Ulcer Enlightenment

October's issue of Equus magazine arrived the other day. What a surprize to see that there was an article titled "Understanding Ulcers". Equally as surprizing to me was that the author is Heather Smith Thomas. This surprized me because she has been writing horse related articles since I was a kid(a million years ago), and I didn't know she was still alive! Does this mean that ulcers are as common as I thought? Why would a leading magazine bother with an article unless it would draw its' readers interest?
Of course I read every word, and have been enlightened. The 5 major risk factors for developing ulcers are: Long periods between meals; diets high in grain/low in forage; Intense high-speed training; Stress; and Illness. 90% of racehorses have ulcers, as do high performance athletes, and show horses kept in stalls being fed large amounts of grain, and subjected to travel, training and competition. The most effective long term way to prevent ulcers is to make changes in the horses'lifestyle. Lets keep stall confinement at a minimum, stick to a routine, and provide lots of forage. In otherwords, let horses be horses!

Tattoo Search

Mark purchased another polo horse. She was in a polo lesson program in Newport, RI. Guess she was too much for the beginner students. It happens to be the same place where we bought Eva (Read "The $500 Polo Pony" 1-23-09). The first time I saw her, I thought "Arabian, how odd for a polo horse!". She has a dished face, and short back. I was surprized to see that she had a lip tattoo. Thoroughbreds are required to be lip tattooed in order to participate in an offical TB race.The tattoo consists of a letter followed by 4-5 numbers. A foreign born TB will have an asterisk followed by numbers. The letters corresponds to the horse's year of birth. 1971-1996/A-Z; 1997-2010/A-N. If the TB is 25 yrs old or older, it will only have a letter and 4 numbers. The Jockey Club is wonderful about helping with researching a lip tattoo. In the past it usually has only taken a couple hours from submission of a Tattoo ID Form to recieving the info on the horse. Sometimes pictures are required, but it is an easy process. Well, the new horse, who came with the name Saffron, had a horrible tattoo. Jenn, Mark and I all took guesses as to what it read. The letter looked like an F,P or H. This meant the year of birth could be 1976,1978, 1986, 2002 or 2004. The numbers looked like 4, 1, and 0. I submitted what little info I had, guessing the letter was an "F". Mark had been told she was 8 or 9. She definately wasn't 4 or 24! I also took a photo of the tattoo, and after a few emails back and forth with the Jockey Club, a match was found. The winner was/is F44602, and they were able to find this match with my submission of F_1_0_!! I was/am very impressed. Saffrons registered name is "West Ballerina" Born April 5, 2002 in Iowa. --insert soapbox--For those of you that think a slaughter plant in another state will not affect your horse here in MA, take note! Iowa! I also have horses from FL, TX and CA. A slaughter plant in ANY state puts ALL horses at risk.--off soapbox---Back to West Ballerina. So after all the research, we found out we have a TB from Iowa, who was an unuccessful race horse, who was from unsuccessful parents. Why oh Why do they breed these horse!! Well she was fortunate enough to find her way to Mark, is a great polo horse, very sweet, and Mark promptly changed her name to "Mudslide"!!!

Donations, Please!

Would you donate your horse to a College or University? There are a lot of Equine Programs that will accept horses as donations. The donation is a tax write-off. The University will let you determine the value of your horse, up to $5000. Above that, the horse must be professionally appraised. Sounds like a great deal! What a great way to "retire" a polo horse that is either too old, or doesn't suit your needs! But, read the fine print. When you donate your horse it becomes the property of the University or the College. If the horse is not suitable for their program, or they have no room for the horse, what happens? You have signed a contract that does not allow the horse to be returned to the donater. According to a local university, the horse is to be sold at auction. This particular university sends their unused,unwanted donated polo horses to an auction/sale Barn in Western, MA. According to the owner, "Thoroughbreds go straight to the "killpen". What breed are most polo horses? They are mainly TBs! Right now, the University is overwhelmed with donations of polo horses. The polo season has ended, for the most part, and the economy is in the dumps. Do the donaters know that their horse will most likely end up being slaughtered for meat? Do they care? Do they just "turn a blind eye"?