FHOTD attacks again

You've done it yet again, Cathy. You know, the more and more I am around people, the more I really do like my dog! And horses.

I'll make this short, but I read the ad Cathy posted prior to its being removed (which always happens after Cathy attacks an individual - the media piece is removed). The other photos of the horse in question did reveal a horse who is pretty thin. However rather than using a select photo or two and writing an educational blog on thin horses and breeding - how to body score, how to put weight on those hard-keepers (we'll have one here soon, promise), etc etc, Cathy posted the actual ad for her followers to harass the sellers. This way, though, she can claim innocence - "I never told them to harass the ad posters!" No, but you broadcasted this horse, slapped the owners in the face (yes, the horse is too thin, but there is always another side to the story and Cathy could have politely, respectfully, and compassionately helped the ad posters out with a little education rather than tearing a strip off of them - people learn nothing from that), and provided your sheep with the means of verbally abusing the ad posters - resulting in the ad being removed from Craigslist. As far as Cathy's followers: why do you think it is ok to verbally abuse people over the internet when you wouldn't dream (I hope, anyways) of doing so in person, at say your workplace? A little education, in place of snarky commentary, could have gone a long ways to helping that horse. Seems like the Dalai Lama isn't just needed in Calgary...

On that note, I don't want people to harass Cathy if they disagree with some of what she posts either. We should all be demonstrating compassion toward one another; it would make our world a whole lot better place. In that light, I struggle with even posting this blog, but at the same time, I feel like Cathy should be called out on what she is doing, and I'm not verbally abusing Cathy. *sigh* call me a hypocrite, that's just my two cents.

Horse health

One point first prior to getting to the real meat and potatoes of this post:

I recently learned that electric prod use on the Thoroughbreds at our local (A and B rated) Alberta tracks is common - not even simply a rare event. I did not realise it had such a high incidence. I have no idea how I missed it as a pony rider, but to be truthful, there is so much that goes on at the track and that is carried out in clandestine fashion, that it would take a lifetime to learn of all of it. I just wanted to point out yet another abuse of horses in the horse industry - it is literally everywhere, sad as it is to say.

So, back to the topic, courtesy of Cathy of FHOTD once again (sorry, just she keeps providing me so much fodder).

To her credit, her post today did feature horses who were clearly, for the most part, skinny and in need of some good feed. I have to admit though that I wish Cathy would simply feature horses and use them as an example for an informative post, rather than featuring ads, bashing the sellers, and then allowing her readers, even inadvertently encouraging them to, contact the sellers. I contacted one such seller featured one day (to encourage them in the face of the incoming pile of snarky and harsh emails I was sure would come - and did) to find a very knowledgeable, intelligent, and caring horseperson! As I have said before, there is always two sides to a story. But, back to the topic at hand, Cathy seems to feature a lot of horses she claims too skinny when they are in fact within a healthy weight. I think perhaps I may have finally gotten down to why she - and so many others - do/does so. The following are a few lines that Cathy posted (in purple):

I know a lot of people who are happy as soon as a horse is fat, but a round butt alone doesn't mean perfect health.

Your horse might be hog fat and shiny, but if his feet look like this, he's not healthy.

Since when is "hog fat" healthy for a horse??!! It seems there is a growing trend to keep our dogs, our horses, our cats, ourselves even, fat. Whenever I bring our pup in to the vet each year for her checkups, the techs and vets always nearly lose their marbles in excitement. All I hear for the entire short stay is how healthy our dog looks and how they rarely see dogs so fit. Yet I garnish complaints from passerby's out walking that she's too thin. My goodness, have people lost all concept of what a fit animal looks like?? Please refer to a body condition scoring system to check out what your horse/animal should look like. For humans, we've got our BMI's. The following are two examples of fit horses. The first is of our OTTB Link's Secret - at the time in a stall at the track. He'd been on the track a number of months by that point and was at a pretty fit weight - race weight. The latter photo is of our Quarab Silver - the photo was taken after he had spent a month working on the track.

"Hog fat" leads to conditions such as Insulin Resistance - Diabetes, or Cushing's Syndrome. And for the record, the two conditions are not the same, as Cathy seems to imply in her blog. Here are two sites to get you up-to-date on the info:

Cushing's Syndrome - Recovery Eq

Your Horse and Diabetes - MyHorse.com

From the latter site:
Not all horses with Cushing’s disease are insulin resistant, at least initially, but that condition does put them at high risk.

Neither condition are something you want to deal with.

Keeping our horses healthy is not about keeping them fat, it is about keeping them at as healthy a weight as possible. Most beneficial to a horse is not only to be at a healthy weight, but to be muscled accordingly as well (such as the two above photos). This only comes through use and conditioning (or through large pastures - though this only works for horses who will naturally roam a lot). These animals are here because of us, so we owe it to them to at least keep them as healthy as we possibly can.