What's different here

This is the time of year horses get vitamins. It is common practice to dose horses with vitamins and minerals during shedding season, because it is believed that the horses expend energy shedding, or lose their sharpness, I don't know, my next door neigbhor says she gives Shedding Season Vitamins because her horses feel off otherwise while in the "Coat Change" (literally translated from German).

It's like soccer or softball back home - riding lessons for kids. It's much more common here that kids learn to ride - even city kids get dropped off at the local stable for weekly group lessons. Even boys learn to ride at a young age. (I've heard they just don't get into the grooming part as much as the little girls do.) In talking to one mother last week, I found that most children begin with vaulting lessons and then move up to riding with saddles. I think that's ingenious. The kids get used to horses and find their balance while doing horsey ballet until they're ready to sit down on a horse's back. Cool.

Ezcema. What is up with that? It's a huge problem here, the horses have sun allergies and many, many have to wear sun suits. So many horses in Germany have "Summer Excema" that when you look at horses for sale, they usually list it in the ad, "160cm TB mare 10 years old. No ezcema." Weirdy. So apparently horses here have different medical issues, even though the climate is not that different from back home.

Oats are the enemy. Feed manufacturers have several types of grain that are advertised "Oat free." What's wrong with oats? I mean, why is corn so much better? (They all have corn instead.) From my research, corn is actually higher in energy, more likely to cause a "sugar high", and easier to overdose. (I feed straight up corn to Baasha cuz he needs calories.) But don't horses in Germany experience insulin resistance? (The two vets I've spoken to just looked at me oddly when I asked.) There are no low-starch feeds available. I read feed magazines a lot, to see what is available by the different firms. No mention of NSC. I read a label last week that was called "American" horse feed (or something silly, with an American flag on it), and it actually had oats, and said, "Oats are used in America are like corn is used in Germany." Then there's the total lack of a senior complete feed. Purina could make a fortune here, it's up to me, I guess, to blog about this so they find out. *giggle* It's fascinating to me, the difference in feeding trends. More details about the craziness you find in the catalogs here: Check it out.

People bring horses to remote areas and leave them. It seems to be part of the culture to utilize random fields for horses on a temporary basis. I'll be riding through the woods and come upon a sliver of a field where someone has put up an electric battery-powered fence and left a bunch of horses. I should say, in a 2 hour ride I found three examples of this. They will either stop by regularly in a car to bring more water, or use one of those water trailer things (a metal tank on wheels with a hitch and an automatic waterer gadget). There is no one around, no house, nothing. Just horses out there in random grassy areas allowed to graze them down. Every bit of land in Germany has its purpose, and if a particular acre is in between purposes, people ask the owner "Can I put my horses there this summer?" and so I come across these odd "abandoned" groups of horses living behind a strand of electric wire. The horses are lucky to be out, in my mind, it's better than overcrowding them at a barn, and it's really fun to visit with them, cuz they feel pretty isolated and come running to greeet us.

I took these pics yesterday from my bathroom window as the sun came up and hit Baasha, making his tail look way brighter than it actually is. It's still braided cuz my man has been practicing braiding my hair, and I wanted him to see a typical horse tail braid. (Braided loosely so Baasha won't notice it, hopefully.)