FEEDLINE…….. DEC - JAN 2006/7 No 45
In November we lost our
partner, best friend and mentor Will Headdon. He was
just 54. At his funeral attended by very many mourners, his coffin was borne by
the Jersey huntsmen in green and throughout the service in the little church at
Trinity, Will’s hawk Sky sat quietly watching the proceedings as if she knew
everything. “Gone Away” was sounded on the hunting horn and we said goodbye to
a brilliant caring person who touched the lives of everyone who knew him. It is
not easy without him.
The Trinity Website is
becoming more and more
popular as a source of information to professional and serious horse owners
alike. This has meant an on going programme of construction to ensure easy access
to more data. We have modified the initial subject buttons which take you to
different sections of information. The website is growing all the time so if
you have not accessed it for a little while or not yet done so we urge you to
do so.
Newsletters – If you would like a regular newsletter by
post do let us know and we will include you on a postal list. As not everyone
has the time or inclination to read them and we have many thousand Clients we
do not send them automatically. They are of course also posted on the
website.
We are pleased to say that we can now make small quantities of Violatin our Tonic pick–me-up for Trinity clients again. We have not been able to make it for a long time as the ingredients of the right quality and concentration were not available. Violatin is a modern formula which in short helps fight fatigue and winter blues but in essence goes much deeper than that helping to maintain immunity and general body health. It does you good at the same time as making you feel good.
Ratios indicated on Forage
sufficiency reports should
sometime override absolute levels. An example of this is where Calcium levels
are well in excess of requirements and magnesium is 100% of requirement. It is
not enough to say both are above requirement no additional mineralisation is
needed. Magnesium must move up. It will
be more than the required absolute level but its partnership with Calcium must
also be considered, for without the balance Calcium will be less available, and
Calcium in excess that is also poorly available is counter productive. Forage
sufficiency reports, where applicable, really do help get the diet right and
this was highlighted for us recently when we received, coincidentally on
exactly the same day, two sets of forage analysis figures from the lab, one was
one of the best we have had for years and the other was positively the worst.
On investigation we found that one had come from light soil played out by years
of cash cropping without any input not even sheep grazed and the other was from
Fenland that every three to four years gets covered by a thin layer of fresh
soil from flood water. The difference was dramatic with one the Forage
sufficiency report showed all values to be over 100% against leisure activity
the other from the subsistence farm every mineral profile was low or very low.
It made us think of a rather likable but bombastic Vet, now alas long gone, who
for effect would declare that you don’t need to feed supplements to horses.
When confronted in private he would qualify what he said but still appealingly
argue that in some instances he could be right. We would counter by saying not
all grass is grown in the
Mentax Mild is a
herbo-mineral formula ideal for Dressage, Event and Show horses that often have a depth of
talent but require help with the strain of competition and the extra
concentration needed to win. It is something that can be fed on a long term or
permanent basis without harm and without diminishing mental alertness and
enthusiasm. It is calming in as much as it engenders deliberation and
sensibility, and ameliorates temperament but not to the extent of making horses
dull and devoid of spirit. It is ideal for training purposes as it encourages
learning and memory and should not be overlooked as a very useful training aid.
The wet weather is bringing
in the rats, which bred in
record numbers this summer. As the ditches fill up they are driven indoors so
put plenty of poison down in runs and places where livestock and horses cannot
get to. Urinating rats cause Leptospirosis (spirochete bacteria) it is not know
whether horses get the devastating headaches that with flu like symptoms
manifested in humans but it is unpleasant and can lead on to liver and kidney
damage. If confirmed feed L94 for 10 days at 100ml/day and 50ml/day for at
least a further 20 days and then accordingly Ashva Mitra for a period depending
on circumstances alongside Veterinarian’s advice.
Wheat
allergies in horses?
True allergies are extremely rare in horses certainly not in the numbers being
reported lately. It is more likely that many horses have a digestive disorder
that is exacerbated by wheat. To any horse with even an occasional history of
digestive sensitivity the last thing to feed is wheat. Look in any old feed
books and they will tell you not to feed it if you can, yet today it is a major
ingredient in a whole host of compound feeds for horses including the “Tabloid”
balancers that stare out of the pages of pony magazines. The broadest of bran
(that contains most of the wheat fibre) is the most acceptable but middlings
(wheatfeed) and wheat itself should be avoided if there is a choice. They used
to say it could be useful if including with a good measure of chaff in cart horse’s nosebags but ask any carter left alive and he will
tell you it wasn’t good food. Unlike Oats that has a good protective husk and
Barley that is cooked before feeding Wheat is ground and included raw in feeds
and can carry very many more contaminants from grain stores and its nitrogen
free extract (carbohydrate) content is dense and glutinous. It is included in
horse feeds because wheat and wheat by products are cheap and it makes
pellets with fewer fines not to help the horse.
L94 continues to find new
friends. It’s amazing how
an innocuous black liquid has assumed an essential place in Tack Rooms the
length and breath of the country and indeed many other countries besides. It is
now a good many years since we improved it from the previous formulation we
named Remount. It was our intention to name the new formula but it was such an
instant success we did not get the chance so we have kept calling it by its
code name ever since. L94 has a powerful choleretic action that increases the
secretion and flow of bile from the liver and improves fat digestion. By its
hepato-protective action L94 helps to maintain the parenchyma against the toxic
effects of anthelmintic, antibiotics, chemical drugs and food toxins. A large
body of blood proteins (over 20), are initiated in the liver, and are
intimately involved in nearly all aspects of immunity and non specific
resistance. They form two types of self-mediated cascade reactions to antigens,
antibody-antigen complexes, dead tissue and the like and are almost solely able
to initiate the rupture and killing of bacteria. The protein strings they form around foreign
substances are the main "hooks" used for absorption by macrophages as
they digest and clean up.
The diet immediately
following an operation or treatment should be adapted to meet the circumstances of
confinement and the individual characteristics of the horse or pony. The first
consideration should be that of sufficient hay, preferably not too rich, to
provide the digestible cellulose (available fibre) to maintain good peristaltic
action and keep the gut operating efficiently. Any sign of this not happening,
shown by changes in dung consistency, feed G25-First Formula. This is a
Triphala mixture that helps clean “Dirty filters” keeping the gut clear and
clean and regulating and smoothing evacuation. Efforts to “feed up” horses
recovering from a set back should be avoided instead a very gentle approach
should be adopted, a little good quality seaweed or S/26 Dolomite should be fed
to not only help with the necessary growth of new tissue and membrane but to
provide available silica for elasticity
and strength. A little Shilajit (purified mineral pitch) is also very helpful
in getting nutrients deep into resistant cell. What else largely depends upon
what the horse is recovering from. In cases of tendon
and bone repair 15ml to 30ml per day of Comfrey Leaf Tincture is strongly
recommended. Comfrey Leaf has the ability to help repair flesh and bone by
enhancing Mitosis (cell division). Horses recovering from respiratory infection
should have four teaspoonfuls of Arun powder and Ocimum sanctum to help restore
elasticity and immunity and for horses recovering from neglect or a period of
malnutrition a little Goldenmeal 5104 is invaluable. Tolerance to confinement
can also come into the equation but not as much as is often feared. Like
ourselves when recovering from an illness or injury our minds accepts such
circumstances much more than if we were committed to bed as fit people. Horses that you could never imagine coping become quite stoic when
poorly however there are exceptions and in such cases the Mentax formulae are
ideal.
We have had some very
satisfactory reports on Tenderfoot formulae. One very professionally presented by a qualified
Podiatrist with a lot of experience for which we are most grateful. (Press the
article button on the website) besides reporting the scale of relieve achieved
on hard ground ancillary factors such as palatability and acceptance were also
presented.
.
‘If sugar or pre-eminently
Honey be the most potent energy for muscle, should we not remember to give it
for that all important and most vital muscle of all – the heart which gets no
complete rest: other muscles, yes, but not the heart, no respite – until the
tale is told’. Extract from the
Lancet Feb 1925 by Dr GNW Thomas on general physical repair and above all heart
failure after recording exceptionally good pulse in a patient with pneumonia
who consumed 2 lbs of honey during illness.