Stories From Fish Hatchery Road

How to Start Your Own Successful Horse Business

I get quite a few emails from people who tell me their dream is to have their own, full-time horse business. They work professional, sometimes very highly paid jobs. But they want to get out of the rat race so they can be happy.

"How did you do it?" they ask.

Here is the absolutely most important piece of advice I can give: Do what comes naturally. Do more of what already makes you happy.

Let me say that again. Don't seek the happiness. Do not sit there trying to dream up ideas that will make money. Instead, do more of what you already love to do!

Let me give you an example:

I know a woman whose absolute obsession in life is essential oils and horses. This woman makes the most divine, aromatic essential oil mixes for horses. And they sell like crazy. She is always back ordered. And she doesn't even have a finished logo for her products!

So forget about the 1-2-3- step approach to "making it in the horse world."  Forget about the way of thinking that says getting started in business means you have to go through struggle and hardship and work "really, really hard."

Imagine, instead, that there is a reason that doing what you love brings you so much joy! Imagine, that part of that reason is to share that joy.  What we need most on this planet -- more than anything else, in my opinion -- is joy.

If you could spend all day doing something just because you love it so much, what would that one thing be?

Nothing makes me happier than nudges and nickers from a horse. If you have been following my blog or my website (www.skodeshorsetreats.com), then you know I got into this business because of my determination to find safe, low sugar/low carbohydrate horse treats for my Insulin Resistant horses.  Nothing else existed -- not in the feed stores and not on the Internet -- so I made my own. First I made trail mix treats -- treats I thought a horse in Nature would choose if he could go on a nature hunt and pick whatever he liked -- and then I made horse cookies and then brownies and....well the ideas never ended!

I spend many happy hours researching horse nutrition books and going to local herb farms to find delicious and interesting things for horses to eat. I never did this to make money. I did this because it was my idea of fun. My business evolved naturally. It happened because I was simply being me. Then one day a friend walked into my garage and asked me if she could buy some of my treats. That was my first sale for Skode's Horse Treats, and the birth of Skode's Horse Treats Inc.

So sit for a moment and ask yourself: "What do I love most to do ?"

"SKODE"

How Harley Kept His Promise

Anyone who makes a lifetime commitment to a horse, faces the dreaded day when they will have to say goodbye to their cherished friend. That day for Harley and I came much earlier than I wanted.

This story is for those who face the heart-breaking decision of euthanizing their horse. It is also for anyone, who under any circumstances, has had to help their friend go to that place we call The Rainbow Ridge. This is a true story. It really, really happened.

I hope it brings you even a fraction of the hope and comfort it continues to bring me.

March 11, 2007: I looked into my Shetland Pony's big brown eyes and we talked, woman to pony. He tucked his nose beneath my armpit and said he was sorry. But it was time for him to go.

"I'm not afraid," he told me through animal communicator Mary Getten.

"I will try really, really hard to come and see you in my dreams."

March 14, 2007: I told Harley I would share the lessons he had taught me. I told him everything he went through would help other ponies.  We laid in the sunshine in the pine shavings outside the barn. A few hours later, the vet came.  at 3:30 p.m., I walked my friend to his favorite pasture. I grabbed his mane and whispered my final goodbye, trusting my little friend to keep his word.

The First Dream:  Harley's kiss was sweet and tender and full of love -- nose to forehead. A comforting little boy energy, as if to tell me: "Don't worry! I'm O.K."

I bolted awake.

The Second Dream: The pumpkin colored pony with the thick, golden mane ran as fast as he could through the silver gate and into the pasture. He loved the way his strong feet and legs connected to the muscles in his shoulders and in his entire body. He made me feel that, how exhilarating that felt.  "I'm a powerhouse," he thought at me. "Close to the ground but ready to fly."

Harley was flanked by two other ponies -- a black and white pinto and a chestnut. The three of them laughed as they burst into the wide open pasture.

The Third Dream: The early morning mist covered the Oregon Mountains. Harley walked easily, quickly, across the rock covered ground, his strong hooves impervious to their sharp and jagged edges.  Vashka and Sunny, Harley's close Arabian friends, greeted Harley with great happiness.  It had been a few weeks since they last talked.

Groggily, I made my way out the front door and into the paddock to feed Vashka and Sunny. It had been so hard to make the mental transition to caring for two horses instead of three. I had to keep telling myself: Two feed bowls, not three. Two blankets, not three. To treats, not three.

"Harley's not here anymore," I kept reminding myself.

But on that morning, there were three horses, not two. There was Harley, as vibrant and alive as ever.  He was so shiny and golden, as if he had eaten a thousand vitamins and been dunked in the sun itself.

"Harley!"

"Lori!"

My pony walked to me and nuzzled my hand.  Yes, it was really him. Completely healed. Completely happy. He wanted me to know that. So he had kept his promise and come back to show me.

He had kept his promise.

Now it was time for me to keep mine.

"SKODE"

Horses and Gratitude

Every morning for years, I have been sharing gratitude lists with my "gratitude buddies" via the Internet. It has been a wonderful way to keep me grounded in the goodness of life, and to give me a way to bond with my long-distance friends.

Through sharing these lists, we have learned a lot about gratitude. One of my biggest awareness's is that gratitude isn't only for things or experiences that I judge as "good." It's also about being grateful for what I judge as "bad."  I know that sounds weird. But here is my reasoning:

When I am grateful, simply for "what is," having faith that while I may not understand or agree with reality, if I fight with reality, I will lose.

"But only 100 percent of the time," according to my friend Byron Katie.

Fighting with reality is exhausting. For example, right now my horse Sunny has some issues with the circulation in his feet. My equine nutritionist and I have been trying different herbs on him, working on adjust the dosages just right for Sunny. It's hard to see my horse go through this -- I would much rather give him the Magic Bullet and be done with it.  So here is where feeling grateful for "What is" really helps me.

When I'm grateful for even the struggle that Sunny's issue represent, my heart and mind open enough just to let in the thoughts: This experience is teaching me a lot. I am learning that I have a lot of perseverance and compassion and my horse, Sunny, has a lot of patience and stamina. I am so grateful for that.

Even as I wrote that, I took a deep breath.  And in the next moment I do not feel quite as constricted and afraid.

Gratitude is becoming a way of life for me -- a way to appreciate whatever is. As time unfolds, we see the tapestry of The Big Picture, not just the threads. But when we are in the moment and the feeling of whatever is going on, we sometimes need help with perspective. At least I do. 

Horses are so immediately here for us. The ones I know aren't dwelling in the past or projecting in the future. The self help field has recognized this and developed entire modules of behavior modification using horses as their main therapists. I haven't been to these workshops. However I know the feeling in my soul when I stand and simply allow myself to be with my horses.

I feel grateful.

Perhaps you know the feeling.

Please do check out my new page -- Skode's Gratitude List -- where I have begun a regular journal of gratitude with my horses. The page allows comments and TrackBacks and I would be thrilled if you would post your comments. Perhaps we can start a global horse gratitude list.  In the meantime, I plan to type away.

Gratefully yours,

"SKODE"

Treats that help your horse's medicines go down!

When I began baking low sugar horse cookies, I looked forward to feeding them. But I never actually thought I would need them.

Then my Shetland pony, Harley, needed his antibiotics to treat his auto-immune disorder and my horse Sunny, was diagnosed with Cushings. Suddenly, I was faced with the challenge of figuring out how to get my horses to eat their medicines. Syringing them in felt traumatic -- the horses would jerk their heads away, paw at the ground, run away.

I knew they loved their  low sugar cookies and brownies. So I began experimenting with stuffing the medicines inside of those. For this, I had to have a much softer product than what I baked for Skode's customers (soft, "wet" cookies spoil much faster than dry, crunchy cookies). Besides, you can't poke anything into crunchy. 

"Well, what about selling a mix so people can bake the cookies to whatever consistency works for them?" my friend Claudia asked.

Claudia is not really a horse person. The fact that one of Skode's best-selling products came from a woman who doesn't have a horse is ironic. I had never considered a mix. But Claudia did. And the idea really works!

When Skode's low sugar cookies and brownies are home baked and soft enough to poke medicines in, just about any medicine you can imagine goes down like a dream. Harley preferred his pills in super soft Nutty Seed cookies. Sunny enjoys his Advanced Protection Formula and Pergolide pills poked in Minty Rose Brownies. 

You know that cliche -- "Necessity is the Mother of Invention." Well, that has certainly held true for the birth of every single recipe developed at Skode's.

So to little Harley and Sunny -- a big thank you from your human!

"SKODE"

Diagnosed with Cushings at 14

Sunny, my beautiful 14-year-old Arabian, was just diagnosed with Cushings Disease. I have always known he was a sensitive, Insulin Resistant Horse. But when the diagnosis for Cushings came, I was shocked.

Cushings is still considered an older horse's disease. Fourteen is not old enough, I thought. at least not for a breed of horse known to live well into its 30's.

But there was the blood work from Cornell -- complete with elevated ACTH (cortisol) and Insulin levels.  My next feeling about the diagnosis was sadness. Sunny has been through so much in his life.  His previous owner showed him extensively as a Hunter/Jumper. Delving into his past has turned up quite a bit of disturbing information: Sunny was drugged repeatedly to keep him sound enough to jump; Sunny stopped winning at shows because he kept coming up with mysterious lameness's. Sunny was therefore sold.

When my best friend bought him three years ago and I inherited him a years later, I did not have this information. I only knew he was gorgeous and kind and needed a home. And so for $10, I became the proud owner of a horse who goes without a bit on the trails and does flawless, flying lead changes in the arena.

Fortunately, at Skode's Horse Ranch -- which houses Skode's Horse Treats Inc.-- there is not a lot of time to bemoan anything. Survival here has to do with getting things done. Everyday is a scheduled cacophony of "to do's:" Feed the horses, dogs and cats. Clean the stalls. Bake the treats. Pack the treats. Send the treats. Feed the horses, dogs and cats. Clean the stalls......

Sunny's diagnosis was handled with great skill by Equine Nutritionist and Veterinarian Dr. Eleanor Kellon, who is helping us:

• Tighten Sunny's already low sugar and low carbohydrate diet -- I am now soaking his already low sugar hay.
• Add even ore fiber to Sunny's diet -- through the use of whole food powders -- to help Sunny with his Insulin Resistance and compromised hind gut.
• Further treat Sunny's Insulin Resistance and nagging  foot pain with nuetracueticals.
• And analyze my recent trimming sessions with Sunny via in-depth email consultations.

A friend of mine who had a Cushings horse for many years, warned me not to retire Sunny "just because he has Cushings." 

"What is going on with him is completely manageable," she said.

I happen to know she is right. Management unfolds in a daily basis, and, I have learned, consists of continually doing the next right thing -- not necessarily doing everything perfectly. So as I type this post, I take a deep breath -- knowing that I will make mistakes. And knowing that I will still help Sunny.

I have seen many, many horses live incredibly productive lives after their diagnosis -- despite the dire warnings of veterinarians who said their chances of high-quality lives were "slim."

And so with our regular adventures through the mountains of Southern Oregon, soaking hay and treat making, life goes on at Skode's Ranch. It isn't life as usual, but with horses is it ever?

"SKODE"

Getting Picky Horses to Eat!

As the owner of two Insulin Resistant horses, and a professional treat maker for nearly two years for some of the pickiest Insulin Resistant horses on the planet, I hear a lot of horse owners complaining about how hard it is to get their horses to eat their supplements and medicines.

The first thing I want to say is that there is no "magic bullet" to getting your horse to eat. And frankly, I'm glad there isn't! If there were, too many people would be tempted to feed their horses the same fare, day after day after day. How boring is that? Horses need variety as much -- if not more than we do. I'm convinced of it. Why else would God have supplied the wild horse with hundreds of different herbs to choose from?

During the past week on The Official Equine Cushings and Insulin Resistant board at Yahoo, there have been quite a few posters who are having a hard time getting their horses to eat their custom vitamin and mineral mixes. (Please do your horse a favor and check  out the site at -- http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/EquineCushings/ -- are more than 5,000 members on this board, which is run by my horses' equine nutritionist, the renown Dr. Eleanor Kellon, D.V.M.)

Here is what I posted on the board this morning:

First, some ingredients that many horses have told me work synergistically in terms of taste (of course you will have to ask YOUR horse):

• Cinnamon and Anise -- using about 1/2 to 1/3 as much anise as
  cinnamon.
• Chamomile (powder or flowers) and apple fiber powder
• Peppermint (leaves) and beet root powder
• Fenugreek and Fennel (equal amounts of each)
• Psyllium seed husk powder and apple fiber powder (I think my horses
  simply like how the consistencey of what they are eating changes,
  too.)
• Slippery Elm bark powder and Chamomile tea. Sunny NEVER tires of
  this. Vashka, however can handle a day or two at most of this!
• A handful of large stripped sunflowers and kudzu root squares
  stirred throughout hay and beet pulp meals adds a nice variety, too --
  horses going rummaging through the meals and invariably eat their
  supplements to find the goodies!
• For Beet Plup, there is always "Alfalfa essence" -- a phrase coined
  by Dr. Kellon, is wonderful with beet pulp. She told me how to make
  this awhile back: Put a handful of alfalfa pellets in a small bowl of
  water. Microwave until water boils. Take out of microwave, cover and
  set aside. Pellets will expand tremendously and a handful of pellets
  becomes an incredibly potent taste tempter. Mixes wonderfully with a
  handful of chamomile flower buds.
• Rosehip tea -- just put in strainer and steep for 20 minutes. This
  creats a thick, sweet tea that goes well with any low sugar hay
  pellet. A dash of peppermint or cinnamon (as a taste tempter not a
  drug to lower Insulin) can prove delicious to many horses.
• Peppermint tea -- same as above, but add either beet root powder or
  apple fiber powder.

The reason teas work so well is because they saturate the supplements, as opposed to merely "mixing in" with them. Making tea is time consuming, but I find worth it. I use deeply steeped
teas as the base of all my baked products.

My experience with Wheat Germ is wonderful in terms of getting a horse to eat, but I did have a pony who was far too I.R. to tolerate even a speck of it. (If I remember correctly the NSC is around 46 for
this per tablespoon.)

I found what Claire (the Witcheylady at www.witcheyladycreations.com) said in a recent post on the EC list about artificial flavorings -- that some horses don't like them -- to be very true.
Mine certainly hated them.

If you feel overwhelmed with where to start, remember the most important thing to do is simply start. Pleasing your horse's palate is the fun part of horsekeeping.

"SKODE"