Endings and beginnings; that's what December brings to mind. Look back to see what we did or did not accomplish this year. Look ahead to where the new year might take us.

Look back, it's been a tough year economically for all of us. Look ahead, the economy is slowly getting better.

Look back and there are more horses out there who need help and homes. Look ahead and that might mean some really good horses available at cheaper prices for those who want to get a horse (or purchase another).

Look back and the industry is divisive; each breed and discipline is holding on to its own culture for better or worse. Look ahead ... and that really doesn't change. In this economic climate is that really what we want to look ahead and see? Or will the financial situation finally cause some cultural shifts so the horse industry actually can become one industry rather than dozens of fragments of an industry?

I think it can!

When you strip an industry down to its basics, it should be easier to rebuild on a stronger foundation that is more inclusive. And as painful as the destruction has been over the past 12-18 months, the construction probably will be more painful.

Keep in mind not every fragment of the horse industry will recover at the same rate. For example, I think the Thoroughbred industry will take the longest, requiring two or three more years to stabilize before it can begin to emerge. I think the top-end sport horses will stabilize the quickest, with the lower-end sport horses and backyard horses leveling out between those two extremes.

How do we bring an industry together that either prides itself on the differences in each segment or blasts the other segments as being not as good or even "the bad guys" of the industry?

For example, there are lots of good folks who own gaited horses, but there is a huge wave of passion inside and outside the industry that paints them all as "the bad guys" because of soring and other training abuse by a very few who show gaited horses. And that passion inside and outside our industry is determining more and more how we will or will not use our horses.

If you mention slaughter in a room full of folks it's like parting the Red Sea; the pro-slaughter supporters on one side and the anti-slaughter on the other.

If you talk about expanded gaming at racetracks to try and compete with casinos you get the same division.

If you start a conversation about artificial insemination around Thoroughbred breeders be prepared to be shunned.

The wild/feral horse issue is going to heat up again with the removal of herds and individuals to other parts of the country.

And let's not start on whether every horse owner should be required to wear a helmet while riding, no matter the use or discipline.

Can we work together despite all of these differences? I think we have to!

What do you think?

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Let me know what you think!

Jewell my Quarter Horse mare that tied up is feeling and looking much better. My daughter brought me the mare from Wyoming, where she'd been riding her most of the summer to try her out for me. After finding out that Jewell tied up really bad about two weeks after arriving in Kentucky, Barbara talked to the previous owner. He said right after he bought the mare a few years ago she did get stiff one day after being out. A little bute/banamine and a few days off and she was fine. No more problems ever seen. So whether she had a small episode of tying-up at that time or not is hard to determine. Might have been just overwork, or it could have been tying-up.

So I got back the reports from Dairy One today that analyzed the three types of hay I have (Washington state alfalfa; Kentucky-grown alfalfa/timothy mix; Kentucky-grown grass hay). That was a really quick turnaround! Interesting all the information you can get from a hay sample and a good lab!

I'm going to sit down with the county extension agent and maybe Dr. Joe Pagan of Kentucky Equine Research and go over the results and determine the best diet for Jewell once we get the results of the PSSM test back from the University of Minnesota. I hope it comes back this week, but it probably will be next week before I find out if the genetic test is positive for PSSM.

My vet, Dr. McLeod, gave me a chart of Jewell's enzymes we've been testing. She said she'd never seen a five-figure CK (creatine kinase) before in Kentucky. LDH is lactate dehydrogenase. AST is aspartate aminotransferase. ALT is alanine aminotransferase. The normal ranges are in the headings for each enzyme.

Date                CK (70-348)           AST (173-330)           LDH (170-370)           ALT (10-49)
11/8/2009       40,976                     5,360                          5,740                           370
11/10/2009       3,933                     4,908                             738                           294
11/14/2009       1,255                     3,578                              462                          162

You can see she's doing well, but she's still got a ways to go. But, one thing Dr. McLeod mentioned is that we don't have a baseline on her muscle enzymes. We don't kow if they are "normally" elevated.

Either way, we should expect it to take two to four weeks for the ranges to return to normal. Then she can start on a light exercise program and we'll see how she does.

Does anyone else hate the time change? I feed in the dark in the morning, and I feed in the dark at night. Makes it really hard to get a good eye on the horses or get anything else done on my farm. (Okay, moving chickens is best done in the dark, but besides that ...)

But I digress from the topic at hand.

I  took off a couple of hours early last night to get sample bags and order sheets in order to get my hay tested. Based on the research at the University of Minnesota on feeding hay to PSSM horses (again, assuming that's her problem), feeding a hay under 11% nonstructural carbohydrate content (NSC) is recommended. And you can't know that by looking!

I've never gotten a hay sample to send off before, so I went to my friendly local county extension office. They provided me with the bags and instructions, although someone had borrowed the hay probe so I ended up having to cut open several bales of each type of hay to get samples near the middle of each bale. (Makes for a messy hay shed for a few days.)

Samples in the mail this morning! Should be back early next week. I had the Washington state pure alfalfa, the local alfalfa/timothy mix hay, and the local grass hay tested. Any bets on which has the highest NSC (sugars and starches)?

While I was at the extension office I borrowed the soil probe to get soil samples. We had a great, wet, warm (not hot) summer this year after two years of drought. I've seeded and fertilized the past two years, but hadn't tested, so was just--literally--throwing seed and feed into the soil without knowing what I needed.

The goats thought it was fun ... walking a grid across the field and trying to pull a plug of soil four to six inches deep (my farm has some good soil, and lots of rock ... good limestone rock). But as I passed some of the honeysuckle trees I'd stop and pull down branches for the goats to gnaw. Then off my herd and I would go to take a few more samples of dirt (and leaves).

Dirt is drying in a bucket in my kitchen, and all I have to do is fill the sample bag and drop it and the probe back at the extension office.

If you haven't made friends with your county extension agents, I would highly recommend it. If you have, what services do you most often use?

Dr. Carol McLeod called yesterday afternoon to say yes, just as we'd suspected, Jewell's muscle enzyme levels were high.

We discussed options, and we decided on the less-invasive hair follicle test for determining if Jewell is positive for genetically induced PSSM. Dr. McLeod visited the University of Minnesota Web site to download the papers and instructions on submitting the hair sample.

In the meantime Stephanie Valberg, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, of the University of Minnesota Equine Center, responded to my questions about Jewell and PSSM.

Quite a bit of information on PSSM can be found on the University of Minnesota Web site  as well as on TheHorse.com by searching under polysaccharide storage myopathy

"Basically there are many reasons why horses can tie up," said Valberg in her personal correspondence. "For Quarter Horses, 10% have the GYS1 genetic mutation for PSSM, so (the genetic test) is a good place to start. If that is negative and serum vitamin E is normal, then a muscle biopsy helps to look for other causes of tying-up."

There is a good flow chart for determining which test(s) is/are needed (based on your horse's breed) in the article The Gene for PSSM Has Now Been Identified! on the University of Minnesota Web site.

"Polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM) is a common form of tying-up in many horse breeds and is characterized by excessive and abnormal storage of sugar (polysaccharide) in muscle cells," the article stated. "We have recently found a mutation in a gene that is highly associated with the presence of abnormal polysaccharide in muscle biopsies in several horse breeds. The genetic test for this mutation is now commercially available to horse owners and veterinarians through the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. We are calling this the classic or type 1 form of PSSM. This mutation is accounts for greater than 90% of PSSM cases in some horse breeds. This mutation appears to have its origins prior to the foundation of modern horse breeds, which is why it occurs in several horse breeds." The article "Glycogen synthase (GYS1) mutation causes a novel skeletal muscle glycogenosis" was authored by McCue M.E.; Valberg, S.J.; Miller, M.B.; Wade, C.; DiMauro, S.; Akmand, H.O.; Mickelson, J.R.

There is also a Frequently Asked Questions page about PSSM at the University of Minnesota Web site.

Dr. Valberg also recommended I go back to Dr. Joe Pagan, founder of Kentucky Equine Research, and ask him about the pasture grasses and get specific recommendations from him as an equine nutritionist on feeding, including grazing and hay.

Still looking for your experiences with PSSM horses. Several have sent me personal correspondences about their PSSM horses and how well they did with proper managment!