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Re: [RC] When to call animal control? - rides2farFor example, our horses (even the one that is retired) never go more than 8> weeks without farrier care. Some people think 12 weeks is OK (IMHO, this is borderline OK), others go to twice a year (bad, but is it abuse?). I think that if you want to call not being trimmed every 8 or 12 weeks abuse you'll have to lock up half the country. I see far more horses killed with kindness. Is letting a horse *founder* abuse? Sure feels like it to the horse..but that's not the sort of thing anybody's going to get in trouble for. As far as coggins for a backyard pony? Why is anybody worried? Where's that pony traveled to be exposed? The law locally, unless it's changed in the last few years stated you had to have a coggins to sell or transport a horse. Or..if more than 5 horses not all owned by the same person are kept together. I think that's how it went. Chances are that pony was perfectly legal. As to worming? I read a study where they tested a show stable that wormed religiously but had crowded pasture conditions and compared that to a horse in an open field with cows that had never been wormed. The show horses had the higher load. Innoculations. Well...other than tetenous how does a pony who never goes anywhere get exposed? I'd rather see the people who spend very limited money on the animal buy hay. TWICE I have had to deal with people I knew who thought they were *great* horse owners. Both times I was shocked when I saw how thin their horses had gotten. Both had had the vet out and paid for blood tests etc. By the time they called me for advice and I went in the horses were *very* thin and they'd spent quite a bit of money. Both times the horse was HUNGRY. They did things like put a round bale out with a dominent horse that ran this one off. Or, they put out horrible quality hay that was little more than straw...which they paid full price for because they were clueless. Both thought they were blameless because they'd spent a lot of money. I get very discouraged at times when vets don't take the time to look at things like that or explain themselves. I went to look at a pony on a beautiful farm once. It was tied to an old bathtub with a 30' rope in one corner of a huge green field. When I got out there the pony had elf feet he was so foundered. When I commented on that the guy said, "Yeah, we had the vet out. He said we can't let him have the green grass any more". When I walked closer guess what was in the bathtub? 50 POUNDS OF SWEET FEED! All that guy knew was that he couldn't have grass. So he gave him free choice grain from then on. :-P There's a lot of clueless people out there. If that pony you're worried isn't foundering and isn't hungry he's better off than most. If he's staying home and yours are traveling yours are more likely to expose him to illness than the other way around. Angie ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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