The Old Rope Horse Is No Longer Old - What Great Nutrition Does

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Audra_Jensen]Audra Jensen
I had bought an older rope horse, 12 years old; from a gentleman that could no longer rope. This horse, Pat had spent many hours on the road going form roping to roping winning Mr. Henry money. Now Mr. Henry didn't want Pat to go to just anyone, he want Pat to go to someone who would keep using him in a job that he was good at. Place his rider in the correct spot behind that calf and put him in the money.
Pat had a couple issues that were no big deal, just had to take a little better care of him. He had navicular in his front feet and was a little riby with the long hair under his chin still hanging on even in October. The navicular we helped by putting egg bar shoes on him and started feeding him grain, good hay and floated his teeth. The long hairs were a nutrition problem that we began to remedy with an excellent supplement. After only being on this supplement for about a week we took him roping and wow, what a different horse. While we were warming up he did a couple head down feeling good crow hops, he had never done this prior to the supplement and Mr. Henry said he had not done that since he was a young colt. We roped 15 head on Pat over the course of the next couple hours and he was still going just as strong on the last one as the first one.
Over the course of the next few months we started hauling Pat hundreds of miles to ropings that began to tire us out, however; Pat was still going strong. His hair coat laid down flat began to shine and was soft. The winter coat that most horses put on is long and shaggy never grew with Pat, he did get a winter coat but it was short, thick and he looked sharp. The long hairs on the chin fell out when he shed and he has never grown them back.
He still has the navicular however it seems to have lessened over time, is it because of the shoes and shoeing or the supplement. I tend to believe it is due to the nutrition the supplement provides the horse to repair and rebuild the body to become healthy. Pat had received good feed but it is hard to carry enough with a person when traveling down the road for weeks on end. The nutrients in the bale of hay vary and as the winter lengthens the vitamins are minimal and the supplement that had been feeding was missing so many things. Now we just dump an ounce in twice a day and don't worry so much if the quality of the hay is low. The other thing we notice is Pat doesn't go off is feed, drinks plenty of water no mater where we are and there have been no colic or tying up tendencies. Supplementing with the correct product makes as the world in the health and performance of a horse.
Audra Jensen is a horse owner and consultant in the health and wellness industry. For more information visit http://www.totalsupplements.com/index2.htm
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Old-Rope-Horse-Is-No-Longer-Old---What-Great-Nutrition-Does&id=6613631] The Old Rope Horse Is No Longer Old - What Great Nutrition Does