HORSE MANAGEMENT NEWSLETTER AND MORE!!!
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Topics in this issue:
1) Feature: Keeping your horse hydrated away from home
2) Rally and rating tips: Unmounted teaching games
3) Recommended books, videos, and CD-ROMs: Hold your horses by Bonnie
Timmons
4) Fun and educational websites: Wow saddles
5) Featured rule: Tack rooms
6) Free item exchange

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Feature: Keeping your horse hydrated away from home
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by Stormy May

I had the pleasure of teaching at the Southwest Regional Pony Club camp this
year in St. John's, Arizona. The weather didn't treat us too badly, with
only a couple of days over the 100 degree mark. Pony clubbers and their
horses (and ponies!) came from all over Arizona and New Mexico. Everyone
was used to the heat but not all the mounts were drinking enough water to
keep themselves properly hydrated while away from home.

Fortunately, we only had one mild colic due to dehydration and stress. We
came up with some guidelines for next year's camp to make sure that all of
the horses will be getting plenty of this most important nutrient. Here's
what we came up with.

First of all, when your horse is away from home (and even at home) it's a
good idea to have some way to monitor how much your horse is drinking. On
an average day, a horse will drink 8-12 gallons of water. During different
parts of the year though, the consumption might vary from 2-20 gallons. The
typical way to monitor water intake is to use two five gallon buckets in the
horse's stall and then to keep filling them as the horse drinks them down.
For horses who live in a pasture with a herd, this isn't practical, but keep
it in mind for when they are by themselves. At one fancy barn they had
automatic waterers in each stall that sent a digital read-out to a display
panel so the barn manager could tell how much each horse was drinking every
day. What will they think of next?!

If you aren't sure how much your horse will drink while away from home there
are several steps you can take before you leave that may help him adjust.
First of all, horses often don't like the taste or smell of water they're
not used to. To help with this, you can either bring large quantities of
water from home in clean, plastic containers (which they might not like the
taste of anyway) or try adding a packet of powdered Kool-Aid® or Gatorade®
to your horse's water bucket while still at home. If he continues drinking
from the bucket with the flavoring added, chances are the flavor will mask
the taste of the new water and he'll drink it away from home too. Don't
worry about mixing it up to the same strength that we like it, just one
little scoop or packet per 5 gallon bucket should be plenty. If he likes
the taste, be sure to bring enough powder with you.

Electrolytes are a form of salt which is another essential nutrient for the
horse. Electrolytes have the added benefit of making the horse want to
drink more. Pony Club has always allowed the use of electrolytes added to
the horse's water, but be sure to always leave one bucket with plain water
in case the horse doesn't like the electrolytes in the water. Perhaps an
even better way to make sure your horse gets enough water while away from
home is to add electrolytes to his supplements rather than his water bucket.
Most horses will happily eat electrolytes with grain or other concentrated
feeds. There are several different commercial brands of electrolytes, some
with flavoring and trace minerals added, or you can make your own with 3
parts table salt (NaCl) to 1 part "Lite Salt" (KCl) available at most
grocery stores. Most importantly, if you are going to use electrolytes
while you are away from home, start feeding them before you leave to make
sure your horse likes the brand that you've picked and will clean up his
feed. Check with your vet for recommendations about the correct amount for
your horse. Also be aware that if you feed a high percentage of a
"complete" feed such as Purina's Equine Senior®, it may already contain all
of the electrolytes and trace minerals your horse needs. You can verify
this by talking to the company that makes it or checking on the feed tag and
with your vet.

Once you've arrived at your destination, if you think your horse still might
not be drinking enough, you can always add water to his grain, or soak his
hay right before feeding. If you choose to do this, make sure you have some
sort of feed tub for your hay and/or grain so the horse won't have to end up
eating a lot of bedding along with his wet feed. If it's warm out, don't
let the wet feed sit for more than a few hours or it might start fermenting
and give the horse a whole new reason to colic!

One last old standby for tempting a horse to drink. Bring a little bit of
wheat or rice bran and make it into a very soupy mash. The water doesn't
need to be hot. I've never seen a healthy horse turn down a tasty bran
mash.

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While I was researching horses' drinking habits, I came across an
interesting study about keeping horses hydrated in cold weather. In
different parts of the world, frozen water buckets can make it impossible
for even the thirstiest horse to drink. Not only should you make sure your
horse's water isn't frozen, but at least one study from the University of
New Hampshire showed that heating the water up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit
encouraged the horse to drink 40% more water than if the water is just
barely above freezing on a cold day. Read the whole article here:
http://ceinfo.unh.edu/Counties/Carroll/docs/Horses.htm

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Rally and rating tips: Unmounted teaching games
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At the camp in Arizona, on the last day they held a "County Faire". The
fair consisted of the C, B, and H level members playing unmounted teaching
games with the D level Pony Clubbers for some great donated prizes. Some of
the games could be easily incorporated into club lessons, C3 test unmounted
lessons, or other fun play days. My favorite games are described below.

Horse Twister
Instead of using a plastic sheet with large colored dots on it, a large
horse was drawn a white plastic shower curtain liner. The teacher had index
cards with a different point of the horse written on each one. A spinner
was divided into 4 sections (left front, right front, left hind, right
hind). The teacher would spin the wheel and then draw a card. The player
had to then move their proper hand or foot to touch that part of the horse's
body. If they player didn't know where that part of the body was or if they
"fell" with the rest of their body onto the horse, they were out. Two
players would play at the same time, creating some very precarious
positions!

Horse Jeopardy
You may use a large foam core board with little spots of velcro on it to
hold index cards that list the categories (such as nutrition, stable
management, parts and colors, etc...) and then in each category was a 10,
20, 30, 40, and 50 point answer, taken from the D1-C1 standards. Just like
in real Jeopardy, the player needed to respond in the form of a question or
they couldn't get the points!

Horse Bingo
This was my personal favorite. Of course instead of BINGO at the top of
the bingo cards, it was written as HORSE. In each box was a little cut out
of some item of tack or equipment from a catalog. The teacher would draw a
card that might say something like "H - galloping boots" and then the
players would search their cards for a picture of galloping boots in the "H"
column and put a little wooden marker on it. This was a great hands-on way
for the kids to learn what different pieces of equipment looked like and
there were plenty of questions like, "What would you use a German martingale
for?" or "Is this a jumping saddle or an all purpose saddle?"

Does anyone have any other creative teaching games to share?

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Recommended books, videos, and CD-ROMs!
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Hold your Horses by Bonnie Timmons.

You might recognize Bonnie's cartoons from the TV show "Caroline in the
City" or the "Thinking Horseman" column in Practical Horseman magazine, but
the book is much, much more. It truly is, "Nuggets of truth for people who
love horses...no matter what". The book takes you on a journey from first
contact with a horse, all the way to the final enlightenment at the end.
Along the way you will hit memorable moments like how to read between the
lines in horse ad's:

What the ad says:
Fun to ride!!!!!!!!!!
What it doesn't say:
If you are a thrill seeker.

What the ad says:
Winning bloodlines!
What it doesn't say:
That somehow didn't get passed along.

What the ad says:
Bomb proof!
What it doesn't say:
Won't move under ANY circumstances.

This book would make a great gift for those people who have been around
horses long enough to name 5 causes of colic without blinking.
Many thanks to my friend Julie Shiebany in Missouri for showing me this
beautiful book.

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Fun and educational websites
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Here is yet another new, interesting concept in saddles. If anybody has had
experience with these saddles, I'd love to hear about it.

http://www.wowsaddles.com/

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Featured rule: Tack rooms at rally
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2002 Horse Management Handbook Page 31 Section 17: Tack Rooms or Tack
Storage Areas

Tack rooms or tack storage areas are to be simple and workmanlike.
Excessive decorations are inappropriate. However, tack room drapes may be
used inside the tack room. There are to be no drapes outside the tack room
or the stalls; nor are there to be non-essential items (tables, chairs,
etc.) in the aisles. In addition, decorative plants are forbidden as they
are unnecessary and the plants are often poisonous to mounts. Even plastic
plants may be eaten and cause a mount to choke. Tack rooms are to be marked
with the team or individual name. Required equipment should be organized
for neatness and efficiency of use. Waste and sloppiness in the tack room
will be penalized. Uniformity of color for team equipment is encouraged but
not required.

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Free item exchange
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**FREE**FREE**FREE**

Submit your free horse-related items or services here. If you or your club
has items they are willing to pass along to a new family, this is a great
place to list them. Listings can come from any part of the country, or even
overseas!

Free items may include but are not limited to:

riding clothes
rally equipment
horse-related games and toys
tack and training equipment
blankets, wraps, halters
books or magazines
horse-related artwork
and of course...horses and ponies!

The recipient may be expected to handle any shipping costs.

Please provide a phone and/or email contact with each listing. Items will
be listed in the next HM Newsletter and will not be renewed unless an
additional email is sent asking for the listing to be continued.

So...clean out your tackroom and make room for more stuff!

To submit your items, simply reply to this email or write to:
stormy@... .

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Call for submissions
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Help make this newsletter the best it can be. Do you have any issues you'd
like to see addressed here? How about ideas for recommended products, books,
or videos? Want to submit your own article, or a question for the questions
and answers section? Send them to: stormy@... and I'll keep a log
of topics and articles for upcoming issues.

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