Rockmount Equine Services in Rockmount, Queensland, Australia | Pet service

Rockmount Equine Services

Locality: Rockmount, Queensland, Australia

Phone: +61 439 535 263

Address: Tuckeroo Lane 4344 Rockmount, QLD, Australia

Website: http://www.rnwequineservices.com.au

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22.01.2022 Yes, you read correctly!

19.01.2022 Sad, but amazing.. The Funeral of Uncle Sam. Wild horses are deeply emotional and highly intelligent animals. If you know someone who doesn't get it, please sho...w them this. It is sad, but also amazing. Several different bands took turns saying their goodbyes. How did they all know there was a death? How did they process and understand it? We have no idea. But we see this same behavior each time there is a horse death. They are highly social, caring and truly amazing animals. Run forever free, Uncle Sam. To support our work in preserving them, please visit our website and donate towards their humane management. SRWHMG.ORG

17.01.2022 Size 3 regular cavallo simple boots, used but good tread and in pretty good condition. $90 currently in Helidon

16.01.2022 Introduction to Equine Conformation 2019

16.01.2022 Let's talk about iron, copper and zinc. As some of you know I've studied with Dr Kellon, VMD and equine nutritionist for quite some years in relation to nutriti...on and metabolic disorders. Demands for minerals and other nutrients change for growth, lactation, breeding, maintenance, working and endocrine disorders and other diseases. For this example, I'll discuss on the basis of a 500 kg horse at maintenance for ease of reference. I'll keep it focused on these three minerals aforementioned minerals as they are discussed a lot in hoof and coat health. The NRC's (National Research Council, Nutrient Requirements of Horses, NRC Press, 2007). recommendations for Iron, Copper and Zinc as follows: Iron - 400 mg Copper - 100 mg Zinc - 400 mg Below is a screenshot of the database at Equi-analytical for grass hay. You can see that I have underlined the "average" for copper and zinc across all samples. If our maintenance horse is eating 10 kgs or 2% of his/her body weight in hay a day, s/he's not going to meet his/her minimum requirements for Copper and Zinc (this is called a frank deficiency and I will link a paper from Kathleen Gustafon discussing frank and relative deficiencies below). Based on the database below Zinc will be 241 mg and Copper will be 78 mg. Falling well below the RDI from NRC. Further when you look at the average for Iron (260 mg), based on 10 kgs of hay, our maintenance horse will be consuming 2600 mg a day of iron. From what I've learned from Dr Kellon this will create a relative deficiency because Iron competes with Copper and Zinc. Dr Kellon's NRC plus course recommends a ratio of Iron:Copper: Zinc of 4:1:3. In depth maths required at a later date as I'm tired :-) We've started testing our grass hays so that we can expand our database over the coming years to have a foundation for our clients. Then we know what our client's horses need in terms of minerals, protein, fats and vitamins. It is my utlimate goal to provide a custom supplement mix to match the hay we grow on our farm. In the meantime, I will continue to provide my clients with Wandilla Mineral mix which contains copper and zinc. Tomorrow's post will be on deficiencies and consequences. more reading https://www.ecirhorse.org/proceedings-2015.php Good night friends. Cheers Kylie

15.01.2022 $1 - Irish Sport Horse x Arab Mare. 10yrs old, 14hh.

15.01.2022 (43) And this is the miracle: I’m finding more and more horses, in my work, whose resistances are stuck in the spaces where their human’s hearts aren’t open. An...d this is the magic: You know that the person’s closed heart-spaces are opening when the horses’ resistances start to lessen. Horses are direct reflections of who we are in this moment of relationship with them. For some people, their horse is the only honest thing in their life that lets them know that there are some holes. Consequently, it’s the only space where-in some of those people are open to address their pain. And this is the method: When the horse presents an evasion, check-in with yourself and feel where it is you’re not following the horse’s movement to try and find what emotion your horse is using as the balance point in you to hold tension and resist. We have emotional reactions to psychological triggers which cause physical responses. When we learn to deep-breathe ourselves beyond that cycle of non-helpful thoughts, our bodies relax enough to find feel for, and follow, our horses’ bodies. And this is the take-away: A rider’s feel for a horse is not some abstract, theoretical process or ideal. Feel is emotional discipline

15.01.2022 Register for our global online EQ50 Equine Anatomy Distance Study Course by author Debranne Pattillo and receive the app specifically designed to support the course material. We are giving away 100 of these apps ($15.99 value) until January 5th only. This is already a fantastic course at an affordable price ($95USD) and its even better with this app that allows you to test yourself on the material:

14.01.2022 Tu te balades sur Google Maps et tu tombes sur ça... Visiblement il y en a eu un qui a eu peur de la voiture de Google

14.01.2022 A good explanation from Dr. Keegan regarding compensatory vs. secondary lameness; "Compensatory lameness is a false lameness due to weight-shifting to spare a ...primarily painful limb, i.e. the horse looks lame in a limb, but has no foci of pain in the limb. Secondary lameness is a true lameness that often is the result of prolonged overloading due to the primary lameness. There is pain in this limb." The article discusses last weekend's paper regards "laws of sides" and asymmetry in movement. See more

13.01.2022 A short update on Colic in horses. We are seeing a spike in impaction colics from ingestion of dirt and dust, with the dry weather. We recommend psyllium is used as a preventative during the dry times. 1 cup (250gram) per 500kg horse daily for 4 days in a row each month.

09.01.2022 To all my wonderful clients, I will be away on holidays until the 1st of December. I will still be available on fb/messenger in the evenings should you need to get in touch. Hopefully the rain will follow me home!

07.01.2022 What is the longest a horse can safely go without food? More and more I see horses and ponies stood for long periods of time with no hay or haylage. Usually un...der the guise of a weight control diet. So how long can a horse be without food before damage is done? And what damage is done? For those with a short attention span, I’ll give you the answer to begin with - 4 hours, maximum. Why? Horses are grazers. They are designed to eat constantly. They have no way of storing their acids and digestive enzymes, they’ve never needed to. They have no gall bladder to store bile and their stomachs release acid constantly, whether or not there is food in the stomach and intestines. A horses stomach only holds approximately 8-15 litres. Depending on the substance eaten, it takes on average 4-6 hours for the stomach to completely empty. After this, the acids and enzymes start to digest the inside of the horses stomach and then the intestines. This causes both gastric and intestinal ulceration. It has been estimated that 25-50% of foals and 60-90% of adult horses suffer from ulceration. But I won’t go into detail about this, there is a lot of information around about ulcers. So is that it? Are ulcers the only concern? No, having an empty stomach is a stress situation for a horse. The longer they are starved, the more they release stress hormones, cortisol predominantly. Cortisol blocks insulin and causes a constantly high blood glucose level. This stimulates the body to release even more insulin, and in turn this causes fat tissue to be deposited and leptin resistance. Over time this causes insulin resistance (Equine Metabolic Syndrome). All of these mechanisms are well known risk factors for laminitis and are caused by short term starvation (starting roughly 3-4 hours after the stomach empties). Starving a laminitic is literally the worst thing you can do. Over longer periods, this also starts to affect muscle and can cause weakness, and a lack of stamina so performance horses also need a constant supply of hay/haylage to function optimally. Let’s not forget horses are living, breathing and feeling animals. We talk about this stress reaction like it’s just internal but the horse is well aware of this stress. Door kicking, box walking, barging and many other stable vices and poor behaviour can be explained by a very stressed horse due to food deprivation (we all have that Hangry friend to explain this reaction). Next time you shout or hit a horse that dives for their net, remember their body is genuinely telling them they are going to starve to death. They know no different. But surely they spend the night asleep so they wouldn’t eat anyway? Not true. Horses only need 20mins REM sleep every 24 hours (jealous? I am!). They may spend a further hour or so dozing but up to 22-23 hours a day are spent eating. So if you leave your horse a net at 5pm and it’s gone by 8pm, then by 12am their stomach is empty. By 4am they are entering starvation mode. By their next feed at 8am, they are extremely stressed, physically and mentally. Now I know the cob owners are reading this mortified. I can almost hear you shouting at your screen if I feed my horse ad lib hay he won’t fit out the stable door in a week!! I will say that a horse with a constant supply of hay/haylage will eat far less then the same horse that is intermittently starved. They don’t eat in a frenzy, reducing the chance of colic from both ulcers and over eating. Cobs included. However I’m not suggesting you sit your cob in front of a bale of haylage and say have at it! There is a difference between ad lib and a constant supply. There is much we can do to reduce calorie intake and control weight whilst feeding a constant supply. The easiest is small holes nets. There are many. Trickle nets, greedy feeders, nibbleze, trawler nets etc. My personal favourite is the Shires Soft Mesh 1. They don’t cost the Earth, they are easy to fill and they don’t have knots so are much gentler to the teeth. Now often I suggest these types of nets to owners and the owner tells me Oh no, *** won’t eat out of those this is nonsense. If he was left it, he would. Remember, you can give a normal net and one of these for them to nibble at after. Better than leaving them with nothing at all. A few other tricks, hang the net from the ceiling/rafters, it’s harder to eat out of a net that swings. Soak the hay, a minimum of 4 hours to be effective. Mix with straw but be sure to introduce the straw slowly and make sure it’s top quality and a palatable type eg Barley or Oat, otherwise they won’t eat it. Don’t forget exercise. The best way to get weight off a horse is exercise. Enough exercise and they can eat what they want! And lay off the bucket feed and treats! Horses on a diet require a vit/min supplement in the form of a balancer but that’s it. The odd slice of carrot or swede won’t do any harm but no licks, treats, treacle, molasses, cereal based rubbish. Even if it says low sugar or the marvellously misleading No added sugar! Your horse would rather have a constant supply of hay, I promise. Written by Vikki Fowler BVetMed BAEDT MRCVS A few edits for the critics- Firstly, feeding a constant supply does not mean ad lib feeding. It means use some ingenuity and spread the recommended amount of daily forage so the horse is never stood with out food for more than 4 hours. I am not promoting obesity, quite the opposite, feeding like this reduces obesity and IR. This can be done whilst feeding your horse twice a day as most horse owners do. Just think outside the box for your own situation. Secondly I am in the UK and this post is UK specific, use some common sense when reading. Yes in warmer climates, soaking hay for 4 hours is dangerous and studies show 1 hour is plenty in hot weather but in the UK’s arctic climate, a minimum of 4 hours is required. Equally the UK feed exclusively grass hay. I can not comment on other types. Thirdly, yes every horse/pony and situation is different, but this is a law of nature and all horses have this anatomy and metabolism. How you achieve this constant supply is individual, the need for it is not. Fourthly, the use of hay nets in the UK is very very high. I’d estimate 95% of horses I see are fed this way and very very few have incisor wear or neck/back issues as a result. Yes, feeding from the ground is ideal, but a constant supply, I feel trumps this. Again with ingenuity both can be safely achieved. Finally, straw can be fed to horses safely, introduced very slowly, with fresh water always available, plus a palatable and digestible type of straw which will depend on your area. Again many horses in the UK are bedded on straw and most of them eat it. This is not a new concept to us. Final finally and I feel I must add this due to the sheer number of people contacting me to ask, feed your horses during transport!!! I am astonished this is not normal in other countries! Again in the UK, we give our horses hay nets to transport. We don’t go 10 mins up the road without a haynet and a spare in case they finish! Considering we are a tiny island and we rarely transport even 4 hours, we never transport without hay available. I have never seen an episode of choke due to travelling with hay available. If you are concerned, use a slow feeder net so they can’t take too much in at once. If you get to the end of this post and your first thought is I can’t do this with my horse/pony, they’d be morbidly obese, you haven’t read the advice in this post thoroughly.

06.01.2022 It was such fun taking Evenos out for his first solo adventure up onto the moors, we did 6km horseboarding to add some time in a new enviroment to his training ...before taking the ring up stream for a bit of fun in the river! Ariat Europe NAF Cavallo Hoof Boots Mole Valley Farmers Equestrian Riding and Harness Stuff Dengie Horse Feeds

05.01.2022 10 VERY GOOD Reasons NOT to Feed your Horse Feeds or Supplements with added IRON IRON is the 4th most abundant element in soil and is vital for the transport of... oxygen by red blood cells, along with other roles in immune function and metabolism, and around 1/3rd of the functional iron in the horse is in haemoglobin inside red blood cells in the circulation or stored in the spleen (and released during exercise) with another 1/3rd in myoglobin in muscle (myoglobin moves oxygen inside muscle cells). However, this has lead to many myths, including that extra iron in feeds or supplements can act as an energy booster or to help horses recover from illness. Iron supplementation in horses is almost only ever required when there has been significant blood loss and sub-clinical IRON TOXICITY (not initially apparent from clinical signs) is many many times more common than iron deficiency. You may then ask, if all of this is true then why do so many supplements boast high iron content for energy, as a tonic or to aid recovery, to improve performance, boost red blood cell numbers or for horses in hard work? Either these companies are ignorant of the science on use of iron in horses or they have products that sell well and don’t wish to educate horse owners. You may also have seen that some of the brands with a strong science based approach, such as Spillers, Science Supplements, Winergy, Pure Feed and a few others, do not add iron to their feed and supplements. So, why should you be avoiding products with added iron? 1) IRON DEFICIENCY IS VERY RARE IN THE UK UK soils and forage are generally high in iron (>100 mg iron per kg dry matter) and most horses get more than the NRC recommended daily intake (400-500mg per 500kg per day; NRC 2007) from forage alone. 2) MOST HORSES ARE OVER-SUPPLEMENTED WITH IRON Within the EU the inclusion of iron is actually limited to a maximum of 750mg per day in a complete diet (OJ L317/23. COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1334/2003.). Even back as far as 20 years ago, some work in my group at the Animal Health Trust showed that event horses supplemented with iron had plasma total iron concentrations 2-3x higher than the typical normal range (Mills & Marlin, 1996). 3) ONCE INGESTED IRON CANNOT EFFECTIVELY BE EXCRETED FROM THE BODY The horse has no mechanism to excrete iron once taken up from the gastro-intestinal tract other than via a very small amount excreted in urine. Once in the circulation, excess is removed by the liver or spleen and stored linked to protein either as ferritin or haemosiderin. 4) IRON ACTS AS AN OXIDANT INCREASING OXIDATIVE STRESS & INFLAMATION Iron in the body can act as a pro-oxidant, producing free-radicals which in turn cause tissue damage and inflammation. These damaging effects of free-radicals can be moderated by Vitamins such as Vitamins E and C or by antioxidant enzyme defences such as catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidise. However, this requires an increase in Vitamin C & E turnover and the need for a higher dietary intake to prevent depletion and secondary problems such as decreased immune function or increased respiratory inflammation. The damaging effects of high iron intake are made worse by exercise, stress and thermal environmental stress (hot or hot and humid weather or very cold weather) Mills et al. (1996). 5) IRON TOXICITY OCCURS AT LOW INTAKES Iron toxicity occurs at relatively low levels, perhaps only 2-3 times the NRC recommended daily intake. If a forage fed at 5 kg dry matter provides 1000 mg of iron (200 mg/kg) and an additional 500 mg per day comes from hard feed and supplements, this is already at 3x NRC. Initially the signs of toxicity may be unspecific and not readily recognised as being related to iron intake. Iron is corrosive and signs may include, gastric irritation, gastric pain, gastric ulceration as well as damage to the small and large intestinal lining. Other signs associated with iron toxicity include diarrhoea, dehydration, depression and reduced immunity. There is also an increased risk of bacterial infections as bacteria use iron as an energy source. In more severe cases of iron toxicity, liver failure can be induced, which may be fatal. In people, iron supplementation can lead to undesirable overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. EXCESS IRON IS ESPECIALLY TOXIC TO YOUNG FOALS and death due to excess supplementation has been reported. 6) IRON DOES NOT BOOST RED BLOOD CELLS NUMBERS Feeding iron supplements will NOT increase the number of red blood cells. FACT. 7) IRON DOES NOT CORRECT ANAEMIA (LOW BLOOD COUNT) Feeding iron supplements will NOT correct anaemia (low red blood cell count) UNLESS this is due to high blood loss. FACT. 8) IRON DOES NOT INCREASE ENERGY The theory for iron as an energy booster seems to be related to the fact that people who are anaemic have low energy levels and giving them iron supplements can restore their energy levels! BUT as we have already said, horses are rarely anaemic and if they are it is rarely due to iron deficiency and iron supplements will have no effect unless there has been heavy blood loss. 9) IRON INTERFERES WITH ABSORPTION OF OTHER MINERALS Supplemental iron can decrease zinc and copper uptake from the diet and over time can lead to deficiency and other health problems such as poor coat and hoof quality. 10) IRON MAY BE LINKED TO EQUINE METABOLIC SYNDROME (reduction in the normal response to insulin) In people there are studies that show iron plays a role in metabolic syndrome (Mojominiyi et al. 2008) and obesity (Zafron et al. 2011). Nielsen et al. (2012) also identified a link between iron and insulin resistance in horses, which appears to be becoming more common. BOTTOM LINE You should only use feeds with added iron or use supplements with iron in on the advice of a qualified nutritionist or your vet and ideally following confirmation of low iron content of your horses diet and clinical evidence of iron deficiency. Most horses are receiving far too much iron and this has a high potential to cause long term health problems that are rarely ever attributed to high dietary iron intake.

04.01.2022 ha ha ha got to love ponies

03.01.2022 EQUINE BACK MOTION A lot of people have been asking on the earlier saddle post today about how much the horses back moves during exercise. There are a fair numb...er of papers now published on this but visuals are always good. Here is a short video of a horse walking and trotting on a treadmill viewed from above with painted markers along the spine and IMU's (orange) to record motion. Replayed at half normal speed Copyright Dr David Marlin 2020.