The following articles and tid-bits of information have been either written by our staff, gleaned from other websites or
sent in by our readers.
   We hope you will find them interesting and informative; or at least entertaining.

Colic
   Well what exactly is colic? You know I've heard that term a lot over the years generally referring to a fussy infant. But what exactly is colic? Well according to my research, when discussing horses, (and infants)  the term simply means a belly ache. Now can a belly ache be dangerous? You bet it can and colic can be caused by any one of many conditions. How to tell if your horse has colic? Remember the signs of colic can range from imperceptible in mild cases to violent in extreme cases.
Look for these signs:

    lying down more than usual
    getting up and lying down repeatedly
    standing stretched out
    standing frequently as if to urinate
    turning the head towards the flank
    repeatedly curling the upper lip
    pawing the ground
    kicking at the abdomen
    rolling

Colic should never be taken lightly. Always assume the worse and seek professional help.

Trailer Brakes
   Remember that your electric trailer brakes need electric current to function. They get the electric current from the tow vehicle via the electrical plug. You step on the brake and the brake controller sends current to your trailer brakes and you happily roll to a controlled stop. All is well. But what happens when a failure causes the trailer hitch to become detached from the tow vehicles ball? Not to worry you say as I have safety chains. Well that's a load off to know that the trailer is going to stay with you but how about your brakes? What happens with them? That's kind of a tricky question. If the trailer's breakaway switch was activated when the trailer hitch failed and the trailer was caught by the safety chains, then the trailer brakes will be automatically applied as long as there is electrical current available with which to operate them. This electrical current is  supplied by the  tow vehicle via the plug, remember? The brakes are applied to the trailer and you come to a rather abrupt but hopefully safe stop as the trailer brakes are applied automatically and stop both vehicles. By the way if you slam on the tow vehicles brakes the trailer will most likely slam into the back of you, ouch. But what happens if the plug got yanked out of it's socket when the trailer hitch failed? Well this is another scenario. Hopefully you have kept your trailer's battery in good condition. What is my trailer's battery you ask? That is the small motorcycle style battery that is mounted somewhere on your trailer for just this reason. It doesn't last forever you know. When was
the last time it was checked or replaced? If it has failed you are left with no other way of stopping the trailer other than coasting to a stop or allowing the trailer to bang into your rear end when you step on the tow vehicle's brakes. So you can see the variables involved with your emergency breakaway switch. Be aware that some people say that ideally if your trailer hitch should fail and the trailer is caught by the safety chains, the cable attached to the breakaway switch should be of the proper length that it will pull out of the switch body thus applying the brakes while the trailer electrical plug has a wire long enough so that it will stay plugged in and in case it doesn't stay plugged in you still have the trailer's battery to apply the brakes. Other people say that the breakaway switch cable should be so long that the trailer brakes will only be applied if the trailer becomes totally separated from the tow vehicle. This scenario would include a safety chain failure as well. The choice is yours. Testing your breakaway switch and battery is fairly simple. Just leave the trailer's electrical connector unplugged and activate the breakaway switch by pulling the cable end free of the switch body. This should apply your trailers brakes. Remember to keep the contacts in your electrical plug clean. Just touch them up with some fine sand paper.

Navicular
   What is navicular? Is it a disease or a syndrome? What's a syndrome? According to google a syndrome is "A set of symptoms or conditions that occur together and suggest the presence of a certain disease or an increased chance of developing the disease." Well ok then. It seems that most experts (and I use that word loosely) seem to think that since the medical profession cannot seem to agree on just what exactly navicular disease is then it must not be a disease at all but a syndrome (which means a symptom). So that means that the word navicular means a sore foot or more precisely a sore heel. The soreness can be caused by several conditions and also seems to be able to be caused by no discernable condition at all. The lack of concrete information as well as the abundance of contradictory "guessing" from the "experts" is interesting and seems to be the rule rather than the exception when dealing with animals.
 

Deer and horse flies
   Well it's November and the flies are gone for now. I am fairly confident they will return next July. We tried a fly trap this past year and to nobodies surprise is was pretty much a flop. It caught some flies but not nearly enough to justify the cost of the thing. Oh well, live  and learn (or not). I think that this coming spring I will put up a purple martin house and try to get a colony established. When I  mow the field behind the pastures there are an abundance of some type of swallow diving and swerving and darting around as they grab  up the insects that my mower forces into flight. I do not know for sure if they are purple martins or not however I think that they are. (I guess they could be some other member of the swallow family.) Purple martins catch and eat large airborne insects for food (like the barn swallow) and do not nest in barns (unlike the barn swallow) They can be attracted to man made bird houses atop metal poles. I am cautiously optimistic that this project will be worth the effort.

To shoe or not to shoe
   Oh boy is this a can of worms. People have asked me "do you think I should have shoes put on him"? Hey, I don't know. Ask an expert. Read up on it. I have read a little on the subject. Volumes have been written about horses and those bands of steel called shoes. I am again dumfounded by the contradictory writings by the so called professionals. The bottom line, as far as I can tell, is that some people sometimes agree that some shoes can be of some use in correcting some hoof problems in some horses in some instances. (boy is that vague or what?) Some horses have softer hooves, some horses grow their hooves more slowly, some horse travel on harder surfaces and have trouble with abrasion. Have you ever heard of LTLH (I forget whether it's a disease, a condition or a syndrome.) How about navicular? (same deal) (Did you know that people have a navicular bone in their feet as well). (Just thought I'd throw that in.) The choice is yours.

Premarin
   The word premarin is derived from the 3 words -pregnant mare urine- and is the name of a prescription product used to control hot
flashes and other post menopausal symptoms in human women. Some or all of the farms where the urine is more or less milked from pregnant mares have come under scrutiny and intense criticism. It seems that the urine farms methods are considered less than humane. 
If you use this product, you may want to check this out as there are alternative products available.

Nurse mare foals
   Nurse mare foals are the by-product of an industry that supplies lactating mares, or “nurse mares,” to foals whose natural parents have been lost, or taken away from their babies for commercial reasons, such as rebreeding. The natural foals of the nurse mares are expensive to raise by hand, and having little value, they are sometimes left to fend for themselves or die. These foals do have some value however, as their hides can be used as “pony skin” in the fashion and textile industries, and their meat is considered a delicacy in some foreign markets. These foals may be very young when they lose their moms, even days or weeks old. They are often draft crosses, or thoroughbreds (a by-product of the horse racing industry) but they can be any breed or mixture of breeds. They are all in need of loving homes to replace the mamas they have lost, and with proper care, they can blossom into wonderful companions, riding horses and even sport horses.

Trailer terminologies
   Do you know what a load equalizing hitch is? Do you know what sway bars are?  Do you want to? Let me try to  explain them. Say  you've got a trailer. Every trailer has a tongue weight. That is how much the tongue of the trailer weighs when you try to pick it up.   Pretty heavy huh? Every trailer has a GVW (gross vehicle weight) rating. That is how much the trailer will weigh when it is loaded to capacity. Generally the bigger the trailer the heavier the tongue and the heavier the GVW. Say you've got a tow vehicle. Every tow  vehicle has amaximum weight that it can safely tow (pull). Every tow vehicle also has a rating for how much weight you can safely hang on the trailer hitch (tongue weight). In fact there are usually 2 ratings. One rating with a load equalizing hitch which is properly called a weight distributing hitch or WDH and one rating without. You can find these ratings in your owners manual. Some vehicles have the capacity to pull a load but not the capacity to carry the tongue weight of a trailer using a standard hitch. By attaching a load equalizing hitch you can increase the amount of weight that the tow vehicle can support (without the bumper dragging on the ground) (or the front wheels coming up off the ground)). Don't confuse the weight distributing hitch (which people often just call bars) with sway bars (which  are actually and correctly called anti-sway bars). The anti-sway bars can be included (optionally) with or integrated into many new   weight distributing hitches but it is certainly possible to have a weight distributing hitch without anti-sway bars. Anti-sway bars are designed to have a dampening effect on trailer sway while allowing the trailer to go around corners unimpeded. A weight distributing hitch  is designed to distribute the trailer tongue weight more evenly between the front and rear wheels of the tow vehicle thus raising the rear bumper up off the ground.

Horse stuff
   Horses hold a special place in most American’s hearts because they figure so strongly into our sense of history and identity. Even those who don’t own horses or ride regularly enjoy the sight of a horse in a pasture. However, there are some things about horses that aren’t commonly known. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about horses.

Q: What sort of signals should I look for to determine whether my horse is experiencing pain when there are no other signs of illness?

A: Horses pin their ears back, avoid physical contact, spin and scoot while being ridden, and wrinkle their noses when experiencing discomfort. Any of these signs should be reason to consult a veterinarian.

Q: My horse appears to be bored. Any suggestions?

A: Horses are very social creatures and in the wild live in herds to fulfill their social needs. If your horse isn’t exposed to other horses this might be the cause of your problems.

If living among other horses isn’t an option, perhaps sharing a pasture with a goat or donkey might help. Stimulating the horse is important too.

Spread its food out in small piles to make it work harder, hang treats from the branch of a tree, or put treats in a barrel with a hole in one end so the horse has to roll the barrel to be rewarded.

Trail rides (as opposed to rings or the same old pasture) add variety to everyone involved, not just the horse.

Q: Why are horses prone to kick something that walks behind it?

A: Since horses eyes are placed on the side of their heads to make it easier to watch for predators, a movement directly behind them can trigger a defensive reaction.

Grumpy John Henry still kicking at 32
By Will Graves
Associated Press
   LEXINGTON, Ky. — John Henry is grumpy, in one of those "I don't care what you want, I'm not coming over" kind of moods.
So no matter how many times one of the greatest thoroughbreds is offered a treat, he ignores it. Maybe he's not hungry. Maybe he sees a cameraman from the corner of his eye. Maybe he's just playing hard to get.
   Doesn't matter. He's simply not moving.                                                                                                                           
   John Henry, horse racing's elder statesman and twice the Horse of the Year, turns 32 on Friday.                                                                                       That's the human equivalent of 96. But don't think that because his coat has grown long and shaggy 
that time has mellowed him. John Henry remains as grouchy as ever. The caretakers at Kentucky
Horse Park's Hall of Champions have been waging a daily battle of wills with John Henry for more
than two decades, and losing. "If he doesn't try to kill me at least once a day, something's wrong,"
said Cathy Roby, the manager of the Hall of Champions, a small barn John Henry shares with a
handful of other racing legends, including Cigar. "He's always been mean and nasty his whole life,"
Roby added. "He bites and kicks. He messes with you. It's his tenacity and his will to keep going."
It's the same will that served him well during his record-setting career, when the gelding won more
than two dozen stakes races, including the Arlington Million and the Santa Anita Handicap twice.
"He's still a winner," said Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron, who helped John Henry retire as the
richest horse in racing history in 1985. "Every time he has another birthday he's won another race."
The finish line doesn't appear in sight, either. Other than a scare with colic five years ago, he's been pretty      
 healthy. He moves with a determined canter. His hair remains a dark brown, his mind is as sharp as ever.        
Consider the game John Henry plays with his handlers when they try to give him his daily medicine.                                                                                                                  
"He won't eat his feed if he thinks he's got anything in it at all," Roby said. "Any other horse will just gobble                                   
 it right down. Not John. We've tried to cover it up with molasses, applesauce or whatever and if he smells
anything in his feed, he don't eat it." Instead they have to find a way to box him into his 18-by-18 stall and force-feed him the medicine. John Henry has spent nearly 20 years with Roby but apparently has no intention of getting with the program to make the process relatively painless.
    Whenever the horse nears his stall, he stands with his head facing out toward the paddock, giving him a clear escape route when Roby and company close in. Roby knows the ritual might be part of what keeps John Henry going. There aren't a lot of 32-year-old thoroughbreds around. Secretariat died at 19 and Seattle Slew at 28. Seabiscuit, the horse to which John Henry is most often compared, died at 23. But John Henry is still here, still accepting visitors, still celebrating birthdays, still giving anyone who comes within 10 feet a hard time. John Henry raced until 9, an age when most champions have long since retired. Now he's pushing 100, and while some horses do live to such an advanced age, few are thoroughbreds.
    "He's that 80-year-old guy that never really went to the doctor that much," said Dr. Doug Byars, owner of the Byars Equine Advisory in Lexington. "He's trucking right along."
So too are the fans that make an annual pilgrimage to the Hall of Champions every year to cut the cake and sing "Happy Birthday." While some remember John Henry as one of racing's great closers, others see him as a beacon of hope, his rags-to-riches story and remarkable longevity a source of inspiration.
    "John Henry is the American story," said Howard McClurkin of Weatherford, Texas. "Nobody wanted him. He was an ugly little horse. He didn't come from racing royalty. He didn't come from a heritage barn. The mention of his name didn't open of opportunity for success and privilege, but he went up to those doors and knocked them down."
    McClurkin, unlike many of John Henry's fans, never made money on the horse. He didn't take a serious interest in horse racing until well after John Henry retired. But in reading up on the legend and visiting the Horse Park, McClurkin was overpowered by the presence of the small, tough horse who constantly reminds everyone of just who rules the barn.
    "The first time I met him, he looked at me with a hard stare and said 'I can beat you every day of the week,"' said McClurkin, who planned to be at John Henry's birthday party on Friday. "He's still the king."
A king who will celebrate another milestone with birthday cards from all over the world taped to his stall. One card from a fan in Canada reads, "You truly are one of a kind, without a doubt."
"He still wants to be domineering," McCarron said. "He just doesn't have the energy to be that way because of his age, but the spark is still there. It's just that the spark plug is getting weak."
    But far, apparently, from going out. Outside his paddock there's a sign explaining why horses like John Henry are gelded.
"Some stallions are headstrong, territorial and interested in mares," the sign reads. "Gelding makes them more attentive and easier to train."
A few yards behind the sign, John Henry grazes. He slowly turns his back to the sign and walks toward the far end of the paddock away from the bustle, looking for some peace and quiet.