Thursday

Dosing horse meds? Save Rx bottles!



Horse owners run through bundles of baggies, preparing and labeling equine medications and feed supplements. Why not save money (and the environment) by recycling containers we’re already using?

Suppose the large animal veterinarian prescribes once- or twice-daily doses of powdered or tableted methylsulfonyl-methane (MSM) or phenylbutazone (BUTE) for a horse, but the equine owner cannot be at the stables to administer all of the medication doses.

Empty prescription bottles make excellent receptacles for storing these doses in advance, so barn staffers can add the medicines to a horse’s grain at feeding times.

The pill bottles should be thoroughly washed and dried, and the original prescription labels need to be removed or covered. Ducttape works well for concealing the labels, if they are difficult to detach. And the bottles must be clearly marked with the horse’s name and dosage frequency (such as AM or PM).

The large-mouthed prescription bottles are easiest to use.

Traditional pill containers, often an opaque brown or blue, are simple to repurpose. Target’s new ClearRx bottles have tiny openings, so they are harder to manage. A funnel may be used, but many powders will tend to stick inside, making full dosing difficult.

What about larger medication and supplement doses?

Leftover lidded plastic containers, such as those in which lunch meats and deli salads are sold, make super serving-sized supplement storage options.

Essentially, any non-breakable plastic container with a tight-fitting top may be considered for this purpose, so long as it never contained anything potentially harmful to a horse and it has been completely cleaned before reuse.

Related Item/s:
45 smart ways to reuse prescription bottles

Image/s:

Horse Head graphic –

Classic Clip-Art
Target ClearRx prescription bottle
Creative Commons Licensing / Wikipedia Commons
Traditional prescription bottle
US CDC/US Government photo
Public domain

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Monday

Ride on! USMC experts and Special Forces saddle up




Gotta salute the United States Marine Corps and Army Special Forces in this new training initiative.

Special Forces personnel are saddling up for horsemanship training at the USMC Mountain Warfare Training Center in the Sierra Mountains outside of Bridgeport, California, as USA Today reports.

Marine instructors are training Army Special Forces members to ride. Participants are learning trail riding, mounted shooting, and other equestrian skills.

Many of the horses apparently are mustangs, brought in and trained by inmates and others.

They’re even taking along pack mules.

Take a look at this video footage:

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Giddy up, guys. Let’s hear it for the US Marines and Army Special Forces … and their horses!

Image/s:
Video screenshot
fair use

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Sunday

City horse, country horse, funny horses video



What happens when horses leave the countryside and take to the city? OK, maybe it’s a bit of a stretch, but I think it’s adorable and amusing and worth the watch.


Take a look at this ad, created in 2010 by Akestam Holst Agency to promote ATG – Swedish Horse Racing.

How well do you know your horses? Ever wonder what they do on their days off?

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Not sure how they pulled this off.

But, oh, what fun.


Image/s:
Video screenshot
ATG-Swedish Horse Racing
2010
 fair use

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