...and on the eighth day, God created the horse in perfect image, to romp, graze, gallop, play and make manure wherever it darn well pleases, in divine grace.
Some more insight on better animal care:
Overpopulation of people and animals could pose a threat to food and water supplies.
Water may be selling soon for $4.00 a gallon; why, just ask oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens.
Laugh if you like, but save this article...
And go ahead, put a voluntary moratorium on your horse breeding, especially if it is not registered or has poor conformation.
The horse market is flooded with good quality animals that are not selling, let alone there is always something in the paper about some horse needing a home.
Joe bred his stud with Mary’s mare, and now there is an average brown horse needing hay, grain, water, a stall, bedding, dental care, hoof care and all its shots.
Hmmm, what was that about the sport of Kings?
Texas has dried up and Colorado is on fire and there is no hay.
To quote my neighbor, Bobbi Griggs, an old dairy farmer from way-back, “...get all your hay in right now, right now. There won’t be anymore hay this year. Wet in May, make lots of hay, dry in May, there will be no hay.”
The articles about horse dumping in Texas and Florida are real, and people dump dogs and cats like disposable trash.
Think ahead before breeding your horse and always spay your cat or dog.
Plus, several Congressmen are pushing to re-open the slaughter houses for horses.
Many of my horse colleagues don’t have a problem with this, but I do.
If there is less of a population, prices for good riding and driving horse will go up, there would be no poor quality horses and no need to slaughter horses to send overseas for the dinner plates of France and Japan.
And I hate to break this to you, but those so-called “Designer Dogs” that are selling for $2,000 each are nothing but mutts! Mutts, I tell you. Whose idea was this?
A “Yorkipoo,” or “Puggle,” is a cute-sounding thang, but heck, they send mutts like that to the gas chamber every day, nation wide–don’t buy in to this fad.
Help control the overpopulation of pets and “Fix ‘em now!” (1)
Using a good paste wormer on a quarterly basis for the horse and pills or neck treatment for cats and dogs for parasite control can help them stay in good health, provided that good quality food and water is provided.
Cheap, over-the-counter flea treatment is dangerous – animals have seizures and die, and they still have fleas.
Choose Revolution or Advantage from the Vet’s office; some have wormer built right in.
Using vitamin supplements isn’t really necessary with healthy pets.
Grain companies and pet food companies spend a lot of money researching their products to insure they are properly balanced and fortify them with vitamins and minerals.
This bologna of cooking for your dog or cat, who wants a good home-made meal can make their bones weak. You can’t fortify meals with minerals and who has time for that?
I top-dress my horse’s grain every morning with loose mineral Harvest salt, as salt is essential for a healthy horse. There are mineral blocks out in the field.
Some more insight:
If your animal is sick, call the Vet early in the morning.
Vets are human and they get tired and overworked by late afternoon. You want the Vet fresh and ready to diagnose a great workup on your animal, so the early bird gets the worm, here.
Pet insurance or horse insurance can be a good idea, so don’t necessarily look at it like a waste of money, if you don’t use it. When you renew the fire insurance on your house, do you say, “Gosh, my house hasn’t burnt down...”
Do not give chocolate to dogs, do not give Tylenol or Pepto to cats, it kills them
Use common sense if you want to get a dog while living in a one-bedroom apartment and working 10 hours a day. Don’t get a Great Dane or a Heeler; get a cat or a gold fish instead.
Research your animal; in other words, why do loggers and sawyers buy a restaurant and go out of business a year later? It’s because they didn’t do their research in to what makes a good restaurant successful; if the chef goes out into the woods to fall a tree and gets hit on the head....
A good animal caregiver will research food requirements, disease symptoms and also the habits and ways of the species.
You don’t feed horses grass clippings from the lawn mower because it acts like silage and can give them colic, and you don’t give kitties a ball of yarn to play with, because they eat it and get sick.
PA Animal Law requires all outside animals have a shelter large enough for them to come in out of the weather, lay down and stay dry. They must have fresh water at all times and good food.
Please check on outside animals during excessive heat as they drink more water at these times. Check during cold time, too, since water freezes.
If you’re going to do something, do it right; your name is on it and people can see how you treat your animals.
Closing for now with the immortal words of Ghandi, “You can tell the moral progress of a nation by the way it treats its animals.”
And, as always, in the immortal words of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, “Happy Trails to You.”
1: Pet Fix Motto, ASPCA Mobile Vet Clinic, Cleveland, OH