Well, I'm back. Finally. After a lengthy hiatus. I successfully orchestrated (with a little help from my brother) a surprise trip back to Oregon for my mom's birthday, and just got back yesterday. Lord, do I miss the Pacific Northwest. I visited Whole Foods. I ate tons of sushi. I went to bars that were non-smoking. It was amazing.
It is getting harder and harder for me to leave and come back again. But that's a story for another blog.
So I was able to ride for the first time in about two weeks today. The weird thing about being gone is how quickly I slip back into what a life without horses could be. But she is always in my mind, and it was wonderful to see her again.
It always amazes me how quickly Chev gets completely out of shape. It isn't that she forgets things (necessarily), she just loses some of her strength that makes her canter nice and even, and her other gaits cadenced. So. I noticed that right off the bat.
We had a large herd of antelope cross the road and jump some fences, and that was more than enough excitement to get her tail flagged.
Afterwards, it was time for her bi-monthly deworming. I'm from a wet area, so I believe in and grew up with rotational or feed-thru worming. I grumbled something about my dewormer only going up to 1,100 pounds, and the barn owner responded with:
"How often do you do that?"
"Every two months," I said.
"Well I only worm once a year. They don't really need more than that." She then proceeded (as per usual) to make me feel like my way was wrong, stating that it's a waste of money, that you can tell by looking at poop and hair coat, etc, etc, etc.
I said I'd keep to my schedule.
Having known horses who succumbed to dangers of lackluster or non-existent deworming programs, I believe in sticking to it. In fact, I'd wager that good deworming programs are largely to thank for the greatly increased average equine lifespan over the last 20 years.
I also worked in a vet clinic, and saw plenty of nasty parasites--and I know enough to know that most aren't visible to the naked eye. And if they are, boy howdy do you have a BIG problem!
I order my deworming packs ahead of time through horse.com and write the month on them in sharpie to help me remember. And with my old guy, I had fecal tests done to make sure my deworming schedule was working. The vet was surprised to find not a single ova in his sample the last time I had one run, but I have yet to do one on Chevy.
So how do you feel about deworming schedules? Do you stick to an every-two-monther, or do you just deworm when you remember?
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