eye candy? for jenni - Page 12

I'm also on the fence about vaccinations. I've known three horses that have died from vaccine reactions. None owned by me, but horses I was closely associated with. One just broke my heart. I had worked with Elsie for a year...the owner wanted to use her as a lesson horse eventually ( for more advanced riders). We had built a very strong bond and she was progressing nicely...I was very proud of my tiny little Arab girl. :) Arabians have such unique personalities, it's easy to get attached, even if you don't own the horse. She was a little spitfire, full of life and potential. And then one day, she was gone. Sudden and fatal vaccine reaction. Couldn't even look at Arabians for years after.

For the race horses we are required to have a coggins test done and that is the extent of it.  
I've never  vaccinated my personal horses, and have never had any problems.

Tetanus? No?

The broodmares are given Tetanus, and I can't remember about the foals, maybe they are too, I'll have to check into that. :)

I don't vaccinate my horses. My show horse has EPM. He was owned by a vet tech.  You can imagine how much he was vaccinated!!! I would guess he even had the EPM vaccine while it was available. EPM is an immune problem- most horses coming in contact with sarcocystis neurona, the most common cause, don't get EPM. Why do some? What's wrong with their immune system? ALL the horses I know with EPM were regularly vaccinated, regularly chemically dewormed, etc. because they were either boarded at a barn that required it or they were showing. 

My older horse is fine, an ex field-trialer who lived as horses should, out on a lot of land, drank out of a stream. My Friesian is au natural, totally clean.  That was part of my desire to get a weanling, besides not having 2million euros lying around. I wanted a clean start. No shoes, no shots, no sickness. ;-)

The vet gave me a lot of grief and actually made me feel like an idiot for even considering not giving vaccinations, then my mare had that allergic reaction ..We even used some "new better" vaccine that was suppose to have an even less chance of reaction.. 

 My horses should start showing in May and show until October. They are exposed to lots of horses that travel to shows all around the country. They are boarded in public stalls at the shows as well..This is a very hard to decision to make. Damned if you do and damned if you don't..

 Does anyone presently have actively showing horses that travel and are exposed to lots of other horses that DO NOT vaccinate??? And have made this a practice for a while..???a while 

RS,,Do your personal horses travel?..Are they exposed to other horses and boarding stalls??..

Deanna, it's really easy to decide if you don't believe vaccines prevent illness. And if you look at most of the things horses are vaccinated for and research the type vaccines they are, convincing yourself they don't even work is really easy. 

Magical thinking can be scarey. Just be careful.

I would vacccinate a horse for tetanus if nothing else.