Coming Clean

First! Happy 13 Years to Dakota! You've survived me owning you this long!

The last two days haven't been the greatest for Echo getting to move out of post trailer stiffness with being stuck in a stall all day but today she finally got turned back out and from sounds of it was very pleased. 

Exploring the arena yesterday to stretch her legs for a few minutes.

Monday she has a general vet exam to make sure there is nothing medically wrong with her to cause some of the antics she was displaying in Texas. I want to rule out uterus problems again as well. From there she will also get a clean bill from a dentist and chiropractor. No excuses. She was just done by the farrier but when Dakota gets done in the next week I'll make sure he doesn't see the need to even her out in any way. 

I saw her stretching oddly in her stall last night. Whether it's being stiff from being boxed up in a trailer and now a stall or if she's sore somewhere I'm not 100%. I do know I got a bit of a reaction from her when I ran my hand over her back - so I think there could be something there. My vet will point me the right direction for sure.

Her diet is very basic for now. No grain. Just my own blend of this and that. I'll post my insane blend once I have it the way I want it and am keeping it. It's going to be tricky because while I'm trying to do everything to stay away from things that could make her hot, she needs to gain weight (again). She was supposedly eating 8lb a day of Triple Crown complete in Texas. I can easily see her ribs from the side, not even at an angle. 

Once temperatures are stable again and she has clean bill from vet, dentist and chiropractor one of the girls at the barn is going to put 30 days on her of just basic riding. Just to ride out any initial bucks or quirks she may put out. The things that should of been done in Texas.

Cold and ready to go back inside to have her other blankets put back on.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things: Supplements

Calming

• Finish Line Thia-Cal
• Calm and Cool - Great product but it test positive for showing.
• Mare Magic - The miracle supplement. Love. Love. Love. Dakota had to be taken off of it because it worked too well. Plus it doesn't test!
• SmartCalm - I've used the Regular and the Ultra version of this. They now make it in pellet form too which is nice. Worked really well when I used it.
• Calm and Cool Paste - Favorite one time use calmer.
• Finish Line Quia-Cal - Favorite non testing one time use calmer.

Electrolytes

• SmartLytes
• Apple-A-Day

Hoof

• SmartHoof - The only hoof supplement I've ever personally seen results from. I've used all forms of Regular or Ultra, Powder or Pellet. Improved hoof quality, growth, basically everything!

Joint / Tendon

• SmartTLC - If you couldn't tell yet, I love SmartPak supplements. I'm sure all of the products in the SmartFlex line are great but the TLC is what I've tried out on Dakota as a prevenative mostly and to help keep existing problems from getting worse.
• AniMed MSM - My favorite MSM to use.
• AniFlex Complete - Dakota didn't really like eating this one. Smells strong of yeast, but still have to include it because 1) I tried it for nearly a year 2) I noticed -some- improvement and it would be great as a prevenative for the price.
• Liquid Motion - Switched to this when Dakota stopped eating the AniFlex Complete. I noticed better results with this one.
• Cosequin ASU - If you have th emoney to spend, go for a Cosequin product. I've never personally used it, but I've seen it work miracles on horses.
• SmartTendon - I'm pretty sure this is one of those supplements that is controversial. Surely no supplement could really help tendons. Well I know one horse that always bows a tendon if he's not on this one. When Dakota bowed his tendon and was off over a year, I gave this to him starting 3 months after the injury and fed it for 6 months. I noticed significant tendon improvement in that time.

Multi-Vitamin / Multi-Mineral

• Horse Health Vita E and Selenium
• Source Original
• Mega-Cell

Ulcer / Digestion

• ProCMC - Used this a long time ago on a whacked out thoroughbred. He was definitely improved when he was on this.
• U-7 - By far my favorite!! One of my previous horses was on this and her coat improved, behavior, etc. We tried taking her off and she deteriorated almost immediately. Worth every single penny.
• SmartGut - Haven't tried it but would be willing to give it a go based on reviews and the fact I trust SmartPak supplements.

Skin / Coat

• SmartDark & Hansom - SmartPak version of Dark as Knight, which I prefer. Keeps dark coats dark! But sadly it test in drug testing.
• SmartShine
• The oils listed below always help too!

Energy / Blood Builders

• Red Cell - Can add energy to a horse, but I've noticed a good difference at same time every time I've used it.

Oils

• AniMed Flax Seed Oil - This is a staple for all of my feeding times - love it.
• McCauleys All Natural Rice Bran Oil - GREAT product. I've seen it add weight too.

Treats

• Triple Crown Horse Treats - Hard to find but good quality and horses love them.
• Meadow Mints - Love all of this company's products.
• FlaxSnax
• Giddyap Girls Biscuits - Thought Dakota was going to collapse the first time he had these. He LOVES them.

My supplement chaos that I have previously gone into detail about.

Next I'll be reviewing "Grooming" - perfect timing for winter mud!

Supplements The Lazy Way

Before I start... I'd like to say I love SmartPak and if they carried the 3-4 supplements I use I'd probably get SmartPak's for both horses. I love their services, supplements, all of it so this is nothing against them. But alas, I don't see the point in SmartPak's if I'm still going to be scooping supplements for ones that they don't carry. Also for the record, I've contacted SmartPak about carrying this particular brand of supplements.

So I bought 8 packs of the Gladware 3oz food containers, 4 packs for each horse - 32 individual containers for each. The 8 packs came out to roughly $30. Then I bought 2 drawers to store the containers in which came out to about $16. So for $46 I have reusable containers that the amount I spent, makes up for what I'd save in using all SmartPak supplements in about a month and a half's time.

Before I made this decision - I took a step back and looked at my combo of supplements to make sure nothing would interfere with each other by being mixed together. I do this anyway before I decide what supplements to feed at what meal but being mixed together adds a new element. 

Months worth being prepared.

Finished off with a therapeutic dose of psyllium! 

Pretty layers

30 fitted pretty in the drawer. I can squeeze 32 in there but it ruins the pretty-ness.

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Starting tonight I'm staying at my Grandparents. One good, or bad depending on how you look at it, about holiday weekends is it never fails I'm asked to pet sit. This time though, I've got my hands full.

Tuesday to Tuesday - Grandparents house. 15 min from my house, 20 to the barn and 35 to the college. Taking my cats with me since I'll be there a solid week. Yay for a house of 4 cats!

Thursday afternoon to Sunday afternoon - Neighbors dog and cat which means driving from my grandparents to her house multiple times a day.

Thursday night and Friday morning - Friends 2 dogs, cats and horse. At least this one is on my way to the others!

I can see already my time with my horses will be limited with my running around but I plan on doing some work with them at least Thursday and Friday afternoon / early evening.