How to Save a Horse

Don't ride the cowboy. Talk to a barefoot farrier.

The following set of tips was developed by Jim Apple, a barefoot hoof care farrier in the Middle Tennessee area. He is today's guest writer. You can post questions to Jim in the comments section below this article.

First and foremost be devoted to helping your horse. Founder is a painful situation for the horse. Conscientious and humane care must be given at all levels. Here are some guidelines to make this easier for the horse, for you and for me..

The horse

1. Dry lot the horse. Use a run in shed or open stall, if you don’t have a area fenced in-DO IT!

2. Determine the founder trigger. I can guarantee that your horse did not “just founder”.

3. No green grass, no grain-PERIOD

4. Feed grass hay 24/7, stay away from hay that is high in sugars, like alfalfa.

5. Keep the horse moving, once it is comfortable. You might have to walk the horse in the beginning.

6. Make sure that water is available at all times, Free choice salt and minerals should be in the dry lot.

7. Place the hay, water, salt and minerals at different spots once the horse can move of its own free will. Set it up with water in one corner, hay in another corner, salt in the third corner and minerals in the fourth corner.

The caregiver

1. Be prepared mentally to do this. It can and will put a strain on all aspects of your life.

2. Realize that you can only do so much; the rest is up to your horse.

3. Ask questions

The farrier

1. Provide conscientious and humane trimming. Schedule the next visit.

2. Measure the horse’s feet and encourage the use of protective hoof boots and soaker boots to help the horse be comfortable during the healing process

3. Ask questions and provide answers and educational material.

*At some point during the recovery process, most horses have minor setbacks such as abscesses, thrush, white line disease etc. Regular trimming and soaking the horse’s feet once a week in equal parts apple cider vinegar/water for 20 minutes will keep those problems to minimum. In some cases daily soaks will be necessary. Be patient. Your horse can survive founder.*

Get Some Air in There

I have found the composting Bible. The first and last word in composting. Mike McGrath's Book on Composting is it!

Why am I so excited? Because he has some great ways to speed up the compost pile and he explains it so I can understand. The greatest new thing I want to try out is putting a chimney in the compost pile. Yep, that's right - a CHIMNEY.

Here's what I plan to do based on Mr. McGrath's suggestions:

Take some of my friend's wire fence discards and roll them into 6-8" tubes. Set a tube into the ground where I will put a new pile. Then I will take the partially decomposed remains of my two big compost piles and carefully layer them around the tube. I will intersperse the layers with leaves that I've raked up into suitable piles for jumping in. (I have to keep the kids happy somehow and work ain't it). When the pile is approximately 4 foot high and 4 foot wide and 4 foot long, I'll build another pile with another tube. The tube is supposed to act like a chimney and circulate air through the pile speeding up decomposition.

I have to take care that the compost does not fall into the tube when piled up around it. I can't wait to see if the pile puts off steam. Then I know it's really cooking. If the piles start smoking I'll post some pictures here.

If the pile don't produce steam, I'll have to check the moisture and composition to make sure I got that right. The moisture should be like a well-wrung sponge and the composition should be 30 parts brown to 1 part green. This time of year I may need more green, but then again maybe not since I put kitchen garbage in there and I have plenty of that.

I want to have compost ready for the early spring plants which I will be seeding in February. According to the Mike McGrath book and many other oral sources, compost is the best thing for your plants. It's ready-made free natural fertilizer. Compost builds the soil health.

Healthy soil = healthy plants = healthy food = healthy eaters.

And less work for me. Yep - Livin' the Dream

What's on Your Side of the Fence?

I want to hear from you. What weeds, weedy trees, annoying shrubs, and "bad penny" vines are you having trouble with? What do you want to know about or do you have eradication and annihilation tips? If your combat tips are organic, that's even better.

On Tuesdays I write about exotic invasives and other weeds. I've pretty much been writing about the weeds I encounter regularly that I wish I didn't have. And oh boy, do I have them, but that's another story entirely. I want to hear your stories.

Please post a comment with your ideas and/or questions below. I'll take the time to post your experiences or answer your questions here at the Mule Shoe Farm blog in the upcoming weeks.