An opportunity to practice health skills, with Dr. Duckett and Dr. Muirhead, learning pulse, respiration, injection techniques, and deworming.
Today was a success story. Folks from both ends of the Island came to the health clinic. Dr. Duckett and Dr. Muirhead speared the education session and the AVC students did a super job of sharing their knowledge. The herd shared each of their stories too and Tony got his toes trimmed too. Thank you everyone for sharing the knowledge.
love and hugs
Why a health clinic? Well my sympathy is with the horse. And if you work with them and compete with them, the more you know about how the body works will help you condition them. Vaccinations are important. I think wherever horses are gathered in a competition there should be proof of vaccination. If your horse gets a flu you are out of competition for at least six weeks, and now there are worse viruses around. There is the 12 foot rule but most the barns that I have been in only have a 10 foot shedrow. And ask yourself are the stalls disinfected after every competition? That is why I hate the nose to nose that riders do with horses at competition. Your horse may like that horse and viruses love them too.
Understanding pulse and respiration is important if you are conditioning your horse for speed competitions. At speed horses bringing 15 litres of air with each breath at 150 breaths per minute. Standies do 25 litres per breath and only 70 breaths per minute. That is why they are becoming a competition threat to the Arabians and Mules in the Endurance world. You must know the normal of each horse. The heart is the pump and moves the blood and oxygen to the rest of the body. It needs conditioning too. To do a good job of restoring muscles and tissues, you may as well understand all the other little things that go wrong and yet your horse can still have a job to do and do it well.
There is always a post mortem after an event. It was a wonderful thing that so many horse folk were seeking knowledge. Saturday we had the biggest crowd at the clinic in years. Unfortunately there are only 13 horses to practise with. So some people did not get a chance to do the injection or deworm. I hope that everyone learned to recognize and notice some of the medical /physical conditions I work with on a regular basis. If not, perhaps if I planned another clinic. We could focus on those issues and the techniques I use to keep them sound so they can do 100 mile journeys. And even do a little speed work. Education is free at the Sanctuary. What would you like to understand a little better? love and hugs