Our horses are like children...

If any of you are animal lovers and have coworkers and a boss that are animal lovers too, consider yourself at an advantage with your work schedule. Having a boss that treats their animals like their children means that they will be more accepting to your emergency colic situations, leaving work early to meet the farrier, or coming in late because your horse needs his abscess soaked before work.

None of my coworkers prioritize their animals like family and I have no equestrian coworkers. I am the only one. I have one coworker that literally says "she hates her dog" and keeps him locked in the garage and I have another coworker who gave his dog away because they didn't feel like taking care of it anymore. The other coworkers don't even talk about their pets. It's all about their children and husbands...all day long...blah.

For the longest time I felt guilty asking to leave early to take care of my sick horse or meeting the farrier. The expression on my boss's face said it all, she didn't consider it important. In the meantime I had coworkers working from home because their "knee hurt" (wtf?!), kid was sick, stove was being delivered, or needed to meet a contractor for their home. When I asked to leave work early 2x a week my boss kind of dragged her feet and obviously had a problem with it. When I told her what it was for and pointed out that others were working from home and leaving early she justified those coworkers schedules with life changing events that were a life priority. So my sick horse wasn't a priority? I could have flipped out on her, but I didn't. I am sorry I haven't rushed into marrying the first guy I see and start pumping out babies, but that doesn't mean I don't have a family, responsibilities, or a life outside of work. Every night I went home to my horse and my dog...that was my family! That was my priority! Basically my boss told me my life didn't matter. I started to resent her.

Part of resenting her was to determine how much a horse was really like a child, a way to prove to myself that I was right and she was wrong. A horse still is not a human life, but for now they are my "children." They are so much like children it's ridiculous:

1) Money. Kids are expensive. Average day care costs are about $575-$700 a month. Guess who else is in day care? Your horse, especially if he is at a boarding stable. You have someone watching over them, feeding them, providing turnout entertainment. It's the same thing and around here it costs about $675 a month.

Not to mention all the farrier bills, vet bills, and equipment. Just like children who also have medical bills, routine appointments, and often need things for school, clothing, toys, etc.

2) Time. Horses take up a lot of time. Taking care of them is a part time job, feeding on schedule, cleaning, meeting the farrier or vet, picking up hay. If you aren't taking care of them yourself then you are stuck driving somewhere to see them.

Think about it, a baby wakes up and cries for a bottle. You are on a schedule to feed that baby. Horses need to be fed at the same time as well, they are on a schedule and if they don't get fed bad stuff starts happening; colic, gastric upset, and even kicking down a wall. They get really annoying when they are hungry, just like babies crying for their bottle.

If you need to meet your farrier or vet or riding instructor, that's just like a mother needing to bring her kid to football practice, picking them up from school, or leaving early for a school play. Everything is on a schedule.

3) Commitment. Sure, accident pregnancies happen but I would say most couples plan their babies now-a-days. It is just too expensive to have a kid and not plan for it's arrival. Once you plan to have children you are making a long term commitment to take care of them, raise them, providing them food, an education. Horses need commitment too. They cost money, take time, and once you acquire them you will more then likely be stuck with them for the rest of their lives. With the cost of horses right now, people don't just sell them easily anymore. You have to accept the fact that you will own that horse for years.

4) Horses need candy, so do kids. Horses beg for treats. Kids beg for candy bars and cookies.

5) Both need attention. Horses need and like to be groomed, bathed, showered with treats. They like to do stuff, go on trail rides, jump, gallop. Kids need attention too, they need compliments, you need to watch them play sports, help with their homework, and generally just play.

6) Your kid plays a sport just like your horse takes a riding lesson. Both are engaging in physical activity. While kids are playing soccer, you horse is galloping and bucking in the field or spending time with you in a lesson.

7) Both have life chapters. Both horses and kids hit chapters in their life, where their life changes and they move on. Kids go to college, join the military, or get married. Horses go to new owners, full time training, start showing, become lesson horses, change disciplines, or move into a pasture retirement. At some point both kids and horses move onto different chapters in their life, sometimes it means they move on without you.

8) Bragging. Parents brag about kids making varsity track or getting straight "A"s on their report card. Horsie Mommies brag about how their horse learned flying lead changes or finally moved up in the jumper division. Both are proud of their babies and need to tell everyone about it.

9) We also talk about when they are bad. I have told my friends about my horses spook or how my new project horse took off bucking on me. Parents often complain about their kids not doing their homework, talking back, or missing their curfew. As must as we love our "kids", both types will disspapoint us from time to time.

10) Sometimes when they are bad, it's the parents fault. Your kid may have dropped the f-bomb because they heard you say. Your horse may stop at the jump because you set him up wrong in the approach. Sometimes parents mislead their children, no one is perfect.

11) Facebook status updates. Pictures of kids and status updates are often a topic on facebook. Horses make the same appearance, today alone I have seen my friend's funny clip job and have 2 other friends have their horses packed up in the trailer off to a horse show.

12) Pictures, pictures, and more pictures. When you kid plays dress-up you take a picture, when my horse sticks his tongue out at me...I take a picture. :)

13) Love. You don't spend all this time and money because it is about you, you spend all this time and money on a horse because you love them. They ARE family. Parents feel the same way about kids.

I love my horses. I may have not crossed the bridge into getting married and having children, but right now they are my children.

Riding on hard ground

Living in Colorado there is some hard ground around here and that hard ground may lead to horse injury. My barn does not have an arena, so riding in the fields is mainly what I do. Here are some tips to keep your horse's legs going strong.

Check if your riding surface is really as hard as you think. Can you hear hoof beats? Maybe sometimes you are able to hear them and then other days you hear nothing. That should be a good indication on the ground surface condition at the time of your ride.

If you have field options, choose a field that has irrigation. The ground may be more soft and easier on the horse's legs. I have 5 pastures and I only ride in the 2 pastures that were at one point used for haying.

Tall grass isn't always a bad thing. May be hard to see hazards, so check it out first on foot. Once you go around a few times, the grass lays down, adding a little extra cushion.

Change pace and terrain as much as you can. On the hard ground it's important to shift weight to avoid overworking muscles, ligaments, tendons, or bones. This may be achieved by changing pace frequently or changing terrain. For example, two trot circles followed by a trot up a hill and then a trot down the hill.

Try Magic Cushion, it's a hoof pack that is easy to apply. Acts as an anti-inflammatory to help prevent hoof pain and heat.

If the ground is frozen consider just walking with short bursts of trot or consider riding down a quiet dirt road. The traffic of cars keeps the road somewhat warm and the ground will likely be less frozen.

Condition your horse to hard ground by slowly introducing the horse to the terrain, adding a little more time or a little more intensity each ride.

Shoe the front feet to get the soles off the ground and add more comfort. If you already have shoes, consider asking your farrier to review the shoeing.

Consider pads or rim pads if you horse appears foot sore after a ride.

Warm up properly, with lots of walking on a free rein, collected, extended walk, before going right into trotting. In the arena we do a lot of trot warmup, but on hard ground you should do more walk warmup.

Listen to your horse. If they move lame or sore after your ride try something different. If you have tried everything, it is likely that the horse just is not built for hard ground riding or needs a few down days.

Turn your horse out on that pasture. This naturally conditions horses to the ground at their own pace, which is typically the best way.

Add water. Perhaps there is a small 20 meter circle flat area in your field you ride often, hose this area before your ride.

Stick to small jumps and ground poles. Instead of raising the jumps, consider making the exercise more complicated. Save your horses legs by not overdoing it, once he performs the jump as desired tell him good job and move on to something different.

Consider wearing sport medicine boots. Honestly, I think these boots are more important for arena riding because they provide tendon and soft tissue support which may be needed when the horse sinks into soft ground. However, I see how these boots could benefit field riding because of this support, especially if the horse trips. Professional Choice boots claim is that it absorbs 26% of the impact from the hoof and as much as 45%. The testing was performed at Oklahoma University. I have successfully used sport medicine boots after my horse's torn suspensory (an injury result from sinking in deep sand footing when landing from a jump), it seemed to help with recovery.

Consider cold hosing or wrapping after a really hard workout. This may help in recovery. Just like people who train for triathlons or running whom religiously do hot/cold treatments and compression socks. There is actually compression socks for horses!

Another human athlete practice is stretching and application of pain relief ointments for example using icy hot on humans (don't use on horses). A similar practice may be performed before/after on your equine athlete. Vetrolin is similar to the human version of icy hot. Post workout stretching is the key to any athlete and I am surprised not more horse owners stretch their equine friends. Here is an extensive list of stretching techniques.

 

 

Ask your horse to move round. Don't let him invert and load his front legs with shock. Again, just like human runners, you want to practice good form to prevent injury.

Horses are different, my older gelding likes the stability of the hard ground. He has arthritis, a coffin bone chip, and an old deep flexor tear all that happened in his earlier life of being an arena horse. Since he has been out on hard ground he has not had one lameness issue and goes great. He doesn't have any major structural abnormalities though, where my other horse does. The younger horse has a  club foot and sometimes working him on the hard ground intensifies the short stride of the club foot. The intensity of riding on the hard ground really depends on the horse's body and it's condition overall. Young horses should be especially careful as their bone structures are still developing.

I think arenas are great, but I do think they may be overrated at times. The best asset of an arena is not having rocks or uneven terrain. Many people create an arena that is too deep, which may cause lameness due to stress on ligaments and tendons. The horses that need to be most careful on hard terrain would be those that are use to living and being worked on soft ground. Horses that are conditioned for the hard ground usually do okay. I believe to some level horse's were built for riding in a grassy field, it is their natural environment. We have conditioned them to ride in arenas, but we are also doing more then what they are built to do, like jumping. Bottom line is listen to your horse, support him the best you can, and be reasonable about the workload on hard ground.

Managing your horse in the heat

I don't have a horse to ride for another few days due to hock injections, which is probably the best as this week is hot here- mid and high 90's!  The horse's body is not designed to be hot (big bodies don't rid of heat well), extra precaution should be taken when exercising a horse in these kinds of temps. Here are a few hot weather tips:

1. Skip hot rides or ride earlier in the morning or later in the evening.
2. When you do ride, try to ride where there is shade, give your horse good breaks, and monitor sweat accumulation (too much sweat probably means your horse is too hot).
3. Turnout earlier and bring in earlier or turnout at night and let the horses rest where there is shade (ie stall, shelter) during the hotest part of the day, which is usually 12-3p.
4. If turning out during the day make sure they had adequate shade from a big tree or shelter
5. Always have free choice water available (even when you are only turning out for 2 hours), if you are exercising your horse bring water so he is able to take water breaks during exercise (just like people exercising!)
• The average horse consumes 25 gallons of water a day on days over 70 degrees!
6. Salt?  Just add a tablespoon of salt to your horse's feed- unlike a salt like this ensures your horse takes the salt and is a lot cheaper.
• Salt needed when exercising your horse hard or when temp + humidity reaches 140 degrees.
7. Use less saddle pads and skip the fly sheet on hot days.
8. Bath your horse after a workout or just because on hot days.

Anhydrosis:  horses that are unable to sweat, which may make heat regulation difficult for the owner to evaluate and manage.

(Sources; http://www.doctorramey.com/horses-in-the-heat/, http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=1833)