Brandy

Trying to troubleshoot a horse’s gut, when it’s in disarray, can feel sometimes like assembling a puzzle acquired from Goodwill. With missing pieces and dog-eared corners, trying to figure out how to put it all together can be daunting.

Recently, seemingly out of nowhere, Brandy’s stool quality dissolved – literally. A bit of background: Brandy has been a mash-only horse since she first arrived at SAFE. The grinding surfaces of her teeth are practically nonexistent, leading her to quid out any hay or grass she has access to. While she was still allowed on pasture in the summer months (with a grazing muzzle), all of her calories come from pellet feed. So her manure has always been on the soft side, as is typical of a mash-only horse.

But one day, that softness turned to liquid. There were no variables that had changed in her life, nothing new about her feed or lifestyle. She was in good health too, without a fever or any other symptoms that might explain the loose stool. We ran bloodwork, which came up clean as a whistle. While we of course don’t want our horses plagued by medical issues, having a clear cause of a problem can be nice for troubleshooting purposes.

We tried many things to course-correct under the guidance of our vets. We added in additional probiotics, twice daily biosponge, sucralfate, and a month-long course of metronidazole. The metronaidazole was the only thing that made any positive difference, and even then it only lasted for a few days. Then we were back to square one, and feeling out of options.

Our savior came in the form of alfalfa leaves – a real MVP in the horse world. In an effort to give Brandy some roughage in her gut, we introduced a few pounds of alfalfa chaff into her daily feed regime. Not only did she love it, it also came as the missing piece to our puzzle – almost immediately her piles regained shape and substance. If we quite didn’t jump for joy, we definitely bounced. After several days of sustained improvement, we began to walk back some of the other methodologies we had tried, hoping the change would hold. And to our delight, it did!

Since then, Brandy has been enjoying both her daily alfalfa leaves and the formed piles that have resulted from it. For now, the puzzle has been assembled.

Brandy, one of the matriarchs of SAFE, will turn 30 this July according to our records. So what is she getting up to so far in her 30th year? Well, first and foremost, keeping close with BFF Bandit. While Brandy finds a lot of support in humans, and has made great strides as both teacher and student in our horsemanship program, she still prefers to have her equine counterpart nearby. Now that the weather is turning towards the nicer side of things, she and Bandit are sleeping outside, which they prefer to being in a stall, and we are all counting the days until we can open the gates to our grass pastures. Even though Brandy’s teeth aren’t in good shape, she still enjoys her time on the grass, and even if the majority of what she gobbles up ends up in a quidded ball, she loves every minute of being out on the grass with her buddy. Brandy, as a mash-only girl, is particularly attuned to her multi-day mealtimes, and is always ready and waiting to greet the food truck. Brandy enjoys being groomed by a variety of volunteers, and absolutely loves a good scratch in those hard to reach areas. She has the spunk of a horse half her age; the best showcase of this is when she gets arena turnout with Bandit, and the two of them go ripping around — after her obligatory roll, of course. Three decades, and Brandy is still going strong!

For some of us, getting older means our visits with doctors and specialists increase, our bodies requiring more maintenance to remain afloat. And while the same is often true for horses of a certain age, there are some cases when vet care is required less frequently.

One such case is Brandy’s. Brandy, a Mare of a Certain Age, is no stranger to health issues. She gets a daily tab of prascend for her Cushing’s diagnosis, and last summer required all manner of creams and salves to help soothe her itchy skin. But perhaps the most significant note about Brandy is her lack of good teeth, a fact that had been known to us since near day one of her arrival at SAFE.

Apart from a formal vet visit and inspection of her mouth under sedation, the signs were obvious to us that things were perhaps a bit amiss under the hood when the hay balls began falling from her mouth. Known as ‘quidding,’ it is a phenomenon that very much resembles a cow chewing its cud, if that same cud were to materialize as a giant lump of wet hay, dropped on the ground. Not the most aesthetically pleasing thing a horse can do, but it is, of course, not meant to be. Rather — it is a sign something is wrong, and a pretty clear one at that.

Brandy’s subsequent vet visits have revealed as much: her teeth are in very poor shape. So poor that she is not able to properly chew and swallow hay. Because of this, Brandy is on a mash-only diet, receiving her calories in the form of delicious grain slurry.

At her most recent dental, our vets told us that going forward, Brandy would only need a dental float if we began to notice issues arising — an inability to eat, or foul odors originating from her mouth. There just simply are not enough good teeth in her mouth to do anything to. So just like that, Brandy had an annual appointment removed from her schedule. And here I’ve been looking for ways to avoid the dentist, turns out you just need to have no teeth!

We will continue to watch Brandy closely to ensure she is not having trouble eating, but for the time being, she seems perfectly content to be a soup girl.

At the recent Joel Conner Clinic, Carrie S worked with Brandy in the morning groundwork session, and had the following to say about her experience:

“I participated in the ground work class at the June Joel Conner Horsemanship Clinic and had the wonderful opportunity to work with Brandy Snap.  First of all, let’s just celebrate the fact that a 29 year old horse (that’s about 85 in horse years) had a boatload of energy throughout the clinic and nickered happily each morning when I haltered her.  “Do I get to go to school today???”  She was partly right, since she was the teacher and I was the student.  This was my second clinic and Brandy was not giving in to sloppy instructions.  I had thought her stiffness was age related and I was concerned about asking “too much” from her.  Joel helped me understand what she was asking for in terms of pressure that would allow her to soften, flex, and move all four feet fluidly.

Brandy seems to thrive with having a job to do.  She greets each offer to work with energy and gusto.  It takes a lot to get this special mare to relax fully, she is a lead mare after all.  But when she feels she can trust you, her feet get light, she rewards with a small lick and a chew, and she remembers.  She is a precious part of the SAFE herd in that novice handlers are safe with her.  She has so much try and willingness.  She did really well quite separated from her BFF and was friendly with the other horses, even when they were working through some tough spots quite near to her.  She is so ready for her forever home and a very kind and patient teacher for someone who would like to learn this style of horsemanship.”

Carrie S participated in the March Joel Conner clinic alongside Brandy, and had the following to say about their experience together:

“I had the opportunity to work with Brandy during the groundwork portion of the Joel Conner Clinic in March of 2023. Brandy had previously attended one clinic, but had little work in between due to the large herd that SAFE took in last November, which required a lot of attention from the staff. Despite the break, Brandy quickly remembered the great work she did with Sue C and was eager to learn and focus on the task at hand.

During the five days of the clinic, Brandy showed surprising lightness and energy, and was quiet and focused whether working near her BFF or at the other end of the arena. Although she initially had some stiffness and leaned outward on the halter when we worked on the unified circle, she quickly became more flexible and responsive to my instructions, eventually bending nicely and working on a float. Her try and positive attitude were evident every morning when she nickered and eagerly awaited her halter.

Brandy was a delight to work with on the rail, showing great responsiveness and staying right with me no matter how quickly I was moving forward or backward. We will continue working with her hindquarters and unified circle, as well as her front quarters. She also needs work with standing still.  She’s a creeper and before you know it she’s put you right at her shoulder and wants to lean on you, making standing still a challenge at times.

Brandy did great with grooming and hoof picking even in the midst of lots of horses and people coming into the arena.  She was curious and friendly toward the other horses. Overall, Brandy was a joy to work with and showed great potential for further development in her groundwork skills.”

Sue C worked with Brandy during the last Joel Conner clinic, and had the following to say about her time spent with this special mare:

“This weekend I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Brandy during the groundwork portion of the Joel Conner clinic. Brandy is a 27 year old quarter horse mare who has had little training with groundwork, and is very tied to her paddock mate Bandit. Despite this she handled the clinic like a champ with much less calling out and looking for Bandit than I expected. She was nervous in the beginning, but really warmed up to the work. We started with just asking for a unified circle, followed by a good step or two at hindquarters, then back to a unified circle. We practiced doing this with a lengthening lead rope until she was really moving away from me when I asked her to move her hind. Once she got good at this she progressed to moving her front quarters more easily. She was occasionally distracted and looking for Bandit, but it was quite easy to get her focused again. I felt like she was really with me leading in both directions, and over the course of the weekend she maintained this focus even when Bandit left the arena. She is a sweet mare, relatively untroubled and I hope that the work we did is a step towards more flexibility in where she goes next. I appreciate the education from both Joel and Brandy and hope to get to work with her again.”