A Year With Horses

Mindfulness Practices: T'ai Chi Chih and Drawing

2012-02-03T06:06:00.000-06:00

One of my goals for 2012 is to develop my mindfulness - my ability to be aware in the moment, without that distracting internal chatter that can interfere with the connection and ability to communicate with the horse. To that end, I've started two new practices, in addition to trying to do some daily meditation. Also, on my daily walk, I try to practice mindfulness, bringing my attention back gently, without judgment, to the landscape and what I observe every time (and there are many, many times) when the internal chatter/commentary/thinking/list-making/remembering process starts up. Just being aware of that internal static going on is a big deal for me.

First, I've started taking classes in t'ai chi chih again - I took a few classes a number of years ago but didn't keep it up, but remembered how good it was - now why do we stop doing things that are/feel good? Who knows? I certainly don't. Anyway, I'm doing it again, and with the same instructor as last time. She's very calm and very focussed and very good. T'ai chi chih is a series of 19 movements and one pose - it's not a martial art, and can be done standing or sitting by people in any physical condition - it's been used with success even in nursing homes. It's all about attention, breathing, balance, and movement, directing and not blocking energy, and flow, and coordination of legs, arms and body in a way that produces a feeling of relaxation and beauty. Does that sound like anything else to you? That's just what I want to bring to my riding. I think these classes, and the practice of t'ai chi chih, will be very good for my riding, and are enjoyable and good for my life in general.

I've also taken up drawing again, and I'm taking a class that meets once a week, with an instructor I've taken classes with before. I have a particular interest in still life and botanical drawing, including a fondness for trees and their forms and shapes, and we'll see where that takes me. Drawing is another practice that is fun in itself - if you can take away the judging mind - and I think it's also very good for developing mindfulness and the practice of being in the moment.

Horses are about life, and life is about horses . . .

Exciting News (!) and Other January Steps

2012-01-31T18:19:00.000-06:00

There's lots of news, relating to my goals for 2012, and some of it's pretty exciting!

First, one of my goals was to get training assistance with Pie and Drifter, both to work through some of their holes and issues, and to work with me and them together so we can deal with the issues I have due to my fall and how I interact with each horse. Pie and Drifter will be moving to Black Star Farm in Wisconsin around March 1 for at least 30 days and perhaps longer. Heather there is a long-term student of Mark Rashid's, is one of his very few approved trainers/instructors (I believe there are only 6 worldwide), and I know her and her family well and have watched her work with a number of horses over the years I've been attending Mark's clinics at her farm. She's very good with the horses, can deal with whatever comes up in a quiet and effective way, her methods are consistent with Mark's, and she's also a good instructor.

She will initially spend about a week to 10 days working with and evaluating each horse. After that, I'll be going up there (it's about an hour and a half drive each way) several times a week to work with her and the horses. And we'll see what we see. One thing I've asked her to do is give me an honest evaluation of whether either horse isn't suitable for me. I've told her that I believe both of them can be good horses for me, once we get by this point and our immediate issues, but that I really want to know if I'm wrong about that with either horse. One of my goals was also to get a Western saddle that fits both horses (if that's possible), preferably an About the Horse saddle. Heather has a number of these saddles and we'll be able to try out different tree sizes so I'll know model and size to buy, either new or used.

I'm very excited about this and can't wait for March to get here! We're waiting until then because at least there's a shot of doing some work outside in March. As things go along, of course I'll be updating all of you about how Pie and Drifter and I do. (Once things warm up and dry out a bit here, Dawn and I will go back to work here on what we're working on - it's amazing to say, and it took a lot of work to get here, but Dawn is now very familiar to me, and she and I know how to work together.)

Second, I had a goal to develop a mindfulness/meditation practice. I've been working to do some daily meditation, and to bring mindfulness to everyday life. I'm also taking a drawing course - I find drawing to be a very mindful practice.

Third, I had a goal to improve my fitness, core strength and balance. I'm starting a t'ai chi chih course this week - it's great for balance and also has a strong mindfulness/body awareness element. I'm going to be starting some strength training shortly - more about that as it comes along. I've upped my walking time and speed as well - I'm up to about 3 miles a day. I've also modified my diet to elimate pretty much all red meat - we're mostly vegetarian, in fact vegan since we mostly use olive or canola oil rather than butter - with only occasional chicken or fish, and some eggs.

Fourth, I had a goal to take some lessons on trained horses. I have calls in to two dressage instructors, and hope to start taking some lessons with one or both of them soon.

I'm pretty pleased with how 2012 is going so far, one step at a time . . .

Post-Traumatic Stress After Serious Riding Accidents

2012-01-27T22:11:00.002-06:00

Apparently, post-traumatic stress symptoms are common in people who've experienced traumatic accidents, such as traffic accidents, involving broken bones, or head injuries, or hospitalization. It also makes sense that this happens after a serious riding accident. One common symptom is refusal or reluctance to engage in the activity that led to the accident, and envisioning possible negative outcomes from engaging in the activity. Some of you in your comments have noted my dread/lack of enjoyment from riding my horses, and that's certainly true.

This understanding comes as a relief to me - I'm a bit slow on the uptake, apparently. I'm not old, or incompetent, and my horses, while they may be challenging at time, are just fine. It's just that I'm still processing, mentally, emotionally and physically, the effects of the accident. My reluctance/dread/lack of pleasure in riding and working with the horses are perfectly natural effects of the accident. There are some things I can do to help work this through, including consciously directing thought patterns into more positive stories ("reframing") as my horses and I come through this together.

This validates for me my plan and goals for 2012. While my horses are on "winter vacation" (you should see our arena - it would have qualified last week for ice hocky events), I'm planning to take some lessons on easier (more thoroughly trained) horses to get the habit of riding back and solidify my abilities to ride "in" rather than on, the horse. I'll also be working with an experienced trainer who's a student of Mark Rashid, probably starting in March, as I bring my three horses back into work, so she can oversee and advise with our getting back into business. I'll be working on my core strength and stamina, as well as my balance, to make sure I'm fit to do what I want to, which is work with and ride my three wonderful, full of personality horses - Dawn, Pie and Drifter deserve nothing less.

P.S. - read the comments - there's more interesting stuff in there . . .

(A very big thank you for all the supportive, insightful and challenging comments - I very much appreciated them all and they were a great help to me in thinking these things through. And read this post of Mugwump's - that's where I want to get to with my work with my horses.)

Am I (Too) Old (for This)?

2012-01-24T15:26:00.000-06:00

A couple of things have happened lately that have given me pause. Someone I know well, and who knows horses well, commented that my horses - all three of them - were "dangerous". I sort of went "huh??" She explained that what she meant wasn't that they were mean or harmful, just that they might be dangerous to me - Pie because he's young and green and has a big spin when he spooks, Drifter because he's smart and spoiled and therefore sometimes resistant, and Dawn because . . . well, just because she's Dawn . . . because I'm, as she put it, getting older - "you're almost 60" - and probably not in good enough physical shape due to age and inadequate conditioning. After I got over being offended, I understood that she was just worried about me - she said she wasn't questioning my competence, just my age and physical ability, including strength, balance and agility. Well, that certainly was a slap upside the head, so to speak.

And then the last time I was working with Drifter, he was pulling some big stunts on the lunge line until we got things sorted out, and several boarders were watching from outside the arena. Later, someone who overheard them talking told me they said I was crazy to be working with a horse like him and that I was at risk of getting hurt. Well, how about those potatoes . . . I don't know if they thought I was incompetent or just an old lady who couldn't cut it anymore. Now some of his antics were pretty dramatic, but I'd put his rope halter on for extra control and we worked things through - strained my shoulders pretty good, though. When I heard about what they'd been saying, my feelings were a mixture of annoyance and wounded pride and a tinge of shame - I care way too much what other people think and felt they were judging my abilities as lacking. While I was working with Drifter, it took a lot of physical effort and concentration to deal with his shennigans, but I had a clear plan and was working through it with him until we got to where we needed to be, but to an observer - they were all a good bit younger than me - it might have looked like a old woman cluelessly lungeing an out-of-control horse.

Am I too old to be doing what I'm doing and riding and working with the horses I have? I certainly don't have any problem being the age I am now - I don't wear makeup, will never have plastic surgery or other "enhancements", have plenty of sun damage to my skin and lots of wrinkles, and getting and staying in shape are a lot more effort than they used to be. I don't have any problem getting old . . . it's just that I've never felt like it was happening to me (denial or reality, who knows?) - I've never felt old, or even middle-aged, in my own head. I'm in better shape physically than I've been in a while (although I could be in a lot better shape). And, before my fall off Pie, I would have said I was a competent rider and able to work with horses like Dawn, Pie and Drifter. In fact I took pride in my abilities - it was part of my self-image - whether that pride was justified or not is hard to say (and I always think pride is a pretty questionable feeling, but there it is), and I always have a need to prove my competence, and even if truth be told, show off a little. These are not traits I like in myself, but there they are. So, I think that's why the bystanders' comments really hurt - instead of thinking I was doing a good job handling Drifter's difficulties, they just thought I was an idiot, whether rightly (because I am one) or wrongly (because they didn't understand what I was doing) or somewhere in-between (I don't think I'm an idiot but I could have done a better job).

And I don't think my fall off Pie showed my incompetence - anyone, no matter how good a rider, could have fallen off during a spook/spin like that. The severity of the concussion and the broken bones could be due to my age, I guess - the body isn't as resilient as we get older - but I was angry/upset/embarrassed that my previous lifetime record of no hospitalizations or broken bones due to horse-related incidents had been destroyed - for goodness sake, I hadn't fallen off but 3 times previously as an adult and none of those were serious. Nothing like a bad fall to throw a spanner into the works of one's self-image and confidence. I'm clearly getting older - just looking in the mirror tells me that - and certain things, like the heavy labor involved in caring myself for the horses at our self-care barn, are difficult and increasingly annoying. But it had never occurred to me that anyone would think I was over the hill . . .

But then I don't want to be the old lady whose family has to take away the car keys (so to speak) to keep her from injuring herself or others, because she's too proud or lacking in self-awareness to realize that she's not capable of doing what she wants to do and has always done for her whole life. I don't think I'm there yet, but only time will tell, I guess . . .

Mind the Gap . . . Intent, Focus and the (Un)Cluttered MInd

2012-01-20T19:30:00.000-06:00

This post has a number of aspects, but it's mainly about how we (at least I, but I'm going to use "we" on the assumption that I'm not the only one) mess up our communications with our horses through various types of mental clutter. Working (there's that word again) with horses is primarily a mental/emotional thing - of course we have to have physical skills as well, but, once we're past a basic level of competency, the whole thing is driven by our minds - in the broad sense of intent, emotion and degree of "mental clutter" - and how they help or hurt the interaction with the horse. It's the union of our minds with the horse's mind that drive the union of our bodies so we can do the work together.

Mugwump did a post a few days ago that touches on this topic - read the comments - some of the most interesting stuff is in there. For those of us who rode as kids, it's interesting to compare how it felt to ride as a kid and how it feels now - there's often a big difference and a lot of the difference may not be positive. Yes, maybe we know how to do a precisely timed canter departure or jump a hunter course or do a dressage test or ride a reining pattern, but is all that "knowing" enough? I'd argue that often there's a big something that can get lost - and it's an innate, direct connection with the horse where we wanted to do something and we (the horse and I) just did it together - what I'd call an instinctive way of riding. There really wasn't a lot of thought involved, just a close connection with the horse.

I know this is true for me. I started riding when I was very small, and had no formal training at all until I was in college. I just got on the horse (almost always bareback), rode until I fell off, got on again, and just did that for years until it felt right. I would ride most any horse, even those other people didn't like or were afraid of, and anything I wanted the horse to do the horse just did. I raced, I jumped, I rode in parades, I took horses swimming, and mostly I just rode, at all gaits and on all types of horses.

Now, why did we have that connection with the horse as a kid and how does that very close instinctive connection (sometimes or forever) get lost as an adult? This is the "gap" I refer to in the title - it comes from the announcement "mind the gap" that's made on the London Tube (subway) when you board the trains - it's that scary gap between the platform and the train.

For me the problems as an adult come from two things - muddying our communication of intent to the horse, and allowing doubt (or recently after my bad accident last summer even worry/fear) to creep in and contaminate the intention we communicate with our thoughts to the horse - and it's no wonder the horses have trouble doing what we want or even trusting us enough to listen.

First, on muddying of intent. Mugwump's post makes a very important point - if you clearly intent to do something, and it's important to you, the horse can act on that intent. It's partly a matter of expectation - if you expect the horse to do something, good or bad, that's likely to be what you get more often than not. I think part of this is having a clear, specific intent that your horse can read (and not to get all mystical, but there's a lot more to it than physical cues - it's a matter of focus and mental energy as much as anything). And then there's the expectation that the horse will do it, because you think it's important (if you don't care or you're uncertain about whether you want it, your horse will pick that up and you're unlikely to get it). Now of course, horses have to have the space and time (and our patience) to learn how to do what we're asking, but if we focus on what we want, clearly and calmly, no matter what the horse's response, and reward tries towards our goal, we'll get there. This focus on what we want the horse to do with us, instead of on what we don't want the horse to do (this is why, in my opinion, training schools that focus on making the wrong thing hard rather than on making the right thing easy often have things backwards), is one of the most important things I've learned from Mark Rashid. (Please take a minute to read his very important post on the question of degrees of separation that we introduce into our interactions with the horse due to our tendency to take our focus off our goal, often in reaction to something the horse does - I cited this in an earlier post but it's very germaine to this question of focus and intent.)

The other way I think we muddy our communication of intent is to overanalyze/intellectualize what we're doing. I think this is a particular risk for "technical" riders - dressage and reining come to mind, but there are other types as well - and also for those of us who are working to improve and who are learning new "techniques" - ways to time cues, ways to be softer/more precise, ways to think about moving particular feet, etc. There's a risk that, if we over-think (what we're doing or what the horse is or isn't doing) or over-complicate, we will lose the clarity of intent and focus that communicates most effectively to the horse. It's not that simple, of course, but I think you get the idea - our minds, in an intellectual sense, can introduce a separation between our intent/focus and the horse.

And then there's the problem of the cluttered mind - what some of the meditative traditions refer to as "monkey mind" (no insult intended to monkeys, but then tend to be very busy little creatures) - full of thoughts, doubts, memories, plans, distractions of all types - if you've ever done any mediation work you know what I mean: there's a lot of clutter in there most of the time. I think horses have some trouble interacting with people whose minds are not (relatively) clear and focussed - the intent that's communicated to the horse is clouded by mental noise and also often by emotions - doubt, fear, worry, etc. Horses pick these emotions up very easily and they can color their responses. It's well beyond the point of this post to talk about how to unclutter a cluttered mind - I think it's partly a matter of recognizing the issue and partly a matter of practice and habit.

A brief digression on Dawn, Drifter and Pie. After my accident, my interactions and relationship with Dawn were pretty much unchanged - we worked together just as before - our riding relationship goes back several years now and nothing much changed. Both Drifter and Pie had some physical issues due to their infection with the EPM organism that interfered with our work and their comfort level and ability to do what I asked. Drifter was picking up my uncertainty and my emotional clutter - he's very sensitive and a bit emotional himself - and his answer was to test me - he wasn't sure I could be trusted or ought to be respected as a leader. Pie had a reaction to my fall that isn't unusual for a young horse (read this post I did on a young horse at a Mark Rashid clinic whose rider had fallen - the horse came unglued and lost most of its training - Pie's case is different but there are some similarities). Pie had confidence in his rider - his old man and then me - and in his rider's guidance and leadership if something scared him - one of the best things about him was that if he spooked/startled, he would calm right down again. But when I fell and was incapacitated, I was not available for him to calm and guide him after he was scared by whatever it was (a group of fast-moving bikes with large flags on the back, or so I believe) - it was as if I had abandonned him. So now he's much more inclined to worry and be spooky, and to not calm down once he's scared - he's not sure he's safe any more with me and this is reinforced by the gap I'm allowing to come between my intent (to go down the trail) and him - "will a deer jump out?" "what's that noise?" "is that a child running down the trail?" - my guidance and leadership for him is not only muddied but contaminated by worry.

I think for me the solution lies somewhere along the lines of: Have a clear thought of the task (very specifically - say, ride at a walk from X to A in a straight line) I want to do together with the horse and keep my physical movements/cues/aids to the barest minimum so the horse can pick up what I am thinking, avoid inserting extraneous thoughts/emotions in between my intention and the horse, and keep my focus on the task no matter what - if extraneaous thought/emotions arise, just gently refocus on the task; if the horse does something other than what I intend, refocus the horse on the task. Much easier said than done, of course, but I think we can get there and that Pie and Drifter and I can reconnect and keep going from there - the objective is softness from the inside where there's a real, live connection and they can respond to my thought and direction. Here's hoping for spring . . .

Rebuilding Connections

2012-01-16T20:03:00.001-06:00

Today I just gave each horse a thorough grooming - it was in the 40sF with wind and the footing was terrible - packed snow and ice. I've been feeling that I've lost that close connection with the horses, and I though that some slow grooming would be one way to start to get that back. With each horse, I took my gloves off while I was grooming so I could use my hands to touch and feel them - that horse/human/horse touch is very important to our connection and it's easy to lose that in the winter.

Dawn has been distracted and overly alert, so I tried to be calm and slow with her. She's often crabby or restless for grooming, but she was pretty relaxed - I didn't get a head rest but she was paying attention to me. Pie has been very crabby - lots of ear pinning - for grooming lately, so for a change I took him out of his stall and put him on cross ties. He was very sweet and responsive - the crabbiness must be food-related - and seemed to enjoy his grooming, and his ears never went back once. Drifter has been very lively lately - he even tried to play bitey face (with my face) with me today when he was in his paddock - not OK (I was very clear with him about that) but I understand his restlessless as he's on solo turnout and has no one else to play with. He was very happy and relaxed on cross ties today and really seemed to enjoy his grooming.

At the end of each grooming session, I had each horse back a step or two for a click and treat - a nice way to end our sessions. It felt good to groom and run my hands over each horse, taking my time and not being in a hurry, and they seemed to enjoy it as well. Slow steps to regain connections . . .

In Search of Softness From the Inside

2012-01-11T19:28:00.000-06:00

We've had an extraordinary run of weather recently - it was actually in the mid-50sF today and I spent a lot of time outdoors without any gloves - pretty amazing in this part of the world in mid-January. Reality is returning tomorrow and tomorrow night - we're supposed to get 6 to 9 inches of snow with winds up to 30 mph and wind chills near zero - that's more normal.

I managed to get in some nice work sessions with Drifter and Pie. Yesterday, after our debacle of the day before, Pie and I did some in-hand and ground work in the arena. I'm in search of relaxation in the horse - that softness from the inside that gives horses the capacity to deal with unexpected events without losing their minds - Pie isn't there yet, and part of the program is my relaxation as well. We some softening work with the halter - head down and backing as well as head lowering combined with slight lateral flexion - these postures help with relaxation. We also did more lungeing work - he's pretty much got the hang of it at the walk. Today we continued with the same work, and his lungeing is improved in both directions - I can even have him move ahead of me in straight lines now. We're ready for trot work now. I also bridled and saddled him, and after doing some in-hand softening work with the bridle, I rode for a bit at the walk, again focussed on getting vertical and lateral softness to help him with his relaxation. Although he was distracted at points, he did very well - I have him a new bit - the Mylar single-jointed snaffle that Dawn usually wears - since the ported snaffle was giving him some problems. With him, with his tendency to stiffen his top line and travel inverted, I'm wanting to improve his top line relaxation and the relaxed "hang" of his head.

Then Drifter and I had another lungeing session. My objective was, in one direction, to have him be able to walk out nicely on request from the halt, take up a nice forward trot on request, and then come back to a nice walk off my body language, without resistance or fussing. Easy and not requiring a lot of energy from the horse, right? Of course it took some work to get there, although I think he's getting the idea of what I want. He has a number of ways of displaying resistance - he's Mr. "I'll do it if I want to but otherwise not" - if you take on a seriously spoiled horse you can expect this sort of thing - ranging from the dramatic - "I'm out of here" scoot and bolt (usually in response to my asking him to continue to move out after an attempted cut/face in, to the "I'm stopping and rearing - notice how big I am" to the "I'm going to cut in and kick out if you let me" to the "I'm trotting but notice that I'm sucking back" to "I'm going to stop/change direction if you don't do anything about it" to the "see my 'chess head'" (he does this thing where he raises his neck and tucks his head way in, which has a defiant edge to it). They were all on display today, but we just worked through it and 45 minutes later we had a lovely walk on followed by an excellent trot followed by a nice fluid walk, repeated several times (we'd had parts of this earlier but I wanted the whole package without any resistant behaviors). I'm pretty sore in the arms, shoulders and upper back after his scooting/bolting shenanigans, and I expect he's tired too. I was just persistant in asking for what I wanted, without being dramatic about it, and was delighted that we got to such a nice finish. I'm hoping that as he understands how easy it is to do what I'm asking, that our sessions will become easier - he's no dummy and should be able to figure out the easy way out (that isn't his old easy way out involving intimidating people into letting him do whatever he wants).

In the case of both horses, this work involves filling in holes that I had blown by previously in my eagerness to just get on and ride. I'm expecting the work to pay long-term dividends for both horses - there are moments that aren't pretty but there's on the way to something better. With the weather taking a turn for the worse, it's good we got in these work sessions.

Pie Loses His Mind

2012-01-09T14:12:00.000-06:00

Today my husband and I went on the trail again with Pie and I can't say that any of us had much fun. Pie had a complete and total meltdown, and although we all made it back to the barn together and in one piece, it was a close thing. We took a very familiar loop around the pastures - it was the first part of our successful outing yesterday. Pie has been around that loop hundreds of times, both ridden and hand walking. But today was different - it didn't help that it was very windy (gusts to 25mph) which when combined with a temperature around 40 made things downright nippy. Pie was fine for saddleing and mounting, and we headed off down the trail without any problem with my husband walking with us. Pie was more alert than normal, that was all. When we got about 300 yards from the barn, Pie was starting to really tense up, so I jumped off and led him, which turned out to be a very good thing.

His tension, I think, was due to the wind as well as the noise of a playground of children just out of sight behind the houses and a couple of hundred yards away. At this point we were halfway around the loop so just kept going as that was the shortest way back. Once he could see the playground in a gap between houses, he went on high alert - there was a lot of childish screaming going on. At that point I was leading him with just the halter, and he was holding it together but just barely. Then a barking dog that had gotten loose came running up behind us. Pie tried to scoot and I switched to holding the reins just below his chin - he was in a snaffle bit. My husband shooed the dog away. Now we were much closer to the playground. Pie went on ultra high alert - he was on his tiptoes and was completely tense. Now a friend came up walking her two rambunctious, barking, leaping dogs - she had to take them through the tall grass to make a detour around us but that made a lot of noise and Pie wasn't happy about that either.

Now we were at a turning in the trail where we had to turn our backs on the playground of shrieking children to walk towards home. At this point Pie, who had been anxious and nervous, completely lost his mind and would have bolted if he'd been able to. There's a big difference between a horse who is nervous and worried, but still able to listen to you, and one who's mentally gone - Pie's eyes were blank and as big as saucers, his muscles were rigid and he was completely not with me. I had my husband take the lead rope on one side of him while I held his bridle. We managed to go a ways in that configuration but Pie was getting even more agitated - it was getting hard to hold him even with the bridle and he was determined to bolt.

So I turned him to face the playground and we backed - he backs really well which turned out to be a good thing. I was able to keep him straight which kept him from turning and fleeing, although he was still focussed on doing that, and he had to soften his neck to keep backing which may have helped him mentally a bit. We probably backed 200 yards by the time we were done. The first part I had to use the bridle, and further on I was able to switch to asking him to back with the halter, although it still wasn't possible to turn him back towards the barn without him wanting to bolt. Finally, when we were about 100 yards from the barn, he was able to stand still for a few minutes while we reassured him, and his eyes started to return to normal and his head came down a bit. After that, I was able to turn him around and walk him back to the barn, first using the bridle and then switching to the halter and lead as he started to calm down a little more, and although he was still very nervous he was back with me again.

When we got back to the barn, I remounted and we walked around on the grassy area behind the barn for a few minutes - he was still pretty tense. Then I put him away.

I'm still feeling sick to my stomach with stress. I suppose I should feel good that I was able to get us back to the barn safely, but I don't really - there's nothing like dealing with a horse in full panic mode to get your adrenalin and other stress hormones going. I had to get us back - there was no choice other than letting him bolt - and I did what I had to do but I'm still somewhat surprised that I managed to do it. It's not an experience I'd like to repeat, and I expect Pie feels the same. Not the best day for a ride with the wind and chill, and the dogs and screaming children didn't help.

My daughter and I were going to work on Drifter's lungeing this afternoon, but the wind's getting stronger and I'm just plain exhausted so we're rescheduling.

Regaining Confidence

2012-01-08T15:41:00.001-06:00

Although my accident with Pie was almost 7 months ago, I'm still feeling the effects. My confidence still isn't back to where it was, and I've been mulling over what that's all about. Part of it, I think, is that, at age 57, I came face to face with mortality. When I had my kick-in-the jaw back in 2009 with Dawn, that made me realize that horses are big and that they can actually hurt you badly (I'm still having dental work done to deal with the effects) - don't ask me why but in all my many years of working with horses that had never really been something I was worried about. It took me a while to get over that - it was months before I was comfortable handling Dawn's feet (although I did it every day) and a while before she and I could work well together. Then when I came off Pie and was seriously injured and ended up in the hospital, that was a whole additional level of awareness of how badly you can be hurt working with horses. My concussion was so serious that for the first couple of days I was in the hospital, no one knew if I would recover or have permanent brain damage - and this was despite the fact I was wearing a helmet - which ended up with a 4-inch crack in it. (By the way, this isn't an argument against wearing a helmet - they can't protect you from everything - but if I hadn't been wearing a helmet, I would probably be dead or a vegetable - wear one every time - there are no excuses.) Every time I ride now, I'm aware in a subconscious sense that at any time, no matter my level of skill, I could die or be permanently injured. This was never part of my awareness until now, and it's difficult to integrate with my self-image (deserved or not) as a competent rider and handler of horses.

* * * * * *
There are definate effects of this new "awareness", that I have to deal with and in some cases work around, in order to get back to working comfortably with horses.

One of my goals this year with my horses is to be persistant within each work session, making sure that I don't quit until the change I'm looking for starts to come through - that way the horse has something to take forward until next time (it's always fascinated me how much horses learn between work sessions - it's clear that they're consciously or unconsciously mulling things from one session to the next). If the horse never reaches a point where he or she has "got it", at least in part, it's hard for links in the chain of learning to be built. I also have to be sure not to avoid particular things just because they may be difficult for the horse, and have to be willing to let the horse try out wrong solutions until the horse himself comes up with the right solution - this is much more valuable than simply telling the horse what to do. It's not the easiest thing to do, however, as I know from my ground work with Drifter - taking the horse outside his comfort zone (but not too far) and making sure holes in training are filled in sometimes results in some pretty ugly stuff until the horse figures things out and finds the place where comfort is available - that softness must always be continuously on offer. There's a tendency (certainly true for me) to want to avoid struggles and stress, or just to get in there and "fix" things by demanding/telling the horse the answer - I think quite often we fuss too much rather than let the horse have the time and space to figure things out. I think, however, that horses learn to find the solution and the security that there will be a place where things are OK partly through our giving them this space to do so, and this increases their confidence in us.

And then there's the struggle to regain my own confidence, particularly with Pie on the trail, and also with my ability to deal with Drifter's histrionics. For me, this also involves taking myself outside my comfort zone, so that I can have the resolution of my anxiety level coming down again, and again - every time I get that relief it reinforces my confidence. So I'm trying to set myself up with specific challenges that stretch the boundaries of my confidence, while building in some factors that will promote success - just like with my horses. With Drifter, I'm getting some quality coaching from my daughter - who's got an exceptional eye for what's going on in the interaction between horse and rider/handler - so that Drifter and I can both progress together and find soft spots together. With Pie, my anxiety is higher on the trail, so I'm got my husband going on walks with us - Pie appreciates his company at points where I get nervous and might make him nervous - barking dogs, fast-moving bicycles or children, minor spooks - so that I can calm down and give him confidence again. Every time my anxiety spikes and I calm back down is a reward that reinforces my confidence - I want as many of those as I can get on each ride. Today we were out for almost an hour, and both ended better than we started.

Slow progress, but we have to start somewhere and every step forward is important . . .

The Meaning of Work, Persistance and Letting the Horse Figure Things Out

2012-01-06T19:50:00.002-06:00

Lisa had an interesting comment on my goals post - that I used the word "work" a lot in the post and that perhaps I'd lost the meaning of fun with my horses. I'd say that's a pretty accurate assessment of where I was, although I've got more to say about the meaning of "work" later in this post. For a long time, I've been going to ride my horses or do things with them with a feeling of being forced (by myself and my sense of duty to my horses), as well as a substantial element of dread - irrational fears of being hurt or even failing my horses by being unable to do what they need. Pretty icky stuff . . .

So I've been deliberately not working (there's that word again) with my horses until I feel that it's going to be something I want to do - that I can approach without dread. They're pretty happy eating hay and going to turnout and getting groomed, and there's nothing wrong with that. But that's not why I'm working (that word again) with a highly reactive and very forward 14 year old Thoroughbred (Dawn), or a spoiled, athletic, mostly untrained 10 year old Quarter Horse (Drifter), or a good-minded but still very young and sometimes spooky 5 year old Quarter Horse (Pie). I don't have these horses for them to stand around getting older - they're all nice horses and have a lot of potential, and if anything were to happen to me they all have to be well-trained enough to find good new homes. Also, I have them to continue to improve my horsemanship skills - it's a daily challenge and one that stretches my limits and makes me a better horseperson. None of these horses are easy, all for different reasons.

So I've been waiting and just letting my feelings be what they are. Today was such a nice day - it got up to almost 55F, which is unheard of at this time of year - that there was nothing for it but to get out there and do some horse work (sure beats house work!), and I actually wanted to do it for the first time in a long time. Now, as to the meaning of "work". I know a lot of people may have negative feelings about that word, or feel that it applies only to paid employment. I've always thought of work as anything I do intentionally, with focus and thought, with a specific objective. That certainly applies to what I try to do with my horses - but that doesn't mean that it can't be a source of enjoyment, and yes, even fun.

So I was out there "working" today with Pie and Drifter (Dawn continues to be "resting", as they say in the theatre, since I'm out of shape and two horses was plenty for me today). In the time we haven't been working, I've been thinking about what I need to do that hasn't been happening. It's a pretty simple concept but one that's hard to execute in process - being persistent and not stopping until the change you are looking for starts to come through - otherwise the horse never understands what you're trying to accomplish. I need to work - yes, work - long enough, and thoroughly enough, that we get somewhere and so the horse can feel a sense of deserved accomplishment and take the learning forward. This is what I mean by getting the job done. Lately, due to my residual issues from my fall, and my general reluctance to work with the horses, I've been leaving them hanging - not persisting until things start to improve but in fact avoiding things that are hard and only doing little, inconclusive bits of work. I've been avoiding taking them outside their comfort zones - and doing this was one of my resolutions for the new year.

A long preamble to what was a very good day. Pie was up first. My intent was to do a couple of things with him - first, to work on advancing his training to lunge, second to do some walk/trot work where he got to the point of being responsive and attentive at the trot without fussing, any crow hops or other excitement, and third, to take some little excursions (100 yards or less) on the trail while dealing with any herd/barn boundness. Lungeing is coming along - he'll now circle me in both directions at the walk without turning in, although I'm having to use pretty strong cues with the lunge whip to keep him going (he's clearly not very impressed by the lunge whip). There's more to do on this, but I was happy with his progress today. The walk/trot work went well - we started in the arena but he wasn't happy with the sloppy footing, so we worked on the grass field behind the barn. He started out pretty feisty, but we started with trotting in fairly small circles with lots of changes of directions (it's hard for a horse to buck or engage in other serious mischief under these circumstances) and just kept at it until he settled and concentrated - at that point our circles could get larger and we were able to add some straight lines. Then we did some short forays down the trails away from the barn, using circles and serpentines to slow down his momentum and keep him following my lead. We were both pretty happy when we were done.

Then Drifter was up. He was pretty nervous on the cross ties, doing some calling and even pooping out of nervousness. I did some running my hands gently down the lead line with him and that helped him bring his attention back to me, lower his head and calm him down a bit. His hoof handling was perfect despite his earlier nervousness, and I am delighted to report that there was not one instance of nipping or mouthiness during our entire session. I tacked him up with a saddle, although I wasn't sure we'd get to riding today. I had asked my older daughter - who is a very skilled horseperson - to help me out by watching what we were doing, particularly with our ground work, and giving us some coaching. We started in the arena with my touching him all over with the dressage whip - he seemed unconcerned.

My daughter had me pay special notice to where his attention was, when leading, standing with me or on the lunge - if he got distracted, or wanted to sniff the ground (one of his studdy behaviors) to give a tug - not hard or sharp but intentional - on the lead to tell him "here I am, please pay attention" - this worked very well.

We moved on to lungeing, and various types of excitement ensued. My daughter said that, if I ask him to do something, say walk on the lunge line, and he decides to use a lot more energy that is necessary or than I asked for, by running in circles, bucking, attempting to take off (I managed to keep my feet under me and not get my arms ripped out of their sockets but it was a close thing a couple of times), just to leave him alone and let him figure it out, while rewarding him as soon as he did what I wanted. Drifter is a very "histrionic" horse - all acting out - and just keeping quiet and being persistant, and waiting for him, gave him the space he needed to work it out. This highlights an important point for me - although it's important to give the horse your undivided attention and direction, it's also important not to always "give" them the answer without allowing them the space to learn and even try out wrong things - a little like kids, I think. The only correction he received was on the one occasion he changed direction without my request - I snapped him to a halt and got him going back in the original direction pretty quickly. I was able to manage my body language pretty well and pointed my dressage whip at his shoulder if he showed signs (the head tilt is the early indicator) of resisting going forward and turning in. On a couple of occasions, he got fairly annoyed when I caught him trying to turn in before he managed to do it - that provoked some of the exciting behavior.

She also pointed out that, when we were at a point where I was specifically asking him to trot, that he started out giving me a "resistant" trot - sucking back without forward impulsion, cramping his head up (which in him is a sign of balking/resistance), or tail swishing - which is just what he has been doing under saddle. So part of his learning today was that only a couple of laps of good, forward, willing trot got the reward of my dropping my energy and asking for walk, with a couple of laps of that followed by a halt. The footing in the arena was pretty deep and after about a half hour he figured out that just going along nicely got him the opportunity to come to a walk (which is what I initially wanted), followed by some quality trot and a halt (he still turns to face me, which is not what I want but hard to correct until we are ground driving) - much easier than careening around. We did a couple of iterations of this, asking for walk, then trot, then walk again and a halt and then did the same in the other direction, but not as long as he was getting tired - we did get to a point where he had done everything well at least once in the other direction but my daughter said that if we'd kept going he would have started objecting since he was getting pretty tired and we didn't want to go there - we wanted to end at a point where he and we were all satisfied with what we'd done. I didn't get on and I didn't do rope work with his legs today, but that was fine since he was tired and we'd gotten a lot accomplished.

My daughter says she's increasingly liking the idea of repeatedly presenting the horse with an exercise on successive work sessions to allow the horse to cumulatively learn over these successive sessions - this isn't at all the same as repeated drilling a horse in something it already knows, which I find to be fairly useless - it may reassure the rider/handler but doesn't do a lot for the horse. So Drifter and I will be doing this lungeing work every session until he's got it down, and then I expect it'll fade out when it's no longer needed. Due to his lack of training and that he's somewhat "spoiled" by prior handling, he's got a resistant/pissy streak. A horse like this can't be forced to do things - it's a lot better if he can figure out for himself that doing them the way you're asking is actually easier for him - I guess that's the "make the right thing easy" part that often gets overlooked - if you do that you don't have to spend a lot of time making the wrong thing hard, since the horse takes care of that himself.

I'm delighted to report that both Pie and Drifter seem to have completely recovered from their bout with the EPM organism - both were sound and their gaits were normal and Pie is no longer sensitive to touch or grouchy (our vet/chiro thinks this may have been due to his peripheral nervous system rebuilding connections). Tomorrow I'm busy all day, but perhaps some more (fun) horse work on Sunday . . .

Pie Shows His Personality

2012-01-04T19:35:00.000-06:00

Pie has really been showing his personality lately - he's a very curious, smart horse and it's fun to watch him now that he's feeling so much better.

He's been very interested in the goat lately - the goat lives in a pen near the stable. Every time we go near the goat pen, he wants to stop and watch the goat. We were out on a hand walk, so I took Pie up to investigate further. I wish I'd had my camera - Pie went right up to the goat, stuck his head over the fence (the goat had put his front feet up on the inside of the fence) and proceeded to thoroughly sniff and investigate the goat in a friendly way. Then Pie actually wanted to groom with the goat - he was nibbling gently on the goat's shoulders - at this point the goat decided maybe Pie was a little bit big and walked away.

Yesterday and today, Pie and Drifter have been stuck in paddocks for the day - the paddocks are pretty big - about 100' by 50' - because the footing in the larger dry lot they takes turns in is too bad - it had gotten extremely muddy and then the mud froze solid with huge lumps and deep holes, making it almost impossible for them to walk. Today, when I was visiting in his paddock, Pie made his desires know. He's rarely a mouthy horse (unlike someone we could mention - Drifter, I'm thinking of you), but he reached over the gate and grabbed the lead rope of his halter which was hanging on the fence. He shook the lead rope and dropped it, and then grabbed the halter and did the same with it. The whole time he was doing this he was looking at me as if to say, "put this thing on my face and let's get out of here!" It's supposed to be above freezing over the next several days, so we're all hoping to use the big dry lot again . . .

The Plan for 2012, or Why Horses Are about Life

2011-12-31T15:30:00.000-06:00

Warning - long post ahead, with links to some suggested year-end reading . . .

Horses are about life, just like everything else - it isn't possible to separate life with horses - how we are with them and they with us - from the rest of life. Due to the immediacy and "thereness" of the horse - you can't bullshit a horse - our interactions with them tend to reveal a lot about us and where we are in our journey in life, and about where our lifework needs to go next. If we listen to our horses, they have a lot to tell us.

So here's where I am - I've got some work to do as a result of my continuing reactions to my fall in June. And some of this even goes back as far as June 2009, when Dawn kicked me in the jaw (reminder to self - be extra careful in June). I've been riding horses and working around them for many, many years and prior to my June 2009 incident with Dawn and my June 2011 incident with Pie, it'd never really worried me that horses are big animals and you can get seriously injured working around them or riding them. I managed to get my confidence back with Dawn, although it took a while and I'm now more careful around her, and I've never ridden her on the trail and don't plan to - she's too reactive (and fast-moving when she does react) - could that be fixed? Maybe, but not by me.

I'm still not sure why I came off Pie, since I can't remember the incident - it might have been heart-related or he might have spooked and spun - but it really doesn't matter. What matters is that, even though that was my first fall in over 10 years despite hundreds and hundreds of rides, it was my first fall of many I've had in life to ever result in broken bones and a hospital stay. I've had concussions before in my youth, but I've never had one that took 6 weeks to recover from or where my balance, vision and strength were affected. And then Pie and Drifter developed their issues related to EPM, which in Drifter's case led to things like balking and rearing - not fun - and to Pie and Drifter feeling much better (and feistier) after recovering.

Although I'm back to riding and I don't any longer get that gut-wrenching adrenaline kick every time a horse takes a funny step, it's still very hard. I've been pushing ahead but I keep imagining disaster scenarios . . . The hardest part is getting started - I'm always finding excuses not to work with the horses or ride - it's too cold, or too windy, or it's raining (or it's going to rain tomorrow which means I can't work two or three days in a row) or I'm too tired, etc., etc. Once I do get started, I'm able to do it, but I feel (although I try not to act) tentative and I'm always looking out for the horse to act up, or the deer to jump out of the bushes, etc., etc. As a result, I'm not providing my horses the leadership they need and deserve, and my timing, feel and comfort in the saddle aren't quite as good - whether due to mental distraction or some persistant low-grade neurological issues - which means that Pie is somewhat worried (which makes me worried) and Drifter is showing me when he's resistant that he's not sure I should be in charge (Dawn seems fine, bless her sweet/feisty heart).

But really, I'm just as good a rider as I ever was - however skilled or unskilled at certain things I am - although I sure don't bounce any more. So where does that leave me at this turning of the year? Here are some things I plan to do in 2012 to get things back on track for me, and therefore for my horses - it isn't really about them, it's about me, and as I get things straightened out they'll come right again.

Make sure I'm fit and that my balance is good and that my body awareness is there - I plan to do some strength and aerobic work and also something like t'ai chi chih to improve my balance and motor skills.

Get a Western saddle that fits Drifter and (probably with some padding) Pie, so that when we're on the trail I'll feel more secure than I have been riding in a dressage saddle.

Allow myself to fully experience, when not on the horse, my feelings of fear/incompetence/shame for my fall, and learn to observe them and let them be what they are without judging - creating some mental distance between "me" and those negative feelings and thus (I hope) allowing them to resolve. Develop a regular mindfulness/meditation practice, both for relaxation and also to give me better skills to cope with fear or adversity in my horse work or for that matter in life in general.

Have a plan for each ride/work session but make sure that while I'm working with the horse, I'm "with" the horse and not overthinking things, and staying in the moment and focussed on the task and not on the many things that could distract me and make it harder for my horse to do what I'm asking. (On that topic, I recommend that you read this really excellent post by Mark Rashid on how we can introduce multiple degrees of separation between the cue and response by not keeping our focus on the task.) Don't ever hurry but get the job done.

Don't just stay with what's easy or comfortable - make sure that the plan for each work session involves taking the horse a bit out of its comfort zone and presenting the horse with a problem to solve and giving the horse the time and space to solve it - and then release, release, release at the appropriate instant. (On this topic, read this post on Mugwump Chronicles on presenting your horse with knots to solve.) I need to remember that it's OK for the horse to be (somewhat but not excessively) anxious or stressed while figuring something out provided I provide a route for the horse to find the solution, break things down in small steps and give the horse time to relax in a "safe spot" in terms of the work from time to time.

Take some lessons to help me with my body position and feel, on trained horses - I have my eye on a local dressage trainer who's low-key and of the classical school - I need to go over and look at his place and watch him teach in the new year and, if I like what I see, arrange some lessons. At some point I'd like him to take a look at Drifter, who I think has the potential to be a fine little (at least lower-level) dressage horse.

Get some training direction/assistance. Mark Rashid has one of his very few "approved" students (I believe there are fewer than 10 worldwide) who is less than a two-hour haul from me - she's at the place where I went to the clinic last May. I've seen her ride over the years, and she's really good, and I like her and her approach. I'd like to trailer two horses at a time up there every two weeks or so starting in March (they have a small indoor) to get her to work me me and my horses and help me direct my work. I've been working on my own for a number of years, except for occasional clinics with Mark, and some quality "eyes on the ground" and "adult supervision" could really make a difference, I think. I've already e-mailed her to try to set something up. And if there's a Mark Rashid clinic there next year, ride in it.

So, how about the individual horses - where would I like to go with them in 2012?

Dawn and I need to continue to work on our mutual relaxation and then on the canter (which right now is certainly not relaxing for either of us). Our lateral work has just started and there's lots we can do to develop that.

Pie and I need to develop our softness at all three gaits and get back out on the trail in a way that builds our confidence. Pie also needs to learn to lunge and ground drive - these are holes in his training - and we've already started work on that.

Drifter's ground work needs to be improved and become a "safe place" for him - this is an area where I could use some outside help as I'm not that skilled at ground work. Our under saddle work should progress - making sure forward is always there instantly and continuing our softening, transition and lateral work at all three gaits. If he does well and starts to be able to calm down and relax, we could start on the trail, although I need to think about how to deal with his aggressiveness with geldings and obsession with mares when riding in company, and I'd like to teach him to ground drive first since he can be pretty rmactive - we can make a start on that over the winter.

I can't say that I'll be sad to see the hindquarters of 2011 as it leaves the barn - here's to a great 2012 for all of us!

The Year In Review, With Some Pictures

2011-12-30T13:20:00.001-06:00

2011 was certainly an interesting year, and had its ups and downs. Here's a brief summary, with a few pictures.

January was mostly snowless, and Pie and I managed a few good trail rides. Here are Scout and Pie being camera hogs:

In February, we had a snowstorm that produced huge drifts, and once we got shovelled out, the horses had fun in the snow. First, Dawn - love the snow mustache:

Then Misty:

In March, Drifter arrived, and we began the process of figuring each other out:

In April, Pie turned 5 and Drifter showed his aggressive side, against a much larger Scout, during integration with the gelding herd:

In April, Drifter turned 10 and Pie had his odd tying up/laminitis attack, and was pulled off grass into a dry lot paddock.

In May, Dawn had part of a fractured tooth removed:

and Dawn and Drifter and I attended a 3-day Mark Rashid clinic, and learned many things:

Dawn turned 14 in June. In mid-June, I had my accident, coming off Pie, getting a severe concussion, breaking my collar bone and two ribs and wrecking my helmet (thanks be for helmets). After spending 5 days in the hospital, including getting a pacemaker, I spent the next 6 weeks recovering, and although I sat on Pie a few times, no real riding or horse work got done.

I rode a few times in July, and in mid-August, I finally felt well enough to start really riding again.

In September, Pie started repeatedly colicing and made a visit to the vet hospital - they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him although he did seem to have enlarged lymph nodes in his abdomen. And weird stuff started happening with both Pie and Drifter - reluctance to move out, gait oddnesses and difficulty picking feet. In October, both horses were diagnosed with the earliest stages of EPM using the new peptide ELISA test (see the EPM page for more information on this saga), and began treatment.

In November, Dawn went barefoot, joining the two barefoot boys. Drifter and Pie slowly went back to work, and are feeling much better.

To conclude the year, three sleeping beauties wish you and yours an excellent 2012:

Tomorrow, I hope to post about my thoughts about where I am with my horses and my hopes for 2012 . . .

Holiday Wishes From Norman, Lily, Maisie, Dawn, Pie and Drifter

2011-12-24T15:27:00.001-06:00

The following equines (and I) wish you a most excellent Christmas as well as an equi-excellent New Years!

Norman:

Lily:

Maisie:

Dawn:

Pie:

and Drifter:

Happy Holidays!

Blog Winter Vacation

2011-12-10T09:49:00.001-06:00

It's time for a vacation from blogging. I don't know about you, but it's too easy for me to spend too much time on blogging - reading other people's blogs, commenting, reading replies to comments, thinking about what I want to write on my own blog, writing and editing it, taking photos and editing those, checking to see if anyone has read it and commented, replying to comments . . . Blogging started for me as a way to keep track of my horse work, and to have a place to think and write about issues related to horsemanship and horses - I'm one of those people who finds writing very helpful in thinking things through. It's certainly served that purpose for me, and I hope has been interesting for those who read the blog, whether they comment or not. And it's fun to have comments, and sometimes a dialogue with others about the horse things that are important to me. And yet . . .

But it's also too easy to fall into the trap of "blogging as entertainment" - not that entertainment is bad at all so long as it doesn't eat up too much of my life. I think of it as "horse TV" - since I otherwise don't watch TV - seeing and enjoying other people's lives with horses. Nothing really wrong with that either. And I do feel that I have several good "blog friendships" with horse women and men whose opinions and thinking I value. That's good too.

But, now that it's winter, and my riding and work with my horses will be much reduced, it's time for a blogging vacation. After this post, I won't be posting or reading and commenting on other blogs for a while. I plan to spend more time with family and friends, read and think, and maybe do some pieces of writing, some of which may be about horses or horsemanship and might eventually end up on this blog. I don't think this blog will go away - I expect sometime in the New Year or the spring, I'll be blogging again about the continuing adventures of Dawn, Pie and Drifter and reading and commenting on blogs again.

Last chance to comment for a while - what does blogging do for you and what about it is positive or negative? I wish you all a very Happy Holiday and New Year - may 2012 be a fine year with horses!

Very Good Session With Drifter

2011-12-08T18:35:00.001-06:00

Drifter and I had an excellent work session today. The wind chill was about 30F and the arena footing wasn't fabulous but it's about to get much colder and windier and I wanted to get a work session in. I wasn't sure at the beginning how it was going to go - he was pretty up and made one attempt to nip me when I went to halter him in his paddock - he got a firm swat to the muzzle for that and after giving me a peeved look didn't try that again.

We've been doing a lot of work with him moving out of my space whenever I ask by moving towards him or holding up a hand or touching his body, and also on his maintaining an appropriate distance from me - I can come up to him but he can't come right up to me. And we've been doing lots of backing away from me if I ask him to back using my voice, holding up my hand or moving into his space.

Today I carried a dressage whip for our lungeing session - I had a lunge whip on the ground in the middle of the arena just in case but never needed it. I worked on being very clear with my body language and position, and our lungeing session went very well after he settled down a bit and realized I didn't want him to run in circles, even though I was carrying a whip. There were no major meltdowns or difficulties - he did turn in a few times but I just calmly started him out again in the correct direction. I worked on doing the least I could but doing as much as was needed, and ended up not having to get very big at all. By the end, we were doing lots and lots of walk/trot transitions with some halts thrown in - I used verbal commands as well as body language and if an upwards transition wasn't immediate, I used a flick of the whip instantly to reinforce it.

Once that was going well, I mounted up. I carried my short crop, and my objective was to get immediate transitions to trot without a moment's hesitation - I was to give him the aid and if he didn't instantly move into trot add the secondary aid of the crop tapping his shoulder. The first time was almost perfect - I cued and a fraction of a second later used the crop, not all the hard and voila we had an excellent trot transition. I've been waiting too long to use the secondary cue - if I can be right behind the primary cue there's not time for hesitation/balking to develop. I think the secondary cue won't be needed for long, although I'll probably continue to carry the crop just in case. No secondary cue was needed on any other trot transition during our work today.

And, as suggested by several commentators, we did lots of standing around after he did something well, with lots of verbal praise and rubs thrown in. I was pretty pleased - he just looked tired but his eye was softer and he seemed to understand he had done well. We're pretty close weather wise to losing the ability to work in the arena, and I wanted to get things in decent condition with Drifter before I'm shut down for the middle of the winter. I felt good about today - if this was our last work session before Drifter got the winter off, I wouldn't feel too bad. But there are some warmer days in the forecast next week, so maybe we're not done yet for the year . . .

Toning It Down for Effectiveness

2011-12-07T19:00:00.001-06:00

I've been mulling over my ground work with Drifter - well, stewing would be a more appropriate description. I'm disturbed by the resistance/dominance behaviors - balking/rearing/acting out - that have shown up, both in his ridden work and in the ground work. There's some interesting stuff going on - he's a pretty dominant little horse who's often gotten his way by pushing his handlers/riders around, or intimidating them, particularly on the ground. This has all been complicated by the EPM episode, where he wasn't able to move comfortably under saddle at the trot and where I gave him the benefit of the doubt if he couldn't/wouldn't move forward - we'd done a lot of work to establish a good work ethic and some of that has been compromised. And now he's feeling great again - probably better than at any time since I've had him. I'm pretty certain none of it is physical any more - I always try to rule out physical issues first - his saddle fits well, his teeth are fine, he's had good chiro care - although there may be some memory of physical issues due to the EPM although that's no longer a real problem for him in terms of his ability to move.

He's one of those horses who cares a lot about routine, and things being done "properly" - if you stay inside his comfort zone he is very cooperative and even friendly, but if you ask him to try something new or something he's struggling to understand, he can become frustrated and worried very quickly, particularly if you overdo your aids - he doesn't deal well with pressure. And he has a strong sense of fairness - if you get big with him when he doesn't understand or thinks it's unfair, he becomes quite upset. A lot of the work we're doing now is outside of his historical experience and he's uncertain - this is one of the times where he tends to get frustrated or dominant. He's also very smart - all three of my current riding horses are very smart - which means he's always trying to figure out how things work and what the angles are.

With him, I need to think about whether I'm going about things in the right way and whether there's a more effective way I could work with him. Obviously, my first priority is to stay safe - he must always respect my personal space, no ifs ands or buts. We're getting that ironed out with reinforcement of his leading work, and by making sure I always say something if he tries to nip or head butt - this work is going well.

I think a lot of the issues we have with groundwork are due to my ineptitude - he's a sensitive horse who is very responsive to the signals I send him with my body. In our recent sessions, I've tried to be much more deliberate and clear about what I want - my position vis-a-vis his shoulders and hindquarters is critical, and as Breathe pointed out in a recent comment, the angle of my shoulders is important too - I have to be sure I'm not inadvertently giving him mixed messages as that can lead directly to his frustration with the work. And if I'm more deliberate and careful about the messages I'm sending, then my aids and direction will not have to be as big, which will go a long way to prevent his frustration. Generally, if the horse is making big moves, then either your timing isn't right or you're overdoing the aids - this isn't always true and sometimes big stuff does need to happen but the general rule usually applies.

So one of my objectives is to tone things down to be more effective - if my position and timing are better, then I have to do less to influence his behavior and I won't be reacting to things he decides to do out of frustration or confusion. (I was able to watch a good "tone it down" lesson at the Mark Rashid clinic two years ago - see this post.) We made a small start today - it was quite cold and windy today so we just went to the parking lot for a few minutes. First, we reinforced his backing out my space using clicker - that went well. Then we did a little bit of lungeing at the walk, just using the lead line - I use a 10' line - and a dressage whip - I thought he might find this less threatening than a lunge whip and that was so although he clearly understood that it was an aid to forward. There was no resistance or difficulty in either direction, although I had to stand pretty far back towards his hindquarters to keep him moving forward and not turning in. I kept my aids very minimal to see how little I could use, and it worked very well. We were both pretty satisfied with this little bit of work and now we need to continue to build on it . . .

Drifter and I Continue to Work it Out

2011-12-06T16:46:00.001-06:00

Drifter and I had another ground work session today, and although we're not yet where I ultimately want to be, we did make some progress. I started by moving him around in his small paddock. I got some resistance - some rearing, some kicking out in my general direction and some avoidance of my asks to move in a particular direction at a particular speed - I was using a 10' lead line as my aid. He was particularly sticky moving from a halt into a new direction. We made some progress and he was doing well walking and trotting in both directions at my request, but then his patience started to wear thin and he was starting to think about coming in towards me when he was rearing - I don't know if he would have actually charged me or not and he wasn't angry but rather petulant. But horses are big - even 14.3 horses - and that wasn't going to go anyplace good, and I didn't want him starting to think along those lines, so I decided I needed a way to look a little more formidable, and the footing in the paddock was pretty slippery. I got the lunge whip, put him on the lunge line and took him out of the paddock and into the arena.

I started out holding the lunge whip - I didn't actually use it at all - and he started out by running in circles out of apprehension. After a few seconds of that, I dropped the lunge whip and was able to go back to lungeing him using only the tail of the lunge line and my body language. The only time he kicked out close to me he got swatted firmly on the rump with the tail of the line and that made a big impression on him and he scooted off - that behavior wasn't repeated. There was still some resistance initially, particularly on taking up a new direction, but we worked through it and pretty soon things were going fairly well. I took care to maintain a better body position this time and to watch his ears and head posture carefully to improve my timing, and we had no unintended changes of direction. We started doing some serious transition work, using both my body language and verbal commands - he doesn't know these but is picking them up quickly - we did lots of walk/trot/walk transitions, and ended up with some inside turn changes of direction at my request.

He finished much calmer and more reponsive than when we started. We finished by doing some just standing around work in the parking lot - his job is simply to stay out of my space on a loose lead, and ideally to just stand there and relax with me - he startled once but didn't move his feet which is good progress. I want to get to the point where he comes out and goes straight to work on the lunge without resistance, including changing directions and gaits whenever I ask. We also need to work on desensitizing him to the lunge whip - I started today by holding out the butt of the whip for him to touch with his nose - this was still pretty scary for him. The next thing we need to work on is accepting ropes touching his body and leading by the legs, together with outside turns, in preparation for ground driving. It's clear that for him, this ground work is needed to fill in some holes.

It felt cold today - wind chills in the 20sF, but I certainly stayed warm!

Norm Spam!

2011-12-05T12:27:00.001-06:00

For all you Norman-the-pony fans, and thanks to Melissa at Paradigm Farms, here's a great picture of Norman, dressed in his winter woolies, and surveying his kingdom:

It's great to see him looking so good, and as handsome as ever, in his retirement!

Watching the Thought Turn Into Action: Individual Frames From the Video

2011-12-04T06:07:00.001-06:00

I thought it would be interesting to see if I could take individual frames from the video (see last two posts) of my lungeing work with Drifter and look for the thought of turning in beginning to form in his mind, and where the thought turns into action, and how and when I reacted. Here's what I found - I thought it was pretty interesting and hope you do too - there are only fractions of a second between each still frame and the next. If you haven't read/viewed the prior two posts, I'd recommend that you do that now as it will help things make sense:

Post one - video of our work
Post two - getting ahead of the thought

The thought forms - his head has come up and his ear is on me - he wants to come in but is checking to see if I'm going to say something about it or not - this is the "ask":

One stride later - he's still traveling straight but the head is tipping to the inside - he's decided to turn in but if I'd moved him forward at this point I still could have redirected his thought:

One more stride - the head is starting to come up and the inside hind is stepping to the outside and the outside front is getting ready to move to the inside - it's almost too late at this point to easily redirect the thought as it's starting to turn into an action:

But I say something to him - I'm swinging the rope at his hindquarters - and although he's cut in towards me - note the excess slack in the line - this is enough to keep him moving forwards - my response would have been more effective if I'd acted to move him forward at the time of the first picture:

But he accepts my direction and continues on, but I haven't really interrupted the thought yet:

He's already moved in on me, and here the thought is starting to turn into action again - note the head and ears, and his momentum is slowing in preparation for the inside turn I didn't ask for:

Here the inside hind has stepped to the outside and the outside front has stepped to the inside, and he's focussed on me to see what I'll do - note that I'm out of position to be effective as I'm in line with his shoulders instead of his hindquarters:

And now the action is occurring - his hindquarters are coming to the outside and his shoulders to the inside - I'm reacting but far too late:

I get the job done - he doesn't manage to complete the turn to the inside - but it's pretty ugly:

Here's the next time the thought of turning in is beginning to form:

Once again, I'm late and out of position, and he's got the thought firmly in mind as he takes action, so we get this:

And then this - he completes the turn after this point - since he's facing me by now I have little ability to influence him:

But I get him turned around and we get this - but look at all the energy we're both using:

The good thing about Drifter is he is a horse who will tell you if you're not leading him with your thoughts - he's ready and able to have his own thoughts and carry them through, and unless I catch the thought he's forming as it's coming into his mind before he starts to take action, he's going to get ahead of me.

But sometimes I get there in time - here's an example where my timing is much better - I say something to him as soon as the thought forms and he keeps moving forward:

But he's still holding on to the thought - it shows in his body language but the action hasn't fully started yet - note that his body is still travelling straight even though his head is tipping and his ears and eyes are on me and also note that I'm already saying something to him - I'm swinging the tail end of the lead and making sure I'm further back towards his hindquarters:

And although I was a little late, here's the result - he keeps on moving forward although he's showing his irritation at not being about to carry out his thought - if I'd caught the thought as it was just forming I think my direction could have been softer and he would have accepted my direction more easily:

The next step for me is to be more active in my lungeing - not necessarily bigger but giving him more direction so he doesn't start to form thoughts in gaps I leave - and also being sure I'm in a better position with respect to his body so that if a thought forms I'm in a position to say something effectively to him. And my timing needs to be better - I need to catch the thought before it forms fully and then things will go more smoothly.

This video stuff can be pretty useful!

Working To Resolve Drifter's Issues - With Video!

2011-12-02T19:31:00.001-06:00

It was a really beautiful day - for December - the high just touched 40F, with sun and almost no wind. Since Drifter and I had unfinished business (see the prior couple of posts), I started with him today - if I've got a hard job to do I always try to do it first. My objectives were simple - to get some decent lunge work at the walk and trot - my definition of decent work includes changes of direction and speed only when I ask for them, and when I do ask for them, that they be smooth and without resistance. If that went well, I would get on and do some walk and trot work - with the key here being no balking (or worse, rearing) on the upwards transitions. After Drifter's performance yesterday on the lunge (see the prior post), I wasn't sure how things were going to go today, so I took along a companion for safety - my husband - who also did duty as a videographer.

I'm not usually one who goes in for dominance-based methods of training, or theories about how horses interact with people. I don't believe that most horses are trying to dominate the people in their lives - but there are exceptions. Drifter, like our Lily, is one of them. Give him an inch, and he'll take a mile - if he gets away with nudging you with his nose, or head butting, or pushing through you when you're leading, next thing you know you've got nipping, then biting, then worse. He's not mean, just trying to figure out who's dominant in his world, and he's always watching very carefully to see where he stands. So in his case, I need to pay attention to where his body and feet are at all times, and never let down my guard - he's a challenge to work with but I think he's worth it.

The following video - it totals about 4 minutes (double click on it to see it full screen) - has a number of clips from our work session today - he was actually much better today than yesterday - we've been working on leading and personal space issues - with lots of backing out of my space, and I think that's helping. It's very interested for me to be able to see this in detail - I experienced it but seeing it is very helpful. I hope you enjoy it - pay particular attention to the timing of how I interact with him - I don't always manage to get ahead of him but I try to be right in there and not hesitate. Also pay attention to his body language - where he's looking, where the feet are going and his head, ears and tail - they all say a lot about what he's thinking. (And note that there are some things I'd like to change about how he lunges - I don't like it that he tends to turn in without being asked to, and that his cue for a change of direction is a jiggled line - I didn't teach him these things but they're minor problems at this point and we can deal with them later.)

In the first clip, he makes at least three attempts to change direction without my asking him to - I correct all three as quickly as I can. In the second clip, there's another attempt to change direction, which results in some spectacular rearing and plunging as I block it and tell him that isn't acceptable behavior. This clip ends with some nice licking and chewing - note the pick tongue coming in and out - he's beginning to decide that maybe I'm in charge. Clip 3 is the first changes of direction at my request. In clip 4, we're able to do some nice walk work with changes of direction - note the lowered head - he's not tired as we didn't work that long, but he's much more relaxed and willing to cooperate. In clip 5, I'm mounting up - it's far from perfect as he tries to move out a few times, but is able to stand when I ask - this clip is included mainly for contrast with a later clip. Clip 6 gives a picture of his excellent walk work. Clip 7 is where I'm letting him know I'm carrying a crop, which I want him to know I'll use if there's any balking (or worse - like the rearing I got earlier this week) when I ask for an upwards trot transition. Clip 8 is the trot transition - he thinks about balking (watch the tail and head) but doesn't follow through although there's still some resistance and reluctance to move forward. Clip 9 starts with him beautifully springing into trot from the halt, and some nice trot work. In clip 10, I've gotten off, but instead of putting him away I lead him straight back to the mounting block and get on (much better this time) and we immediately go off in trot - there's only a little tail swishing this time and no hesitation.

Drifter's definitely a work in process, but I feel good about what we accomplished today. Until everything is routine, I expect we'll be doing groundwork before our riding. Oh, and not to leave out Dawn and Pie - I rode them both today and they were both excellent - Dawn and I had a great session with much trotting and lots of transitions, and Pie and I did some trot work in the arena and also had a nice trail ride with Sugar.

Pretty good for a December day with horses!

Chiro Visit and Drifter Puts on a Show

2011-12-01T13:44:00.001-06:00

Our vet/chiro visited today - her old horse who was a bit colicy seems to be doing fine now. The three remaining horses who haven't been blood tested for EPM - Dawn, Sugar and Misty - were all given neuro exams and had blood drawn. Sugar's owner has noticed that her gaits have started to feel a bit "mushy" and that she's somewhat unwilling to move out on the trail. And there was one weird episode where Sugar's owner was grooming her and all of a sudden an area of muscle along her back started to twitch and spasm. And in fact she had some spinal nerve deficits in that area and also some other abnormalities related to her hind end. Dawn and Misty had their minor issues, but nothing significant, which may mean that they aren't infected, but we're drawing blood anyway to make sure since the four other horses at the barn - Pie, Drifter, Charisma and Scout - have all tested positive. It's likely that all the horses have at least been exposed, as they share hay and pasture.

Pie had a good chiro session. He did have some very crampy areas in his neck and shoulders - lots of little tiny cramps which were probably more from his nervous system and muscles recovering from the EPM, and also a sore area below the withers, which explains the soreness when saddling. His neuro symptoms are basically gone.

Drifter's neuro symptoms are also gone, but as I suspected he showed signs of ouchiness in his right shoulder, right withers and in the sternal area - it is likely that he slipped in the mud and pulled something. Then we put him on the lunge to watch him move, and that's when the fun began. All we wanted was a few trot circles in both directions. But he had different ideas at the start. He put on quite a show - rearing - I saw a lot of belly and flailing front feet - and plunging, and kicking out, and attempts to bolt, as well as lots of blowing and snorting. I had the chiro fetch a lunge whip to give us some reserve ammunition and discovered that he is very respectful - even afraid - of lunge whips - I'd never used one with him before. I didn't have to use the whip at all, just hold it and the acting out (other than the bolting) stopped instantly - ultimately I dropped in on the ground behind me so he would stop tearing around like a mad thing. Finally, I got some trot circles - he was slightly short-strided on the right front in both directions. I stopped with each direction change to go up to him and pet him on the face to tell him he was (now) a good boy. I ended with him walking part of a lap in both directions so we could end on a good note. When I do lunge work with him, I'm going to keep a lunge whip with me (although I may not have to hold it) both so he can learn how to respond correctly on the lunge line and also learn that he doesn't have to be terrified of a lunge whip. I'll also use lots of praise - verbal and rubs - to tell him when he's doing things right.

He was too hot by that point to do the chiro work right away, so he got to chill in the paddock for a bit while other horses were being seen. His chiro work went pretty well - he did have some pretty sore places that the chiro was really able to help. I'm to give him a day off tomorrow and then we can start back to work. He clearly feels more like himself than he did when he was afflicted with EPM, and "himself" is a feisty, challenging horse who's willing to be somewhat aggressive and see where it gets him - he may also have been sore but that wouldn't have justified the degree of acting out nor the amount of balking and ultimately rearing under saddle earlier this week. I see more groundwork in our future - despite his performance today he actually does know how to lunge (we have no roundpen and our arena is big and doesn't have a fence that's in good condition so liberty work isn't really an option) - and his leading is already much improved as a result of some brief work I did with him at turnout time this morning, and there were no attempts to bite me at any point during our work with him today, which is already a big improvement. He's a horse who needs clear and firm boundaries and I need to set and maintain them and never let things slip - his increased feistiness came on pretty quickly after his treatment and I didn't get on top of it to the degree I should have. And even though his testosterone levels are within normal limits, his adrenal glands may be a bit overactive - this can lead to aggressiveness - so we're starting him on some cyproheptadine which can reduce adrenal over activity.

Just another exciting day with horses!

Final Rides of November, and November Summary

2011-11-30T18:32:00.001-06:00

I managed to ride all three horses today - our vet/chiro couldn't come because one of her horses was colicy - we're hoping she can come tomorrow. It was about 40F with sun and not too much wind - a pretty nice late November day. Dawn and I had an excellent session, with lots of walk/trot/walk transition work every few steps - she was great. Drifter and I had a walk-only session - I'll wait and see what our chiro has to say before trotting him again. He was able to do some very nice, forward, lengthened walk and we took a brief excursion outside the arena again. He was feeling pretty feisty and bitey in his paddock when I went to bring him in, and got a big "no" and a swat for biting. I suspect that now he's feeling better, his "aggressive little dude" personality is coming to the fore. When I was riding him in the arena, he stopped, stepped to one side, and deliberately deposited a pile right next to one of my cones! Pie and I had a nice 30-minute trail ride with Charisma - he had to do some trotting to keep up in the first half of the ride when he was following and felt great, and led the second half of the ride.

Here's the November summary - we did pretty well despite the many days with high winds - Pie: 11 rides November; 124 rides 2011 to date. Drifter: 11 rides November; 93 rides 2011 to date. Dawn: 12 rides November; 60 rides 2011 to date; all horses 34 rides total November; 277 rides 2011 to date.

Why Would I Hand Feed a Horse That Bites?

2011-11-29T18:47:00.001-06:00

Because I'm working on training him not to bite - to keep his mouth to himself - using clicker training . . .

I've only made use of clicker training for a few purposes - helping Dawn with scary objects was an important one (we'll do more of that). I'm certainly no expert at clicker training. But I really do like it for certain purposes, and I'm sure if I thought about it more, I could find lots more ways to use it.

Drifter is very mouthy - that's probably part of the "I used to be a stallion and still want to act like one" routine. Now that he's feeling better due to his EPM treatment, he's quite the sassy little dude, and anytime my hand is near his head there's a possibility that he'll try to nip at it in a (highly annoying) playful way - not OK. I like to use a hand up, palm out, as a signal to back out of my space, and this is problematic with Drifter - he wants to play at that point, which involves biting - again, not OK.

Clicker training also greatly concentrates the equine mind - if you want them to really focus on something, and learn to respond, clicker works very well. And it's positive, not negative, reinforcement - swatting a horse that nips or bites is often a very counterproductive strategy as it tends to produce even more of the nippy play behavior you're trying to discourage - just watch two geldings doing "bitey-face" play and you've got the idea.

So hand feed the horse to train it not to bite - sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it? Here's what I did in the barn aisle this afternoon - I'd brought my horses in out of the 45 mph winds - they were ready - and was doing some grooming. Drifter already understands the basic principle that a tongue click means he's done whatever it is precisely right, and that a treat will follow - I used clicker to teach him good hoof handling and then faded out the treats and now only use them occasionally. He's also a very smart horse, and clicker works really well with smart horses - it's amazing how fast they figure out what you want.

I took him off the crossties, and holding the lead loosely, put my hand out, palm up and said "back". (He already knows what the palm up and out and the word "back" mean, he just often prefers to play bitey rather than do it - I think he sees my hand as a challenge.) He backed a step - I clicked as soon as the first foot moved back and treated promptly. Now I had his full attention. We repeated this a few times and he was very interested in complying. Then I asked him to step back without my saying "back" - it took a moment but he did it. We repeated this a few times, then I asked for two steps back and had to wait for a moment for him to do it, but he got there. That was it - about 5 minutes in total but I already feel like we made good progress.

On his rearing/lameness issue, he's pretty careful, despite the cold temperatures and high winds, to not move at a speed above the walk in turnout, which isn't typical for him. He did spook briefly this morning and trotted a few steps, but it wasn't a good trot - the left hind/right front pair clearly didn't feel good. This afternoon, he told me that it was his armpit area - where the right front joins the body - that was sore - I'm wondering if he slipped in the mud when he was feeling good and extended his front leg too far to the side. I'm hoping our vet/chiropractor can help him out, and I'm still feeling a bit bad about making him trot yesterday after the rearing, although I'm afraid it was probably necessary and it's good that horses mostly are forgiving sorts . . .

Muddy Dawn, Sleepy Pie and Drifter Rears

2011-11-28T16:23:00.001-06:00

I managed to ride all three horses - the wind chill didn't get much above 30F but the weather's going to be worse for the next few days. Dawn and I had a nice ride, but first I had to deal with this:

Pie was having a nice nap in his gravel bed - I rode him later, a bit on the trail and a bit in the arena. In the first picture, he's pretty soundly asleep; in the second, he's noticing I'm there, but still very sleepy:

Drifter's session started out pretty well - nice work at the walk. Interesting things happened, though, when I asked for trot. Two days ago when I rode, I had gotten some brief balking but he trotted pretty willingly. Today, first I got some balking. I asked again and tapped him with the crop on the shoulder when he didn't immediately respond (secondary cue). (Two days ago, when I rode him, last, this was sufficient to get us into trot. I speculated at the time that he might be a little sore, as his trot was a bit stiff.) Then I asked again and tapped again - this time he popped up slightly in front. I immediately asked again and more firmly tapped - this time I got a full-fledged rear, about a 45-degree angle. I pretty well knew that something was wrong - he's never reared with me in the 6 months I've had him so I doubt it's really a training matter - but had to get him moving forward regardless at that point since rearing is never acceptable. We trotted, but only a bit, doing a few transitions from walk to a few steps of trot, and repeating this several times. He didn't give me any more trouble, so I was able to walk from there on out. I apologized to him for making him move forward into trot, but felt that it was necessary and unlikely to do him any serious harm. At the end of our ride, since he seemed uninterested in moving at any gait than walk, I decided it might be a good day to try a small excursion outside the arena - our first. I rode him up to the gate, we pushed it open and then we rode around in the area of the barn a bit, including on the grassy field behind the barn. He was very well behaved and seemed interested to be out there. I also figured that let us end on a good note.

He's perfectly sound at the walk - his walk looks and feels great. After our ride, I went over him very carefully, paying attention to his reactions to my rubbing and massaging and feeling joints. His original problem when he was showing symptoms of EPM had been the left hind, so I paid particular attention to that and his back and stifle - nothing. Since it was that diagonal - left hind/right front - that had been the original problem, I carefully checked out the right front - bingo! He was ouchy in the forearm below the shoulder, and also a bit around the knee and in the sternal area between his front legs. There's no swelling or heat, so I don't think it's too serious. I suspect that he may have somehow tweaked something running around once he felt better, or that our work getting back into shape has gone a little too quickly. The good news is that our vet/chiropractor is coming on Wednesday, so she can check him out. I gave him a 500-lb. dose of Banamine to help him out - it'll have worn off before mid-day Wednesday so our vet/chiro can look at him unmedicated. I certainly hope she can help him out - rearing isn't an equine behavior that's on my fun things to do together list.

Two More Test Positive

2011-11-28T10:21:00.001-06:00

Two more horses at our barn have tested positive using the new ELISA peptide antigen test for active infections with the EPM organism. Scout is spending the winter at another barn (with an indoor - lucky them!), so I don't know how he's doing. Charisma, who is a 22 year old Morgan mare - but in excellent condition and still ridden almost every day - started having some reluctance to move out at gaits other than the walk and on neurological testing had some abnormalities affecting her right hind leg. She's started her treatment with the Oroquin-10 paste (see my EPM page for more information about the disease and a new, much more accurate blood test and a new treatment that are in clinical trials).

Sugar's owner had recently noticed some oddness about her gaits, and since four horses (out of seven total) at our barn have already tested positive, our vet/chiro will be coming Wednesday to draw blood so Sugar can be tested as well. I'm probably going to have Dawn tested too, although she has no apparent symptoms - the test doesn't cost that much and it would be a good thing to determine whether or not she is starting an active infection - or to rule it out for now.

Our best theory is that one or more of our loads of square hay bales was contaminated with the EPM organism, since Charisma doesn't go on pasture - she's in a dry lot on hay only due to insulin resistance. We've used the same local hay supplier for years and his hay is excellent in quality. There's nothing he can do to keep possums out of his hay fields though, and there sure are lots of possums around here - I see them frequently.

Our vet/chiro will also do some work on Pie and Drifter - they're both a bit sore or stiff, either due to getting back into shape or because of some lingering hind end weakness - it's hard to tell. I'm hoping to get a ride in today - the temperature's going to get into the upper 30sF and the wind isn't too bad. This time of year, I have to ride whenever I can since the weather isn't going to get any better until spring.

The Balk Is Back

2011-11-26T17:33:00.001-06:00

Drifter's ground manners have been just fine the past several days. Studliness must come and go . . .

We've been restarting our trot work to rebuild his fitness, adding some time every ride. Yesterday, he started balking a bit when I asked for a walk/trot transition. The quality of his trot is better in lengthening than when his stride is shorter. After my ride, he was ever so slightly dragging his left hind toe as he brought the leg forward - this was very worrisome. But this morning, his walk was normal again - I don't think it's a recurrence of EPM symptoms but rather some muscular weakness/fatigue - we worked pretty hard yesterday. Today he was balky again in the first couple of upwards transitions, but trotted well in lengthening once he got moving, although when I'm posting the trot tracking left, it's clearly a bit more of an effort for him - on that diagonal I'm weighting the left hind. After our ride - I kept it a bit shorter today - his walk was normal - no toe dragging, which was a relief. Next time I ride, I may give him a 500-lb. dose of Banamine that morning - if he trots more willingly, then soreness is likely, if not then weakness may be the cause of his uncertainly.

There's always something with horses . . .

Dawn and Pie are well - Dawn has started some trot work - her first trotting under saddle barefoot - and is doing well. Pretty soon, I'll be giving her some time in the paddock with pea gravel to help her frogs and heels develop. Pie has been going on the trail with Charisma, and has been happily trotting and cantering on turnout. He was very girthy yesterday - unusual for him and probably indicating some sternal soreness - and has a big sore knot on the left side of his neck that I worked on for a while yesterday. I'm going to have our chiropractor work on him a bit when she comes next week.

Much colder weather is coming and many Christmas prepartions to make . . .

Some Things Improve, Some Things Stay the Same . . .

2011-11-24T13:18:00.001-06:00

Some things get better with time and some things stay the same. A number of Drifter's prior issues have just melted away - picking his feet is now easy whether he's loose in the stall or on crossties - it's now reliable and he picks up each foot in turn as I go around. His ridden work is much better and his ability to pay attention and focus is improved - yesterday he dealt well with Sugar tacking up outside the barn and leaving to go on the trail while we were working in the arena - he noticed and was distracted but was able to come right back to work. He leads much better (caveat in next paragraph), and will even trailer load much better than he did after 6 months of not having worked on it at all.

But Mr. Drifter has also been displaying his "stallion" side lately - he isn't one, we've had him tested - but he likes to think he is and has many stallion-like behaviors. Yesterday, he was attempting to get nippy with me while I was leading him, attempting to bite my hand, and was also trying to nip when my hand was near his face. We had a conversation about that where I made it clear that wasn't acceptable, and praised him when he was behaving correctly, and also did some extra leading work after our riding session to reinforce good behavior. When I turned him out in Pie's paddock (while Pie was out of it) for a while so his feet could benefit from the pea gravel, he walked around, sniffed every pile of Pie poo, and then selected a pile and made a precise "deposit" on top of it to express his dominance. This morning while I was leading him to the turnout, we were walking by Dawn's paddock - she's coming into heat and was squealing and striking on the other side of the fence - and he decided that he since he was feeling pretty fresh - it was also cold and windy - it would be fun to do several large rears. Each time he went up, I snapped the lead and told him "no" in a strong voice. When he came back down and stood quietly for a moment, we went on with our walk. He seems to get particularly obnoxious when one or more of the mares is in heat.

His behavior isn't particularly aggressive, although that sort of thing can get you hurt around horses so it's not acceptable. He's more fresh and sassy and playful than aggressive - he clearly feels really good after his EPM treatment and wants to show off his prowess (particularly to Dawn). When I tell him no, he falls into line pretty quickly but he's one, I think, who's always going to test the limits and see what he can get away with. I also suspect that he may have been gelded late and have spent some part of his prior life as a stallion, so the behaviors may be more learned than hormonal. I also suspect he wasn't properly socialized in a herd as a young horse and he can be very aggressive in a herd situation with the other geldings, again acting like a stallion - that's why he's on solo turnout. One option might be to turn him out with the mares, but we haven't done that due to the risk of injury - Dawn is a pretty aggressive little horse herself and if he didn't injure her she'd quite likely injure him - he'd probably learn a good lesson but the cost might be too high. I suspect that over time, with consistent handling, some of these stallion-like behaviors may abate, but he certainly keeps me on my toes.

* * * * * *
A very happy Thankgiving to all of you in the United States!

Why I Don't Ride On the Rail - Attention and Straightness

2011-11-23T05:51:00.001-06:00

That's not quite true - I do ride on the rail, but only sometimes. Here's why - there are a couple of reasons. I think a lot of the problems we have with our horses are due to momentary lapses in our own attention to the horse, and lapses in our providing direction to the horse. We need to be there for our horses - how can they have a continuous conversation with us if we're not there? If I'm riding away from the rail, it helps me stay focused and attentive - I can't just mindlessly ride around the arena on the rail, I have to give the horse direction. This also means that we're doing things together - figures or riding to a specific point - which gives the horse a "mission" - horses love having jobs they can focus on and do well together with their rider.

And here's another reason I like riding away from the rail - horses are shaped like this:

Note that the horse is narrower in the shoulders than in the hindquarters. The horse in the picture isn't travelling straight - the rail side of its body is parallel to the rail but due to the horse's shape this means the hindquarters are travelling slightly to the inside, and there's also likely to be a slight bend of the head and neck to the inside. (Aside: are there other horse people out there who, like me, love those pictures of dressage movements in books where little diagram horses move around the figures?) If your horse travels like the one in the picture, rhythm and impulsion will both be problems as the horse isn't straight. Watch people riding their horses on the rail - I don't care whether English or Western or in what discipline - and you'll see a lot of crooked horses - it takes a lot of attention to ride a horse straight when travelling down the rail and most horses end up like the one in the diagram.

And when I'm riding away from the rail, I can't use the rail as a "crutch" - the horse and I have to travel with intention and if we're going to be straight, it's because we intend to be straight. If crookedness and wiggliness are an issue for you and your horse (and it's never just the horse), then riding in straight lines away from the rail, with impulsion and a specific destination, will in my experience do a lot to make things better. And straightness isn't a matter of steering - it comes from the hind end. A horse that's braced on the front end - either due to the horse or rider bracing or both, or ridden in a way that constricts the front end like rollkur, cannot effectively use its hind end to carry itself and cannot have proper impulsion - and its proper impulsion that leads directly to straightness and rhythm. Proper impulsion also cannot exist without softness and suppleness, and straightness also comes from the development of this softness and suppleness through all softening work including the use of figures such as circles and serpentines.

I also don't use the rail to teach the beginnings of lateral work, such as side pass. If you teach your horse to do side pass facing the rail as a barrier - that's what you've done - taught your horse to do sidepass if the rail is there. I find it's better to allow the horse the freedom to move - and to make mistakes - that being off the rail provides, and the horse learns the general principle rather than a specific case.

Now I certainly understand that, if you ride in an arena when lots of other people are riding, you may not have a choice about riding on the rail. But even in circumstances like that, it may be possible to do some things to engage your mind and that of your horse, and to work on straightness, like riding the quarter line, doing diagonals or partial diagonals, or leg yielding away from the rail for a few steps, riding straight for a few steps and then leg yielding back to the rail. Be creative - there are all sorts of things you can do. Cones are very useful as focal points when working off the rail. And most importantly, have fun!

Pie and Drifter Featured on Dr. Ellison's Blog

2011-11-22T09:33:00.001-06:00

Dr. Ellison (of the new ELISA peptide EPM test and new treatment protocol - see my EPM page for more about this) has a blog with occasional posts about her work and that of others on EPM - better understanding it and how to treat it effectively. In the most recent post, Pie and Drifter (and I) have our pictures included!

The post is about some technical things - that the primary disease mechanism may be inflamatory rather than central nervous system infection - but the take-away for me is that it is possible to detect very early symptoms of infection with the organism that causes EPM, and that many horses, regardless of the stage of infection, may be able to make a full recovery. Inflamed abdominal lymph nodes - like what Pie experienced and which probably caused his recurring colic - would be very consistent with this. Many of these very early symptoms are not the ataxia - poor coordination and lameness - that have traditionally been considered the markers of the disease - ataxia indicates that the disease is more advanced. It also makes the very good point that it's not the absolute level of antibodies, but changes in the antibody level over time that most clearly indicate the progression of the infection. EPM is a very scary disease, and it's good to know that infected horses have significant hope for full recovery. (Note to readers outside the Americas: EPM is transmitted to horses through contamination of water, hay or grass with opossum urine or feces - and opossums are a Western Hemisphere animal, so one thing the rest of you don't have to worry about - unless your horse has made a trip to the New World.)

Small Triumphs

2011-11-21T16:34:00.001-06:00

It was a cloudy day, with temperatures reaching about 42F, but there wasn't as much wind as there's been. It seems like it's been horribly windy for days and days, and in fact someone I know said that they'd heard it was already one of the windiest Novembers ever. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, so I wanted to get in some rides if I could. In the morning, I took my truck and trailer to be inspected - this is a twice a year requirement - and I'd left it hitched up in the barn parking lot so we could also do some trailer loading practice.

Despite the chill, it was a very good day, with small triumphs with all three horses. Dawn was first - she was fairly nervous and tense, even chomping the bit which she almost never does. I took her first thing to the trailer, and she loaded right up - she always does and these refreshers aren't really needed for her. After we groomed, tacked and mounted up, we worked on our figures - my objective was to get her to relax. After about 10 minutes, she began to relax and concentrate and we got some nice work done, including some more very nice lateral work. As recently as 6 months ago, Dawn probably wouldn't have been able to relax and be "with" me under these circumstances - now she can. Good Dawn!

Drifter was next. He was feeling pretty feisty, but was well-behaved. I've pretty much dropped the ground work with him now, and just take him to the arena and get right on. He was nice and forward, and also very soft. His walk felt good, so we did some lengthening and pole work to get him to engage his hind end. Then we trotted. There were a few moments of tentative trot, but then he decided he felt pretty good and off we went in a nice medium trot. We did a number of sets of this, interspersed with some walking lateral work. I untacked him in the arena, and led him straight to the trailer. We haven't done any trailer loading work since May, and his best loading effort at the time involved taking about 3 minutes to load with some resisting and attempts to leave the scene - even this was a big improvement over how he loaded (or rather didn't load) when I got him. I had mentioned to Mark Rashid at the clinic in May that Drifter's loading still needed more work, and Mark said not to worry to much about it, that it would come together in time as our work progressed. Mark was right - I'm not too surprised by that. Today Drifter's first loading attempt took only about a minute - there were a few slight instances of resistance but they were very brief. The second attempt was even quicker and there was almost no resistance, although he did want to back off pretty quickly once he was on. We did one more load - he pretty much walked right on, and this time I asked him to walk all the way forward and put his head out the window before I asked him to back off. My daughter's using my trailer this weekend, and I'll have her leave it hitched when she comes back so we can have another session, with a focus on him staying on the trailer for a longer time. I was delighted with him and told him so. Good Drifter!

Then Mr. Pie and I had a ride. (We didn't do any loading work, since he loads just fine and he got some practice on our trip to the vet clinic.) We did a little arena work, working on getting him to engage his hind end - lengthening at the walk and pole work - and then we took a short trail excursion. We went by ourselves about 1/2 mile from the barn and back - this is the farthest we've been solo in a very long time. We actually went a bit farther than I'd planned to go today. Pie's walk was very forward and swinging - the best walk he's had in the year I've had him. He was clearly happy to be heading out and at one fork actually asked to take the direction leading farther from the barn. We met some friends walking their dogs and walked back to the barn with them - Pie is interested in and likes dogs so long as they're not barking and leaping. Good Pie!

I was thinking about these small triumphs with each horse - none of them are about any technique I used - they were offered to me by the horses as a result of the relationship I have with each of them that's been developed over time by each small thing we do and accomplish together. In Dawn's case, I've focused in her work on developing relaxation and attention. With Drifter, I've worked on developing his softness and confidence. With Pie, it's mostly been that he needed to feel better physically so he could enjoy our rides, and for me to feel more confident so that I can provide him the leadership and direction he needs.

Triumphs all around - I'll take that!

Precision Bombing . . .

2011-11-20T10:03:00.001-06:00

Do you think someone had an opinion about the hay? (Taken by our p.m. barn lady last evening.)

I believe this is Drifter's doing - he's a master of "precision" deposits . . .

One Pie Photo

2011-11-19T09:35:00.001-06:00

Here's Pie, looking a bit skeptical while he gets in a last few bites before I bring him in off the pasture this morning - he only gets two hours on early morning grass per day until the grass dies completely and the sugars are washed out by rain or snow:

It's about 7 weeks since we made our trip to the vet hospital and about 3 weeks since he began his treatment for EPM - see the EPM page for more details on this - he's completed the 10 days of the Oroquin-10 paste (decoquinate plus levamisole) and is now on the lower dose 90-day feed top dressing with decoquinate. He's feeling great - sassy and happy like a young horse should be, and completely comfortable moving out - this morning he trotted off when I let him go in the pasture. There have been no recurrances of the colic attacks, and we're hoping that it was his immune system fighting the EPM that caused the abdominal lumps that apparently were the cause of his abdominal discomfort. Keeping fingers crossed on this . . .

No riding for me today, since I have my music lessons and it's also going to rain, but Sunday and Monday look like they might be nice riding days . . .

More Wind But Quieter Horses

2011-11-18T13:59:00.001-06:00

No riding again today - it's a bit warmer but the wind is really howling. When I turned Drifter out, he and Sugar had to sniff noses under the electric.

Sugar struck and squealed, and then first Misty -

and then Dawn - had to come up to see what was happening. Drifter seemed to be losing interest - he wants to act like a stud but then seems to lose track of what he might do next - which is just as well.

Dawn was easier to catch today - instead of airs above the ground I saw this - of course this was the day I had my camera - and she didn't even move away when I approached to halter her - I'll take that!

Now if the wind would just ease up a bit . . .

Wind Chill of 22F With Dancing Horses

2011-11-17T12:14:00.001-06:00

It's even colder today - low 30sF with a strong wind gusting to 25mph - at noon the wind chill was 22F, although the sun is shining brightly, which helps a little. When I turned Drifter out, he strutted his stuff up to the fenceline with the mares - Sugar's in raging heat - he did his really big trot and his neck was all arched. Later, while I was working on catching Dawn, he did some more prancing around, at one point with his tail flagged and even up over his back. Dawn was excited and did not want to be caught - I wished I'd had a camera - she was galloping, and bucking, and kicking out, and leaping up with all four feet off the ground and twisting - the other mares were running with her and trying to keep out of the way - and she was even doing her huge rears - paw, rear, paw, rear - and some beautiful big trot with her neck all rounded. I just patiently kept heading to where she was going and she finally stopped and let me halter her - once the halter was on she was as good as gold.

No riding today . . .

Pea Gravel, All Scraped Up and Caudal Hoof Photos

2011-11-16T13:39:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, Pie was apparently enjoying his pea gravel at the lower end of his paddock too much. He apparently rolled all the way over and got his legs through the board fence and managed to scrape himself up pretty thoroughly, including a big scrape down the back of one hind, smaller scrapes on the other hind and a big scrape on the inside of one front leg between the shoulder and knee. Fortunately, all the wounds were superficial, and he's completely sound. He must have had his legs well through the fence boards to get scraped up in all those locations. I inspected the fence this morning, and sure enough, there were bits of hair stuck to one board and numerous scrapes and indentations on the boards made by hooves as he thrashed around. I'm not sure how he managed to extricate himself - it must have been quite a struggle - but I'm glad he managed. The pea gravel does slope downhill a bit at that location, so I can see how he could have rolled all the way over pretty easily there without even meaning to.

I'd already planned to install more pea gravel in his paddock on both sides of his shed, to give him dry footing and a comfortable place to lie out of the wind. Another 14 tons of gravel were delivered and installed this morning - we've now put a total of 28 tons into the paddock. I certainly hope he limits his rolling to the locations near his shed from now on, and stays away from the fenceline! The gravel will also help to deal with the run-off from the shed roof, which has been a problem. The middle of the paddock will still get somewhat muddy, but things are much improved from a footing point of view, and pea gravel is supposedly very good for developing healthy hooves. I'm planning to get both Dawn and Drifter some time in the paddock so they can also benefit from the gravel - our dry lots turn into muddy messes any time it rains or snows, and are not good for horse hooves at all. We also leveled up the gravel along the fence line a bit to reduce the chances of him getting stuck again.

Here's some photos of our new, improved, pea graveled paddock - this is what 28 tons of pea gravel put down about 6 inches deep looks like - I believe the depression in the center indicates a nap was had - away from the fenceline:

And just for fun, and in particular to start documenting changes in the heel structure of Dawn's hooves, are caudal photos of all 12 hooves (here's a recent post showing the soles of their feet). Please excuse the imperfect angles and sometimes blurry pictures.

First, Dawn. Left front:

Right front:

She's been out of front shoes for about two weeks now. Note that her frogs and digital cushion are underdeveloped, which is about what you'd expect. Also note how the hoof wall in the heel area is contracted and compressing the frog - those horizontal lines halfway down the hoof wall are evidence of this. As her feet grow out over the next 6 to 9 months, I would expect some decontraction of the heels and development of the frog and digital cushion.

Left rear:

Right rear:

The rears aren't too bad - her feet would be even better if she had exposure to a greater variety of surfaces of different textures and hardnesses.

Now Drifter. Left front:

Right front:

Drifter's got a decent heel structure, although it's interesting to note that the right front has a somwhat less developed caudal structure - this is the foot with the longer, narrower frog and some contraction in the heel. He's extremely sound on all surfaces though, including rocks, so some of this may just be natural variation.

Left rear:

Right rear:

Not too much to say about Drifter's rears - they look pretty nice with decent caudal structures.

Pie - left front:

Right front:

Left rear:

Right rear:

Pie has very nice, well-developed caudal hoof structures. I believe that the teardrop shape in the center of his heels is evidence of the good development of his digital cushion - his really excellent feet and legs were one of his big selling points when I was horse shopping.

And, for those of you who made it this far through the post, here's a bonus picture of Dawn doing her snuggle thing where she rests her chin on my hand and presses her nose to my shoulder - she loves to do this while I'm grooming her:

The Boys Are Back!

2011-11-15T18:01:00.001-06:00

I'm delighted to report that both Drifter and Pie seem to be making great progress - it's day 19 of their treatment for EPM. Drifter was much less nervous today, despite the stiff wind, and we had a great session. His walk work was very good, loose and relaxed, with nice softening. So we trotted - and there was no balking, not even a bit - the balk is gone and there were no attempts to trot-a-lope - I expect he was trying to tell me something with the weird behaviors. At first, his trot was somewhat tentative and a bit lurchy. We did some straight lines at the trot, with walk around the turns. And, then, suddenly, Drifter's big trot was back! Drifter has had an exceptionally fine trot - huge impulsion and lift and the beginnings of extension, and full of fire and brio. I hadn't felt that trot for a long time, and then, today, it was back in spades! He really seemed to be enjoying himself - every time I asked for trot, he sprang into it and offered the most amazing, engaged, round trot - it was probably the best trot we'd ever done. It was almost as if he'd figure out that it no longer felt weird to trot and that it was OK - he seemed relieved and delighted. It was hard not to overdo things - we stopped after about ten minutes of trot work and we didn't do any tight turns, but the boy is back!

Then Pie and I went on a short trail ride with Charisma. He led most of the way on a loose rein, and his ears were up and he was interesting in, but not alarmed by, what we encountered, including barking, lunging dogs and suddenly appearing school buses. His walk was swinging and he motored up the small hills without any trouble although he was clearly having to use muscles that were out of use. He seemed very happy about the whole thing and it was the best trail ride we've had in a long time. This boy is back too!

And not to neglect Dawn - her tender toes seem to be be better and we had a gentle walk work session in the arena, and she was very good.

It was a very good day with horses . . .

And tomorrow, I'm getting a delivery of another 14 tons of pea gravel for Pie's paddock . . .

The Dangers of Fall Grass

2011-11-15T09:51:00.001-06:00

Many people, I expect, know that, when the grass starts growing vigorously in the spring, horses can sometimes have problems, ranging from mild footsoreness to full-blown laminitis and even founder with rotation of the coffin bone. A caveat - I am not a vet and this post is based on the information I have learned over time. The mechanisms that cause high levels of available sugars - particularly fructans - to trigger damage to the laminae that attach the hoof capsule to the inner structures of the hoof are not completely understood, but it appears to relate to a restriction of circulation followed by excess blood flow - think migraine headache and you've got the basic idea. This article gives a brief overview and includes some ways to avoid triggering laminitis in horses who are on grazing - they all involve restricting the amount of grazing. Ponies and certain breeds such as Morgans, and horses which tend to gain weight easily or who are "cresty" are at particular risk, and some of these horses may not be able to graze at all without risk. And horses who are insulin resistant (who may not have the typical grass-sensitive body type - many racing TBs have been dosed with lots of steroids and this can predispose them to later problems - Dawn falls in this category) or senior horses can also have problems. The most accurate indication of insulin resistance is a cortisol blood test repeated at different times during the day - blood glucose levels can be indicative but are not determanitive.

But the article also points out that there are other circumstances besides spring where horses may be at risk. Any time grass is rapidly growing - such as after a drought breaks - can be a problem. And then there's fall and frosty nights - it isn't the temperature of the grass (in itself) or the frost/moisture on the grass - it's the result of how grass grows. Grass, like any other plant, uses sunlight during the day to manufacture food for itself - and in the case of grass this includes carbohydrates like fructan. And there are factors that affect how much fructan the grass accumulates - for example, more will accumulate on a sunny than a cloudy day. (Also, different grass types are more or less prone to accumulating high levels of fructans, and many commercial horse feeds also have inappropriately high levels of sugars.) And then the grass uses the stored carbohydrates during the nighttime hours to grow - grass grows at night not during the day. In the fall, when nighttime temperatures are colder, the grass has less chance to grow and use up the accumulated fructans from the day before. When nighttime temperatures fall below 50F, I begin to restrict the grazing of my horses, bringing them into dry lot paddocks in the early afternoon - fructan levels rise throughout the day and are typically highest in the mid to late afternoon. I shorten things up even more as nighttime temperatures fall into the 40sF, bringing my horses off pasture in the late morning. Dawn is somewhat insulin resistant, and Pie's had one prior episode of spring laminitis, so I'm extra careful with them, and although Drifter has never had a problem, I keep him on the same schedule as it's easier for me and can't hurt him.

And then we get frosty nights - once that's happening, and particularly if the subsequent day is sunny and warmer, which often happens in our falls - it fact it's happening today - I make sure my horses are off pasture after only a few early-morning hours. Even a longer day in the big "dry" lot - where there are still plenty of grass nibbles although not a huge amount of grass - was enough to make Dawn somewhat sore-footed the day before yesterday. She was a little bit better yesterday after a much shorter grazing period, and is even a bit better today - there's no heat in any foot except a little bit on the inner side of the left front, and it's not bad, and she's never had strong digital pulses (Pie did last spring), which is good. I think she's going to be OK, but I'm keeping a very close eye on her. Once daytime and nightime temperatures are below freezing more consistently, and the grass stops growing, and rain and snow have leached the fructans from the standing grasses, sensitive horses are likely to have less trouble grazing.

A horse's being prone or not prone to being "footy" or worse from grass is fundamentally a metabolic/nutritional issue, not a hoof structure/trimming/shoeing issue, although a horse's metabolism does affect how its feet grow and perform. Both Dawn and Pie are on a custom magnesium/chromium/selenium/vitamin E to help with glucose metabolism. If a horse is in shoes, that can sometimes conceal a metabolic problem with grass until it's more advanced - it doesn't mean that the shoes have solved the problem just because a horse is footy without shoes and not footy with them. This is the first fall that Dawn's been completely barefoot, and I think that she might well have had these issues in the fall in the past but they were concealed by the front shoes. Any horse with abnormal hoof growth patterns or hoof "rings" should be suspected of having some metabolic issues. And it's important to have a feeling for what's normal for your horse - both in terms of how their feet are looking/growing, how warm/cool the hooves are depending on the time of day and what they've been doing (although cold hooves don't necessarily mean things are OK, since the first stage of laminitis is restriction of circulation - that comes before the excess circulation that produces hot hooves), and how they move on different surfaces. And it's important to learn how to take a digital pulse and to know what your horse's normal is - here's a video showing how to do it - the stronger the digital pulse the more likely there is to be a problem.

There's a good resource for horse owners out there - it's called safergrass.org. Grazing is good for horses . . . but then sometimes it isn't.

Once a Week Rider

2011-11-14T17:48:00.001-06:00

The weather and my schedule finally cooperated and I got in rides on all three horses. We've had rain, and wind, and more rain and wind - yesterday we had gusts to 50mph - so the last time I rode was a week ago. That's the downside of having my horses at a place with no indoor. As we get further into winter, riding will become more occasional, until sometime in December or January where there's about 6 to 8 weeks where I can't ride even on the trail. The arena becomes unusable earlier due to freezing of the footing.

Today wasn't bad at all - temperatures in the upper 40s/low50sF, with on and off sun and not too much wind. When I went to the barn after lunch, Drifter and Dawn were both napping in their paddocks, and Drifter got up first so he got ridden first. He was a ball of energy - several of the mares are in heat - and easily distracted, but we got some good work done and he didn't do anything untoward and relaxed a bit by the end of our session. We worked primarily on him stretching into a nice walk, going over poles and then a bit of trotting. He was perfectly happy to trot but his trot doesn't feel completely normal yet - he's still feeling it out a bit and it got better the more we did.

Dawn was next. She's a bit "footy" on hard surfaces right now - I think she got a bit too much grazing yesterday even in the (almost) dry lot, so today I pulled her into a paddock after only two hours. She had a bit of bute yesterday and today, and I think she's going to be fine. We had an easy session at the walk, just working on some lateral work, some poles and some stretching down. In contrast to Drifter, who was a bundle of nerves, she was very relaxed and even stood completely still for mounting (rather than trying to back up - we may have this one fixed).

Pie and I had a nice short walking session, working on him using himself at the walk, and going over poles - his walk isn't 100% right yet under saddle but very close, and he seems completely comfortable and happy. We also did a few short excursions outside the arena.

Keeping fingers crossed for more riding days soon . . .

Encouraging News

2011-11-11T15:09:00.001-06:00

Pie and Drifter had a visit from our vet/chiropractor today. She did neurological exams on them to check their progress - they're on day 15 of their treatment for EPM - they've completed the full 10-day paste treatment with Oroquin-10 (decoquinate plus levamisole) and are now 5 days into their 90 days of feed supplementation with a lower dose of decoquinate.

The bottom line is that both boys are greatly improved - in fact I've noted sustantial improvement even in the past 5 days. Pie now does the turning test in both directions without any difficultly, and crosses over with both hinds, although the reach on the left hind is still slightly reduced - this is a big change even from last Sunday, when he still had some difficulty with his left hind. His backing is also improved - he uses both hinds equally and can easily back straight. And his spinal nerve responses were dramatically improved - in fact in certain areas he was hypersensative, which apparently isn't unusual as the nervous system recovers from EPM. He was his cheerful, inquisitive, interactive self again too, and was running and bucking in his paddock this morning.

Drifter is also doing very well - his crossing tests are very close to normal - there is still a very slight delay with the right hind, but his left hind is moving very well - it no longer toe drags and there's no swinging out. His backing is greatly improved - he lifts both hinds well and there is no pulling/dragging backwards of the feet. He does have somewhat reduced spinal nerve reflexes generally, although this is also likely to improve. The only downside of Drifter feeling better is that he is very feisty, wanting to bite and play, which is a good thing but makes him somewhat more challenging to work with.

Both horses also had normal responses when the vet tried to put one hind foot behind the other - both horses resisted and wouldn't put their hinds in that abnormal position, whereas both had had abnormal responses before - Pie had left his left hind behind his right hind indefinitely, and Drifter had difficulty correcting his hind foot placement. They both clearly know where their hind feet are and are able to control where the feet go.

I couldn't be more delighted - it's clear the treatment has made an enormous difference and that both horses are greatly improved. Now if the weather and my schedule would cooperate, we could do some riding . . .

Pictures of (12) Hooves

2011-11-08T18:14:00.000-06:00

All three horses got trims today - Dawn's was minimal in front as she's only out of front shoes for a couple of weeks. All were good for the trims - Dawn always is and both Drifter and Pie were much improved, although Drifter was still a bit fussy with the left hind and Pie had to take a rest break with his left hind.

I thought that, since they were newly trimmed, it would be fun to take pictures of their feet to record where they are and document any progress in developing better hooves. So, without further ado, here they are:

Dawn, left front:

Dawn, right front:

For a horse that's been in front shoes probably continuously since she was very young - she was a racehorse - her front feet aren't too bad - she's got a decent frog, decent depth of sulci, but is still lacking in sole convexity and her heels are still somewhat contracted - but not too bad at all as a place to start.

Dawn, left rear:

Dawn, right rear:

Dawn's been out of rear shoes for about 10 years, and her hind feed are doing pretty well - decent heel development and sole convexity.

Drifter, left front:

Drifter: right front:

Drifter's fronts are a bit odd - the left front is quite round but the heel is fairly contracted. The right front is very narrow to the back. His front soles also lack convexity. I attribute his lack of heel development and sole convexity to the fact that he hasn't had the opportunity to develop a competent foot - he wasn't ridden much if at all for over two years before I got him and only was on soft surfaces.

Drifter, left rear:

Drifter, right rear:

Drifter's rears aren't too bad - decent heel development and good proportions.

Pie, left front:

Pie, right front:

Pie, left rear:

Pie, right rear:

Pie has amazingly nice feet - good substance and convexity, and nice, broad frogs and well-developed heels with good sulci. Pie grew up on a ranch in Montana and then spent a few years in a hilly pasture in Minnesota with lots of exposed rock, and has never worn shoes. This is a good illustration of the importance of the surfaces a horse's feet are exposed to.

I've just gotten 14 tons of pea gravel installed in the lower end of Pie's paddock - he and Drifter will each be spending a half day in there and a half day in dry lot, and PIe will stay in there at night. I expect this will help Drifter's feet develop heel structures and more convexity. Pie loves his gravel - he has moved his bathroom area out of that area and whenever he takes a nap, he can be found curled up on his comfortable, conformable gravel.

I'll try to document the 12 hooves over time to see what changes occur. (And many thanks to our wonderful p.m. barn lady who helped out by holding hooves.) It should also be noted that both Pie and Drifter are completely comfortable walking on all surfaces, including hard surfaces and irregular gravel as in our barn parking lot.

Improvements

2011-11-07T16:52:00.000-06:00

I rode all three horses today - it was a beautiful day in the 50sF with almost no wind and we're supposed to have a lot of rain starting tonight. Dawn and I continued her lateral work at the walk; she was great - focussed and responsive. She's getting a trim tomorrow, and assuming she doesn't have any soreness from that, we should be back to trotting shortly.

Drifter continued to show me how good he's feeling by trying on some stuff on the ground - there was one attempt to nip and some pawing while I was asking him to back in hand (both of which got immediate corrections), but we worked through it. Our goal today was to work over some poles to strengthen his hind end and also have him really lengthen the walk, and if he felt very good, to try a bit of trot in short, straight sections. We did all of that - and when I asked him to trot there was no resistance or balking, which I also take to mean that he's feeling good again. And the trot was pretty good too - he was a bit tentative at first but there was no unsoundness.

Pie did well too - we had the same exercise agenda as Drifter, but I wasn't going to trot him yet. Before I got on, we did the turning test and this time he crossed over a little bit immediately in both directions, which is a big improvement even over yesterday. And he was able to back straight under saddle without a lot of support with my left leg, which was also a big improvement. After our short session of arena work, we took a little trail excursion, which he seemed to enjoy.

Drifter and Pie are getting trims tomorrow, too - I had deferred that for a week to allow them to complete their Oroquin-10 treatment. Pie particularly had a lot of trouble holding his feet up for the farrier last time, and it'll be interesting to see how they both do this time.

I'm encouraged . . .

Some Videos - Lateral Work and Hind Legs Crossing

2011-11-06T15:51:00.000-06:00

My (long-suffering) husband was persuaded to come to the barn this afternoon so we could experiment with doing some videos.

The first video is of Dawn. First there are a couple of square turns - this is the first stage of teaching her to do walk pirouettes. It was extremely windy so she wasn't as relaxed as I'd like, and you'll notice that there is a bit of head bobbing and tail swishing, but she's doing it pretty well. Now we can work on increasing the impulsion and maintaining the softness - right now keeping the forward is important. Next there's a short clip of her transitioning from a walk to side pass - this also isn't perfect yet - you'll note the front end is a bit "stuck" and isn't swinging over yet and she doesn't make it all the way to a full side pass, but I'm pretty happy with where she is at this point. And the last clip shows her transitioning from a small circle into shoulder in - this is also a work in process as she's still a bit over bent in the neck and her shoulders are slightly too far to the inside resulting in four tracks instead of three. But the work is coming along pretty nicely and Dawn seems to like the challenge.

And in case any of you were curious about how Drifter and Pie were doing in the hind leg crossing test that is a good gauge of neurological issues they've been having due to EPM - our 10th and last day of treatment with Oroquin-10 paste was today and now we're on to the 90-day feed top dressing - we did some video on that too. First, for your viewing pleasure, is a brief clip of Drifter being fractious - he was excited by the wind and the change in routine - he loves his routines - and was trying to be nippy - I wouldn't allow it - so he decided going up would be fun, although I noted that he was careful not to get in my space. I moved him aggressively backwards to make the point that his behavior wasn't OK and he settled down and we took some videos.

As recently as last week, Drifter was dragging his left hind when doing this test. As you'll see, that no longer happens and his cross over is excellent with both hind legs (obviously his hind end is feeling pretty good since he was able to rear just fine). Drifter is the horse with no white legs, and Pie has the one white hind foot. Pie, on the other hand, still is struggling with this, although he's moving pretty well in the pasture and even jumped a large puddle when galloping in yesterday. He has great difficulty crossing over with the left hind - he sidesteps, then steps behind, then finally manages to eke out a few small crossover steps - this is the best he's been in a while. Turning the other way, when the right hind is supposed to cross over, he initially has trouble getting the left hind out of the way but once he figures it out he's able to cross over somewhat with the right hind.

My conclusion is that Drifter's impairments are pretty much gone, and Pie's still are lingering - it may be that Drifter only experienced neurological inflammation and Pie has some actual neurological damage. The good news is that with time, since his impairments are fairly minor, Pie should recover as his nervous system "relearns" how to move. He's already making progress on that as shown by his improvement.

Cautiously Optimistic . . .

2011-11-04T18:34:00.000-05:00

The arena's a sloppy mess, so it's just as well I'm only working with my three horses at the walk right now. Dawn and I had more fun with lateral movements. Today we worked on "squaring the circle" - riding a square with quarter walk pirouettes at the turn - I was working on keeping the rhythm of her strides the same and keeping the hind end engaged, but without rushing. We also did more of our "floating" work - walking energetically ahead and then swinging around into a few steps of side pass, and also more leg yield work, and some poles. She was great - I think she enjoys the challenge of this work.

Drifter's walk felt much better today - more regular and engaged - no "wallowing". We worked on him really engaging behind, and also did a little pole work, and some backing. He feels good under saddle - we have two more days of treatment to go and then I'll do another check on how his trot is looking. When turned in tight circles in hand, he no longer drags the left hind toe at all.

Pie did do a nice canter in from the pasture - about 200 yards, mostly uphill - that I got to see. It looked good and even, and he was even on the right lead, which meant he felt comfortable pushing with the left hind. Picking his feet is also easier - he isn't unsteady or leaning anymore. Under saddle, though, his walk feels short-strided and "stilted" - he's not really using his hind end very well. When backing under saddle, his hind end tends to swing to the left since he's taking shorter strides with his left hind, although today for the first time he was able to back straight if I supported him with my left leg and really asked him to use his left hind. And when turned in a tight circle in hand, he can manage to cross over with his right hind although it's clearly hard for him, but he doesn't cross over with the left hind at all - he just side steps his way around. It's possible that he's got some neurological damage that may take some time to heal. But his affect is very good - he's cheerful and friendly and alert, and it clearly wasn't the Banamine as it's days since he's had any.

I'm cautiously optimistic about both Drifter and Pie's progress, but I'm mainly glad that they're both happy and eating well, and moving pretty well too, all things considered. Many horses with EPM are much worse off.

The Conversation

2011-11-03T13:50:00.000-05:00

Working with Dawn yesterday made me think about how much working with horses - from leading to grooming to riding - is a conversation, or should be. I think horses are much better at this conversing thing than humans usually are - we're often too distractible (I guarantee that if someone says "my horse is always distracted" it isn't the horse that's the problem) and we let the horse down by dropping our end of the conversation. When we drop the conversation like that - even if just for a second or two, the horse has to carry on by itself and make its own decisions about what to do next. And then we wonder why the horse isn't doing what we want? It's no wonder - from their point of view, the line just went dead and somebody's got to keep making necessary decisions about speed, direction and destination and the only somebody left around is them.

There's two things that enter into this for me - attention and timing. Attention means keeping our minds and bodies engaged in the task at hand, from second to second, and not interrupting the conversation. It also means that the conversation is a two-way one, where there's an opportunity for both parties to speak and both parties to listen, often in alternating fashion. Attention and timing also mean listening for the other party's response and not talking over them just as they start to speak - every conversation needs to have its rhythm, and we need to listen in order to know what to say next. In certain circumstances, the rhythm of the conversation may be slow, and in others it may be so fast it's essentially continuous. Attention also helps to clarify where the horse may not understand what we are saying, so we can change what we're doing.

When I was in the process of rebuilding my horsemanship from the ground up (see my sidebar "Steps On the Journey" for more about where I came from and where I'm working on going with my horsemanship), learning to keep my attention engaged - as continuously as possible - and listening, really listening, for what the horse was trying to say, was exhausting and very, very hard for me. I'm better at it now, but it's still a work in process and probably always will be - I actually find this encouraging as it means I can always find ways to improve my conversation skills with horses.

As Dawn and I were doing our lateral work yesterday, we were having an intense and fairly rapid fire conversation. I would move my eyes, head, weight in a stirrup, hand or leg, ever so slightly and she would respond instantly - that's how Dawn is. Her response would tell me if what I did made sense to her or not, and if what I was doing was soft enough. So, if she needed clarification, I would make a very slight adjustment and see what she said - this conversation back and forth occurred with many iterations within seconds and with a continuous, flowing quality to it - we were both "there". When we were both happy with what resulted, she gave me a release by doing precisely what I had intended and I gave her a release by "allowing" her movement and then we both got a bigger release by relaxing on a loose rein for a few moments - the work is pretty intense for both of us. Once she understood what I wanted, then I could reduce what I was doing to communicate even more until it was almost nothing.

It's hard to communicate in words how I do this asking and then adjusting of the ask, as it is a very physical thing and not very verbal at all - it's a matter of timing and "feeling" the horse. I have general ideas of what I plan to do with my hands, seat, eyes, weight and legs - a lot of it involves "duplicating" the motion I want her to do in my mind and also subtly with my own body - in many respects my head and neck mirror in a very soft way what I want her head and neck to do, my hands, arms and shoulders what I want her front end to do, and my seat and legs what I want her hindquarters to do, and the same with weight. We do the work together, and when the conversation is going well, it's pretty soft and seamless - it just comes together and flows. As I said in my post yesterday, it's like learning a common language where we both become more and more fluent.

Every horse is different - Dawn is ultra-sensative and very expressive so she's an excellent teacher for me. I've found that most all horses - even those that start out dull, braced or disinterested due to the prior "training" they've had - are willing to have a conversation, once we pick up our end, and that the sensitivity and precision of our mutual communication just gets better and better. But it has to start with us - our willingness to be open to the possibilities that attention and listening can bring.

Why Dawn is "Dawntastic" and Work at the Walk

2011-11-02T19:13:00.000-05:00

It was supposed to rain today, but the rain held off until evening so I actually rode all three horses - it was a great day with horses. Dawn was amazing - "Dawntastic" - she is such an amazing horse and today I was in awe of her. We worked only at the walk - she's one week out of shoes and I want to see her walking normally on hard surfaces before we move back up to trot. I love working at the walk - it's the fundamental gait. I believe that you can tell an awful lot about the quality of a horse's gaits from the quality of the walk. And if you haven't got a good walk, you've got nothing. Also, if you can't do something well at the walk with your horse, you're unlikely to be able to do it well at a faster gait - in fact it's likely to be even worse. So, for me, walk work is fundamental and so important, and so much can get accomplished at the walk.

When I say Dawn is "Dawntastic", it's hard to communicate to you who haven't met her what I mean. Dawn is a horse who can be very sweet one moment, and very crabby the next - there's a bit of volatility there, and she has strong opinions about everything. She's supremely athletic - she's got moves that are hard to believe - and she's proud and stern and bold and nervous, all at the same time. She's very smart, and really tries and wants to do things right. I often call her my "black diamond" horse - to ride her takes a special kind of attention and finesse that really stretches my abilities. When I ride Dawn, I have to really "be there" - complete attention and being very deliberate and precise about everything I do. She is so sensitive and responsive that it is possible to dial aids down to almost zero - in fact she demands that of you.

Over the past several years, we've made huge progress on some basics - attention (to one another) and softness, primarily. We made a start on lateral work - basic leg yielding, one step at a time - in May at the clinic, and she's really ready for more advanced lateral work now. The fact that we need to work at the walk right now due to her transition to barefoot is a gift - it allows us to really work on lateral in a focussed way. Over the past several rides, I've been working with her on breaking down lateral work - all lateral work - into its basic components of bend, softness and footfall/tracking - everything, from turns on the forehand and haunches, walk pirouettes, leg yield, side pass and all other lateral movements, including shoulder in, etc., are composed of where the horse's head and forequarters and hindquarters are going, and the precise (mainly extremely soft leg) aids that are connected to the movement of specific legs - it's like a language. I try to keep my rein aids to a minimum - just inducing bend and providing support are all I'm doing, and she's staying soft, soft, soft - it's a marvel and a delight.

Today the work focussed on a couple of movements - walking straight ahead and then moving without interruption into side pass - where the forequarters need to pivot in one direction while the hindquarters move ahead in the other direction - the objective is for it to be smooth and effortless - for their to be flow - and for the horse's middle to continue traveling (now sideways) in the direction the horse was moving in originally. Then, after a few steps, I ask the forequarters to move back to the line of travel and the hindquarters to swing in behind. The transition between forward to side pass is the first step of the floating exercise I mentioned a few posts ago. All I had to do was support very slightly with my hands, bring them slightly to the side and just barely lay my leg on her and she was right there - it was effortless and just plain beautiful. She must have taught me to dial down my aids enough for her satisfaction - there was no tail swishing or rushing.

The next thing we worked on was shoulder in off small circles on the rail, continuing down the rail for a few steps and preserving the bend and keeping each foot moving on the correct track. To move to shoulder in from the circle, all I had to do was support with my hands, apply the slightest amount of leg behind the girth on the inside - again, I had Dawn's approval of my extremely minimal aids - and create an opening with my outside (direction of travel) leg - the instant I let my outside leg move back to her side by a fraction, we seamlessly transitioned to walking ahead in the direction of the original bend - at an angle away from the rail. For fun, during walk breaks on a loose rein, we leg yielded all over the arena with only very soft leg aids, and walked over poles without rushing or hesitation - remember her pole phobia?

It's hard to express how good this felt - she was Dawntastic!

The two boys got brief walk rides - today was day 6 of their EPM treatment with Oroquin-10, and they both seemed to be doing well and to be comfortable, so I figured the exercise would be good for them. Drifter was calmer than normal today but not depressed. He still leans hard on me when I pick his right hind, which means he doesn't want to overweight the left hind. But he's no longer dragging the toe of his left hind at walk. In tight circles in hand, he does not drag the left hind when circling left - when the left hind is on the inside - and crosses over well with left hind in front of the right hind. When circling in a tight circle right, he still drags the left hind but does cross over well with the right hind. I rode at walk for a bit - there's still a bit of a "wallowing" feeling but he was glad to extend the walk when I asked and seemed less tentative. I'm not planning to ask him to trot again, even on the lunge, until the 10 day initial treatment is over.

Pie was very friendly and interactive - his affect is much improved. He's a little bit easier about having all feet picked, and the right front is no longer a problem, which probably means that he's more comfortable weighting his hind end. Today was the first day in a long time that he wasn't crabby for girthing, which was a very good development - his insides must be feeling better. He was walking easily under saddle but without much length of stride, although that improved when we went on a brief trail loop, although walking up a small hill was clearly hard work for him. When turned in hand in tight circles, he wants to sidestep or cross behind with the inside leg instead of stepping over with the inside hind in front of the outside hind, particularly when the left hind is to the inside, although he will cross over properly if the circle is small enough.

I'm encouraged by the boys' progress, and hope it continues. It was a very good day with horses.

Keeping Fingers Crossed . . . and October Summary

2011-11-01T16:54:00.004-05:00

Pie and Drifter are on day five of their paste treatment with Oroquin-10, and I'm encouraged so far. For the benefit of the clinical trial, I've kept detailed records about our experience, which can be found on the EPM page, and will be providing the notes to Dr. Ellison, who's conducting the trials.

So far, both horses seem to be doing well. Pie did have a minor colic attack on day one, which was probably due to the immune system stimulant that's part of the treatment - this is intended to help the horse's immune system form long-lasting protection against the organisms. We think the immune system stimulant, like the vaccinations, may have irritated his abdominal lumps, which may well be enlarged lymph nodes. I spoke to the senior vet at U. Wisconsin yesterday to give him an update on Pie, including the EPM findings and treatment, and he said that, although most vets would say the type of abdominal issues Pie has are unlikely to be due to EPM, EPM can produce symptoms that are highly variable and he isn't going to rule out that the lumps were an immune response to the EPM organisms, particularly as Pie certainly doesn't otherwise look or act like a horse with lymphosarcoma. And in any event, the treatment should help with his other symptoms. Here's hoping the treatment helps the lumps to improve . . .

The biggest change in Pie is that his old friendly, sweet personality is back - he's no longer crabby and grouchy. Now, he has been on Banamine (at our vet's recommendation) for a few days, and that could explain the personality change. We're doing our last dose of Banamine today, and we'll see if the friendly horse stays with us - if he stays his normal self, it's the EPM treatment that's doing the trick, if he gets irritable and grouchy again, it was probably the Banamine. Only time will tell . . .

Drifter has had some improvement in his hind end soundness. I observed yesterday in the pasture that he was trotting pretty normally, and his walk looks normal. Today I put him on the lunge, briefly, to see what we have. And, indeed, although his trot is improved - the toe-dragging with the left hind is gone - he's still not 100%, and was reluctant to move out at the trot. Drifter is also leaning heavily on me when I pick his right hind foot, which is new for him and probably means he doesn't want to overweight the left hind. Pie seems somewhat tentative in his walking, but willing to move out, and he even whinnied to me from his paddock today, which is the first time in a long time he's done that.

I'm not riding either Pie or Drifter today at my vet's instructions (although I did get on Drifter for a few moments as he was saddled up and I wanted him to feel we had done something together) - she wanted me not to ride much if at all on days 3, 4 and 5 of the treatment as neurological symptoms sometimes get worse during that period.

And not to leave out the Dawn mare - she's doing well with her transition to barefoot. She's less tentative on the concrete, although still prefers not to walk over the gravel areas. Her front feet were slightly warm last night, even though she was walking well, so I gave her a little Bute to reduce any inflammation. Today, she came in walking well from the pasture so we saddled up and had a little ride at the walk in the arena. It'll take her 6 to 9 months to grow complete new front hooves, but considering that her hoof structure, shape and angles weren't too bad to begin with, we should be able to so some good riding before winter closes in and we take some time off.

Today, Dawn and I worked on some components of the floating exercise - breaking it down into bits so she understands what I want. We worked specifically on transitioning smoothly from walking forward into side pass in the same direction, and then concluded after a few steps of side pass with walking forward at right angles to our original direction of travel. One of the aspects of this exercise that's most important is never losing the feeling of forward. To that end, we also did some work on changing our turns on the haunches into walk pirouettes where the hind end keeps on stepping in place, and on changing the bend in our leg yield to begin to turn it into half pass. With Dawn, there's a very fine line between keeping her hindquarters active and aggravating her with my leg - she's a good teacher because she always clearly tells me when I'm doing too much.

* * * * * *
I did much better with my riding in October - I felt like getting out there most days and the fears and worries are getting much less troublesome. But we did have a number of days off due to bad weather, other things I had going on, Pie's trip to the hospital and Dawn's starting to transition to barefoot. Here's the summary: Pie: 15 rides October; 113 rides 2011 to date. Drifter: 15 rides October; 82 rides 2011 to date. Dawn: 10 rides October; 48 rides 2011 to date; all horses 40 rides total October; 233 rides 2011 to date. Here's hoping for some good riding weather in November!

A Pair of Sleeping Beauties

2011-10-30T13:57:00.001-05:00

I caught Dawn and Drifter taking naps at the same time this afternoon, and even managed to get some pictures of the sleeping beauties:

Sweet!

Dawn Does the Floating Exercise, and Drifter and Pie Updates

2011-10-28T22:17:00.000-05:00

Dawn's feet were a bit more sensitive today, although she was fine on soft surfaces. We rode only at the walk in the sand arena. We did more work on her standing still for mounting - it didn't take very long today for her to stand still. Then we did some lateral work - leg yields, alternating directions, and some turn on the haunches, turn on the forehand and side pass. My job was to stay quiet and oh so soft with my asks - Dawn always lets me know if I do too much - and her job was to stay calm and not rush. We both did pretty well. Since we were doing pretty good with it, I decided to start to put it all together and we started working on the "floating" exercise. This involves traveling in a straight line, always traveling in the same direction, first walking forward, then doing a turn on the forehand, while still moving forwards, into side pass, then a turn on the haunches into backing, then another turn on the forehand while moving into side pass with the horse's head facing the other way, then another turn on the haunches, and voila, you're moving forward again. All the rotations are either to the right or the left, and the objective is to have it just float, with no rushing or excitement - just smooth and soft. Today Dawn and I were somewhat disjointed and jerky, with the movements still pretty separate and not yet flowing together, but she's got the idea and I expect she'll be thinking about it - it's likely to be considerably better the next time we try. We finished up with a bit of shoulder-in off small circles, and some standing around work.

I put Drifter on the lunge line again to see how he was doing - he was worse today - the trot was very "hitchy" and he was really dragging the toe of the left hind. I only had him trot a few steps in each direction - it didn't seem to bother him at all to trot, but I'd seen what I needed to. We did ride for a bit at the walk, but didn't do too much - although he was sound, he felt somewhat weak behind and I didn't want to push things. He and Pie will be getting at least the next four days off in any event - I'm tied up tomorrow and then I'm not supposed to ride them on days three, four and five of their Oroquin-10 treatment as they may have more neurological symptoms on those days.

Pie was pretty good when I rode him today - he's walking and trotting sound although he's fairly sluggish. We went on a short trail ride with Charisma, and Pie led most of the way. His demeanor and behavior were normal the whole day until evening, when he had another fairly serious colic attack - he was lying down flat and groaning, according to our p.m. barn lady. She got him up and walked him for a bit, and then he felt fine again as if nothing had happened. This may be a result of the treatment, as it contains an immune system stimulant, and if he already has enlarged lymph nodes, this may have irritated them. We'll have to see what happens each day, but we'll be keeping an eagle eye on him.

New EPM Page

2011-10-28T10:46:00.000-05:00

I've created a new EPM page. It has links to a couple of useful sites, and to my posts on EPM. I will also update the page as Pie and Drifter undergo treatment - today is day one of the Oroquin-10 paste. Keeping fingers crossed . . .

Three Rides and Watching Drifter Go

2011-10-27T17:55:00.000-05:00

It was fairly cold and windy today - wind chills in the mid-40s - although the showers held off until late in the day. I rode all three horses and we had an enjoyable time.

Dawn was somewhat careful, although not obviously sore, on hard or rocky surfaces, so we only worked at the walk in the arena. But we got a lot done anyway - shortening/lengthening work, starting to work on a more collected walk as well as a more extended free walk, some pole work - Dawn is gradually getting over her pole phobia and went over them a number of times today with only a few times where she hesitated or rushed. And then we did some spiral in/out work and then started some shoulder-in work, starting with a small circle touching the rail and then continuing on down the rail for a few strides with the same bend. And mixed in with the work, we also did some standing around - she did this very well today - Dawn is such a quick learner and once she knows what you want she's happy to oblige.

Drifter had felt so odd at the trot yesterday that today I put him on the lunge line for a few minutes to see what was going on. Most of the time he was noticeably short-striding with the right front/left hind pair, although there were times he wasn't. Part of the short-striding was him slightly dragging his left hind toe and part was a lack of push as the foot moved back. I'd already gone over him carefully - he's not sore, hot, swollen or tender anywhere, including the left hind leg and foot. This sort of toe-dragging apparently is quite common with EPM. He's also started taking up a "parked-out position" on the cross-ties, which is also a common EPM symptom - he stand will his back legs fairly far apart and somewhat behind his body, with his front legs fairly close together. But his walk under saddle is still just fine, so we worked today at the walk and had a good time - just working on shortening/lengthening, poles and some leg yield work.

Pie's gaits are pretty good right now, although somewhat stiff. We did some walk and trot work in the arena and then took a short tail excursion. He is very crabby though, on and off, with lots of ear-pinning and ugly looks, although he's fine for grooming.

Tomorrow morning Pie and Drifter start their 10 days of pasting with Oroquin-10. They'll also be getting some Banamine on days 3, 4 and 5 to help with any inflammation that may develop due to EPM organisms dying off. I'm supposed to keep a careful record of any changes in their symptoms or behavior, or anything else I note, for the benefit of the researchers. Here's hoping that things go well and the treatment, plus the 90-day follow-up feed treatment, does the trick for both of them.

Windy and Cold With Three Horses

2011-10-26T19:47:00.000-05:00

I spent a good bit of time on the phone this morning talking to various vets on the phone. This included Dr. Ellison from Florida, who's the lead research on the new testing and treatment clinical trials for horses with EPM that I mentioned in my prior post. We've ordered the treatments for Pie and Drifter - 10 days of pasting with Oroquin-10 - a formulated mixture of decoquinate and levamisole (an immune system stimulant) - plus a 90-day follow-up decoquinate feed additive in a lower dose. We had some question about whether Pie should receive levamisole considering his weird immune system responses recently, and Dr. Ellison recommended we go ahead as it should be safe for him, so that's what we're doing. I've updated my regular vet, and also have a call in to the vets at U. Wisconsin to update them.

We're hoping to start both Pie and Drifter on their treatments on Friday morning. I'm instructed to give them prophylactic Banamine starting on the evening of day two and running through the morning of day five, to deal with any inflammation that is caused by EPM organisms dying in response to treatment. I'm also not to ride them during that period, or any other time where they don't feel right - neurological symptoms may worsen for a time during days 3 to 5 of treatment. I'm keeping fingers crossed that this will do the trick for both of them on the neurological issues, and fingers double crossed for Pie that this will prove to be the cause of his digestive problems.

I rode all three horses today, despite the wind and cold - I kept telling my self that in January this would be considered a balmy day - the wind chill was in the low 40s and it was threatening to drizzle for most of my riding time. Despite the wind and cold, all three horses were excellent.

Dawn is now a barefoot girl. She lost a shoe yesterday, and I decided to have our farrier remove the remaining front shoe. I don't ride her on the trail, with its very hard surfaces and rocks, and she should cope well in the pastures and sand arena. For a thoroughbred that's probably been in shoes since she got her first racing plates put on around 18 months old, she's got pretty nice feet - I should take some pictures. Her frogs and caudal structures are well-developed in her hinds, and she's got decent concavity in those hinds - she's been barefoot behind for a number of years. The fronts are pretty well-shaped and the angles are good and her heels aren't under run, but the soles lack concavity, the sulci are not as deep as they should be, and her heels aren't as well-developed as they should be and are somewhat contracted. I had my farrier just take off the shoe - no trimming at this point. We'll let her feet adjust and grow a bit and begin to build new frogs and heels before any trimming. She's completely sound barefoot, even walking on concrete, so I rode her at the walk in the arena for a bit. We also worked on some of our lateral work - turn on the haunches, turn on the forehand and side pass. And we also did some mounting work - after being a horse who reliably stood still for mounting, she'd developed an odd habit of taking a step (or more) backwards when I put a foot in the stirrup. I worked with her on this for a bit, circling her around the mounting block when she didn't stand, and praising her when she did, starting with just putting my foot in the stirrup and not mounting. She figured it out - Dawn always figures things out - and stood very nicely. We'll see if that sticks.

Drifter was next. He was very calm and responsive. His walk work was fine and he felt good at the walk. Not so good at the trot - I'd describe him as "funky" behind - just plain weird - and it was significantly worse than the day before, so we only did a little bit of walk/trot/walk transition work. I checked him over for any signs of injury or swelling - absolutely nothing - his legs were tight and cold all the way up and it's not a hoof issue. I suspect the EPM is the cause of this odd hind end weirdness. We also did some work on turn on the haunches, turn on the forehand and side pass - he did excellently on all three in both directions.

Pie came next. We had a short arena session with some nice walk and trot work - he was moving out pretty well and the trot was nice and even. We also did our lateral work - turn on the haunches, turn on the forehand and side pass - and he was excellent too - all three horses did great at this today. Then we took a brief trail excursion. I did get a call from our p.m. barn lady that he seemed to be having a bit of a digestive issue - he was standing in his paddock not eating with his ears back, and pinned his ears and shook his head at her when she went to check on him - but a few minutes later he was back eating again at his hay, which means he was feeling better. I'll be going by the barn later to do a bed check and will see then how he's doing.

Despite the cold, wind and threatening rain, it was a good day with horses.

News Alert! - Now I Get to Learn About EPM . . .

2011-10-25T19:30:00.000-05:00

Several weeks ago, Pie received a thorough neurological evaluation from our vet/chiropractor - I had her out when he seemed (incorrectly) to be over his repeated colic attacks, in the hopes that she could work on his continued body stiffness and lack of free movement. I also had mentioned that he seemed to be having trouble when I picked his right hind - he didn't want to keep it up, which probably meant that he didn't want to continue weighting his left hind. And he had several small interference injuries, where he had stepped on the inside of his left hind with his right hind when moving around the pasture, which meant the left hind wasn't getting out of the way quickly enough. When she did the neurological exam - which was very thorough - she found some anomalies in his cranial nerve responses and and also his spinal nerve reflexes - these tests involved using a pen to press on various points on the face to see his responses/reflexes, and running a pen down both sides from poll to tail to see what responses were triggered. His backing and the tests involving turning in a small circle were pretty normal, but one of his foot placement tests - where the foot is moved to an unusual position to see if the horse moves it back - was highly abnormal - if she placed his left hind behind his right hind, he would just stand there for a very long time - I had noticed this before and in fact one time he actually caught his left hind behind his right hind and had a lot of difficulty disentangling himself. She did only a little chiro work on him - to make him feel happy about her visit - since she thought it wasn't a chiro problem and I would just be wasting my money.

She suspected the early stages of EPM - here's a site with a lot of good information about it - and sent blood off for the new, much more accurate ELISA test that's in clinical trials - here's some information about the test and new treatment. And it came back positive for all three antigen strains that occur in horses, but the positive numbers were only just into the range of likely active infection, and then we were off to U. Wisconsin to deal with Pie's repeated colic attacks. I decided to wait until his liver enzyme numbers were pretty much back to normal in order to do a retest - one of the clearest signs of active EPM infection is a significant increase in the titer - a doubling or more.

I did a post a while ago about EPM, and the new test and treatment protocol that are in clinical trials. EPM is a disease which horses get by consuming hay or grass, or drinking water, that are contaminated by the urine or feces of infected opossums. Horses do not show clinical signs until the organism passes the blood/brain barrier, when it infects the central nervous system. Some horses are exposed and never become infected. Until recently, the only definitive test for it has been a spinal tap, and many horses have developed severe symptoms - falling, tripping, severe gait abnormalities, muscle wasting and/or difficulty chewing and swallowing - before being diagnosed. There are other diseases/conditions that can cause similar neurological symptoms. The older tests, other than the spinal tap, could not distinguish between exposure and active infection. Until recently, there were few available treatments, and the most recent approved treatment that was available is very expensive and possibly not effective against all strains of EPM that infect horses.

I had our vet/chiropractor come back about two weeks after Pie's previous test to retest him - his liver enzymes had normalized. In the interim, he had gotten better about picking up his right hind, but now the right front was a big problem for him - he clearly didn't want to stand with that foot off the ground. When she evaluated Pie again, his hind foot placement tests were now abnormal for both hinds. And I had asked her to do some chiropractic work on Drifter - he'd started feeling "funky" behind - not off, precisely, but as if the "push" wasn't quite there. I suspected the left hind based on how it felt and rode. It was very subtle, but something wasn't quite right. We observed him trotting at liberty in the paddock, and as I suspected, it was the left hind. It was so subtle that it didn't even qualify as "off" and certainly not as lame, but it was there - he would bring the left hind forward normally, but then the backwards push was just slightly weak - that's what I'd been feeling. She did a full neurological exam on him, and everything was normal, except for his backing - he tended to drag his toes behind (in fact he does this sometimes when moving forwards), and his hind foot placement test - he had difficulty correcting incorrect foot placement with both hinds. We decided to send his blood in for the EPM test - the signs were very subtle but he clearly had no soft tissue issues going - no swelling or heat and the "offness" was extremely subtle - and his recent hock x-rays were completely normal. As with Pie the last time she visited, she didn't do a full chiro treatment on Drifter as she felt it would have been a waste of time and my money.

Since Dawn was handy, we did a neuro exam on her too, and to quote my vet/chiro, Dawn was "appallingly normal". So we didn't bother to do a blood test on her. Opossums are very common in our part of the world - I see them often at night - but so far Dawn seems to have escaped, which is surprising, considering her propensity to strange diseases/conditions.

The results of the blood tests were interesting: Pie's original results were phenotype SAG1-20, SAG5-20 and SAG6-40. One, 5 and 6 are the three strains that infect horses. The SAG6 story is complicated - focus on the SAG1 and 5 results. Pie's second test - about two weeks later - SAG1-8, SAG5-40 and SAG6-40. Drifter's only results: SAG1- 4, SAG5-40 and SAG6-40. The cutoff for active infections is 16, and a doubling of a titer between two tests two to four weeks apart is highly indicative of an active infection.

Both Pie and Drifter have active EPM infections with strain 5, and Pie's is accelerating as shown by the doubling of the strain 5 titer. If Pie was exposed to strain 1 - this may even have happened before I got him - he may have cleared the infection on his own as shown by the reduced titer - this is good news as strain 1 tends to have the worst symptoms.

The good news is that both horses can be treated, using the new trial treatments - which have very low toxicity and have produced good results in almost 200 horses so far - and the results of treatment should be to clear all infection. I'll be calling the pharmacy tomorrow to confirm the orders our vet/chiro called in today, and we'll be off on our treatment path. Drifter will get the trial 10-day paste treatment of Oroquin-10 followed by a 90-day feed treatment as a follow-up. Oroquin-10 is a compound of a higher dose of decoquinate plus an immune stimulant. Because we're concerned that Pie's immune system may already be somewhat compromised as evidenced by his reaction to his vaccinations and the lumps in his abdomen, which may be enlarged lymph nodes, he'll be on only the 90-day treatment - decoquinate without the immune stimulant - where the medicine is added to his feed.

With the benefit of hindsight, some of Pie's other symptoms/behaviors may be related to EPM as well - his constant yawning and moving his jaw from side to side, the odd gulping noises he would make from time to time - effects on chewing and swallowing are common with EPM - his sluggishness and reluctance to move freely, and some recent head shaking and head rubbing that may indicate head discomfort. We're hoping, perhaps against hope, that his digestive problems and the abdominal lumps may be related to his immune response to EPM and not to something more sinister, but only time will tell with that.

When they're in treatment, I can keep riding both Pie and Drifter provided they don't show dangerous gait or balance abnormalities. I'm to avoid any steep hills either up or down, and also any cantering - it's a faster gait and there are times when only one foot on the ground, so in a horse with potential limb weakness or balance issues, cantering is inadvisable. I have to be especially careful at certain periods in their treatment when symptoms may worsen due to the organisms being killed off - days 3 to 5 for Drifter and starting at about day 14 for Pie - and should probably avoid riding them at that time.

Sometimes I feel that my karma is to learn about lots of horse diseases, perhaps as punishment for my not having gone to vet school . . .

All Horse, All the Time

2011-10-24T19:43:00.000-05:00

Sometimes my family accuses me of having a life that is All Horse, All the Time. They do have a point, although I do have other interests and activities. But Horse is pretty much the center of my life - feeding, turnout, bring-in, grooming, riding and just plain interacting. I've recently been trying to cram in as much riding time as possible as the days get shorter and temperatures get colder - with no indoor arena, my riding time at some point will be cut off, at least for Drifter and Dawn. The trails will be accessible for at least part of the winter, until things become too icy.

So I managed to ride all three horses two days in a row, and in fact have ridden all three on three days out of four, and Pie on the extra day. Yesterday was the day for interesting/scary things and today we just kept things simple - there was rain overnight so the footing in the arena today wasn't perfect, which put some constraints on what we could do.

Yesterday, Drifter had to cope with the "scary, flapping white plastic bag that someone left on a post in the community garden" right next to the ring. And Pie had to deal with the "child lying flat on a blanket, kicking his heels", again right next to the ring, in addition to the "black plastic bags covered street lights" on our trail ride with Charisma. In the arena, I did an "easing up on" routine with both horses - did circles and passes by the scary thing at a distance the horse found comfortable, and then gradually came nearer with each pass. They both did well - with Drifter, I'm always careful as we turn away from a scary object - that's when he tends to scoot if he's going to. With a scary object like the garbage bags flapping over the streetlights (this had to do with a neighborhood Halloween celebration involving hay rides and scary tableaus along the trail over the weekend - how many of you encounter street lights on your trail rides, much less street lights covered with flapping garbage bags?), the best approach is just to glance and say to the horse - yeah, I see that and it's nothing to worry about - and just keep on riding down the trail. Pie can certainly spook (and spin) when he's startled - time and miles will help with that - but once he's seen something, he's not going to spook at it although he may stare and sidle on by keeping an ear on it. As long as I'm ho-hum about it, he doesn't worry too much. Dawn and Drifter are both more reactive - if they see something scary, they keep thinking about it, although both are capable of relaxing at least somewhat - Drifter isn't really spooky just lacking in confidence, whereas Dawn is hair-trigger reactive. I'm happy to let Pie stop and stare at things and think about them - he's not going to spook or spin or bolt at that point - with Dawn, I always keep her mind engaged and her body moving - if she does the "stiff as a board" stare, the spin and bolt are right behind. Drifter is in-between - he's somewhat spooky, but also curious and willing to investigate things - at this point I let him look at things a little but mostly keep him engaged and moving.

Today, the arena was sloppy, so we kept things simple, and mostly worked on a big oval where the footing was a bit better. Drifter's job was to move out at the trot and try to stretch down - he's still not quite right when I post on the left-tracking diagonal or sit the trot, whereas he's just fine if I'm posting on the right-tracking diagonal - it's the left hind that's the issue, I think - there's some stiffness or soreness there and although it's very subtle - it's almost impossible to see when he's moving at liberty and although he does warm up out of it to a large degree, he clearly doesn't lift as well when I'm sitting when that foot is on the ground. He's happy to trot so I'm not too worried about it - I've discovered that a kiss or chirp is a very good secondary cue for him for upwards transitions. I was very happy with his work today, and he coped well with the (still-flapping) white plastic bag. At the end we did some nice trot/walk/trot transition work, with only a few step in each gait before the next transition - we did finally manage to keep a nice forward with no falling on the forehand or loss of momentum in the downwards transitions.

With Dawn, we were on the search for the elusive relaxation at the trot. We trotted and trotted and trotted some more - mostly in the big oval with some changes of direction. I encouraged her to stretch down without rushing. It ended up being pretty nice, and I told her so - she wasn't in the "zone" but we were close and it was better than it's been. It helped her a lot when I worked on sitting up very straight with my head up so as not to weight her forehand. To end up, we "played statue" - I asked her to stand completely still on a loose rein - this is very hard for her as she's Ms. Movement All the Time. We managed a good long time - I think it was at least 5 minutes - where she did a lot of looking around with ears pricked - there was lots to look at - people working in the community garden, walking by, riding bikes and driving by - but by the end I got a yawn and her eyes started to close. I praised her effusively and jumped off.

Pie and I worked mostly in the arena today, on basic softening at the walk and trot. He was moving well and pretty responsive. We also worked a bit on his tendency to bulge out in the body when tracking left - I think this has something to so with his left hind not pushing as hard - this shows up as well right now in his backing where instead of backing straight, the hindquarters tend to want to end up moving left. We finished up with some short trail excursions and he stepped out with confidence.

Pie did have another minor digestive attack last night - the first sign is that he stops eating out of his Busy Horse hay feeder and stands with his ears back and eyes partly closed, followed if he's really uncomfortable by lying down and, if he's even worse, groaning. Our p.m. barn lady saw him lie down in his paddock - outside, not in his shed, during a cold rain no less - and called me. I asked her to get him up and lead him down to the barn and then observe him in his stall - apparently just that small amount of walking helped the gas to pass and he was fine after that and was able to go back out for the night in his rain sheet.

All horse all the time . . . I'll take that right now.

Feed Analysis

2011-10-24T10:05:00.001-05:00

I've done a product evaluation of several possible feeds to use at the barn: CPI Equi-Balancer - not really a feed as it's a protein/mineral/vitamin balancer pellet (from CPI, now called Landmark, in Wisconsin - I drive up there and pick it up), and Buckeye Safe 'n Easy (pellet, not texturized) and Nutrena Safe Choice (both available from our local feed store). (At the end I also mention Triple Crown Lite and Low Starch.)

Disclaimer: I'm not an equine nutritionist, just an amateur. I know enough to be dangerous - I've tried to learn about the topic and have a general idea of what to look for, but equine nutrition is a complex topic and there are many elements to look at - and you have to look at the whole picture - the whole diet: forage (grass/hay) and feed, the horse's activity level, age and any special factors - HYPP, PSSM, condition of teeth and digestive system, etc. In my analysis, I was looking at a number of factors - cost per serving (in our case the lowest cost per serving turned out to be the best option nutritionally for our group of horses), what the feed is designed by the manufacturer to achieve, levels of protein, fat and fiber, NSC (non-structural carbohydrates) levels, ratios like copper/zinc and calcium/phosphorus ratios (you'll want a different answer on this depending on whether you feed grass or alfalfa hay), selenium levels - a particular issue for our part of the world, and anything else that sticks out. In order to do this analysis, you need to know what recommend amounts of the various components are and then analyze feed labels to see what you've got - and learn how to do the conversions between percentages, ppm and grams or milligrams per pound or kilogram - fortunately, Charisma's owner, who is a close student of nutrition, had already done a lot of this preliminary work for me. We were not looking for a complete feed as our horses get plentiful forage - grass and/or grass hay - but if your horse has limited forage or cannot adequately digest forage (poor teeth or age) your answers would likely be very different. Our horse population ranges in age from 5 to a (lively) 22 and all horses except one are in regular light to moderate work.
All three of the CPI, Buckeye and Nutrena feeds are sold in 50 lb. bags, and the per bag prices are comparable (but as you'll see per bag price doesn't give you the answer due to the per horse per day feeding requirements of the different feeds):

Per bag, including sales tax:

CPI Equi-Balancer: $17.82
Buckeye Safe 'n Easy: $15.95
Nutrena Safe Choice: $15.19

The issue is the amounts of feed needed every day (as recommended by the manufacturers) to get an appropriate daily level of vitamins and minerals. The recommended feeding amount for CPI Equi-Balancer is one pound per day per horse - or a cost of $.36 per day per horse or $10.80 per month per horse.

The recommended feeding amounts for both the Buckeye and the Nutrena for horses that are inactive or in light work is approximately 5 pounds per day per horse, or a cost of $1.60 per day per horse, and $47.85 per month per horse for the Buckeye and $1.52 per day per horse for the Nutrena. That said, both the Buckeye and Nutrena feeds assume that more total calories will be provided by grain and less from hay (they assume 16 and 10 pounds of hay per day, versus the 24 pounds a day the vet hospital calculated for Pie) than the CPI feed does, and both the Buckeye and Nutrena feeds provide significant more calories from fat and protein than a daily serving of CPI does - the CPI feed is designed only as a concentrated vitamin/mineral/protein balancer pellet. (I do not have accurate kcal/serving data but believe it would confirm this, looking at the protein and fat percentages of each of the feeds and using the recommended feeding amounts.)

If you fed the Nutrena and Safe Choice at the recommended amounts per day, you would probably have to reduce your grass/hay feeding to avoid too many calories - but the result of that is that your feed balance would have shifted to more concentrated feeds and away from forage. If you wanted to continue providing the amount of grass/hay we typically feed, you would probably have to feed less per day of either feed in order for your horse to not get too many calories, but the result of this is that, since the vitamin/minerals provided by Nutrena and Safe Choice are significantly lower per pound than the CPI, your horse might not be getting enough of certain minerals and vitamins.

A lot of details - my conclusion is that the CPI Equi-Balancer is a better choice for our horses - it is specially formulated for our selenium-deficient part of the world, does a good job correcting deficiencies in our hay/forage, which we've had analyzed, is lower cost per serving (even if you only fed your horse 2 pounds a day of either the Buckeye or the Nutrena feed - which might provide inadequate vitamins/minerals), and doesn't provide extra calories that many of our horses don't need. From the barn's point of view, if a horse needs supplemental feed to maintain weight in the winter, rice bran or another feed like Buckeye Ultimate Finish, or beet pulp (although it's a pain to prepare in the winter) can be used for weight gain.

That said, both the Buckeye and Nutrena feeds are good feeds with adequate vitamin/minerals at the recommended feeding levels - including appropriate calcium/phosphorus and copper/zinc ratios, and even adequate selenium per day for our area. I have reported NSC (non-structural carbohydrates - the rapidly digested type) levels for both - the Buckeye feed is lower - 12.5% (thank you, Buckeye, for putting this information on your site - but be aware that the texturized version of Safe 'n Easy is higher NSC and I did not evaluate it) - versus the Nutrena - 22.8% (a reported number, not confirmed with the manufacturer). Lower is better for our horse population.

So, I recommended to our barn that we stay on Equi-Balancer and I'm happy to continue driving to CPI to pick up the Equi-Balancer - it's a pretty drive and I only have to go once a month or so.

I subsequently looked as well at Triple Crown Lite (9.3% NSC - thank you, Triple Crown, for putting NSC numbers on your site) and Low Starch (13.5% NSC). Lite is designed as a vitamin/mineral balancer much like the CPI feed, but the recommended feeding amount is greater - 2 pounds a day - as it provides lower amounts of certain ingredients than the CPI feed does. But it's also too high in iron for my taste and the selenium levels would also be surprising high, even for our area, at the recommended amounts. Low Starch is notably low potassium, which can be good for horses that are HYPP expressers or carriers. It's designed as a complete feed to replace some part of forage that may be of unknown NSC composition - a situation many people at boarding barns have - we are fortunate that we are able to have our hay and grass tested. The manufacturer does say that this feed is designed for horses that can't maintain weight on the amount of forage they're getting, and does say that if you're feeding less than 6 pounds a day you'll need to supplement minerals. Neither feed is really suitable for our requirements, but if you had a HYPP or insulin-resistant horse, Low Starch might be a good option for you.

Whew! I'm tired now . . .

Beautiful Day With Three Horses, and Huge Wings

2011-10-22T05:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was really nice, particularly in contrast to the cold, very windy and rainy weather we've been having. Temperatures crept into the 50sF and there was only a little wind, so I managed to ride all three horses. It was a day when I kept things simple and mostly just enjoyed the rides.

Drifter was up first. We worked a lot on his trot, and getting him to really start to stretch down without falling on the forehand. He was able to concentrate pretty well, so he really offered up some good work. The slight unevenness behind was still there when we started trotting - mostly on the diagonal tracking left, which confirmed my suspicion that it was the left hind that was the issue - but he worked out of it well so I didn't worry about working him.

Then Pie and I had a good arena session, including quite a bit of trotting. We're still working on straightness when tracking left - he tends to want to bulge to the outside. We did some softening work but I was mainly wanting him to move out nicely and stretch a bit, which he did. We've only restarted our trot work recently, so we didn't work for too long. And he did fine - no digestive problems - both Thursday and yesterday - mainly I think due to my not overfeeding him with hay.

Dawn and I got in a ride after feeding time. The sun was getting ready to go down and the shadows were getting long and there was a chill in the air. She was moderately distracted - looking at lots of things in the distance - there were perked ears a lot of the time. She was as usual very forward, but was very soft in the bridle. We continued our search for relaxation at the trot, and we got a few nice moments when she was relaxing while pushing from behind and stretching down a bit. We did a lot of figure and shortening/lengthening work to help her channel her energies, and did a bit of leg yield at the walk, although if my cue was more than a whisper I got side pass instead. I didn't do any lateral work at the trot as she was just a bit too reactive after a number of days off. But riding her today was great fun - she stayed soft and was really carrying herself well from behind - she's a blast (one hopes the good sort of blast instead of the other type!) to ride but you really have to be on your toes.

I feel that I really have to take advantage of these last nice fall days, and we've got more coming up, so I bet there'll be more riding coming up . . .

* * * * * *
And, last night as I was driving to the barn in the dark to check on Pie and give him his bedtime hay, I got to see something wonderful. A huge pair of wings flew just over my car, barely illuminated by the headlights - it was a Great Horned Owl on the hunt! We have several breeding pairs in the area, and one of the winter delights - particularly in February when they're breeding - is to hear them in the night calling softly to one another - they like to sit on the roof peaks when they're hunting. The beauty and delight in the world is truly amazing.

Staying Safe On the Ground

2011-10-21T10:37:00.000-05:00

There's a very nice post over at Fern Valley Appaloosas about staying safe when working around large animals, and she's got some links to some other blogs that have posted on the same topic. Here's a follow up post with some of my thoughts on the subject.

I'm going to talk about some things to help us stay safe on the ground - when in the stall with a horse, when leading, when trailer-loading, when grooming and saddling, when doing groundwork, when feeding, when doing turnout and when among loose horses. Horses are very big and strong and can certainly be unpredictable, and it's possible to be seriously injured and even killed when on the ground. We can never completely eliminate risk but we can significantly reduce it with some forethought and training (of ourselves and our horses). No one wants to be hurt - to have their feet stepped on or to be head-butted, bitten, kicked, dragged, knocked into or trampled.

Here's a summary of what I think it takes to stay safe on the ground:

Consistently define your personal space and what it is permissible for your horse to do and not to do around you.
Teach your horse to reliably give to pressure.
Teach your horse to lead well.
Have a plan and build safety into your routines.
Be aware of where you are, what you are doing, what the horse is doing, and most importantly, what the horse is thinking about doing. Anticipate things before they happen if possible.
Don't be in a hurry.
Try not to do things that are really stupid, even if you can get away with them 9 times out of 10 or 99 times out of 100 - pay attention to that small voice that's saying "this is a really bad idea".

You'll notice that none of these things are really about the horse, they're about us and how we decide to interact with our horses and train them - it's our responsibility to create the conditions for safety. We can't expect the horses to do it for us if we don't give them the leadership and direction they need.

And now some examples and thoughts on these principles for safety.

1. You need to decide what your ground rules are, and adhere to them - every single time. How can we expect our horses to consistently maintain a proper distance - for me it's at least an arm's-length - if sometimes we let the horse come closer and sometimes don't? How can we expect our horses to not try to snatch grass when we're leading if we sometimes allow it? How can we expect the horse to know it's not OK to rub their head on us, step on our feet or bump into us if we sometimes let them and sometimes don't? My rule is that I can come closer to the horse if I choose, but the horse can't come closer to me without my explicit permission. And if you don't want your horse to nip at you, don't ever let it happen without saying something to the horse about it. Can your horse "just stand around" with you without nudging you or bumping into you or dragging you? I don't care if the horse wants to move its feet as long as the horse doesn't come into my space (this type of exercise is under the topic of patience and self-calming in the Working Towards Softness sidebar). One rule I have is that a horse on the lead may never interact with another horse - they can do that when they're loose in the pasture - this avoids things like horses striking when sniffing noses, which can be very dangerous and also avoids being too close to a loose horse. When I'm among a herd of loose horses - which can be one of the most dangerous situations due to horse on horse aggression - I always carry a 10' lead line that I can use to define a larger personal space and to swing to move horses away - if I'm leading a haltered horse among loose horses, the other horses are not allowed to approach and interact.

2. That leads to point 2. In order to define our space, we have to be able to move the horse away. By "giving to pressure" I mean a variety of things - and the horse should know them all. It includes the horse backing off due to verbal or hand commands or pressure on the halter. All my horses know "one step back" - in response to a raised hand, palm out, or gentle pressure on the halter. It includes the horse moving its body away in any direction as a result of soft hand pressure - if I touch my horses on the chest or side, they're to step away. It includes teaching the horse to softly give to pressure on the halter, including laterally, downwards and backing (my Working Towards Softness sidebar has some posts including some of this). Will your horse allow you to touch it most anywhere on its body? When I get to lungeing or ground-driving, I teach "leading by the legs" so a horse won't panic if a line gets tangled (in the lungeing and ground-driving post in the sidebar). This teaches horses to respond to the cues I use to define my space, and also mean the horse is soft and not braced and pulling when handled on the ground.

3. Leading - good leading, not the horse dragging or bumping into the handler - is fundamental for me. Good leading is about defining your personal space and what the rules are, and being consistent about them. I do a lot of leading, including doing turnout of sometimes excited horses, and trailer loading - which is really just leading - and I want the horse to choose to lead, on a loose lead, in the position I choose at a distance determined by me, and to stop when I stop and go when I go, without pressure on the halter. If the horse is ahead of me, setting the pace or direction, or there's pressure on the halter, that isn't me leading the horse, that's the horse dragging me. I've got a series of exercises on leading I do - they're in a couple of posts on the sidebar. It takes some time and effort to get good leading established, but it's worth it. And don't ever, ever, coil a rope or line around your hand or any other part of your body, when leading or doing ground work.

4. Know what you're intending to do and how you're going to do it, and know what you're going to do if things go south in a hurry. Having safety baked into your routines is good too. For example, when I turn a horse out, I always turn the horse to face me before taking off the halter - this reduces the chances that I'll be kicked or run over on departure - although I do sometimes get splattered with mud! When leading a haltered horse among loose horses I'm my horse's "protection" and it's my job to be sure no other horse is permitted to approach and possibly bite or kick - this keeps both me and my horse on the lead safe. What are you going to do if another horse approaches with ill intent? If you're trailer loading, be sure your leading and giving to pressure are established first. Being in a trailer with a horse is one of the most dangerous places there is - you're in close quarters - be sure you know what your plan is - and what your escape route is if you need it. For this reason, I wear a helmet when training trailer loading. If your horse takes off on the lunge line, what are you going to do? Feeding time can be particularly hazardous - make sure you have rules - if you want your horse to step away from the feed bin, teach the horse to do it; if you want the herd to back off and wait for feed to be distributed, teach that. (Horses with dangerous food aggression issues are a whole different topic - they may have ulcers or have been starved or had to fight for food.)

5. Being aware is really fundamental. Know where you are, where the horse(s) are, and learn to read your horse(s) - problems don't arise out of nowhere and there are usually warning signs that something's about to happen. If you're talking on the phone, talking to your friends or texting, you're not aware. If you're going to be doing things out among loose horses, spend time observing the herd and how they interact and what their signals to one another are - they're often very subtle. Know the herd order and how aggressive the various horses are likely to be to one another - it may affect what you do - extra care may need to be taken when leading a low-ranking horse while an aggressive higher-ranking horse is loose nearby. If something's about to happen, don't let the thought turn into action - get ahead of it by providing some leadership and direction - if you're just reacting you're already behind the curve.

6. A very large percentage of accidents on the ground with horses, in my personal experience, are caused by a combination of being in a hurry, or changing a routine in a way that reduces its safety (often because you're in a hurry). Don't let other people rush you either - the only time I've (so far) been seriously injured on the ground, another boarder was in a hurry to turn her horses out and I was in the barn aisle and let myself be rushed - see point 7.

7. Don't be stupid - this often happens together with number 6. This may seem self-evident, but even experienced horse people make this mistake - "I'll do this just once", "I'll get away with it this time", etc. Listen to that internal voice that says "you shouldn't be doing this . . ." Sure you may get away with it once, or many times, but is the risk really worth it? And, if you have a mare that tends to double-barrel kick when she's in heat, don't ever, ever, ever, pick her hind feet while she's loose in the barn aisle and about to sniff noses with another horse . . .

If you have points to add, or ground safety stories to tell, please feel free to put them in the comments.

It's Still Lurking . . .

2011-10-19T21:24:00.001-05:00

Whatever's the matter with Pie is still there, lurking under the surface. This evening, he was in his stall eating hay - it's horribly cold, windy (wind chills in the 30sF) and rainy out, so he's inside for the night - when he stopped eating and started looking uncomfortable - ears pinned, kicking at his belly and threatening to lie down. Same thing - a little too much hay too fast - and same result - abdominal discomfort. When I got to the barn in response to a call by our p.m. barn lady, he was just about to lie down - I had him stay up, got his halter on and we marched up and down the barn aisle for a while. His gums looked fine and he had pooped plenty. He was pretty alert and responsive and we said hello to a number of the other horses who were in their stalls. I also tied him up and groomed him - he seems to appreciate having his back and hindquarters curried and rubbed when he's uncomfortable. Then more walking. He started showing interest in hay again, so I put him in his stall with no hay - he pooped and seemed to be more comfortable and was very alert and interactive - and left him there for a while - turned off the lights and sat in the office. He was completely alert and hungry when I came back to check on him a while later. I gave him only a little bit more hay for the night.

I think being in the stall contributed to the problem - he seems to benefit from being able to move around in his paddock as it helps the gas move on through. I didn't really think that whatever it is that's wrong had just gone away - it's clearly still there although I think we can manage it for now by being careful with how much hay we feed him how quickly, and making sure to arrange for him to keep moving as much as possible. Just keeping my fingers crossed every day that he'll be OK . . .

Windy and Colder With Horses

2011-10-18T16:59:00.000-05:00

Today it was cloudy, chilly and windy - wind chills were in the 40sF. Tomorrow's going to be windier - with gusts to 60mph - and with rain likely. I figured that I'd better ride while I could. I didn't ride Dawn - I usually don't when it's very windy as she can be very unpredictable under those conditions.

The mares and geldings (not including Drifter who's on solo turnout due to his aggressiveness towards Pie) swapped pastures today. This meant that Drifter could no longer see the mares easily from his pasture - he was beside himself and did lots of running and calling. He did settle down eventually. He seems to have virtually no interest in socializing with the two geldings, Pie and Scout, and only views them as rivals for the affections of the mares, whom he seems to adore.

So riding Drifter today presented some challenges - it was cold and windy, he was worried about the new pasture arrangements, and the mares' pasture is now the one adjacent to the arena. All matters for high levels of distraction. My objectives with him under these conditions were simple - to establish that we can work (if only a bit) under these conditions so that working just becomes a matter of routine, and to have things go reasonably well - no meltdowns or acting up. If that meant that all we did was walk, that was fine by me - I was determined to ride the horse I had today and not some imaginary horse that wasn't there.

Drifter was extremely fidgety on the crossties when I was grooming him - it was a sign of the weather and his mood. We did some leading work in the arena so I could gauge his level of distraction and excitement - he was very distracted and somewhat excited but was able to respond to my asks so I mounted up. He was fairly tense and desperately wanted to run down to the mares - I could feel his level of tension and didn't want any explosions. So we did what we were able to do and considered it good - lots of circles and serpentines, some backing, all at the walk. So long as he was able to walk in a fairly relaxed manner, we walked in a straight line; if another horse screamed, or he was distracted by the mares moving around their pasture and his head popped up, we circled, with no constraint on the outside rein so he wouldn't feel trapped. I also was careful to keep my legs off him as he was already pretty forward as well as tense. He managed to hold it together and do everything I asked, although there were a couple of moments when "the horse is thinking about leaving" (to quote one of my sidebar posts) - before that thought could fully form and turn into action, we would circle until he was able to be with me again. I was proud of him for being able to do that much under such weather and mental conditions.

Then I rode Pie - he was also pretty up due to the weather, but also very responsive. We rode in the arena and had a nice but not too long session - I'm gradually bringing him back into work. We did a fair amount of figure work at the walk and trot as well as some backing and turns on the haunches. He was a very good Pie.

Not too bad for a windy and cold day with horses.

Pie Improves and a Few Good Friends

2011-10-15T09:31:00.004-05:00

Pie has been doing very well - yesterday he was happy, alert and acting like a young horse should. He had no mopey episodes as far as I know, and ate eagerly. He whinnied to me when I got to the barn this morning - it was almost too dark to see, but he someone spotted me from a distance as I walked to the barn. And there was some good news in his recent blood work - his previously elevated liver enzyme levels are now almost back to normal, which is a good sign. Keeping fingers crossed . . .

I was thinking today about how fortunate I am to have a few good friends at the barn who have really helped me out, both when I was recovering from my accident in June and July and recently when I was going back and forth to the vet hospital while Pie was there. I've gotten a lot of help from Charisma's owner with taking care of my horses and anything that needed doing - she volunteered to help out without my even asking. Our p.m. barn lady has also been great about being willing to help me with things like hoof picking (for weeks) when I couldn't do that, and has kept an eagle eye on Pie for me as well. Neither of them have been willing to accept any sort of pay back for the help they've given me, although I try to do things for them both when I can.

Charisma's owner has also been very helpful to me while I've been working on regaining my trail riding confidence. She's glad to go on walking trail rides with Pie and me even though sometimes I'm sure she'd prefer to go faster. Although I've been able to ride occasionally with other boarders if we're at the barn at the same time and they're willing to accommodate Pie's and my slow pace for at least a little while on their rides, Charisma's owner always tries to let me know when she's riding so that I can ride too if I'm free. She makes me feel accepted for where I am in my riding journey - I never feel like I'm a burden to her or get in her way. It's more than I'm entitled to expect, even from friends, but I'm thankful to have friends like these - they've made the hard times easier to deal with.

Norman Spam!

2011-10-14T06:07:00.002-05:00

For those of you Norman-the-pony lovers out there, here's some Norman spam courtesy of Melissa and Jason at Paradigm Farms - that's Norman on the left hanging out with a friend:

Watching and Waiting . . .

2011-10-13T10:39:00.000-05:00

We'll have the results of Pie's blood work in a day or so, to see if there are any changes, not that that'll necessarily tell us anything. Sometimes he seems to feel just fine - he's lively in the mornings when I bring him in to feed him and then turn him out to pasture, and he's fine late at night when I come to check on him and bring him his bedtime flake of hay. But in between, he seems to have his ups and downs. He's often lackluster in the afternoons, although he perked up quite a bit when I rode him yesterday, and is also a bit discouraged looking in the early evenings, although he's happy to eat his dinner and dinnertime flake of hay - his appetite is very good, and his manure is normal in amount and consistency too. He seems uncomfortable when he's digesting and to feel pretty good when he's emptier. He's only had one serious "episode" where the pain was worse in the two weeks since he went to the vet hospital, but whatever the underlying problem is it apparently hasn't gone away. We're spreading his food out as much as possible and that does seem to help at least a little bit.

All I can do is watch and wait to see how he'll do every day . . .

Pie Update and Working on Lateral

2011-10-11T19:01:00.000-05:00

For anyone who wants to know how Pie is doing, he's doing fine since we've been extra careful not to overfeed him hay in the late afternoon and evening - he's had only one "episode" in the time he's been back from the vet hospital. So long as there's not too much bulk moving through his system, he seems pretty comfortable. Tomorrow our vet is coming to draw blood to retest, particularly to see if his liver enzyme levels have changed.

I rode Pie today, just at the walk - I was tempted to do some trotting since he seemed to feel pretty good, but didn't - waiting for the results of his blood tests is a good idea. We did some walking around in the vicinity of the barn, and a little bit of work in the arena using our cones and ground poles.

Drifter seemed a bit sore behind to me today, although not off - he just wasn't using himself well from behind - so although we did some trot work, I kept it on the stretching down, long-and-low side and didn't ask for a lot of transitions or shortening/lengthening, or tight turns. I think the scrapes on his left hind, which have been healing, may be a bit tight right now.

Dawn and I had an excellent work session today, and made some good progress on her relaxation and lateral work. One of the hardest things with Dawn is having her accept any leg - with her it's possible to dial your aids down to almost nothing, and if you do more she tends to get fussed. Simply placing a leg on her side, without more, can get her to make a big move - with her you almost have to think your aids rather than do them. She's a great teacher of keeping your body, posture and breathing quiet and intentional and soft - she's my guru. I was able to get her to do some standing around on a loose rein between trot sets, which is hard for her - she always wants to be in motion. She also had moments of relaxation, and we were able to do some stretching down at the trot. The relaxation wasn't consistent, but it did keep coming and going, so it's available, and when it's there she's soft in the bridle and really using herself well.

We did some really nice lateral work, including doing some shoulder in around turns and on circles, spiraling out - two-tracking so her shoulders were to the inside of her hindquarters, which made a larger circle - her hindquarters were really active and she was allowing me to lay a leg on her inside barrel, while "stepping" out with my own feet (mentally more than physically although I'm always careful to weight my outside stirrup to get the "out"). I was really pleased with how she did.

We've got a weather change coming up, so the run of beautiful October days we've been having may be coming to an end.

Slow Horsemanship

2011-10-10T20:20:00.000-05:00

You may have heard of the Slow Food movement - the idea that real food, prepared with real ingredients, with a focus on the pleasure of the preparation and the eating, is better for us - our health and happiness - than convenience and speed.

I'm trying to practice Slow Horsemanship - the same idea, really, using careful, slow methods - paying lots of attention to the "ingredients" - my horse and my interactions with the horse and the horse's responses - without gimmicks, gadgets or artificial deadlines that get in the way of doing things with care and softness. Learning takes places in the spaces as much as in the doing, I've found - the horse and I need time to process what is being asked of us, to understand and to respond.

Many problems in working with horses, and most of the abuses that occur in the horse world, would be avoided if Slow Horsemanship were used - if people weren't in a hurry, and didn't want quick results. Haste does indeed lead to waste, and haste is the parent of impatience and anger.

One of the things I've noticed is that when you watch really great horsemen and women work, there's no flash or show - sometimes it's just like watching paint dry and things tend to be very quiet and low key - but real work is taking place. Once in a while there's a big move by horse or rider - but only when necessary and it's mostly over before you hardly have time to notice. The best horsemen and women get the best from their horses because they seek partnership and provide leadership, not dominance. That's my ideal. There are good horsemen and women out there in all disciplines. I've been fortunate enough to work with Mark Rashid on a number of occasions, and I try to remember some of his principles, including that "horses don't wear watches." I also always remember the story he told this year about the horse he was riding at the clinic - how he and his wife only rode the horse at the walk for 9 months because the horse wasn't ready mentally until that point to do more - it took that long and that was OK. That's why Mark no longer does colt starting in clinics - the artificial time constraints don't respect the needs of specific horses and how their training should progress.

Another thing I like about Slow Horsemanship is that it allows me to build a solid foundation, where any gaps in the horse's knowledge are addressed and filled in before we proceed to the next step. I think a solid foundation gives both the horse and me confidence as we try new things together. And the foundation is more about things like attention (to one another), patience and self-calming, relaxation, softness and shaping time and space together than it is about the specifics of what the horse is trained to do - I think if the foundation is there the horse can be trained to do all sorts of things.

Progress is so incremental that I hardly notice it myself - sometimes I wonder if I'm getting anywhere but then I look back and see how far we've come - each horse in his or her own way on his or her own path.

Slow Horsemanship . . . I like the sound and feel of that . . .

Three-peat and Worried About Pie

2011-10-10T10:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was glorious again, and once again I rode all three horses. Due to the holiday weekend there were lots of people, bikes and dogs out and around, and it was also somewhat windy.

Dawn was good, although never completely relaxed. We did some good work, including some very nice spiral out and leg yield work at the trot. We're still searching for relaxation, and we'll get there - she needs to be in consistent work again.

Drifter was very up - there was a big piece of plastic that a community gardener had put over their tomato plants that had come partly loose and was doing its best imitation of a sail, and the goat had visitors, but Drifter held it together and we did some nice work, including some work on him moving off my leg to the side - his turn on the haunches is pretty nice and his leg yield/spiral out work is coming along although he struggles when we're bent to the right. We didn't canter since I wasn't getting enough relaxation or consistent attention at the trot.

Then Pie and I had a nice 40-minute walking trail ride with Charisma involving various excitements - a motorcycle starting up right near us, children playing badminton in their yard and another child on a swing, although with various other things - running children, bikes and lots of shrieking children as well. Pie was reasonably forward and was able to keep up with Charisma pretty well, but he was a bit "punky" later in the evening - the first time in over 10 days.

I had of course been hoping against hope that whatever was the matter with Pie had just gone away, but it hasn't. Our p.m. barn lady texted me about 7:30 p.m. to say that he was standing in his paddock, not eating and looking uncomfortable - not his normal evening self. When I got over there a bit later, he was lying down on his mat. He wasn't groaning but his breathing was a bit labored - he clearly hurt and had that "far away" look horses get where they're preoccupied by how they feel. But he was fairly responsive to me, which meant that although he was hurting it wasn't as bad as he'd been on some previous occasions. I sat down on the ground by him for a while. Then he started to pass some gas, so I thought walking around might help. I got his halter and he willingly got to his feet and we marched around his paddock in the moonlight for a while. That seemed to help and when I left him he seemed more comfortable.

I came back later to check on him and he was nibbling the scant grass in his paddock - a good sign. He'd snarfed up 3 flakes of hay in a couple of hours that evening, and it's clear that that much hay in that short a time creates a backup somewhere in his system - hence the discomfort and gas. His digestive system clearly has limited capacity, so I'll be trying to spread his evening hay out a bit more to see if that makes him more comfortable.

This morning he was his normal cheerful self and went out happily to the pasture after breakfast. I spent some time later in the morning just hanging out with him in the pasture while he grazed. He gets blood drawn again on Wednesday so we can see how his liver is doing. For now, he's pretty happy most of the time and that's a good thing.

Pie Plus Two

2011-10-08T19:25:00.000-05:00

We've been having a beautiful October so far - today it was in the low 80sF with some wind and sun - just gorgeous with the trees changing color. I rode for the 5th day in a row, and today I rode all three horses.

Dawn was up first. I haven't ridden her much recently, but she was very good, and as always very forward. We didn't work too hard as she's somewhat out of shape, but did a lot of stretching down at walk and trot, some lengthening and shortening of trot and also some spiral in/out work.

Then it was Drifter's turn. He'd had yesterday off, and I was interested to see how he'd do. He'd already been doing some self-exercising when I got there - he was hot and sweaty from running in his pasture, probably because Dawn was out of sight - apparently he sometimes does some running in the afternoon. He was unusually obsessed with Dawn today, doing lots of calling every time she appeared and screaming when she was out of sight in the barn.

But Drifter was very good when I rode him. We started out just standing around in the arena - one of the community gardeners had just dragged a plastic box over to his garden to do some harvesting, and I wanted the box to complete its trip back to the gardener's car before I mounted up - it made a very loud noise when dragged on the gravel path. So Drifter and I used the opportunity to just stand there together on a loose lead. He was very relaxed about it and didn't fidget at all. When the gardener dragged his box back, Drift watched it go down the grassy side of the arena - it looked odd but didn't make much noise. We followed it down towards the other end. Then the gardener got to the gravel path and the noise got very loud. Drifter's head came up and his eyes got very large, but he didn't move a muscle. I was very proud of him.

Then I mounted up and we had a medium length, intense work session. We started with some walk work on a loose rein to get him to stretch down and engage behind - he now travels straight when he moves with a proper amount of forward so long as I focus on where we're going, which is a big improvement from when I started riding him where he would veer all over the place. Then we did a lot of trot work - figures and lengthening/shortening, and transitions - it was all very nice. Then we moved up to canter - today we worked on the left lead which is a bit easier for him. Only one bit of not too serious balking - otherwise his departures were very good and he maintained the canter until I asked him to transition down. We did this a number of times, and then I halted him and jumped off - I was very pleased with him.

Charisma's owner had showed up and she took a nice 30-minute trail ride with Pie and me. All we did was walk - I'm bringing him back into work very slowly - but he stepped out nicely and led for the second half of the ride. We had one startle/spook while he was leading where someone was working bent over in his yard next to the trail - the type where the horse sinks about a foot and the legs splay out - but he didn't spin and moved right on by once he figured out it wasn't something to be scared of - I had the person stand up and speak to us. Pie's now been pretty much symptom-free for 10 days, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm very fortunate to have three fine horses, all of whom are sound at the moment and each of whom presents their own unique combination of talents and things that need work - I feel very fortunate.

Drifter - Close, Closer, Closest

2011-10-07T10:47:00.000-05:00

Balking at the Canter

2011-10-06T18:07:00.001-05:00

Pie and I took a nice long hand walk on the trail today, including watching some windows being installed on a house and lots of children doing children things - running, jumping, etc. I didn't walk him yesterday, as he seemed to want to rest and nap when he came in from the pasture. Today he was a little more alert, so we were able to walk. If he's feeling good tomorrow, we'll do an easy walk ride tomorrow.

Drift and I have ridden three days in a row. His trot work is going so well - his basic softness is pretty much reliable, his transitions and straightness are improving and his balking on the upwards transitions has gone away as I thought it would - that today we started working on the canter in a more serious way - we've done a bit before but it's time to dive right in. He no longer canters as an evasion from trotting. His prior owner didn't canter him - he'd trained her not to canter in a couple of ways that we worked on today.

My objective is to get him to canter consistently and maintain the canter until I ask him to transition down - once he's moving along at the canter, we can work at developing his balance, softness and consistency. The first thing he does is rush at the canter - we were working on his right lead, which is his more difficult one, and his canter isn't well-developed or balanced yet, but I believe some of the rushing is intentional - his prior owner was intimidated by it and wouldn't canter him as a result. Even though he was bracing and rushing, I wasn't too worried - we were in the arena and his steering is pretty good now - even if he ran off I would have been able to deal with it, and in fact he didn't - he was just bracing and pulling.

The next thing he would do is try to drop out of the canter when he'd decided he wanted to - usually on a turn - rather than when I asked him to. And when I would ask him to continue moving out, he would balk - he would slow way down, drop his head and do this crow-hopping, leapy, bucky thing. He's not sore and it was pure petulance - he didn't want to and had learned he could get out of doing it with these moves. I would swat him on the shoulder with my crop and keep him moving forward - no stopping allowed. His moves weren't hard to ride, but would have intimidated his prior owner. First we worked on getting one turn, and then two turns, and then two times around, in each case with a downwards transition to trot at my request instead of his decision. As soon as we got that, I halted him, jumped off and praised him.

I think, as with the balking on upwards transitions to the trot, that this type of balking will just disappear as we work so long as I'm consistent about what I ask him to do. Once he's cantering for more extended periods without breaking, we can start to work on his balance, rhythm and softness. If it comes along like the trot has, it's going to be good.

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Pie

2011-10-05T09:45:00.002-05:00

Pie's Back! and Back In the Saddle Again

2011-10-04T18:32:00.003-05:00

Pie and I had an uneventful trip back from Madison yesterday. Everyone at the vet hospital seemed to really like him - the 4th year vet student in charge of him said that he was a "mellow fellow". They had him up to a full food ration on the last day, and he didn't colic, so that's a good sign. He's doing well so far, which is all I can hope for at this point. They still don't know for sure what was/is wrong with him, although there's a list of likely possibilities, some of which are things that would eventually have poor outcomes. All we can do for now is keep an eye on him - he may get/stay better or get worse, only time will tell. I'm just glad to see my Pie face in his paddock and will enjoy every day I get to spend with him.

Today I rode Drift - Pie is supposed to get at least one more day off from riding and Dawn's about to come into heat - every time a gelding walks by her paddock she goes "Eee!" and strikes with a front foot and swishes her tail. It's been about 10 days since my last ride - we had constant heavy rain the last week of September and then we had Pie's repeated colics and trip to the vet hospital to deal with. For a horse that'd had a vacation, Drift was very good, although as I was leading him around setting up cones and poles I had to have a conversation with him about not putting the lead rope in his mouth - apparently his prior owner thought this behavior was cute and it crops back up from time to time. He somehow managed a couple of days ago to scrape up the whole inside of his left hind, from hock down to pastern, but it was looking pretty clean and he was sound so he was good to go. We think he may have rolled in his paddock - he often rolls all the way over - and gotten a leg through the board fence - it looked like that sort of scrape. We did lots of figure work and there wasn't a single balk on our upwards transitions, which was a first. We also worked on activating his hind end - halt to trot and backing to trot transitions.

If Pie's continuing to feel well tomorrow, we may take a little hand walk on the trail, and then if all continues to go well, we'll take a short ride the day after.

Pie's Coming Home Tomorrow!

2011-10-02T18:54:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to report that Pie is coming home tomorrow - I'm picking him up around noon. He's had no colic episodes and is doing well, despite getting a lot more hay today. That's a good sign for the future. They are going to recommend some changes in his feeding schedule, to spread out his afternoon and evening hay and to slow down his eating. I'm also planning on using a Busy Horse feeder in his paddock and stall to help slow him down a bit - with luck this will do the trick. I haven't seen him for two days, miss him terribly, and can't wait to see him tomorrow!

No News Is Good News

2011-10-01T18:19:00.000-05:00

I didn't go up to Madison today to visit Pie, as I'm worn out from all the driving and had things to take care of at home - today they're starting to increase his feed and will do so again tomorrow - right now he's still not getting very much to eat. By the end of tomorrow, he will be at the full hay ration (26 pounds a day, calculated by the vet students and approved by the vet) plus pellets that they think he needs. So far - since he's been up there on Thursday - he hasn't had another colic attack. This is good news in a way. In a way it's frustrating, since the vets haven't been able to observe him when he's having an attack. But it's also good - the vets say he's the picture of good health. If he doesn't colic again, he'll be coming home on Monday.

But he'll be coming home without a definitive diagnosis. We know a lot of things he doesn't have - he doesn't have sand colic (they tested for that), he doesn't have primary liver disease, he has no masses in his liver or spleen, his GI tract is completely normal as far as they can determine. They don't think he has ulcers - he doesn't present like a horse with ulcers and they've decided he doesn't need to be scoped. He does have these multiple masses inside his abdominal cavity and outside his GI tract, but we have no idea what they are, or even how many of them there actually are. They aren't fatty lipomas - the shape is wrong - and there's no overt constriction of his abdominal tract. They probably aren't bastard strangles or any other infectious process, since his blood work and abdominal tap were unremarkable (although we're still expecting culture results, the vets don't expect anything). They aren't certain types of cancers that shed lots of cells into the abdominal space - those would have been picked up in the pathology analysis of the abdominal fluid. They could still be some other type of cancer, and that can't be ruled out. A biopsy or laparoscopic or other more invasive surgical examination isn't warranted at this time because of the risks of complications and the fact that he's not that ill.

So there we are. We'll see how he does over the next day or so, and then follow the vet's recommendations for the amount and timing of feeding him and see how he does. That's what we can do, so that's what we'll do, and we'll live our lives like horses do - experiencing and enjoying every moment we're given to its fullest - that's all any of us can do.

Still a Mystery

2011-09-30T19:55:00.000-05:00

I went up to spend the day with Pie again at the University of Wisconsin veterinary hospital. He's doing well - no "episodes" but then he hasn't had that much to eat yet - but is shiny and sassy and very sweet - all the staff and students like him. He gets several walks a day outside in their sand/rubber pellet footing walking area, and the vet student who's in charge of him even brushes him. He's not happy about being confined to a stall the rest of the time - he tells me about it - and has taken to mischief like untying the rope that secures the IV hanger (which he isn't using) or figuring out how to pick up his water dish.

Today the senior vet and resident did some repeats of exams - ultrasounds and rectals - that were done yesterday - since his GI tract was much emptier, they wanted to verify that the nodules were still there, and not just fecal matter. They were still there - at least a half dozen that the vet could palpate just at the end of his reach when doing the rectal exam - there may or may not be more out of reach. Ultrasounds of this area are difficult at best - Pie is too big and his abdomen is too broad. At least one seemed to be attached to the outer surface of the colon. They also did an abdominal tap, to see if any abnormal cells (white cells or cells indicating certain types of cancer) showed up, and to also start cultures (which will take about 48 hours) to see if any bacteria show up. So far everything looks normal - there are no abnormal cells in his abdominal fluid, and his blood work is normal except for slightly elevated GGT enzymes.

The initial thoughts were that Pie might have bastard strangles - encapsulated strep inside his abdomen. The senior vet now thinks this isn't likely - his blood work, the fact he's not at all sick in that way and the lack of white cells in his abdominal tap make this less probable although it's still possible. He also clearly doesn't have certain types of cancers that tend to shed cells into the abdominal space. At this point we don't know what he has - he sure doesn't look or act like a horse with cancer of any type. We've done the non-invasive tests that can be done - x-rays won't help in this case due to the type of thing and the location. A biopsy isn't practical - the location is risky and the nodules tend to be very moveable. Opening him up for surgical examination isn't warranted at this time and would be very risky.

So we really don't know. They're going to keep increasing his hay and pellets over the next day or so - since he's already there - and see if he experiences another episode of colic pain - they can then take a closer look to see what's really happening. At this point we're taking things one day at a time - but then that's how Pie always takes things and I'm trying to emulate his good example.

It Wasn't the Fats - Pie Makes a Trip to the Vet Hospital

2011-09-29T21:25:00.001-05:00

Well, so much for my theories. After taking the oil out of Pie's food on Tuesday on the theory that maybe the fats were causing him a problem due to a bile duct problem - he was fine all evening and I was congratulating myself - on Wednesday evening he had two colic attacks, one at the usual time one hour after feeding time and the other several hours later. In both cases, after the usual 30 minutes of severe pain and gas, he would get back up and start eating hay again like nothing had ever been wrong. We only know about the second attack because one of the boarders happened to stop by the barn to get something and found him down and in pain. He may have had other attacks in the night that we don't know about.

In any event, enough was enough - this has been going on now for almost 10 days, and our vet recommended that we take him to the best veterinary medical clinic in our area - the hospital at the University of Wisconsin at Madison that's associated with their vet school. It's about 2 1/2 hours away, but the couple closer clinics are more equipped to handle lamenesses and surgeries and less able to deal with medical issues like Pie's. So off we went this morning.

It's an excellent facility - everyone from the vet techs to the receptionist to the veterinary students, residents and doctors were competent and interested. Think of a large teaching hospital for people and you've got the basic picture. The facility handles all sorts of large animals - there was even a camel there who would call (a sort of loud roar/moan) from time to time. We spent a lot of time going over all the details of Pie's medical history, he had a thorough physical exam, several ultrasounds as well as rectal exams, including with ultrasound. He also had more blood work - his GGT liver enzyme is a bit higher than it was, but his AST enzyme level and white count were normal.

His GI tract seems completely normal - no structural abnormalities or obstructions. No stones, in either the intestines or the bile duct. The liver itself looked pretty good. But the vets did detect a number of those nodules my regular vet found on rectal exam - they're about the size of golf balls, they're harder than fecal balls but still somewhat squishy, and they're scattered around outside the GI tract inside the abdominal cavity and move fairly freely when pushed on. As the senior vet said, he was only accessing a portion of the digestive tract, and there were likely more of these nodules where he couldn't reach, and in a horse of Pie's size and bulk ultrasound can't reach everything. It's possible these nodules are causing the problems he's been having - the nodules could be pulling on various parts of the GI tract and making the passage of food painful. The biliary/liver issues are likely caused by trouble in the GI tract rather than the other way around.

Tomorrow they'll take a sample of abdominal fluid to see if there are indications of whether these nodules are a series of walled-off abscesses (perhaps due to an old case of bastard strangles where a horse is exposed to strangles and doesn't develop the respiratory version but instead develops abscesses in the body that can stay there sometimes without causing problems, or a horse who had been vaccinated for strangles and then is exposed to it - this apparently did happen with some of the older vaccines) or maybe something else. (Drifter's prior case of strangles isn't implicated in this, since Pie's first colic attacks occurred at the end of January and early February long before Drifter's arrival.) If they were strep abscesses, the antibiotic he's been on has relatively poor efficacy against strep, but they're waiting to see what shows up on the test tomorrow and then we'll have an idea of what our next steps might be.

Pie had no colicy symptoms during the day - but then he didn't get anything to eat either, poor guy. Starting this evening, they're going to start feeding him small amounts of hay every few hours, gradually increasing and then maybe adding some pellets, to see if they can induce him to colic so they can determine what is setting it off and what his symptoms are when he's in trouble. I'm not worried as he's in very good hands.

I met a very nice family in the waiting room - their little Arabian mare was in for colicing repeatedly as well. Father and mother a little older than me, their daughter and a friend. The family actually invited me to stay overnight at their house if I needed to - I ended up coming home to take care of the animals but it was so kind of them to make the offer. And the whole family and their friend all knew who Lily, Maisie and Norman were due to reading the Paradigm Farms blog - they said they love Norman!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

More Clues About Pie

2011-09-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

We took the oil out of Pie's evening feed last evening, and voila! no digestive pain whatsoever, despite having his Banamine reduced to one dose in the morning. And today, when the vet came to do a blood draw to recheck his liver/bile situation (poor Pie's becoming quite the pincushion), she commented on how bright, alert and interactive he was - in fact at this point I'd say he looks great.

And there are more clues . . . Those of you who've been reading for a while may (very vaguely) remember that Pie had what (in hindsight) was an identical digestive attack after p.m. feeding on January 31. We blamed that on him being misfed another horse's dinner, and that horse was getting different feed. But we were all perplexed at how acute his symptoms were considering the very small amount - one cup - of different feed he'd been given. Here's the clue - the wrong food was a high-fat feed (Ultimate Finish) that Fritz was receiving to help him gain weight. There's the fat again - that's what caused the problem even though the amount was small. Then Pie had another attack on February 8, and none that we've noticed between then and last week, although there was the mysterious tying up episode on May 11 - I'm still not sure what that was all about - he was in severe pain and sweating profusely. That may or may not be unrelated.

So, looking back, it's clear that he's had this liver/bile duct problem all along, but we didn't know because he was able to tolerate fat in his diet - he's been getting cocosoya oil all along - unless it was too much - the winter episode where he was fed extra fat - or if his system was somehow otherwise disturbed, as with the recent vaccinations. The pain he's experienced seems to be because the fats aren't being broken down properly by bile in his small intestine, and end up undigested in the caecum - hence the pain and large amounts of gas, and his feeling somewhat better once the gas passes through.

Or at least that's the theory at this point. We'll see what the bloodwork shows and then go from there, but if we can at least make him comfortable again by removing the extra fat from his diet, that will be progress.

It May Be the Fats . . .

2011-09-27T16:27:00.001-05:00

Sometimes when you see something suddenly in a pattern of facts, things snap into focus. I've been mulling over the odd timing of Pie's nightly colic pain and gas after eating and trying to figure out why it happens then and what might be causing it. It's clear that there's some underlying condition - stones in the bile duct or the small intestine, or an infection/inflammation caused by something - encysted small strongyles or tapeworms (he's been treated for both and his recent fecal test was negative but those might not have shown up), bacteria or even the protozoa that cause EPM. But something aggravates the condition every evening, about 30 minutes to an hour after he eats dinner, and the timing and the specific elevated liver enzymes clearly indicate a problem with the bile ducts/small intestine. The underlying condition is not stomach ulcers - he doesn't present like a horse with ulcers - no unhappiness at feeding time or refusal to eat pellets - in fact he's an eager eater. It isn't likely to be sand colic - there's no diarrhea and his weight is good and he's eating eagerly. It isn't an impaction in the large colon - his manure if anything is a little loose after being on the antibiotics, and is profuse.

So what could it be? Nothing has changed in his diet, but if his sensitivity to whatever it is has increased, as a result of a change in the underlying condition perhaps triggered by his vaccinations a week ago, there's some component of his evening feed that's causing him extra distress. (He's not 100% normal the rest of the time, but about 90% OK until after evening feeding, when his condition becomes very uncomfortable very fast, and then usually improves again just as rapidly after a period of extreme discomfort.)

So I reviewed what goes into his evening feed - mineral/vitamin balancer pellets, magnesium/chromium powder, U-Gard and cocosoya oil. But wait! Bile is produced specifically to digest fats, and its production is increased as fats are presented to the digestive system. It could be the oil . . .

Tonight we're trying a test - we're giving him only his pellets, his Uniprim antibiotics and a little water to hold it together. We'll see what happens . . .

And our vet/chiro was out to look at him. She didn't do a full adjustment - until we get at whatever is making him feel punky, any adjustment she does won't stick, but she did some little things to make him feel better. She also did a neurological exam - I love that our chiro is a vet as she's useful for this stuff and very well informed. Pie has a couple of neurological oddities - one test is to pick the horse's foot up and put in in an odd position to the side and see if the horse corrects it - horses that are normal neurologically do this on their own. Pie was good with the fronts - the test is to place them to the side away from the body - Pie said "no, they belong here" and moved them back to center. The test with the hinds is to place one hind leg across and behind the other - Pie moved his right hind back immediately but would leave the left hind in the odd position for quite a while without moving it. When turned in a tight circle, he also didn't move his left hind completely normally, wanting to rotate on it and not lift it and cross it over. He's also had two incidents - one today - where he's stepped on his left hind with his right hind, once on the heel and once on the inside of the pastern, while running around. This could mean that his kinesthetic sense of where his left hind is located isn't quite right. This could be his normal, related to some stifle issues, or it could be a sign of something going on (that might or might not be related to his digestive difficulties). We did a blood draw to rule out EPM - the definitive results from the new ELISA test, which is inexpensive, should be back in a few days.

Pie has also developed a couple of sarcoid-like spots - one on his right barrel and one on his neck - that could also be an immune system response to the vaccinations - sometimes when a horse's immune system is challenged, either by illness or vaccination, other things that have been brewing and that the horse has been able to manage until then pop up and become symptomatic. I'll keep an eye on those spots - for now they're not a problem.

Our regular vet is coming back tomorrow to do a blood draw to recheck his liver enzyme levels - we want to be sure things aren't moving in the wrong direction and I want to discuss whether it makes sense to refer him to a vet clinic, where we could do a liver and spleen ultrasound and also a liver biopsy if that were warranted - we've got a couple of good clinics within two hours of us.

Keeping fingers crossed that we'll figure this out and get it under control, and we'll see if removing the fats from his dinner helps him be more comfortable.

Update at almost 2 hours after feeding time - so far Pie is feeling fine, no colic, no symptoms of any pain! Hoping this is a good sign, or that at least we've figured out how to keep him more comfortable while we're figuring out what the underlying problem is.

Not Out of the Woods Yet

2011-09-26T20:28:00.000-05:00

I would have said that Pie was a lot better - we'd had a couple of days with no symptoms, and this afternoon and early evening he looked great - bright, alert, friendly and pretty much back to normal. He'd been passing a lot of manure and everything seems fine. But then about an hour after feeding time this evening, he went down in his stall again, switching from sternal to flat and back and forth, and groaning, and passing large amounts of gas. I went in his stall and held his head for a bit, then he got up and was pretty much back to normal - alert and interactive - although a bit touchy about his left side. This wasn't as bad as his attack last Wednesday, but was as bad as how he was feeling a day or two after that.

This is the pattern - brief episodes of sharp abdominal pain, about 45 minutes to an hour after p.m. feeding, accompanied by lots of gas. The elevated liver enzymes, particularly GGT, suggest bile duct involvement - either inflammation or a partial obstruction by a bile duct stone, and this would fit with the timing after feeding time. But it's really hard to tell what's going on. He has days where he feels better and days where he doesn't, despite having been on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories for a week. He doesn't seem to have symptoms any other time of day.

The vet is coming Wednesday to do another blood draw to see if anything's changed. If things aren't moving in the right direction, I may trailer him to a vet clinic - we have a couple of good ones to choose from - to have a liver ultrasound and any other tests they may recommend.

I keep thinking that things are getting better and then they aren't - it's frustrating to see my horse in pain and not be able to fix it.

Pie Doing Better

2011-09-25T20:13:00.001-05:00

Every day, Pie seems to be doing a bit better. Thursday, after his first dose of antibiotics Wednesday night, he was still pretty uncomfortable about 45 minutes after evening feeding time, lying down for a while, and even flat, but not with the severe (and heart-rending) groaning that had happened on Monday and Wednesday. He perked back up pretty quickly after feeling bad for a bit. And then Friday and Saturday, he didn't lie down but stood in the back of his stall for a bit looking uncomfortable. And tonight, Sunday, he looked pretty good throughout and he also seems less crabby. I think the antibiotics are beginning to work, and we'll do a blood draw sometime next week to check that his elevated liver enzymes are starting to come back down. Keeping fingers crossed . . .

Photo Essay and Pictures of Pie's Daddy

2011-09-23T10:20:00.001-05:00

Pie seems to be doing somewhat better - he's eating and drinking well. He did have a brief "episode" last night about 45 minutes after feeding time, where he was lying down and clearly a bit uncomfortable, although not as bad as the previous night. It'll take a while for the antibiotics to have an effect, but at least the anti-inflammatories are helping him be more comfortable. I actually got a good night's sleep for once.

It's a beautiful day - cool and sunny - so I made a trip to the barn to take some pictures. Here's Charisma hanging out in her paddock:

Drifter was impatiently waiting for the other horses to come back within view:

Misty's still got the summer "frosting" on her rump:

Scout (in front) and Fritz (behind) were doing their synchronized grazing moves:

Pie looked fairly pleased to see me, since I didn't have a halter or any meds in my hand:

Pie decided to chase Scout:

But things settled right back down:

I seem to love to take pictures of Pie's hindquarters and his beautiful, thick, deep red tail:

Pie's former owner was out in Montana recently, and was kind enough to send me some photos of Pie's sire, Cody's Red Glo - I think he's standing on a downhill slope here - this also gives a good picture of the environment Pie was born in and where he lived until he was a weanling:

Pie's sire looks to be shorter than Pie, and a darker shade of red, but has the about the same build - although Pie also looks a lot like his dam - here's the post with Pie's baby pictures. Pie's sire has more white, including a big blaze:

Now we know where the deepness of jowl and "Pie face" come from!:

The person in the left of the photo is the gentleman I got Pie from:

I'm glad to have these pictures - Pie's the first horse I've ever had baby pictures of or pictures of sire and dam, and that's pretty darn cool!

Update on Pie

2011-09-22T12:04:00.000-05:00

The blood work was normal, except that two liver enzymes were slightly elevated. The vet's best hypothesis at this point is that Pie is having bile duct pain - these two enzymes are indicative of that. The pain could be due to a small bile duct stone that is irritating/inflaming the bile duct exit, but not blocking it - if it were blocked he would be much more ill, even jaundiced - or an infection due to gunk accumulating in the bile duct, or both. The intermittent acute pain and the timing just after feeding time would also be consistent with that, as the irritation would be greater at that time. Here's a description of what may be happening. Horses do produce bile continuously, so that could also explain his general low-grade grumpiness.

So the treatment plan is Uniprim daily (apparently some horses are on antibiotics for up to 6 to 8 weeks to clear this sort of thing), and a 500-lb. dose of Banamine twice a day for 5 days and once a day after that. We'll continue the Gastrogard, but not add probiotics at this point as they can result in firmer manure which is the opposite of what we want at this point. No riding at least until blood work is rechecked in about 10 days, but he can have his chiro appointment, which will probably feel good. And I'll be keeping a very close eye on him, and if there are any more acute episodes the plan may change, but for now we've got a plan - let's hope it works.

Here We Go Again - I Slept In My Clothes

2011-09-22T08:28:00.001-05:00

Last night was like Groundhog Day, and not in a good way. Tuesday Pie was fine all day, and we went on a nice easy trail ride with Scout. Yesterday, Pie seemed to be fine as well and he and I had a nice work session in the arena after the farrier visited - not too hard, but with some trotting work. After I put him back in his paddock, he seemed a bit sleepy, but nothing more than that. And he told me in no uncertain terms that his stifles hurt - both of them, although the right seems a bit worse. I found out by touching the stifle joints - he made faces at me. I then did some massage on the insides of his thighs, and the inside of the right thigh had some cramps. I'm hoping the chiropractor can put that right, or at least better, on Monday.

But then, after bring-in time and feeding - Pie ate his dinner and a lot of his hay - he went down flat in his stall again - same groaning/wheezing and gas - if anything he looked worse than he did on Monday night: here's a video when he's flat - note the head position, rough breathing and bared teeth, all of which are signs of pain. He was also producing a lot of gas, which he had on Monday night as well. And here he is when he's lying sternal - out of it and rough breathing. I cut out of my art class (I'm taking a life drawing class) and headed to the barn again, calling the vet on the way. But then when I went in his stall to take his temperature - he hasn't had a temperature that we know of throughout these episodes - he was startled and got up and his demeanor pretty quickly returned almost to normal and he started eating hay. He also urinated, and later pooped, although the amount was fairly small and the manure balls were the oblong shape they've been taking over the past month or so. He has also been dropping from time to time without urinating, which can be a sign of abdominal pain. I called the vet and she said to give him one gram of bute (he'd had one already in the morning for his farrier visit) to see if that would work like it had on Monday.

I think that, although he isn't showing any of the classic colic symptoms - pawing, looking at the belly or rolling - that he's in pretty bad pain during these episodes and is just a pretty stoic horse. Stoics are hard - they don't always tell you how bad they're feeling but it's clear he's feeling pretty bad when he has these attacks.

I checked back later and he had stopped eating and, although upright, looked fairly miserable. So I had the vet come. She said his elevated respiration was a sure sign of pain, as was his depressed state. No fever was evident and he had good gut sounds. His feet are cool and he has no worrisome digital pulses. She gave him a cocktail of pain/anti-spasmodic drugs and also did a blood draw for a variety of tests - we may have some results today. She also did a rectal exam - there was a fair amount of manure up in there. The troublesome thing is that she said she was somewhat worried by what she felt in there - a number of hard nodules that did not appear to be fecal matter. I also told her that I had noted his manure balls becoming smaller and less round and more oval recently, which could mean he's got some sort of abdominal constriction or partial obstruction going on. It took a while for the drugs to make him more comfortable, which the vet didn't like, but then he started nibbling hay again and was completely himself again.

I left him in his stall to rest. The vet wanted me to check on him later when the drugs would have worn off. By this time it was about 11 p.m., so I just slept in my clothes - my husband's out of town - and set my alarm for 2 a.m. When I checked on him then, he was flat again but seemed to be breathing more normally (for him - he tends to be a snorer), and got up immediately when I came in the barn. He seemed OK, so I went home and back to bed. This morning there were three small piles of manure - same somewhat hard, small, oblong balls. He wanted his breakfast and ate some hay. He's not drinking as well as I'd like, either. I'd describe him as about 90% this morning - almost OK but not quite. I put him out to graze with the geldings and will check on him during the day.

The timing connected to the vaccinations could be a pure coincidence or it could mean that the systemic stress of the vaccinations tipped him over the edge on some pre-existing on oncoming abdominal condition. There have been no feed or supplement changes, other than another hay delivery - from our same supplier who produces and cuts his own hay and none of the other horses seem to be having a problem. The lack of a fever means it probably isn't a specific reaction to the shots themselves. The timing after eating could indicate ulcers, but the gas probably doesn't. (We've got him on a 4-day course of Gastrogard just to rule that out and also compensate for all the meds he's received.) All very worrisome coupled with the changes in his personality and manure over the past month or so. The back and stifle soreness could also be related if he's holding himself stiffly because of abdominal pain. This also could or could not be related to the tying-up episode he had a while ago, which seemed at that time to be related to a mild attack of laminitis due to spring grass. No sign of foot problems at this point and I'm keeping him off the mid to late afternoon grass anyway as a precaution, and shortening up his grazing even further on days where temperatures are below 40F at night.

I'm hoping the blood work will give us some more information.

Rode All Three, and Felt Good About It Too - and Some Videos!

2011-09-21T09:51:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was beautiful - low 70s, sunny and a bit of wind. In contrast to other recent days, I really wanted to go to the barn in the afternoon and work with my horses. I ended up riding all three horses, and really enjoyed it - the whole thing, from grooming, to tacking to riding.

Pie was up first - he's fine again, which is amazing considering how unwell he was for a while the previous evening (I added a video our p.m. barn lady took before I got back over to the barn to the post about his reaction to the shots - poor guy, he clearly felt awful but it cleared right up with some bute - the only time I've seen a horse look that bad was when Maisie was at another barn and had a bad impaction colic that no one noticed until things were really advanced).

But Pie felt fine, and we were able to go on a quick trail ride with Scout, since we just by chance were going out at about the same time as Scout's owner. I kept our ride short to give him an easy work session. We encountered a number of trail "obstacles" - I think our dense suburban environment is sometimes more challenging that a more rural trail environment. There was the class of small children by the pond, on either side of the trail - they were carrying backpacks, and notebooks, and coats, and were right by the trail on either side. Pie looked hard at them and we eased on by - they started to follow us and he scooted a few steps but came right back. I've developed this most uncool habit, when he spooks or scoots, of calling out "whoa" in a shrieks-like-a-girl voice - sorry girls but I bet you know what I mean - I never used to do this, it certainly doesn't help if Pie is nervous and it really annoys me but I expect it'll go away as I become less nervous. Anyway, we recovered from the children of doom, and then we had the "giant tractor pulling flatbed trailer with rustling brush and logs being heaved up on it" and then we had the "group of children coming out of the woods" who had to be very carefully watched and analyzed - Pie is still figuring out children and the range of their possible behaviors. And then we had a bike come up fast from behind - he scooted and then was very nervous as it passed by, but recovered well. He had to do a lot of shot trot sets to catch up with Scout from time to time. I was very pleased with how he did on our ride.

Then I took out the much-neglected Dawn for a ride. She was very good - we did some transition work and also some spiral in/out and some leg yield at walk and trot. Considering she's barely been ridden over the past several weeks, she was very good although very forward and never as relaxed as I'd like. There was one small scoot/spook when a farm truck drove by on the path around the pond behind her - trucks almost never drive there - but she recovered well and went right back to work. There was a big milestone for her today - I'd set up three poles in a fan - Dawn has always had a big phobia of poles (due to some specific very bad prior experiences involving jumping) - but today she just walked over all three poles, in both directions - she did rush a bit but there was almost no hesitation and no balking/refusals to go over, which is a big first for her. I think the fact that there were multiple poles actually helped - she couldn't worry too much about the first pole because she had to think about the whole array of three.

Drift did very well - he was very interested in being ridden - I think he's a bit jealous of Pie - and was soft-eyed and well-behaved throughout. We worked on our figures - serpentines and circles, including some spiral in/out and leg yield, and some transitions and lengthening/shortening work. I asked our p.m. barn lady to take some videos to compare to a video from May when he was just starting his training with me. Please ignore the horrible posture of the person (me) in the videos.

Here's the first short video of Drifter from early May - before the Mark Rashid clinic - Drifter was just learning to soften and there's not too much consistency, but he's beginning to get the idea - he'd been ridden by me fewer than 20 times at this point, and hadn't been ridden but a few times by his prior owner for about two years prior to that, so he's not doing too bad. The first thing I notice about this video is how tense he is, and how he's pushing on the bit and even trying to push above it from time to time - looking for the release that I'm being careful not to give him - but he's working hard on figuring it out. I also note that he isn't really relaxed in the top line, despite the head position, and because of that and the bracing on the bit, he's using his forehand to drag himself around - the hindquarters aren't really stepping under but are trailing behind.

And here are the two very short videos our p.m. barn lady took yesterday. Drifter was fairly distracted by the "strange" person in the arena, which introduced some inconsistency in his rhythm and softness, but I also see a lot of good things in these videos. In part one of the video, you'll see a few steps of his very nice walk at the beginning (I think the walk tells you a lot about the horse's quality of movement and athleticism and was the first thing I noticed about Drifter when his prior owner led him out of the pasture), and a good upwards transition to trot. There's also more evidence of relaxation - his body is much more "swingy", and although his head position isn't consistent due to his distraction, he's much more soft, with a more relaxed top line (look at the tail swinging more freely as he moves away from the camera), engaged core and much more activity in the hindquarters. At the end of this video, when he's trotting towards the camera, I'm asking for some slight lengthening and stretching down, and he actually makes a move towards stretching out at the very end, which is big progress for him.

In part two of the video, we're doing one of our exercises involving a few steps of walk, then a few steps of trot, then a few steps of walk, and there are a number of very abrupt downwards transitions from trot to walk and trot to halt - we're still working on this and these were a bit worse than usual due to his distraction but what I like is that he's instantly responsive when I ask for the change of rhythm for a change of gait - he's really listening to me. Smoothing out the downwards transitions won't be hard. And at the very end he does a very nice back and looks quite pleased with himself.

And the best thing was that I thoroughly enjoyed it all - every minute - which is the first time this has happened in a long time. I'm hoping this positive trend continues.

New Research Testing and Treatment Protocol for EPM

2011-09-20T10:49:00.002-05:00

I've been fortunate in my horse life so far to have never had to deal with a horse with EPM - equine protozoal myeloencephalitis - one of the most difficult equine diseases to accurately diagnose and treat. First, a disclaimer - I'm not a vet, have no vet training, and I'm not in a position to advise people on how to deal with a horse who may have EPM - if you have a horse with EPM, do your own research and talk to your vet (who may or may know about this new protocol). What I'm describing in this post was told to me by our vet/chiropractor and is based on her personal knowledge of the research, her own experience and that of her clients and their horses. And here's a site which contains a lot of good information about EPM, including description of the current testing and treatment protocols and also the new research.

Here's the summary - there is new research on EPM that has led to the development of a new, much more accurate test to determine if your horse has EPM, and a new treatment protocol is also in research that is significantly less expensive (at least for now) than the current approved pharmaceutical treatment and which may be more effective. According to my vet/chiro, this new treatment protocol appears so far to be producing excellent results. Obviously, this is still research, but if you have a horse with EPM or suspected EPM, you may want to have your vet get in touch with the people doing the research (details later).

EPM has always been a difficult disease to diagnose and also treat. It's a disease caused by a protozoan, horses pick it up in the environment, and a fairly large proportion of horses in the U.S. have been exposed to it but exhibit no clinical signs. A small percentage of horses develop neurological signs - weakness, gait abnormalities and balance and postural problems - which can make them unrideable and even a danger to themselves and unsafe to be around. Part of the difficulty in diagnosis is that other neurological diseases can produce similar symptoms, and the symptoms of EPM can vary widely. The currently available tests are also not completely reliable. Apparently horses that are treated sometime relapse repeatedly, and the current approved treatment can be very expensive, which may lead people to not treat or euthanize horses with EPM or suspected EPM.

The research is being conducted by a vet in the Ocala area - Dr. Siobhan Ellison. The new test is an ELISA test. Since it's an ELISA test, the reliability is much higher, and it also can be done using a blood draw instead of a spinal tap (the Western blot test that is also currently used also does not have high reliability). One reason for the treatment failures may be that existing treatments may not be effective against all strains of EPM, and a horse may have only one of the two strains that can affect equines, and current tests cannot distinguish among strains. Here's a page which describes how you and your vet and your horse may participate in the research - it's pretty easy - submit a serum sample, and if that is positive there is an ongoing trial of the drug, Oroquin-10 (decoquimate, I'm told, although the web site doesn't say this - this is according to my vet/chiro), which is also fairly inexpensive, has been shown to be effective against protozoal disease in other species, and which is reportedly effective against three strains of EPM, including the two that have so far been detected in horses. The page mentions a short-course oral paste treatment of the drug, but my vet/chiro indicated that there is a also a feed top dressing that is available for treatment for a three-month course.

To summarize, I am not advocating or not advocating this new test and treatment, as I have no personal experience with it, and I'm not vouching for the accuracy of the information on any of these sites - do your own research. But I trust the judgment of our vet/chiro, and if I had a horse with EPM, I'd certainly be looking into it and you may wish to do the same - I thought it would be useful to put the information out there.

Another Clue to Pie's Grumpy Behavior

2011-09-20T09:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I think we got another clue to Pie's recent somewhat grumpy behavior. The vet came to do our fall shots - the horses got their flu/rhino shots and Pie also got his rabies shot (the rest of the horses get that in the spring but Pie's on a different schedule due to when he got his rabies shot in the fall last year before I got him). So I've no personal experience with how Pie reacts to inoculations.

All my horses were perfect for the vet - I feel good about that. The vet recommended not riding that day in case they were a bit stiff or sore or under the weather due to the shots. Everybody looked good, until at about 7 p.m. our p.m. barn lady called me to say that, although Pie had eaten his dinner and had been eating hay, and had pooped and peed, he was now lying flat in his stall groaning. She thought at first that he was snoring, as he was acting pretty unresponsive - she couldn't get him to even raise his head. So I went over - the benefits of living very close by - and he was sitting up in a sternal position by that time but looking like he felt pretty awful. Here's a video our p.m. barn lady took just before I got there - she thought at first that he was just sleeping and snoring. He did get up after a few minutes, but still seemed pretty out of it - half-closed eyes and drooping head. He didn't have a temperature but we may not have gotten an accurate reading as their was "poop in the pipeline", which will lower the reading you get.

I called our vet - fortunate that our vet doesn't charge for phone calls - and our regular vet was on duty. She said that since there was no swelling at either injection site, that it was likely that it was just his immune system kicking into overdrive as a result of the shots, and that he felt a bit fluish - body aches and maybe a bit of a fever, like we may feel after a flu shot - that's certainly how he looked. She had me give him 2 grams of bute to see if that would make him feel better, and within a very short time, he had perked right back up and was vigorously eating his hay. I kept him in his stall last night to better monitor his manure and urine output, and he looked fine this morning. His temperature was slightly elevated above his morning normal - it was 100.5 and his normal is usually sub-100 in the a.m. - so I gave him another gram of bute and sent him on his way to turnout - he trotted off happily.

Now here's the interesting part. Those of you who have been following along will know that Pie's recently taken to being more crabby and even attempting to push people around - he actually bit another boarder a week or so ago. Both last evening after the bute took effect and this morning, Pie was like a horse with a personality transplant - he was back to his original friendly, cheerful demeanor. I suspect that he's got some underlying body soreness issues going on not related to the inoculations, and the bute took that away - he's looked tight in the back to me for a while, although he's not the slightest bit off. So our chiropractor/vet will be coming out early next week to work on him.

And, while we were chatting, our chiro/vet mentioned to me that there's a new research testing protocol for EPM that is more accurate, and that there's also a lower-cost treatment that seems to be effective even in horses that have had relapses . . . more on that later.

The 15-Minute Rule Revised

2011-09-15T19:57:00.000-05:00

As I try to get back the joy of horses, I've been thinking about the best way to do this. I've always been a person who has to "push through" to get through hard times - if I just wait for inspiration to strike, it never comes - I just need to practice whatever it is, on a regular basis, and let the joy find its way back into the practice. I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone else, but that's how it works for me. For me it's a little bit like faith - if I keep practicing my faith, even with doubts and worries and discouragements, the real thing is more likely to show up - if I don't practice, the real thing - faith, or joy of horses - doesn't have the space and time to show up.

So here's what I'm doing right now with the horses. My shoulder is giving me some trouble - not the area where the collarbone was broken, right at the end above my shoulder blade - it's fully healed (with a large bump) and my range of motion and strength are good. Where it hurts, after I've been active for a while, although interestingly enough, riding isn't something that bothers it lot - oddly enough walking is the worst thing - it hurts on my back between my shoulder blade and spine - sort of a dull throbbing. I expect there are ligaments and tendons in there that got rearranged in my accident.

Doing a good ride on one horse is about all I'm up to right now. I've always had the 15-minute rule, which states that even if you don't feel like working, just do 15 minutes - either you'll get 15 minutes of work, or else you'll feel like going on longer when the 15 minutes have passed. Sort of a version of putting one foot in front of the other. Yesterday Pie and I had a 15 minute or so ride that didn't start so well and ended up acceptable by the end. It was very chilly and very windy and he was frisky and distracted - I got some head shaking and a few protest grunts. We did some walk and trot work, and it was OK, but nothing to write home about.

Today I went in with a different attitude - I wanted to work with Pie for a more extended time - if you make real progress in 15 minutes that's enough, but just marking time doesn't do it and doesn't help the horse (and me) develop a work ethic or reach a place where the horse and I can feel good about things. So today, my objective was to work for an extended period - an hour if I could do it - with some specific objectives in the work. For the other two - Dawn and Drift - my objective was to spend some good time with them - if only a good grooming and/or a hand graze.

Pie and I had a very good work session today, despite the chill and the winds. We started, after he was saddled and bridled (over his halter and lead) with a 15-minute hand walk on the trail, taking some paths we've not been on recently. I'm on zero tolerance with him for any nudges, pushes, head butts or forging ahead - he's not to put his head into my space, ever. He's doing very well with this, and there was little testing behavior. We walked, we looked, we stopped and stood, we walked some more. Then I took him to the arena, took his bridle off and tied him - I haven't done this in the arena before. He fussed and pawed for a bit as I set up poles - there was grass just out of reach - but settled down.

I set the poles in an arrangement where one pole faced east (the center pole), one to the north (to the left), and one to the south (to the right), with gaps in the middle between the ends for walking through. There were also four cones in a line down the length of the arena off the rail - with young horses I rarely use the rail as it can create the illusion of straightness when the horse is actually crooked. Pie and I bridled up and I mounted and we worked hard for about another 45 minutes at the walk and trot - circles, straight lines, turns on the haunches, spiral in/out, leg yield and various figures involving the cones and also the poles. The poles should help strengthen his stifles. He tends to overbend to the left and not bend well to the right, and also leg yields much better to the right (left bend) than to the left (right bend). I worked a lot on activating his hind legs - at the walk, cuing in time with the barrel swinging away to cause that hind leg to engage (forwards) or step under (sideways). He was really doing it, although he did struggle with using his right hind - I think it's his weaker one.

I was really pleased, and was tempted to get Drifter tacked up and ride, but my shoulder was hurting so Drifter and I just groomed and hand grazed. Dawn and I also had a nice grooming session too. It was a good day with horses, and I needed that.

A Year With Horses

Mindfulness Practices: T'ai Chi Chih and Drawing

Exciting News (!) and Other January Steps

Post-Traumatic Stress After Serious Riding Accidents

Am I (Too) Old (for This)?

Mind the Gap . . . Intent, Focus and the (Un)Cluttered MInd

Rebuilding Connections

In Search of Softness From the Inside

Pie Loses His Mind

Regaining Confidence

The Meaning of Work, Persistance and Letting the Horse Figure Things Out

Pie Shows His Personality

The Plan for 2012, or Why Horses Are about Life

The Year In Review, With Some Pictures

Holiday Wishes From Norman, Lily, Maisie, Dawn, Pie and Drifter

Blog Winter Vacation

Very Good Session With Drifter

Toning It Down for Effectiveness

Drifter and I Continue to Work it Out

Norm Spam!

Watching the Thought Turn Into Action: Individual Frames From the Video

More Video: Getting Ahead of the Thought - What Do You See?

Working To Resolve Drifter's Issues - With Video!

Chiro Visit and Drifter Puts on a Show

Final Rides of November, and November Summary

Why Would I Hand Feed a Horse That Bites?

Muddy Dawn, Sleepy Pie and Drifter Rears

Two More Test Positive

The Balk Is Back

Some Things Improve, Some Things Stay the Same . . .

Why I Don't Ride On the Rail - Attention and Straightness

Pie and Drifter Featured on Dr. Ellison's Blog

Small Triumphs

Precision Bombing . . .

One Pie Photo

More Wind But Quieter Horses

Wind Chill of 22F With Dancing Horses

Pea Gravel, All Scraped Up and Caudal Hoof Photos

The Boys Are Back!

The Dangers of Fall Grass

Once a Week Rider

Encouraging News

Pictures of (12) Hooves

Improvements

Some Videos - Lateral Work and Hind Legs Crossing

Cautiously Optimistic . . .

The Conversation

Why Dawn is "Dawntastic" and Work at the Walk

Keeping Fingers Crossed . . . and October Summary

A Pair of Sleeping Beauties

Dawn Does the Floating Exercise, and Drifter and Pie Updates

New EPM Page

Three Rides and Watching Drifter Go

Windy and Cold With Three Horses

News Alert! - Now I Get to Learn About EPM . . .

All Horse, All the Time

Feed Analysis

Beautiful Day With Three Horses, and Huge Wings

Staying Safe On the Ground

It's Still Lurking . . .

Windy and Colder With Horses

Pie Improves and a Few Good Friends

Norman Spam!

Watching and Waiting . . .

Pie Update and Working on Lateral

Slow Horsemanship

Three-peat and Worried About Pie

Pie Plus Two

Drifter - Close, Closer, Closest

Balking at the Canter

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Pie

Pie's Back! and Back In the Saddle Again

Pie's Coming Home Tomorrow!

No News Is Good News

Still a Mystery

It Wasn't the Fats - Pie Makes a Trip to the Vet Hospital

More Clues About Pie

It May Be the Fats . . .

Not Out of the Woods Yet

Pie Doing Better