Hello everyone, my name is Katie Kotz and I am the Equine & Lifestyle Specialist at Three Rivers. Three Rivers is a cooperative in Eastern Iowa and the location that I work out of is the Town & Country Store in Epworth. I began as an intern in May 2006 while I was a student at Iowa State University and after graduation I accepted a full time position with Three Rivers. One of my main responsibilities is working with local horse owners to establish feeding programs for their animals that will improve health and performance.Over the past few years Three Rivers Town & Country has been involved with the Dubuque Regional Humane Society through donations, events that they have hosted, and even events that other organizations have hosted to support them. Jane McCall has also been a friend of mine for many years...we used to team pen together over in Hazel Green!
On Tuesday, Setpember 22, 2009 Jane contacted me to tell me about a horse that the Humane Society recently rescued. She told me that it was a 4 or 5 year old horse that has been severally neglected and was in need of some serious TLC. Jane informed me that she already contacted my father, Kevin, to ask if our family would be willing to foster the horse and today she was calling me to see if Three Rivers would be willing to help feed the animal. I told Jane that I would love to help her out but I would need
to get it cleared by Dale Hefel, our Operations Manager, first and I would also talk to Fran Minnaert with Land O'Lakes Purina to see what he could do to help us out! After some sweet talking and explaining the story to Dale and Fran they both agreed that Three Rivers and Purina would jump in to help save the day!(Pictured: Fran Minnaert)
Well, now that we had the support from Three Rivers and our partner, Purina (Fran Minnaert, you're the greatest!), we just had to wait to see if my Dad could clear it by my mother, Janell, to become a foster parent. Most of you know my Mother but for those of you that don't my Mom has a huge soft spot for animals...this was not going to be a hard sell! Only one thing had to be made clear to my Mom....We are ONLY going to be foster parents and then the horse will have to be put up for adoption and will someday go to another loving home! (Ok, I admit I have to be reminded of that fact too!) As you can probably guess I called Jane McCall the next day to let her know the good news:
1. The Kotz family will foster the horse.
2. Three Rivers and Purina will help feed her
(The Kotz Family: Kevin, Janell, Katie, Jacob)
****************************************************
You have probably noticed that this whole time that I have talked about this horse I never called her by a name....that's because no one knew her name! She needed to be given one! Again, if you don't know my Mom let me tell you that she loves thinking up names of animals, especially horses! You should have heard her when we were trying to name Hank! Oh, and that wasn't the name she gave him...he came with it and it just stuck, much to her dismay! She always said, and still does actually, that Hank is no name for a horse...too bad! When my mom heard about the horse she immediately started thinking up names, the first name she came up with was Lola...Lots of Love (no word for the 'a' yet in this acronym). I really liked this name but I asked her what she thought about coming up with a few names and maybe we could have the Blog followers vote on a name. Here is a list of some of the names she came up with:
Just in case any of you lost track of our dates, it is only one day after this whole adventure began with Jane's phone call...it is Wednesday, September 23. During the day I talked to Aimee Dix with the Humane Society to set up a time when she could bring the mare over to my family's home; we set up a time of 6:00 pm. Well, before the mare came I did make a phone call to a good friend of mine, Danyn Maroney. Danyn is a very energetic woman with a passion for horses and has two daughters with the same passion for them, not to mention a loving husband who supports her! I knew that she would want to know about this new adventure coming to the "Kotz Hotel" (that's what Danyn likes to call our home). When I told her about the mare and its situation her heart went out to it...I had asked her if she would like to take part in this project with me. I asked her if she would be willing to come out and just give the horse the TLC it needs and deserves....to no surprise Danyn said yes!
There were a few preperations that needed to be made before the mare came to our home, the biggest one was to be sure that there was clean fresh water, a clean feed bunk for hay and grain, and a sign...Our family wanted to be sure that there was a way to make sure that folks passing by the house would
know that the horse was a Rescue Animal from the Humane Society. So before the horse arrived my Dad found a piece of wood and got some black paint from the shop and made a te
temporary sign until a nicer one could be made. This should have been an easy task but our cat Scrapper was not making it easy...he kept wanting to walk across the board! Just what we need, cat prints on the sign! Luckily, Scrapper only walked across it once and actually managed to miss the wet paint as he did so!
Shortly after 6:00 pm Aimee and her husband Jeff arrived with the horse. When I went around the back of the trailer I could see just the top line of the animal; I knew it was a bad situation fro
m the photos they sent me but it wasn't until then that I realized just how bad it was. We took the horse out and lead it into the pen that would become her new home. I was still in amazement that the horse even had enough energy to walk from point A to point B! You could see every bone in her body, her topline was gone, her neck was thin, you could feel her breast bone but she had a soft kind eye. I think she knew she was coming to a new home that was going to give her the attention she deserved. At the same time Danyn and her friend arrived to welcome
the horse. Both of them were just as shocked at the state of the animal. How could anyone ever let her get to this point? But that is in the past and what matters now is getting her healthy. The first step with that was getting her feet trimmed. Luckily Aimee is also a farrier and owns her own business, AJ Farrier Service, so she volunteered her services and trimmed the mare up.
We are now back to the naming delemia....we were all standing there just calling this horse, 'Mare'. She needed a name. I told everyone about the name my Mom came up with, Lola and what it stood for...Lots of Love. But what does the 'a' stand for?? My Dad called my Mom to ask her. With the help of her sister, Bev, they came up with the acronymn 'Lots of Love Always'. We all started calling her Lola and it fit! So now our new foster mare has a name...Lola.
Eventually our other horses realized that there was a new addition at the Kotz Hotel and they all came running up to greet her at the fence. Let me tell you it was quite the greeting...just so happens that Lola is in heat and our geldings found this to be very interesting! Once the excitement subsided we got Lola her feed for the evening. Some grass hay and a small amount of Purina Equine Senior. You maybe wondering why only a small amount Equine Senior and why Equine Senior? She is only 5 years old!
First, we are feeding only a small amount of the "grain" portion of her diet because Lola's
digestive system is fragil at the moment and is not used to such a nutrient rich diet. It will be very important that we slowly introduce her to the feed. Second, we are starting Lola out on Purina Equine Senior because it has some really nice roughage built into it and will make it easily digestable for her. As she progresses through her feeding program we will eventually switch to either (Purina) Strategy or Omolene 200. In the next few days I will post Lola's feeding program so that way you can also keep track of how we feed a horse in this type of situation.
Last night Lola received her grass hay plus about a 1/2 of pound of Equine Senior. This morning when I fed her she was given the same diet. In the afternoon I will be going back out to visit Lola to provide her with more hay and around 5:00 pm she will get her evening feeding of another 1/2 pound of Equine Senior and hay. Over the next couple weeks we will slowly work Lola up to a higher feeding rate...in the next few months she is going to be a whole new horse!
You may be wondering how much Lola weighs and I will soon post her weight and will continue to do a weekly report on her weight and body condition score. What is body condition score (BCS)? BCS is a scale that we use to determine the overal condition of an animal by looking at specific areas on the body where fat deposits. These areas include:
1. Along the neck
2. Along withers
3. Crease down the back
4. Tailhead
5. Ribs
6. Behind the shoulder
BCS needs to be done by feeling the horse. Once you palpate (feel) the horse you can place the horse on the scale from 1 to 9. A score of one means the horse is 'poo' or severally emaciated and a score of nine means that the animal is extremely fat. Both extremes are not healthy. A healthy score is between a 4.5 to a 6.5, depending on the lifestlye of the animal. Our goal with Lola is to get her to a BCS of a 5. Currently Lola is a score of 1. A decription of a 1 is:
Lola (Lots of Love)
Kira
Spirit
Checkers (Purina Board)
Liberty
Bailey
Belle
Echo
Sophie
JoJo
Diamond (In the Rough)
Lady
Kira
Spirit
Checkers (Purina Board)
Liberty
Bailey
Belle
Echo
Sophie
JoJo
Diamond (In the Rough)
Lady
Just in case any of you lost track of our dates, it is only one day after this whole adventure began with Jane's phone call...it is Wednesday, September 23. During the day I talked to Aimee Dix with the Humane Society to set up a time when she could bring the mare over to my family's home; we set up a time of 6:00 pm. Well, before the mare came I did make a phone call to a good friend of mine, Danyn Maroney. Danyn is a very energetic woman with a passion for horses and has two daughters with the same passion for them, not to mention a loving husband who supports her! I knew that she would want to know about this new adventure coming to the "Kotz Hotel" (that's what Danyn likes to call our home). When I told her about the mare and its situation her heart went out to it...I had asked her if she would like to take part in this project with me. I asked her if she would be willing to come out and just give the horse the TLC it needs and deserves....to no surprise Danyn said yes!
There were a few preperations that needed to be made before the mare came to our home, the biggest one was to be sure that there was clean fresh water, a clean feed bunk for hay and grain, and a sign...Our family wanted to be sure that there was a way to make sure that folks passing by the house would
know that the horse was a Rescue Animal from the Humane Society. So before the horse arrived my Dad found a piece of wood and got some black paint from the shop and made a te
temporary sign until a nicer one could be made. This should have been an easy task but our cat Scrapper was not making it easy...he kept wanting to walk across the board! Just what we need, cat prints on the sign! Luckily, Scrapper only walked across it once and actually managed to miss the wet paint as he did so!Shortly after 6:00 pm Aimee and her husband Jeff arrived with the horse. When I went around the back of the trailer I could see just the top line of the animal; I knew it was a bad situation fro
m the photos they sent me but it wasn't until then that I realized just how bad it was. We took the horse out and lead it into the pen that would become her new home. I was still in amazement that the horse even had enough energy to walk from point A to point B! You could see every bone in her body, her topline was gone, her neck was thin, you could feel her breast bone but she had a soft kind eye. I think she knew she was coming to a new home that was going to give her the attention she deserved. At the same time Danyn and her friend arrived to welcome
the horse. Both of them were just as shocked at the state of the animal. How could anyone ever let her get to this point? But that is in the past and what matters now is getting her healthy. The first step with that was getting her feet trimmed. Luckily Aimee is also a farrier and owns her own business, AJ Farrier Service, so she volunteered her services and trimmed the mare up.
We are now back to the naming delemia....we were all standing there just calling this horse, 'Mare'. She needed a name. I told everyone about the name my Mom came up with, Lola and what it stood for...Lots of Love. But what does the 'a' stand for?? My Dad called my Mom to ask her. With the help of her sister, Bev, they came up with the acronymn 'Lots of Love Always'. We all started calling her Lola and it fit! So now our new foster mare has a name...Lola.
Eventually our other horses realized that there was a new addition at the Kotz Hotel and they all came running up to greet her at the fence. Let me tell you it was quite the greeting...just so happens that Lola is in heat and our geldings found this to be very interesting! Once the excitement subsided we got Lola her feed for the evening. Some grass hay and a small amount of Purina Equine Senior. You maybe wondering why only a small amount Equine Senior and why Equine Senior? She is only 5 years old!First, we are feeding only a small amount of the "grain" portion of her diet because Lola's
digestive system is fragil at the moment and is not used to such a nutrient rich diet. It will be very important that we slowly introduce her to the feed. Second, we are starting Lola out on Purina Equine Senior because it has some really nice roughage built into it and will make it easily digestable for her. As she progresses through her feeding program we will eventually switch to either (Purina) Strategy or Omolene 200. In the next few days I will post Lola's feeding program so that way you can also keep track of how we feed a horse in this type of situation.
Last night Lola received her grass hay plus about a 1/2 of pound of Equine Senior. This morning when I fed her she was given the same diet. In the afternoon I will be going back out to visit Lola to provide her with more hay and around 5:00 pm she will get her evening feeding of another 1/2 pound of Equine Senior and hay. Over the next couple weeks we will slowly work Lola up to a higher feeding rate...in the next few months she is going to be a whole new horse!
You may be wondering how much Lola weighs and I will soon post her weight and will continue to do a weekly report on her weight and body condition score. What is body condition score (BCS)? BCS is a scale that we use to determine the overal condition of an animal by looking at specific areas on the body where fat deposits. These areas include:
1. Along the neck
2. Along withers
3. Crease down the back
4. Tailhead
5. Ribs
6. Behind the shoulder
BCS needs to be done by feeling the horse. Once you palpate (feel) the horse you can place the horse on the scale from 1 to 9. A score of one means the horse is 'poo' or severally emaciated and a score of nine means that the animal is extremely fat. Both extremes are not healthy. A healthy score is between a 4.5 to a 6.5, depending on the lifestlye of the animal. Our goal with Lola is to get her to a BCS of a 5. Currently Lola is a score of 1. A decription of a 1 is:
"Animal is extremely emaciate; spinous processes, ribs, tailhead, tuber coxae (hip joins), and ischia (lower pelvic bones) projecting prominetly; bone structure of withers, shoulders, and neck easily noticeable, no fatty tissue can be felt."
It is going to take a lot of hard work to get Lola to our goal of a BCS of 5 but I have no doubt that we can do it. Over the course of the project Lola's skin and hair coat will improve. Her hair will start to shine (which maybe hard to tell eventually with winter approaching) and her skin will improve and you will have the dandruff we see now.
Its going to be an adventure and I'm happy you all are coming along for the ride!
Thank you.
Katie Kotz
Daughter of Kevin and Janell Kotz (owners of the Kotz Hotel)
Equine & Lifestyle Specialist for Three Rivers Town & Country
"Your Partner for Growth Solutions"
It is going to take a lot of hard work to get Lola to our goal of a BCS of 5 but I have no doubt that we can do it. Over the course of the project Lola's skin and hair coat will improve. Her hair will start to shine (which maybe hard to tell eventually with winter approaching) and her skin will improve and you will have the dandruff we see now.
Its going to be an adventure and I'm happy you all are coming along for the ride!
Thank you.
Katie Kotz
Daughter of Kevin and Janell Kotz (owners of the Kotz Hotel)
Equine & Lifestyle Specialist for Three Rivers Town & Country
"Your Partner for Growth Solutions"
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