If you sell it, people will buy it. So it seems, in order to feel like a better horse owner. I've bought some silly things in my life but yesterday S showed me something new.
A supplement designed for Arabians and Thoroughbreds, because they have weak nerves and stormy temperaments, and a higher percentage of alpha-muscle fibers than other breeds.
Here are the ingredients:
Meadowsweet*, rose hips, ginkgo, birch leaves, nettle, dandelion, milk thistle fruit, dried apple strips.
* - herbal aspirin
The muscle fiber thing is different because I'd always heard that Arabs have slow twitch muscles for aerobic work, and TBs fast twitch for anaerobic. If you know what an alpha-muscle fiber is, please let me know.
S asked me what I thought of the supplement and I said maybe it's for horses who get no grass at all, and only have poor hay, that it can't hurt.
Oh, now I notice that they also produce different supplements specifically for Friesians, Tinkers, Haflingers, and Icelandics. This reminds me of the bags of grain I saw that said "For Western Horses" and the other bags "For Dressage Horses." Oh wait, they make that too. For Quarters, Paints, and Appys. Oh how fun it must be to have a food label with your breed on the label.
Here is the line that bothers me: "Quarters, Paints, Apaloosa & Co. haben ganz besondere Ansprüche an eine Mineralstoff-, Vitamin- und Spurenelementversorgung." It says QH, etc have totally unique nutrient requirements. Well, compared to cats, yes.
I told S that nutrient requirements do not vary by breed. They vary by life stage and activity, and you might have to adjust the diet to account for a deficiency in a region. Weather also plays a role. Of course some breeds are more likely to suffer from an abundance of food (or starch/sugar) than others, but I don't see that as a difference in nutrient requirements.
Then she told me she bought their "Hay-dust-stop" product. It's an herbal tonic that you spray onto the hay to fight the dust that makes horses cough, because she doesn't want to keep soaking his hay in Winter. It's 29.50E for a half liter.
***
Thinking back on products I used to find indispensable - I sure miss the smell of Absorbine Liniment. I used to mix some with water for bathing Baasha and it made him smell well-loved.: ) I have no idea if liniments have been proven to work, but I would love to bathe a horse in it again on a hot day. Dang, it's 3 times as expensive here as back home. And similar German products are even more. OK then!
***
I've been perusing the ads, as always, and found some to share.
This one says, in the first sentence: "Beautiful egyptian Arabian with good gaits and a beautiful long mane." Take a look at the mane. (So many ads for Arabians talk about their manes and forelocks - wth.)
This "white" endurance Arabian is 5K Euros and comes with a bone chip in his fetlock. (The ad is in English.) Although they'll return your money if he becomes lame in the first 2 years, 5 thousand Euros!
This one looks good to me, and in the two photos of her in the snow, she's got my halter! I don't know what "middle to good temperament" means though.
S sent me this one simply because she knew that's what Baasha looked like when he was 3 (except Baasha had a black mane and 4 white socks). I love the honesty of the ad: "He's very nervous in the woods alone", "we haven't cantered him yet" but although he's 15.3, "due to his sporty conformation, he's unable to carry much weight." That's a strange way to put "delicate of build."
Here is the only interesting horse to me in all the ads. Check out his demeanor in the woods - head low, all 4 feet on the ground, seemingly able to hold still for a moment. It looks like he's been the beloved horse of someone for 10 years, and gone on endurance rides and on riding vacations. Ugly head and neck, post-legged behind (check the photo of her hugging him, you can see the bad hind legs in that photo best), but I would go see him....if he wasn't almost in Denmark.
I'm still waiting on a recheck of the bay Hannover horse. I keep looking at the photos we took and I am convinced his laid back personality is exactly what I'm looking for. His owner and I shared emails this week about how we're trying to be patient.
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8 comments:
People still swear to me that those blankets with magnets sewn in have Speshel Heeling Property's (tm) but I'm skeptical. I look around at the racetrack, where the ponies represent a paycheck (or not) and I don't see magnets. I do see good hay, clean water, and some vitamins (and licorice, which Fiddle hates--maybe the reason she failed at the track?!)
I am similarly unimpressed by tumeric, garlic, and whatever the newest health fad is. My horse gets pasture, hay, beetpulp, carrots. and apples, plus a seleniumm supplement. she gets brushed when she's dirty, a roof when it's raining, and some goats to bite when she feels peevish.
The feed and supplement companies probably hate people like me...
I like the almost in Denmark one.I'm I correct in translating 156cms to 15.3hh? Seems like the nicest horses are always far away. Those woods are lovely. How many miles to almost in Denmark (or KMs)? I like his eye. It looks kind.
Are you serious about the last horse having and ugly head and neck? He has big, kind eyes, unlike the teeny eyed grey in the first ad. His hind legs don't seem terrible, how far is Denmark anyway? Though it is telling that you're still thinking of the bay.:) Hope something works out soon!
Aarene, I told S that some people are feeding coconut pulp/oil to horses in America and she said she wouldn't feed anything a horse wouldn't naturally eat. I said that naturally horses do not encounter carrots or beet pulp and neither are bad for horses. Or seashells as a source of glucosamine - that's not natural. Magnets - they put magnets on Priceless Gold's legs at vet checks, with the permission of the vet. That was my first time seeing that.
KB, yes 156 is 15.3, as well as a few other hands measurements (I still have to look it up). It's 553km to the town where that horse is near Denmark - over 5 hours with no traffic.
2 Punk Dogs, his eye is sweet but his head is kind of odd, it's long and has a strange shape, in my opinion. He has a ewe neck, bulging on the bottom, but it's not set badly and not too short. I'm not looking for a nice head and neck, I just wanted to point it out.
MaCor, I had looked up meadowsweet on wiki because I hadn't heard of it before. I hate to think people are really that ignorant.
"over 5 hours with no traffic."
Except the A7 is under construction between Hamburg and Neumünster (well, there are a few km of normal Autobahn in between) and not exactly famous for its well-flowing traffic even when not under construction. I don't know how many hours of my life I spent standing on that part of the A7 when I still lived up North.
That first one has a nice trot! How old is that one? Looks young.
The bone chip one... That is crazy!!
I really like the third one. She's really pretty!
The last one is pretty to me... Not sure about the posty legs though... That can lead to hock and arthritis issues if it's severe enough. I can't really tell how bad it is though. Are you reconsidering a gray or still trying to avoid one?
Miss T, thank you. I actually did it anyway and I busted up my new car. My sweet new car is rattling now because I drove it on the bumpy A7 at 185kph. A7 is exactly like an American highway. We are going to have to take our newish car back to the dealer and say HEY NOW. And I sheepishly asked my man, "Shouldn't Germany pay, when ONE autobahn so crappy is that it messed up your car?" ?? If any Americans are reading this, don't.
Achieve, I don't honestly know. I'm glad you are wary as I am of posty hind legs. I'm laughing a little cuz I thought you knew I'd given up on my grey-ban. No, I don't want to, But I see I must. It was so silly of me *blush*
Nope I must have missed the fact that you had lifted the gray ban hehe. It wasn't silly of you. It reminded you too much of Baasha and you were still hurting too much. In a breed like the Arabian it was very limiting though. I'm hopeful you can find more prospects now.
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