Downeast Medal Finals

August 2019

September 12-15, 2019

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

If you have qualified for DMF 2019 and your name is in red on the points sheet, please send us your full address and email so we can send your qualifying medal! Send to katie@downeastmedalfinals.com

NEWS: Downeast Medal Finals in a partnership with the Skowhegan Fairgrounds is pleased to announce new footing in the schooling area for DMF 2019!!!

Thank you to Riitta Fortier for this awesome video countdown to the 2019 Downeast Medal Finals!

Avoiding a Hay Belly - Weight Control

By Gina T. at the Horse Feed Blog

I’ve often heard, ‘my horse has a hay belly, what should I do differently?’ Or,” he’s really big in the belly but he doesn’t have good muscles.” Apart from a broodmare belly, post-colic surgery effects or a parasite situation, the answer sounds like a nutritional imbalance. The good news is, once you know what a nutritional imbalanced hay belly is and what causes it, you can make adjustments in your program and avoid it in the future.

What does it look like?

Have you ever seen a young or growing horse with a big belly while the rest of their body looks small? Or a mature horse that has a midsection that hangs low, while ribs are visible and muscles along the back and hindquarter are hard to find? How about the ‘pregnant gelding’ situation? All of these are describing a hay belly. On a regular basis, you should conduct a body condition score on your horse to check for muscle mass as well as appropriate fat deposition in key areas. It’s important to check all areas indicated, since a rib or belly check alone doesn’t provide all the information.

What causes it?

When too many low-value calories are consumed without adequate protein (including essential amino acids), the body stores the calories as energy in cells yet the needed protein isn’t available to maintain muscle mass. In the absence of adequate protein, muscles atrophy while stored energy increases. Over time, a hay belly emerges as muscle mass over the top is lost and gut size may expand.

The biggest factor is overfeeding fiber high in Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) while under feeding adequate levels of quality protein. NDF is a measurement of cell wall content in plants such as grasses. As the plant matures, it builds up stronger cell walls so that it may hold itself upright. The stronger these walls, the less digestible these cells are for a horse. So when fed very mature hay, your horse is less able to digest that hay, as compared to hay with a lower NDF value (less mature). In addition to being higher in NDF, the grasses also tend to be lower in the quality proteins; important nutrients for developing and maintaining muscles.

How to prevent a hay belly:

First, feed the best quality hay that you can find in the correct amount for your horse’s body weight, age and activity level. The hay that is smooth and ‘leafy’ tends to have levels of NDF that are better for the horse to digest. Hay that is pointy to the touch or looks like it’s a green version of straw should be avoided as it simply offers little nutritional value for the horse.

How do I get rid of a hay belly if my horse has one?

First, check the quality and quantity of hay your horse is eating. If the quality is adequate, then it’s time to reevaluate the quantity fed. A horse should be fed 1.0-1.75 pounds/100 pounds of body weight of hay per day. Not a fan of math? Yea, me neither. Here’s a quick answer: for a horse weighing 1,000 pounds, that would be between 10-17.5 pounds of hay each day, ideally divided into 2 or even 3 feedings. Check to be sure you’re not inadvertently overfeeding, or underfeeding if your horse is actually bigger than 1,000 lbs. Learn to estimate your horse’s weight accurately here.

The last piece of the puzzle is feed. Make sure that the concentrate you provide is offering adequate quality protein. Total protein alone can’t support or develop ideal muscles. The right balance of amino acids is needed to build and maintain muscle quantity and quality. Look for feeds that guarantee levels of Lysine, Methionine and Threonine. These three key amino acids are the most important for your horse. And lastly, check to be sure you’re feeding the appropriate amount of concentrate. Feeding a balanced diet and adding some exercise to help develop muscle mass and tighten up that tummy is a great way to reclaim that belly!

Source: https://www.horsefeedblog.com/category/weight-control/

Get to Know- Posie Price

The 2018 Junior Medal Final at the 10th anniversary Downeast Medal Finals was won by Posie Price. In this Get to Know series, we will be highlighting the champions of our 2018 Medal Finals classes as well as our 2018 Hunter Derbies. Here is what Posie had to say:

"Hi! I’m Posie Price from Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I am 16 years old, and I have been riding for the past 11 years. I first started riding at a summer camp near my house. After I begged them, my parents reluctantly agreed to let me take weekly lessons that fall. This quickly turned into riding multiple times a week and eventually showing. My first time at Downeast Medal Finals was anything but successful, as I hit the dirt multiple times. However, the supportive staff and inviting atmosphere made me eager to come back. This past year, I headed to Downeast Medal Finals with my lease horse Champ. This was our first year together and his first time at Downeast Medal Finals. My trainer Stephanie Plaisted paired us together the winter before and we had shown that summer.

He was the perfect horse to move up on and we immediately began to figure each other out. Winning the Downeast Junior Medal was special for me because I have been coming to this show for many years. It was wonderful to experience it with the support of my teammates, trainer, and family. This year, Champ and I are working to continue improving in and out of the show ring. I look forward to being back at Downeast Medal Finals this fall!"

We would like to thank Meader Supply and Townsend's Trailer Sales for their generous sponsorship and continued support of the Downeast Medal Finals.

Meader Supply

Meader Supply was created in the 80’s because our community had a need for quality driving supplies and we believed we could help fill this need. We may have begun as a draft supply store, but as our community has evolved we have continued to listen to requests, trying to fill in the gaps for what people couldn’t find. We still have a large inventory of draft and driving supplies, but we are also proud to be expanding our riding inventory as well. We have welcomed Professional’s Choice, Shires, Mountain Horse, Kerrits, Irideon, Buccas, Toklat, Tipperary, Phoenix Protective Products, Wintec, Bates, Arena Saddles, and so many more in the recent months. Here at Meader Supply we are a family, and we are all proud to be an ever-evolving retail location, constantly striving to please and give back to our community.

Townsend's Trailer Sales

Year round you will find an impressive number of new and used Exiss trailers on premises to meet all of your trailering needs. We welcome people to come and visit our facilities, whether to browse our region’s leading Exiss trailer dealership to experience Mike Townsend’s renowned exceptional customer service, or to have Dick Townsend help you find your new horse and partner, to taking lessons to improve your riding and horse care skills with Kim Chadbourne, to enjoy a visit with some of our beautiful animals in a welcoming facility where you will find Jeff Townsend our barn and grounds manager, taking meticulous care of the grounds and our fifty horses on site; our family would love to have you. Show special: $250 off of any bumper pull trailer bought at the show or with deposit.

At Townsend’s Training Farm, summer is the time for trail riding and the show season is in full swing. As a family run business, we are proud to have such wonderful and loyal boarders, students and customers. We celebrated our farm’s bicentennial last summer! Seeing multiple generations of a family fall in love with horses is an experience we truly cherish. We were lucky enough to have our farm’s rich history showcased on a segment of NH’s Chronicle - WMUR with Suzanne Roantree, highlighting our family’s hard work and dedication. Recently over the past few years, our farm has had the opportunity to host multiple groups and events at our facilities; from holding our own annual horse trailer sale, to welcoming the NH Governor’s Horse Guard to practice for their upcoming events, to hosting the New England 4H Judges School with multiple volunteers and handlers to assist; to donating our grounds for some of the local NH High School Equestrian team shows, as well as the New Hampshire Quarter Horse Association for their annual Open show. Contact us if you would like to use our facilities for your next event! We enjoy seeing what everyone in our community is accomplishing.