I'm going Primal

If I asked you, what does a lion eat? Or a bear? Or a horse? Or a shark? You could tell me. Lions eat meat. They are designed to kill and eat meat. Bears eat meat, too, but they also enjoy some plants. They are designed to be omnivores. Horses eat grass and other plants, they are herbivores and designed to eat plants. Sharks eat fish and other sea life... because... well, that's what they are designed to eat!

What are humans designed to eat? Twinkies? Ice cream? Candy? Nope. Not at all. Bread? Actually, no. Humans aren't meant to eat grains at all. In fact, horses aren't either, except for the small amount they have in seasonal times, but I'll get to that in a moment. Humans aren't meant to eat pizza (though I admit it is DELICIOUS) or pasta, or bread sticks, or cookies, or brownies, or chocolate, we aren't even meant to eat corn!

Going back to the horse thing, my pets have problems with their health, and I feed my house cat, my horse, and the dog grain free foods. My horse, grain causes excessive hotness in him, or at least, what he does manage to digest of it does. The rest passes through completely unharmed. Money for that grain right down the drain. My horse already has issues keeping his weight up because he is reactive and not a generally calm horse, this makes him hard to keep. My secret for putting weight on him? No grain. All the hay he will eat and all the grass I can give him, and then several cups every day of timothy pellets and a vitamin calmer.

The dog and cat, yes, I know what you are thinking. OF COURSE the dog and cat are grain free! Why would you feed them grain?! They eat dog and cat food right? That's meat based! ... Uhm, no. It's not. Read the label. If the first ingredient is corn meal, wheat middlings, brewers rice, or anything like that... you're feeding your dog or cat very unhealthy food.  Often it will say the first ingredient is meat, and therefore the main ingredient, but if there are 2 or 3 different types of grain products after that listed, they probably overall make up more of the food than the meat does, still. My cat and my dog are kept on Taste of the Wild Grain free food. The main product is meat, with fruits and veggies after that, which ARE healthy for them, so long as they get those in moderation.

So... I feed my animals grain free diets for their health... so why am I eating all these grains myself? I'm trying to prevent future problems and fix current ones. I'm going Primal.

Learn about Primal Blueprints here: Mark's Daily Apple

Grumpy faces

That is what I am making this morning, very grumpy faces. Today I have my "first day of work" at Wal-Mart, which really is just orientation and filling out tax forms and stuff. JOOOY. Not really. I am NOT looking forward to working here. However, I have a horse, and I will do anything to keep that horse, and to keep him healthy and happy, and if that means delaying my dreams a little while longer until I find a better barn job, then so be it. I will show up on time every day, work hard, and smile at all the customers and be polite and nice and happy, even if I'm grumping on the inside. Such is life.

And then, yesterday, I was out driving about with Devon's mom, and we passed two horse trailers for sale. They were both what looked like 2-horse trailers, one was nicer and white with nice windows and the other was more like a 2-horse stock trailer. The white one was $7000, and the other was $3500. Just another thing for me remember while I'm grumping, that hopefully I will soon be able to save up to buy a trailer to haul Siaga all over the place to.

After orientation today, I may go riding with Brenda, and if not, I'll probably come home and ride Siaga. I meant to yesterday but ended up having to help out around the house and didn't have time. D:

Anyways, another day of rest won't hurt, I suppose. :3

Compare: January to May

I know the first picture is a little difficult to see, but the bones of his hips, spine, and ribs are sticking out, and the sides of his back on either side of the spine where the saddle sits lost a lot of muscle (all of him did, actually, but it was most noticeable there) and became hollow, and now the weight tape (from today) says 932lbs (up from 890ish last time a few weeks ago) and bones can be felt easily but not really super visible. Muscle tone is coming back and improving. And then... look at that shine. This is pre-groom. This is before any brush touched him, before any fly spray. :D

Proud of how far he's come on the health scale. Anyone care to rate his body score? I'm thinking 4.5. lol

No sedation for the farrier!

Siaga got a visit from the farrier yesterday. He did really well, a little dancing around, a little pulling away, but since there was no sedative at all involved, I was so proud of him.

I had more issues than he did! I hadn't been expecting the farrier or to have to be outside so much yesterday, and it was very hot and humid. I was dehydrated, and I ended up passing out twice! Like, out cold.

First time, I felt the familiar nausea with the swimming vision and new it was coming, before I could anything Siaga jumped away and pulled the rope and woop, down I went. I woke up to the farrier trying to pull the rope out of my hands because I was holding on so tightly. I got up and thought I was ok then, and just as I changed my mind and said "I think I need something to drink," I fell again and was down for a few minutes that time, mom brought a couple glasses of water and a gatorade, and after that I was ok. Siaga took a few minutes of convincing to be certain I was ok, though. I'd try to walk around to his hindquarters to look at the bumpy patch on the back of his leg and he kept turning around to face me like "I don't want you to fall back there, mom!"

But overall, it went mostly smoothly. :)