Horse Health

Beer Saves Aussie Horse

By on • ( 13 Comments )

Article Info.from Multiple Sources ~ Commentary by R.T. Fitch

The Power of the Brew Came Through

Apache will tell you that there is some KICK in that Bock Beer ~ photo by Terry Fitch

An Australian horse struck down with a bout of potentially deadly colic was saved after drinking beer, according to Australian News agencies.

Six-year-old Diamond Mojo was fed a bottle of popular Australian brew XXXX Gold by his owner Steve Clibborn, who turned to the desperate measure after giving the animal up for dead.

“I had pretty much kissed him goodbye,” said Clibborn, from Jiggi, a country town about 136 miles (220km) south of Brisbane.

“I had spent 23 hours straight with him but nothing worked and then I remembered an old bush [country] tale that said you could feed them beer.

“I don’t know whether I really believed it or not but it was worth a shot and as soon as he had that beer, he burped and perked right up. So I gave him another couple.”

Over the following days, Clibborn repeated the dose until his prized endurance horse rediscovered his mojo.

Colic is a medical problem common in humans and horses resulting in acute abdominal pain, which can be caused by factors such as stress. Diamond Mojo had a leg injury that could have triggered the ailment.

Colic is often fatal to horses and opinion is divided on how it can best be treated. But Clibborn thinks he is on to a winner with the amber nectar. “It worked,” he said.

R.T. ~ “Now before you laugh and think that this may have been an April Fools joke let me tell you a true tale, which makes me believe that this story is valid.

Some years ago, when we lived in Louisiana, Terry’s horse, Apache, developed an allergy to a mold that grew in the local grass and began to have breathing difficulties during the summer months.  He would wheeze and struggle to breath and the local vet said he had COPD and I felt otherwise.

I told this story to Jerry Finch of Habitat for Horses who paused for a moment and then said,

“Don’t laugh, you aren’t going to believe it but we had a horse at the ranch that we had all sorts of troubles attempting to relieve his painful breathing condition until I found a miracle cure in a magazine article…and it WORKED!”

“What was it?”, I asked.

“It might sound strange but a couple of bottles of beer each night and the ole boy is doing just fine.” he said, “And it can’t be just any beer, it has to be Bock beer?”

Being a home brewer I gave him a quixotically look.

“Don’t ask me why, but only Bock beer works.”

So without further adult I went out and purchased a six pack of Texas’ pride “Shiner Bock” and started to add two 12 ounce bottles to Apache’s feed every night.  I am not making it up, hand to God, within a matter of days Apache’s breathing problems abated and within a few weeks he was back to normal.  Another marked change was that Apache was no longer at the back of the line when we let the horses in the barn in the evening at feeding time, he would be right up front licking his lips.

It all got to the point that when I would stop at the little corner convenience store on the way home and the girl behind the counter would ask,

“Is the six pack for you our your horse?”

I would simply counter,

“We intend to share it”

And that usually was pretty close to the truth”


Related Articles

Categories: Horse Health, Horse News

Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

13 replies »

    • Louie – you, Dear Man, are an absolute riot.

      Granpa used to treat thrush in his barn horses with daily, liberal applications of Old Grandad – said the stuff was useless for drinkin’ but killed the thrush and toughened the hoof wall.

      Beer is Barley Squeezins – what could be more natural for a horse?

      We’re so used to high-tech and instant gratification, we forget Old Skool might be the best way to roll, particularly in a crappy economy or absence of a Vet who’ll take a 50lb. bag of rolled oats as payment. After the sticker shock of paying a vet $200 to come to the ranch and open an abcess in my mare’s hoof, I started remembering things my grandparents had done at home with the tools at hand. Next time she abcessed (a yearly occurence for her), I worked for about five hours on her, alternating between hot epsom-salt soaks (to encourage drainage) and ice-water soaks (to relieve the swelling and ease the pain). By early afternoon, the abcess burst, and there was no infection after.

      I know there are times when the vet must be called, but sometimes old remedies really are best.

      Like

      Reply

  2. I have a Chincoteague pony that found his own “juice” and I had to retrieve him from the corner of the field everyday. He didn’t come in at dinner time which was unusual and he got stubborn, approaching drunk, about leaving his spot in the corner of the field until I discovered that fermented apple juice was leaking out of a truck of cull apples into his field. Needless to say we fenced off that corner and his manners improved. Don’t anybody tell him about the beer!
    “Beer for My Horses”–one of my favorites!

    Like

    Reply

  5. I believe in beer…. for horses… I also believe in Equipride. It is a supplement invented by a head brewer. It is superb product based on yeast culture on a fermented media of wheat, oats, barley malt and flax – distillers dried grains with solubles, condensed distillers solubles and a complete vitamin, mineral and digestive aide package, with buffers to help settle gastric distress.

    I have had my horses on this product for 5 years now. They not once were sick or had a colic. You will not need anything else when you give Equipride. When the maker of it made his first batch years ago, it was based on fermented barley etc., it was used by rancher with cows – he called him and asked, why his cows might be acting funny…. well the alcohol content was a bit high then… so it was adjusted – and the product is one of the best out there – the enzymes, yeast, pro-biotin, pre-biotics, pro-biotics, flax, organic complexed minerals and prefermented, non-starch meals bolstered with antacid calcium and magnesium, minimizes gastric distress.

    So if you believe in beer, you might want to try Equipride by Sweet Pro. It also comes in form of a lix, for more info go to http://www.equipride.biz

    Like

    Reply

    • Hi Monika:

      I rescued a beautiful Arabian gelding which acquired a cribbing
      problem some where along the line. I have tried everything. Many
      people say it gives the horse a euphoric feeling when cribbing. Yet
      I have read other articles that talk about the stomach containing
      too much acid. I am going to give this a try. I never heard of this
      before or the beer.

      Thanks,

      Gail

      Like

      Reply

  7. One of my horses, long gone now, used to have bouts of colic. Remembering my Dad’s recomendationhs, we gave him whiskey. About a pint of Southern Comfort. He didn’t want any other kind. One dose fixced things of. My Vet just laughed and said it couldn’t hurt.

    Like

    Reply

  8. While not used to “cure” anything, our old stud horse (passed January 2009), used to enjoy drinking beer out of our hands in the summer time. He just liked the taste. We were never brave enough to give him a whole bottle, but when we would have one at the end of a hot summer day, we’d share with him.

    Like

    Reply

  9. I have heard that milk stout is very good for horses that are in bad condition, this was from the ladies who taught me to ride.
    My horse used to love a brand that we have in South Africa called Amstel.
    Also, for the colic – some brandy and sunflower oil does the trick!

    Like

    Reply

Care to make a comment?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.