On Nov 15th we had a busy members- only training day kindly hosted by Kristy King-Turner. We had several ‘guinea pig’ horses and lots of interested members ready to soak up the day’s information.
On Nov 15th we had a busy members- only training day kindly hosted by Kristy King-Turner. We had several ‘guinea pig’ horses and lots of interested members ready to soak up the day’s information. We had tons of info to get through so we split into two groups. One group stayed with Patricia Warhurst from Thermal Imaging South Island to learn about thermal imaging horses- what can be seen, how it is done and interestingly, we found several issues on our guinea pig horses.
The second group were intrigued by Joanne Ragg and Molly Wastney as they were introduced to the Doterra Essential Oils. Whilst most people have heard about essential oils, most of us had no idea of the variety of ailments that essential oils could be used for on horses to treat both physical and emotional problems. Our participants learnt a lot and came back smelling good!
We then took a break for lunch and drinks whilst Patricia tackled the subject of saddle fitting. We discussed what makes a good and bad saddle blanket and girth and then moved onto saddles. We had a large variety of saddles to look at to discuss the different features. Then we took our chalk out and started marking out some anatomical points on our guinea pig horses. We then tried different saddles on them and learnt what to look for when fitting a saddle. This session was hugely popular with lots of questions and all owners of guinea pig horses wanting their own saddles checked. Fortunately for some of the horses we decided their saddles were not a good fit (the owners weren’t quite so enthusiastic!) but all agreed that a poor fitting saddle could cause a great deal of damage to a horse, and in fact we had seen some of that damage with the thermal imaging camera earlier that day. All in all we had a great day and the feedback was terrific- the members felt they had learnt a huge amount of very worthwhile info. We would like to thank Kristy for hosting this event, the members who took the time to float their horses there in the morning so we had several guinea pigs to work on, and the presenters who donated their time and knowledge free of charge.
The second group were intrigued by Joanne Ragg and Molly Wastney as they were introduced to the Doterra Essential Oils. Whilst most people have heard about essential oils, most of us had no idea of the variety of ailments that essential oils could be used for on horses to treat both physical and emotional problems. Our participants learnt a lot and came back smelling good!
We then took a break for lunch and drinks whilst Patricia tackled the subject of saddle fitting. We discussed what makes a good and bad saddle blanket and girth and then moved onto saddles. We had a large variety of saddles to look at to discuss the different features. Then we took our chalk out and started marking out some anatomical points on our guinea pig horses. We then tried different saddles on them and learnt what to look for when fitting a saddle. This session was hugely popular with lots of questions and all owners of guinea pig horses wanting their own saddles checked. Fortunately for some of the horses we decided their saddles were not a good fit (the owners weren’t quite so enthusiastic!) but all agreed that a poor fitting saddle could cause a great deal of damage to a horse, and in fact we had seen some of that damage with the thermal imaging camera earlier that day. All in all we had a great day and the feedback was terrific- the members felt they had learnt a huge amount of very worthwhile info. We would like to thank Kristy for hosting this event, the members who took the time to float their horses there in the morning so we had several guinea pigs to work on, and the presenters who donated their time and knowledge free of charge.