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I have a heads up here....for an injury my horse
received while horse camping. (Northern Calif)
About 3 weeks ago, some friends and i went
horse-camping at Lake Corville Horse Camp. Oroville
has been so fortunate to have a supervisor who is
horse-friendly, and has promoted the development
of a great horse camp. The camp is laid out
well, with drive through sites, pipe panels, hot showers,
wash racks, and a new round pen with sand.
The trails are great and maked well. We had camped
there in June, which was too hot, and wanted to
come back in the fall. We discovered, in the months since June, that the
old feeding/tie stations had been removed, and more pipe panels added to the
inside of the circle.
As the camp was pretty full...I put my horses in
these new panels. Now...they are a bit smaller than most
panels
I have seen at horse camps (Jack Brooks, Cuneo
Creek, etc). We got up Sunday morning to find Shasta with
a back hoof covered in blood, and a cut that went
really deep down into the hoof, heel bulbs and coronary band.
Upon examination, we noticed that these new panels
(Powder River), were not round pipe (like the panels on
the outside of the loop), but U shaped, with an
opening at the bottom of each pipe and an edge. It does not
feel very sharp to the touch, but obviously will
cut deeply when a horse rolls and gets a foot under the rail and
panics. (you can tell if you came up against it
hard it would cut). Had she got a foot under a round pipe,
she
might have banged or bruised her foot, but not cut
it . I told several rangers, and also called Park Headquarters. My
farrier also said that typically, Powder River panels are considered more for
livestock use, not
horses. So.....a warning on Powder River
Panels.....don't use them! I feel bad about making a complaint
about
an otherwise, very good horse facility, but don't
want other horses hurt! With the corrals being so small (10 x10), it is
inevitable that when horses roll, they might stick a foot through....If you go
to Oroville, use the outside pens.
So....here is the question. With having to
keep this darn cut wrapped (changing every day), cleaning stall twice a day,
darn horse is still getting wrapping wet by sticking foot in water bucket, or
new poop pile......so while the cut is keeping fairly clean.....the continued
moisture against her pastern has caused........SCRATCHES!!! Okay,
what are
the magic ingredients? How do I kill this
stuff?? Anyay, the injury was bad enough this horse will still need to be
wrapped several more weeks.....
Karen
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