Amaethon Welsh Sport Horses & Ponies

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.

15/02/2025

Jump

15/02/2025

Franklin A & P Canter

15/02/2025

Trot

15/02/2025

Iago had his debut at Franklin A&P with Renee Faulkner in the saddle. They did a fantastic job placing in every class and taking out Reserve Champion Novice. After a couple of Jumping classes with Renee taking out R.Champion Rider, Renee decided to quit on a good note as Iago was very tired and the ground very slidey. So proud of this boy and so grateful for the wonderful care Iago’s had in the past 7 months with Linda McCulloch while I’ve been poorly.

11/02/2025

A & P practise

11/02/2025

Iago getting practise in for the Franklin A & P this weekend.

04/02/2025

Iago Officially measured. Soon to make his Debut as a Saddle Hunter.

01/02/2025

Great information. I do manual hyoid releases with my horses at least weekly.

31/01/2025

Nothing happens on this property without the Terrific Twins knowing.

23/01/2025

New Mudmats can be a bit daunting. First up Anna. A bit suss but not too much hesitation . Next up yearling Luciano who was very suspicious to start but once he realised there was a treat involved no sweat. Next Guilietta (3 yr old) who walked straight over them but then decided they were a bit noisy and unstable ( I haven’t filled them yet so they still move a bit ) and then took another couple of goes before she was comfortable. Of course Luciano offered moral support ( really just wanting to sneak her treats).

23/01/2025

Gosh this has been a month for tough learning experiences with the horses!

I’ve been dealing with blind bolters, horses threatening to flip themselves, a yearling who put his owner in hospital, a pony refusing to jump, and a foal not making progress in its handling milestones. On top of this, I’ve been struggling with several of my young horses who have been showing very reactive and sometimes terrifying behaviors – not a great energy to be working with especially when your horses are big and green and you're still on the mend from an injury.

But, after a few very challenging weeks I can finally take a massive breath after making it out the other side of these tough learning experiences, and I am stoked to say that the improvements of ALL these horses have been unbelievable!

The case study I want to share today centers around chemical stress caused by magnesium deficiencies. My lovely 6-year-old gelding Smolder is an excellent example. As a 5-year-old he was pretty mellow, though he certainly had a few hairy moments at home, but coming in as a 6-year-old he’s shown some pretty diabolical behaviors, especially out competing.

At the Young Horse show he was extremely tense, constantly screaming out for his friend, couldn’t stand still and more than once tried to do gap it back to the truck with me still on him. I figured the issue had arisen due to dealing with two horses that had gotten over-attached (last season he was the only horse on the truck and was an angel), so I made a point to work through it, thinking that he just needed to do some character building.

But at Dannevirke show he was even worse, and on top of that had become horse shy in the warmup arena and highly spooky; refusing to go near a shadowed corner in the ring, resulting in elimination on the final day of competition. Normally this horse is insanely brave and in the past wouldn’t look twice at fill, let alone a normal pole fence.

At this stage, I was starting to feel pretty nervous around him. I had already switched to a stronger bit because I was on the verge of losing control, but even that wasn’t enough. At the show, I wondered if his magnesium levels might be off, so I gave him a stress paste with magnesium in it. When it didn’t seem to make any difference, I figured that it can't have been the issue—until I did more research on magnesium deficiencies.

Here's what I learnt.

▪️Magnesium deficiencies are EXTREMELY common in New Zealand due to poor levels in our soils (particularly areas with volcanic or sandy soils which we have) and environmental factors, or areas with high rain fall (which we have) as minerals get leached more easily from the soil.

▪️In spring and autumn, deficiencies are more common due to higher levels of potassium and nitrogen in the grass which can interfere with magnesium absorption.

▪️Horses under a workload or higher levels of stress will burn through magnesium stores faster than those who are turned out to pasture.

▪️Horse’s with equine metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance or laminitis are also prone to deficiencies.

▪️Warmbloods, thoroughbreds, high-performance breeds, draft horses (who have higher nutritional needs due to their size) and Arabs are more prone to deficiencies due to their metabolic makeup, physical demands and ability to absorb magnesium.

▪️Plants like red clover and other legumes have higher levels of magnesium than other forages. Last season we killed out a lot of our red clover (as it was taking over), hence why I think we have had more issues this season with deficiencies.

▪️When blood tested, horses will often come back with ‘normal’ levels because there must always be a certain amount of magnesium in the bloodstream – when levels get low, the body will rob the bones, muscles and soft tissues of its stores to replenish the bloodstream stores, masking a deficiency. Better ways to assess a horse’s levels are to do a Red Blood Cell Magnesium test or a magnesium loading test.

▪️It can take 2-6 weeks to rebalance a horses magnesium levels (if they are low or chronic) and see a difference in their behaviour.

▪️In order to correct a deficiency, a horse needs 10-20gm of magnesium per day (1 to 2 tablespoons) which can be given in dry form in their hard feeds, or in liquid form (which is absorbed better and sees quicker results). I feed magnesium oxide or dolomite (a magnesium/ calcium mix) in dry form and Oral-Mag in liquid form (this is a magnesium Pidolate solution).

Magnesium is essential to the nervous system function of the horse – when levels get low, they can present with ‘brain on fire’ symptoms; major spookiness, horse attachment issues, anxiety, inability to regulate emotions, constantly on alert and unable to switch off the survival response and a complete change in personality.

In Smolder’s case, he could present with two versions of himself; Smolder the sweetheart who loves to please and is the biggest softy in the world, and Smolder the terrorist. Some days he could be incredible (though he was often on the verge of shifting if something upset him), other days he could be a nightmare – hence why I didn’t consider magnesium issues earlier because my theory was that surely he’d be bad every day if he was deficient. I also figured if there were issues, all my horses would be difficult – but many of my other horses have been very relaxed and straight forward to deal with.

But in actuality, they can be both calm and stressed, all in a day’s work, dependent on what stressors they encounter. Some days, Smolder could work like an RDA pony – so quiet I could put a beginner on him – then something would startle him like a horse cantering around in the distance or a cow a mile away on the horizon – and he would grow a meter and turn into a fire breathing dragon. The shift was enough to put me into a state of induced terror. There’s nothing quite like sitting on a 600 kilo animal that is in full survival and juiced up like a kid on crack.

When I learnt all of this, I immediately gave all my horses 100ml of liquid mag (this is the allowed weekly requirement and was given as a loading dose) as well as 2 tablespoons a day in dry form in a small feed. Now, after two weeks of being supplemented, a sense of calm has descended on my property. In the last few days, a light has switched on in the eyes of my previously reactive and spooky horses and they have become highly enjoyable to work with again.

This morning, Smolder loped around the farm on the buckle in a snaffle (something I haven’t been confident enough to do for eons) and is a completely different animal to work with. My younger horses who have been going through the restarting process have gone from scary beasts, to relaxed and thoughtful animals. And it’s even travelled down to a young foal of mine who was highly reactive, couldn't deal with the tiniest of questions and was struggling to reach handling milestones – within a week on magnesium she is a completely different horse and is so friendly and relaxed to handle.

I highly recommend having tests done on your own horses to assess their particular needs, and then supplementing to rebalance any deficiencies they may have! You may find that you still enjoy working with your horses after all 🤭

Now that my horses have found their equilibrium they will now go back to 1 tablespoon a day of magnesium.

16/01/2025

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=950537616871503&id=100057458207592

💦 𝙀𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙀𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙡𝙮𝙩𝙚𝙨

🐴 I often observe a trend where people reach for electrolyte supplements for their horses (a lot of the time without even feeding salt) with the age old question of “which one is the best?” being a common one that comes across my desk.

🧂 I’d like to preface this article by saying that I am absolutely not anti-electrolyte supplements, but I do feel it’s important for us to look at the bigger picture sometimes and consider what the WHOLE diet is providing.

💧 Let’s set the scene. You have a 500kg horse who has travelled several hours and competed intensely enough that they are sweating heavily and are showing signs of exhaustion.

⚛️ The 5 major electrolytes you are probably considering supplementing include Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Chloride, and Potassium. As you have read Stable-Ised Equine’s previous articles, you are well aware that plain salt (sodium chloride) needs to be supplemented daily, so your horse is already receiving their base serving of 50g salt/day.

❓Let’s look at what Ca, Mg, Na, Cl, and K your 500kg horse would receive from the recommended daily serving of 5 popular electrolyte supplements. I’m not going to name names because that isn’t the purpose of this article.

Calcium: 0g, 0.7g, 1.6g, 2.19g, 0g
Magnesium: 2g, 0.5g, 1.4g, 0.192g, 1.53g
Sodium: 10.3g, 12g, 14g, 13.1g, 21g
Chloride: 23.4g, 28g, 29g, 28.4g, 43.2g
Potassium: 8.35g, 7g, 8g, 10.4g, 12g

🧂 Now, let’s look at how much Na and Cl 50g of plain salt would provide:

Sodium: 19.5g
Chloride: 30.5g

🌿 “Where are you going with this, Karly?” I hear you ask. Let’s look at what Ca, Mg, Na, Cl, and K a kilogram of good quality lucerne hay would provide your horse if offered:

Calcium: 12.4g
Magnesium: 3.2g
Sodium: 1g
Chloride: 4g
Potassium: 14.2g

🧂+🌿= If we add the 50g of salt and 1kg of good quality lucerne hay together, this combination exceeds the amount of Ca, Mg, Na, Cl, and K provided by the recommended daily serve of each electrolyte supplement listed above.

🐎 So ask yourself; would your hot, sweaty, and tired horse benefit more from an electrolyte powder added to their feed or water, or from a kilogram of lucerne hay that no only provides electrolytes, but also provides other benefits such as gastric acid buffering, saliva stimulation, fibre to keep the gastrointestinal tract moving and gut microbes happy, and protein to support muscle recovery and development?

🐴 There is no right or wrong answer. What benefits one horse may not necessarily benefit another in the same way, however it does pay to be aware of what your horse’s diet as a whole is providing and not just assume that every horse needs every supplement.

🌐 I love putting together these free resources, so if you found this article interesting, I’d love if you could let me know in the comments and give it a share. 🩵🐎

14/01/2025

I now ride in just a very loose cavesson and have done so for a long time now. I have used a Micklem with Clips for retraining and they are great.
In times past when I’ve used a flash it was pretty much just because every one did and every dressage bridle came with them. ( yeah I know call me sheepie😂)

With all the talk and argument surrounding the idea of a new contraption to measure the tightness of nosebands in dressage competition, I can't help but wonder... 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥?

There's 𝗔𝗕𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗨𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗬 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 inherently negative about the use of a noseband (and if you want to preach your belief that nosebands are all just terrible tools of the devil, this isn't the page for you). Where the issues come in, as far as I can tell, is WHY are you using the noseband?

🐴 Are you using it to stabilize the bit?

- then you're probably pulling too much on the reins and causing the problem. (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘵, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥).

🐴 Are you using it to stop your horse from crossing their jaw?

- then you're probably pulling too much on the reins and causing the problem.

🐴 Are you using it because the horse is "lolling" their tongue?

- then you're probably pulling too much on the reins and causing the problem.

🐴 Are you using it because he opens his mouth when you take contact and try to adjust the position or frame?

- then you're probably pulling too much on the reins and causing the problem.

If you're using the noseband to stop a problem from happening, then the problem lies in the education of the horse and the rider.

* 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘙𝘈𝘙𝘌 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨... 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.

🐎 If you're using the noseband because you are competing and rules of tradition compel it, that's a different story.

🐎 If you like the look of it, that's a different story.

🐎 If you like to "bling it up" and feel snazzy, that's a different story.

🐎 If you're using a noseband because you like to honor and respect the traditions of your discipline, even though you don't compete, that's a different story.

🐎 I probably missed some good personal reasons you might have, and they're a different story, too.

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿.

So, let me know in the comments section, why are you using a noseband?

14/01/2025

1st Bath for Luciano.

14/01/2025

Linda McCulloch look at the ending above the eye where Iago has his huge Antennae

11/01/2025

More Iago Crosscountry

11/01/2025

Iago x country today at Clevedon PC