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Horsemen updated on security strategy |
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By JULIET BRISKIN | Central Texas Edition |
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January 24, 2002 -- One highlight of the 40th annual Blackland Income Growth Conference was the horse seminar and workshop. Held in the almost completed horse barn at the Heart O' Texas Fairgrounds in Waco, the seminar focused on horse health, marketing and theft prevention.
Eddie Foreman, district 16 field inspector for the Texas and Southwest Cattleraisers Association, spoke about preventing horse theft. "If it is easy for you to get to your horses, it's easy for the theives to get to them too," said Foreman. "Theives look for the easy and the quick. Take that away from them by using good locks and keeping your property inaccessable." He also suggested not keeping a strict schedule that can be observed. In addition Foreman emphasized the necessity of putting visible brands on a horse so that it can be easily identified by law enforcement. "If you have a brand registered it will expire Feb. 20," said Foreman. "You have, by law, six months to reregister your brand and that is something you need to do." Dr. Ronnie Edwards, a horse veterinarian from McLennan County, provided a horse health update. "I think the minimum vaccination that any horse should absolutely have is a sleeping sickness combination, a tetnus and a rabies," he stated. "We've always got a problem with rabies in Texas. There is no treatment for it and the horse is going to die if they get it." According to Ed-wards sleeping sickness and tetnus are about 50 percent fatal depending on the type and tetnus is very expensive to treat. "The new disease that you need to watch out for is the West Nile virus," he said. "Its a bad one and its coming." |
