A36— Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 10,1980
Draft horses back at Penn State, for the weekend
Ron Palmer, a draft horse farrier from St.
Peters, wants to make sure this Clydesdale’s shoe
has the right fit.
Nine year old Todd Biddle, son of Lewis and Gail
Biddle, Oak Hill, Centre Co., holds on to half-ton
Janet, a Belgian yearling. He doesn't seem to mind
his weight disadvantage, weighing only 60 pounds.
-arly sevc
of its kind held at Penn State
rse enthusiasts turned out for
BY SHEILA MILLER
UNIVERSITY PARK -
When Penn State was a bit
younger, the land grant
college was the home for
draft horses and mules.
These animals were not
there just for fun or study—
they were there to work.
Last weekend, for the first
time in years, the Penn State
campus was once again
adorned by the big drafts.
They were participating in
the first Draft Horse Con
ference sponsored by Penn
State’s College of
Agriculture and the Penn
sylvania Horse and Mule
Association.
This two day event
brought close to seventy-five
draft horse and mule en
thusiasts together for
learning and sharing ideas.
Dr. Lester Griel, a Penn
State veterinarian, reviewed
the nutritional requirements
of the draft horse, and
emphasized the need to feed
good quality hay and plenty
of oats to get the horsepower
in the field.
Dr. Frederick Fregin, a
veterinarian from the
University of Pennsylvania,
spoke to the group on con
ditioning the draft horse.
He admitted there were no
good scientific studies on
pulling and plowing horses
and their response to
exercize, so he compared
them to studies he had
conducted on Thorough
breds.
< r**
Fregin explained the
working horse has'an in
creased blood pressure in
both its heart and lungs, and
the horse uses more oxygen
than when at rest.
“It is inappropriate to
train the pulling horse only
in doing that specific ac
tivity,” Fregin stressed.
“You need to build up the
horse’s endurance—you
need to get it into condition
so that the heart muscle
increases in size and
strength uniformly. The
skeletal muscles need to
grow in their ability to ab
sorb the oxygen they need
during hard work.
“If you don’t develop the
heart muscle uniformly, the
one side of the heart, the left
ventricle, will be stressed.
Horses that are said to die of
heart attacks actually blow
out their one ventricle. ’ ’
Fregin pointed out the
need to acclamate the horse
to hot, humid weather to
insure best performance.
“When the horse sweats, it
loses fluids and electrolytes.
This leads to fatigue.”
He added that of the trace
minerals, sodium, chloride,
potassium, phosphorus, and
calcium, the level of
potassium is extremely
important in the endurance
of the draft. When there is a
deficiency of this mineral,
the horse’s muscles tie-up.
He emphasized this is not the
same as Monday morning
sickness, caused by the
horse having Sunday off
from its six-day work week.
Another area of concern
when conditioning the horse,
Fregin said, is the body and
more importantly the
muscle temperature. He
said the muscle tem
perature, when a horse is
working, can be about five
degrees higher than the
rectal temperature.
He cautioned the group
that if the rectal tem
perature is 107 degrees
Farenheit, the horse is likely
to die unless he is cooled
down immediately. Fregin
said signs of overheating are
exhaustion, respiration, and
the fact that sweating stops.
Fregin recalled one work
horse that would lie down
unless the farmer unhitched
him at lunch time to rest.
For blood pressure, Fregin
told the group that the best
place to take a horse’s pulse
rate is either behind the left
foreleg, behind the elbow;
along the jaw; at the jugular
vein in the neck; and inside
the leg below the knee.
If a horse is in condition,
but has sore feet, it still
won’t work. Ron Palmer, of
St. Peters, is a famer and
horse sheer who specializes
indrafts.
What’s the biggest
problem he runs into? “It’s
hard work,” he said. Getting
serious, Palmer said the one
problem he does have with
draft horse owners is that
they don’t pick up their
horses’ feet.
“Handle the horses’ feet as
soon as they’re bom,” he
sail. “And, you need to keep
after their feet—cut the milk
toes on the foals so that they
break over the center of
their foot and grow
straight.”
Palmer told the draft
horsemen to look at their
horses’ feet and make sure
both sides of the heels are
the same length. He added
the angle on die foot should
be 90 degrees, with rounded
toes.
“Raise a straight-legged
foal—not one that can hit his
chin with his knees with feet
going in different direc
tions,” Palmer stressed. “If
he’s going to go like a win
ner, he’ll do it without the
weights and a lot of toe.”
Going along with the big
problem of not picking up
their feet enough, Palmer
said the biggest problem in
drafts is thrush. He advised
that, along with clean and
sanitary stables, owners
need to treat any animals
that have thrush wii s
Clorox, Coppertox, or any ■
disinfectant.
In shoeing the big horses.
Palmer said it is important
to have at least 1/8 inch of
the shoe sticking out the
back of the foot to support
the weight of the horse. He
added the horse shoe nails
should be kept forward or
the heel won’t be allowed to
expand as the hoof grows.
Palmer also recom
mended the horses have flat
shoes on rather than pulling
shoes unless they are in
contests more often than
once every two months in
order for the foot to have the
right frog pressure and
support.
ference
coni
Charles Lindsay, Greencastle, demonstrates
proper way to harness this Belgian draft horse.
David Keller, Hummelstown, si
measure a collar.
Elmer Lapp, Kinzers,
talked with the other hor
semen on his experiences
and methods in breaking the
work horse, noting that in
Lancaster County the
breaking is done differently
than in the western part of
the state.
Lapp said he usually waits
until die horse is three years
old. He hitches it with two
well-broke horses, putting
the green horse on the right
side. He said he uses a
jockey stick, and halter on
die new horse, and ties it to
the middle horse. He added
he takes a line around the
outside the three year old.
If you don’t have that
many horses, Lapp said, you
should start training when
the horse is two years old.
And, he said, never make
pets out of them or they’ll be
stubborn.
William Howard,
president of the Horse and
Mule Association, discussed
transporting horses safely.
He stressed the horse should
not be allowed to break away
the first or any time they are
low
lows
being loaded or they will
make it a habit.
When transporting horses ’J)
in winter, Howard said he
puts a piece of burlap over
their noses to keep the cold
air out of their nostrils. He
said he doesn’t blanket the
horses because he’d rather
they traveled a little cool.
Howard said he tries to
keep his heavy horses up
front in the trailer or truck
with the lighter horses in the
back. That way if there’s an
accident, he said, the heavy
horses won’t push against
the others.
He added the horses
should be cross-tied if they
are pickers, and should be
tied in alternating directions
so that if a horse steps to the
side it won’t hit another’s
foot.
Above all, he said, put
yourself in the back of thee*
truck, and drive as if you 1 *
were going to be riding
there—stop, start and turn
easy.
The rest of the conference
(Turn to Page A3B)