This message is from: Mary Thurman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---Jean Ernest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > This message is from: Jean Ernest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > The cold wave that has settled over most of Alaska looks like it will be > staying awhile, and the longer it stays, the more problems people will be > having with their horses. > > I got a call this morning from my friend, Gail Tobin, saying that they had > hauled one of their Fjord to the vet last night, with colic due to > impaction. Jean, I'm curious, was the Fjord with the impaction and indoor (stabled) or an outside horse? I'm beginning to think, based on experience with my own "boys", that stabling Fjords (read "keeping them in some sort of stall most of the time, with only brief turnout while cleaning stalls") makes them more apt to develop all kinds of problems they don't normally have. The water we give our horses year round is regular faucet water - there are no heaters in the tanks, nor do I warm their bucket water. The mean water temperature around here is around 45 degrees. It only gets warmer in summer if it sits in a tank in the sun. In winter it is often much colder than that, especially when we have a freezing spell. I have never had a problem with colic or impaction, no matter what the weather. I never had a problem with it in Montana either, where the horses drank from a hole chopped in the ice on the creek all winter long. Could there be some other factor at work here? Ok, I agree it's time to send the "deepfreeze" somewhere else. Just please don't send it south too far. East would be better - I hear Ontario and Quebec could use more snow - ha, ha!! I couldn't believe how much snow they were getting in early January when we were visiting in Canada. Mary == Mary Thurman Raintree Farms [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
