[RC] horse with allergies - Mary SutliffOne of our horses has a problem with allergies. He has been tested by an equine allergist and by our regular vet. The allergist used skin tests and the regular vet used a blood test. He is allergic to everything! At least it seems that way. We live in western Washington and once the rains come the allergies get worse. Today we took him out on the trail for a couple of hours. (He has hives.) We used a Dixie Midnight pad under the booties on his usual OF saddle. My husband was riding him and the horse, Rico, would stop and my husband said it felt like Rico was trying to turn himself inside out. Finally we stopped and took the pad off. When riding him with just the booties he was much better. No stopping, etc. Has anyone else experienced this or have an allergic horse. Rico was born on our place and we have his mom who has no allergies. The stud's owner tells me he has no allergies and she knows of no other of his get with this problem. We tried various herbal remedies before taking him to the equine allergist and not much improvement there. The allergy tests were taken about a year ago and he is on allergy shots plus antihistamines. The allergies were trigered by a load of hay we got that was 10% alfalfa. He is now fed straight grass hay and beet pulp. This colt is out of our extremely smooth and fast paso fino mare and a nice paso fino largo stallion. Rico does pretty well during our dry season. Two questions. Has anyone experienced this problem with the Dixie Midnight pads? Also any suggestions would be welcome from anyone with a horse with allergic problems. This horse was to be my husband's distance horse but now . . . .who knows. Rico will be 5 in April. So far he's only been ridden on our local trails but we'd sure like to be able to get him out in the mountains this summer. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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