Freedom And Motion Equine Park

20/02/2025

At the start of the season, with increased workload and travel, gut health/muscle and nervous system health become a priority for peak performance 👌
Mag a GG and equi gesta pre

Available at Bacchus marsh natural health.

17/02/2025

We’re halfway through February, which means it is nearly March, which means it is almost “autumn”, which means it's time for this annual post, to catch you all before you drench your horses on the 1st of March.

Mid - late autumn is the No. 1 time of year to worm your horses, because it ties in best with breaking the bot-fly life cycle. A bot fly’s lifecycle is 12 months, so treating just once a year will break that lifecycle (and overtime decrease bot fly populations). By mid-autumn/early winter, the entire population of bot flies will be inside your horse, which means you can target all the bots on your property with a single dosage of a boticide dewormer (ivermectin, abamectin, moxidectin).

If you deworm your horses too early in autumn, you will not be targeting all the bot flies as they are often present well into autumn, laying eggs on your horses coat. If you deworm on the 1st of March, there will be bot flies, and subsequently bot eggs and larvae that come after the treatment and will remain within your horse for the year.

Therefore, hold off on the autumn deworming a little longer, if your horses are in good condition. Wait until the nights cool down and the bot flies disappear before deworming – and make sure that the dewormer you purchase is active against bots, otherwise it will all be in vain. If your horses need to be treated now, do so, but make sure you target bot flies again in early winter. The “first frost” method simply means it is cold enough that the bots will be finished. Australia frosts are not cold enough to actually kill any worms in the ground – these need consistent days of below zero temperatures (think Northern European/American winters)

So that’s my bot-fly spiel. Normally I write about strongyles (my favourite), and so I shall of course make a mention of them here too.
I always recommend a mid-late autumn deworming for ALL HORSES because it a) cleans out any bots and b) all horses really should have a strongyle clean out once a year as well. I may be against deworming for the sake of deworming, however that is only if you are doing it 3 or 4 or more times a year.

Strongyles can have a lifecycle of as little as 6 weeks. In addition, at any one point, about 90% of the strongyle population is living on the pasture, not in the horse. Therefore, the concept of using chemical dewormers inside the horse to break the lifecycle of strongyles would not work. At all. So, we chose our annual deworming-clean-out to line up with as many other parasites as possible.

All boticide dewormers are also effective against strongyles so deworming in autumn is a 2 for 1 type deal. You should also consider using a dewormer that also contains praziquantel to treat for tapeworms to get a complete clean out, just in case tapeworms are present. WormCheck does offer a tapeworm specific FEC now, if you wanted to check beforehand to avoid the overuse of praziquantel. (There have been some scary reports of praziquantel resistance in Europe.)

Lastly… wait, second lastly.. this is a topic too complex to get into here, but: this time of year is key for larval cyathostomins, where encysted larvae have mass emergences from the intestine wall, in response to changes in weather (e.g. in VIC as it cools and becomes wetter again). Deworming and removing adult populations of worms can act as a trigger for larval re-emergence, which is also why I often baulk at deworming horses now. The larvae may slowly re-emerge coming into the cooler weather and treating in mid-late autumn may be a safer bet to remove adults and emerged larvae. The research on this is sketchy as best, however these are patterns shown in cattle and hypothetically should translate over into horses.

And lastly (pat on the back for reading this far): just because I’m recommending deworming all horses does not mean I am not recommending FECs in autumn. A FEC will tell you important things about your horses health, and pick up anything odd that may be happening (e.g. a spike in EPG in a horse that is usually a low shedder; this is a sign of an impaired immune system, e.g. EMS, cushings). Doing an autumn FEC will also allow you to test drug efficacy. Autumn should be a key time for everyone to do a FECRT (faecal egg count reduction test), where you get FECs done before and after deworming to make sure that it worked. If you only deworm once a year, then you’ve only got one chance for a FECRT, and you cannot, I repeat, you CANNOT do a FECRT without a FEC before to compare to.

If you’d like to organise FECs and FECRTs for your horses this autumn, check out the website (link on the FB page) for postal submission and drop off points/events.

13/02/2025

Do you really understand how big your horse's lungs are? This picture is a horse's lungs fully inflated...amazing when you think they are enclosed in a horse's body! Did you know a horse takes in 2x 5-Gallon buckets of air ever second? Think of how much that really is. So, do the best you can to help your horse breathe!

08/02/2025

For whoever not knowing about this, it's always so worth sharing...
These are the so called “fairy slippers” that foals have over their hooves in order to protect the mom's uterus and birth canal. Then, right after the birth, these soft “feathers” dry up and fall off, so that the foal's hooves quickly harden and are ready for standing up.
Nature is simply perfect 😍

01/02/2025

Start thinking of who you want in your marquees and start booking!! 🏇🏾🐎🐴

23/01/2025

Equines and losing their herd mates.
Most equines don’t process death in the same way we do, but its important to understand how they look at it.
Firstly its they way they understand it, they can watch it but it does not mean much, it’s the smell that tells them. So horses should be allowed to smell their departed friend, this is two part, firstly its for them to work out they have died, second part is they will be smelling for adrenalin and endorphins. Generally animals don’t fear death but they fear pain and the process of dying, which if most people are honest is the same for us, most people don’t fear death it’s the getting there, when its your time most people just hope its instant or they go in their sleep, animals are often the same.
You can put a horse down with another one watching and they will often finish their bucket of food before they go to investigate why their mate is laying down. Then they smell a lot around the dead one and if there is no adrenalin or endorphins then they died quickly and were not attacked, so nothing to worry about, even though they saw it the nose overrides all other senses, (hence why horses dislike the wind, stops them smelling in one direction)
So how do we help the horses, ponies etc accept the death of a herd member.
Time is the most important thing, giving them long enough to investigate.
The best thing is to put down the horse in an area that’s safe to let their heard mates into afterwards loose.
This is because some horses run “tests” to check they are dead, this will involve walking in arcs up to them, running away in short bursts (trying to get a flight response) grazing next to dead ones head, pawing with hooves, sometimes biting. If there is some blood they will often put on their nose or taste it, again checking for adrenalin or endorphins to ensure that they are safe and it was not a lion hiding in hedge that killed it. They will then walk away grazing and return about 3 times, after this they accept it and just walk away.
The time it takes varies on the position in herd of the one that’s dies, (one that has been pushed out of herd due to being ill the others will only take 20min to accept as they were expecting it, on other hand if it’s the leader of herd that unexpectedly died, accident etc, it takes far longer as no one is giving instructions so the upset is 2 fold this might take a hour and a half to accept whilst sniffing)
Also the breed is big factor, Shetland ponies for example only take a few minutes (they appear hard and uncaring often due to this) where a thoroughbred or Arab takes on average 45min to accept.
Leading a horse up to dead one tends to slow process down or sometimes they don’t understand at all as they will try to feed of body language of the one who’s leading them and we are not good at horse body language. If there is no choice due to are its still better then not showing them at all but its best done with long lead rope and keeping it as loose as possible to allow the horse to jump around as remember this is partly how they work it out.
The more horses in the herd the quicker they will figure out that’s one died but its nothing to worry about as they will look to each other.
Some special cases, donkeys are terrible at being so attached they one died they will pine to death, so they need another animal for company when their mate goes and we find they should have a least 12 hours with their deceased friend, this is why when we put down donkeys we recommend they we put it down one day and we will come back next day to collect, even trough this means 2 trips.
Mares when they lose their foals (or if foal pts ) again if we have put foal down and you are not going to foster mother then its best to do it and leave foal in stable for example where mother has free access, it can take her up to 48hr to realize her foal is dead and not just sleeping at which time she will bury it and its then safe to remove it without causing any upset.
All of this is why we allow at least a hour and a half for every horse we are putting down but are prepared to wait even longer if needed, 2 part it ensure the euthanasia is never rushed so we can ensure its instant and best as it can be but also the grieving process is vital to any other horse that are part of hear if they were attached. And the more time they have with their field mate who passed on the better.
If you have very closely bonded herd I’m always happy to discuss what’s the best way not only for the one who’s going but also for what’s best for their companions.
This photo shows a group of horses checking out their sadly deceased field mate, no stress just working it out and accepting it.

*edit*
I will add that the times I have said are different horse to horse and it's the time it takes them to normally understand the their friend has died and not just injured or sleeping.
Once they accept this they will then start to greve, like people some horses will take a few hour, some a few days and some a couple of weeks to get over a major change to their herd. But it's much better when they know what's happening to the other option my friend is missing and they will keep looking sometimes for months..

21/01/2025

Every case is unique but as a general rule we do not recommend feeding psyllium during extreme heat. Here’s why:

🐴 Increased Risk of Impaction Colic: Psyllium absorbs water in the large colon to form a gel-like substance, which is essential for binding sand. However, during hot weather, horses are at a higher risk of dehydration. If they aren’t drinking enough water, psyllium can dry out in the colon and increase the likelihood of impaction colic.

💧 How to Protect Your Horse:
* Postpone routine psyllium treatments until after the heatwave.
* Focus on maintaining hydration by providing fresh, clean water at all times.

For more information or to tailor a sand removal program specifically for your horse contact us on 0427 072 095 or:

Book an appointment online: https://avonridgeequine.com.au/book-an-appointment/

20/01/2025

18/01/2025

17/01/2025

Read this when your horse doesn’t fit your agenda on the day

13/01/2025

Spot on 👌

This is what it's all about, that red dot center of mass. The image shows where, when a horse is standing still, the mean of all the horse's bone, soft tissue and everything converges and where a horse feels their physical center. Horses feel this all the time, standing or moving. It's their center of physical comfort. As riders, it is our responsibility to keep that center more or less in the same centered place, so the horse always feels comfortable.

The percentages shown, front or back are expressed in plus or minus because every horse is a little different. This is due to conformation differences. If the horse's back is longer than average, the percent in the back gets a little larger. If a horse's neck is longer than is typical, the percentage in the front gets a little larger. Every horse is different.

The first thing I do when I get on a horse I have never ridden is feel where that red dot is for the particular horses I ride. This is so I can preserve it as best I can when I ride. And BTW for the nit pickers, some people call it the center of balance or gravity, but the name doesn't matter. What matters is the horse feels good when it's in that centered place.

And then we move off from standing still and the horse's center of mass begins to change. If we ride well, when the center changes along the line of impulsion (yellow lines), and if our horse is fit and we have the feel and the skill to keep that red in our horse's comfortable physically centered place, we have a great ride.

That's it folks. There isn't much more to riding well than this. It is all about the physics of energy and mass. We have to feel it. Some of us, who have watched riders and horses in lessons, training and competition almost every day for decades, can see it. When we teach, we don't teach forms like heels down or more hip angle. We teach, "let the horse move you" so you can feel it. When we train a horse, it's about keeping that red dot in the horse's comfortable center. When we judge, we evaluate how far from that center a rider mistakenly moves that center out from where the horse needs it.

If there was ever an "easier said than done" context, it is riding a horse well. This is why riders after a lifetime of riding, even with great instructors and horses, say they never learned enough. It's that challenging. But we do it anyway because nothing feels better than getting closer to this goal. This is the paradox of horsemanship, enjoying the impossibility of it all.