Life Gets In The Way or Where Has The Time Gone

Hey, blogosphere!

And here we are. six years later.

I kept this blog open though I knew I was not able to write. Topics, events, stories are always in my mind and heart but time and wherewithal meant my posts were not to be. I missed it. So much has happened in my horse life and my personal life,  sometimes I wonder how I got to the other side of it all. But one does, and here I am., still working for, working with, and again, going to  write about horses.

Many horses have come in to my life in these five years. Several have stayed; some for longer than others. People have gone, too. My Dad, my Aunt and Uncle; the last of the adults who loved me unconditionally. In 2013 my dad  became my full time job. He died March 1 2014. A week after his memorial my husband, working in FL at the time, coded at the gym and was taken to the ER non responsive; I would need to come to come and be prepared to take him off life support. For three weeks I watched him struggle in the CVICU. When released to a rehab hospital he didnt know we had kids, where he was...the best I could hope for was to take him home in a wheelchair and feed him the rest of his life. It was a sad and exhausting time. I read nursery rhymes to him. I sang to him. I played hand games and counted his fingers. Weeks turned in to months but against all odds and expectations he recovered intellectually and physically. Its like it never even happened.

With all the changes and upheavals and setbacks and drawbacks I put writing on hold.  I was able to get back to the horse work and have had some interesting, educational, sometimes heartbreaking, always rewarding horse experiences in the last 6 years. But regardless of changes in situations and horses and loss, the reasons I started, and why I want to readdress this blog remain. Horses are too often misunderstood.  Horses still suffer silently. It remains a sad truth...that horses don't cry.

Spleen

I don't want to write another sad post this morning. But I do want to write a frustrated post.

Like most of you I read some of the online fora for riders. COTH and Ultimate Dressage are my two usual ones and Facebook has a couple of groups I check out. I don't post much; who has time for endless discussions and frankly 90% of the posters don't have a clue and they just irritate me so why engage. I would rather deal with real poo in my barn than the various levels of self generated navel gazer poo that can be a big part of the online world.

What frustrates me is that in this internet age there is no excuse to be ignorant about horses and what they need and how they function. None.  Look at what is available for us online! The AAEP site, the NRC sites, all the good video sites (I love Dressage Training Online). McPhail is on line. Deb Bennet. Gerd Heuschmann. Everyone doing research in to the biomechanics of riding and training is on line with web sites and how to videos. You can watch every practically any training conference, every horse show performance, every lecture about everything from feeding practices to training and riding techniques. Sure there is a lot of crap but there is an endless amount of useful and valuable information out there.

So why and how can some people be so dumb?

Why do people still think that tying a horse's head down makes him a better athlete? Many of you saw the story about the poor AQHA mare in San Diego that was killed by her 'trainer' a few weeks ago. The story in and of itself broke my heart but what made it worse were the apologists for the technique itself...as if 'tying a horse's head to the saddle' is ok really *as long as its done right*. Really?

Why do people still have no idea what a healthy foot, either shod or barefoot, looks like?

Why do people still start sentences with crap like 'My horse was really evading my aids today, he was such a brat! He's so <naughty, lazy, snotty>'

Why do people still ride with their hands low and wide? Info on bits, mouths, the bars, and TMJ issues is out there.

Why do people still not know how to place their saddles on their horses backs? Why do I see saddles sitting practically on the withers?

Why do people still make excuses for their lousy trainers and pay them good money to wreck their horses?

My list is long and the answers elude me. There is more than one I am sure. But in my mind there are two primary reasons that people are dumb about their horses. First is the name I chose for this blog. Some people say that God doesn't make mistakes, but if and when I get to meet Him I will point out that He did indeed mess up big time but not giving horses a sound for pain. Big oops. This simple fact leaves them open to every kind of abuse. If they could cry or whimper when sick or hurt you would see about 98% of all horse owners immediately get it and poof, many of our common training practices would disappear in an instant. The abuse gamut can run from outright whipping or spurring to just 'riding forward in to the hand' badly or being bounced around on by a stiff awkward rider to a saddle misplaced and a bit that is hitting the palate or banging the bars or when their feet  hurt. Since horses don't make any pain sounds people apparently think ergo the horse feels no pain. Its the only way to explain the way people treat them.

The second reason I see as just plain ego and intellectual laziness. Horses are just their vehicle for self aggrandizement. What they do works for them for whatever reason and they feel no need to explore further. I see it every day and I will never understand it. I have heard every excuse out there and they all ring hollow. There is no reason for any horse owner today to not have a sound understanding of anatomy and physiology of the horse and how tack and the rider affect them.

Do we love our horses? We say we do. So why don't we want to understand them and make their lives better?

To Continue

Naturally, I wasn't able to ride after my surgery, but I put a plastic bag over my boot and went to the barn as soon as I could. Not riding just meant more fun time for body working, lasering, grooming, etc. The barn I was keeping most of the horses at has an Equicisor and lots of turnout so I was able to keep the boys in some sort of work. Sue, the owner, and Augustine, the main worker, had been taking such good care of them all while I was laid up, so I knew they were under watchful eyes.

I was in the cross ties working on Rheingold when I saw the reality of Zeus falling. I had a hard time believing what I was seeing but it was soon apparent that something was very wrong with him. I had the same denial experience with Charlie; I could see that he was lame, but it wasn't so bad, and I wasn't too worried.

Charlie was another horse that I had known and loved and then ended up owning. He had lived in my barn aisle, owned by a nice girl, and his sweet nature, charming character, and good looks had endeared him to me immediately. His owner left the barn and I didn't see them for a while. A year or so later she contacted me; she was busy with a new foal. Charlie needed a home and would I like to have him. Absolutely! A couple of weeks later he was mine.

Charlie was a US Hannoverian. 17hh, old style, a Walldorf son. Plain red bay with a perfect heart on his forehead. He had been bred to be a stallion, owned by a partnership, and destined for great things.
He was kind, very fancy, just a wonderful horse in every way. When the partnership broke up due to economic reasons, he was gelded and sold to be a jumper. I guess he was not a very good one; an ad for him says 'wants to be a dressage horse' >;-> That was fine with me.

We lose track of his story there for a couple of years, but he was sold a few times and then my acquaintance bought him. Again through no fault of his own he was somewhat back burnered. When I got him he was 13, usually clinically sound with some visible ringbone. I took his shoes off, put him in work, and he was just a peach. Usually the horses I get, like Bryan, are pretty wrecked and need a ton of rehab work. Charlie was broke, very serviceably sound, and just a joy to ride. He was naturally so uphill and so balanced, easy and so fun. He was also very sweet and personable. People naturally gravitated to him and he seemed to like them back. He had a funny tongue game that he liked to play; he was hard to resist. He had a big, quiet, expressive eye and a steady way of looking at you that made you know he was special.

The barn has a couple of big grassy fields; I turn the boys out in groups of two or alone. While I was laid up he was out every day or in the Equicisor. The barn owner gave me updates on the boys and said Charlie had become lamish. I wasn't that worried; figured maybe a bruise. It didn't resolve though.

I knew he had some ringbone; you could see it. I also had old xrays that were not great but not bad; I always go by clinical anyway. So when I had my vet come see Zeus, we also xrayed Charlie. I still wasn't really worried. Figured we could always inject or what have you. So we fired up her new digital xray machine and shot away. What we saw silenced us, utterly.

While both ankles were bad, it looked like a bomb had gone off in his left. It was a galaxy, a milky way, an explosion of bony growths, spurs, cracks, edges, holes. He had bone where he shouldn't and spaces where he should have had it. We stared.

Then we cried.

How in the world had he ever been sound with those ankles! But it went to show what I have known since high school; xrays are just a small part of the soundness picture; you can have grade 5 lameness and xrays that look quite benign and the reverse. Charlie was the reverse.

I think we both knew it was hopeless. But we sent the pics to Wayne MacIlwraith, my favorite ortho surgeon, to see if there was anything that could be done surgically.

No.

We did a CT at Dr. Martinelli's clinic and talked to Dr. Rantaanen. Was there any hope of a positive resolution?

No.

Why had he gone suddenly lame after all that time of clinical soundness? It was hard to say, but probably, during play time in the field, one of the spurs/arthritic growths had broken. Or finally all the crap in there had just reached critical mass. We thought we could see a p2 fracture; maybe that was the final straw. But it didn't really matter. He was getting lamer by the day and would never be without pain. I even considered nerving which I am generally against; not so I could ride him, but just to make him pain free. He wasn't even a candidate for that.

And so five weeks after saying goodbye to Zeus in the field, we sent Charlie to the Bridge as well. I was scheduled for my second surgery the next day, in which I faced a tendon graft and three months of casting. In a fog, I went home. My dear friend Hunter, who had been staying with me for the winter, greeted me with hugs and tears. It was just a sad, sad, blue day.

Where There's a Will There's a Way

So, there I was, lame and in a boot. My first surgery was pretty easy and the recovery at first appeared like a piece of cake. I was pretty medicated and miserable (I will never understand how some people can take narcotics recreationally! Man, they make me sick, depressed, and play havoc with my memory. I couldn't wait to get off of them) but it wasn't so bad. I had the surgery on a Monday. The Dr. told me I could weight bear, drive, whatever, and sent me home, no crutches, and in a walking boot. So I took him at his word and limped around. It was my left foot so I could drive with no problem.

As luck would have it, the yearly local George clinic was being held that week. I was not feeling too hot but couldn't bear the thought of missing it. It was cold and dreary and I was spacey and medicated but it was only ten minutes from my house, so that Friday, off I went.

 



As usual, it was great. I love The George. He was his usual pointed, acerbic self, sitting like the Grand Poobah in his golf cart, dispensing salient advice and criticisms as is his wont. It is such a privilege to be able to audit that clinic every year. It's held at Fairbrook Farm, Julie Taylor Zumstein's beautiful farm in Fallbrook CA. I hobbled in from the parking lot, propped my foot up on the bleachers, and watched and listened. My foot throbbed. It was worth every minute.

There were some excellent riders and some that maybe should not have been there. It had been raining, so the grass field was wet. There were no falls though; Julies grass field drains well and is pretty good even in the rain. The best part of a George clinic, to me, is watching and studying the combinations he puts the riders over, and how the riders negotiate them. I have been auditing that clinic for several years now and never miss it. Every year I vow to ride in it, and every year something happens and I can't. I won't make it this year, either, since the horses I could have used were the horses I lost this year. Oh well. George doesn't seem to want to retire and maybe I will get to ride in that clinic before we both hang it up.

I wrote about my big dear 'giant white donkey', Zeus and his weird falling episodes that led to his euthanasia. Sadly, as it turned out, he was just the first in what became Another Winter of Loss. I say another; a few years ago it seemed like everything I loved died. My mom, my brother, several horses, even my dogs. I didn't think I could ever endure a year like that again. But fate doesn't always ask you what you want to bear, or think you can bear. It just gives it to you, regardless. And so it did.

Catching Up

Well, a blog is supposed to be a web diary sort of thing. If I had kept a diary of 2013 it would not be very pleasant reading and I would have been crying while writing most of the entries. But my Life Motto (tm) is Don't Be Such A Sissie, so I am bucking up and getting over myself. The Annus Horribus is almost over, things are looking up, so back to work I will go.

A brief recap of The Year That Was Not Always Happy: in December last year (the Bad Year started in 2012) I was just finishing my morning shower where <ka BOOM!>. My shower door exploded.

 

Yes, that is my bathtub, and that is my blood. Apparantly this happens; tempered glass can spontaneously explode. I climbed out as best I could. Except for lots of tiny cuts from the little slivers of glass that are part of a tempered glass explosion, I was pretty ok. I did have a deep, two inch wide cut on the top of my left foot however where the corner of the heavy glass door had landed as it shattered and dropped. It was not bleeding badly but I thought well, I should probably get it checked and it probably should be stitched. So after making a pressure bandage out of the sock I had just taken off, I wrapped it up and drove to the emergency room to see if they thought it needed stitches. The usual ER wait didn't take long...the blood oozing from the sock and on to the floor probably motivated the staff somewhat.

 

Once in the ER, cleaned up and no longer bleeding, it didn't look so bad.

 

 

 

I took a picture and sent it to my husband, who is a physician. You won't believe what happened! I texted. Ruh-roh! he said, ominously. That doesn't look good. What's the matter? I texted. I think you have damaged your tendon, he texted back. Hmm. Maybe he was right. My left foot certainly didn't look as perky as the right one. Hmmm.

 

And he was right. The ER Dr dug around and said a medical version of 'You are in deep doo-doo, Missy!'. I had indeed severed that big tendon that goes across the top of your foot. At the time I didn't realize what that exactly meant. I do now, 8 months later, and it was no fun.

 

The first repair surgery failed, thanks to an inept orthopedist who cheerfully told me 'I have never done one of these before!' (Note to self: bring Gray's Anatomy to any future surgeon and ask him to identify relevant body parts before surgery). The second surgery, in February, entailed a tendon graft and a much longer, very painful layup and recovery. I was non-weight bearing for three months. It was really miserable.

 

I had had a dear friend come for a visit for a week or two; she was here when I got hurt. Bless her, she stayed all winter and took care of my horses, fed the dogs and the chickens, and brought me soup and cereal for the weeks I was bed bound. I wrote before about how certain friends don't ask you what you need or if you need help; they just see a need and fill it.  Hunter is that kind of friend. An experienced horse girl, she blanketed and mucked and fed the two boys I have at home for five months. My daughter came for two weeks as well and then on weekends. It is very hard for me to be dependent on other people. Emma and Hunter took such good care of me and Hunter kept me laughing rather than crying, which is certainly what I felt  like doing.

 

So that's how the year started! And it just got better! >:-> Not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to Bryan

As you can see in the initial photos Bryan was deeply tied in in front of the withers with a strongly developed underneck. 

 Twenty years ago I would have felt this was just a conformational defect. Now I know that it is a reflection of soundness and movement anomalies, and that with the correct approaches, can and will change. There are of course conformational defects in necks…like the ‘Nest’, wherein the neck comes so low out of the body it looks like the horse has no chest. You can’t do much about where the neck comes out of the body. But you can do remarkable things with the neck itself, and the way it ties in to the wither and the shoulder.

There are several excellent treatises in the subject so rather than go in to a lot of detail I refer you to Hillary Clayton, Jean Luc Cornille, Jean Claude Racinet, Phillippe Karl, Gerd Heuschmann, and Mary DeBono, the Feldenkrais practitioner who has applied the work to horses. All of these riders have studied the biomechanics of movement and the neck; knowing their work and their conclusions is vital to understanding how the neck functions. I don’t want to write a textbook, and lucky for me I needn’t, as these riders/writers/vets/body workers have already done so. I *would* like to show you how understanding and applying their work has changed the necks and shoulders of the horses in my care.

Good bye Zeus

I had to put one of the boys down in February. Today I want to write about him.

His name was Zeus. I bought him sight unseen after seeing an ad and talking on the phone with his owner. He was 15, a KWPNxRID cross. I was so interested in how he sounded that I put him on Paypal that very day and picked him up a few days later. One of my daughters went with me. He was not exactly like his pictures had portrayed him.  “Mom!" she cried.  "You bought a gigantic white donkey!"

Not that I could blame her. I couldn’t deny that he was not exactly beautiful. He had been on trial, had been on the back burner, was thinnish, dirty, scraped up, unfit and out of shape. He was sound, but had no muscle and was straight shouldered and kinda ewe necked. He had a gigantic head and gigantic feet. 'Clunky' was somewhat of an understatement.  He was grey. His dad was E’sops Fable, a beautiful KWPN stallion, and his mom was Carragawn Lady, an RID. He was his mothers son, that's for sure. He had been an eventer and was a good honest jumper.  I ignored her, we loaded him up (he was not very obedient but gave up eventually) and took him home. 

Little By Little

 So I wrote about how we taught B to stand, in the arena, first facing the barn but waiting; next facing somewhat away from the barn and waiting; and lastly facing totally away from the barn, and waiting. We would often would get off in the ring, stand there, do some in hand work, and then take a walk. Anything to break his response patterns. This was so hard for him. He would first shake his head, then stamp, then it would escalate in to a spin or two or a zipping backwards or what have you. We didn’t particularly punish, we just went back to Point A. And waited. He had to stay absolutely in place. He could not take one step out of where we put him. If he did, he was put back. It took a long time, but he got it. I liked the Myler combination bit for these months; it gave us some control if we needed it, but it was so mild when we didn’t. I think the loose ring aspect is good for horses who have been ridden badly, and the little bit of nose pressure if needed helps take away the defensiveness of a wrecked mouth. Bryan, like many OTTBs I have had, had a very low palate and sharp bars. I think the shape of the Myler, with its little protective roller thing in the middle, is much more comfortable for a mouth like that. Regular snaffles can really poke the soft palate; I never use them any more. 

Back to Work

Hey!

Some moms, when they find out their kid is about to get married, call the florists and the caterers. Me being me, I called the bobcat and the excavator. What I was thinking when I volunteered to have the reception at our house, knowing that we had neither yard nor patio, no place to sit, and that we lived virtually in a dog toy graveyard, I have no idea. Be that as it may, the wedding came off splendidly. We *do* now have a yard, a patio, and the dog toy graveyard is no longer a main feature. The heavy equipment left three days before the Big Day, and I was still planting trees and hanging lights till literally 45 minutes before I was supposed to be at the church. It was a perfect SoCal evening, with an almost full moon and a gentle temperature. It was relaxed, sweet, lovely, and wonderful, and man, am I glad its over.

I miss writing two or three times a week. Heck, I miss riding, too, and the boys have been totally neglected while I ran around with concrete and bricks and potted plants. But things are settled now, and I am catching up on body clipping and feet trimming and will ride again today, hooray!

Let’s go back to how we addressed Brian’s cross tie issues. This approach, of small therapeutic doses endlelessly repeated, worked well with him. It works well with all horses, and is a big part of why my horses, no matter their pasts or backgrounds, are well behaved and trusting and obedient. And so with Bryan, this was the basis of all of the work that we did whether mounted, on the ground, or during free work.

The consistency of The Rules goes across the board. Every time we handled him it was the same; no slinging your head around (thereby cracking the human in the face) no stepping past the human; no dragging behind the human; no screaming when attached to the human; no jumping on top of the human…I think you get the drift. As usual, every horse we would take in would grasp The Rules quickly; horses aren’t dumb and they crave and honor leadership. Natch, B, not being the sharpest marble in the drawer, took a longer time than the others.

Changes in Attitudes

Back to the blog! Fate has me; a wedding coming up, some travel, some eye issues, and a catastrophic horse injury (think T-post) and there has been no blog time for the Abster. I cant believe its been six weeks since I was able to post. But I am sitting here now, with dilated eyes after an opthomologist appointment; I cant go outside, so will catch up on HorsesDontCry. I miss writing here every few days and will be glad when things settle down.

I have been a horse girl for a long time and have been lucky enough to be able to do both the show thing (competitor, instructor, trainer, groom, braider, volunteer), *and* the gallop around bareback jumping picnic tables as a kid thing. I love both parts of my riding life.I don’t like when one group, like trail riders, feels superior to show riders, and vice versa. I have friends in pretty much every discipline and every part of the various registries; Freisian friends, AQHA friends, TWH friends, ApHA friends, Paint friends, dressage friends, Arabian friends, mustang friends….The tie that binds us is our love of horses and our disgust with the problems within our own disciplines. My TWH friends are all flat shod, my AQHA friends don’t like the abuse inherent in WP, etc etc. Every one of them has worked within their industry to improve the conditions of their show horses. When some abuses were too entrenched to be changed, they quit the organizations and started new ones. In that spirit, and since I don’t believe that one should complain about things if one is not willing to work to change them, I applied to become a licensed FEI level 1 dressage steward. This does not give me a lot of authority at shows, but it puts me in a position to call for those that *are* in authority, and it puts me on the front line of bit and spur inspections. I was accepted, attended, and passed. I learned so much. I was the only one there who had never shown dressage and many of the things my co-participants already knew were new to me. But the officials were so friendly and supportive and my classmates so accepting I did not stay intimidated for long.

Small Therapeutic Doses

This is how we taught Bryan The Rules.

At the time all the boys lived in stalls. So first thing they would all go out. But usually before they went out they would go in to the cross ties for a quick groom, check, what have you. I don’t boot so they are always bare legged but they would get fly sprayed or whatever.

B had a total thing about the cross ties. Well, B had total things about a lot of things but he had a *big* total thing about the cross ties. My cross ties at the time faced the row of stalls. But behind them was a large lawn, with a lake, and ducks, and birds, and frogs, and a driveway. All of these things periodically made NOISES. In Bryanville, NOISE was bad. And noise *behind* you was DEATH. Of course, I am making that up as I have no way of actually knowing that. But that was sure how he acted. Or over reacted, as the case may be.

He would always walk *in* to the cross ties, but halfway around would leap *out* of the cross ties. Of course, since the human leading him in was right there, said human would go flying. Sure, you could muscle him around and push him back in, smacking him on the shoulder and telling him to get over himself. I certainly did that lots and lots of times. But I wanted to fix him, not just bully him. So we had frequent cross tie training sessions that went as follows.

Bryan faces the cross ties. His head is up and he is searching the horizon. He knows the ducks, frogs, birds, and cars are behind the cross ties, waiting for their moment for DEATH. I have a chain over his nose. I do not shank him or anything, but I softly pull down on it; I ask him to bring his head down. That’s all. Just to bring his head down. He gets, in a week or two, that a soft chain pressure means put your head down. Of course, like a shot, the head is instantly back up. So we work, for a long time, on put your head down, and keep it down. For one second. For two seconds. For 30 seconds.

When he would put his head down and keep it down for a second or two or ten, we would take a step toward the cross ties. Up would go the head again, since now he was One Step Closer to DEATH. Self-Preservation Perusal Process Re-Activated SIR! And so we would ask, again, for the head to go down. And we would do this over, and over, and over. One step at a time, head down. Until we were half way in, or part way in, but before we turned around.

Rules Are Good

Back to Bryan!

As you’ve seen, he was a festival of issues. He was not lame per se, as in he did not limp, but he moved so weird, like a gaited camel hybrid. He was not aggressive, but he sure was shut down and overreactive. He wasn’t ‘naughty’ but his issues sure made him a challenge on the ground; he rushed through openings, he crushed you in the cross ties, he leapt forward or back at a bird or lizard in the brush and woe to you or your foot if you were in the way.

People always notice and comment that my horses are well behaved and relaxed. One client nicknamed me Tranquilla after her horse came to me and became so mellow and nice. I can give any one of them a shot or wormer or whatever, loose in the stall. I can free lunge them, silently, with hand signals and body language. Trust me, they did not come this way. But they all learned, their first day with me, that no matter how badly they behaved, how spoiled they were, or how aggressive they were, that Tall Girl (me) had Rules, and it didn’t matter how long it took, or how much they fought them, the Rules were Immutable.

When We Were Young

Hey!

Well, things have been busy here. I had my birthday, my dads 88th birthday, a house full of daughters and nieces, and two of my dearest and oldest friends came for visits. I ordered new products that decry Rollkur for the itsnotforsissies store. I have not ridden in a month. Its been hot! But now the guests are gone (waah!), the nieces and daughters are all back in school (waah!), the weather has changed for the better (yay!), the Olympics are over (more on that later), and things are getting back to as normal as they ever get here at Kogler Haus.

There are always a ton of things to write about; I want to get back to Bryan; I want to start to share the stories of some of the other boys; I want to talk about therapies and riding position and attitudes and all of the things that horse girls can talk about at length, but I think today I will talk about my friends.

I have lots of really wonderful friends. I have been very blessed that way. I have friends across lots of groups; school friends, camp friends, piano friends (I played and taught for many years), garden friends, history friends, work friends. I love and appreciate them all. But maybe since so much of my life has been horse based, my horse friends just seem to be the ones I see the most, and treasure the deepest.

FEI, you suck.

Heres Patrick Kittel, of the blue tongue fame, showing us how its done at the Olympics. The FEI assured us on its FB page that the stewards were ON it. No rollkur here!

Feh. Seriously. Feh. A pox on them all.

Rollkur is harmful. Rollkur is unnecessary. Rollkur is cruel. FEI, you suck.

Seriously. This is why, on Dr. Heuschmanns recommendation, I made my hats that say 'DRESSAGE-Ist Nicht fur Rabauken' and the back of the hats say 'Pferde Nein Ensklaven'. This translates as 'DRESSAGE-its Not for Bullies' and the backs say 'Horses Arent Slaves'. Its my own way of putting it out there.

We need to put these people out of business. We need to tell the FEI that we care. We need to tell show managers that we know which judges reward this. It will not stop until people make it very clear, with their pocketbooks and their voices, that it *must* stop. If we love our horses, and we love our sport and our industry, we have to speak up.

Heresy

People ask me “But, what did you *do*?” to bring about the changes in Bryan and the others. Well, I did Mary’s work. I did Jack Meagher’s work. I put Bryan on MSM. I changed his shoeing and his feet. I treated his tummy. We rode him straight and forward, on the buckle. We did ground work and some clicker training. We gave him a life that had clear and consistent cause and effect while we worked to reduce his physical pain/s.

But it’s at least as instructive to write about what I didn’t do, as what I did.  

There are two things I did not do with Bryan. Both are common, accepted, and in my view, very misunderstood and often poorly executed. The first one I will write about today.

I never lunged him. Not once. Not ever.

That's right. I never lunge horses. Sure, I used to, all the time. It was SOP in every barn and in every book and with every trainer I knew. I had draw reins, I had side reins; I knew how to use them correctly, knew the various theories about the outside one tighter or the inside one or which was better, the ones with rubber donuts or stretchy ones or plain leather. I had Vienna reins and German martingales. I knew how to lunge in bits and bridles and lunging cavessons and halters. I could tell you the various benefits of the lunge line over the head, over the nose, under the bit, attached to the bit, what have you. I knew how and when and why to lunge; where to attach the side reins at which buckle of the surcingle and when and why. I saw and participated in the LTD (LungeTillDead) techniques at the hunter/jumper shows. I know it all, and I did it all.

But through the years, and  all that study and work: the Jack Meagher book, the insights and issues I learned from the Tellington-Jones work and the Mary Debono work, and the *constant* soundness issues and soft tissue injuries and joint problems I saw in performance horses, the ‘benefits’ of lunging just started to become more and more questionable. I know it’s heretical. I know the old dead guys did it and the SRS does it and blah blah blah. I know.

But we all used the think the world was flat, that the sun went around the earth, and that thunder came from the Gods bowling, or whatever. And we learned different and now we know better. I think it’s going to be the same thing regarding horse people and lunging and side reins. In however many years, people will look at the practice and say ‘How could we have been so blind?’

The more I studied, the less sense it made. Just looking at horses, their structure and way of going, it is so apparent that they are not built to go in circles for any length of time. Look at feral or wild horses. They go straight. They developed, as a species, going straight. They don’t go in circles. Putting a horse on a lunge line as a way to work it, train it, build it up, what have you, is physiologically pointless and yes, harmful. And just to make sure I *really* put my foot in it, I am going to go even farther and say that if you *really* want to start a horse on a path to cripplehood, tie its head down while you lunge it. (I think that Gaitmaster thing is an instrument of the devil. I love the Pessoas, but that thing should be outlawed) Yes. I said it, and I know it is true. I read the endless discussions on the fora, the justifications, the explanations. I don’t care any more. Lunging in general and side reins in particular is not just unnecessary, but can be and often is harmful. Dr. Heuschmann knows it. Others know it. Others are figuring it out.

I see how people feel about lunging and side reins on the fora  I am not interested in discussing the pros and cons or hearing why its ok if only blah, or because blah. The point of this blog is to show what is possible, and what was achieved, and how we achieved it. That’s all. We have had some pretty interesting results over the years, with many different horses.  I didn't lunge any of them. 

Suffice to say, I also no longer use side reins or draw reins, or any kind of martingale for training. Aside from the harm they can do, they *mask*  what the horse needs to do with its body. Why would I want that?!  I want to see *how* my horse is responding to the work I am asking him to do. That helps me know what is going on his body. I want to *see* when he cranes his neck, or leans to the outside, or falls to the inside. I want to *see* when he stretches his head down, how long he holds it there, and whether he does it with his nose out, or in, or to the side in an upward or downward transition. All of this will tell me what is going on in his body. If I can’t see it, how am I going to improve it? Correct it? Influence it?

 Let me also clarify, and thank you to my friend Christine who rightfully asked..'huh?! what if you have a green bean at a horse show, or a horse that is wild at the new sights and sounds'? Well, in that situation, I would probably whip out the lunge line. But even still, I would certainly do in hand and ground work first, to try to get them to focus and relax. They are so habituated to that work at home that it usually serves to focus them when away or distracted. And yes, I would lunge a horse for a vet exam. And yes, lunging is an excellent way to teach the *rider*;  you just have to be careful not to do it at the expense of the horse. But for training, and fitness, and developing a horse, no. Not ever. 

So, other than riding them, what do I do?

I work them free. Sometimes for months without ever riding them. It all depends on how lame they are and what their issues are and how they respond to the body work, the hoof balance corrections, etc. 

I work them loose, with no tack. But they aren’t just loose and galloping around. No. They are working. They learn extensions, lateral work, transitions, spirals. They halt, back, reverse, turn on the haunch and forehand. Any horse can be taught to do it easily. It’s not hard. I think horses really like it actually. They certainly become very engaged and interested. Free lunging allows the horse to respond to the work *in the way that he can*, NOT the way he is forced to. Transitions and reverses and lateral work can all be done in free work, and this lets the horse figure it out on his own, and as I said, lets me see how he is functioning and using his body. 

Most importantly, I do this in a square or rectangle. NOT a circle or a round corral. It can be a space as small as 36 by 36, or as big as you like. As long as it has corners, it’s good.

Why? Think about it. A circle never gives the horse a break. Round and round, the same muscles over and over and over. Any human athlete knows that endless stressful motion is a prescription for a breakdown. But we never think twice about setting our horses up for these physical stresses. And not only do we force the horse to work in this way that is totally not natural, we *tie his head down* while we do it. Gack.

Working with corners gives the horse's muscles a change. It doesn't matter if its brief, its a change. He is straight, *then* he hits the corner and steps under *on his own*. Then he is straight again. *This* can build correct musculature. This is gymnastic training.

In Process

So this is how Bryan looked when we got him. There are several things to be noticed, eh? 

The most outstanding conformational anomalies were, to me, his neck and shoulder. I see his sloping croup, his 'poverty line' (an old term for that line of muscle that leads from flank to belly; look at his flank and see the line that points up to the left toward Terri's knee. I think of it more as a 'tummy distress line' as I have seen it on horses that were not particularly weight compromised as well). I don't really care about his puffy ankles. But the upright front pasterns and the killer straight shoulder and totally weird tied in neck are freaky. The muscle bulge on the underside of neck and the dip behind his saddle pad are also big 'wrong' nesses. I also dont really mind the over at the knees thing; its way preferable to being behind at the knees, and its actually somewhat associated with a nice low hunter movement. Not that it is desirable, but in the grand scheme of things its not a big deal to me. Same day below; he carried his tail up and to the right most of the time, a sure sign of issues (unless you're an Arab!)



Here's another one just a few weeks after we got him. He's a little fatter and smoother looking, but pretty scary; hind legs forward, front legs back. Hunters bump and pointy croup. Bulgy underside of neck, and neck ending way below the wither. Big muscle at the third vertebrae. All wrong.

This a couple of months later. You can see that the muscles on the underside of his neck are not so prominent and that the dip is front of his withers is a little less sharp. The crest is also a little straighter and not quite so dipped and the bulge at the third vertebrae is smoothing out.

I think you can see how his neck is changing over time...another couple of months later. His neck is getting longer and the bulge underneath is gone. The area behind his poll has lengthened and the muscles along the crest are starting to develop. His shoulder is still very straight but getting less so. There is a hint of more muscling in his loin and his croup is not quite so pointy. His front pasterns are not quite so straight nor does he stand with his hind legs so far under him. His flank and hip are also getting bigger.

From this:

to this:

You can see his neck is very different and it no longer ties in in front of his wither. He is getting a nice big shoulder and his hip is much bigger. He is filled in behind the saddle and though his croup is still sloping it still looks like a powerful rear end. He is a TB, after all so will not have a flat croup. His front pasterns are much less straight. I think what I love the best though is the expression on his face. He was 'there' by this time. Still over at the knees. In his size 3 shoes by now.

I loved this horse. Can you see why? He just blossomed.

More tomorrow!

Fixing Horses.com

It took a long time to bring Bryan around. Longer than any other horse I had had till that time. But bring him around we did.

As with any horse that comes in to the program, we looked at everything. Diet, feet, tack, teeth. In SoCal boarding situations we don’t always have a lot of hay options. The barn I boarded at fed bermuda hay and/or alfalfa. You could special order timothy but it was pretty expensive. They did feed hay three times a day so he had food in front of him 24/7. I like grass hays but think it’s important for horses to have a variety of grasses so I supplement their regular hay ration with straight grass hay pellets, like oat or bermuda or timothy or orchard hay pellets, depending on price, availability, and the horse’s weight and work load. He was thinnish so the first thing we did was put him on lots of timothy pellets and Purina Ultium. I love to study NRC info and product details of various feeds. I have gone back and forth between the various senior feeds and Purina Ultium. Now I am able to access a local CA made pelleted feed that I am really happy with (King feed 11% pelleted enriched feed) but at the time I was using Ultium. I think Ultium is great and have always been happy with it. It is expensive though, and it is molasses based, which now I like to avoid, though its not as high sugar as some.

I also put him on Ranitidine. Ranitidine is an antacid and until Omeprazole became available it was all vets had really to treat equine gastric ulcers. I purchase it in bulk at Costco or Walmart; generic, it is way cheap. The drawback is that it doesn’t heal ulcers, and it needs to be fed at least twice and preferably three times a day. But it is therapeutic, and soothing, and any new horse I got at the time went right on it.

Loose Ends and New Beginnings

So now you have The Background. Over ten years I had had one conception shattering experience after another. The Centered Riding work started the process by showing me that the rider forms the horse, whether they know it or admit it or can feel it or not.  The Linda Tellington-Jones work was the first to reveal the connection between physical pain, emotion, and and personality and training behaviors. The Jack Meagher sports massage therapy proved what I had always suspected; that clinical soundness, or the lack thereof, might have nothing to do with xrays or scans or what have you. And then the Mary Debono/SENSE work showed that addressing the neurological system with work based on Feldenkrais principles could transform the entire system.

And so with this gigantic and wonderful toolbox we worked with Cody, and Petey, and Austen, and Shadow, and Philip, and Bonnie, and Wonder, and Leisle. They all went from …er…challenged in some way, to sound and rideable and quiet and happy in their work.

Questions and Answers

I wrote that there were four things that happened that day. The other two were smaller but equally conception shattering. Here is what happened.

After the ‘We are Not Worthy’ demonstration, I had a renewed interest (putting it mildly) so really tried to pay attention to what Mary was showing us. I was trying to do rib work, rib lifts I think she calls them, but had no idea if I was doing it right. Mary came up behind me and put *her* hands on *my* ribs. ‘Lift when I lift’ she said. So I did. Suddenly, I felt like I was being hurled through space, electrified, up over the horse’s back. I jumped sideways, staring at Mary. ‘We created some energy, didn’t we!’ she said and smiled. HOLY CRAP. I really felt like my head had exploded. Keee-rraa-zzyy!!

The last one was when I was working on one of the old guys' tail. Tails and docks are just extensions of spines, you know. So there I was, hands on the tail, doing a soft squeeze/lift movement, slow, slow, slow. The horse started lifting and relaxing his head and neck, slowly, and in time with my hands. I got below the dock, and *kept going*. I was doing the soft squeeze/lift on his *hair*. And he was still reacting. I got to the bottom and I kept going *in the air*. And he kept reacting. Whoa.

So when I went and worked on Cody’s ribs that day, I had seen and felt things that fascinated and intrigued me. Remember I said that Cody had big knots behind his poll, at that classic ‘broken’ 3^rd vertebrae. They actually would snap when he put his head down or stretched his neck. After my attempts at rib work, and his changed stride in the equicisor, when I was putting him away I felt his neck. The knots were two thirds the size they had been. They were markedly smaller. Yoik.

Undeniable

Resisting an urge to fall to my knees, hug her about the ankles and sob ‘We are not worthy’, which is what I *felt* like doing, I just babbled out…’ I’m impressed!’ Typical humble, sweet Mary, she smiled and said ‘Really?’ and looked surprised.

And I was. This was amazing stuff. Man, who coulda thought that horse could be reached by *any* means. And here he was, with what looked like just nothing almost, with no weird names and no agenda and no talking trees. No hammers, no injections, no magnets or lasers. Just Mary and her hands. Better. So much better. Humbled, I now was determined to learn it and apply it. That day, after the clinic, I went to my barn and took a horse I had at the time, Cody, out of his stall. Cody was a big Holsteinor that I had acquired in North Carolina. He was wonderfully bred, a Condino son, who had been well broke and well ridden, until he wasn’t. Then he had developed all kinds of issues and behaviors that had made him pretty unmarketable. Natch, that made me want him. Maryanne, my wonderful Jack Meagher trained massage therapist had done great things with him in NC, and we were doing ok together. But I knew his neck, like many big dressage horses, had issues. He had the big knots behind his poll that so many of them have and the massage work had never made them go fully away.

So I put Cody in the cross ties and tried to do the work I had been not trying very hard to learn from Mary. I was serious, though, this time, and tried to do what she had taught us to do, and to feel what she was trying to teach us to feel. It felt awkward and pointless but I kept at it. True to the Feldenkrais principles, I did not work on the knots in his neck. I worked on Cody’s ribs and tummy. I had already recognized the work as Linda Tellington Jones type stuff with out the dumb names, so I had my LTJ clinic notes with me as well, and tried to consolidate the two approaches. After maybe twenty minutes I gave up, frustrated with myself and wishing I had paid better attention the previous four days. Disappointed, I groomed Cody and put him in the equicisor for a session.