From thehorse.com

This is so depressing. I understand the controversy about horse slaughter despite the fact that I am positively opposed to it. But, the fact is that most people in this country are aghast at the thought of slaughtering our horses for food. It's the will of the majority, whether pro-slaughter advocates agree with it or not.

I will post more on the slaughter topic later.

Slaughter: Change to Texas Senate Bill would Steer Around Ban - TheHorse.com

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Slaughter: Change to Texas Senate Bill would Steer Around Ban
by: The Associated Press
May 11 2007 Article # 9575

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A change quietly tucked into a state Senate bill approved this week seeks to sidestep a 58-year-old Texas law preventing the slaughter of horses for consumption of their meat.

Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, inserted an amendment into a bill on the duties and regulations of the Texas Animal Health Commission. It said animals tested by the commission would be exempt from the part of the state agriculture code banning the sale of horse meat for human consumption.

Hegar contends allowing horse meat processing in Texas can keep animals from enduring a harsher fate of being abused, neglected or shipped to Mexico.

"We're really just kind of turning our back on the problem by saying, 'Well, if they're not processed here nothing happens to them anymore,' and that's not the case," he said Friday.

The Senate approved the bill in Austin on Wednesday, and it was sent to the House's agriculture and livestock committee. House members passed a similar bill in the House, but it does not include provisions on horse slaughter.

"That debate will continue throughout the session. We've got several weeks left," Hegar said. "We'll be able to have that discussion and probably still have it again probably next session and through the interim. Who knows when we'll have final conclusion on this issue."

Efforts to continue horse slaughter the United States suffered recent losses in the federal courts and in Congress.

Earlier this year, a federal appeals court effectively shut down two Texas plants that slaughtered horses and exported the meat overseas--Dallas Crown Inc. in Kaufman and Beltex Corp. in Fort Worth. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned a lower court ruling that said a 1949 Texas law banning horse slaughter for the sale of meat for food was invalid.

A third plant run by Cavel International Inc. in DeKalb, Ill., is not affected by the ruling. The three facilities are foreign-owned.

The Texas Animal Health Commission tests thousands of horses for diseases each year. But most of those tested were not headed to the state's slaughter houses.

Safer Grass

This is Indy's pasture mate, Ami. She is a Quarter Horse/pony mix mare that I have had since 1992 when she was a yearling - see picture below. What a cutie!



Originally, she was DJ's pasture mate after we moved him from Dallas to here in Indiana. They were great buddies, and she grieved for him almost as much as I did when we lost him in 2002 at the age of 25.

Fortunately, she and Indy hit it off from the very beginning - 2002 - and she's doing great at the age of 14.



She's had more than her share of problems though. In the summer of '95 she developed laminitis, appearantly from grass. And that's the point of this post. We almost lost Ami, and even though she recovered, she suffered horrifying pain, and has had intermittent problems with bruised soles and abscesses ever since. We must be extremely careful in the spring, summer and fall to be sure Ami doesn't get much grass. One bite too much, and she will come up sore - again. Laminitis is nothing to fool with. It is still the number two killer of horses - after colic - and the number one crippler.



Ami is hardly the only horse that cannot tolerate unlimited grass. In fact, it seems to be the norm rather than the exception these days. It is especially common among ponies and the easy keeping breeds such as Morgans - which means I have to keep a close eye on Indy too.

But, but... aren't horses supposed to eat grass? Isn't that the food they evolved on and have been eating for millennia? Yes and no.

The natural food of the horse is grass - just not "modern" grass. The grass species that we have available these days were developed specifically to fatten beef cattle and to allow dairy cattle to produce more milk. They are very high in sugar and starch. While cattle can tolerate this forage much better than horses, there is still much doubt about how healthful it would be for them long term. Since most cattle, even dairy, have a productive lifespan of about five or six years, they can't be compared with horses which are expected to perform for thirty years or more.

The specific culprits in the grasses seem to be a class of sugars called "fructans," and the manner in which they ferment in the horse's gut. The research on all this is very new, and there is a great deal yet to be learned about why today's horses can't safely eat their natural food. Even forage specialists and equine nutritionists don't fully understand the problem. Some in fact don't even realize there is a problem.

If you own a chubby, easy keeper like Ami, or any pony, Morgan or other "easy keeper" breed, I urge you to click on the link in this title and visit Katy Watts' site safergrass.org. She is an agronomist who owns horses that founder on grass. Her research is ground breaking and offers critical information for those of us who want to best for our pudgy equine pals.

That link will also be permanently displayed in my Other Links of Interest area. Please check it out. The horse you save might be your own.

Who Says Good Help Is Hard To Find?

Maybe I'm just lucky, but there is never a shortage of good help in my barn.

Ok, Indy. Are you ready to start?


That's the way!


Oops! It's okay - we'll just start again.


Now you're gettin' it!


All right!


Let's carry it out of the stall.

Reward for a job well done!



I guess it's a good thing I do have such wonderful help. It's been a long winter. First, I kept getting some sort of infection that ran down the sides of my finger nails. Not only did it damage the nails, it was excruciatingly painful. I was fighting this all winter.

Just as that seemed to finally be coming under control, my indoor cat, Trilby, got overly excited upon seeing one of the barn cats through the window and bit me on the forearm. Now, I've been bitten by cats, dogs, horses and even a couple of cousins and had no problem. This time I ended up in the ER.

I was running a temp of 103 and my entire arm was bright red and hugely swollen. They finally let me go - with a promise to see my own doc first thing in the morning - after IV antibiotics, gallons of blood for tests, a tetanus booster and a prescription for an oral antibiotic.

My own doc gave me a shot of yet another powerful antibiotic and wanted me to come back the next day for a second shot. Well.....

Fortunately I recovered rapidly after all this, but my arm and hand were quite sore for several days.

Now, it's April and it's cold and snowing. I'm afraid to ask what else can go wrong...