Hello there

So I think that the owners of Safe Haven may just kick me out simply because I find way too many things that are wrong.

Last week I found an injured horse nothing too bad just a scrape on the ankle that needed to be taken out of the mud so that it wouldn't get infected.  I could just hear everybody mentally sighing in their heads (including my own) about having to put her in isolation, when all of our isolation pens are really only meant for the summer.

Then yesterday I of course had to find ANOTHER problem.  I was holding one of the horses because we were trimming his feet no big deal, and well I felt a few little bumps from scabs or something.  So I took a closer look because I like to know every inch of my animals bodies about as well as I know my own.  Well as I looked I realized they were scabs and was wondering what could have caused the scabs.  It is the middle of winter and there are absolutely no flies around.

So what could be causing these scabs?

Taking a very very close look, I found these little tiny yellowish bugs.  I almost thought they were something, it didn't completely freak me out until I realized they were moving!!!!!  I then had my friend also look at them to make sure I was not going insane and even she agreed that it was some sort of external parasite.  Now external parasites are not something I have dealt with a lot over the years, except the garden variety of flies.  So of course I called an expert and she told me that they were either bots or lice.

Upon some research when I got home I learned a few things about both bots and lice. Can you guess which is which?

 

 

Well the top one is lice and the bottom is a bot fly.  I guess my worst fears came true... Safe Haven has lice.  The other deciding factor is that bots are around in the spring and summer months, where as lice thrive in the winter months. 

 

Interesting right? I thought for sure that both would only live in the summer months.  And also I found the lice on the neck/wither areas of the horse, and that is also the most common place you find lice.  There are also two types of horse lice the biting type and also the sucking type of lice.  I am pretty darn sure we have the sucking type since I watched one attach to one of the scabs and start sucking blood.  The other type of lice is the type that eats the dandruff off of the horses.  There are a variety of treatments and medicines out there that can be used.  Though I found one website with a lot of home remedies and the one that intrigued me the most with how thorough and easy it is plain white vinegar.  Who would have thought???  So next time I find lice on a horse I am going to go into the pantry and grab a bottle of vinegar to spread onto the affected areas.

My two cents

So I know this has nothing to do with the horse rescues, but in some ways it particularly does. 

Over the past few months aka a year or so I have been wondering what each horse can teach to riders.  So when I try and match up riders with horses I try to match up for three things: skill level, personality, and horses that are being underworked.  Each horse has a lesson to teach us and I believe it is important to learn those lessons with as much of an open mind as possible.  Sometimes the decrepit horse has more too teach us than any other young horse ever has. 

There is an old horse I know that is as stubborn as a mule but underneath all that roughness is really a sweet old lady that has some great training on her.  (Lol now that I think about it I know another horse like that who is a grouchy old man.) These horses have some very important lessons to teach us and too many simply miss the point that under all that dust is actually an amazing horse.  Such lessons include not judging a horse purely on looks or on first impressions, to know for sure where you are headed and why, to be able to effectively put your point across, and balance.  Now I know those things seem like a far stretch from what old Lucy can teach you, from riding her.  Though at the end of the day when all is said and done you will be surprised at just how much a horse can teach you.

I know that in the past and still to this day I have had issues believing that there is any lesson attached to riding a certain horse except just to give that horse some exercise.  Usually at the end of these rides I am convinced of either two things my instructor gave me a valuable lesson or she is quite simply trying to torture me.  As I look back on the past I realize the importance of some of those torture rides and why I was forced to do what I did. 

So I guess what I am trying to say is don't turn your nose up at a horse just because they are old or not as pretty as the others.  Each and everyhorse has a lesson that they can teach you.