Linda found this article and obtained permission for us to reprint it on our site.  With spring fast approaching (fingers crossed) that also means the return of flying pests and our never ending attempts to minimize their effects on our equine friends. 

This first appeared in Equine Wellness magazine  July/August 2010 issue.


FULL OF VINEGAR
Do you have apple cider vinegar in your
kitchen cabinet?  It's also something that can
do double duty in the barn.

BY JUDY SINNER


"As sour as vinegar." This old cliche may be true but there's
a lot more to vinegar than its strong flavor. It offers some
amazing health benefits and has been used and revered
since ancient times.
The earliest vinegar was likely formed when wine was
exposed to air, and wild yeasts caused it to ferment.
Vinegar can be made from any plant that contains
enough sugar to ferment into the alcohol needed to make
acetic acid. The microorganisms (bacteria) that produce
this fermentation are called acetobacter. These bacteria
are the "glop" we see floating in natural vinegar, and are
often called the "mother". The bacteria change and grow 
continuously,  forming enzymes and producing beneficial
bacteria that help digest foods, support the immune
system and crowd out harmful bacteria such as ecoli
salmonella, staph and clostridium.

Why ACV?
The most beneficial vinegar is natural and unpasteurized
and made from organic whole produce. Since the vinegar
will contain particles of the plant it's made from, it's
important that it be pesticide and herbicide-free. Apple
cider vinegar (ACV) is most commonly used in equine and
human health. It's the only type of vinegar to contain malic
acid, in addition to the acetic acid found in all vinegars.
Be warned that much of the ACV on the market, even
many of the natural ones, are made from apple juice or cider
rather than from the whole apple, and may even contain
apple juice concentrate from China. It's important to use
the natural, unpasteurized cloudy vinegar rather than the
distilled pasteurized form.
An economical way to obtain this healthy natural form is
to "inoculate" a gallon of distilled vinegar with a cup or so
of natural vinegar containing the "mother". The "starter"
will instill the healing properties into the distilled vinegar,
yielding a healthier version. Natural vinegar will keep for
five years or more, and actually has the ability to destroy
many germs and pathogens on contact.

Around the barn
Here are some ways to use ACV in horse care:
o As a nutritional supplement in feed and/or water, ACV
shines. For general use, 1/4 cup daily on feed is plenty, and
can be diluted with an equal amount of water. ACV can
help disguise the taste of unfamiliar water when traveling
or competing, but one caution - ACV will leach minerals
from metal or galvanized tanks, so use a hard plastic
watering container.
The acidifying effect of ACV also helps prevent and
dissolve enteroliths (intestinal stones), which can form
in horses that live in areas with hard water, or that eat a
diet high in alfalfa hay. Stomach acid is the horse's first
line of defense against bacteria, parasite eggs and food or
water-borne diseases. ACV helps acidify the stomach
for optimum digestion. Horses with arthritis also often
benefit from ACV; it is also a time-tested folk remedy for
human arthritis.
o As a natural insect control, ACV causes thiamine
(vitamin Bl) to be excreted through the skin, repelling
flies and mosquitoes. Optimum levels of B vitamins
(particularly Bl) in the body seem to discourage bugs.
For this to work, it's important to make sure your horse
has a diet containing high levels of B vitamins. Horses
that eat any significant amount of grain (which ferments
into sugars in the body) or are on commercial molasses based
sweet feeds are often B-deficient, as sugar uses up
extra B vitamins in order to be metabolized.
As an interesting aside, people who are sugar junkies or
bread-aholics are usually mosquito magnets for this very
reason. Remember that healthy non-toxic horses are not
attractive to flies. And since ACV helps with protein
digestion, there will be less undigested protein (indoles
and skatoles) in the manure to attract flies. You can even
make a natural flytrap by poking holes in the lid of a
mason jar and adding water, some ACV and sugar. The
flies will crawl in, and can't get back out. Way better
than chemicals.
o Thrush and other hoof problems can be addressed with
soaks or poultices of natural ACV. A little undiluted ACV
can be sprayed or dripped right into the commissures of
the frog, or 1/4 cup of vinegar can be added to a gallon
of water and used as a soak or poultice for hoof fungus and abcess
o Fungus, burns, wounds and skin infections often respond well
to a spritz of diluted ACV. Try a little on the mane and tail,
too. A final rinse with vinegar-laced water after bathing will
cut right through leftover soap film and hard water residues,
leaving your horse super shiny. This works on people, too
- when I was a child, I remember my mom rinsing my hair
with ACV after shampooing. Though I didn't much like the
smell, it made my hair shiny and swishy - just the way we
want manes and tails.
o An all-natural weed killer is as near as your ACV bottle. Use it
around horse areas instead of resorting to harmful chemicals.
Simply spray on the young weeds early in the season, and
watch them die. For this higher volume use, you may want to
inoculate cheaper distilled vinegar with the "good stuff".
o Add some ACV to the rinse water when washing stable
bandages and horse blankets. The soap residue will be gone,
along with the odor.
o Metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance can be helped
with vinegar. Studies on human subjects at Arizona State
University, as reported in the scientific journal Diabetes Care
in 2004, showed a reduction in the usual rise in blood sugar
after a high-carb meal when a little ACV was taken first. An
unexpected side effect of this study was that the subjects
gradually lost weight when taking two teaspoons of ACV
before each meal. When combined with a low NSC diet, slow
feeding and proper mineral support, ACV may be a valuable
tool in the management of easy-keeping, metabolically
challenged horses.
Apple cider vinegar is an amazing tool and can enhance natural horse
health in many ways. I personally prefer Super ACV from Dynamite
Marketing, which is made from organic whole apples. It contains
7% acetic acid, compared to the 5% more commonly found. Try
some ACV this spring and summer- I know you will be amazed!



JUDY SINNER IS A LIFE TIME HORSE WOMAN, AS AN OWNER, BREEDER, TRAINER AND EXHIBITOR. SHE HAS BRED AND RAISED ARABIANS AND NATIONAL SHOW HORSES SINCE THE 1970s, AND HAS PRODUCED TWO NATIONAL CHAMPIONS AS WELL AS MANY REGIONAL AND CLASS A WINNING HORSES. AFFILIATED WITH DYNAMITE SPECIALTY PRODUCTS FOR 25 YEARS, SHE ALSO SERVED AS COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR THE COMPANY FOR 17 YEARS, AND TEACHES HOLISTIC NUTRITION FOR ALL SPECIES IN SEMINARS AND NEWSLETTERS. 1-800-677-0919