Lessons in Wrapping

A week or two ago, Miss Lena had a swollen spot above her right rear fetlock. Katie D. came to my rescue and we went out to the barn to wrap it up to see if that helped.

Wrapping - not rapping - can be used to reduce swelling and support an injured leg. You have to be really careful when you wrap to maintain even pressure with each layer and to never pull across the back of the leg. You can wrap too tight, which - as anyone who has had a too-tight Ace bandage knows - is not good for the limb. Wrapping too loosely, of course, doesn't help much.

It was probably a bone bruise or something that stemmed from Lena thwacking her leg into the fence, but there was some fluid in there. I also thought it felt a little hot, but since I'm prone to worry, I may be overly paranoid.

Lena was mostly patient with the wrapping process. Mostly. And as we walked back to her pen with what looked like pillows around both back legs, Katie said, "She's being really good about being wrapped." Then I shut the gate and we started to walk away.

There was a commotion and I turned back to see Lena - all four feet in the air - trying to get away from her hind legs. Well, okay, trying to get away from the wraps. After Katie and I stopped laughing at her and turned to leave again, Lena peered at me through the bars of her pen, ears flat away from her head, as if to say, "You're not really going to leave me here like this, are you?"

Steve said when he got there later in the afternoon she was standing still, back feet cocked way out away from each other, looking exceptionally grumpy.

He walked her and put cold water on it, rode her a little, and by the time I got there the swelling was significantly reduced.

There are a lot of ways to deal with injuries like this, and wrapping is one that never hurts if it's done right. Cool water or ice and walking are also good. In fact, horse injuries are a lot like human ones - only on a bigger, sometimes less-cooperative scale.

New owner at the barn

So there is a new horse - and new owner - at the barn.

Scout is a spotty horse, though I don't know if he's a Paint or a pinto, which doesn't really matter anyway. He's an 8-year old gelding, shorter than Lena by at least a hand, and very mellow.

The mom in the group - whose name I can't recall - was around horses when she was 16, but this is her (their) first horse. There are three kids, the youngest looks to be around 3, the older two are maybe around 5 and 7?

Anyway, while I watched them all hand-feed carrots to this horse, I had to refrain from doling out any advice since, a) my horse is hardly a fine example of a non-spoiled horse and b) being bombarded with unsolicited advice from every corner can be entirely too overwhelming.

So... I guess I'll keep a polite eye on Scout and try very hard to mind my own business since, heck, how much do I really know?! Not a lot if you ask the veterans at my barn, but I do know a little about being a "new" horse owner and how much advice you can really take in. It's better in dribs and drabs and way better when you ask for it.

Of course, you still have to get about three (at least) different opinions and then go with the one that works best for you and your horse, but it makes for good points on the graph in any case.

A mini mini

It's Thumbelina, the world's smallest horse!

I desperately want a mini-mini!

Learn more here.

Horse Body Work

My friend Karen MacDonald, who runs her own horse massage practice, came out a few weeks ago to show me some things I could do for Lena.

Karen uses a lot of acupressure points and Chinese methodologies, as well as some basic stretching and limbering exercises. She's been doing this for over 10 years and currently does a lot of work at the track for racehorses.

I just like working with my hands and helping Lena be more flexible and less sore, so it's been a cool thing to start learning about.

I have to say that Lena picked up on the carrot stretches very, very quickly.

Mares

Someone said to me the other day that the difference between geldings and mares is that geldings are consistent with their issues - as in they pick their particular issue or foible and it stays the same - and with mares it's a new thing depending on the day, their mood, or the amount of wind in the air.

Now, since I've only owned a mare - and only for a little over a year - I can't confirm this particular observation, but it does fit with what I know about Lena and what I've experienced with the geldings I know.

Now there's no doubt by now that I love this horse - and that I think she's special and wonderful - but she does try and do new and different things most every day, I think mainly to see what she can get away with.

Some people want horses that are even-tempered and obedient and not at all moody. Me? I like to work with her, see what kind of attitude I get today and how I can play with it and get some kind of agreement with her about what we're doing.

Otherwise what's the point?

Equine Dentistry

Today was dentist day - interesting for me, not so interesting for the horses, but important nonetheless. It involved a certified Equine Dentist - Marcus Rietema (also President of the IGSA) and my vet, Leslie Mikluvich. Oddly enough, Leslie used to be Katie's vet and remembers Bee!

Here are the tools all laid out before we got started.



Fenway was first and you can tell in this picture he knew something was up.



First was a manual "float" where the dentist basically sticks long poles with metal rasps on them into the horses mouth to de-burr the teeth on a first pass. Then comes the speculum and the power tools.



Fenway did really well, and had a lot of work done. At one point, probably before another injection, he did look over at me like he was ready to be done. Really ready to be done. (He wasn't quite, though.)



Sadie was next, but I didn't take any pictures of her because - with a whole lot of drugs in her - she did not act sedated at all and I figured the last thing she needed was the flash going off.

Then came Doc, a 20-year old gelding related distantly to Lena (Doc Bar) and looking more like cutting horse stock than she ever has. His owner had her boyfriend Phil come do dentist duty. Phil is "retired" and has my dream job - working in the local small-town hardware store. He did a great job of tending Doc and keeping us all company while we watched and waited.



This is Doc getting his front teeth chopped down to the right level. (If the front teeth are too long, the back teeth can't come together and chew food properly.)



Doc also came through with flying colors and apparently has great teeth for a horse his age. Yay!

Lena was last because I had planned to be there all day and wasn't sure what was going to happen with the extraction. As it turns out, the tooth was loose and came out (relatively) easily. We're hoping the permanent tooth - pushed back because this one was in the way - will now migrate towards the space it was supposed to occupy. Yes, I saved the tooth. And both Katie D. and Shannon wanted to see it, so it can't be all that weird of a thing to do amongst horse-owners. Maybe a little weird to other folks, though.

Lena had watched me going in and out of the barn all day, and had watched other horses go in and out all day, so was already vaguely suspicious. She also remembered Dr. Leslie, and not necessarily fondly.

Mostly, Lena was good. Luckily, Steve decided to leave work early or there wouldn't be any pictures of Lena since I would have been holding, not photgraphing.



Here she is getting her front teeth done, though since she is only five, not quite so much came off.



She did have some nasty hooks (sharp points) in the back which were causing ulcers in her mouth, which is one of the reasons to get your horse's teeth done. Would you want to have a bit in with things like that going on in your mouth?

Just so you know, there is no instant gratification here for the owner. After their ordeal, both Fenway and Lena were eating very gingerly and both turned their backs to us in an expression of their irritation. It's like parenting, really. Phil even said at one point, "It hurts me more than it hurts you."

When Steve asked Marcus why dentistry is needed for horses, the answer he got was basically that healthy teeth are even more important now that horses don't roam the plains eating hard scrabble food and live more than ten or twelve years. You know, kind of like humans. Katie says there are a lot of people who don't believe in it, but it makes sense to me and if it makes Lena a healthier, happier horse, I'm all for it.

This is Marcus after a very long day of horse dentistry. Many thanks, I'm sure Lena will start speaking to me again soon. :-)

Horse Dentist Day

So tomorrow, Tuesday, we have a certified Equine Dentist coming to the barn.

It all started because Miss Lena has a front incisor baby tooth that refuses to come out. It's not even loose! So our vet told us it was time to have it taken out and the dentist asked if I could line up other horses to make his trip from Livermore a little more worthwhile.

So I did. I've got five horses lined up - well, four horses and a pony - including Mr. Fenway who will come hang out for the day after he gets his teeth done.

Katie and I will try to take pictures to post here because it's going to be quite a production, but it's hard to take pictures when you're trying to hold up 1,200 lbs. of swaying, drugged horse.

This is a picture of Lena sleeping off the drugs after getting her teeth done last year.

Don't worry, sports fans, I've done this before.

Weekend Trail Ride

Today Jessica, Katie (Jessica's daughter), and I went for a nice trailride on Bee, Lena, and Fenway.
Afterwards we gave them apples picked from my apple trees. Fenway was hungry!
We had a great time together. There's nothing like spending a day with your horse and your friends!!!!

New horse owner?

Adrienne commented that I really am not a new horse owner anymore, but I still feel new. Yes, it's been a year and we've learned a lot, but every day brings a new experience.

Sometimes it's subtle, like the way she responds to my mood or my stress level; sometimes it's very obvious, like the way she responded to the hackamore. (Lena, not Adrienne.) :-)

And sometimes it's something totally wacky, like the way she stood patiently with my baseball cap on her ear the whole time I was in the tack room, seeming to indulge my oddity simply because she felt like it.

Okay, she did blow out through her nose with that "the things I put up with," tone. You horseowners know what I mean, I know you do.

Hm. That does make me sound more veteran than "new" horse owner, doesn't it? Oh, well. I stick by my earlier statement - each day brings something new to it, which makes me a new horse owner every day.

Someday, I might come to expect every action, every nuance, but I doubt it. And honestly? I don't really want it. It keeps things interesting, that's for sure.

The horse ambassador

This is Cals Eclipse. He's Lena's half brother, the first foal out of their foundation mare - Lena was the last.

He has been a world champion cutting horse, true, but more important, he has been a teacher and mentor for probably hundreds of students of horsemanship throughout his 23 years on this earth.

Cheri told me the last time we were up there that they literally built their business around him - with people coming from miles away just to ride him, calling in advance to be sure he was available.

Those of us who know him understand why.

He taught me to be aware of my body and that my every movement means something to him, whether it was what I wanted to communicate or not. He taught Steve to ride with his eyes closed. He's taught countless people to sit back and let a master work the cow.

He's never mean, is always willing to work, and is as smart, playful and gentle a horse as I've ever met. He will get out there with horses 1/4 his age and keep up - if not surpass - simply because he is driven that way.

He has a very expressive set of ears, too. I have a before and after set of pictures of Steve cutting on a horse named Peekaboo, taken while sitting on Eclipse. His ears tell us exactly what he thought of her efforts that day.

He is an escape artist, too. He likes to get out and torment the people chasing him. Cheri tells the story of one of his most famous - and nearly fatal - escapes. It was winter and the deck around their house was icy. Eclipse got out and slipped on the deck while capering around the house. He fell - hard - and hit his head and neck. It was unclear for awhile if his neck would ever be okay, but eventually it was and he went back to training novice riders.

Aside from my own riding experiences with him, I have two memories that stick in my head about this fine horse.

One cold and nasty day, Ike was putting the hackamore on Eclipse and Eclipse kept shying away from Ike's hands. Ike stopped and asked Eclipse what was wrong and did he need a kiss. Then Ike - 6 feet tall, 200 pounds of stubborn cowboy - planted a kiss on that horse. Just in case, Ike said, "Do you want another one?" and gave that big horse another smooch. Only then did Eclipse let him put the bridle on.

Ike and Cheri have a granddaughter, Amber. (Tiffany stopped riding long enough to have Amber and got back on the horse right after.) Cheri brought Amber out to meet Eclipse one day and he reached out his head to her - bigger than she was - as slow and as gentle as I've ever seen an animal move. It was like he recognized his next prodigy. Apparently, Amber now rides him and bats away any adult hand that tries to stabalize her in the saddle. She must know the kind of gentleman he is.

This is one of Eclipse's recent students, Adrienne, before a cutting lesson.



This is Adrienne after the cutting lesson.



He is a master at what he does and a true ambassador to horses, to cutting, and to special spotty horses.

The hackamore

Oh, I love being a new horse owner.

Lena loves the hackamore.

The first two days we used it, she was more relaxed than I've ever seen her - except after we've ridden her hard for an hour or so - and then we're not relaxed. Her head position was great, her stops were awesome, and she was more responsive with less effort than usual.

Day three was a little different, but not much.

Day four, we went back to the bit.

Today, I used the hackamore again, and she was again more responsive and relaxed than with the bit.

I'm new, don't forget, so it may be as much my physical reaction as anything, but I love the way she responds to the hackamore. Or maybe I love the way using the hackamore makes me more conscious of my body signals to her.

Whatever it is, I really like working with her in a different way and what I am learning from it.

Boots

Everyone knows that to ride horses, you must have the proper gear. Not only for the horse, but for yourself. I don't tend to go for style, more comfort and snot and dirt-resistance - except when it comes to my boots.

My red Ariat cowboy boots are my favorite article of clothing, riding or not. Steve got them for me about a year and a half ago and - at first - they were not used for actual horse handling.

That was pre-Lena.

I wear them every day. They are almost perfectly formed, now, wrapping like a glove around my feet, creased and pliable, stained with aluminum from the stirrups, always vaguely horse-scented. (Dogs love them.) In other words, they are perfect.

I wore through the left insole and resorted to gray tape until I got around - 6 months later - to ordering new insoles. It's almost (almost) like having new boots! (Especially when I clean off the dust and condition the leather a little.)

Recently, though, I started to worry about what would happen when my red boots got too worn out to wear for going out to eat on the weekends, or my signal for the pending weekend, "red-boot Friday." I started looking at other boots, thinking either to replace my red boots with another color to ride in, preserving the red ones for "good," or to use the new, different color as my "dress" boots. I was having a hard time choosing because, really, I just wanted another pair of red boots.

Luckily, Steve understands me and convinced me to get what I wanted, even if other people thought it was silly to have two pairs of red boots.



I'm not quite sure what I'll do if Ariat stops making red boots, but for now, my feet are quite happily covered in red boots for most future occasions I can think of.

The Boil Saga Continues

Yes, Bee's boil still exists. It's still an ugly round lump on his poor little elbow. When will it go away?
The vet is coming out today so hopefully he'll be able to blow the boil away! Wish me luck!!!

Horse Rules

I think one of the things I like most about being a new horse person is that I don't know any of the rules. That's gotten us in trouble on occasion, but on the other hand, it's gotten us out of trouble, too. "Oh, they don't know any better."

I have owned a horse long enough to figure out that most everyone has their right way of doing things, their specific steps to follow, their opinion of what event you should do with your horse, you name it. (No events, thanks, we just want to ride and enjoy her.)

It's hard to listen to all of the advice and filter out something that makes sense to you and for your horse, but I do try to pay attention to what people say as we do different things with Lena. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don't, but it's part of the fun of figuring out our particular horse.

We want to get her a hackamore to see if she is more or less responsive - or just different - if we remove the bit. Not a mechanical one, just the simple and traditional bosul. I'm anticipating some grief - not necessarily from Lena, either - but I also know that she was trained with one, as are all the Slide horses - many of whom still get ridden regularly with just the hackamore. We do have to have one of her front teeth pulled, so maybe that can be our excuse. Either that, or people will just chalk it up to another "silly new horse people" stunt.

I tried ...

... to write a post that wasn't about horses on my non-horse blog.

Alas, I failed.

Oh, well. :-)

Spotty Blogging

My spotty muse is obvious, of course, but I see some comments on Huck's birthday party post that point out that "Spotty Horse" seems slightly restrictive. Since I don't want to change the title, I altered our tagline. (Again, for those of you paying attention.)

But I started playing with other meanings of spotty besides being covered with spots and this is where my brain went with that.

It could be that this is a blog with sporadic (spotty) news about horses, but also containing news about other four-legged beings and their teachings.

It could mean that Katie and I are not always super dedicated to posting every single day, so the frequency of our entries is spotty.

And it could be that I just happen to like the way Spotty Horse sounds and don't feel like changing it. :-)

I myself am spotty in both senses of the word - sometimes distracted, always freckled.

I appreciate having this forum to talk about the weird - and not-so-weird - things you encounter when you choose to share your life with other creatures, including other humans. Lena colors my world-view, always, so she is present in my words - at least in some small way - always. Even when I'm writing about cats or other people's dogs. :-)

Horse Medicine?

By the way, stay tuned for Katie's post about a recent farrier remedy that surprised her.

Using your hands and your head

I read a post called Shop Class as Soulcraft on one of our sites and I think there is something to this that speaks to the reasons I love being around horses. (And tools, but that's another fetish for a later date.) I will say that tool use seems to be a disappearing art, which is a shame. It's one of the reasons I encouraged my daughter to take auto shop - her friends all think a cell phone is the only tool you need when your car breaks!

Noodling through something mentally can be very satisfying, but there is also something fundamentally soul-filling about using your hands to do something. I think balance - for me - comes in part from using this tool (the computer) all day and a shovel and hoof pick in the evenings. It makes me feel more real, less ethereal, more a part of this universe.

Lena definitely makes me feel grounded and real. Trying to communicate with an alien (thanks for that analogy, Bert) is a truly challenging exercise for both mind and body. And being able to use my body as a tool to facilitate that communication is a gift that comes from using a lot of other tools along the way.

My hands may be ugly, but they are strong and will usually do what I want them to - even if they end up dirty, scraped up and greasy. :-)

What happened to Cracker Jacks?

How do Cracker Jacks relate to horses?
I've grew up a Boston Red Sox Fan.
Baseball games = Cracker Jacks.
Fenway: Home park of the Boston Red Sox and the name of my grey horse.

I just went to a Red Sox vs. A's game the other night, sadly the sox lost. During the game I bought some Cracker Jacks. Did you know that Cracker Jacks are packaged in plastic now? What a disappointment, what a loss of tradition! They don't even taste stale anymore! The prizes even suck! I'm so upset by this change. What happened to the good ol'days. I'm submitting a formal complaint to Cracker Jacks.
The baseball experience will never be the same.

Good Point

Jessica brings up a very important point about animal ownership. - Animals who own their owner.

I admit, I get overly gushy about my pets, in particular my dog. I can't stand to be away from him even if it's only for a few hours. I talk endlessly about him and find his patterns and expressions fascinating. He does rule my life in many respect but when it comes to his behavior, I rock the boat! There's nothing worse than an ill behaved pet! An ill behaved pet is like a child screaming in the grocery store because he can't have a candy bar.
It's one thing to recognize that your pet has "issues" and it's another to be completely ignorant. It's the folks who can't see fault, whose pets end up being dangerous. I witnessed a situation where a dog bit a child and the owner used the excuse that his dog reacted because he was territorial over a bone. My response to the situation was, why is that dog in public around children? Not that the dog needs to be sheltered, but if it's not good in a busy public place where there might be children, then don't put him there. It's like putting a person that is sensitive to noise in the front row of a rock concert! They're going to snap!
It's an issue of respect and if your going to take an animal and put it in domestic situations, you gotta have it!