Horses: Poisonous Plants Part 2

Here it is, as promised! Better late than never 🙂 Part 2 of Poisonous plants! 

Poppy
Poisonous parts: Leaves/Roots
Symptoms: dermatitis, blurred vision, nervous signs
Onset: 12 hours

Potatoes:
Poisonous Parts: whole potato
Symptoms: Nervous signs, colic, choke
Onset:  Unknown

Privet Hedge Plant
Poisonous Parts: Leaves & Fruits
Symptoms: Diarrhea, colic, in coordination, weakness, convulsions, death
Onset:1-2 hours after digestion

Rhubarb
Poisonous Parts: Leaves
Symptoms: Red colored Urine, salivation, colic, diarrhea, staggering
Onset: a few hours

Soursob
Poisonous parts: All Parts
Symptoms: Calcium imbalance, kidney damage
Onset:2-4 weeks

Wisteria:
Poisonous parts: seeds, pods, clippings
Symptoms: Colic and Diarrhea
Onset:6-24 hours

Yellow Oleander
Poisonous parts: Leaves & Clippings
Symptoms: Heart attack, digestive upset, sudden death
Onset: Sudden Death

Yew Tree/Ground Hemlock:
Poisonous parts: Eating the tree parts, trimmings, green or dry
Symptoms: Trembling, incoordination, heart attack, diarrhea;
Usually found dead next to source
Onset: Sudden death within 5 minutes of ingesting.

Read Full Post »

Blanket Monster

Hi guys! First let me say I’m sorry I haven’t added the second part to the poisonous plants-I haven’t had time but I haven’t forgotten!

 

Second, just a brief update.  We had a setback with Murphey’s feet. Both my farriers have taken a look at him and it was just impossible to do-he has taken to dropping forward onto his knees when I try to lift the foot and we couldn’t trim that way-even with an full tube of Dermosadan. So the plan is just to take a step back and work on every day stuff again and see if we can’t break through some of his fears.   The alternative is to lay him down with a tranq and I really want to avoid that if at all possible.

 

So today we worked on many things!

Flyspray! I wasn’t sure what his reaction here would be, I’d never sprayed him before but the flies were just eating him alive.  To start with, I filled a spray bottle just with water and got him used to the sight and sound while giving him treats when he showed curiosity rather than fear.  This worked well and I was able to spray all his legs enough that the flies lessened and he really took it in stride! YAY! (Meaning he didn’t try to kick my head in, and he didn’t bolt away!)

We also worked on me touching his feet.  Not his legs or picking them up, but actually touching his hoof wall and putting some Hoof Alive on them.
Trying to prepare him with simple everyday steps, this made him surprisingly uneasy, but we got through it and I managed to get enough HA on it to cover most of the hoof wall.

We also tried to put my sidepull on him today–he wasn’t quite ready for that step yet which is okay.

 

What I am most proud of today was desensitizing him to a saddle blanket.
I started off with it on the ground with cookies and timothy pellets spread out on it.  He was wary at first but he took a chance and was soon eating off of it and even put his feet on it.  After that he showed no fear of it and even allowed me to rub it on his neck, shoulders, and back.  Finally I folded it over and laid it across his back and then his neck.  Though a little nervous to walk with this object over him, he managed it without a single spook.
It gives me hope that there is some wonderful potential hiding out in his big donkey brain!

Take a look:

Read Full Post »

Plants Poisonous to Horses: Part 1

Good Afternoon fellow Equine lovers!  I had a concern this week.
I was going through my nutrition book in school and it was talking about poisonous plants and horses; as I was reading I realized I don’t know what many of these plants look like so I wouldn’t know how to keep my horse away from them-and believe me with some of the side effects that come with eating these plants I want to be perfectly aware.  So today will be a short introduction to a series of posts I will be doing about poisonous plants, the symptoms if they are eaten, and the effect.

I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful!

 

 

Azalea
Heart Attack, Death
Sudden Death if Eaten

         

Daphne
Internal bleeding, Death
Fatal within 24-36 hours of eating

 

   

Castor Oil Plant
Diarrhea, Colic, Liver & Kidney damage
Onset 6-48 hours

 

Delphiniums (come in many colors!)
Salivation, Convulsions, Death
Onset depends on the amount eaten

 

Cestrum
Diarrhea, Nervous signs
Onset 6-24 hours

 

Foxglove
Heart Attack, Nervous signs 
Sudden Death after eating

 

Hemlock
Nervous signs, paralysis, convulsions, colic, death
Onset 2 Hours-2 Days

Lantana
Sunburn, Diarrhea, Liver damage
Onset occurs when animal stands in shade,
Depends on how much is eaten        

 

Monkshood
Salivation, Convulsions, Death
Onset: Sudden Death

 

Oleander
Digestive upset, heart attack, sudden death
Onset: 12 hours fatal

 

Poinsettia
Diarrhea, convulsions, blisters on nose, death 

 

Parsley
Sunburn-type lesions
Onset 12-24 hours

 

So, many of these are brightly colored flowers and are noticeable enough that you wouldn’t let your horse eat them.  I’ll get into stealthier plants soon.  I hope this helps, feedback is great!

Happy (and safe) Trails!

 

Read Full Post »

First Attempt at Cheesecake

The bitter truth my friends?  Before a little over a year ago…I had never tried cheesecake.  The logic of my five year old taste buds was-I like cheese….and cake is okay.  But CheeseCake? No thanks.

However, after learning to trust Boyfriends judgement- one day last year I tried a bite of a simple, ordinary cheesecake.
Last week at a Sushi place, I got a Creme Brulee cheesecake for dessert that was to die for.
This weekend-I made my first ever.

Needless to say, he made a believer out of me that cheese and cake do in fact–go perfectly together! Though I believe it’s really more of a pie than a cake so we’ll settle on “Pake” *cough* Drop Dead Diva*cough*

 

Behold my friends:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake!

Let me warn you…this cheesecake is RICH RICH RICH!
It’s also very simple to make and in a whopping four days, every bite was gone.   So let me share:

 

I got the recipe from recipe.com

 

1 1/2  cups chocolate graham cracker squares, finely crushed

1/2 C melted Butter

2 tbsp sugar

2 8 oz packages cream cheese

1 cup creamy pb (I used natural-the BF doesn’t like jiffy or skippy-and it turned out just fine!)

1 lightly beaten egg (I didn’t read this and so, didn’t beat my egg.  Turned out a little dense but still delish)

1/4 C sugar

1 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tbsp milk

~1/2 tsp vanilla (I always use a little more than called for)

2 eggs,  lightly beaten (again, missed this step)

Peanuts for Garnish (optional)

1.Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In a medium bowl combine crackers, melted butter, and the 2 tablespoons sugar.
Press into the bottom of a 9-inch spring-form pan; set aside.
In a large bowl beat 1 package of the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in peanut butter and the 1/4 C sugar until combined. Fold in the one lightly beaten egg; set aside.

2.In a small saucepan cook and stir chocolate pieces over low heat until melted.  Cut the remaining cream cheese into cubes; stir into melted chocolate until smooth-careful not to burn chocolate.
Stir in milk and vanilla. Fold in the two lightly beaten eggs. Spread half of the chocolate mixture over crust. Spoon peanut butter mixture over chocolate layer. Evenly spread remaining chocolate mixture over peanut butter layer.

3.Bake about 45 minutes-cool in spring-form 15 minutes.  Remove spring-form and cool completely.  Cover and let chill in refrigerator for 4 hours. Let it sit out for about 15 minutes before serving with coffee or milk!

 

When I cut this piece out Boyfriend asked me “Have you ever seen anyone cut cheesecake before?” I ignored him and proceeded like sized servings–he was right-it was too much cheesecake at once!  But I still ate it.

Every bite.

Hope you enjoy!
Happy Trails

Read Full Post »

Public Enemy #1: The plastic bag

Last week began Murphey’s desensitizing lessons.  After I made a sudden move in the arena a few days prior, Murph took off running, making me realize we need to take a break from the hoof work and focus on teaching him that the world is not going to eat him.

So naturally we began with the dreaded plastic bag.

 

I tied one to my stick and began simply tapping the bag on the ground, a fair distance away from him with my back turned away.  His initial response:

Then I got him to follow me around the round pen while I tapped the bag on the ground. He did pretty fair.

After some of this I stopped and gradually tapped the bag until I was facing him, and continued to tap in front of him.   A little wary, but  mostly okay.

Progressed to waving the bag around in the air! He was curious but by no means terrified-yay!

 

Then we had a moment…

 

So we took a break and moved on to something he’s more comfortable with.

After our short break he followed me around while the stick and bag waved in the air…

then I returned to tapping on the ground, this time much closer to him.

He’s such a good donkey.  Ultimately I got him to walk over and next to the stick with the bag still attached but the camera died.

Next step will be touching him with the bag, which is the goal for this weekend.  I’ll keep you posted.

Happy Trails!

Read Full Post »

Prayers Please?

Friends & Readers,

I request your prayers! My college has decided to discontinue not only my program for Equine Management but all of the vocational programs they currently offer-in all of their campuses.  Many people are out of a job, many students will be SOL on their schooling.

My own teacher is trying to get us into another community college, so there may be hope yet! Please pray though, for those who won’t be able to complete their degree.  Pray they find a way to continue!

 

Thank you all for listening.

-A

Read Full Post »

The Princess

Since the Murph entered the picture, my MollyGirl has not been getting the attention she deserves on the blog!

So since today was the first perfect day of spring thus far, we took some pictures of grooming time, and hammed it up a little.

 

Before Lunch, looking a little ragtag and unkempt.

 

 

 

Looking for the bowl that she knows should be right there any second now.

 

After lunch, looking a little neater with some toe oil on.  (I use hoof alive, if anyone is interested-All natural ingredients.)

 

My pretty pretty princess

Showing me what she thinks of my picture taking skills- and just being a ham

 

No matter how many donkeys and horses enter my life, nobody could ever replace my Sweet MollyGirl – my first love!

 

Read Full Post »

No Bake Peanut Butter Pie and a New Halter

Hi friends!  As requested, here are the photos of Murphey’s trim job last weekend. The top photo is the before, the bottom photos are the after!

It may be difficult to tell the difference from the pictures, but he’s much more upright now and doesn’t walk on his bulbs (Heels).  He’s also moving faster and seems to be more comfortable in general.

 

I also got Murphey in his brand new halter today, I think he looks very handsome.  In any case, it’s a whole world of difference compared to the ratty black one that I inherited when I bought him.

 

On another note, as promised, the pie that Boyfriend and I made a couple weeks ago.  This is my first pie I ever made. SO easy. So Good. And ALMOST good for you.  I got the recipe from ChocolateCoveredKatie.com

 

NO BAKE PEANUT BUTTER PIE

 

 

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter
3 medium bananas
2 tsp almond extract (or Vanilla, I used what I had)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup coconut oil
3 tbsp Stevia or 3-4 tbsp powdered sugar
1 no bake pie crust

Directions:
1. MASH YOUR NANNERS! Also, blend all the other ingredients together. CCK recommends using a vita-mix or related, but all I had was a bowl and a potato masher and that worked out swimmingly.  You just have more banana chunks that way.

2. Pour into the pie crust, freeze until firm.
We found that once it’s been in the freezer initially, it holds up well in the fridge afterwards.

3. The recipe doesn’t call for it, but I melted about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and put it on top and it hardened beautifully and made it just a touch sweeter. It really doesn’t need it though, if you just want to leave it as is.

I hope you guys enjoy!

 

We also made frozen yogurt as a side with this if you’re interested:

1 32 oz carton Greek Yoghurt
1 carton pudding mix (we used chocolate)

Mix together well, and freeze for 45 minutes.
After 45, stir, freeze another 45, stir, another 45, eat!

It was so good, and I don’t even like greek yogurt!

Yummy Trails to you!

 

Read Full Post »

Murphey’s Trimmed Toes

Sunday was a success!

We Finally got Murhpey’s front feet trimmed. I also learned that he’s a little clubby in this right front, but with proper hoof care that shouldn’t be an issue.

I was so very proud of my boy.  It took about an hour for the tranq to affect him, and even then because of the abundance of activity at the Ranch and because we had to move him once, it didn’t knock him as low as I’d expected.  He was still very much alert. All the more reason for me to be so proud of him.

I ended up holding his hoof and leg (and most of his weight) while my Farrier worked on his feet, another person held the lead rope, while the Boyfriend alternated between feeding him bits of timothy pellets and keeping Molly out-of-the-way.  Another student helped to balance Murph, and after many stops and starts-many near falls, a rearing up, and a lot of sore limbs later, we ended up with an inch-to an inch and a half off of his fronts.  We even managed to get a little rasping in.

He’s up off of his bulbs now and though he’s still back on his heels, he is already walking better. I’m curious to see if he’ll still hop like a bunny rabbit when he runs.

 

 

The mission now is to get him used to holding his legs longer, get used to the sound of a rasp, teach him to hold his foot up on the hoof stand, and most exciting! Get him out of his daily, old, worn out black halter and in to his brand new chocolate-brown halter.  Which he will NOT be wearing in the pasture.

 

For those of you who may not know, keeping a horse-donkey-pony haltered in pasture can lead to all kinds of things, the scariest of which is strangulation, a broken neck &/or death  if they can’t break away from it.

To say nothing of the other horses using it as a chew toy, a horse getting a foot through it, getting it hung up wrong around the head and neck, or even having it embed itself into your horses flesh and/or having his nose rubbed raw if it fits poorly.   There are a lot of reasons not to leave a halter on all the time, and if you’re like me, and it’s  a training issue-work on it as soon as humanly possible. I’ll keep you guys posted!

Happy Trails!

Read Full Post »

Homemade Monday-Saucy Sausage Tortellini

Do you know how expensive it is to go out?  It’s rare to be able to get out of a restaurant for less than 40 bucks, and if you throw a movie on top of that?  You’re looking at an  easy hundred. Don’t get me wrong, I love to go out with my man and have a nice date night but I’m not the kind of girl who needs that every week.  On the contrary- I find our date days at home to be more satisfying. This past Monday after our adventures with Murphey on Sunday, by the time I dragged myself out of bed at 7:30 (That’s sleeping in for me)
I was too sore to function.  Who knew wrangling a 700+ pound animal would do that to a body?

I found the Boyfriend in the study doing boyfriend things,  so I wound my way to the giant comfy chair by his desk and nestled in with a book.  No plans to speak of led to a relaxing morning, myself nose deep in the Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon and Boyfriend playing a rousing game of Diablo. Occasionally he would ask what we wanted to do for breakfast but to be quite honest, I only half heard him-lost as I was in the 1800’s, and before we knew it it was late morning and closer to lunch than breakfast.

So we went to the store, picked up some spices and bananas and headed home to commence date day!

This is what we came up with for lunch & dessert.

Saucy Sausage Tortellini

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
3 chicken sausages
2 teaspoons minced garlic paste
1 cup chicken broth
1 Jar Parmesan Reggiano  pasta sauce
1 cup heavy cream
1 13 oz package three cheese tortellini
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.  Add sausage and cook until well browned, we like ours pretty crispy.
Add garlic and stir about 30 seconds. The smell will be uhmayzing.

 

2. Add broth, pasta sauce, cream, and tortellini,  stir to combine until simmering.

3. Cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes until tortellini are HUGE and delicious. Or until tender and heated through 🙂

This recipe leaves a lot of room for experimentation between sausage styles, sauce styles, more soupy-more saucy, however you like it.
If you give it a try, let me know!  PS. Boyfriend said he would use MORE sausage next time. I agree.

I’ll post our dessert later in the week.

Happy Trails!

 

Read Full Post »