Parasite Control: Balance vs. Eradication
“We won our first trophy in the California desert! Dynamite Polo Horses! What fun times!”
— Virginia Jones, CA
My Dynamite polo horses won our first trophy in the desert!
“I was playing polo in Indio, CA (at the Empire Polo Club) in one-goal tournaments. I keep the polo horses on their Dynamite Foundation Program so my trailer is full of their fuel. I played practice chukkers 2 days a week and the tournaments on the weekends. A tough schedule to keep me in shape! My horses were and are awesome. Then we won our first trophy in the desert! What fun times!
As an aside, it is interesting to watch which Free Choice Minerals they consume. When we are in Washington, they mainly consume NTM, but when we are in the California desert, they eat Izmine and 2:1 Free Choice.”
-Virginia Jones, CA
The polo horses Dynamite Foundation Program– my trailer is full of their fuel.
Dynamite Free Choice Minerals…
We have found wide variations in the rate of consumption of the 1 to 1 and 2 to 1 Free Choice. Times of stress or injury, hard work, parasite challenge, onset of cold weather, barometric drops, growth spurts and more will trigger consumption of these products. The horses might ignore them for months, then suddenly will empty the feeder. Once they are balanced, they will tend to just take a little once in a while. Until they are balanced, they may empty the feeder daily.
It is important to not “ration” the products when you start horses on them. Start with 8 ounces per horse per day, and if the feeder is ever empty, use more, until there is always a little left in there. Think of the horse as a leaky bucket. If the bucket has a hole in the bottom and you just trickle water in, you will never get it to fill up. If you turn on the hose full blast, you will fill the bucket and just then a trickle will keep it filled.Regarding the philosophy of free choice mineral supplements, authors Philip A. Wheeler, PhD., and Ronald B. Ward state, in The Non-Toxic Farming
Handbook, “Free choicing of minerals and additives is a controversial concept. It is said to be impossible by some experts for an animal to choose, free choice, what it needs. Why then, do animals chew bark, eat dirt, drink from corral urine pools, and crib? Why do they stop that activity when given specific
supplements? There is a strong case for free choicing, and a producer should explore it for himself.” We have chosen to restrict our horses to stalls, paddocks or pastures with limited forage options, where in nature they would roam many square miles in search of natural clays, mineral deposits and herbs/plants. To read more, click here…
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