed in the cutting. We are so thrilled with her and can't wait to ride her, but first things first. She is just about at weaning age now, she was born on Feb. 16 (photo taken at 2 weeks old)and is soon to be 4 months old. We don't want to wait another month or two here in South Texas because it will be so hot which would add to the stress of weaning. So, we're getting a "friend" for her from another horse owner in town that has a foal to wean about the same time and we'll wean them both together so they'll have a buddy. The way Texie eats her Strategy, she won't miss her mom for too long, she's a real Chow hound! So, with a new friend, nice pasture and Strategy twice a day, Texie will have every opportunity to grow and develop to be the fabulous athlete she is bred to be.

He has "Riddikulus Charm"

2010-06-08T15:53:00.003-05:00

After years of working with our data at Purina as we developed Ultium Growth, I was really pleased when my own foal was born this spring on the Ultium Growth program. For those dressage fans out there, my colt is out of a Hanoverian mare named Watusi (Wolkenstein II, Laurie's Crusader bloodlines) by the Hanoverian stallion Rosenthal from High Point Hanoverians. His name is Riddikulus Charm (think Harry Potter) and we call him Ridley!

2010-06-06T11:45:00.004-05:00

Guess it is my turn to try out the blog. It seems to be pretty user friendly. I think I need to change my picture. It looks like my eyes are closed. I am looking forward to the ACVIM forum this week and hopefully generating a lot of buzz about Ultium Growth in the internal medicine community.

FW: Posting via email

2010-05-28T14:14:00.000-05:00

2010-05-28T11:28:00.003-05:00

Trying out the blog, This is breakfast at the farm this morning!

2010-05-27T13:39:00.001-05:00

Ok, I can text in but haven't figured out how to email in, will work on that

2010-05-27T13:18:00.001-05:00

Trying the mobile blog thing

I'm a blogger....

2010-05-27T09:22:00.003-05:00

Trying this blog thing out. Seeing if I can handle the technology...how's it working out? Did take a little time to upload the photo, but it worked. Tried a video but it took way too long, not sure what video it was, just one I saved on my computer, probably a rodeo performance of one of my kids. Not sure how long it was.

This is a Cool Deal. Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks!

See ya, more blogging to come.....

I love this blog and horses

2010-05-25T09:31:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone, this is how to post to your blog using your email account. Isn’t this fantastic?

This is what a video looks like

2010-05-25T08:10:00.004-05:00

Here is some text.

Here is some bolded text