Hi,

One of my horses colicked today (mild), and the vet said he’s seen a lot of it lately and thinks it has something to do with the change in weather. I live in the northeast where we’re having warm days with very cool nights. I wasn’t able to speak directly to the vet and was wondering if someone can explain to me how changes in weather cause colic. Also, is there any way to prevent weather-related colic from occurring? Thanks.

>>>>> I’ve even heard of colic caused by the rain…

Just wanted to wish everyone going to OKC lots of luck and a safe time! I haven’t been there yet, but I’m already cheering for my favorites. Hopefully once I’m out of school I’ll be able to go watch next year, and then take my gelding the year after.

Morganrider got me thinking.  She mentioned she had never been to OKC before.  So, for all of us “old-timers” who have gone, lets give Morganrider some impressions.  Specifically, what are your strongest memories or impressions from your first trip to OKC?

Mine are:

1.     The stall decorations.  They are so ornate, with entire living rooms, large trees, wide screen TV’s, and great wall hangings.

2.     Walking on foot through the coliseum ingate.  It just gave me shivers to be there.

3.     The vendors…OK, I love to shop so vendors are always cool…especially when they line both sides of the coliseum hallways.

4.     Watching the best of the breed come down the chute, one by one, for the Park Saddle Championship.  My first year there was when Schaparelli won.  Also in the class were Centerpiece and Liberation First Star.  I think that little mare just got better and better the longer they worked.  What an engine!

As the blog has become more popular, more people have been posting and commenting.  I have to admit, I love that we are beginning to really take off and are a spot for the Morgan community to come to for all sorts of discussion and information exchange.  In addition, my intent when we started AboveLevel.com was for it to be a positive atmosphere and so far I think we have all accomplished this.

However, with AboveLevel.com’s growing popularity comes various opinions, personalities and writing styles.  This has put me in a difficult position of how to effectively moderate the blog comments and posts.  So far I have only deleted two entries (not including spam) but doing so was a very hard decision in both instances.  Both entries were off topic and, although I know one was meant to be helpful, it was written in such a way that it could be interpreted as a personal attack.  In my opinion, once that starts it can become a very slippery slope.

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