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I know I've talked a lot about poop lately, and I promise this should be the last post for at least a few weeks on that topic (oh, Lord, let it be longer), but I do have some final (for now) thoughts. My one big take away from this recent round of tummy trouble is that one size does not fit all horses. I am not just talking about gastric supplements either. If you've been reading for any length of time at all (thank you by the way), you'll know that I do my best to be honest. I don't sugar coat things, but I am a silver lining, glass half full kind of gal which means I tend to look for the positives in even the worst of situations. While I don't have all of the answers, I do share my opinions, especially when it comes to equine health care. Which is why I've been talking about poop.  Last dose for a while - I hope. When I finally saw that Izzy's tummy troubles needed a new solution and found the GastroElm, I pledged to give it to him every day for the rest of his life. That strategy ultimately backfired when the product turned out to be too much of a good thing. It also reaffirmed for me that there is no singularly correct way to care for our equine family members. You've read all the articles: No Blanket Ever, Blanket All the Time. Barefoot is Best, Shod Hooves for Working Horses. No Injections, All of the injections. And on and on and on. Given how politically divided Americans are these days, it's no surprise that we apply the my way is the only way mentality to caring for a living creature.  For the Mandalorian lovers out there. I've had horses for 40 years, and in all that time I have learned that there is no one right way to do things. There is no one right way to do things for the same horse. One month Izzy needs GastroElm, and the next he doesn't. Izzy has shoes on the front, but he's barefoot in the back. Blanketing him only happens when there is a perfect storm of wind, rain, and low temperatures, all of which almost never happen at the same time where we live.
I may offer advice - usually only if asked, but it tends be of the well, one thing that has worked for me is ... type. Your milage may vary; I know mine sure does. With horses, my solution doesn't preclude yours from also being right. We all have so much good experience - some of it learned the hard way, that it seems a shame to disregard an idea just because it's not how you've always done it. If you think one size fits all, get a horse. Am I right, or am I right? This time, I'll try to spare you the photos of Izzy's poop. No guarantees, but I'll try. Here's a quick poop recap:
 GastroElm goop. I looked at the calendar and saw that Sunday was to be the return of the GastroElm. Coincidence or proof of efficacy? My plan had been to give Izzy a 4 week break and then put him back on it based on need. I guess he needs it. Further proof was that after just the first dose, his poop firmed back up by the very next day. My new strategy is to give the GastroElm one week out of every month. This is that week.
Hopefully I can adjust the schedule so that he either gets it the first week of the month or the last. Three weeks off, one week on is a bit harder to keep track of when the week starts on the 20th of the month and the 17th on the next month. Before I make any hard and fast rules though, I'll see how it goes this week. Maybe I'll discover that he only needs 2 or 3 doses to firm his poop back up rather than a full week. See no poop pictures! You're welcome. You knew it wasn't going to be fire; that would be weird and scary. And since you know me pretty well, you know that poop is not something I shy away from discussing. There's so much to love about it. A few weeks ago, Izzy's body worker suggested I take Izzy off the GastroElm for a while to see if that would firm his poop back up. If you'll remember, Izzy's poop was perpetually ploppy like mashed potatoes, and it was really sour smelling. Within a week after taking him off the Gastro Elm, the smell had disappeared, and his poop started to take shape. Oh, my goodness, you should see it now!  It is now well formed in distinct balls. It's still a wee bit soft, and no balls are rolling away as they land, but there are actually completely formed BALLS. Gross, I know, but when your buddy has pooped green mashed potatoes for the past five months, soft balls are something to cheer about.
Obviously, the Gastro Elm, while still a great product, is too much of a good thing. I love a glass of whiskey every now and then, but that doesn't mean I need to drink it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't plan on giving up on the Gastro Elm, but I see now that it is best left for high stress situations. Izzy probably doesn't need a daily maintenance dose. Cheaper for me, so we'll see how it goes. Maybe in another week we'll actually have poop balls that roll! I know poop is gross, and talking about it is also gross, but when you own horses, poop is just part of life. A week or so ago, I wrote about giving Izzy a break from the Gastro Elm, a product that I really like. As of this weekend, it seems that I made the right call.  I know this is a funky topic, and what I am going to describe next definitely falls under the category of TMI, but here goes. The first thing I started to check for was the sour smell that had wafted from Izzy's hind end. Every time he lifted his tail, I dashed to his hind end and took a whiff much like a sommelier might do over fine bottle of wine. I even did that little hand wave to direct the bouquet more directly toward my olfactory receptors. To my surprise, it only took a day or two for the sour smell to disappear. On Friday afternoon, I saw Izzy's tail go up, so I dropped everything and made a mad dash to his newly deposited poop pile. I leaned as close to the top of the pile as I could while being careful not to actually touch it with my nose and inhaled deeply. No one on planet earth has ever given a more satisfied grunt of approval as I did over that steaming pile of poo. It was nearly odorless!  It's getting firmer! While Izzy's poop still isn't as solid as it should be, it is definitely moving in the right direction. It's also losing it's yellow-green color. Horses who eat alfalfa will have bright green poop - Speedy's is the color of grass. Izzy's poop was chartreuse, a greenish-yellow that is not alfalfa green. Given that he eats grass hay, his poop should be brown out the gate. It isn't. The photo below, while not chartreuse, does show the formless mass that it has been until this past week.  Mashed potato poop. So, in just one week, the odor has disappeared, the color is improving, and the texture is getting firmer by the day. By the end of week two, I should have a better feel for what his stomach and hind gut are doing. If his gut can can find a better equilibrium, I'll know that the GastroElm might best be saved for use when traveling and showing.
If I were throwing dice, I'd be yelling, come on brown poop! Most readers will know that Izzy struggles with tension. He's so tense and worried that he gives himself a sour tummy. A little over a year ago, he had a minor colic. Before that event, I had tried numerous attempts at soothing his tummy including a month long experiment with Ulcer Guard. I've talked to my vet about it, and we've done all of the things - free choice hay, 24 hour a day turn out, vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, magnesium, and on and on. After the minor colic, I finally found a product that soothed his tummy; Gastro Elm.  The GastroElm worked so well that by the end of the first month, Izzy had gained a hundred pounds, the tenderness at his flanks disappeared, and his poop was once again falling in satisfying balls. I bought another bag. At the end of that bag, I started buying two bags at a time. It worked so well that I was all in. I determined that Izzy would get a dose every day for the rest of his life. For the first month, he was getting at least two doses a day. After six weeks, I put him on the maintenance dose of one tablespoon per day. Sometime in the fall, his poop started to get sloppy again. My job got crazy busy in September which I wasn't at the ranch every day, so he wasn't getting a dose every day. I chalked the sloppy poop up to the missed doses. Through November and December, his poop ranged from cow pies to super soft balls that looked more like mash potatoes than equine road apples. By January, his poop had started to stink. All poop stinks of course, but horse poop has a "good" stink. The stink Izzy was pooping out was anything but good, It smelled sour and reminded me of the smell of bile and vomit. So gross. I really didn't know what to do about it. He has been gaining weight all winter and his coat looks pretty good. It's not fabulous, but he also started shedding so he's in that molting stage where he looks a bit mangy with patches that have shed and others that haven't.  Shiny up front, not so much behind. When CC, Izzy's body worker, came out this past weekend, we got to chatting about the weird, sour smell Izzy was emitting when he pooped or farted. CC told me that he has since put several of his own horses on GastroElm after seeing what it had done for Izzy over the past year. Recently, though, one of his mares hasn't been looking as shiny as she should be, and an old skin irritation has returned, all of which prompted him to wonder if the GastroElm might be too much of a good thing. His plan is to take his horses off of it for a few weeks and reintroduce it. He suggested giving it for ten days and then taking the horse off of it for twenty days to see what happened. In Izzy's case, he wondered if the ingredients, Slippery Elm, Marshmallow Root, and a few other herbs, might be altering Izzy's gut flora too much. Horses and humans all need the microorganisms, predominantly bacteria, that populate our intestines. Getting rid of all the bacteria can cause diarrhea. According to GastroElm's website: It forms a smooth gel that acts almost like an internal bandage when mixed with water. It coats and soothes the stomach and digestive tract to help the animal feel better very quickly. Slippery elm soothes and lubricates the mucous membranes that line the digestive tract. That makes it an excellent treatment for ulcers, gastritis, colitis and other inflammatory bowel problems. It’s high in fiber, which helps normalize intestinal action. I know it works because for the first three or four months that Izzy was on it, he looked and felt better. Now, he's still gaining weight, but his poop and the odor that comes with it seem to suggest he might need a break. So, over the weekend I pulled the GastroElm from his diet. My plan is to give him a three to four week break, watching for any changes in the odor or texture of his poop. I'll make changes based on what I see.  I know that GastroElm is a great product, and I will continue using it. In fact, two new bags arrived the other day. It seems that a dose a day for the rest of Izzy's life might have been a bit of overkill. I'll see what happens in a couple of weeks, and then I'll use it more on an as needed basis.
Apparently, too much of a good thing can be bad. Who knew? |
About the Writer and RiderI am a lifelong rider.
I began endurance riding in 1996 where I ultimately completed five, one-day 100 mile races, the 200-mile Death Valley Encounter, and numerous other 50, 65, and 75 mile races. I began showing dressage in 2010. Welcome to my dressage journey. 
Photo by Lori Ovanessian
About Speedy GSpeedy went from endurance horse to dressage horse. After helping me earn a USDF Bronze medal in the summer of 2020, he is now semi-retired. Speedy is a 2004, 15'1 hand, purebred Arabian gelding. His Arabian Horse Registry name is G Ima Starr FA.
July 2020 (PC AJSK Photography)
About IzzyIzzy was started as a four-year old and then spent the next 18 months in pasture growing up. I bought him as a six-year old, and together, we are showing at the lower levels. He is a 2008, 16'3 hand warmblood gelding. His Rheinland Pfalz-saar International (RPSI) name is Imperioso.
March 2021 (PC Tess Michelle Photography)
FOR THE SMALLER EQUINE ATHLETE
I love her stuff!
Watercolor Artist and Friend
Bakersfield Dressage approved!
National Rider Awards
USDF Bronze Medal - 2020
USDF Second Level Rider Performance Award - 2018
USDF First Level Rider Performance Award - 2015
USDF Training Level Rider Performance Award - 2013
State Rider Awards
CDS Ruby Rider Award - 2018
State Horse Awards
Speedy G - 3rd Level Horse Performance Award - 2020
Speedy G - 2nd Level Horse Performance Award - 2018
Working Towards:
CDS Sapphire Rider Award Third Level: 63.514% Third Level: 62.105% Fourth Level: Fourth Level: 2022 Show Season
Show Rating (***) CDS/USDF/USEF (*) CDS (s) Schooling (c) Clinic (r) Ride-a-Test Clinic (Q) Must Qualify 2022 Shows Schedule
(*) Tehachapi 5/22/22 2022 Completed … Pending ... 2022 Qualifying Scores
Regional Adult Amateur Competition (RAAC) Qualifying 2 Scores/1 Judges/60%: Score 1: Score 2: Archives
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