Thinking Out of the Box and Into The Basement

Tonight  I wanted to file Starlight’s hooves before our ride.  They were getting a little raggedy and her back toes were too long.

Starlight investigates a log in this strange new place.

So I tied her to a post by our basement door and went to work.  It was difficult, because the flies were driving her crazy and she needed to be on all four feet to fight them off.  The fly spray I used repeatedly was not helping. 

I worked through three feet, but she was becoming increasingly irritated and I was getting shorter intervals of work before I had to let go of her hoof so she could to attend to the flies.  I didn’t fight her, as she normally holds her hoof up quietly for me as I work, so I knew the fly bites must be really painful. 

I hate those leg-biting flies myself.  Horn flies, I believe they’re called.

The central air coming on caused a bit of concern.

By the last, hind foot, we were both frustrated.  I had to trim it, since the others were all done, but neither of us could put up with these conditions.  

Then I had an idea: The basement was cool and just on the other side of that door.  And there were no flies in there.

So, in we went.   She was a little tentative in there, but I went right to work on that last hoof (evened up the other hind one too, since now I could work on it without her pulling it away).  She relaxed enough to scratch her muzzle on a log she found in there, one that is destined for the stove this winter.

I probably should have tacked her up in the basement, too, but she was farting a lot and I knew what was next, so we hustled back out, tacked up and went for a fast ride up the hill.

Starlight jumped an obstacle while I was on her tonight, for the first time.  Two, actually -- fallen logs that she normally steps over.  We approached them at speed, so she jumped them.  It was a very sweet and easy jump for her, giving me confidence that we won’t have to choose to go around all the fences we encounter when we venture out on a hunter pace this fall.

It was a nice ride, after a somewhat unorthodox hoof trimming session.

My husband says he reads my blogs.  I’ll find out after this one if he does.  I have a feeling I might hear something about the horse in the house.

Twin Tiers Horse Events, Sept. 1 - 4, 2011

I can't believe another week has flown and it's time to post this weekend's Twin Tiers equestrian activities!  

There are a lot of tempting events this weekend.  I might just trailer one of my ponies over to the Chemung County Fairgrounds for some exposure to a show, since there are two there this weekend (they'll never notice a party crasher).  I'm also very interested in the Reined Cowhorse events at Alfred, and the clinic with Susan Strong Kelley sounds really good, too.  What to do, what to do?

Have fun, whatever YOU do!

Sept. 3-4: Northern PA Horse Club show

Chemung County Fairgrounds

For details: Sandy Knowlton 1196 Dutch Hill Rd. Pine City, NY 14871

(607) 734-2769 E-mail: clydek1@earthlink.net

http://www.nphca.net/

Sept 3-4: NYPEA Summer GoldChemung County Fairgrounds

For details: Michael Green, 114 Emmons St., Newark, NY 14513

(315) 359-9004, Cell (315) 573-8513 E-mail: mikpizza121@hotmail.com

http://www.nypea.org/showinfo.html

Sept 3: Genesee Valley Riding and Driving Club Cross Country Schooling on Horse Trials Grounds

10am - 2pm. Cost is $30 for GVRDC members, $40 for non-members. Helmets with chin straps, vests & armbands required & riders must have someone with them (either mounted or on the ground).
If you need to school with a trainer, contact Carol Kozlowski at (585) 226-6287 or mothersfield@aol.com

For details: http://www.gvrdc.org/calendar.htm

Sept 3:  Focus on Horse Clinic

Geneseo, NY, In this clinic Susan Strong Kelley will be teaching participants how to get the horse "In front of your leg" Susan will be using skills acquired through over 35 years of practicing Natural Horsemanship on the ground, as well as her on going work as a qualified Centered Riding Instructor.The clinic will begin with work with the horses on the ground then progress to the mounted work. The horses will be rewarded to a complete equine massage afterwards by Terry Crisafulli, Licensed Vet Tech and Certified Equine Massage Threrapst. Participants will come away with individual instruction on how to easily massage the area's where their horses need it most! and a complete understanding and ability of how to get their horse to move forward more freely!

For details: Download Clinic Schedule. For questions, contact Susan at (585) 243-5056 or go to www.bighousestables.com

Sept. 3: Genesee Valley Pony Club Lucky Horseshoe Horse Show at Wheeler Green, Nations Rd, Geneseo, NY. Starts at 9 am. Click Here for a Prize List.

For details: contact Charity Donnan or Anamaria Cole at cdonnan2001@yahoo.com or anamariacole@yahoo.com

Sept. 4: NBHA Barrel Racing -- Skyline Memorial Classic Weekend
Saturday's  Speed Club Show
Saturday, Sept 3rd at 9am
Fig 8 * Polebending * Cloverleaf - All Divisions
$200 added 3D Polebending  ~ $500 added 3D/4D Barrels
Download Entry Form Here for Saturday's Show

Sunday's Skyline Memorial $$$ Show ~ NBHA NY06 sanct.
Sunday, Sept 4th - exhibition at approx. 11;
draw closes at noon; run to start at 12:30 pm
$800 added NBHA 4D Open Barrels & $200 added 3D Poles
Download Entry Form Here for Sunday's Show

For details: http://www.skylinecorral.com/

Sept. 3-4: New York Reined Cow Horse Association and National Reined Cow Horse Association Extreme Penning

Alfred University Equestrian Center, 9 a.m. both days.

For details: http://www.newyorkrcha.com

September 1 – 5: Twin Tier Trail Riders

Susquehannock State Forest, Potter County, PA. This is Steve and Jeanne’s ride open to everyone with a deep fried turkey dinner on Saturday night.  Last minute additions will be if space is available. Day riders just let me know you are planning to come. The dinner is a dish to pass and can come or the ride, dinner or just one or the other. Everyone is welcome but an idea of count is helpful. Parking is tentatively planned for Twelve Mile Gas Well parking but have to be changed when we have the actual count.

For details: Contact Jeanne Root to be included on the camping permit 570-596-3653.  

Riding Shouldn't Hurt

I have been feeling nauseous for the last couple of days, ever since I read this article, delivered to my email box, courtesy of The Horse.com:   “Is Your Horse's Bit Harmful to His Mouth?” by Casie Bazay, BS, NBCAAM.

This study found that the majority of domestic horse skulls examined have bone or tooth damage caused by bits.   I realize this is a very small study, and I realize that it was conducted by a person who developed and sells a bitless bridle, so don’t go all reiterate-the-obvious on me.  In fact, the study was recently a topic of “conversation” on a COTH thread, where these points were batted about. 

The spin, in reining (credits to Wikipedia).

The same thread presents this study, however: “Surgical Removal of Mandibular Periostitis (Bone Spurs) Caused by Bit Damage,” by Thomas J. Johnson, DVM.  This more medically-focused article, starts out with this sentence, “Many performance horses suffer from painful mandibular periostitis caused by bit trauma.”

There are a couple reasons these articles are upsetting to me.  The first is that I have long suspected that bits hurt horses.  When I really think about it, I can’t imagine that they don’t hurt horses.  Even in gentle hands, they must feel terrible in their mouths. 

I work very hard at gentle hands.  It’s the single most important thing I do for my horses while riding, but once in a while a mare spooks or takes an unexpected leap over something, or trips, and I accidentally jerk on the mouth.  I can see and feel that that jerk did not feel good.

Another reason the articles upset me is because I haven’t really thought about it very often.   I was taught, like most English riders, to apply “gentle” pressure to the bit while signaling with the seat to get the horse to drop his head, round his back, engage his hindquarters and “collect.”  I was taught that this is the way to get the horse to use his body correctly, so it’s a good thing.  You’re not yanking on the bit, you’re applying steady pressure with the hands and seat until the horse drops his head.  But even when I was doing it in lessons and shows, the thought would flitter across my brain that reason the horse was dropping his head was to avoid the painful bit pressure, not because he was magically learning the correct way to carry his body.  But that was the “right” way to ride.

A very famous horse wearing two bits. (Credit to Discoverhorses.com)

I queasily searched Dr. Johnson’s article until I found this “Frequently affected horses include the following: dressage horses, gaited horses, western working horses, Standardbred and Thoroughbred race horses, gaming horses, and polo ponies.”

I keep thinking of CG, the main horse of my past, and other past horses, and how I probably hurt their mouths as we worked toward dressage shows.  And I have been thinking of how I attempted to start working Hudson away from being “strung out,” which was written all over our only two dressage tests we ever did, by applying the seat and hand techniques I was taught to get her hind end more engaged.   I could tell she was stressed and confused by the change in pressure on the bit, and honestly, I hated doing it so much that I didn’t try it for long.  I wonder if we have to force horses into the “correct” positions.  If you ask them to work, they’ll work for you, but do we have to twist them all up at the same time?

I use the gentlest bits I can, but I am questioning using them now.  The idea of them causing tooth damage and bone spurs, and the horse just bearing this, is pretty terrible.  I have a bitless bridle that I’m going to try on Starlight.   Interestingly, she has been uncooperative only on one point: She refuses to offer her open mouth for the bit when I push my finger on her bar (I never get the bit in the mouth by pushing it against the front teeth).  I have to push pretty steadily while she just stands there looking at me.  Eventually, I get her teeth open enough to slide the bit in, but, duh.  It’s pretty obvious that the pony who has been up for anything under saddle is trying to tell me something.

With Dee, I’ll probably still use a bit until I have confidence in her being cooperative under saddle, but will then move away from the bit. 

If I move away from bits, I will also be excluding myself and my horses from those competitions that require bits.  But, is it so bad?  Aren’t there many fun things to do with the horse that don’t make any rules about tack, other than that it be safe?  There are, and I think that for now, that’s where I’ll head.

Twin Tiers Horse Events, Aug. 27 - 31.

Here are this weekend's (and early next week's) Twin Tiers' horse events.  It's a short,  but loaded, list.  Take a drive to the recognized horse trails in Geneseo or audit Michelle LaBarre's clinic for some excellent horse time this weekend! 

August 27, 28 GVRDC USEA recognized Horse Trials

Geneseo, NY. Levels are Intro, Beginner Novice, Novice, Training and Preliminary.
Contact Wezo Pierson at (585) 509-5691 or piersonlouisa@yahoo.com

August 29, 30: Michelle LaBarre Clinic

Black Points Farm, Honeoye Falls, NY. For info about Michelle, go to www.labarredressage.com
To ride in the clinic, contact Mary Delton at mhd@rochester.rr.com. Auditors welcome.

August 28: Open Horse Show Series

Stoneybrook Farm, 4 Shaffer Road, Newfield, NY

Classes for all levels of Pleasure and Hunt seat riders

Two Venues & the best prizes of any local horse shows!

Series High points compete for:Charles Owen Helmet, Mountain Horse Tall Boots, Ariat Paddock  boots

For details:  www.stoneybrookfarm.info  (607) 564- 0063 or www.@zoom-dsl.com (607) 387-3422

August 31 GVRDC XC schooling on Horse Trials Grounds

3 - 7pm. Cost is $30 for GVRDC members, $40 for non-members.  Helmets with chin straps, vests & armbands required & riders must have someone with them (either mounted or on the ground).
If you need to school with a trainer, contact Carol Kozlowski at (585) 226-6287 or mothersfield@aol.com

This Week's Events Posting Delayed

My weekly posting of upcoming events will be delayed one day.  Sorry!  I raked, baled and stacked (with help, on the stacking) a whole bunch of hay today, and I'm a bit of a zombie.  I'll post them tomorrow night,

In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures:

This one is blurry, but it shows the formation the horses chose when they spotted a big dog near their pasture.  I think they would make a very good defensive line for the New York Football Giants.

My sister, Jenny, likes Stormkite and said it looks like he has bullet holes on his face.  Not bullet holes!  Kissy spots!

The Occasionally Cooperative Ranch Horse

I was getting a little tired of playing duck-and-slap on the trail up the back of the property, ducking to avoid overhead leaves as I rode and getting slapped in the face by them when I miscalculated.  It was time to do some trail clean up, and I needed to be the right height to do it -- the height I am when I ride.

Oh, Hudson!

Holding the loppers in my hand, I rode her to the trail.  I don’t know what her problem was, but she never walked so slowly before, and it felt like two years before we got there, I clutching the getting-heavier-every-minute loppers, shifting them from hand to hand, excruciating aware that they would not be my friend if we ran into trouble.

A reenactment.

When we finally got there, Hudson was very quick to learn the job: Walk a couple of steps, stop under the leafy branches, wait for me to lop the branches off, allow the branches to fall on her head, land on her reins, back, me, then move a half-step to the next one, halt. And so on.  It was very slow, clumsy work, just the thing for Hudson, who hadn’t seemed to want to do much that night, anyway.  As the branches fell around her, she sampled leaves from each and had a little leafy smorgasbord.

She was just as quick to figure out, while I was up there maneuvering the loppers around twigs and branches, some as thick as a finger,  and using both hands and sometimes my body to apply pressure for cutting, that I was not holding the reins very well, if at all.  So then, instead of standing still as I worked as a good ranch horse should, she opted to turn around and try to head back down the trail, or, more fun, walk straight forward into the branches, effectively burying us both in sharp shrubbery.   This naughty behavior required my immediate attention, and correction, and almost left both the loppers and me hanging from branches more than once.

It was slow work, and there were several times when Hudson and I mosied up the trail with every bit of horse and human surface dangling leaves and twigs, looking like the worst-in-class in some bizarre camouflage boot camp.

We got home at dark, just before my husband donned his boots to come searching for us.  A good night’s work on a somewhat recalcitrant ranch horse.

The Magic Saddle

I frequently participate in situations that serve to verify my insanity.

I have been fretting about saddle fit for weeks, months.  I finally headed to Trumbull Mountain’s web site (http://www.trumbullmtn.com/).  I have been there before, as it is highly recommended by folks on forums such as COTH.  Kitt Hazelton, at Trumbull Mountain, will look at your horse’s back tracings and photos and recommend saddles that might fit.  She’ll loan you trial saddles to try and has both new and used saddles for sale.

Starlight, patient in the rain, with red chalk marks on her back.

One night in the pouring rain, I drew chalk lines on my mare, Starlight, as recommended by Trumbull Mountain’s tracing instructions.   Then I bent a supple artist’s curve along the chalk lines, carefully transferring the shapes to a large piece of paper.  I mailed them off to Trumbull Mountain and at the same time emailed photos of Starlight’s conformation to Kitt, as recommended on the web page.

After a few days, I received this note: 

Hi Amy –Your tracings arrived in the mail today, thanks for sending them.  I can see what you mean about the saddle moving forward; Starlight has an upslope to her croup and she’s quite wide – the combination (pretty common in horses of her breed) can make it tough to keep the saddle off the shoulders.  If you can let me know your price range, and if you’re looking for new or used, I’d be happy to make some recommendations.

Thanks –

Kitt

What followed was a volley of emails, ending up with her recommending and offering a loan of a Duett Sonata, 36 cm.  

Well, it so happens that I had tried a 36 cm Duett on Starlight, an Allegro, and determined it was too wide.  Of course, it had to be too wide.  I had purchased it for my half-draft, Hudson.  How could it be the right size for an APHA pony?  Sure, sure, she moved well under it and all, but it did slide forward a bit, and it must be too big, right (even though it was definitely too small for Hudson)?


When I talked to Kitt about this by phone, she said simply that it seemed that it should fit, based on my tracings, and suggested maybe a saddle maker in Connecticut could narrow it for me if I sent measurements and photos.

Satisfied with this idea, I started using the Duett on Starlight.  Guess what?  It fits much better now that a saddle fitting expert said it should fit.  

What do you say about that?!  

I say, insanity verified.  And now, onto the next calamity.