Team up with RBE's new Wellness Program for Performance horses to make sure your animals are ready for the rapidly approaching show season.  Call the office for more information (253) 858-4529

Disclaimer.... these ideas were collected from the internet.  We may not have tried them ourselves but thought they were interesting.  Thinking out of the box is always interesting, what ideas do you have to share??

Home made fly spray: Witch hazel, Apple Cider Vinegar, Water, and your choice of these oils: citronella, eucalyptus, lavender, clove, lemongrass, rosemary, tea tree, cedar, catnip, or mint. Works amazingly well! And no toxic chemicals!

Head N Shoulders shampoo, supposed to work on rain rot, cannon crud. Listerine, Desitin, use for thrush.

Large white cotton athletic socks (tube socks) with the toes cut off to protect against scratches. With one turn of elasticon around the hoof and a polo to hold it in place it protects against scratches especially in winter.  Already have scratches?  use anti fungal shampoo and that blue stuff and leave the socks on in the stall without the polo. They are breathable so it's a perfect solution to keep the flies off their legs and allow them to heal.

Coconut oil, spectacular for getting out pine tar or creosote...great on hoofs, manes n tails....also vinegar great as a diluted after bath rinse (cuts soap residue and is (mildly) antimicrobial), also a cleaning agent for buckets etc and can be used as a (leg) brace.

Clean buckets with a mixture of apple cider vinegar, baking soda and peroxide. Add a little of each, then water, then scrub. Leaves water buckets fresh with no toxic remnants.

Try straight apple cider vinegar for fly spray and wipe.

An old bra works nicely to create a cup around an eye that needs to be blocked from sun. Cut cup off and hand sew to fly mask. Duct tape inside fly mask works great too but have had them itch at it and remove tape getting it stuck on their face.

Thermometers always seem to get lost at the bottom of the vet box, so I buy one of those 1 dollar big brightly colored plastic toothbrush holders at the big box store to keep it in.

If my horse isn't drinking water, such as when traveling and getting water from a different source, lemon lime Gatorade powder gets him drinking. In cold weather, warm water helps too, and then instead of Gatorade, I will rip open a few mint tea bags and empty into the bucket of warm water.

Hint; experiment with this at home to find out what "flavoring" your horse might like.

Fig Newton cookies are the best way to give ur horse even the nastiest pills. Just shove them in the figgy part and they can't resist!

Use Maxi pads for wound dressings!

Although it seems rampant across our culture right now, intentionally fake, inadvertently misleading or simply erroneous news has plagued the horse industry for a very long time.  Now, as always, it is extremely important to check the validity of your sources.  Rumor might make a tantalizing story but science can be documented and when it comes to the health of your animals, science based information should always be your primary resource.  

So what’s a busy person to do about this fact checking business?  Know your sources!  Respect your own reputation.  Don’t be the source of bad information by passing along stories and inaccurate information as fact.  Rumor is not all bad, it can circulate interesting anecdotes (personal experiences) that might lead to useful truths via more in depth investigation.  ASK QUESTIONS, don’t believe everything you hear.  Establish trusted sources, experts in their field, with track records of delivering solid information.  Our goal at Rocky Bay Equine is to be your trusted resource for health care information.  We want to help you become experts about your own animals and therefore their best advocates.  Good health care is a team event, the more we know and share science based, verifiable information the better stewards we are to our animal companions. We work hard to stay up to date in our field of veterinary medicine.  It’s a lot of ground to cover but we are committed to our own continuing education in order to provide the best possible service to you and your animals… because it truly is “the love of animals” that inspires us.