Community

We really enjoy getting out on the road and meeting with customers that have been with us for a long time and those customers that are brand new too!  We love talking with you and hearing your stories about the new inventive ways you’ve found to use Bye Bye Odor and seeing how we can help you get fewer and fewer flies at your place each year. We have been overwhelmed with the great response to our new spray Bye Bye Insects, if you have not had a chance to try it come by and see how great it smells and feels on your skin.

These are great events and we hope you’ll make it to some. Please stop by and say hello!  We have a gift for our customers we see.

Equine Affaire – From November 7th to 10th we will be at the Eastern State Exposition Center, West Springfield Massachusetts.  This is the largest equine event in the country with dozens of presenters. Come by our booth to get your FREE 2020 Cowboy Art and Cartoon Calendars that will be fresh of the press. While at the booth check out the new best smelling fly spray for people and animals, Bye Bye Insects spray. Come try it and see why it is quickly becoming the must have fly spray. More information at www.equineaffaire.com

Horse Expo Pomona – From November 8^th to 10^th, we will be at the Fairplex in Pomona, California for the Horse Expo. This is the southern version of the two largest California horse shows. Western States Horse Expo near Sacramento in May is the other big show and we’ll be there too!  Horse Expo offers great presentations, demonstrations, competitions, the Young Rider Park, Art, Trucks and Trailers galore plus much more. Pat Parelli and Richard Winters will be presenting. Place your Fly Predator order for the season and take home a bonus bag of bugs and your Free RMM Cartoon Calendar autographed by Dr. Miller or Kenneth Wyatt Cowboy Art Calendar. No purchase required if you only want a calendar. While at the booth check out the new best smelling fly spray for people and animals, Bye Bye Insects spray. Come try it and see why it is quickly becoming the must have fly spray. More info at www.HorseExpoEvents.com

ZAA - From November 15th to 18th we will be attending the Zoological Association of America’s annual conference. We enjoy helping zoos keeping their animals fly free and happy. From Rhinoceroses to Zebras to Monkeys we can keeps the flies away. This year it will be in Montgomery, AL.

Vegas Tuffest Jr. World Championship - From December 5th to 8th we’ll be in Las Vegas at the event that Mike and Sherrylynn Johnson produce that is a must watch youth event. I guess that what happens when you have a 23 time NFR qualifier tie down roper and 4 time NFR qualifier barrel racer running the deal. At this event you’ll see the best of the best with the winner taking home $10,000! It’s a really fun event you don’t want to miss. Free live video streaming if you can’t make it. More info at http://www.johnsonsportline.com

 AAEP – From December 7^th to 11^th we will be at the American Association of Equine Practitioners 64^th Convention, in Denver, CO.  This is the show that many equine Veterinarians attend each year for seminars and education. As Lyle Lovett said a few years ago when he performed here… “This is the week that horse owners say a little prayer for their animals. Please don’t get sick during AAEP”.  More information at http://www.aaep.org/

Spalding Labs is family owned and operated AND filled with terrific, animal-loving, and long standing team members! Our team is thankful for you! I asked for submissions of what some of us are thankful for on a personal level and received some lovely responses. I share with you some giving thanks below! Happy Thanksgiving to you all and happy holiday season!

Tom Spalding, Spalding Team Member Since ♥ The Beginning  ♥

"We are thankful for another Thanksgiving with all the family including my 97-year-old mom who founded Spalding Labs along with my brother Pat 43 years ago."

Jessica Starcevich, Spalding Team Member Since 2011

"I am thankful for animal rescues and rescuers who have done so much to join me with some truly amazing dogs!"

Toni Dunn, Spalding Team Member Since 1975

"Working for Spalding Labs since I was 10 has been a huge blessing. I have a second home and family in my Spalding family."

Happy, happy day!  ☺

We wish our team the best of luck at the upcoming Vegas Tuffest Jr. World Championship!

The Vegas Tuffest Jr. World Championship is produced by the power couple of rodeo, Mike & Sherrylynn Johnson and is held the first weekend of the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Riders 19 years and under compete in goat tying, breakaway roping and tie down roping. As one of the highest stakes payout for youth rodeo, the champion will take home $10,000 to $20,000 in cash and prizes. Total prizes paid at the competition this year will exceed $650,000 as winners take home saddles, rope cans, buckles, rings, and lots and lots of SWAG from sponsors like Spalding Labs.

 Spalding Fly Predator Team:

• Trenton Leggett
• Riggun Barrow
• Rylie Edens
• Jezimay Watson
• Lane Webb
• Rozlyn Herren
• Madison Outhier
• Chase Heim
• Kali Thompson

These talented young riders will be competing December 5-8th as the Spalding Fly Predators Team alongside 430 other contestants! Come watch at Horseman's Park in Las Vegas, Nevada! Event schedule below...

I am a compulsive reader. Always have been. I keep a book in each bathroom, next to my bed, on the dinner table, in my car, several where I watch TV (I read during commercials), and I even carry my own books or periodical journals to my doctor’s appointments and even to fast-food lunch facilities.

So sometimes it takes many months to get through a book.

My colleague, Dr. Marcia Thibeault, sent me a copy of her book, I Make Horse Calls. I reviewed it and thanked her for it. I love reading other veterinarian’s books. James Herriot really started something!

Then, months ago, she sent me the sequel, More Horse Calls. I fast-read it and then, afterwards put it in one of our bathrooms for more casual, in-depth absorption.

Halfway through it last night, I was surprised to find myself in it.

Thank you Dr. Thibeault. Apparently you see that my imprint training method, used on newborn foals helps to produce a gentle and cooperative patient after they are mature.

An excerpt from More Horse Calls.

Luckily Sunny had been imprint trained, a process made popular by veterinarian Dr. Robert M. Miller. Imprint training takes advantage of a foal’s ability to learn rapidly right after birth. By exposing a newborn foal to potentially threatening stimuli, and showing the foal there is no real danger, the foal relaxes and a strong bond forms between horse and human. These imprint trained foals have less fear. If the foal is also taught to yield to pressure rather than fight against it, when it later becomes trapped, the foal soon finds struggling increases its pain, so it is more likely to stop struggling. They are also more willing to let humans help them. I hoped Pat’s early handling of Sunny was paying off now.

One of the things that I have noticed horse owners to be the most negligent about is foot care.

Proper and regular care of the feet is an essential part of good horse care. Now, that does not necessarily mean shoeing. Many horses are not worked enough to need shoes, but they still need to be checked regularly by a competent, experienced farrier.

For example, my horses and my wife’s no longer need shoes. I ride maybe once a week and, even if my wife rides daily, most of it is on smooth trails or on soft arenas, so there is not a lot of foot wear from abrasion.

However, we have our farrier see them at six-week intervals, year round. Hooves keep growing, often irregularly, and need to be balanced and trimmed.

Irregular hooves often cause abnormal angulation of the foot, excessively straining the structures of the foot, or in the joints and supportive anatomy above the foot. This can cause damage ultimately leading to lameness.

So, good horse care must include regular foot care including, if necessary, trimming and balancing the hoof wall, shoeing if needed, and sometimes corrective shoeing.

As I said, Debby and I no longer ride enough that our horses need to be shod. But, they are still seen every six weeks, and trimmed and balanced. Left untrimmed, their toes elongate, imbalancing the gait and stressing the joints.

How do wild horses get by without farriers? Well, they are in constant motion on an abrasive ground surface. That’s why wild mustangs feet usually look so perfect. But domestication is not the same as living in the natural wild environment.

Domestic dogs frequently require nail trims. Wolves, in the wild, do not. Right?

Many horse owners believe that shoeing is “unnatural”. Of course it is. But excessive wear due to domestication and hard work often necessitate horseshoes to keep the horse comfortable. For the same reason we humans often wear work gloves.

Additionally, certain breeds, especially the gaited breeds, often require special shoes. Also, many horses have either conformational qualities or pathological problems that can be helped and even corrected by special shoes.

Good professional quality foot care is part of the expense of horse ownership.

But, it is worth it.