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Worm Control News
June, 2010
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ABOUT H-LAB
This
section of the newsletter will have introductions to the people at H-Lab, explanations of
what we do behind the scenes, and highlights about actual customers and their worm
control strategies.
This Month:
Longtime H-Lab Customer, Marsha Houle
"For 21
years, my Morgan gelding Donald never tested positive for parasites. I had a
lay-up facility in California, and we had client horses coming and going, but
because I had a program and did the fecal testing, I didn't have to deworm
Donald and my other horses needlessly," reports Marsha Houle, longtime
Horsemen's Laboratory client, retired equine professional, and former endurance
rider. Want to know how she kept worms under control on her farm? It's a
reasonable strategy that you can implement, too.
Marsha
reports she's an 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' kind of gal. "We don't
deworm our cats and dogs if they don't have worms; why should we do it with
horses?" she asks.
Back in the
1980s, when Horsemen's Lab was just a germ of an idea, Marsha worked part-time
for Dr. John Byrd's equine clinic in Santa Ana, California. "John had been my
vet for years, and I was working for Becky, his wife, in the office. When he
told me what he was thinking about doing, offering regular fecal testing
through the mail, I thought it was a great idea. I still do," says Marsha.
During that
time, she owned and operated a lay-up facility in the town of Mountain Center,
California; she says that horses would come in and test positive, but leave
with their worm counts well within acceptable levels. "I'd tell clients, I have
a program for deworming, and this is what it is. I don't know if they continued
with it afterward, but while their horses were at my facility, we treated them
the same as my personal horses, who never showed up positive," reports Marsha.
Her set-up
included barn stalls with a variety of turnout paddocks, ranging from a big
one-acre turnout to smaller areas behind the barn for horses that needed to be kept
quiet while they healed. Manure was picked up from stalls and turnout areas
daily, and horses always had access to fresh, clean water. Marsha says her
parasite prevention efforts were nothing outlandish, but worked because she
kept on top of things. "I never went to great lengths, but what I did was just
common sense," she says.
She credits
her care practices and the fecal testing through Horsemen's Lab for her success
in keeping equine parasites under control for so many years, and says she's got
the records to prove it. "I know that my program worked. I'm very analytical,
and I still have all the records and data I tracked. It's like John says, most
of these horses have been dewormed so many times, and many of them are alone in
their stalls, not out on pasture where they might get exposed to larvae. So
there's no need to deworm them unless they have a high parasite count from one
of the fecal tests," she points out.
While
Marsha no longer has the lay-up business, and has retired from endurance riding,
at age 63 she still keeps horses and rides regularly. "I'm a volunteer for the
Forest Service; there's a mountain behind my house and I ride out looking for
illegal campfires, target shooting, and illegal off-road vehicles. I enjoy
taking my time now, and that's my peace of mind, that I can stay in my area and
still ride," she says.
Today, Marsha's riding mount is a Spotted Saddle
Horse, plus she has an older ¾ Arab mare, and a little mustang as a companion
and back-up riding horse. She still sends in their fecal samples to Horsemen's
Lab every twelve weeks. "The key to the whole thing is that you have to do it
routinely, not just when your budget allows. It has to be part of everything
else you do to keep your animals healthy," she concludes.
Return to the June issue of Worm Control News
Visit the Horsemen's Laboratory Web site
Worm Control News is written and produced by KempEquine.com
Copyright 2010 Horsemen's
Laboratory. Please contact us at hlab@horsemenslab.com for reprint permission.
Linking to Worm Control News is acceptable, and we would appreciate notification of links so we can
acknowledge them in future issues.
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