Tampa Bay horse news for the Tampa Bay area and more including equestrian horse shows at the Bob Thomas Equestrian Center at the Florida State Fairgrounds, Fox Lea Farm in Venice offering rated dressage and hunter/jumper shows, Rocking Horse Stables in Altoona with eventing, dressage, hunter jumper, and combined training is a favorite of the Sunshine Region Pony Clubs.
Don't miss the annual Tampa Bay Charity Horse Show in March and the Gene Mische American Invitational show jumping extravaganza held at Ramond James Stadium in April.
Bob Thomas Equestrian Center hosts horse shows throughout the year including the 4-H state championships each year. Hundreds of 4-H equestrians converge for the state championships in dressage, hunter/jumper, western pleasure, and halter classes.
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May 13, 2013
Can Horses Recognize People and Voices?
By Christa Lesté-Lasserre
Are horses really capable of recognizing their owners and their voices? Study results from a team of British behavior researchers suggest that horses really do appear to be capable of matching voices to faces when it comes to the humans they know.
“We already know that horses can discriminate between different human faces and between familiar and unfamiliar people, but this is the first time we have shown that they can associate the right voices with the right people,” said Leanne Proops, PhD, of the Mammal Vocal Communication and Cognition Research group at the University of Sussex, in the United Kingdom. More info...
May 12, 2013
Start Now With Fly Prevention: 5 Ways To Keep Flies Under Control
by Amy Herdy
Spring may be late in many parts of the country this year, but horse owners don’t want to be late with preventative fly control practices, according to Laurie Cerny, publisher of www.good-horsekeeping.com, a website devoted to practical horse care.
“You don’t want to wait until it’s 85 degrees out and with humidity to match to think about fly control,” Cerny said. “Early prevention is key to having fewer flies around your horses and stable this summer.”
Here are some things you can do now to be ready for fly season:
1. Harrow pastures (break up manure piles) and muck out dry lots or pens. This might also mean bringing in some new sand for areas that have been saturated with manure and urine. Stalls and run-in sheds should also be stripped of old bedding. Old manure, dirty bedding, and feces saturated soil will all attract flies and insects once the temperature increases. More info...
May 11, 2013
Use Caution when Fertilizing with Raw Horse Manure
For home gardeners, spring is a busy time of year and there’s never a tomato with more flavor than one grown to full ripeness on the vine. But there are also many safety precautions to follow to prevent contamination of fruits and vegetables with pathogens that cause serious foodborne illness.
Michele Jay-Russell, DVM, MPVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVPM, a veterinarian and research microbiologist at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security and program manager of the Western Center for Food Safety, recently co-authored a study that highlights the need to be aware of the hazards associated with using raw animal manure to fertilize home gardens. The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Zoonoses and Public Health.
The basis for the study began in July of 2010 when a Shire mare from a rura More info...
May 8, 2013
Avoid Big Vet Bills
By Juli S. Thorson
You can save $100s, even $1,000s on vet-care costs with simple changes to your everyday routine.
Illustration by June Brigman
You probably need no lessons on how to cut your everyday horse-care costs. As mandatory enrollees in The School of Struggling Economy, that's something we've all had to learn in the last few years. Many of us even have become A students in the subjects of scrimping, saving, and getting by. We could write term papers about buying bulk, giving shots on our own, and making old things last.
But there's one thing guaranteed to flunk just about anyone's carefully studied horsekeeping budget, and that's the unexpected big vet bill for a horse that's injured or ill. A single emergency farm call can run into hundreds, and ongoing crisis-care costs can come to resemble student loans-large, with lots of zeroes, and daunting, in terms of what it'll take to pay them off. More info...
