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Those podcasts came to mind, actually.

I generally keep a “doing the best I can” attitude and I don’t worry too much about what I can’t control. Once in a while the steam has to leave the kettle, though. I have been through the ringer with this horse, or at least it feels like it. I have never had one this expressive and this sensitive.… Read more

In my area of Georgia, while generally very mild, late fall and winter can be 3 seasons in one day. I suspect, as Doc said, my horse’s stress is primarily due to barometric pressure changes. I use colic in its literal definition since he had the Whitman’s Sampler of colic varieties for a few years.

With temperature swings come changes in barometric pressure and I think that is the culprit- or both. Either way, when a horse is balancing between feeling good and feeling bad (ie, chronically inflamed, bad people, bad environment, hates their job, etc) it doesn’t take much to go over the edge. In other words, the catch phrase “colic” may… Read more

I had no idea that temperature swings were a factor in colic. I read your post yesterday and thought “hmmm…maybe it’s particular to their region”. Then today I learned of a horse that died from colic in my area (north shore of Lake Ontario) this week and we have had a lot of temperature swings. There may have been other factors but thank… Read more

I, and many others, feel your pain. Remember the ancestry of TB’s are from a mix from deserts and the UK. I have asked before, how do you feed a Paso, an Icelandic and an Arabian all living in Biloxi Mississippi?

Horses are nomadic – they migrate seasonally much like New Yorkers drive south to FL in winter. When we become responsible for a… Read more

I think that most DOD diseases including osteochondrosis dessecans (OCD) develop in utero or early after birth in horses overfed with feed in excess of their daily needs. This leads to rapid growth of the bones from which OCD, epiphysitis and contracted tendons occur. These are secondary to the over feeding which causes the genetic… Read more

Is it fair to say that much of the OCD seen in young horses that are competed early in life is epigenetically induced by feeding extruded grains?

Kathy and I knew of the research and the researchers doing the growth studies at Cornell. They were actively working on the cause of developmental orthopedic diseases of foals (DOD). The bottom line is that foals will achieve their genetic potential for growth but pushing it to occur faster (or increasing their size) only led to DOD.… Read more

Hi Liz, Yes Geoff and I had a breeding farm in NY many years ago. Back then when we had broodmares we basically fed the routine oats & sweet feed combo. We always added Calf Manna or soybean meal to our mares and growing horses. Geoff can address this better but we did have issues with foals growing too fast. I have no experience with Growth… Read more