Downeast Medal Finals

April 2023

Presented by Dover Saddlery

September 14-17, 2023

Visit our website for more information about Downeast. We welcome all feedback and suggestions: please email Ginger at ginger@downeastmedalfinals.com

Message from the President

Spring is slowly starting to appear, in between some snow events for sure, but the longer warmer days are welcome. Here in Maine I think we may be in our 3rd or 4th mud season, hopefully our last until next year!

The show calendar is filling up, and April is starting to get busy starting with 4/16 Evenstride, 4/22 SeaHorse Stables, 4/29 Seacoast Show Series and finishing up with Lucky Clover on the 30th. We hope to see you at one of these great shows, thank you for hosting our classes. If you would like to host the classes please fill out an application at the hosting tab on our website.

Thank you to Dover Saddlery as our presenting sponsor, MIPR for once again sponsoring the live feed and the 18” Derby, Copious Solutions, American National, The Foster Agency, Mill Pond, Diamond Hill, Meader Supply, EquiFit, Stoney Brook Landscaping Tipperary Equestrian, Absorbine, C4, CWD, Poulin Grain, BTB, West Neck, the family of Charles K Thayer, the Betsy Guistra family, Sunset Flowerland, The Horse’s Maine and NH, SeaHorse Stables, Lucky Clover Stables, Redingote, Nutrena, SmartPak for your generous support of DMF 2023. This show needs your support so please take a minute to send an email to Ginger and find out your options for sponsorship. Everything helps us to provide our riders with the best experience that we can offer.

Team Challenge News: We will have an open draw of all entrants for spots on our 6 teams made up of 4 riders each. Please enter the class on your entry blanks, we will post the riders/teams at the show on Friday per the specs in the prize list.

We hope that you are enjoying and learning from the various articles in our newsletter. A majority of the questions for the Horsemanship exam will come from these. If there is a topic that you would like to see covered please let us know.

I hope that everyone enjoys a fun and rewarding show season. Riders up!!!

Best,

Ginger

The Stages of Wound Healing

If you know the stages of normal wound healing you'll be better able to recognize when your horse's injury needs veterinary intervention. Here are the basics.

Wounds that are stitched closed are said to heal by “first intention.” The edges of the wound are brought and held together with sutures and will immediately begin to link together with new cells to repair the area. You won’t be able to see the work the body is doing below the surface of the sutured skin, but rest assured it’s happening.

For those wounds that cannot be sutured and are left to open, the process is called “second intention healing.” You’ll be able to observe the three phases of this type of healing with each bandage change:

Granulation: During this phase, the body fills any tissue defect below the level of the skin surface with granulation tissue, which is primarily a mix of blood vessels and collagen. Bumpy and red or reddish yellow, granulation tissue fills the depths of the wound first then works its way to the surface. Granulation tissue in a wound is a sign that healing is occurring.

Epithelization: This phase of wound healing begins after granulation tissue has filled the entire wound defect. At that point, new skin cells—called epithelial cells—begin to form at the edges of the wound and spreading across the new bed of granulation tissue to meet each other in the center. You’ll recognize epithelial cells as the pinkish looking rim around the granulation tissue of healing wound. Epithelial cells can only move laterally, not up or down, which is a consequential limitation; The wound-healing complication known as proud flesh occurs when granulation tissue rises above the edge of the wound, preventing epithelial cells from covering it.

Contraction: This phase overlaps with epithelization and is what ultimately reduces the size of the wound. Muscle fibers within granulation tissue contract as the defect is full, pulling the edges of the wound together. When healing is uninterrupted, this happens quickly, with some equine wounds, literally, shrinking overnight.

Find the original article at Equus.

MIPR Corp

Thank you to MIPR for sponsoring Downeast Medal Finals!

Maine Industrial P&R Corp. is a Maine owned and operated company proud to be one of the many sponsors of Downeast Medal Finals.

MIPR Corp. has been supplying the agricultural industry with new and used conveyor belts for over 35 years. Many customers include ranchers and farmers using conveyor belts to line corrals, trailers, stalls, and aisles, as well as using conveyor belts in custom feed troughs.

Visit the MIPR website at www.miprcorp.com or call 1-800-540-1846 for more information on how they can provide a quality product delivered in a timely manner.

MIPR sponsored our first year of livestream in 2019 and have sponsored it since, including 2023! Thank you so much for your continued support of DMF!