Monthly Archives: February 2019

Residual Effects

Okay, I’ve already lost this one too.

Horses don’t always hold on to things they’ve been taught, or do they? As some people have selective hearing, horses sometimes have selective remembering. You’ve been there, conversation goes…… Rider – I taught you this last week, or we went down this trail yesterday, or you passed that rock every day of your life, what do you mean the boogie man lives behind it? Horse – I have no idea what you are talking about. Are you crazy? You want me to do what????

But there are things that happen to them that leave a lasting impression. Especially when the fight or flight instinct kicks in. They will remember anything they perceive as a threat to their life. Then comes your part where you have to convince them that you will protect them and, whatever it is, won’t hurt them. Not always an easy thing to do.

I’m dealing with several of those issues right now. Had an Equine dentist assistant whip my horse into a dental trailer. I’ve mentioned this before. She hesitated, he hit. There was no need for that. She always would load with no problem. Well it is a problem now. She will load, but not as easily as she used to.

Then there is the Intranasal Flu Vaccine. They all hate it. They have come up with a mist now which is supposed to be easier. Someone needs to convince my horses of that. Just when I start being able to worm this one horse it’s time for a flu mist and we’re back to square one with “your not getting anywhere near my nose ever again.” He just doesn’t get the concept of I’m heading for his mouth, not his nose, and the vet does the flu, not me. Someone roughed him up over the years and he’s not letting go of that thought.

Residual effects don’t go away easy, bet you’ve personally found that out once or twice.

So what do we do? Stay calm, be consistent, and be persistent. Be patient, proceed when you have plenty of time to work through the problem. Keep a calm energy, be soothing (if it’s frightening), and be firm (when it’s just resistance). They are like children waiting to see who gives in first.

It wouldn’t hurt to bring a drink, lunch, and sometimes, a sleeping bag. Only kidding, but I have brought a drink. When you feel you are tensing up, and your adrenaline starts pumping, stop. Drop your energy level to you toes, take a deep breath, relax, and start again. The more uptight you get, the less chance you have of success.

I’m always surprised at how long I can out wait a horse. Since by nature I am not a person of patience. However, with horses I am.

Remember when you were a kid (yes baby goat), and your mother wanted you to sit at the table until you finish something you hated to eat. Eventually you would fall asleep at that table, and your mom would let you go? Well don’t give in. You are stronger than your mother. You learned from her.

The key things to remember are time, patience, calmness, and determination. Never hurts to mention this again.

Still can’t find my grammar and spell check, use your imagination.

Which Came First The Chicken or The Egg?

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Let me start by saying, I lost my editor and spell check and I also lost this post once already. So if you see mistakes, I’m just thankful I have a post to have mistakes.

Okay, I’ve had tough cases before, but so far, this is the toughest.

It’s another one of those, multiple vets, xrays, MRI’s, Chiropractors, and ending up with a ton of different issues. This horse has issues from the tip of his ears to the bottoms of his hooves, and from his nose to his tail. The owner has finally found a vet that didn’t just write him off as a lost cause, but ………… He’s doing the pealing back the onion thing, but keeps finding more layers. He’s healing one thing and finding many others.

My thought was pull his shoes off, turn him out for a year and let his body heal, and then see what we are left with. However, this vet is set and determined to find out what it is now. I get it. The girl does want to show him before she’s not a Junior anymore, but my first reaction was “is he just milking them?” I spoke with him and he seems on the level, but I’m not a trusting person by nature.

How does an 8 yr. old horse have so many things wrong? I have 28 yr. olds that don’t have that many problems. From torn soft tissues to a kissing spine, inflammation in the foot to vertebrates that don’t line up. Lame in the right front, kicks out with the back left. The front right foot seems to be the major problem. The dreaded word “Navicular” was used with inflammation around the coffin bone. The owner read me the MRI report and everything that was mentioned was moderate. Nothing sent out a red flag and said “this is what the problem is.”

If it started in the foot, why are there so many issues in the rest of the body? My initial reaction was “this horse has been in a bad wreck. Warmblood, so not a starting gate accident. The trip from Germany? A trailering accident? Stall accident? Pasture accident? Was it from birth? Training? I asked the owner and she said that she totally trusted the breeders, but the daughter said that the horse did drift to the left when she tried him out. No one has mentioned that he was ever involved in an accident, but are they telling the complete truth? Perhaps they weren’t aware of the horse doing something stupid. Horses really don’t disclose when they do stupid stuff.

Now I haven’t even seen this horse yet. I pick him up in a couple of weeks. The vet was doing a nerve block on him and will let me know the results. That would have been one of my first thoughts, but that stems back from my old vet. “Start at the bottom and work your way up.”

So the bottom line is – did it start in the foot and create problems throughout his body? Or did it start in another part of his body and put too much on that foot?

I just can’t let go of how did so much go wrong in an entire body on such a young horse, in such a short time?

I’ll keep you posted as to what we come up with.

By the way, the chicken came first.

Jumper Course or Obstacle Course

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The other day, as I was walking up from the pond pasture, I was thinking about the next thing I had to tackle. You finish one project or disaster and you move on to the next. I thought – my life is like a Jumper Course, or maybe an Obstacle Course would better describe it.

When I was a teenage I could never remember my course except for the different jumps. I’d start at the vertical, go to the coop, come around to the stone wall, over the oxer, through the combination, around to the post and rail, down to the spread, and finish by jumping over the gate out of the ring. If they were all rails, well then I was in trouble.

So it is with life. I finally finished with wrapping the horses leg after two years, and now I’m onto the eye, then around to the abscess, down to the allergy sores, around to the dew poisoning, meds for the dogs, and help Bobby.

Actually thinking of it as a Jump Course at a horse show is more fun than the reality of “This Is Your Life.” For those of you who aren’t as old as I am, that was a TV show back in the late 50’s.

It’s really interesting as to how you view things. It could drag you down or make you laugh.

It’s your choice, but I’ll take the Jump Course and laugh as I cross the finish line. It’s not a timed event, so enjoy the ride.

Why Do You Do This?

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A woman who is a very prominent trainer in our area has sent several of her horses and clients horses to me both for lay-up and retirement. When she was visiting a month ago she asked me why I did this. She stopped me in my tracks. I had to think, which I try to avoid, why do I do this? Good question. I hesitated a bit too long and she said, “because you love this, that’s why.”

It started me thinking, really, why do I do this? I certainly don’t do this for the money. Nor do I do this to make a name for myself. I’m 71 years old and I don’t need to be unloading 1000 lbs. of grain. I don’t need to be out there treating an eye ulcer every four hours. I don’t need to be body slammed by a horse. So then why don’t I just retire and enjoy the rest of my life?

Probably because I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. Bobby would like to sell everything and go live on a boat cruising from place to place. Going north in the summer and south in the winter. That would get old. I need to be dirty. I need to look out across the pastures and see the horses grazing, napping, or just being horses. I need to have a purpose beyond walking the dog in the morning with a pooper scooper. Besides even if we get a mega yacht the horses would be bored (storing hay would be a problem with the salt air) and the Catahoulas would wreak havoc on the place. I would like to do it for a few weeks to a month like we used to. Not take the horses, just go away on the boat.

I loved teaching. I loved, really loved Fox Hunting. I guess when I used to show I liked that too, but why does anyone collect and take care of geriatric horses if they don’t totally love what they are doing? I certainly haven’t had time to ride lately. But what I used to get joy and comfort out of was just grooming and spending time with them on a one to one basis. Fussing over them. Haven’t had a lot of time for that lately. I really need to look at my workload and priorities.

So why do you do what you do? No, really? Are you in it for the money (not in the horse business), the love, the glory, or the satisfaction? Do you just do what you do mindlessly? Are you even aware of what you do? Are you really aware of why you do it?

It’s winter, it’s cold, it’s a good time to think, and remember why we do what we do. We do it because we absolutely love the glorious, gorgeous, animals who have our hearts. If you don’t feel that way I think you need to rethink why you do it, and take up another sport.

Horses are a spiritual thing, they capture our hearts and our souls, and that’s why we do it.