Horse Disease Prevention – Entropy As A Disease

I love the word “entropy” because it applies to everyone and everything in the horse world as well as the whole world.  It means a gradual decline from order to disorder.  It applies to horse farms and horse health alike.  It requires the continuous application of energy to maintain order.

Entropy is a lifelong process where we need to apply effort into existing things in order to maintain the current state.  In barns or farm fences, for example, we all have seen the continuous need to rebuild and repair or, at the least, apply maintenance.  In some of the images here, entropy is seen by vegetation taking over built structures.  As ancient wisdom reveals, ashes to ashes and dust to dust.  All things want to return to the zero energy state.  Our horses and ourselves require constant maintenance or we all will just die – from entropy.

I apply this to the care of horses because if you have horses you soon realize that they require constant maintenance.  Hooves are trimmed every 6 weeks or so.  Teeth are filed smooth between 6 and 12 months.  Horses being used are bathed often enough to keep clean and free of disease.  And if these are not done, the horse gets dirty again, the hooves grow and the teeth become sharp.

We all agree that being with horses lifts our spirits and often gives us a sense of purpose or zen – or both.  But we also are aware of the work needed to maintain them and the environment they live in and sometimes this proves exhausting both in energy and in money.  We all need to understand that EVERYTHING will decay eventually into dust.  While horses are in our care it becomes the responsibility of the caregivers to apply the energy needed to overcome their demise.  The more energy you give the more they will thrive.  

Coming to this site and reading this article to this point is evidence you are applying more energy than most.  Repairing a damaged fence, replacing a burned out light bulb, cleaning a stall and feeding the horses – all are extra to our lives but are necessary to keep them alive.  Doing more such as sweeping the barn aisle, grooming the horse, making preventive health appointments and reading to learn more about their care will return your energy in better results.  The horse will thrive directly proportional to the amount of energy you put in.

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