Foxfields Livery Stables

02/02/2025

💦 Mud Fever thrives in this wet and cold environment 🥶 so here’s a reminder about the condition and how to try to avoid it for your horse or pony.

The cause of mud fever is the bacteria Dermatophilus Congolensis and often mixtures of different bacterial species including Staphylococcal or Streptococcal strains. They get into the horse’s legs when the skin is softened due to being wet and then compromised by the rubbing of soil and grit on the cold, wet skin. When the skin is continually wet and chilled, the protective barrier of the skin breaks down allowing the bacteria to enter and cause infection.

Although it may feel counter-intuitive to leave the mud there – we suggest you AVOID HOSING YOUR HORSES LEGS DOWN WHEN THEY COME IN! If you feel you must use a hose, make sure to GENTLY dry the horse’s legs with a soft, clean, dry towel afterwards to make sure they warm up quickly. Excessive leg washing will weaken the skin and remove the natural grease that acts as a barrier resulting in cracks which can allow the entry of bacteria.

Our advice instead is when you bring your horse in, leave the mud where it is and put on indoor padded wraps to get the legs warm and dry. It is generally better to allow the mud to dry and then brush off with a soft bristled brush in the morning.
In order to help protect the skin from moisture, specialised barrier creams work by forming a protective layer between the leg and mud. Pig oil, or a good quality nappy rash cream, like Sudocrem, can work just as well and many owners swear by them. We also have our own Mud Fever cream we can offer.

Certain soils and pastures appear to be more likely to cause skin damage than others. Lots of work in certain sandy arenas and schools can be quite traumatic to the skin. To help, clipping the lower legs of the horse does mean that they dry more quickly, but there is some debate as to whether highly-feathered horses are less or more likely to suffer from mud fever. But we do know clipping heavily feathered horses has several benefits including allowing easier visuals of the affected area, allowing the hair and skin to dry faster.

If you have questions or need advice on mud fever in your horse, you can arrange to speak with a vet at Agnew Equine on 01782 510502.

02/02/2025

Keep them passports up to date, have signed receipts and contracts in place. Sign immediately, don't wait as they rarely get done then. Email them at least so there is a trail. Seen this type of heartache too many times over the years

WHO OWNS YOUR HORSE? - SKIPPERS UPDATE

You might be forgiven for being confused, looking at the collage to wonder why I have titled this post as I have. Well you'll see later in the post as to why these pictures are used.

Without going into the specifics of the most current case (and I dont want those involved to comment) it has highlighted an issue we see time and time again in the equine world. An issue that very rarely leaves people happy and often results on complaints and civil court proceedings.

If you own a horse, make sure the documents with that horse say exactly that. Now we know that a horse passport doesn't necessarily prove you own it, but at the very least have it up to date. Horses that are going through multiple hands with no document updates is not really acceptable.

If you're loaning it to a friend or family member, I'm afraid that trusting them, trusting that at the time that you want your horse back etc, it will all go to plan, is just dicing with disappointment and risk. Your best friend may not stay that for who knows what reason???! If it ends up sold onwards, tracing the horse or even proving who had a right to sell it may prove far harder than you would think.

To avoid any doubt, always have something in writing formally so there can be no doubt. Simple clerical and admin tasks are your responsibility and will make things much easier if things go wrong.

In other news:

I'm incredibly proud of the work the team are doing. We've seen many investigations this week into the welfare of animals, both domesticated and wild, with a dog being seized (Who is now being properly looked after)

We've been seizing vehicles (including a stolen quad) linked to that enquiry and even as we were leaving that location we stumbled across two vehicles on their way with quads and bikes to a pay and play site in Cheshire. The green quad bike has now been identified as having been stolen too.

As a team we are doing what we can to keep the pressure on the crimnals who seek to target our county. We absolutely cannot do it without you, and we are thrilled that we have you onboard with this. For those of you who follow this page who are involved in crime and we know many do, we want you to know we're out there checking and making arrests.

Over the last few days some of the team having been working in partnership with local authorities and other police teams, to target those involved in . If you go back a couple of posts you'll see the long list of offences they identified and the arrests that were made.

If you go a bit further back on our most recent posts you'll see the brilliant work we're doing to protect our county's heritage too.

Thank you all,

Sgt Simpson

23/01/2025

Spot the wildlife. Early morning at Foxfields. Thanks for the pic Kym ###

06/01/2025

*** Why it’s important to check and feed horses early morning AND late evening ***

Most horse owners should be aware that horses need checking an absolute minimum of TWICE daily. However, this doesn’t mean 11am and 2pm.

We obviously can’t watch our horses 24 hours a day, so we have to get as close to that as possible to potentially prevent immense suffering should they start to colic, or break a leg, for example. At least by knowing our horses are happy and well with only a 10 or 12 hour window since the last check, should the worst happen, they will not be suffering for potentially 24 hours.

So why do I also say to FEED them early morning and late evening? Because how a horse responds to food is a very good indicator of how well they are in themselves. Before I get the lovely people telling me that I’m promoting equine obesity by suggesting this, “feeding” them a few fibre nuggets from your pocket will suffice. Most horses, and definitely all ponies, will hoover up a handful of fibre nuggets (I adore the Baileys Horse Feeds Fibre Plus nuggets for checking appetite) and then try searching your pockets for more. Again, it’s about knowing your horse and how they normally eat their hard feed or how they respond to a handful of nuts.

I post a lot of colic information, but just a reminder that the very first sign of colic, and often the ONLY sign of colic, is a horse or pony that doesn’t want to eat. If you give your horse his feed and he walks away, and this is unusual behaviour for your horse, then you need to call your vet immediately. A horse most definitely doesn’t need to be rolling/pawing to have bad colic.

If you check your horses at least twice a day, you may still miss the early stages of colic. A glance at a row of stables with heads over doors may well miss a horse that has stopped eating in the early stages; it’s important to go up to all horses when you do your twice daily checks. I appreciate that not everyone will agree with giving horses a few treats every day (you don’t want to know how many sweeties my lot consume on a daily basis if so!), but they can be healthy treats, and if the horse is in a stable, can be fed in a bucket. Obviously if your horse has a twice daily hard feed, then even better, but make sure you stay and check that the horse has eaten his hard feed as he normally would.

Feel free to share but not to copy my words.

06/01/2025

OLD HORSES CAN DIE OF STARVATION IF NOT GIVEN FEED THEY CAN CHEW

Many owners see their elderly horses or ponies getting thinner and thinner despite some bucket concentrate feed, and might assume that 'it's just their age'. These owners often have no idea that all the horse needs is feed in a form that the horse can eat.

Most elderly horses lose weight because they cannot chew very well, and this might be despite good, regular dental care. Horses' teeth grow continuously throughout their lives and will eventually loosen and fall out. They literally 'run out' of teeth. Even those with teeth left can struggle to chew enough conserved forage (hay/haylage) to maintain condition, because the grinding surfaces of the teeth become smoother.

If these horses are fed just concentrates - especially low-fibre conditioning or veteran feeds - they will struggle, because they will be fibre-deficient.

Older horses who gradually get thinner must have their forage (hay, haylage and eventually grass) replaced with ground fibre sources, soaked to a mash, and eventually may need 100% of their feed from a bag.

It is ignorance, rather than cruelty to let a very old - but otherwise healthy - horse get very thin. But it is absolutely 100% avoidable with the knowledge of what to feed!

The grey horse reflects how older horses can end up looking if they don't have their long forage replaced with chewable alternatives.

The dun pony is how an older horse (late 30s) can look despite having lost most of their teeth, when fed 6kg forage-replacement feeds daily

You can claim a free article on feeding older horses and ponies (simply comment feeding oldies below) AND I'm delivering a webinar on this very subject next week. See the link in the comments for more details!

Please feel free to share
🐴🍏

09/12/2024

🪱 A member asked us to make these articles OPEN ACCESS to everyone - she explained:
"...It alarms me how putting a question like 'Should a horse be kept in after worming' into Google can bring back absolute rubbish (and that's before considering the AI-generated stuff)"

Our members have a point!
There is a lot of rubbish out there about Worming, but at least we know these articles are written by a REAL, TRUE, GENUINE EXPERT!

1️⃣ Worming Part 1: Evaluating the Small Redworm Blood Test - https://kont.ly/dc98dee4
2️⃣ Worming Part 2: Optimising Faecal Worm Egg Counts Testing - https://kont.ly/be9a7537
3️⃣ Worming Part 3: The dos and don’ts of Pasture Management - https://kont.ly/ac7e33fc

Written by Dr Kirstie Pickles BVMS MSc PgCert, PhD CertEM, DipECEIM MRCVS RCVS RCVS and European Specialist in Equine Internal Medicine!
🪱 🔬🪱 🔬

AskAnimalweb.com - where the expert advice articles, guides and research is produced by trusted experts, not marketing bots, sales teams, AI or unknown web teams!

25/11/2024

WHEN CONCENTRATE FEED IS POINTLESS

You only need to feed concentrate if your horse is losing weight.

There is no benefit from feeding half a scoop of a regular compound concentrate for a horse who is maintaining weight without it. You won't be adding useful levels of nutrients.

Feed a balancer or vitamin/mineral supplement instead.

Feel free to share
🐴🍏🧐

14/11/2024

STATEMENT: I have been told there are pictures of my yard on fb sites of ill repute. I do not condone such disgusting behaviour and be assured it will not be tolerated on my yard

10/11/2024

Lest we forget, they also served

06/11/2024

Yet another outbreak of Equine Influenza in the region. The prominent feature of this case is the fact that it is an unvaccinated, non-Thoroughbred horse.
There have been many over the last few weeks throughout the country but this is the first, most recent in this area for a while.
Vaccination is important if attending certain competitions where lots of horses from different parts of the country congregate together.
STARS Champion of Champions is due at Aintree on 21-24th November and obviously there are vaccination requirements to attend a racecourse.

05/11/2024

Better a week too early than a day too late. Do the right thing even though the right thing can be the hardest decision to make. Don't be selfish, think of them ###

Today I euthanised two wonderful elderly field companions. It was a planned event, which is always extremely hard for any owner. Both of these lovely old ladies had various health issues, and one had been on daily pain relief for arthritis for over a year, but still didn’t want to lie down to sleep. They may have survived another winter, but today they were both looking superb, and their owner was struggling herself to care for them. So she didn’t try and pass them on as “companions”, or try and find a rescue to take them. She fulfilled her responsibility as a horse owner, and ensured they both had a very peaceful end. She stayed with them, and neither horse knew a thing.

Yet another reminder from me not to pass on your elderly horses. It wasn’t an easy day for anyone, but a necessity.

Completely unrelated photo of Johnnie a couple of years ago, to brighten another sad post.

13/10/2024

The new partner returning the girlfriend to her mum after realising how expensive show ponies and their riders are lol ###

07/10/2024

ALL HAY AND HAYLAGE IS DEFICIENT...
.. in essential micronutrients including vitamins and minerals.

Horses and ponies who maintain condition on forage alone, or forage plus a handful of any feed in the bucket, need a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement.

For the list I recommend, see the link in the comments.

Feel free to share
🐴🍏

03/10/2024

🛑 We don't think we've ever had to say this so early in the year before - but customers are already asking the question and we need to hang fire! The parasitic stage of the small redworm can have fatal consequences and it's very important that we tackle it at the appropriate time.

❄️🌦 Some of us have had the first autumnal frosts of the season, so it may be tempting to get on with worming for the possibility of encysted redworm, but it's too early in the year with mostly wet and mild weather conditions that mean redworm on the pasture are still pretty active. Worming to target the encysted stages now will mean a higher possibility of reinfection after treatment, especially if the horses are still out 24/7 or getting a lot of grazing time.

❄️ We need to wait until the weather has properly turned before giving this dose. Small redworm activity slows considerably on pasture below 6 degrees Celsius so we are looking for the wintry conditions and a few days where the daytime temperatures fall consecutively below this temperature. This is generally between late December and February. This advice applies to healthy adult horses. Young or old horses may need additional consideration depending on their Autumn results.

🍂🔬 If you haven't tested since July, then now is the time for an autumn worm count for redworm and roundworm. A wormer may be required now from those results and then another for the encysted redworm once cold enough in the winter months.

If in doubt about the best course of action, then get in touch for our free, expert advice to make sure you're doing the right thing for the health of your horse..

More info 👉bit.ly/Wait-for-Winter

25/09/2024

🍁🌦 One of the biggest influencers of parasite burdens is unfortunately something we can do nothing about. The weather, most noticeably temperatures and rainfall, have a massive impact on the worms in our horses and Autumn is naturally a time of the year when parasites thrive.

Young, old and rescue horses need more consideration at this time of year than healthy adult horses, so it's especially important to keep a close eye on redworm and ascarid activity.

🔬Help protect all your horses this season 👉 bit.ly/AutumnParasiteControl
🛒 bit.ly/ShopAutumnTests

25/09/2024

The return home to Foxfields after a lovely hack in the autumn sunshine. Bertha takes a bow lol ###

24/09/2024

19/09/2024

“My horse is lame in trot, but fine in canter.”

No, no, no. Someone sent me a screenshot of a comment they saw on FB stating exactly this. If your horse is lame in trot, he/she is PAIN. The horse world really needs to concentrate on ACTUAL horse welfare issues, and riding a horse in canter that is lame in trot, is an enormous welfare issue. Riding a horse in WALK that is lame in trot, is a huge welfare issue.

Your horse may well “look” ok in canter, but actually be in a lot of pain. Canter is a three time beat, so it’s very hard to visualise a lameness, especially a forelimb lameness. If you are actually aware that your horse is visibly lame in trot, and are still riding them, this is a welfare issue (unless under frequent veterinary guidance). If you are aware that your horse is obviously lame in trot but haven’t sought veterinary advice, that is a welfare issue.

If your horse is lame in trot, he/she is also in pain in canter; you just may be struggling to see it.

Let’s focus on ACTUAL, living, breathing, welfare issues. People hacking out lame horses is a real thing, and a serious welfare concern.