lunedì 4 febbraio 2013
Il cavallo nella pubblicità
domenica 3 febbraio 2013
Horse's diet - supplements
When you have to decide about your horses diet you should consider some points:
- how old is your horse? Is he a young foal or a senior horse?
- is your horse underweight or overweight?
- does your horse have any allergy?
- does your horse have any respiratory disease?
- does your horse work a lot? Is he a sport horse?
- is your mare pregnant?
- is your mare nursing?
- do you have a stallion or a gelding?
- is your horse recovering from any illness?
First of all understand what your horse needs. Depending on his age, activity and phisical conditions you can choose the diet that is more suitable for him. Do not overevaluete the power of supplements: they can be useful but they are not enough in many circustamces. In fact you can find every kind of supplements but keep in mind that using them too much can also create problems ( do not exceed with some vitamins and minerals). They can be good in case your horse is eating poorly because in this way you can provide vitamins that otherwise he doesn't get, or when your mare is nursing (due to the fact that she passes many nutritional elements to the foal) or during hard training. Supplements available are those related to hooves (with biotin), those to mantein joints, vitamins, supplements especially created for horses with allergies, supplements for nervous horses, electrolytes to reintroduce the electrolytes lost during hard work by sweating, supplements studied to keep flies away, to make the coat shining or to help your horse to gain weight. If you are not sure about what kind of supplement you have to use or if you don't know if it is right to use it or not, ask your vet for an advise!
Coming back to the horse diet try to give him good hay at least 2 times every day (it would be better if you can do it 4 times); be carefull to feed the animals always at the same time (it wouldn't be good to change their schedule every day and it can create a big stress on them), horses love routine behaviour and they seem to have a clock that indicates when it's time to eat (my horses usually neigh 5 minutes before the usual lunch time to remember me it!). Especially if your horse is stabled, try to feed him many times because in this way he has something to do during the day and he doesn't eat too much in too little time. Be careful you you change feed, decrease it (because your horse is overweight for example) or increase it (their digestive system is not made to afford sudden changes in their diet). So switch gradually in anyone of the cases listed above and also when you put your horse outside having free access to grass. In this last case remember that lush green grass can cause colics or laminitis so put him outside for a limited time (for example one hour or half an hour) increasing that time gradually and decreasing the amount of hay that you give him (because grass integrates it).
How to feed your horse - hay
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| Little square bale (20kg approximately) |
When you have your horse in a stable everything is simpler. Someone feeds him and gives him the right amount of hay and/or food. When you have him at home you have to understand what is better for him and the right quantities. Let's start talking about hay. It is the most important component of a horse diet so its quality is very important. Of course it's great if your horse can eat fresh grass but most of the times you have to provides hay too to his diet. As the digestive system of a horse is so complex he needs to eat for the two third of the day to keep it working properly. There are different types of hay and they are baled in different shapes ( square bales of approximately 20 kilos, big square bales weighing 400 kilos or more and big round bales of 400 kilos). If you have many horses it is better for you to choose the big round or rectangular bales but in case that you have only 2 or 3 animals it's better to buy the little ones. These are easy to handle and transport and you don't need too much space to store them. Another good thing about small bales is that you can easily see what is in it; sometimes you can find trash or pieces of wood or little animals in hay bales (once I found a tractor tyre!). Generally horses don't eat "bad" things that can damage them but just having a look you can avoid giving them plastic bags or things like that. Another thing that you have to look at is the hay quality. The color should be green/ yellow (it depends basically on the type of plants that are in the bale) and it should be fresh without any trace of mold (you can clearly smell it). To avoid hay with mold you have to try to buy hay that is not old (if don't have any choice and you have to buy old hay look at the place where it was stored). Another important thing is that you can buy fresh hay but if you leave it in the wrong place it can be easily damaged. So store it in a covered and dry place, it shouldn't be in contact with water (rain for example) nor stay under direct sunlight. Remember that feeding your horse with moldy hay can cause colics or respiratory problems. If there is dust in your hay (or your horse already has respiratory problems) you can water it some hours before giving it. Keep in mind that hay bales prices may vary according to the harvest, the place in which you live or the type of hay you're buying. Personally I tried different solutions like hay pellets or hay cubes but finally I found it better to use the classical hay bales (the other two solutions can be interesting in case you have a horse with respiratory problems because they do not have dust inside but not too good for horses without problems).
How much? Let's say that normally a horse should eat something like the 1/2 % of his weight per day: this means that a horse weighing 400-500kg should eat almost 10kg of hay daily.
Where? The best choice probably is letting your horse eating on the ground. If you think that he can eat dirt too you can use a feeder put on the ground. Horses are meant to eat with their heads down so it's good to let them eat in this position.
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| Example of big round bales |
Purebred Spanish Horse Trade - Sicab - Sevilla
Do you like Spanish horses? If it's so, Sevilla is the right place for you. Here you can see beautiful PRE doing dressage or doma vaquera, you can buy Spanish saddles or bits, clothes and food. Sicab takes place during the last week of November and the trade is enterely dedicated to Spanish horses. In it competitions and exhibitions take place and you can walk along the outside part or the inside. Here you can find all the informations about the 2012 edition http://www.sicab.org/index.php?menu=1. From the airport you can reach the Convention Centre by taxi ( 25€ is the fixed amount) in almost ten minutes while if you chose to go by bus it's a little bit longer because you have to change bus at the bus station. Once you have arrived you can buy also the ticket for the show and I can say that this year it was really nice and interesting (there were many different things to see like the National Guards, Doma Vaquera, Dressage, Alta Escuela, Carriages, etc). People are nice and friendly and one part is entirely dedicated to Ganaderias. In the previous post I attached some photos taken during the show and in the trade, so if you're interested in, just have a look!
SICAB - Sevilla
Per tutti gli amanti del PRE una tappa imprescindibile è il Salone Internazionale del Cavallo Spagnolo (SICAB) che si svolge annualmente a Siviglia (Spagna) l'ultima settimana di novembre. Dopo tanto tempo finalmente sono riuscita a vivere questa esperienza personalmente e non posso che dirmi entusiasta di ciò che ho visto. Il modo migliore per raggiungere Siviglia dall'aeroporto di Milano è affidarsi ad un volo diretto Ryanair che dura all'incirca due ore (con le altre compagnie aeree dovrete fare scalo a Madrid o Barcellona). Dall'aeroporto al polo fieristico dove viene tenuta la manifestazione si può optare per diverse scelte: il taxi ha una tariffa fissa dall'aeroporto di 25 euro (si raggiunge il Sicab in poco più di 10 minuti) altrimenti si può scegliere l'autobus ma in tal caso dovrete arrivare fino alla stazione degli autobus e quindi prenderne un altro che vi porti in zona fiera. Una volta raggiunta la meta non resta altro che lasciarsi trascinare dal magnifico mondo del cavallo andaluso a tutto tondo. Arrivando in orario di apertura (le 10.00) avrete un paio di ore per godervi gli stand più svariati in tutta tranquillità (nel padiglione troverete chi vende selle e morsi spagnoli, capezze, vestiario e tutto quanto si può pensare di inerente ma pochissime coperte -il clima in quel periodo dell'anno si aggirava sui 14 gradi!- oltre a chi vendeva salchichon e chorizo). Dopodiché non vi resta che scegliere la disciplina che più vi interessa oppure muovervi liberamente tra i vari padiglioni per vedere dimostrazioni di doma vaquera, dressage, gare di morfologia e attacchi. Un biglietto a parte è da fare all'ingresso se volete vedere lo spettacolo (il sabato potete scegliere tra l'orario pomeridiano e quello serale). Devo ammettere che lo spettacolo valeva la spesa; in una paio di ore hanno ripercorso un po' quella che può essere la storia dell'equitazione e delle diverse discipline con essa relazionate rendendo lo spettacolo molto vario e dinamico, senza momenti "morti" né ripetizioni che potessero annoiare il numeroso pubblico. Diciamo che il pomeriggio è decisamente più movimentato e la grande affluenza di gente rende un po' più difficile i movimenti per cui è bene aver individuato già la mattina le cose a cui si è interessati e dirigersi agli stand direttamente. Più delle parole credo renda più l'idea vedere qualche foto che vi posto di seguito. Buona visione!
Keeping your horse at home
Hello to everyone! What about writing something in English? I thought that could be a good idea because I'd like to exchange informations not only with Italian people but also with others all around the world. First of all I can tell you something about be. I'm a horse owner, I have them at home and I started to write this blog almost two years ago to "help" people to understand better their horses. Here in Italy there are two different kinds of horse owners: those who have their horses at home and those who have them in stables. At the beginning of my story with horses I used to keep them in a stable where there where people who helped me with training lessons and others who cleaned them. After a while I decided to bring them at home and I had to face many things that I didn't expect. I had to choose hay, decide when and how to feed them, clean the stable and so on. Even if at the beginning it seemed to me quite difficult now I know that it was the right thing to do. So my first advice to every horse owner is: if you have enough time and space, well, bring them at home! It's an incredible experience. In this blog I don't want to teach anything, the only thing that I 'd like to do is to share my own experience. I'm not a vet nor a trainer, I'm only a person who loves horses and tries to do her best with them. Living with horses at home allows you to have a better approach with them and you can understand better their "way of life". The first thing that you have to keep in mind is that horses naturally live outside so don't keep them in stables too long. They need to walk freely and eat grass (always remember that they're not only "sport horses"), in fact if you look at free horses they spend the two third of the day eating. So, if you keep your horse in a stable, remember that the best thing to do is to give him hay many times during the day (it's better than giving him huge quantities of hay only one time -for example in the morning). Look closely at your horse habits: everyone is different from the others. For example I've got an Haflinger who eats everything in a little time while I've an Andalusian who eats for a while then stops and then starts again. If you give the Haflinger ten kilos all together she will eat them in a couple of hours without stopping! Next time I will talk about feeding your horse, I hope that it will be interesting and, please, leave your comment to let us know how you do that!
Il piede del puledro
Ecco un nuovo interessante link per quanto riguarda lo sviluppo del piede del puledro da appena nato ai diversi stadi che attraversa nella sua crescita. Infatti se avete occasione di vedere i piedi di un puledrino noterete subito la differenza rispetto a quelli di un cavallo adulto. Questi infatti si presentano più "morbidi" a causa del fatto che non devono danneggiare la madre durante la gestazione. Una volta nato il puledro, il piede inizia fin da subito a prendere una forma più simile a quella che conosciamo e dopo già solo poche ore, grazie al contatto con il terreno, si indurisce e dopo poco più di una settimana è già chiaramente riconoscibile il fettone. Guardate le foto http://laughingorcaranch.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/feathery-foal-feet.html e vi sarà più chiaro tutto ciò che vi ho brevemente riassunto qui. Buona visione dunque!
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