I live in Tasmania, Australia and was just wondering a bit about becoming an equine vet. Also will i have to travel to the mainland Australia to do the vet education?

I live in Melbourne and a friend of mine is doing Veterinary Science.
Melbourne Uni has Vet courses. It is something you simply have to research yourself on google and calling different places and speaking to different people.

Why don’t you google vet courses at Uni’s in Tassie and if you can’t find any try Melbourne. If you’re still at High School speak to your careers teacher as you will also need the right enter score.

There is a lot of research to be done and I don’t think you will find your answer on here.

It is a lot of hard work – you don’t study to be an Equine Vet, you become a normal vet and can then specialise in horses. It can also be emotionally challenging as you will have to euthanase many animals, whether they be sick or the owner simply doesn’t want them anymore. It is long hours, a lot of travel.

If you like working and studying hard, then go for it.

I was watching some type of equestrian thing on the olympics yesterday and it said that the handler of the horse was from Connecticut, so the horse must be her horse and also live in Connecticut too right? So how do they get everyone’s horses over there?

The horses were flown to Hong Kong – site of the Equestrian events – from at least two quarantine locations. I believe they were Great Britian and Saudi Arabia.

WA

I have found a wonderful horse. My parents say that they know I am responsible, mature, and committed to owning a horse. Mom had said that she wanted to lease a horse first, so I get to bond with the horse and to see if the horse and I connect. Now she says we aren't going to, and she won't tell me why. She and dad said that we can afford a horse, and everything, but she still won't give. I have tons of horse experience- riding, training, and vet care. I have found an amazing place to board a horse, where we have to pay almost nothing- I just work off most of the board. I am getting certified in trimming and shoeing, so that gets rid of another cost. All my parents have to pay for is the initial cost of the horse which they said they could handle. Please help me!

Sorry. I don't know what to tell you. You seem to have a good argument in your favor, but there must be something that your parents a afraid of. And by afraid I don't mean that they are scared of anything, just maybe if they say that they know you're mature enough and so on, maybe they're are just worried that it will come down to them being the ones to take care of it in the end. Sometimes parents have a way with saying one thing, but really meaning another. I know…I am one. I think if you give them time, and really present your side of it, you may be able to get their approval. It just might take more time than you are willing to wait. I would definately try to find out the real reason that they changed their minds. They might just have a good one.

We are new to the horse ownership thing and getting low on alfalfa hay (we live in Kansas) and I found some for sale but it is brome, is this safe to feed our horse he is a 24yr. old gelding and at this time we are trying to fill him out, he was given to us and the previous owners just put him out in the pasture and so he was quite skinny, we are trying to fill him out slowly and are feeding him twice a day with 4 lbs. of Purina equine senior and alfalfa hay. So he is averaging at least 20 lbs. of feed a day, and actually probably a little more hay.

I want to know if it would be safe to give him brome…and I am assuming that it should be introduced into his diet gradually over a couple of weeks?

Does anyone know what the difference is in brome and alfalfa hay is? I know it probably has to do a lot with nutrional value.

Here is a comparative chart that should help to answer your questions:

http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/9/3/363.pdf

1) If dairy cows eat hay containing too much iodine 131, their milk will be unfit to drink. suppose some hay contains 10 times the maximum allowable level of iodine 131. how many days should the hay be stored before it is fed to dairy cows? (iodine 131 is produced by nuclear explosions, but it presents less of a hazard because it has a half life of 8 days)

2) A certain wild animal preserve can support no more than 250 lowland gorillas. 25 were known to be in the preserve in 1970. In 1980, the population reached 58. if the growth is logistic, find the constants C,A, and k

1) 8 days is the time it takes half of the iodine to deteriorate. You need to reduce the content to 1/10. Thus, 90% needs to vanish. divide 10 by 2 3 times, and you reach 1.25. Remove 1/5, and you reach an allowable level. So, 3 periods of 8 days, +2/5 of one (1/5 is 2/5 of 1/2). We get 24+3.2=27.2 days for the iodine to become safe.

2). I'm not sure what C and A are, we've been focused on trig identities. I assume the growth is directly proportional with the time elapsed.

I noticed my local feed store has it and it’s considerably cheaper than alfalfa and bermuda hay. I had never seen it before and asked the guy loading my hay for me and he didn’t know anything about it and said that the owners feed it to their cows. This was no help! lol I am finding conflicting info online so wanted real world info. Thx guys!

I’ll have to do some checking as to the reason, but I asked my vet about sudan hay for horses as my hay dude did a field for his cows, and asked if I wanted any. My vet told me absolutely not. OK for cows, but not for horses.

I am needing some tack to use in 4-H. If anyone has some used tack that they no longer need, let me know. There is no used tack shops anywhere around me unless I travel for atleast 2 hours, not many horse people in my area.

Try checking your local classifieds or craigslist.org

How many horses would you like to see at a barn where you would take lessons?

*If you would give the minimum you would work with, then the preferred number, that would be great!

Just curious.

I think it depends. We have about 15 lesson horses and they range in difficulty from the littlest rider to the most advanced. I think they need enough that you can keep moving up as you need to.

I would think at a minimum there should be at least 6 horses for a lesson program, but that would make for a very small lesson program.

Now if you are talking all horses at a barn including the lesson horses, it depends on how many trainers, instructors etc. the barn has.

Does anyone feed alfalfa hay in your horses diet? If you do, what kind of horse and what do you do with your horse? Is it more for performance horses or growing horses or broodmares? I only have a easy keeper morgan right now that I worry about getting cushings so I don't think I would dare feed her this. I bought the land so I can establish a small morgan breeding farm – but should I reseed this with a different crop?
(I just bought an existing farm with 15 acres in established alfalfa hay with minimal grass mixed in)
I can get it tested by a deparment of some sort right? Do I mail it in somewhere or Cooperative Extention?

I like half alfalfa half grass. When I go to straight alfalfa however I shoot for lower RFV (relative food value) ratings than the top qualtiy. Top qualtiy has RFV's ranging from 150 to 250. These are a little too hot for a horse not used to it. However I can get alfalfa with a little sunbleaching with RFV's closer to 100 or even a little lower. I stay with low RFV's due to sunbleaching and not mold or excess stemminess.

I have never had any trouble with feeding this alfalfa. The only trouble I have ever had was a pregnant mare who coliced when the only alfalfa I could get (In fact the only hay I could get that year) had RFV's in the 120's. I saved my mare but she rolled on my leg and I missed a day of work because of it.

BTW

In some parts of the country you must watch the blisterbugs in alfalfa. They can kill a horse pretty fast. My supplier gets his hay from Nebraska (northern part) where it is just north of the bugs' range.

University of Californis says diests in alfalfa hay increassed the stones? (intestial stones) They form around foreign material in the intestine. 61 horses in 2 yrs, referred to clinic due to colic or instedtial blockages caused by stones. The researchers found that only factor associated with stone formation were lack of access to pasture grazing and a diet comprised of 50 percent of more alfalfe hay. Have you ever heard this? I haven't and in winter is when I feed alfalfa and no pastue? So I'll be cutting back. Just thought you would like to know.
What do you all think?
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.
Yep that's were I read it yeterday and I too love the mag:)
I feed in winter grass hay, and oats, but also give plenty, (to much) alfalfa won't any more:) Thought is was a nice treat for her, how very wrong.
Daisy KJ
I know your not starting a fight, and I'm glad to here for 45 yrs no problem:) That's wonderful, and I posted the question cause I want to here what u all think:) thanks
Jeff Sadler: Pickles, LOL good one:)
The more I read and think about this, my horse this past late winter had a bout of colic, for the first and only time, she was 4, and never feed alfalfa till last yr???? I wonder, I blamed it on the horseshorers secert at the time wasn't thinking and thought that was the only thing different, she got taken off it. I still won't chance either one, know. Alos I'm glad to hear others that arn't having a problem, and hope they contuine not too. It's bad enough that in my area with long winters she only get pasture 6 months (if lucky sometime 5) of pasture. I'm also starting to rethink the grain, so true about the hoofs and also I'm thinking with so many teeth problems, is how we feed.

I did read about this, and it isn't really that surprising. there were already good reasons to limit or eliminate alphalfa from horse diets, and people still feed it. I know of a couple horses that were necropsied after colic deaths and were found to have enteroliths that formed around seeds.
In fact, I thought of that when someone posted a question about feeding horses veggies from the garden.
I've also seen many people impactions that resulted from seed enteroliths, so I could tell everyone to core the seeds out of the apples or the watermelon they feed to horses, but people don't want to hear that, so I mostly leave it alone. Most people keep doing what is working until they have a problem with it themselves….I'm guessing the alphalfa sales won't go down all that much as the result of this news.
ADD…what Jeff says is true….research that makes it into the news is often poorly validated and unless you have access to the details on how the research was controlled and validated, there's room for skepticism.