Hidden Creek Horse Farm, LLC

12/06/2024

To accompany the unpleasant photo 😅 is actually a really helpful and informative article for anyone with a horse that struggles with f***l water syndrome.

I have addressed this problem so many times in the field and in my group that I still don’t quite know why it has taken so long to actually do a short article on F***l Water Syndrome aka “FWS”.

FWS typically presents in horses as an excessive amount of thin brown liquid being ejected from a horse’s a**s. This is different from diarrhea because it doesn’t have any f***l matter contained in the liquid. The horse’s manure may be on the soft side or may be perfectly formed.

In most cases FWS isn’t debilitating to the horse but it is messy and can coat their butts and legs with nasty smelling and irritating liquid. It is especially difficult during the cold winter months as you can see from the photo I used. The fluid clumps on fur and freezes while the cold temperatures make it difficult if not impossible to clean.

Obviously FWS is a gastro-intestinal issue but most owners miss the mark when treating FWS. Owners will throw expensive supplements at the problem and the symptoms will persist. I know this from personal experience with my mare, Flair. That poor mare had about 32 different supplements thrown at her and nothing worked.

Probiotics, prebiotics, biosponge, ulcer treatments, gut supplements and anything else I tried wouldn’t clear it up. Nothing ever even slowed it down.

Then while attending an equine nutrition clinic I was having a cocktail with one of the more well known equine nutrition PhDs and I mentioned my frustration to her. Of course she had the answer!

Just so everyone knows, it’s not that I’m really smart but I hang out with really smart people!

In the overwhelming majority of cases FWS is being caused by a mild case of a condition known as Right Dorsal Colitis. I got the full monty clinical explanation, and as I would do in any conversation with an extremely bright, lovely woman who is twenty years younger I sat at the edge of my chair in rapt attention while understanding none of it but all I needed to know was that it is a condition similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome in humans.

IBS is something that most people in my age range (somewhere between classic and Jurassic) are familiar with. The cure for both conditions is simple: add easily digestible fiber. I began taking a tablespoon of psyllium each day and my IBS cleared up almost immediately.

Right Dorsal Colitis can become very serious and require clinical intervention in some cases. In severe cases FWS is accompanied by lethargy, weight loss, lack of appetite and colic. I am NOT a vet so you should discuss any concerns that you have with your vet and follow their treatment advice.

Many times RDC is caused by coarse hay. Mature, coarse hay is very high in fiber and can be difficult to process in the gut causing some inflammation resulting in the watery fountain of stench emanating from your horse’s butt.

My own experience with FWS is very much like what I hear from others. The FWS shows up in the fall when the horses are off grass and on hay. Whenever I get different hay. My horses are both easy keepers and metabolic so I feed mostly very mature low NSC grass hay ensuring that I am dealing with FWS for most of the year. Quite often you will find that it is worse during the winter and the simple explanation is that they are eating more hay which attenuates the problem.

The dietary treatment for both conditions is to replace some (or all) of the forage with a complete feed enabling the gut to recover by offering some easily digestible fiber.

You can also try using some psyllium but it’s expensive and it typically requires a large dose.

My personal go to and the advice that I have offered to hundreds of people as a first treatment is to simply add a pound of hay stretcher pellets per day to the horse’s normal diet and this usually clears it up. If the FWS doesn’t clear up in a few days I increase it to two pounds per day.

Any genuine complete feed will work as long as the crude fiber is over 20% and the fat level is low. I typically choose to use hay stretcher because it is very high in fiber, usually over 25% and it is not heavily fortified nor high in calories so I don’t really need to make huge adjustments in their diets. I simply toss a cup or two on top of their normal ration and call it a day.

For a 1,000 pound horse two pounds per day should offer relief of the symptoms but if two pounds of hay stretcher doesn’t change things it’s probably time to try something else and at this point all bets are off. Psyllium would be my next step along with a gut supplement.

It is almost never a lack of probiotics unless the horse had recently been on a course of antibiotics.

The long term solution is to feed better hay. If you can find some nice, soft second cutting grass hay it would go a long way towards drying things up.

There are a number of downsides to feeding better hay. Cost and availability are at the top of the list. Then there’s the horse. Second cutting hay isn’t the best choice for easy keepers or insulin resistant horses so this option has its limits.

Many times FWS is linked to insulin resistant horses as a sure sign that they are insulin resistant. The conditions are not related except that most IR horses are on j***y, low starch, low calorie hay.

Please allow me to head off the naysayers and negative comments. This is not by any means a sure fire cure for FWS. It is, however, a very inexpensive treatment as a first go to attempt and it does work in most cases. If not, then try all the whiz bang supplements that probably won’t work either.

In short, if you have a horse with a squirty butt go buy a bag of cheap hay stretcher pellets and run some through the horse. If it works, you got off cheap, if not at least you know something that isn’t going to work.

As a final reminder and a more serious tone, if the FWS persists and the hay stretcher doesn’t work I would strongly encourage you to please consult your veterinarian and have all the appropriate diagnostics done.

Thank you for reading this article.

I am retired and write blog articles to try to make horse owner's lives easier and horse's lives better.

If you found this article to be helpful my horses would be very grateful if you would consider buying some hay for them by going to:

https://buymeacoffee.com/jimthefeedguy

Of course your contributions are not required, nor expected but all are very much appreciated.

Cheers!

11/12/2024

For those moving to Greenville looking for board…!

WELCOME TO OUR NEW BARN MANAGER!

We’re thrilled to welcome Chrissy Brennan from Oregon as our new Barn Manager. With over 15 years of experience in AA dressage, pleasure and general horsemanship, Chrissy brings a deep commitment to the health and happiness of every horse here. Under Chrissy's guidance, new and exciting changes are coming our way including full care board, new cross ties, hot and cold wash rack, new tack cleaning station, new tack closets, and more!

Reach out to reserve your stall today!

11/11/2024

“And some night, under a Kentucky moon, I’m sure you’ll find her standing proud with champions like Affirmed and Alydar, Whirlaway, Secretariat, and Man O’ War… and she’ll say, ‘Listen up, boys, and I’ll tell you about a race I ran…’”

Sergeant Reckless, we salute you and all the lives you saved by your fortitude and loyalty.

Thank you to all the men, women and their four-legged partners who have served. We honor each of you this Veteran’s Day. 🇺🇸

Read her story here!
https://everythingeq.com/sergeant-reckless-korean-war-horse-united-states-marine/

10/21/2024

Why would anyone give a strange little sawed off, horse crazy 9-year-old kid weekly horse riding lessons for free?

Even with an “understanding” that a kid would “work” for their lessons, I mean honestly, how much real work can a 9-year-old dreamer do in a barn? 1) very little, and 2) not much that doesn’t require the supervision and investment (time, energy, instruction) of an adult.

But that’s what someone did for me. I was the strange little sawed off horse crazy 9 year old.

Looking back, I can see it’s one of the biggest pictures of grace (completely unmerited favor) anyone has ever done for me. And the ramifications of that grace were literally life-changing and life directing.

Let me tell you about the person that did this for me. But first, a little bit of background as it relates.

I was the youngest of four kids in a pastor’s home in Florida. We were not in any way destitute or without - although some of the creative meals we got at the end of a paycheck are still part of family lore - but we did not have the kind of money it often takes to be in the horse world.

We always had animals around us – none purchased, all chose us or we rescued – cats, dogs, rabbits, birds, and even a baby flying squirrel that had fallen out of a tree nearby. I loved animals – but I was crazy about horses.

My mom tried to tap any resources who might let a kid come see their horses or ponies, and several times people humored us and let us come.

On a whim, one day, my mom stopped by a local tack shop and struck up a conversation with the clerk, asking if there were any places I could come feed apples to horses. They said, as a matter of fact, one of their regulars had mentioned looking into having an apprenticeship program, and gave mom contact information.

My mom reached out, and this lady said I could come.

And that’s your first tip-off to the heart of this lady named Cindy. Some random person calls you about a horse-crazy kid, and Cindy is willing for them to come into her property and barn, with a posture of “give” from day one.

From the first hello she started teaching me. The first day, we lunged a horse name Colorado. A rescue. All of her horses were rescues. And she gave me a stapled set of papers on types of bits and tack and I was going to be quizzed on it next time.

We cleaned water buckets – because they needed to be clean enough for us to drink out of, if we were asking horses to. And ladies and gentlemen, that was no small feat at a barn in Florida whose water source was a sulfur well and the temps were almost always over 85 degrees. The buckets smelled like egg and were about that color inside. But scrub we did!

I would do chores (as much as I was able), cleaning stalls, trying not to turn over wheelbarrows, cleaning water buckets – and she taught, and mentored, and expected excellence. The work was hot and hard, but cutting corners would earn you a set of pushups.

But after chores were done, we would tack up one of the horses, and she would teach me to ride. Private lessons, because on Thursday afternoons (which instantly became my favorite day of the week), I was the only one there.

She worked an office job, but her free time was given to volunteering with Girl Scouts, managing this barn of rescued horses with her own meager funds, and running a lesson program, called Saddle Hoppers, for a bunch of little barn rats just like me. Several were from her Girl Scouts troup. I would meet them eventually on Saturdays when they all met and had their riding lessons.

Cindy always did more than was required of a trainer for us, on less funds than most people have to run a facility. She took in horses when she probably bought fewer of her own groceries to do so. She took on students who probably couldn’t pay the lesson fees (and she never once referenced that I was getting lessons for free- to me as leverage or to anyone else).

After a while, we had a “barn show” where we put on show clothes and had friendly competition between the students. I didn’t have show clothes. I didn’t even have boots, and the helmet I wore belonged to the barn.

One day I came to the barn, and she had a boot box there. She and her then fiancé had bought me my first pair of boots. They were tall and rubber, and she showed me how to “spit shine” and use Vaseline to get them shiny for a show.

As the show date approached, I still didn’t have any of the English show habit. One afternoon, she showed up at the door of our house with a bag of clothes, hand-me-downs from other girls, for me to try.

And after that first show, we started to do local open shows. Who paid my show entry fees? She and her fiancé. All she asked was that I send a thank-you note to her fiancé each time. Who does that?? They weren’t wealthy. Their truck and trailer were years old and showed the wear and often needed the work.

She was “paying it forward” into our lives before that phrase had ever been coined. And in a critical time in our lives as young girls when school peer pressure was strong and bullying present, we had a place to go where we worked hard, were appreciated, and were taught excellence and what it means to be kind to others and to the animals in our care.

I have a vivid memory of us all milling around in the barn one Saturday doing all the things, and someone ran up to Cindy and whispered urgently in her ear, and they ran off toward the road. In a few minutes, she came walking back with something wrapped in a towel and tears streaming down her face. It was one of the barn cats that had been hit by a car. We all soberly gathered around, and through the tears, she gave thanks for the life that had been ours to enjoy for a time. I think one of the kids reacted in anger to whoever hit the cat and drove away, and our trainer said maybe they didn’t know. People don’t always know.

This lady was in the business of rescuing horses, dogs and cats, and young people.

Her menagerie over the years has included a domestic piglet that they found in rural Sarasota – it had slipped away from some farmer – and she kept that thing safe and free from bacon lovers for the entirety of its life. It got to be about 400 pounds, eating and sleeping and getting its own sprinkler head.

Another animal that got its own sprinkler, even though it made a huge muddy mess of the barnyard was a big beautiful palomino Morgan/Belgian X gelding named Joker. He was the first horse I ever cantered on. He was a pleasure-type, so low and slow was his preference, and when it came time to ask for a canter, he just wasn’t that interested, so my trainer had to wave her arms as he went by, and he decided then to go…off across the field and popping over a small ditch. Ha! By the time he stopped, I was hunched on his back like a monkey in total fetal, and she was coming up behind us with her merry laugh, all was well, let’s try that again.

When Joker got too old to ride, he was just a big pasture ornament who discovered how nice it was to stand over the water sprinkler that was supposed to be helping grass grow. He would leave his stall after eating, walk over to it, and stand over it waiting for someone to turn it on. And there he would stand over the jetting water indefinitely. I believe he lived to be almost 40. And when he finally gave out and could no longer get up, Cindy and some of her girls held a canopy over him for hours to protect him from the Florida heat waiting for the vet to get there and help him be free.

And folks, she is still doing all of that still today. 40 years later.

Back in the 90’s, she married her generous, quiet, and supportive fiancé, they still have a farm in rural Sarasota (think cow pastures not beaches). Together they have kept and raised foster children, and along with some of those same foster kids they have continued pouring into the lives of other young people. She has given her life to giving animals the best life she can give, and instilling character and compassion in the young people she mentored. Hundreds of ordinary, poor, horse-crazy girls just like I was.

But last month, Helene came through that part of Florida, and although they didn’t sustain damage that time, their insurance company became overwhelmed with those that did, and the insurance company dropped their farm as policy holders. They had not been able to get new insurance - no one was adding customers post-Helene.

Then two weeks later, Milton came through with a fury, and as it came, Cindy and Elden turned the animals out of the barn, knowing they would have a better chance at survival in that Florida terrain than if the barn didn’t survive a second storm.

It did not survive, although the animals did. The pictures tell the tale. The support poles for the structure are compromised and the whole thing will have to be torn down and rebuilt. Shelter in Florida is a non-negotiable – especially for rescue animals. The heat and humidity is intense, almost year round.

All my life, I have wished I had a way to repay Cindy for the gift of the horse barn life she gave me, and although I have tried to pay forward in ways she would have (though not nearly as well), now I have a chance to try to give back a little bit through hosting gofundme campaign to try to help them take down the remainders of their barn and begin to build again.

Cindy got some quotes, and of course she came back on the low end with $45,000, which I know is not nearly enough to rebuild a barn, but she says it will help pay to pull down and haul away what is there, and provide basic shelter for now, and they will work on it gradually again as they did once before when they first moved there.

The ripple effect of Cindy’s life and work is truly eternal. Her faith in God and in His plan for our lives is strong, and she has pointed others that way. And there are a bunch of us “Saddle Hopper alumni” who are out doing some of what she has done. If you have been touched by Cindy, or the horses or work any of us who are Cindy’s kids have done, would you consider giving toward helping them rebuild a barn for their animals and so they can continue helping animals and helping young people? As they have done for so many years.

Why would anyone give a strange little sawed-off, horse-crazy… AnnaGrace McGonigal needs your support for Rebuilding Cindy's Barn: A Haven for Rescued Animals

10/16/2024

We got you North Carolina! NY Hay Sales donated 46,580 lbs of hay (1,104 bales) today to help with the rescue efforts in North Carolina. It's the least we could do. WNC Regional Livestock Center

10/16/2024

Love us some Marsh Tacky! South Carolina’s own!

10/05/2024

15 Black Mountain horses rescued. There’s no way to quantify the value of a horse like Ranger!

10/05/2024

WNC Regional Livestock Center is trying to get the word out that they have tons of supplies that have been donated and stalls for horses and livestock. Please let folks know that they can get donated hay, grain, etc. And if they text, the livestock center will figure out a way to get supplies out to people who are cut off and help get animals evacuated.

Text ONLY to this number - 828-216-4496

474 Stock Dr
Canton NC 28716

10/05/2024

Here is a list of reputable organizations for equine and equestrian assistance. Sometimes it’s hard to know who or how to help. This list being compiled should help.

09/27/2024

09/27/2024

09/27/2024

Sleds for the feed-delivery-through-a-flooded-barn win!

09/25/2024

Anyone with horses evacuating from Helene, FENCE has accommodation!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/afn8VN5tjJ1zQLLU/?mibextid=WC7FNe

FENCE is accepting equines evacuating from Hurricane Helene.

There is no charge for the stall. Must bring all supplies/ needs for the horse during the stay. Shavings are required.

Please feel free to contact us via email [email protected] or Facebook messenger for the fastest response.

09/06/2024

If we happen to…er… run-in to you in town (*cough*dadjoke*cough*) we might just tell you about some cool projects some of our amazing barn family has up their sleeves…!