When natural horsemen bring up vaccinations, controversy flares up. Some owners argue in favor of bucking the modern convention of vaccinating horses once or twice yearly. They point out, for example, that vaccines are injected in a mercury carrier. Mercury, of course, is a heavy metal. Vaccination may cause stiffness, swelling, and other more harmful side effects. Vaccination is an added expense in any economy. And injecting man-made materials into our horses is far from natural.
We like our horses to benefit from the best of knowledge as well as the best of nature. We try to consider all the facts and possibilities in making decisions for our beloved equines. In the case of vaccines, we have decided the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
Our farm is very low risk. Unlike many barns, we do not have a lot of strange horses coming through. Neither we nor our boarders take our horses off the farm that often, which would increase the risk of exposure. Because our horses are kept close to naturally, their immune systems are incredibly strong. Yet still we vaccinate.
Why? The drawbacks shrink in comparison to the thought of having any one of our beloved horses affected by a painful or fatal disease that we could have easily prevented. The expense is minimal when measured against the cost of treatment–or worse, loss– of an infected equine.
We’re not willing to gamble when it comes to our herd. We vaccinate.