Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2007 | Page 76

life

EQUESTRIAN

My life
with Shires
Winter care - are you ready?
British Horse Society
As I write on a sunny day in
September, it seems hard to
imagine that in a couple of
months time we will be well into
the winter care of our horses.
Whilst there are enjoyable
things to look forward to about
winter (hacking out on a crisp
frosty morning being one
of them), there are the less
enjoyable aspects too, like the
endless mucking out, how to
prevent things like mud fever
and how on earth you can get
the rugs dry by morning.
If you do stable your horse
overnight in the winter do
ensure that he has plenty of
clean, fresh water and plenty
of forage to last through the
night. There can be nothing
worse for a horse, a grazing
animal by nature, than emptying
his haynet by 10pm and
having nothing else to eat
until morning. If your horse
eats his hay quickly then a
haynet with smaller holes, or
two haynets one inside the
other will help to slow him
down. If you're not sure about
the appropriate quantities to
feed your horse then most
of the feed companies offer
nutritional guides to help
you find the correct balance
of forage and hard feed.
Preventing mud fever is
very important for horses out
over winter. It is caused by a
bacterial infection of the skin,
resulting in painful skin lesions
and even lameness in severe
cases. Signs to watch out for
include small, muddy scabs
in lower limbs or heels, and
hair loss with open lesions.

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Prevention is obviously better
than cure and if you can do
some or all of the following it
will certainly help to prevent
your horse becoming infected:
• Check horses legs
daily for early signs
• Avoid hosing off muddy
legs unless necessary, it
seems better to carefully
brush off dry mud
• Apply ba rrier creams that
act as a waterproof layer on
CLEAN and DRY areas, not wet
or dirty otherwise the bacteria
just get trapped underneath!
• Rotate fields to
reduce poaching
• Put hard-core down
in gateways and areas
of heavy traffic
• Fence of gateways/corridors
with electric fencing and keep
moving it to prevent poaching
If your horse does get mud
fever then consult your vet
who will advise you on the
most appropriate treatment.
Finally, the BHS Isle of Wight
Committee have their Annual
Meeting on Tuesday 9 October
at Brickfields Horsecountry
starting at 7.30pm. Please do
come along and find out what
we’ve been up to over the last
year. There are a couple of
vacancies on the Committee
so if you have some spare time
and would like to get involved
with our work on the Island
we would love to see you.

Shires and other heavy horses
appeal to people who are totally
unconnected with horses.
Everyone appreciates seeing
a couple of shires dressed up
and working in the fields.
Brickfields has a good
breeding programme for shire
horses. The Shire stallion
standing at Brickfields is a
lovely young horse called
Overbrook Spartacus. The Shire
Horse Society keeps a close
eye on any breeding of these
magnificent horses; the stallions
are inspected as three year olds
to be granted a licence, and if
they pass a further inspection
at six, will be licenced for life.
Spartacus has just passed his
six year inspection, which is
great news for the growing shire
population at Brickfields. There
are three shire mares that have
been scanned in foal and are
due next spring; so all being
well, Spartacus should have his
third crop of foals next year.
The Shire horses at Brickfields
are always on show to the
public and they will do different
jobs on site; but one of the
passions of owner, Phil Legge,
is that of ploughing with horses.
He started learning how to
plough in the eighties when
he acquired the first of the
shire horses that were to live
at Brickfields and has gone
on to compete in ploughing
matches all around the country.
The plough was the most

revolutionary agricultural
implement ever invented.
The earliest known plough
is estimated to be some
4,000 years old and there
are references to the
plough in several books
in the Old Testament.
These days the fields are
ploughed regardless of the
weather, but the ploughing
when done with horse power
would start when the weather
was right. Ploughing was the
fulcrum of the year; if it was
late, so was everything else.
The ground would be ploughed
throughout the winter ready
for spring planting; there
were no sprays, so often the
ground was ploughed more
than once to help eradicate the
weeds. One man with his two
horses would plough an acre
a day on average; he would
walk 11 miles to achieve this
acre and the plough would
move about 800 tons of soil.
The two horses that Phil has
had the most success with on
the ploughing field are Monty
and Prince; these are both
retired now. The Brickfields
Shires that will be ploughing
this season are new to the job;
they are a couple of the young
horses that are in the process of
being trained. Noah and Arthur
are coming on well and will
hopefully go on to great things.

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