51 minute read
Horse Health
The Case for CLEAN AIR
by Kim F. Miller
Hay and bedding are two major sources of respirable dust, but there are steps you can take to reduce dust—which can also help prevent or manage equine asthma. Perform dust-producing barn chores—like cleaning stalls and sweeping or blowing out barn aisles— while horses are outside.
Recognizing and reducing respirable risks is critical to our horses’ respiratory health.
A veterinary education would have been helpful to absorb every bit of information conveyed in the “Respiratory Diseases in Horses” session at last December’s American Association of Equine Practitioners convention in Nashville, Tenn. However, common sense was enough to get the main takeaway for horse owners: reducing respirable dust in the horse’s environment is critical to preventing or managing conditions on the equine asthma spectrum.
The spectrum is broad, starting with mild and moderate asthma cases that are usually reversible. Severe equine asthma sits at the other end. It can cause remodeling of the airways and usually can only be managed, not cured.
Inflammation in the airway causes all grades of equine asthma, and the main cause is respirable dust. Throughout the four-hour AAEP session, veterinarians were urged to help their owners recognize and reduce respirable dust in their horse’s living spaces.
“Dust” might sound simple, but in the equine world it is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic matter. Bacteria, endotoxins, mites, mold, and fungal spores are common components. Myriad other particles in dust can activate the horse’s inflammatory and allergic responses. Triggers lurk everywhere, observed Dr. Renaud Léguillette of the University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine faculty. “Horses are shipped in trailers, live in stalls, and are fed inside stables,” he said.
Even when these dust sources are identified, sustained owner compliance can be difficult. In a 2020 study1 of 49 horses with severe equine asthma, only six owners were described as “good” in following dust management recommendations. “For the six who did comply, the measures worked very well,” Léguillette noted. Clinical signs including breathing effort and coughing were much improved.
“It’s frustrating, because even for those who do all these efforts, if there is one mistake in the chain—say, the owner is on holiday—it is not forgiven with asthma,” Léguillette said. “Doing a good job most of the time is not enough.”
While that’s discouraging news, it’s also powerful inspiration to recognize and reduce respiratory risks before problems arise or progress to extremes.
Home In on Breathing Zone
The horse’s breathing zone should be the focus point. “Not all dust gets into the lungs,” Léguillette stated. “Dust in the corner of the ceiling is not as important as the dust around the nose, in the area where the horse is breathing.”
Particles in the range from 10 to 2.5 microns can penetrate a horse’s upper airways and lungs. The smaller the particle, the farther it goes. Deep in the lungs, these bits cause inflammation that can impair the transfer of oxygen from the alveoli to the blood stream and the removal of carbon dioxide during exhalation.
Léguillette noted his colleague Dr. Laurent Couëtil’s work with a wearable device that measures the amount of dust particles in the horse’s breathing zone. It’s been used in research correlating quantities of respirable dust with lower performance in racehorses. The device may eventually have commercial application that could make clear to owners the existence of the most harmful dust: the particles that are invisible because of their small size.
Forage First
“Start with hay,” Léguillette advised. “That has the biggest impact on breaching the respiratory system and having the highest endotoxin concentration. Then bedding. Then everything else!”
“Most owners can tell if their hay is supermoldy and dusty,” noted Dr. Sarah Reuss of Boehringer Ingelheim. “But even outside of that, if you are going to feed long-stem hay, at a bare minimum you should soak it, and if you have access to a hay steamer, that’s excellent.”
Soaking has been a conventional way to dampen respirable dust. “But you have to make sure that you are truly soaking it, not just spritzing it,” Reuss said. She advises 10 minutes of soaking to avoid significant loss of nutrients (and 60 minutes if there is the additional goal of the decreasing sugar content).
Steamers can offer additional help. The Haygain Hay Steamer, the official hay steamer of US Equestrian, is proven to reduce up to 99% of the respirable irritants found in forage, without depleting nutrients. A study published in 20182 determined that feeding Haygain-steamed hay reduced the risk of mild equine asthma by 65%.
“If, logistically, you can’t steam or soak, then some horses who are quite badly affected might need to go on complete pelleted feed until the condition can be brought under control,” Reuss noted.
How forage is fed matters, too. “Feeding hay on the ground puts gravity in your horse’s favor,” Reuss explained. It’s nature’s way of allowing respirable particles to drain. Conversely, hay net feeding can result in four times higher exposure to respirable particulates.
From a respiratory health standpoint, Léguillette and Reuss strongly discouraged feeding free-choice round bales. Round bales can have high levels of endotoxins and organic dust, especially unhealthy when the horse has its nose stuck inside for long periods. If round bales are the only available option, Reuss recommended storing them in a shed and forking out portions to be fed off the ground.
Bedding
Bedding is the second biggest source of respirable particles in the barn. That’s why it was an early consideration when Dr. Karen Laidley began planning the design of her Fruition Farm in Redmond, Ore.
Her holistic approach to horse care dictated flooring that would prevent urine and feces from seeping to the subfloor. In ComfortStall Sealed Orthopedic Flooring, she found built-in cushion that requires only enough bedding to absorb
Boehringer Ingelheim’s Dr. Sarah Reuss suggests feeding hay on the ground, which allows particles to drain down and out, rather than into, your horse’s nose.
fluids, plus an impermeable surface that’s easily cleaned and disinfected. Even though Laidley’s horses live outdoors as much as weather and air quality allow, the veterinarian wanted the horses’ indoor hours to be as free of respiratory risks as possible. “This flooring cuts down ammonia odors that can affect horse’s respiratory health as well as our own,” she explained.
Among numerous low-dust bedding options, Laidley found Easy Pick’s TripleScreened Douglas Fir shavings ideal for absorption and affordability.
Ventilation
Environmental approaches to improving respiratory health have been a hot topic in the veterinary world for many years. Laidley experienced this when dairy cattle were part of her practice several years ago. “Problematic lung issues were a big financial concern with herd health for cows, and it was directly impacted by ventilation,” she said. “That was huge when I was in veterinary school, and I have expanded on that to educate my client horse owners and when I built my own barn.”
Ventilation also is a key point in Boehringer Ingelheim’s efforts to educate owners on the barn-associated causes of equine asthma. “Ideally, there are two paths for air to go in and out of every stall,” Boehringer Ingelheim’s Reuss explained. “That gets harder in colder climates, but it’s better to have a horse blanketed in a cold barn than naked in a closed barn.”
Six More Tips
There are other steps you can take to reduce respirable particles in your horse’s environment. •Let horses live outdoors whenever possible, assuming good air quality and that your horse’s respiratory issue is not caused or worsened by pollen or a pasture grass. •Avoid using leaf blowers around horses. •Clean stalls and aisles when horses are outside. •Do not store hay or straw above stalls. “Even with a tarp, the dust filters into the stalls,” noted Reuss. •Think beyond the barn: use low-dust footing in arenas and turnouts and/
or spray water on outdoor surfaces to dampen dust. •Educate those who care for your horses on ways to reduce respirable risks.
The good news on the equine respiratory health front is that there is increased awareness of possible problems in their early stages. Central California veterinarian Dr. Phoebe Smith does not see a lot of severe asthma, possibly because the arid region has less mold. The dry, perpetual drought climate, however, offsets that with plenty of dust.
“What I see more often are cases on the milder end of the spectrum, and these present very differently than the severe cases,” she explained. “The presenting complaint is usually [that] the horse is not performing as well—not meeting the cross-country times or hitting rails or an elite athlete that is just off their mark, but lameness has been ruled out.
“There’s a misconception that nasal discharge or coughing is always present with respiratory issues, and that is not always the case,” Smith added. As more owners consult with veterinarians when these subtle symptoms emerge, cases are caught earlier, managed more easily, and, above all, prevented from recurring with improvements to the environment.
Left: Ideally, there should be two ways for air to move in and out of each stall to facilitate good ventilation. Right: “If you are going to feed long-stem hay, at a bare minimum you should soak it, and if you have access to a hay steamer, that’s excellent,” said Dr. Sarah Reuss of Boehringer Ingelheim.
1. Owner Compliance to an Environmental Management Protocol for Severe Equine Asthma, J. Simoes. Journal of Equine
Veterinary Science. 2. Fungi in respiratory samples of horses with inflammatory airway disease. J. Dauvillier, Journal of Internal Veterinary Medicine PHOTOS: SHELLEY PAULSON PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESTY OF HAYGAIN
OPOWERP BY LIZA HOLLAND NYIntelligent, hardy, and athletic, ponies make excellent sporting companions—and great teachers. On the eve of the USEF Pony Finals presented by Honor Hill Farms, we consider ponies’ special appeal to kids and adults alike. PHOTO: SHELLEY PAULSON PHOTOGRAPHY
Above: “You start to learn at a very young age what’s important to you and that you get out what you put in. And I think the kids start to realize that at a young age,” said trainer Patricia Griffith. Right: Ponies help teach young equestrians about responsibility, perseverance, and the importance a good work ethic.
“I want a pony!” is many a child’s refrain. A pony can be a dream realized, and well-trained ponies are a great entry equine for kids. They have a reputation for being smart and good teachers, and their smaller stature is not quite so overwhelming. A good pony will take care of their kid. But ponies have also become great companions for adults, extending the time to enjoy ponies and equestrian sport in new ways.
Bred for strength and function, ponies have been humans’ stalwart partners for centuries.
Although their power and hardiness historically has made them popular choices for working roles, ponies are most often used for recreation and competition today in the United States.
Smart, athletic, handy, and sometimes mischievous, ponies can make perfect partners for young equestrians, teaching them everything from nailing the ideal distance to a jump to coping with the occasional willful “pony attitude.”
“I think that there’s no better teacher than a good pony,” said Patricia Griffith, rider and trainer at Heritage Farm in Katonah, N.Y., and a veteran coach at numerous USEF Pony Finals presented by Honor Hill Farms. “I think by virtue of their size, you know, the great teachers for these kids are the ponies.”
A good pony, Griffith notes, also can help launch a young rider’s career.
“The great ponies are partly responsible for the success of many of our Olympians,” she said. “You know, Lillie Keenan had a bunch of great ponies, and now she is riding on all these teams for the country. Reed Kessler was the youngest U.S. Olympic show jumper ever, and I started her off on ponies.”
Good ponies can also showcase a young rider to the best advantage, and these ponies—like hunter ponies Mardi Gras, Helicon, Take Notice—are legends for good reason, Griffith says.
“I mean, they were literally machines,” she said. “It was like the pony knew the course. They’re so smart, so smart, and they learned by repetition, and they know their jobs.”
SMALL PACKAGE, BIG LESSONS
But even the naughtiest pony can teach kids and adults important lessons, not only about horsemanship, but also about life.
“I think ponies teach kids that they have to be willing to persevere and work through it,” said Griffith. “You’re dealing with another living animal that has feelings, which makes our sport different than others. And I think it does teach kids at an early age how to be a good winner as well as how to be a good loser, which is very important.
“It’s also about realizing that these ponies also have feelings and moods,” she added. “Some days they feel better than others. And some days maybe they feel great and you don’t ride that well. And the next day, maybe you rode it perfectly, but your pony wasn’t quite on the same page as you as a teammate. It’s kind of a life lesson that things don’t always go as planned.
Left and inset: Mary Phelps and her team of ponies, Shetlands Bugsy Malony, Al Capony, and Kimba and Shetland/Welsh cross Tony Da Pony competing during the marathon phase at Live Oak International. Above: “There’s a size or a shape for everybody as far as the ponies go, and you just can’t help loving them,” says Dr. Ruth Wilburn, who breeds Welsh ponies at Rollingwoods Farm.
“It’s the same in life. You have to learn to roll with the punches and deal with that.
“It also teaches them about feeling and reading another animal’s feelings. Being able to do that is something that’s challenging, and I think they have to quickly learn that the pony is not the same every day and you have to adjust your ride.”
Those lessons provide a good foundation that young or new equestrians can build their future careers on, whether as amateurs or professionals.
“They might be small, but they’re definitely the boss,” Gia Rinaldi, a successful junior rider who is now a show jumping athlete competing internationally, said of ponies. Rinaldi grew up near Wayne, Ill., where she started off competing ponies in short-stirrup and hunter seat equitation before graduating to horses and Fédération Équestre Internationale-level jumping.
“I had a few good ones growing up,” Rinaldi said of her early pony experiences. “They definitely taught me some good life lessons. I got my first pony, Peppermint Patty, when I was about five years old—I had always been asking for a pony—and she really tested me. She was really tiny, even smaller than a small pony, and I was even smaller than she was. She definitely knew how to take advantage of me, and she would test me a lot, both riding and on the ground. One time I had to get one of the ladies at the barn to go in the stall and catch her for me because I couldn’t. I definitely had to grow at lot of patience with her!
“I’m glad I had the start that I did on ponies, and on ponies who were maybe a little bit tougher, because it taught me to be a much stronger rider. I had to figure things out and learn what my pony did and didn’t like.”
Those horsemanship lessons were reinforced, Rinaldi said, by the fact that she took care of her own ponies, which gave her an intimate view of their personalities, behavior, and quirks.
“We didn’t have grooms growing up, so we basically had to do everything ourselves, and that taught me a lot. You get to know your ponies better—what they like, what they don’t like, and every little detail about that.”
For children, ponies present the opportunity to get that hands-on experience of equine management in a smaller package that’s less overwhelming.
“For small children, small ponies are what they need,” explained Dr. Ruth Wilburn, breeder of Welsh ponies, including such successful competitors as Rollingwoods Knee Deep, winner of the Small Regular Pony Hunter National Championship at the 2021 USEF Pony Finals presented by Honor Hill Farms. She and her sisters Joanna Wilburn and Sally Ross Davis operate Rollingwoods Farm in Olive Branch, Miss. “A small pony is one they can tackle themselves, try to get on by themselves, and not be scared because the animal is twice their size. As they grow, then they can have a little bit bigger pony.”
Wilburn has also seen first-hand the powerful positivity that ponies can bring in equine-assisted therapy as a board member at Angel Heart Farm, whose stable of ponies and
Arabian horses provide therapy for pediatric cancer patients and those with other chronic or life-threatening issues. The ponies’ small stature makes it easier for kids to mount them, and their temperament is solid for this type of work, Wilburn explained.
“It’s so amazing to see these kids be all pouty and not feeling good at all and then watch them after they’ve been with the ponies,” she said. “Their little faces light up, and they are a different child when they leave there.”
NOT JUST FOR KIDS
The joy of ponies isn’t limited to kids, though.
“I think, nowadays, some of these adults have figured out they don’t need a 17-hand Warmblood to do dressage, that a 14.2-hand pony is quite adequate for doing dressage or doing hunter stuff,” said Wilburn.
Wilburn shows her own ponies in carriage pleasure driving, and she’s not alone in enjoying the athleticism and fun of competing ponies as an adult. Combined driving athlete Mary Phelps, who is based in Micanopy, Fla., competes a popular group of Shetland ponies known collectively as “The Flying Gangsters”: Bugsy Malony and Tony Da Pony, recently immortalized as Breyer® models, as well as Al Capony and Kimba. They include the reigning USEF Combined Driving National Champion Advanced Four-in-Hand Ponies and the pair with which Phelps won the pony pair cones phase—combined driving’s equivalent to the jumping phase in a three-day event—at the 2019 FEI Driving World Championships for Ponies in Hungary.
“I had no idea that I would end up doing a Pony World Championships, but I did,” Phelps said. “I want to talk about the fact that I’m 71 and an FEI 3* competitor, and I’ve been able to do it and it keeps me healthy. I’m lucky.”
Phelps was drawn to combined driving partly by what she describes as “more of a family atmosphere,” and the ponies had their own appeal. “There’s just so many things about having ponies, especially in driving, that makes it great,” she said. “I can handle the equipment by myself, and it’s not too heavy. They don’t need shoes, so their feet are perfect. And they’re small ponies, so it’s actually better that they don’t have shoes. And if they step on you, you don’t break a foot!
“And they’re smart,” she added. “It’s sort of like having a dog. They just have a different mental approach to deal with. And they were also forgiving as I learned along the way, because I wasn’t always doing things right. But when I would learn how to do something right, they were like, ‘Oh, that’s what you mean. Okay, I can do that.’
“They’re also a challenge, because they’re so smart that they can outsmart you.”
HARDY AND SMART
Pony smarts can present a challenge for adult and child alike, but their intelligence also makes ponies adaptable and resilient— hallmarks of a good equine companion and competitor, pony lovers note. Those are the mental characteristics that Welsh pony breeder Wilburn actively seeks.
“We’re looking for a pretty pony that has a good brain and is kind with a good temperament, because most of these are going for kids,” she said of her breeding program. “We think temperament is most important. It’s nice that they’re pretty, but they have to have a good brain.”
Griffith, the Heritage Farm trainer, agreed. “I also want a good brain, because ponies can learn bad habits,” she said. “The kids are little, and it’s easy for a pony to learn, ‘Hey, I just stopped, put my head down, and the rider goes off.’
“We’ve had a few of those ponies that that was their move. They were talented ponies, but they were not the personality to deal with a beginner rider. They’re little, they’re quick, and they know their riders.”
In addition to a good mind, Griffith said, she’s looking for a good canter.
“I like a quality canter, because you jump from the canter,” she explained. “So the canter has to be balanced. When a horse has a balanced canter, they show you the distance quite easily. A pony with a naturally good canter is going to be a naturally good lead-changer, which is something that’s difficult to teach kids, to really balance for the change. So I look for a pony
Inset: Competing ponies can help teach discipline to young equestrians Below:: “I’m glad I had the start that I did on ponies, and on ponies who were maybe a little bit tougher, because it taught me to be a much stronger rider,” says FEI show jumper Giavanna Rinaldi.
PHOTOS: ANWAR ESQUIVEL, LESLIE POTTER/US EQUESTRIAN
with a naturally good canter, because I know the changes are going to be easy and I know that a lot of different levels of riders are going to be able to ride it.
“If it’s a superstar with a great canter, super,” she continued. “If it’s not the fanciest pony, it could be a great teacher, one that has that rhythm where it shows them how to jump and teaches them how to jump.”
That teaching will extend well beyond the ring, too, helping young equestrians build their riding careers and life skills.
“I feel like it really teaches discipline,” Griffith said of pony competitions like USEF Pony Finals presented by Honor Hill Farms. “You’ve got to get up, you’ve got to be on time. You’ve got to know your course. These are things that your trainer can’t do for you. You’ve got to learn from a young age that ‘Hey, maybe I’m exhausted, maybe going out last night wasn’t a good choice.’ You start to learn at a very young age what’s important to you and that you get out what you put in. And I think the kids start to realize that at a young age.”
Whatever your age or discipline, there’s probably a pony out there waiting to share companionship, good humor, and even some competitive thrills with you.
“They are hardy, little, smart creatures,” Rollingwoods Farm’s Wilburn said. “There’s a size or a shape for everybody as far as the ponies go, and you just can’t help loving them.”
THE PONIES ARE COMING!
For peak pony fun, there’s no better place to be than the Kentucky Horse Park for the USEF Pony Finals presented by Honor Hill Farms, where national championships are decided and lifelong memories—and friends— are made. The event, which draws around 850 ponies and 550 riders annually, takes place Aug. 9-14 in the heart of Bluegrass horse country. It’s a showpiece for all pony aficionados as the spotlight turns toward the ponies and riders who have qualified for this prestigious event. Here are our top tips to help competitors and spectators make the most of Pony Finals week: Catch all the action, indoors and outside. Based on feedback from the 2021 event, the hunter competition returns to the iconic Rolex Stadium again in 2022, while the Pony Medal competition will take place in its pre-pandemic setting in the airy Alltech Arena. And don’t miss the exciting Pony Jumper competition in the scenic outdoor Claiborne Ring. Check out the family-friendly activities for non-riders, too. The new Pony Finals Activity Center is open to competitors and their noncompeting friends and family, too. There are lots of ways to join the fun. Pin a note, photo, or small piece of memorabilia to the Pony Finals Memory Board to memorialize your Pony Finals experience. Visit our craft stations and our selfie stations—and show your friends on social media #WhyILovePonyFinals. Local to Lexington or coming from afar? Show us where you hail from by pinning your starting point on our map. Learn more at the free USHJA Clinics. The United States Hunter Jumper Association will host a full slate of learning opportunities during Pony Finals, including a virtual session of mental skills coaching and in-person model and educational clinics in the Covered Arena. Don’t miss the Judge’s Perspective clinic and the chance to walk a course. All are free and open to competitors and noncompetitors alike. Find out more at ushja.org/PonyFinalsClinic. Take the Emerson Burr Horsemanship Test. There’s another national championship on the line during Pony Finals, and you don’t even need a saddle. Pony Finals hosts the national Emerson Burr Horsemanship competition, awarding $500 educational grants to winners in each of four age groups. The Emerson Burr competition at Pony Finals consists of a multiplechoice test followed by a hands-on horsemanship test. Not competing at Pony Finals? No problem: the Emerson Burr Horsemanship Test is open to noncompetitors, too, though only Pony Finals competitors are eligible for grants. Learn more about the Emerson Burr Horsemanship Grant at usef.org/compete/disciplines/hunter/ emerson-burr-horsemanship-grant. Leap into Pony Land. Pony Land is back! There’s an inflatable obstacle course, as well as a Horseless Horse Show hosted by Dalman Jump Co. that features kidsized jumps. Join the Golf Cart Parade. Each barn chooses a theme and decorates their golf cart for this iconic Pony Finals event. All families are welcome! The parade takes place in the Rolex arena at the end of competition on Thursday, Aug. 11. Meet the Interscholastic Equestrian Association. Want to enjoy (or start) a riding team back home? Visit the IEA, one of USEF’s Education Partners, to learn more about how you can make team memories to last a lifetime through interscholastic equestrian competition in the disciplines of hunt seat equitation, Western equitation, and dressage. They’ll have a booth on site, next to the concierge table. Learn more at rideiea.org.
GOING GREEN(er)
BY GLENYE CAIN OAKFORD
If you’re on the fence about trying to make your equine operation more environmentally friendly, consider the costs of the status quo—not only to the wider environment, but also to your bottom line, sustainability experts suggest.
For many farm owners, the first step toward building a more environmentally friendly operation isn’t voluntary; they get pushed onto the path of greater sustainability when a neighbor complains about a manure pile or a local agency cites them for a contaminated waterway. That scenario is increasingly common in areas where suburban sprawl is creeping closer to farmland, and it can take an unsuspecting equine property owner by surprise. For others, the impulse to “go green”—or at least greener—is driven more by concerns about climate change, biodiversity, and soil health.
Whatever their reason for exploring better sustainability, equine operations that do pursue greener practices can reap surprising rewards, including lower costs, new revenue streams, greater efficiency, and the satisfaction of contributing to a healthier environment.
Phil Le Dorze, who co-owns IOS Ranch on Bainbridge Island, Wash., with his wife Juliet, has enjoyed those benefits and more.
The couple’s jumping and dressage horses are based at the eight-acre property, which averages 15-20 horses and produces about two to four cubic yards of waste each day. That waste—the daily output of horse manure and dirty shavings—was the problem that prompted Le Dorze to look for more environmentally sustainable way of doing business in the first place, back when he owned the farm in partnership with hunter jumper trainer Mollie Bogardus.
“Mollie and I got fined by the health department of Kitsap County years and years ago because we had too much uncovered manure around the place,” Le Dorze explained. “It was very expensive for us, because we were on a tight budget trying to make a living with the horses, and that really got imprinted in my mind.”
The pain of that fine put Le Dorze and Bogardus on two different but related paths to sustainability. It inspired Bogardus to found a new business, Aveterra, which today offers education, consulting, and solutions related to composting technology and organic waste processing. After Bogardus sold her interest in the farm to Le Dorze’s wife, the couple embarked on a plan to remodel the property, including installing an onsite composter and solar panels, among other innovations.
“We decided that we wanted to do it so that it would be sustainable,” Phil Le Dorze explained.
The Le Dorzes’ large-scale project and ultimately cost several hundred thousand dollars—some of it offset by grants—over a number of years to turn their property into a green showplace. But horse farms with much smaller budgets also can make a positive impact on environmental quality, says Bogardus, starting with that pesky manure pile.
“The simplest thing you can do is pour some concrete and get the material stored on a concrete pad that has a lip around the edges so that water runoff is not an issue,” she said, noting that a simple solution like this at a small facility can cost about $2,500 to $5,000, depending partly on the number of horses housed there. “Then you can cover it. Ideally, it’s great if it has an actual tin roof or some sort of structure over it, but even if you tarp it, you are in compliance.”
RISK MITIGATION
Experiences like hers and Le Dorze’s— the unpleasant shock of a complaint or a fine—are common prompts for equine farm owners, Bogardus said.
“There are regulations at the federal and state level, and often at the county level, that set out specific things you have to do with your manure disposal; many people aren’t even aware of that, because the regulation is not consistent,” explained Bogardus. “What happens in most cases when I get a phone call is because someone has turned a farm in” to local authorities, she said. “What that means is somebody doesn’t like the sight of a large manure pile, the odor is drifting toward somebody’s home, or there’s concern about water contamination.
“It’s not that people are trying to break the laws or break the rules,” she added. “I think it’s just that they’re unaware of them, and they are not uniformly enforced. The risk stems from several things. One is that a complaint gets called in by neighbors, but another is through tracing. Local, state, and even federal agencies tracing water contamination can just go right up rivers or creeks until they find the source of input and that can result in fines or even, in some cases, lawsuits.”
But even if your neighbors are content and you never face a fine or a lawsuit from a government agency or environmental group, there’s another compelling reason
to consider “greening” your manure disposal, Borgardus says.
“For many places, the expense of manure disposal is a staggering cost,” she explained. “It’s right up there with annual feed bills or any of their really high-end expenses.”
With just a few simple and relatively inexpensive adjustments, Bogardus said, a stable can move its daily manure output from an expense to a potential asset.
“If you compost it correctly, where you’re meeting regulatory requirements, it could become something you can spread on your fields, use as mulch in your garden, or even potentially sell to a local landscape company or garden center,” she explained. “Whether you give it away to a neighbor or ultimately turn it into a business, there are really good green options to give this material second life. This is part of shifting your mindset from manure being a disposable material to seeing it as something of value.”
GETTING STARTED
Once you decide to investigate sustainable practices like composting, you’ll discover that there are a lot of resources available.
“There is a plethora of information on the web, and companies such as mine are here to help and assist people,” said Bogardus. For those interested in composting, she also recommends checking for classes. “Oftentimes, your local conservation district will offer some compost classes to get people started. If nothing else, contact your local district and chances are they will send a representative out who will guide you through the process. And so many of these districts have matching funds available.
“There’s also the United States Composting Council, which offers incredible classes. I think they’re usually three- or four-day classes that cost some money. But you will find out everything you ever needed to know about composting and also create a relationship with these people who are sources you can go back to time and again when you have questions or issues or if you decide you’re going to take the next step and turn it into a business.”
Bogardus also advises clients to undertake a financial analysis of their operation. Even solutions that sound expensive, like installing an advanced in-vessel composter that can handle larger loads and significantly shorten composting time, can actually make good financial sense for some clients, she said.
“If you’re hauling the material off site for 20 horses, paying somebody to truck it away and paying for the ultimate disposal, then it is going to be financially advantageous for you to spend the $150,000 to get one of these in-vessel composting systems that can run the manure through basically in 30 days,” she explained.
Many equine operations assume that paying for manure disposal and many other traditional practices are inescapable
Above: “On a horse farm you’re moving stuff all day: bedding, hay, feed,” the University of Kentucky’s Dr. Steve Higgins said. “Think about the layout of your property: where are the roads? Where are the structures? Where is the work being done?” Locate your storage to maximize logistical efficiency. Opposite (top): “What happens in most cases when I get a phone call is because someone has turned a farm in” to local authorities, said Aveterra CEO Mollie Bogardus. “What that means is somebody doesn’t like the sight of a large manure pile, the odor is drifting toward somebody’s home, or there’s concern about water quality.” Opposite (bottom): Turning horses out in dry lots instead of grass pastures during wet weather can help reduce mud and preserve grass and soil in forage pastures.
Opposite (top): “Even if you have six to eight inches of bedding on top of that mat, when a horse urinates, it hits that rubber and spreads out and fouls all kind of bedding,” said Dr. Steve Higgins, a proponent of pervious flooring in barns. Opposite (bottom): The sheltered grouphousing model, especially when paired with compost footing, can make hay use and mucking-out more efficient while also reducing horses’ boredom, says the University of Kentucky’s Dr. Steve Higgins. Below: Runoff from muck piles that are uncovered and sitting on the ground can contaminate nearby waterways. costs of doing business, but that mindset can prevent farms from innovating and improving efficiency, says Dr. Steve Higgins, the director of environmental compliance for the University of Kentucky’s Agricultural Experiment Station.
“We’re using cultural practices and traditions that need to change,” Higgins said.
His recommended starting point: take a step back and try to analyze your operation with a fresh perspective. Where are you losing time or duplicating effort? How far are you having to carry or haul hay from your storage area to your horses? How much hay are you losing because the horses are using it for bedding in a muddy pasture? How could that pasture be improved to promote grass and prevent mud? Where and how are other resources or time draining away every day? And if you find yourself defending a practice or process as “how we’ve always done it,” stop and question whether it still makes sense, from an efficiency standpoint.
“The most important thing a person can do is become a student of their own occupation,” Higgins said. “Creating efficiencies can boost sustainability.”
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
Higgins’s approach is a full-facility one, from the stall floor to the layout of the property. When analyzing an equine operation and talking with the people who work there, he looks for subtle inefficiencies that add up to expense, in both wasted resources and environmental degradation.
Higgins encourages property owners to be innovative and open-minded, and he suggests looking to other countries and other livestock industries for ideas.
“There’s money to be saved by being more sustainable on a farm,” Higgins said. His ideas for equine operations include concepts that challenge traditional equine business methods but are good starting points for building a sustainability mindset and preserving costly resources, from hay to workers’ time:
Use pervious flooring instead of dirt or rubber mats.
“Dirt cannot hold up or provide the mechanical strength you need to support the weight of a horse,” Higgins said. “People put rubber mats in to provide cushioning for the horse to stand on. In my opinion, stalls need a pervious floor—something that will actually drain. “Even if you have six to eight inches of bedding on top of that mat, when a horse urinates, it hits that rubber and spreads out and fouls all kind of bedding. A pervious floor will allow that liquid to go through the floor.”
Consider group-housing horses instead of stalls.
“In my opinion, the whole box stall design is flawed,” Higgins said. “You’re looking at a 3,000-year-old technology developed by the Egyptians that has not changed one bit. Conversely, when we look at what some Europeans are doing as far as horse management, they’re going more to group housing that significantly reduces their labor.”
In a group-housing system, horses live together in an open area under shelter. These areas can be bedded with compost. “You can leave that bedding in there and pick up the fresh piles
PHOTOS: SHELLEY PAULSON PHOTOGRAPHY, FRANK SORGE/ARND.NL
Flooded, muddy paddocks contribute to soil erosion, are harder for workers and equipment to navigate, and require a farm to use more hay when their horses could be eating grass.
or even till those in,” Higgins said. “If you are mucking out stalls every day, you’re going in and taking out bedding every day and discarding it because it’s fouled.”
The sheltered group-housing model, Higgins says, can also conserve hay: horses can eat free-choice from feeding stations and are less likely to play with their hay out of boredom or use it for bedding, as often happens with roll bales in a muddy field.
Consider different wood choices.
Traditional white oak fences are aesthetically pleasing, but there are less tree-intensive alternatives that also might be easier on the wallet. “You can use wire fencing with vinyl ribbon across the top to give it a board-facing look,” Higgins said. “I’ve seen V-mesh fencing on boundaries of horse some farms, and that also can also help keep predators from getting onto farms.
For interior wood, Le Dorze of IOS Ranch opted for bamboo. “Traditional wood stalls, the horses chew on them, and it’s expensive wood,” Le Dorze said. “So we found a place that was only 11 miles away from us, and they milled bamboo there. Bamboo is not expensive, and it’s hard as steel. And, on top of that, the horses don’t like to chew on it.”
Avoid drip-edge barn roofs.
Installing gutters on your barn, along with the flexible end tubes that direct water away from the base of the barn, will help prevent the repetitive splashes that can damage barn walls and foundations. Cantilever roofs also are helpful, Higgins said.
Store materials close to where you’ll use them.
“On a horse farm you’re moving stuff all day: bedding, hay, feed,” Higgins said. Storing those centrally or close to where they’ll be used will save you both time and money, in the form of fuel.
“Think about the layout of your property: where are the roads? Where are the structures? Where is the work being done?” The goal: to place your storage to maximize the efficiency of your logistics.
Some cattle farmers store their hay in the same sheltered group-housing space on the edge of the field where their animals live, allowing the cattle to eat hay free-choice through a barrier that progresses as the hay is consumed. Higgins proposes a similar system for horses, noting that it saves hay from rotting in the rain and eliminates the need to move hay at all. “This increases sustainability over time,” Higgins said. “You’re not going into a field, you’re not rutting up your pasture. You’re lowering your operating costs from now on.”
Use feeding systems that help conserve hay and pasture.
“Look at your pastures in winter,” Higgins suggested. “Are they denuded and muddy? Is there a lot of wasted hay? Those areas require a huge amount of labor and equipment to renovate, and they’re hard to work in.”
For feeding hay outdoors, placing it in roofed structures or huts along the fence line prevents the need to drive a tractor into the field and tear up the land. Horses stretching to eat the hay in the hut will also drop less on the ground, reducing waste.
Place dry lots strategically to reduce runoff and pasture damage.
Higgins recommends placing a dry lot at the intersection of as many grass paddocks as possible to create a pen for your horses during bad weather. This will help prevent mud in the grass paddocks, which preserves grass, which in turn prevents runoff.
Leave pasture grass longer to help prevent overgrazing.
“Leave forage taller in a pasture, six or eight inches deep or so, and you’ll get the efficiency of the horse taking one bite and getting a mouthful, as opposed to having to take many bites to get that mouthful, which overgrazes the field down to the nubs,” Higgins explained. “In an overgrazed field, an animal is also more likely to be walking off pounds trying to graze.”
Rotational grazing also can be helpful to allow one sector of a pasture to recover as horses move on to other areas. Use electric tape—which can be solar-powered—to make smaller paddocks in larger pasture to create rotational grazing that way.
Many solutions, Higgins points out, don’t rely on complex technology or genius innovations; they’re simple common sense. But they might require bucking a traditional mindset or, as in the case of the Le Dorzes’ complete farm remodeling, a willingness to spend money to ultimately save money—and the environment.
Today, the Le Dorzes’ one-time liability, the manure pile that drew a fine from the Kitsap County Health Department, has been transformed into an asset. IOS Ranch’s composted manure now enhances the soil in the Le Dorzes’ outdoor grass ring, and they even sell it to landscapers at $30 a yard.
The total cost of making their farm a sustainable showplace is more than most would consider, Phil Le Dorze acknowledges. But he encourages property owners to do what they can.
“I know we have a lot of problems,” Le Dorze said. “I know we have a lot of homeless people and all kinds of problems. But if we don’t do something, we’re living on borrowed time. You can already see it now. There are already places on the waterfronts where you can see the water is rising and eating under the roads. The water is coming up, and the signs are that it’s happening even faster than we thought it would.
“I sleep well at night,” Le Dorze added. “I know not everybody can do it on this scale, but I feel good about what we’ve done.”
The University of Kentucky’s Dr. Steve Higgins suggests using electric tape as an alternative to plank fencing and for creating small, mobile areas for rotational grazing.
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BY GLENYE CAIN OAKFORD
Dr. Kevin Hankins, Managing Equine Veterinarian at the global animal health company Zoetis, What equine vaccines are musthaves? What role does your horse’s shares his wisdom on equine vaccination best location play in vaccination? How can drought contribute to a mosquito-borne disease like West Nile? And why can practices that can help you make the most of giving a five-in-one vaccine be better than five individual injections? Underyour horse’s vaccines. standing these factors and making a plan with your veterinarian are key to creating an effective vaccination plan for your equine operation. And before you compete, remember to consult the United States Equestrian Federation’s Equine Vaccination Rule in the General Rules section of the Rulebook. We sat down with Dr. Kevin Hankins of Zoetis to get his perspective—as both an equine veterinarian and a horse owner—on creating an equine vaccine regimen that maximizes a horse’s protection. When he’s not carrying out his duties for Zoetis and running his own practice in Olsburg, Kan., Hankins can be found riding Western pleasure or roping off of one of his Quarter Horses. Let’s start with the fundamentals: what are “core vaccines” and which vaccines are they?
The core vaccines contain the antigens that every horse needs to be vaccinated for every year, no matter their age or what they do or where they are located. Those vaccines are for Eastern and Western equine encephalitis, tetanus, West Nile virus, and rabies. Those five are core because those five diseases either have basically no treatment and a high mortality rate or, as with rabies, zoonotic potential, meaning it can spread from an animal to a human. There are also risk-based vaccines that veterinarians might recommend. What are those, and how can people find out what risk-based vaccine their particular horse needs?
The most common risk-based vaccines are for equine influenza and equine herpesvirus-1 and -4. Those three antigens are responsible for a large majority of the respiratory disease that’s out there.
The next most common is probably strangles, or Streptococcus equi subspecies equi. That one is something that should be really discussed with your veterinarian. It’s not a standard vaccine that you’d recommend for every horse. It depends on their risk or the facility that they’re in and whether they’ve had a previous strangles problem. With strangles, in addition to potentially vaccinating for it, you also do a lot with biosecurity to try to prevent it.
The American Association of Equine Practitioners provides a list of risk-based vaccines that includes those as well as anthrax, botulism, equine viral arteritis, rotaviral diarrhea, Potomac horse fever, snake bite, and Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis.
Above: Having your horse vaccinated two weeks before they travel will allow time for their immune response to offer good protection. Right: Dr. Kevin Hankins is managing equine veterinarian at the global animal health company Zoetis and also owns Quarter Horses.
Those are things that the horse owner really needs to sit down with their veterinarian and determine whether their horse is at risk for those diseases.
Should an owner consider their horse’s geographic location when they talk to their vet about risk-based vaccines?
Absolutely, because you do get diseases like Potomac horse fever, which is more common on the East Coast than on the West Coast.
This brings up a good point with one of the core diseases, too: West Nile.
The five core diseases require vaccinations once a year, but in some areas of the country, especially in the South where you get almost a year-round mosquito population, it’s probably advisable to give a West Nile booster. So you might actually give West Nile twice a year in southern Florida, Louisiana, places that might be prone to or locations geographically that might be having West Nile incidents that year. That can apply here in Kansas, as well. There are times here in the Midwest when West Nile really surges and we actually recommend a second West Nile booster.
What’s really interesting is that we see some of the highest West Nile instances during drought conditions. When West Nile first hit, and when it got really bad in the Midwest, we were under a large drought condition. What happens is that the mosquitoes reproduce and the virus replicates at about 86 degrees ambient temperature. So what happens when you have drought conditions? You can have small pools of water that feed mosquito reproduction more than usual. They lead to great breeding grounds for the virus and the mosquitoes both. So you’ll have a drought, it’ll help replicate the mosquitoes and the virus, and then when you get a big rain after that, it distributes those infected mosquitoes to a larger area. So, typically, any year that we have big West Nile outbreaks they are usually preceded by drought conditions.
Horse owners should work with their veterinarians and be aware of things that are going on in their area, because the geography where they are could really change what they would vaccinate for that year and maybe even the next year or so.
So it’s important to communicate closely with your veterinarian about each horse’s circumstances and vaccination needs.
The relationship between the horse owner and the veterinarian is really important. The horse owner can sit down with their veterinarian and say, “Okay, what does my horse do for a living?
Where’s it going to travel? What’s going on geographically in my area? What are some of the disease concerns? What am I going to be doing with my horse in the future? Is my mare going to become a broodmare?”
There are so many things that can come into play. It’s important for the veterinarian and the horse owner to sit down together and not only make a plan for right now, but also look down the road a little to see what that horse owner is going to be doing with their horse in the future. You want to make sure that the horse is receiving the vaccines it’s going to need and also that it’s not getting over-vaccinated. I know a lot of people like to go to Dr. Google, and some horse owners might think, “Oh my God, I need to vaccinate for everything.”
But over-vaccinating can be just as bad as under-vaccinating. So having that guidance from your veterinarian is important.
It’s also really important to have your veterinarian vaccinate that horse instead of trying to do it yourself. If you aren’t a veterinarian and you vaccinate your horse, in the case of rabies, it can cause your horse to be considered to be unvaccinated.
With rabies—and this is one disease that really comes into play in all 50 states in the U.S.—if a horse owner who isn’t a veterinarian acquires a rabies vaccine on their own and vaccinates their horse for rabies, that horse is considered unvaccinated for that disease. That really comes into play in case of exposure. Most states require unvaccinated horses that have been exposed to rabies or bitten by a rabid animal to go into six months quarantine or to be euthanized. So even if a horse owner has a videotape of themselves getting that vaccine and vaccinating their horse for rabies, the states are going to consider it non-vaccinated.
Another good reason to have your veterinarian handle vaccination is the chain of custody. You can be assured that those vaccines have been handled adequately coming from the manufacturer to the veterinarian to the horse owner. You can be assured it’s been appropriately refrigerated, kept out of direct sunlight, and administered appropriately. That doesn’t always happen when a horse owner acquires a vaccine from other sources. You kind of lose that custody chain.
Here’s another thing that I really like, too, something Zoetis offers that others don’t: if a horse owner has their licensed veterinarian vaccinate their horse with the Zoetis vaccines, they’re covered up to $5,000 dollars per horse for diagnostics and treatment and farm call if that horse becomes ill. For instance, if your licensed veterinarian administered Fluvac Innovator® 300 days ago and your horse comes down with a snotty nose, Zoetis will pay to have that veterinarian come out, diagnose it, do all the testing, and pay for the farm call. Even if it doesn’t come up as equine influenza, they still pay.
It doesn’t cost the horse owner anything. But the big thing is, it keeps those vaccines in the hands of a licensed veterinarian.
And it gives that horse owner peace of mind that, “Hey, if something happens, I’ve got a free insurance policy, where Zoetis will cover all this, including treatment, up to $5,000 per horse per year.” The owner doesn’t have to do anything except have their veterinarian vaccinate and keep good records.
Dr. Kevin Hankins
What are the advantages of a single, all-in-one core vaccination like Core EQ InnovatorTM to vaccinate against all five diseases covered by the core vaccines?
Having a single injection for the core vaccines raises compliance, for one thing, especially for the rabies vaccine—because, believe it or not, there’s not a very high percentage of rabies vaccination in horses. That’s surprising, considering the zoonotic potential of rabies and the fact that people exposed to rabies will have to go through the post-exposure series of injections.
In addition to increasing vaccine compliance, it also makes it very easy and puts it in a one-milliliter (or 1 cc) dose.
So for the veterinarian to go out in the spring and be able to give a single onemilliliter dose vaccine to cover all five core vaccines, that makes it very convenient for the veterinarian and the horse owner, too.
The more times you inject a horse, the higher the chance of a reaction. So having
the single vaccine also brings down the possibility of a reaction, as well.
Is there any advantage in terms of not interrupting a training or competition schedule? And is it wise to rest a horse after any vaccination?
Yes, because in general you do want to rest a horse after vaccination. Typically, I recommend that you rest the horse the day after vaccination, just because I want the immune system to be able to focus on those antigens that we just gave the horse.
We want to keep interruptions to training to a minimum, so I think giving them a day off is important while they mount an immune response. If you vaccinate them and then put them right back out into work, or, worse yet, put them right in a trailer and haul them someplace, the immune response to that vaccine is not going to be adequate yet and you’re not going to protect your horse very well.
So if they’re going into competition or if they’re going someplace for a show, I think the general recommendation is that you vaccinate them at least two weeks before they travel. That way they mount a proper immune response.
The nice thing about Core EQ Innovator and Fluvac InnovatorTM is that you can give the core vaccine along with the Fluvac equine influenza/equine rhinopneumonitis vaccine on the same day.
Even though there’s basically seven antigens going in there, the horse’s immune system responds very well. In fact, they get a little over four times the immune response to the flu antigen when we separate our flu vaccine from the core vaccine.
So in early spring, your veterinarian can give your horse the core and the flu/ rhino vaccines. Your horse’s immune system can handle that very well. Then give them that day off.
For those competition horses, you might come back in the fall and give them a flu/rhino vaccine again if they need it.
Dr. Kevin Hankins
It’s interesting that a horse can get more protection against equine influenza if you separate that vaccine out from the core vaccines. Can you explain how that works?
There’s an effect called antigen interference, and it actually happens in the syringe itself, or in the manufacturing process instead of in the horse, when you blend those antigens together.
Every antigen thrives under a different pH level. When you mix a whole bunch of them together, they try to find an average pH level where they kind of all get along together. The assumption is that maybe that pH level is not very friendly to equine influenza.
So taking the flu and the herpesvirus part out of the mix of the core vaccines allows the antigen for equine influenza, which is one of the most important respiratory diseases, to get about four to 4.7 times greater immune response when we measure titer levels than when it’s included with the core diseases.
That’s a huge difference, especially for horses that are at stables or in training or traveling. You want to make sure they maximize their immune response, because that correlates with protection.
Recent EHV outbreaks have made people even more aware of the importance of vaccinating against equine herpesvirus. Can you explain why it’s important to be aware of and protect a horse against equine influenza, too?
With equine influenza, it’s not only the acute phase of the disease, it’s what happens to the lining and the protection of their respiratory tract. What happens with flu is that when a horse inhales the flu virus, it attaches to the lining of their lungs and the respiratory tract, which has all these little finger-like projections called cilia. They’re there to protect and move bad stuff up and out of the lungs. But when the equine influenza virus attaches to the cilia, it starts destroying them. It’s going to take a minimum of three weeks for that horse to regenerate the cilia.
When they don’t have that protective cilia, you don’t want those horses in training and shipping anywhere. If they
breathe in bacteria, fungus, anything like that, it can go right to the endothelial lining of the lungs, which cannot be protected by that cilia. So with flu and a performance horse, first you lose that six to eight days where they feel horrible and they’re coughing like crazy. Once that’s over, you’ve lost another minimum of three weeks.
And if they get a bad enough case of flu, their oxygen exchange capability will never be the same again. A lot of times these horses that have flu chronically have inflammatory airway disease the rest of their lives.
So it’s really important to protect them from flu.
What is your take-home message for horse owners and barn managers regarding vaccines for horses?
The big take-home message is to work with their veterinarian to set up a program for their horses. It’s good for the horse’s health and for the horse owner’s pocketbook to have a plan in place.
I can’t stress enough that it’s so important for the horse owner to develop that relationship. It’s great for them to go off and search Dr. Google and learn as much as they can. But the one who knows their horses is their veterinarian.
Above: Before competing, also remember to consult the United States Equestrian Federation’s Equine Vaccination Rule in the General Rules section of the Rulebook. Left: Talk with your veterinarian not only about your horse’s general health, but also about their competition and travel plans, as well as any future plans like breeding, as part of making a vaccine plan together.
