Turmeric - fad or fact?

 

My horse Fred has ringbone arthritis and has to get steroid injections once a year. The last time I got xrays to see how far it's degenerated since first diagnosed. The vet said hardly anything if at all, which was fantastic news!

I remember when he was first diagnosed, I was devastated. I knew very little about ringbone, but I did remember reading about it for BHS exams. He got his injections and was still lame after. I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to do anything more than hack him out. I gave him two weeks off after the injections and brought him back in. Just hacking about. Then we started doing a bit more flat. We tried a bit of TREC as I thought it'd be nice and easy for him. Not realising how long we'd be out on the road hacking! It was great though, I really enjoyed it and ended up coming 3rd in their league 😀

A week later we went to a hunter trial to bring a young girl around in her first pre novice course. We ended up doing the novice course and leading a horse around it, we went clear and had a ball! So he came fully sound again -thank f***!

But, the thing is minding him. One of the most important things is that he is properly shod and you really need to have a good relationship with your farrier, luckily for me, I bought him off my farrier so he had a vested interest. We tried various different types of shoes. He now has quarter clips on his front shoes.

The first year I used Cortaflex HA, which is crazy expensive, and I can't say I noticed whether or not it made a difference (if only they could actually speak to us!!). Then I changed to MaxaVita Maxa Flex, this wasn't anywhere I could find in Ireland, so I imported it from the UK. 

Now, if I'm honest, I'm pretty lazy. Not out and out lazy, I muck out, I do all the hardships with the horses but if I can convince someone else to do something for me, or use someone else's research I will ( not for the blog!). For instance, this year I wanted to start using a balancer as feed, I went to all the feed people in the RDS and asked all the relevant questions, then I looked at what I could get locally. I tried two different ones to start with. But then a friend told me about another one which had a lot of great stuff in it, so I went with that (she'd probably put more thought into it than me). It's a bit harder for me to get, but not out and out hard.

Same with Turmeric. Tack 'n tails had spoken to me in length about turmeric and the benefits of it. I had only really half listened, but I joined the group on FB ( where people seemed to talk about their dead dogs that they used it for). Increasingly I warmed towards it and wanted to give it a try. At the time I also had a yard and was minding other horses, one of whom had sweet itch. So I started giving Global herbs Turmeric to her and to Fred. It's already got black pepper mixed in it, so you can just feed it straight. Now I definitely think it made a difference to the horse with sweet itch. With Fred, I couldn't be sure. Also, note to self, don't feed it the morning you are doing lightweight hunter ( learned that the hard way!!).

When Brexit hit, I decided ok, I'll buy turmeric powder and make my own paste (again, not available in Ireland). So, I did. And about 3 months later I finally made the paste! Last night I finally made my 2nd batch - again months later! And that's what spurred this post.

Is turmeric fad or fact? Does it work for you (human) or your horse? I hope to be more consistent at feeding it to find out if I notice any differences. Cu Chulainn will be getting it too, just because it's there and it should benefit him in some ways. Have you used it? How did you find it? I'm trying to convince my dad to take it too. In fact, I may need some of it myself! I wonder if it prevents arthritis? Tack 'n tails swears by it, so I trust her opinions -in some matters only 😂😂

For now............watch this space!! And please let me know how you find it 😀