All in the Family

Gdansk

I like pedigrees on horses.  I see a pretty performance horse and I immediately want to know the lineage, the breed, and just about everything else.

I know that many folks only care about the performance of the horse in front of them and that "you can't ride papers".  That is certainly true, however, a pedigree usually offers a certain insight.  There are family traits that run strong.  Athletic ability can certainly be passed along, just as easily as the "X Factor" explains Secretariat's 22 pound heart.

There are lots of horses in my mares' pedigrees that I know what they looked like and their general performance abilities.

I like to collect photos.  Forget having family photos on the wall: I have hundreds of historical photos on my hard drive. 

Gdaan

Zodiac Matador

One missing piece has been more information about Donni's sire. 

I did find that there was an ad in a magazine and a friend scanned the page for me.  This is the only photo I've ever seen of him.

"Dance"

Through my internet sleuthing skills, I knew the name of his former owner.  I set out trying to find a farm page with no luck.  I knew the name of the actual farm so I tried searching that.  I then tried matching the names up on Facebook and a name popped up that was in the correct vicinity. 

Now how does someone send an email cold calling about a stallion from the early 90s?

I wrote a message, hit send quickly, and then attempted to forget in case there was some poor confused non-horse person on the other end.

Well yesterday, I got a response.  My message had sat in the "other" folder for a long period of time until she actually saw it.  She was thrilled to read the message and happily told me about "Dance" and his loving personality.  He was a member of the family and lived at her farm until he died in his mid 20s.

Athletic, sweet, gentle.  She described him as a "tent" horse where he certainly would crawl into a tent to live with his person. 

So very reminiscence of the sweet personality his daughter has. 

Gdansk.  Dance's sire.

She asked for more information on Donni and her offspring.  Enthusiastic for photos, I can just imagine the person on the other line reliving the joy and happiness her grey Arabian stallion brought her.  "Dance" was family and in a way, it's all a great family reunion now seeing her stallion living on in his descendants. 

Sometimes it pays to be relentless in learning more about pedigrees.  It isn't always memorization of sires and dams, colors, or physical characteristics.  Sometimes it's about meeting others along the way and expanding the circle of equestrian family.

Going in Circles

As part of my 2017 goals (see previous post), I've been trying to get in at least one lesson a month.

This is seriously easier said than done.

However, a local dressage trainer ended up running a special on lessons in January which sparked my curiosity.  Her regular lesson prices are way outside my typical realm of being able to afford, but the special made it on the higher end, but more realistic.

So I ended up corresponding and found myself riding a very nice, large Warmblood mare named..."Mare."  She has a name beyond that but apparently is often is just called Mare.

Insert random obnoxious photo of one of my cats

I wanted to work on accuracy, my balance, and softening my hands.  I definitely ended up touching on more than that during the lesson.  It was nice riding a schoolmaster.

But one thing that was particularly interesting input was how crooked I am.  I know I'm crooked, however, I didn't realize to what extent.

Apparently while traveling to the left (counter clockwise), I always thought, OK, look in the direction of travel.  I drop my inside shoulder enough that if I look, it ends up actually putting more weight on the right seatbone.  Really counter-intuitive.  Then the horse bulges out, I end up in a pulling match on the reins, and everyone looses.

Well, that's a little dramatic.

However, the coach had me keep my head straight and aligned with my sternum while traveling to the left.  I could look a bit with my peripheral vision, but not actually turning my body.  She made sure I put enough weight on the left seat bone and stirrup to turn that direction and sure enough, Mare became soft and obedient.  At one point, she had me riding with one hand behind my back, the other hand holding both reins quietly down on her neck, doing a posting trot at both 20 and 10 meter circles, working on increasing the weight in the stirrup to adjust the size of the circle in and out.

My circles to the right require me to actually twist a lot more through my body than I would think. I still have to struggle to keep thinking "back" and "up".

In the beginning of the lesson while just observing me, she asked if I knew what needed to be in alignment.  I said shoulder-hip-heel.  Simple mantra.  We all hear it.

Random photo of my horse

Simple enough, but especially since having back issues, I've struggled a lot with this.  She asked me if I planned on actually having shoulder-hip-heel in alignment and I said "Someday."

"Tonight" she said.

"OK, someday in my life, maybe within the hour" I said, "Sorry, I'm a little cheeky."

But she had me try to adjust a bit of the way I was sitting with my pelvis, sitting up a bit further and surprising enough, dang, I actually looked like I could ride a well broke horse that's probably worth a lot more than my car .  ;)  The perks of a schoolmaster.

Other things she briefly touched on was trying to adjust the amount of tension I carry my wrists and how one hand always creeps upwards.  Really hand?  Why can't you stay where I want you too?

But in the end, I think it was well worth the time and money to get some useful input.  I find so many people are able to point out flaws, but there aren't so many people that can figure out useful suggestions on how to begin correcting these habits.

I did go back home with a few more useful tools in my toolbox and went to work trying to apply them.  Granted I ride alone, with no mirrors, but it felt better.  I put out the camcorder one evening and we really were much softer in the circles, especially to the left. 

From the camcorder.  Can I just do tricks instead?

I need to work on the canter next, trying to maintain a certain level of softness, and to resist that strong urge to just curl forward which does absolutely no good to anyone.  ;) 

But until then, I'll just keep going in circles, ruminating on a good lesson on a big bay horse named Mare.

New Year New Goals

I've had dozens of posts ruminating around in my head lately.  Unfortunately, I don't like typing on my phone and often don't sit down at the laptop to get them into digital format.

However, I did finally want to write down my 2017 goals so they can be official.

2017 Goals

*Take at least one lesson a month.  As a DIY, I rarely ride with instruction.  Part of it is time and part of it is financial.
* Improve my high school in training level dressage.  I am sure this will tie into goal #1.
*Trailer out to the trails at least twice this spring/summer season

*Be able to back said trailer like a pro.  Or at least less like a whiny person.
*Cross train twice a week, whether that is crunches, yoga, etc
*Blog twice a week.  I'll really have to settle into this one to get it done.  I have lots of ideas, but I think I"ll have to write and then queue them in order to have them released. 

That's it.  Perhaps I'll break down further goals as things go along, but they will require some work!

What are some of your goals?  How are you doing so far this year?

Reflections on 2016

2016 was a trip in many ways.

I didn't get Chili hitched to drive yet.  I was taking lessons and had her going in the shafts.  We had a setback and then my lesson fund money dried up.  She is however, ground driving just about anywhere, and we did have a pleasant showing at an open show in ground driving obstacles she had never seen before.  She placed middle of the pack over broke driving horses, so that was pleasing.

Donni is still recovering from her leg injury.  This afternoon I changed the dressing again and it's still looking promising.  She's feeling better, but the verdict is out long term on if it will scar and how functional it will all be.  I am optimistic.

Donni also managed to give us all a heart attack a few months ago after she choked and ended up with aspiration pneumonia, despite veterinary intervention.  After weeks of IV and IM antibiotics, she proved she was a tough bird and was back to snuff.

Chili had a couple minor injuries, including one a couple hours before I left for my European vacation.  I am lucky to have friends that I can call at the 11th hour to step in and help with my poor problematic horses.

In April, Chili and I had a clinic with Jec Ballou and learned a lot.  Very versatile application to all different type of horses.

May, Chili and I went to a breed show.  This was the only rated show I showed at this summer.  I handled a few horses in hand for other people as a catch handler. 

I bought a new horse trailer.  After my education and my house, the most expensive thing I've ever purchased. 

I showed at a few open shows and a Morab show.  Chili won reserve high point at one show.

I am slowly gaining confidence in taking out the horses in the truck and trailer.  I went to the local park a few times with friends and trail rode.  I drove myself a few times, so there's that.  ;) 

I lost a few horses at my friend's.  They weren't mine, but they were some of my favorites.  It still hurts.  Sometimes it pours when it rains.

All in all, a successful year.  Some ups and some downs.

Hopefully I'll be able to put down my goals for 2017 after I have some time to think about them. 

Getting My Roll On

For those following or occasionally following my posts, a couple weeks ago, both Squeaky cat and Donni, my older mare were not up to snuff.

Donni sustained a laceration to her leg which was fairly gory and Squeaky was acting quite lethargic and not quite right.

Well the great news is that Squeaky is totally back up to snuff.  She's her happy Squeaky self, happily supervising me all day and telling me what a terrible job I do.




Donni's leg seems to slowly be improving.  She's been on stall rest for three weeks now and is doing surprisingly well.  I do let her out to wander around in the arena while I'm out picking her stall during the day and I turned around while she decided to get her roll on.  If you're curious, she's wearing Back on Track boots on front and it's her back right leg that is injured and hidden in this photo.  :)

I decided to ride Chili tonight and had her out and tied to the arena wall while I was picking out Donni's stall.  Chili had a semi-feral moment where she decided she didn't particularly want to be tied to the wall, especially when Donni went back to her stall. 

So it was time to just roll with it.  I put Chili's boots on, got her tacked up, and decided since she was feeling very feisty and obnoxious and wanted to just run that she could run on the lunge line.  And run.  And run a little more. When she wanted to quit, I pushed her a bit more, until she was quite satisfied that a good walk was really what she wanted.  We worked on switching directions and transitions for a few more minutes and called that good.

I am not usually an advocate of "running" a horse down, but weather in the Midwest can be unpredictable and the cold can make them a little bit like morons.  In this case, I wanted Chili to realize that despite her full-of-beans attitude, she needed to still have manners while I was asking her to do something. 

I then rode her for a couple minutes.  She was quite well behaved and still had quite a bit of energy.  We did a few serpentines, which is a weak point for me.  I am so right sided that it takes me a few minutes to sort myself out and serpentines more than point that out, but it's good for me to remember on work on that.

We picked up a clean canter transition both directions and I decided to cool down by dragging around the pool noodle some more.  It's good for her to keep working while having a distraction and that noodle is a great one.  :) 



So in the end, despite my original plans, it's time for me to get my roll on and just roll with new plans as things change.

Winter Wonderland

In true Midwest fashion, it snowed again today. 

On the plus side, it is no longer below zero.  I decided to let Chili out in the fluffy snow for a chance to take some photos.  It's always a work in progress on my behalf.

I know everyone is pretty jealous of my awesome clipping job.

Totally awesome clip, but since this gal lives outside (even with blankets), I wanted a way to get some of the fur off so while I'm riding she doesn't overheat as quickly, but that most of the clip is covered under the blanket.  It's easy to take hair off, but pretty hard to put it back on.  ;)

The garland is from one of the regional titles she won.  I just wanted to have some fun adding a little bit more color.

I'm not quite sure about this last photo. Obviously her face isn't in focus, but it does seem a little bit different and enjoyable in some aspects.  Part of the learning process I suppose.

What's the Scoop: Blood Type & Horses

What’s the Scoop?

Blood type and Horses

I have always been vaguely interested in equine genetics of all different sorts.  I have a more than basic understanding of equine color genetics and am always fascinated about the newest testing coming out for various inherited equine genetic disorders.  From this general line of thought, I started looking into equine blood types.  I understand human blood typing as I have worked as a blood banker, but horses are an entirely different situation!

I decided to do a friendly little post with some of the basic overviews in case anyone else out there enjoys a good read!

From my general research there are seven accepted red blood cell systems A, C, D, K, P, Q, and U.  It also appears that there may be an 8^th system that is not universally accepted yet.

Within each system, are multiple antigenic sites known as factors.  Think of the A, C, D, K, P, Q, and U as houses and the factors are different rooms within the house.  The factors are listed in parentheses after the systems so it ends up looking like this: A (a,b,c), Ca, Ka, P (a,b), Q (a,b,c), and Ua. 

The most common blood type for a horse is Aa Ca+.  Here is a fun chart taken from UC Davis with the breakdown between breeds and blood type.




So it looks like the breeds most commonly being AaCa+ include Thoroughbreds and Arabians.  How fun!

Humans naturally form antibodies to other blood types so a blood type and antibody screen is imperative before attempting a transfusion.  There is of course, the universal donor type (O negative), which is compatible as it has a lack of antigens more than anything else.  However, horses apparently don’t naturally develop antibodies to other blood types, so usually the first blood transfusion, even if with a different blood type isn’t of consequence.  The exception of this are broodmares that may have been sensitized from previous pregnancies.

Some people may have heard of women having issues with their pregnancy from different blood types.  Rhogam is a product commonly issued to RH negative women who have RH positive babies.  Humans are a little bit different than horses in that RH antibodies (as well as others!) generated by the mother against her child can cross the placental barrier and can cause Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn. 

In horses, this is a little bit different in the fact that while a mare may in fact have antibodies against her foal’s red blood cells, until that foal actually ingests colostrum containing these antibodies, they are generally healthy and safe.  Neonatal isoerythrolysis is what develops if this foal would consume colostrum containing these antibodies.  This results in anemia, jaundice, destruction of red cells, increased heart rate and all around bad things.  This is somewhat more common in certain breeds, including Friesians.  It is also common in mare to donkey breedings. 

The likelihood of this disease can be screened for by taking blood samples from both the sire and dam.  If likely, the foal should be muzzled after birth. 

So if anyone else is a happy nerd, hope you enjoyed this scoop and just look at your horse and marvel at how many potential blood types they have!