Saturday, June 30, 2012

Black and blue and bruised all over! CONTEST

Bruises.
Before I took my dive into the profession of hoof care I regularly bruised myself. Half the time I never realized how the heck I gave myself one but there it was in all it's multi coloured glory.

This was a kick by a very spoiled, rude paint horse. Unfortunately my Arnica was several hours away from being put on, hence the big bruise.

Now that I am underneath horses on a daily basis as a profession I seem to bruise things more often. But let me tell you, it's never the drafts or warmbloods or over sized goofy horses that bruise you; it's the mini's.
When one trims a mini one can almost guarantee to scrape a knuckle, pull off a fingernail or get thumped, bitten or tromped on. There's something about small hooves and your hand that don't mix well when stirred in a pot with rasp and hoof knife. People in our area have a hard time getting farriers to come and trim mini's so I get called. Not that I mind I just don't give discounts for "smaller" horses because they are ALWAYS more work.  Hence why farriers don't come out for them.

If you remember the post about Arnicare gel that I use? The Boiron company that manufactures Arnicare gel  seen that post and sent me a tube of Arnicare. The best thing about Arnicare besides it's amazing anti inflammatory properties? Well it's a homeopathic medicine, meaning it has no artificial colours, perfumes or parabens in it.

The question is, what to do with this Arnicare gel? Well I didn't have to think twice, I'm going to give it away to a lucky reader!

Here are some arnica facts!


-   Arnica (Arnica montana ([Latin]), also commonly called mountain tobacco or leopard's bane, is a wildflower resembling a daisy that grows in the mountains of Europe and North America. Arnica is commonly used in topical herbal medicines to speed healing from bruises and other traumatic injuries. Arnica is thought to provide the body with pain relief as well as anti-biotic and anti-inflammatory benefits. 

-   Arnica contains sesquiterpene lactones, substances that are known to reduce inflammation and decrease pain. Arnica prevents bruising by keeping stimulating the white blood cells to disperse trapped blood and fluid from the site of injury. Arnica’s effectiveness as a treatment for bruising, sports injuries, and inflammation is well established and many commercial creams used for treatment of pain, bruising, and swelling contain arnica as an active ingredient. Arnica creams are also used to treat pain and inflammation resulting from carpel tunnel syndrome and arthritis.

-   Arnica can also be used externally to treat tired, overstressed muscles. One study performed in Norway showed that marathon runners who applied arnica to their skin before the event experienced less pain and stiffness afterward. Arnica is a relaxing addition to the bath, and has been shown to be particularly helpful for soaking tired, aching feet. 

I can vouch for how well this works. Wile just last night I had my foot stomped on by a mare. I picked her foot up to put it on the stand and she stiff-legged and STOMPED as hard as she could on the top of my foot and just kept her hoof there until I squalled and gave her a what-for. Rubbed Arnica on it and voila, no bruise. My back was also a bit stiff this morning from fighting a mare with arthritic hocks last night and as soon as I rubbed arnica on it not 15 minutes later it had loosened up. Great stuff. 

The only bad thing I found about this stuff? Well the gel has alcohol/the gel/not sure? in it. I had some on me once and spent the day in the sun and it burnt me. I don't burn easily and it was in the area I rubbed it on and nowhere else. Just cover it up I guess.

So what do you have to do to receive this amazing homeopathic remedy? Well I'll tell you. 

1. You must be a follower of this blog.

2. Post here in a comment with either a story (with pics? Please if you have them) or a link to your story of a bad bruise, bump, break, crack, tumble or otherwise unplanned bodily meeting with a substance harder than yourself

3. Tell your friends! If you have a blog I would love to see a mention of this contest and how wonderful Arnica is. I love this stuff, I am sure you will too!

This contest will end next weekend! Get telling those bruise stories and please, no intentional bruising for the purpose of this contest hehe!



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

How do you feed your horse? Please help me out.

Just a survey of sorts to help with another blog post. I would be very grateful if you guys could vote on the poll. If your answers are not up there I would LOVE comments!!


"omnomnomnom, belly deep grass"


How often are your horses fed hay in summer?
  
pollcode.com free polls 




How often do you feed grain/mineral supplement in the summer?
  
pollcode.com free polls 




How do your horses get water?
  
pollcode.com free polls 




What is your biggest feeding fear
  
pollcode.com free polls 



I really appreciate your input. Thanks! Please feel free to comment I would love to hear how you feed your horses.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Pants + Pepe = ?

Maverick said my ass couldn't fit in his pants.

I think this proves him wrong. 


Doesn't my ass look cute in these pants?


Sorry Pokey, Pepe wears the pants. ;)

Friday, June 8, 2012

I'll always have this in my first aid kit

If you haven't used Arnica or don't believe all us believers claims here's a photo to make you a believer.

This is a foot. If you notice the toes and side below the metatarsal area which you can't see well, is purple and bruised.



This was one day after it happened. It was sore but not unmanageable.
The injury was not shoeing related. Rocky had a bit of a meltdown about little Moose being haltered by me. Maverick was holding her when we should have tied her and she stepped on his foot and spun. I rubbed arnica on the metatarsal area. He had steel toed boots on and his toes didn't even get stepped on, the bruising is secondary. You can see the circular place where I rubbed Arnica and missed his toes, not even thinking they would bruise. Now four days later the bruising is completely gone thanks to this amazing product!

I've always used the gel. I find it absorbs better and doesn't leave a residue, heat or cooling sensation. The pain or swelling is just magically gone it seems. I've used it on horses, dogs and cats before too. It's something I have in both my tack box and the medicine cabinet. The best thing about Arnica is it comes from the plant, Arnica Montana, making it a natural product. Over here in the USA I seem to find it at walgreens consistently. So who has tried Arnica? Does anyone have any really neat bruising/swelling stories like this one? Please do share!

Monday, June 4, 2012

Lookie what I found!!

So here's the story. In December I trained a young mare for a friend and she gave me this paint mare, Rocky.



I know, Sydney, disliker of paint horses has a paint horse. Shes papered and pretty darned sensible minus one incident after first getting off the trailer where she drug Maverick, his father and his "big boy" brother in law on the end of a 40 foot rope at the same time and was gaining speed at a gallop. After a few "come to me Jesus" moments Rocky now leads and yields to pressure like a horse who's actually been haltered the previous 9 years of their life. She really didn't have a halter on until we got her let alone being caught, feet done etc. All of which she does well now. Shes one smart cookie.

Anyway I started to notice Rocky wasn't muscling up and thinning out like she should have been a couple months ago. Then she started bagging up a couple weeks ago. I knew what was ahead but she was sneaky and when I went out this morning I found this leggy little colt tottering around.



He promptly came right up to see me, hours old.



 (I look spaced out, I was talking to Maverick who was sitting on the footing of a beam in the barn)


He didn't have a name until a few seconds ago when "Moose" was suggested on facebook. Moose it is!!

Now to find what the heck Rocky was bred to before I owned her. Ugh!!!!



Saturday, June 2, 2012

What does every horse deserve in it's life?

Every horse deserves once in it's lifetime to be loved by a little girl.

Indigo is lucky enough to have a growing army.




Here is her latest victim of spotty horse love, Blondie.

Who loves your horse, other than yourself?
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