Winter riding, or lack thereof

Boo. I haven’t been on a horse in a month and a half, and I’m cranky. It’s not so much the winter weather that’s keeping me away, it’s the early darkness and busy holiday weekends. I can’t ride after work unless I go somewhere with lights (which I plan to start doing again next month), and the weekends have been insane with travel and shopping and organzing (and rain), so I haven’t been able to ride during the day. Added to the mix: my borrowed horse had her shoes pulled, so she needed some time off. Wah wah, complain complain. Looking forward to next month and getting back into a regular lesson schedule under the lights!

So I can turn my thoughts to happier things, like buying fun new winter riding gear. In the past I’ve just layered everything: running tights under riding tights over tall ski socks under warm winter socks. 2 layers of gloves, many layers of shirts and fleeces with a shell on top, hat. I don’t have one of those fleecy helmet covers that wraps around your face, think I will get one of those. It’s hard to pull the trigger on the expensive insulated riding tights… are they really worth the money? Are they that much better than my layering system? My hands are usually my worst problem, so if there’s a good winter glove out there I should find it. I have silk ski glove liners that I could try under a riding glove, just thought of that.

Just because I can’t ride doesn’t mean I can’t obsess about it!

Ode to Hunter Paces

All summer I have looked forward to the local fall hunter pace, only to find out that I won’t be able to go. Huge bummer. It’s fun to imagine riding in it though, so I thought I’d indulge myself with a hunter pace post.

What is a hunter pace, you ask? It’s a friendly competition generally used as a warm up for hunting season. Members of a hunt club ride a measured course at a pace they think is suitable for hunting. They average their times, and that averaged ideal time is the goal time for the hunter pace teams. The winning team is the team of two or three that completes the course closest to the ideal time. It’s a great opportunity to get out into an unfamiliar part of the countryside for a brisk ride!

Usually there are jumping and non-jumping divisions. The ideal time is obviously a bit faster for jumpers than for gate-openers. Often there will be stewards posted around the course to make sure the jumpers are jumping and everyone is following the trail correctly. Riders may even be required to take a tag of some sort from a steward and turn it in at the end of the ride, as proof that the team passed a checkpoint.

I found last year’s hunter pace to be a ton of fun, and also so good for my horse. She was exposed to things she doesn’t have to deal with at home or at shows: big river crossings, strange horses trotting past her on trails, unfamiliar and wide open spaces which make her want to gallop! Good experience had by all. I highly recommend checking out any hunter paces in your area!

A true Hunter Jumper

My husband went to a UVA soccer game last night and discovered there’s a player named Hunter Jumper.

http://www.virginiasports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=88787&SPID=10604&DB_OEM_ID=17800&ATCLID=1552806&Q_SEASON=2008

Love it!!! And I’m so pleased that non-horsey hubby has learned the term hunter/jumper! Not that he could define it, of course, but nice to know he listens!

Ride better, look better, do everything better!

Riders, like any athletes, can improve their performance by strengthening their core muscles. A stronger core gives you better balance, stability in the saddle, and is the foundation upon which all other strength gains must rest. Think about the coordination involved in giving the proper aids on a circle. My mare chooses not to feel my leg aids, so I have to use extra emphasis… therefore I can use all the core strength I can get in order to be able to shift/squeeze/push while not visibly flailing about. Contrary to popular belief, your core is not just your abs–it’s pretty much your entire torso. A nice out-of-the saddle side effect of a stronger core is better posture and self-carriage. And obviously, a better looking belly for the beach!

I don’t have a favorite core routine. I’ve tried the routines using exercise balls, the quickie routines that are supposed to be so simple that you can easily incorporate them into your daily routine (never works), and the really intense routines that make my whole body shake with effort. My goal is to find something that works, that doesn’t take too long, and that is enjoyable enough to make a habit of. I’m a runner, so I scoured the Interwebs for core workouts geared toward runners, and there are a lot.  It’s hard to go wrong with Runner’s World, so I’m going to try theirs first to see if I can get hooked. (After trying it once, my comments are that the Fire Hydrant didn’t do much for me, but I couldn’t even do the Supine Stabilizer once!)

Things to keep in mind when starting any exercise program:

1. Ease into it. If you’re not used to working your core, take it easy at first.
2. Breathe!
3. Quality is more important than quantity. Don’t speed through reps just to finish the workout! Focus on correct execution.

Here is the core workout from Runner’s World. Give it, or any core workout of your choosing, a whirl for a good several weeks, and see if you can tell a difference–in the saddle and out!

The lost art of braiding

I rarely braided for shows growing up, and had to relearn last year when I got back into showing. Personally, I find it satisfying and kind of fun; I just wish I didn’t have to make so many freaking braids! I thought it might be helpful for others, and a good exercise for myself, to note the steps involved in braiding a mane (tails are a different story–I’m terrible at those).

Steps to braid a mane

Supplies needed:

• yarn the same color as your horse’s mane, cut into strands about a foot long
• mane comb
• hair clip
• latch-hook (you can find these at craft stores)
• scissors

Steps:

1. Begin with a clean, but not overly conditioned (too much conditioner makes the hair slippery) mane, pulled to about 3-4″ (I was always taught that the mane should be the length of a mane comb held vertically, but I could never get a mane that short!)
2. Starting at the top of the neck, gather a small section of hair. Keep in mind that the smaller the section, the more braids you’ll have to do to finish the entire mane; but smaller braids look neater and allow a little more room for error than larger, more spaced out braids. Clip the next section of mane out of the way.
3. Start braiding the hair evenly and flat down the horse’s neck. Halfway down the braid, add in a yarn strand: loop the yarn around the back of the braid and hold half the strand in with the left-most portion of the braid, and the other half in with the right-most portion of the braid. (This is where I usually get messed up–the fiddling around to get the yarn added in makes me lose the tension in the first half of the braid.)
4. Maintaining the same tension as you had for the first half of the braid, continue braiding down working the yarn in with the hair.
5. When you reach the bottom of the braid, pinch it with one hand and knot the yarn around the end of the braid by bringing the ends together, looping the yarn around the braid, and pulling the ends through the loop towards you.
6. Finish braiding the mane down in this way, making sure to maintain the same size sections down the neck.
7. After the mane is completely braided down, start at the top again and pull each braid up: push the latch-hook through the top of the braid and down behind it, hooking the yarn at the end of the braid. Pull the end of the yarn up and through the top of the braid, so that the end is flush against the top of the braid, but not poking through.
8. Take the ends of the yarn, cross them behind the braid, and tie a double knot in the middle of the braid. Cut the yarn close to the knot.
9. Last, braid the forelock. A french braid looks best here, but otherwise use the same technique described above.
10. If you braid the night before the competition, you may want to protect your hard work with a Sleazy. Those were new to me when I re-entered the showing world last year, and I still crack up every time I see one of the horses, especially the little ponies, at my barn wearing one. They are like little superheroes!

I looked around for some good pictures and found a very nice site with step-by-step instructions. They even have a link to an equally excellent article on tail braiding.

Here’s another nice, descriptive set of instructions.

Now that I’m feeling good about my braiding skills, the show season is over and I have the winter to forget everything I know. I can now rest easy knowing that I can refer to these sites in the Spring for a refresher!

Foot care: so much information, so little time

My mare and I went for a lovely trailride today, a perfect fall afternoon. The trail empties out by the ring, as since we walked most of the ride with only a bit of trotting, we did a few canter circles in the ring for good measure. She was nice and balanced and I was pleased with the exercise.

So I was surprised to see that her heel was bloody when we got back to the barn. I hadn’t seen anything weird when I picked her hooves before we left, and she hadn’t flinched or gone gimpy on the trail, and if she was favoring that foot I definitely would have noticed on the harder surface of the ring. After cleaning the area, it looked like a tear in the skin of her heel; maybe she caught herself with her back foot and ripped a flap. Or could an abscess have popped? Or could it be related to the wet weather? It didn’t seem to bother her at all, so I’m hopeful that it’s just a superficial wound. But it’s a good excuse to do some reading about common foot problems.

There are a zillion web sites out there devoted to hooves and their care and problems. Most have lots of in-depth information, which was pretty overwhelming when I was trying to get a concise overview of the most common problems. I read some interesting stuff, but wanted a quickie reference, and finally found a nice chart on Drs Foster and Smith’s site. Seems like most of the common issues can be prevented with proper nutrition and by keeping the feet clean and dry.

My dream (well, one of the many) for when I grow up/retire from the rat race, is to learn natural hoofcare trimming methods, and be in charge of my own horses’ feet. Natural hoof trimming techniques attempt to shape the foot to look and function similarly to the hooves of wild horses. Cool–this site has a video tutorial on how to trim your horse’s hooves: http://www.thehorseshoof.com/ The Horse’s Hoof is a quarterly publication focusing on the barefoot horse. Lots of great info! Check out the articles and resources.

Another great resource is the Barefoot Hoofcare blog. The author is passionate about spreading the gospel of natural foot care. From her blog, I found this site: http://www.naturalhorsetrim.com/ which also looks to have a ton of useful information. The problem is not so much finding knowledgable people who are willing to share their insights, but finding the time to read everything!

Polocrosse. Sounds fun!

And now for part 2 of the disciplines-I-know-nothing-about series: Polocrosse.

So my first stop in the Internets, as usual, was Wikipedia. And, as usual, they have a comprehensive article. Polocrosse is, as I’m sure you have surmised, a combination of polo and lacrosse. The idea was dreamed up in England as a riding exercise, played with modified polo mallets outfitted with squash racquet heads and elongated basketball nets as goals. A couple Australian breeders took the concept back home with them and came up with the official struture of the game and the rules.

Polocrosse pits two six-person teams against each other on a 160-yard long field. Three from each team play at a time, with one defender, one midfielder, and one attacker. The game consists of four or six periods, called “chukkas,” which are six or eight minutes long apiece. The three-player team-within-the-teams alternate chukkas. A rider scoops the ball of the ground, or catches a pass, with the goal of getting the ball to the attacker who then shoots. Only an attacker and the opposite defender are allowed in the 30-yard goal-scoring areas at each end of the field.

There are tons of rules (a good thing, because player and horse safety is the most important thing), but I thought the most interesting one is that a player cannot have possession of the ball when crossing the line that bounds the goal-scoring area; so if an attacker or defender has the ball, wants to keep possession, and is going to ride over the line, he or she must bounce it to himself while crossing the line. One big difference between polo and polocrosse is that a rider must use the same horse for an entire tournament, barring injury.

Next, I visited the American Polocrosse Association site and checked out some action photos. The horses and riders are outfitted similarly to polo players and ponies. The nets on their sticks are round and have looser nets than lacrosse sticks. I was pleased to see that the APA has a rule barring bits with shanks.

Polocrosse seems to be more accessible than polo, mainly since a player only needs one horse rather than a string of ponies. I would go watch a tournament, but there are no clubs in VA! Regular old polo is really popular around here though, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a club develops in the near future. If you have a club near you, check out a match!

Eastern Equine Encephalitis in VA

I just spotted a notice on VirginiaEquestrian.com stating that the first case of Eastern Equine Encephalitis has been confirmed in Virginia. The horse had not been vaccinated against it and had been sick for two days, with a fever and neurological symptoms.

What exactly is EEE, you ask? (I did.) According to the release from the VA Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (from Virginia Equestrian):

Generally, both EEE and WNV (West Nile Virus) are transmitted by mosquitoes. Typical symptoms include staggering, circling, depression, loss of appetite and sometimes fever and blindness. There is no cure for the disease, but it can be prevented through vaccination. Other prevention methods include destroying standing water breeding sites for mosquitoes, use of insect repellents and removing animals from mosquito-infested areas during peak biting times, usually dusk to dawn.

And from Mosquito Control Contractors, Inc:

The disease appears within five days after mosquitoes transmit the virus to the horse. Onsets of clinical signs of EEE are abrupt, and affected horses die within three days. Signs of EEE in horses include fever; a sleepy appearance ; some muscle twitches of the head, neck, shoulder and flank; and a weak, staggering gait. Affected animals are soon down, unable to stand. There is no effective treatment. The fatality rate is 90 percent or higher. An animal that survives may have permanent brain damage.

Annual vaccination of all horses and other equines is recommended. Horses vaccinated for the first time must receive an injection of EEE-WEE combined vaccine followed by a second dose of the vaccine three to four weeks later. This two-dose series is essential to establish an effective immune response. A booster shot should be given in the spring each year thereafter. If an outbreak of EEE or WEE occurs in the area in late summer or fall, a second booster is advised. Foals should be vaccinated at 4, 5 and 6 months of age (three doses total) to ensure protection. Another booster should be given in six months and annually thereafter.

Good information to know. Vaccinate your horses!!

Gaited horses quickie primer

I know pretty much zero about gaited horses. Sure, I am familiar with the names of the more popular breeds (at least in my area or on my travels): Tennessee Walking Horses, Standardbreds, Rocky Mountain Horses, Saddlebreds, Icelandics, Peruvian Pasos, Paso Finos, am I impressive enough yet? Right. But I don’t know what all the gaits are like, or what the differences between the types of riding are. What is saddleseat? Does that encompass all gaited riding? Let’s dig a little and answer some questions.

Genetics determines if a horse will be gaited or trotting. It gets more complicated than two cut-and-dry categories though. Standardbreds and Morgans, for example, have both trotters and pacers. Icelandic horses have both gaits. Some breeds, like Peruvian Pasos and Paso Finos, do neither. Some foals are born gaited, but gradually switch over to trotting and never look back.

So basically gaited horses do not trot, and instead have at least one special four-beat gait, called an amble. There are many different versions of that four-beat gait across the different gaited breeds, however; but all versions are faster than a walk and usually slower than a canter, and smooth and efficient.

Saddle seat (officially two words, not one) riding isn’t limited to gaited horses. The ideal horse for saddle seat riding is a horse with showy action in any gait, and a high head carriage. The saddle is set slightly farther back on the horse’s back than hunter style and a stronger bit than seen in the hunters is typically used, to free up the horse’s neck for higher head carriage, and to tweak the head’s position.

I read about four controversial aspects of saddle seat riding.

1. Some saddle horses are shown with a “set tail,” or an artificially high-set tail. There are a few methods for obtaining this tail set–an operation which cuts tail muscles; setting the tail in a brace to lengthen the muscles; or more humanely, putting the tail into a temporary brace for showing. A tail that has been set via operation or the stretching brace will start to droop if not kept in a brace, a horse who is being shown has to be kept in a stall when not being ridden, so that the tail brace can stay on.

2. Horses’ feet are also tinkered with to try to get a showier gait, by leaving the hooves a little long, and weighting the shoes. Some breed competitions have strict rules about shoes and toe lengths.

3. Training gadgets are often used to encourage the big, showy movement. These could just be annoying to the horse, but if used improperly, could injure him. These gadgets include rattles or weights attached to fetlocks, rubber tubes used for resistance training for the front legs, and pulleys meant to increase range of motion.

4. In the past, a technique called “soring” was used, in which a chemical was applied to a horse’s foot so that when the foot hits the ground the horse picks it up again quickly to avoid the pain. This is now illegal, but reportedly still widespread.

Pretty interesting stuff. I don’t know enough about the controversial items to criticize, and I know there are controversial training methods in any riding discipline, so I just hope the majority of saddle seat riders are treating their horses kindly! I’d be interested to read a critique of any controversial H/J techniques by a non-H/J rider. I know eventing is controversial… what else?

Sources:

Gaited Horses http://www.gaitedhorses.net/Articles/OG/OriginsOfGait.shtml

Wikipedia article: Horse gait http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_gait

Wikipedia article: Saddle seat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddle_seat

Puissance. ouch

I thought this was interesting.

Ben Maher winning the 2005 Olympia Puissance, jumping 7′ 3″

(Ben Maher’s name is mentioned, but not the horse’s. Who actually jumped the jump??)

Poor little forelegs! I cringed at the landing.