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"Good Now Bad Later," from my FREE monthly newsletter

From the How to Train a Horse Series:

"Every time you teach an exercise, your horse will go through the same learning cycle. He'll go from "Bad" to "Good" to "Worse" to "Not So Bad" to "Learned." That's the typical cycle: Bad. Good. Worse. Not so bad. Learned.

You know "Good." "Good" is where we get excited. It's the part where we want to show off to our friends. We want to show somebody how soft our horse has become, so we walk over to brag to somebody, pick up our reins and the horse sticks his nose straight out, stiff as a board. We're embarrassed and our friends snicker. We've just entered the "worse" stage. It's the part where "he was getting but now he's not."

It's during the "worse" part where we typically second-guess our training. "The horse was good but now he's worse. I must be doing something wrong." You begin to think you need to change what you're doing. "Maybe my hand's in the wrong position" or "I'm using too little pressure." You begin to think you're doing something that's not correct. That's when we're most likely to change what we're doing. But that's the most important time for us to not change, to keep on doing what we're doing. You've got to get through this stage by being consistent. Keep doing the same thing over and over so that the horse realizes all the movements that are "mistakes" and which single movement is correct. It's consistency and time that teach your horse."

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From John Lyons Trainer Keith Hosman

Round Pen First Steps
A Downloadable Book

A sample from Day 4:

"From here, you'll capitalize on small improvements, continually approaching, petting for ever-extending periods of time, turning and retreating. Ask the horse to place two eyes on you, approach, pet for a moment longer than the time before, turn on your heels and walk away, totally relieving any pressure. Read the horse here: If you feel he'll yank his head away at three seconds, stop petting at two, turn, walk away. If he begins to move away (his feet), ask for a turn back towards you, get both eyes, and try again. Continue in this manner, slowly moving from the horse's nose to the top of his head, to his neck and so on. Make sure, especially with a green horse, that you keep well clear of those back, kicking legs, (stand just in front, and slightly to the side, of the horse's shoulder)."

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Available Downloads:
"Stop Bucking"
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"Round Pen First Steps"
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"How A Donkey Can Alert You To A Nasty Horse Parasite Before It Causes A Serious Disease"
By Sierra Lynch

Horses and donkeys can share pastures, paddocks, stalls, and pretty much anything with no problems at all. However, there is a parasite that a donkey can give a horse that can cause some significant respiratory problems. But if you know what to look for, you can take action…

The horse parasite I'm talking about is the lungworm. Your horse can ingest them by eating grass in a pasture that has been infected with it's larvae (what we call a worm like this in it's very young and immature stage of life).

This parasite lives in the lungs of your horse by attaching itself to the lung walls. That's where it lays its eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the little beasts try to swim around in your horse's lungs as best they can.

If your horse is lucky enough to cough them up, you'll find several yellow globs of mucous in his stall. Some of them may appear to be frothy, like the foam on an ocean wave.

If your horse swallows these larvae, they go through his digestive tract. Some will be excreted through his feces. Then these little buggers grow up, attach themselves to local blades of grass wherever they land, where they'll probably get eaten by another animal. And then, the whole yucky, wormy cycle starts up all over again.

But some lucky worms get absorbed into your horse's circulatory system, where they'll make their way back to his lungs and set up shop there. This is where they cause the horse health problem we call parasitic bronchitis.

The typical symptoms you'll see are yellow nasal discharge and an excessive amount of coughing. Don't be surprised if this breathing difficulty causes your horse to lose his appetite as well.

Once it gets to this phase, you need to treat it. If you don't your horse could come down with COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). COPD is a very dangerous health problem for your horse, so you want to catch this condition before it gets that far.

But here's where it gets weird. Lungworms make their way through donkeys - lungs, intestines, and all - without causing any symptoms. Nobody is really sure why donkey's don't get these problems. Just lucky, I guess.

Horses, on the other hand, aren't so lucky. That's why they depend on you to recognize these symptoms and take action.

But the fact that donkeys don't get these symptoms actually helps you, the horse owner, detect this problem.. If your horse comes down with these symptoms and his donkey friend doesn't, that's a pretty good indicator that lungworm is a real possibility.

Fortunately, the number of lungworm-induced parasitic bronchitis cases in the U.S. has dropped dramatically in recent years.The reason? Widespread use of ivermectin wormers, a de-worming agent you can get from your equine vet.

Remember the lungworm warning signs:

* yellow nasal discharge
* coughing up frothy yellow globs of mucous
* sharing a pasture with donkeys, who seem to be in perfect health

Now that you know the symptoms of lungworm, you'll recognize the problem early, while it's much easier to treat.

Yours For Better Horse Care,

Sierra Lynch

About the Author: Sierra Lynch makes it easy to keep your horse healthy and happy. With over 16 years experience riding and caring for horses, Sierra will make sure your horse is always ready to ride. Visit Sierra on the web at Horse IQ

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