This is Cub and Molly's page! This is where you get to meet the horses, find out what they like, their favourite treats, feeding routine, particular quirks, shoe size and funny habits. There's also quick links to all our horse related sponsors.
| feeding | equipment | vet care | hoof care | ||
Feeding, nutrition and herbal supplements:
Molly and Cub get a variety of stuff in their feed each day which includes Oaten and Lucerne Chaff, Cool Command, and grass hay.
To help me get the best out of the feeds I use and balance their nutritional requirements I use Equilize software which is designed to assist horse owners with determining their horse's feeding necessities.
I add herbal supplements for their general well being - kindly supplied by Country Park Herbs - including Garlic, Rosehips and Dolomite.
For external healing I swear by tea-tree oil ointment [to prevent infection], arnica [for bruising] and comfrey [for knocks and repairing damaged tissue].
A couple of good books [both Australian] I recommend for further reading are:
The Practical Horse
Herbal, by Victoria Ferguson
Natural Horse Care, by Pat Coleby
Also: Feeding Horses In Australia, published by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation [RIRDC]. The book is available for free download [click the link above]. The comercial version of this is John Kohnke's "Feeding And Nutrition of Horses" which is available through Vetsearch [Virbac].
Treats:
Molly and Cub love treats!
Welcome additions to feed [and any other time] are apples, carrots and bread.
I'm absolutely certain they would think that sugar sweets are also a good idea. However this is something I prefer not to encourage as I have to keep in mind their dental health!
Hay Bags: One of the things I really enjoy doing is making stuff by hand. Particularly if I can recycle something to do it, or make something out of natural materials. I recently made a couple of Hay Bags for the horses using old hessian potato sacks.
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This is one of the Hay Bags I made recently. It will hold a couple of biscuits of hay easily without much of the spillage you get from a net. It also has a flap that you can fold back over the hay if you wish. |
The Hay Bag with the flap closed. |
13
June 2003: Cub and Molly had their annual visit from the dentist this
week. Peter Borgdorff is the local Equine Dental specialist and he has kindly
donated his time to see that Molly and Cub's teeth are in good order for the
trip. You can read more about Peter's work and find his contact details on
the sponsors page. There's a quicklink
to his website below.
Left: Peter sees to Cub's teeth
There's a saying that goes "no hoof no horse" and never a truer word was spoken. The hoof structure and soundness affects so much of the horse's stability and movement - the joints, bones, ligaments and tendons of the leg and back. It's one of the major logistical elements of this whole trip, keeping the horses feet in good condition. Maybe I should have said logistical nightmares because it can actually be quite difficult to find farriers willing to shoe the larger horses. And of course each farrier has his own methods and opinions; consistency is another key factor.
To this end my current farrier, Trev McKewan, has been teaching me to shoe Cub and Molly because the liklihood is that I will need to be able to do it more often than not. After a few hours I have to say I have a real appreciation for the work farriers do - it is hard work! I like working with Trev too. He's consistent in his teaching methods and he makes me do it until I get it right. He also tolerates my cursing and swearing with a great deal of good humour!!!
Saddle Up (Saddleworld) in Ringwood are also supporting me in my efforts by providing me with the tools I need to keep the horse's feet in good order - rasp, knife, nippers, hammer etc.
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Nailing on the front shoes. |
And then the back. |
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Left: Trev shoes me how the professionals pull shoes as we prepare to do Molly's off hind. |
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