Shoo Flies

Upon publication of this post, I will have improved my posting frequency from last year by 300%. 😉

Well, we tried a fly sheet.  That tone sounds promising, right?

No after pictures, but the fly sheet lasted less than 24 hours before suffering a critical tear. At least I bought it on sale! 

The very next week, the flies became so bad that my horse would not leave the shed to eat his dinner.  A horse not eating is a serious matter, as all horse people know.  When I came to his rescue, he was in the shed, stomping in a frenzy, and covered in flies that would not budge. He had a bloody scrape above his left eye, probably from biting at flies and accidentally banging into something. I even had to call the vet's emergency number, because I was not sure if he needed stitches. Thankfully, he did not. Poor guy.

I have never seen anything like it. All the horses on the farm were in distress and we ended up putting them in the barn.  So all our free-range horses very happily traded their paddocks for a break from the biting pests. Harley ate his dinner and I went home to purchase more fly gear. 

Enter the fly mask and shoo flies.

Wow!  The shoo flies are awesome. They really work. Four horses on the farm are using them and their comfort level is so much higher than before. The flies stay off their lower legs, the leggings do not rub, and they are very lightweight and airy. Stomping is so much less!  Harley has had to grow out hoof wall cracks from stomping for the past two summers. It took months and I had to trim his feet very often to prevent the cracks from worsening. I am hopeful that the shoo flies will prevent that problem this year. So far, so good!

I actually got to ride my horse several times since my last post. It was heaven! Despite how infrequently we "work", Harley is still the same horse. Loves to ride and his memory is fantastic. Even though he should be unfit for serious dressage work, he doesn't feel that way. In fact, my trainer came to New Jersey all the way from Oregon and we had a lesson with her. Harley offered to canter during some of the exercises, so we went with it and he did great. It was fantastic to review some of the biomechanics priciples that she teaches and to have a horse that was happy to move out and participate. I am seriously spoiled with this horse. He still amazes me and we are approaching our 10-year gotcha anniversary.

I cannot resist a few kiddo pictures. I am back to work this week (and back on the pumping to feed my baby train) and they are starting preschool and daycare. We had an amazing seven months together. I can hardly believe everything that we did and all the changes that both of them went through in the past half year. It was so much work and endlessly challenging, but I will miss spending all day with them very much. At least I am in an occupation that allows me a great deal of time with them after work and during the year.

Pony Rides, Flies, and Hoof Trimming Limbo

The good is that Sweet Pea finally got to ride Harley again.  The bad is that I haven't been in the irons in about a month.  And the ugly is the flies.

Sweet Pea has been asking to visit and RIDE Harley.  Getting her to the barn is easier said than done.  As if by magic, one day we found ourselves with a free afternoon, reasonable temperatures (Did you know that New Jersey is a long lost tropical region?), and it wasn't time for anyone to eat or nap (baby, toddler, and Harley included there).   Sweet Pea's helmet fit for the first time without extra padding and so did her new leopard-print barn boots.  Harley was up for anything and baby was too.  What an excellent combination!

Love.

My favorite part was when she said, "Don't hold me".  Brave girl.  It was also my least favorite part, because I did not want to let go!  I feel confident riding, but putting my small child up there is a different experience.  I kept my cool and so did Harley, but I was secretly relieved when she said she was done.

This was also Sweet G's first barn visit and meeting with Harley!  She was very interested and cooed pretty much the entire time we were there.

Unfortunately, I am finding it very difficult to ride right now.  I still trim Harley's feet and that is ruling my barn time.  I only have the time and energy to trim just his fronts or just his hinds and his feet grow so quickly that I have to trim every two weeks.  I only use a rasp, which is part of why I trim so often.  So there is my limbo.  I get stuck trimming his feet every weekend and miss out on riding.  My second baby is still very young and nurses often so leaving her is difficult.  I usually reserve that for Daddy only, hence the weekends.

As for the flies, they are just awful and Harley is delicious so he is miserable.  I finally broke down and ordered a fly sheet, but I have the same problem of not being able to get to the barn often enough to check on him.  This is why I absolutely cannot put him in fly boots. We will see if the sheet is a possibility management-wise.  My poor horse hides in the shed or stomps in his feed dish all day to avoid them.  The repellent is always short-lived relief.  Why do the bottles say eight hours of protection?  Try eight minutes.

Tips for the Horse Who Coughs

If you have been reading for a while you know that my beloved quarter horse, Harley, has an allergic cough.  His condition gradually emerged just before he turned 14 years old.  I had him blood tested and gave him immunotherapy shots for several years.  His symptoms include a cough which ranges from absent and/or mild to persistent and chronic.  There has been a couple scary situations where he had a near asthma-attack.  The cough can be controlled with bronchodilators (expensive) for immediate relief and steroids (time consuming to give, daily injections for a week) for inflammation of the airways.  Both of these treatments only address the symptoms and are time sensitive, meaning the faster he gets the medicine the less dramatic (hopefully) his coughing spell will be.  At best, his cough is annoying to him.  At worst, the cough can prevent a horse from eating properly, so he cannot maintain condition or deprive him of oxygen to his gut (or stress him enough) and cause colic.  The cough does damage to his airways which is probably permanent and this type of condition tends to worsen with time.  His affliction is often referred to as "heaves", but I do not usually refer to Harley this way, because when I picture a heavy horse, I picture a horse who is standing in the pasture huffing and puffing and basically looking miserable.  That does not describe Harley.  He is not huffing or puffing and most people do not realize that there is anything wrong with him at all, unless they happen to be around when his cough acts up.  There is no cure for allergies, but careful management can make a big difference.  Often management of the horse's environment is just as important as having the right medications on hand in case the symptoms escalate.

I have decided to put together a list of things that seem to be working for Harley.  As always, consult your veterinarian if your horse has a cough for any reason.  A cough in an equine is nothing to sneeze at! 

This is how we roll these days.  No more sandy rings!

 Tips for the Horse Who Coughs:

1. Offer 24/7 turnout preferably not in a dusty paddock.
2. Reduce barn time as much as possible (or better yet never bring your horse into the barn).  Find ways to care for your horse in the fresh air.
3. Do not groom your horse, especially before a ride (if your horse can handle exercise) or if you need to trim his feet .  I have found that not grooming Harley before we ride makes it more likely that a coughing fit will not interrupt our fun and his exercise.  I also cannot trim his feet if he is coughing, so no matter how much I want to wipe off the layer of dirt, I ignore it and focus on his feet instead.
4. Only groom your horse with a damp sponge/cloth or give him a bath instead of using dusty brushes.
5. Groom your horse in fresh air.  I have had good luck letting Harley graze while I groom him after a ride.  He seems to be less bothered by the dust when his nose is down toward the ground.
6. Replace your old dusty brushes!  Keep your grooming tools clean.
7. Exercise is good for your horse as long as his symptoms are under control.  Figure out what level of activity your horse can handle and adjust accordingly or consider retirement (or semi-retirement).  Harley has been doing well with 30 minutes of exercise at a time.  He is not tired or winded after 30 minutes and could probably go longer, but I don't want to push him to his limit.  I also don't have time for long rides these days (see my last post)!  I would probably ride him for longer than that if we went on a trail ride and the extra time was spent walking.
8. Do not ride in a dusty arena.  Indoor arenas are most certainly out of the question unless they are meticulously groomed and/or have special footing.  We are having good luck riding on grass.
9. If you trail ride with others, lead the pack so your horse does not inhale the dust from the other horses.
10. If you horse is coughing before you pull him from the paddock, he is probably in need of medicine to control his symptoms.
11. Coughing tends to escalate, so treat symptoms as soon as you notice that they are worse than your horse's normal baseline cough.  This will take some figuring out on the caregiver's part.  Do not expect your horse to "work out of his cough".  This type of cough is NOT the same as the horse who coughs a couple times at the beginning of exercise and then is good to go.
12. Most importantly, listen to your horse and adjust his care accordingly.  Consult your veterinarian and barn manager.  Work together to improve your horse's living environment so that he can be medication free as often as possible.

Sweet Pea likes sandboxes; Harley does not.

Climbing into the riding ring already!?

My Barefoot Horse: A Hoof Post At Last!

August 2013: Doesn't look like much, but these hoof shavings took a lot of work to produce!

Wow!  It has been forever since I wrote a hoof trimming post.  This was not so much due to a lack of trimming as it was a lack of photos.  I continued to maintain Harley's feet while I was expecting our daughter.  Thankfully, this was not as arduous a task as one might expect.  My arms remained reliably strong throughout my pregnancy.  They were perhaps the only part of me that did not transform in some shape or form from day one to the birth day.  Trimming was actually a welcomed activity, especially as my list of activities decreased as the weeks progressed.  It wasn't easy, but it was doable and I believe "relatively" safe under the given circumstances (me trimming Harley).  How did I make the feat (hehe) of trimming my horse while pregnant possible?  Here were my strategies:

1. Only trim a sane, reliable horse who knows me very well and respects my space and boundaries: check.  Harley was as solid as they get.  He can get fidgety, but he was saintly quiet for all of my "expectant" hoof trims.  Did he know?  
2. Do not let Harley's feet get away from me.  I was very careful to almost never allow a scheduled trim pass.  I religiously trimmed his feet every three weeks and kept up with the bars diligently.
3. Only trim a pair of feet on each visit.  This cut my work in half, but required two days of trimming.  Since I couldn't ride my horse in the end, I did not mind the extra time we spent together working on his feet.  In fact, I quite enjoyed it.  I kept the work spaced so that I had a week between front and hind foot trims.  I usually keep this schedule during the summer months anyway, because it is just too darn hot and buggy to trim all four!
4.  Use the hoof stand.  Enough said.
5. Use very new, sharp rasps...
6. And use two rasps!  I had a standard (14"), super sharp rasp for taking down excess hoof wall quickly.  I used my usual shorter (12") Ladies' rasp for the bevel.
7. Have a back-up plan if I am unable to continue trimming my horse.  I did not make any phone calls, but I am sure that the farrier or trimmer who frequents our barn would have helped me out in a pinch.  It was not my first choice to let someone else trim my horse, because I did not want to worry about a new person affecting my horse's feet (especially with all those worrisome hormones reeking havoc on my sentiments).
8. Be willing to let his feet grow longer than normal "at the end".

With a little bit of luck, this strategy worked out pretty well.  When our little one arrived early, I was in between front and hind trims, so Harley's hind feet went about six weeks without a trim and his front's only went four or five.  That is not bad at all, especially considering that many shod horses are purposely trimmed at five to six weeks.

There was also an unforeseen benefit to not riding or working my horse for the last two months of my pregnancy: his hoof growth slowed down.  I was really surprised, but he did not have any flaring from excess growth and barely any mechanical separation.  I was shocked about the last part.  I thought for sure that I would have to do some damage control, but, honestly, he was no worse for the wear.  What a relief, because I had plenty to worry about during those first weeks with our daughter.  Not having to worry about the state of my beloved horse's feet was much appreciated.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to take photos of his feet when I trimmed them in June.  They looked surprisingly good, just long.  I wanted very badly to document them, but I was in whirlwind mode and nothing was stopping me long enough to snap photos.  Plus the bugs were killer that day and Harley was not a happy camper.  By July, I sort of got my photography act together.

July 2013 before his trim: This was the second trim since baby.

July 2013: Self-trimming going on here at four to five weeks (heat wave delayed our trim).  Wowsers.

July 2013: Solar view of left hind.  I tried, but I did not have the patience for nice solar shots.  This was the only one that was not totally blurry and unrecognizable.  This is about four weeks of growth; our trim was pushed back a week due to the insane heat wave.

July 2013: Post-trim hinds

July 2013: Harley looking cute, but also wanting for grass (he is not smiling in this picture).  He was not amused by photo ops on this day, because he was already feeling the effects of baby infringing on his grazing time.

August 2013:  Now we're talking!

2-months old: Pink zebras are almost ponies!

Long Lining and Allergy Update

Allergy Update:
Harley coughed so little yesterday, that I almost forgot to give him his allergy medicine!  We spent several hours together and he only coughed a few times.  We had a long lining session and I rode him a little bit and he barely coughed at all!  Yay!  Today could be totally different, but I am still going to celebrate yesterday.

I tried something new.  Grooming seems to send him into coughing fits, even if I groom him in the washstall outside, so I decided that he needs a "dust mask", just like I used to wear to clean stalls.  I draped a small towel from the noseband of his halter.  He looked kind of silly, but it actually worked.  No coughing!  I might try an old t-shirt next time, since it will be a lighter material.  He seemed to think that I "forgot" the towel and kept trying to grab it with his mouth.  So his dust mask doubled as a source of amusement.  I fed him some treats to inform him in terms that he can understand that towel = good.  I guess this is just one more use of a towel to add to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

Long Lining:
Since I had a week off, there was a long list of things to get done that I normally do not have time to do.  With the baby coming in less than three months, it was more critical than usual that I take advantage of this time off from work to get some work done at home.  Of course, this includes Harley.  I trimmed his front feet and I am happy to say that the preemptive strike worked.  No hoof wall separation or flare developing and the trim was pretty fast and easy.  His hinds will be next time.  Re-introducing Harley to the long lines was also on my "must do" list.  Although I am feeling great, my saddle days are definitely numbered.  I needed a couple days where I did not have to rush to bring out the surcingle and lines so that Harley and I could get reacquainted with long line work, before I feel too much like "Humpty Dumpty". 

Our first shot was on Monday.  Unfortunately, Harley's allergies were not cooperating, but he was still willing and the work was not strenuous, so we were still able to have to some fun and accomplish my goal of re-introduction of the lines.

Harley was just about perfect.  Unfortunately, I cannot take photos while long lining and I did not think to bother someone else to take any, so you will have to take my word for it.  He looked great!  I had power-steering.  He stretched into the lines almost immediately and used his back and topline in some really beautiful ways.  We circled, we went straight ahead, we walked figure eights and even trotted figure eights!  The last time that I tried trotting figure eights we had some trouble maintaining the trot for the direction change (and I had some trouble keeping my lines from tangling), but this time Harley just marched right through the change and I managed to keep my lines in check.  It was too easy.  The grand finale was a little bit of canter.  Cantering in the lines is still new for us, but you wouldn't have guessed it by the easy way he picked up the gait and rounded up into the contact.  I was delighted.  Long lining this spring is going to be fun!

The only thing that did not go excellently was the trot-walk-trot transitions.  For some reason, he preferred to shorten his trot and do this beautiful little collected trot instead of transitioning to walk.  I am not terribly worried about fixing our communication for that one.  I rode him later and realized that I release the reins when I ask for walk.  In the lines I mistakenly increased the contact, which must have told him to stay in gait and collect.  What a problem, right?

Trial and Error with emphasis on Error:
Training a horse involves experience, time, and some trial and error.  I do not like to make training mistakes, but I also think that you have to make some, or you never learn what not to do.  I made a training mistake yesterday.

After Harley's hoof  trim, I decided to take out the lines again and re-test, but this time I got the brilliant idea to put the lines through the top ring on the surcingle.  I normally use the middle ring with him and he likes this very much.  I have tried the top ring before and it was a fail (he balked and felt trapped), but I was tempted to try again.

Why use the top ring?

• The upper position is closer to my hand position.  Harley likes my hands carried above his withers.  The middle ring seems to pull down on him sometimes, which is contrary to our training MO.  
• I drape the lines behind his butt and I thought the top ring would make it easier to keep the lines up and out of harms way.

Harley was very tolerant, but it became clear that the upper ring is still wrong for him.  He did not stretch into the lines at all and by the end of our trial period, his back was completely turned off.  There was no swing in his step, although it sort of looked like he had more suspension in his front end.  I think this was false suspension and result of him pulling his forehand up instead of lifting with his abdominal muscles.

Eventually, he sort of went "on the bit", but his neck was short and the bloom of muscle infront of his withers was missing.  My teacher and I have worked diligently to help him release that part of his neck, so that was pretty much a deal-breaker for me.  The look in his eye was unmistakable, too.  He gets this blood-shot looking edge to his eye when he is stressed and unhappy.  His mouth was also barely moist.  He usually has a nice rim of foam.  He did his best to work forward, but eventually started to tune me out and ignore my vocal commands.  I am not opposed to pushing my horse's comfort zone for the purposes of growth and improvement, but that is not what this was. 

The final straw was the line getting stuck up, under his tail!  I cannot believe that he didn't freak.  His tail was clamped down pretty tight, so it was just a matter of time before he gave the lines the "hoof".  I reset the lines to the middle ring after that and chastised myself.

"Never try the top ring again.  Never, never."

Oh well, live and learn.

It took several minutes for Harley to relax and get even close to the wonderful work that he did on Monday.  He stretched his neck and back in relief immediately, but was resentful of the lines.  He showed his resentment by rooting against them aggressively as he walked around.  I gave him as much slack as I could and told him "no", when he rooted.  My power-steering was temporarily gone.  Thankfully, he was mostly back to normal after a few minutes. 

Harley is a forgiving horse, but he did inform me that I owed him a canter under saddle after that.  I obliged and it was a wonderful canter indeed!  That was what finally made him (and me) feel better about the whole thing.  Some happy snorts and stretchy trot were my apology accepted.  Thank goodness!

My Barefoot Horse: Staying Ahead of the Ball (Hoof)

Spring is here.  Do you know what that means for hoof trimming enthusiasts?

A hoof-growth EXPLOSION!!!

My horse's feet grow at a snail's pace all winter long.  I inspect his feet regularly and ask myself if a trim is necessary.  Most of the time (during the winter only) I put his foot back down and decide that he can go another week.  Sometimes I just touch up the bars.  I can wait four and even five weeks at times to do a complete trim without issue or much sweat.  This winter has been no different.

Usually the first spring trim sneaks up on me.  I become complacent and lackadaisical, because he puts out so little hoof for months and then all of the sudden there is flare popping up at the quarters and I have a long arduous trim ahead of me.  I cannot let that happen this year.

Let me repeat.

I CANNOT let that happen this year.

I will be forming a preemptive strike this week, because I am off for Spring Break.  The pictures in this post are from a couple weeks ago.  I have already noticed that the bars on his front feet are starting to pick up speed.  He is getting a touch-up trim this week no matter what!

Left front: Hoof photos are taken fast and furious these days.  Some will be blurry!

Right front: This frog is having the hardest time with the mud.  Those deep crevices are not good.  I have opened them up a bit with my knife and have been cleaning and treating every time I see him.  He does not show any soreness, thankfully.

Show-off: He always poses when I try to photograph his hind feet.

Right hind

Left hind

You're looking less woolly these days, Mr. Harley!

Harley's feet are not the only things growing this spring!  My feathered friend pictured here is Avery.