#lazybperformancehorses

Striped pajamas keeps flys away…. WHAAAAT?

Horses and zebras are both equine. What do we all do to try our hardest to keep them blood sucking horse flies and other bugs off of our horses? Everything under the sun! Home remedies to small bottles of concentrate fly spray that costs just as much as a bale of hay and if you live in FL, you know how much a three string bale of alfalfa costs lol! We even try auto fly sprayers for their stalls to supplements in their feed.

Did you know (I sure had no idea), that the zebra (remember, is also an equine) doesn’t have to worry about the horse flys and bugs. Do you know why? Because of their stripes! I’m not kidding! I couldn’t make this up! Lol!

According to Blahó et al., authors of “Stripes disrupt odor attractiveness to biting horseflies: battle between ammonia, CO₂, and color pattern for dominance in the sensory systems of host-seeking tabanids,” published in the July 2013 edition of the journal Physiology & Behavior, flying insects such as flies and mosquitoes use visual cues to help find their next meal. Apparently, such flying insects find zebras have “reduced optical attractiveness”

HURRICANE SEASON IS IN FULL SWING!

With hurricane season here, we need to be ready BEFORE a storm is headed our way. There are many direction this topic can go, but in this blog I want to just focus on how to tag your horse. If something should happen and your horse gets away, you want your horse to be tagged so it gets returned to you. First thing is first, DO NOT… I repeat, DO NOT attach your original coggins to your horses halter. Sadly, if a dishonest person should find your horse, that is the horses ticket out of the state.

What should you do? There are many things to do. You can go to your local Walmart and they have a little machine that engraves “dog tags”. It’s very inexpensive. Just a couple dollars last time I checked. Put your name and address and any and all contact info so you can be reached. What you do with these is put them every where! I feel you can never have too much recourses of contact info on your horse if your horse should get away in a storm. Braid one into the mane, the tail, and put one on the halter.

Make sure you are using a leather halter, because if your horse should get hung up on something, leather will break. Your horse won’t get stuck there.

Write your info on an index card and put it in a zip lock baggy. Use clear packaging tape and tape it really well so no water will get in under the tape and attach it to the inside of the cheek piece of the halter. Again, don’t include the coggins!

You can take a pair of small clippers and clip your number into the horses coat.

Take a sharpie and write on their feet your info.

Anything you can think of. Remember, over tagging is a good thing! If you only tag on the halter and it should break then your horse is now untagged and when the horse is found, if it should get away, no one will know where the horse lives. So think about these things good.

We are in the summer months and It is very important to understand how to safely and quickly cool down a hot, sweating horse. This goes for a horse that’s turned out in the field or paddock all day and is sweaty and hot, along with a horse that was worked. Research has shown that simply hosing off a horse does little good. It does not significantly drop the horse’s temperature and in some cases be detrimental.

It is also found that cool to cold water poured or sprayed over a horse’s skin wets the horse, and the very thin layer of water actually contacting the horse’s skin is heated quickly to the horse’s body temperature. (Imagine taking a hot shower when your hot from working out at the gym and then stand out side in the sun). The rest of the water being sponged or dumped or sprayed on the horse merely sheets over that initial one- to two-cell water layer on the horse. The initial water actually acts like a raincoat and does not allow other water to contact and cool the skin, so the horse can in fact become hotter even while being cooled off.

The best method for cooling a horse is to spray or sponge on water with one hand and to almost immediately scrape off the now heated water with a sweat scraper in your other hand. Spray, scrape, repeat is the cooling method of choice. This means of cooling can significantly drop a horse’s core temperature and requires less actual water.

The water can be fairly cold with this method of cooling because it does not stay on the horse’s body long enough to cause muscle cramping, which had been a previous concern when cooling horses with the application of cold water. This is why when you first put a hose to your horse you always start with their legs. Never right to the body.

We have all seen horses communicate with each other.  Ears back.  striking with front feet, kicking with the hind.  Biting and moving their bodies in and around a herd to find their spot.  

But how do they communicate with humans?  Sure they do the normal, ears back, kicking, snorting and even on a happy note or a interested note we have seen ears forward at us.  

What about communication that runs deeper than that of the common eye.  Do they actually communicate with us?  Can they tell us something?  Do we listen?  Do we even notice it, because maybe we doubt it.  After all, “they are only animals.  They can’t talk.  They don’t even think like that”.  Or do they, hmmm? 

Studies have been done.  Experiments have been taken.  Horses do in fact communicate with us as humans and they do it differently than with their fellow equine buddies.  

Studies have shown that horses will make eye contact with us. They have been found to recognize attention from us to them.  Up until recently, it has been known that only dogs have been capable of heterospecific referential communication—essentially, the ability to communicate about something, specifically to someone else. More precisely, to us.  It is now known that horses are capable of thought-out problem-solving.

Horses are amazing animals in countless ways.  I think we all have seen a horse communicate with us at one point or another.  I know Wayne and I are believers that horses ARE in fact hererospecific referentail comunicators for sure!  

Two days ago, Wayne and I were working in the barn as any other day.  This day we were working in a stall.  a few horses were out grazing, enjoying them selves before the day cooled off and saddling and working horses would begin.  Out of no where, one of the horses came running up to the stall we were working in.  We aren’t talking a working trot or anything.  He was belly down running to us!  Needless to say he was on a mission!  He was running and yelling.  He got to us and looked right at us!  Wayne and I stopped what we were doing in awwww really.  Something wasn’t right...  Of course we made the old joke, “Whats wrong, is Timmy in the well?!”  haha!  He was acting like Lassie (hence, dogs being being the only other animal that is capable of heterospecific referential).  All of a sudden the horse turned around and took off just as fast back to where he came from with such concern.  At this point we were still in shock at what we were seeing and we knew we needed to go see what was wrong!  I went to go look and Wayne was finishing up what we were doing and wasn’t far behind me.  I started walking over to see and next thing I know the horse came running yet again, slowed down when he got to me and then decided he wanted Wayne.  He continued his concerning run to Wayne back at the barn.  Wayne stopped what he was doing and came out to where i was and we walked out back and sure enough, the other horses had made there way into the woods!  

It was amazing to look back over that whole moment and see how that horse knew something wasn’t right and made sure we knew and wanted Waynes help ASAP!  

You want to enjoy your four legged friend, but he/she seems to have its own thought on having fun.  We have all been there!  

So its time to find a trainer...  That can be stressful.  Here at Lazy B Performance Horses we make sure this process is happy and fun!  Come out and see your horse...  ANY TIME!  Watch your horse work and see the progression along the way!  Come be apart of the Lazy B Family!  Make new horsey friends of all ages here at the farm in a fun safe (Drug and alcohol free) environment!  

Horses have an array of potential talents in many different disciplines.  Here at Lazy B Performance Horses we have you covered!  We can help any horse from start to finish.  From enjoying these sunny Florida days on the trail to getting together with our show crew and getting your horse ready to hit the shows!  We have you and your horse covered.