Older and Wiser, Or?

by Laura Crum

The other day we went for a trail ride and had an interesting experience. I thought it was interesting on many levels and wanted to talk about it here and see if anyone had any thoughts. Because at times I think I’m learning to be smarter and other times I think I’m just becoming a huge chicken.

So we’re riding down a trail that we haven’t ridden since the big winter storms-- myself, my son, and our friend Wally, all on our very reliable trail horses. There are muddy places, which we cross no problem, and downed trees, which we are able to get around. We’re doing fine. Neither horses nor people are the least bit worried. It’s a pretty, sunny day—we’re having a blast.

And then we come to another downed tree. This one is big—a redwood tree. I’m in the lead and I approach the tree at its lowest point, where the trunk is about two and a half feet in diameter. On one side of this spot is a steep bank going downhill. On the other side of the trail is an equally steep bank going uphill. We will not be able to detour around this tree. Its climb over it here, or turn back.

I study the tree. Its not undoable. All of our horses could step/scramble over or pop over it like a small jump. I have done such things with Sunny before and he’s fine with it (the only thing Sunny has ever balked at on the trail is small, weird looking bridges). He doesn’t mind popping over downed trees. But the times I’ve done this in the past, the trunk was smooth and it was clear horses went over it regularly. This trunk is not smooth. There are several short, sticking up branches right where we must cross. Its unclear to me if any horse has ever been over this. I see no hoofprints, just hiker’s bootprints.

Sunny stares at the tree trunk calmly; I’m pretty sure he’ll try it if I ask him to. But I’m not sure if I should ask. I don’t like the look of the short, sharp, upward thrusting branch stubs, which seem pretty solid. I ask Wally to come have a look and say what he thinks.

I get out of the way and Wally rides up and surveys the tree. We can get over it, he tells me. Twister is brave; he’ll do it.

I still feel doubtful, but I tell Wally to go ahead and try it if he wants.

Twister is looking at the tree calmly, just like Sunny did. Wally clucks to him and asks him to go forward. Twister continues to be calm; he looks more closely at the tree, but he does not go forward. Wally asks again, same result.

Wally looks at me. “He doesn’t want to,” he says in a surprised tone.

I know why Wally is surprised. Twister IS a brave horse. If ever Sunny balks, like at the small, weird bridges, Twister will unhesitatingly give a lead. Both Sunny and Twister will cross mud, deep water, breaking surf, busy roads, steep spots…etc without a flinch. They are both willing to jump over things. They are not drama queens. They are smart, steady, reliable trail horses.

I have the sense that Twister will go over the tree if its demanded of him. But he doesn’t want to.

I look back at Wally. “Maybe we ought to let his decision stand,” I say. “It wouldn’t be worth it if any of us got hurt.”

And to my surprise, Wally agrees. “You’re right,” he says. And turns Twister back from the tree.

We retrace our steps, take another trail, and have a pleasant ride, though shorter than the one we intended. And I wonder if we have become wiser in our old age, or just more chicken hearted.

Before I took a ten year break to have and raise a child, I was a pretty intrepid rider. I would have sent my horse right over that tree. Wally has been all his life one of the boldest riders I know. He never turned back from anything. I insist on leading on trail rides because I have so often had the experience of Wally leading me into some steep, tricky spot where I don’t at all want to be as he calls back to me happily, “Come on, its fine.”

And yet neither one of us were willing to try the tree.

Perhaps we are just realistic. Wally is 77 years old. The last two times he came off he got pretty badly hurt. I am stout and middle-aged, not the good rider I used to be. My son is confident, with a good seat, but he is a gentle, sensitive kid, and not an aggressive rider. He could easily be intimidated for life if he had a bad wreck. Our little horses are steady and reliable but they are all middle aged or older. We value them highly and would be very sad if we had to lay them up due to injury. It truly isn’t worth it to us as a group to take unnecessary risks.

And is part of the equation the fact that we have learned to trust our horses more? As I said, they are not drama queens. They are good horses. Neither Twister nor Sunny danced around or made a fuss about the downed tree. They did not back away from it. They just quietly indicated that they didn’t want to try to clamber over it. In my youth I would have been sure I knew more than the horse. I would have insisted that he listen to me and do what I told him. Now I am more willing to respect my solid horse’s judgment. I am willing to listen to him.

And yet…I look at Francesca on her prancing black stallion, and I read the accounts of more ambitious/adventurous others in the comments and on your blogs, and I sometimes wonder at myself. I used to be a pretty good rider and trainer. And here I am, meandering down the trail on my gentle horse, afraid to pop over a downed tree.

I’m having fun, I love my horses and my life with them, I don’t feel the need to do more. I really, really don’t want to get hurt or get my kid hurt. Or get any of our horses hurt. But in a way I’m kind of embarrassed.

And then I read a blog post by someone who has been badly hurt and/or scared in a horsewreck, and I see how deeply this impacts their whole life and how it takes away the joy, not only in horses, but everywhere—because they are in both physical and emotional pain. Not only can they not ride—they sometimes are having a hard time walking and doing the basic stuff of everyday life. And when I read this I not only feel deeply sad for the person, I feel incredibly grateful that I am not in their shoes. And I tell myself I’m making the right choices. And that my number one priority is not to get any of us hurt or scared—horses or people.

Do others of you struggle with this conundrum? I do my best not to get sucked into guilt or envy, as I’ve written about before, but there are moments when I question my own choice to have become such a sedate rider—as I said, I’m having fun meandering down the trail on my gentle horse. And that about covers it. Sometimes I think I’m really getting older and wiser, and sometimes I think I’ve just become a big chicken. Any insights on this?

PS—I wrote this post last week. Over the weekend we took another trail ride. Its been raining a lot here and the ground is much wetter than it usually is this time of year. The trail we chose has a steep climb halfway along and when we got there it was much muddier than I expected—and very slippery. We started up the lower slope and all three horses were slipping and sliding. I pulled Sunny up and said, “I don’t want to do this.”

This time Wally pushed a little to keep going, but I held firm. “Its not worth it if one of them slips and goes down.” And, in fact, Twister had already scrambled enough to have stepped on a front shoe and bent it.

So we went back, and once again had a shorter ride, and I got teased about being overly cautious.

And then yesterday it was raining again, and I was sitting at my desk supposedly working on my copy-edited manuscript, but in reality taking plenty of breaks to read horse blogs. And I stumbled upon two photos—a woman more or less my age and a little girl more or less my son’s age—both had been very recently killed in horse wrecks. The photos were beautiful—two happy smiling faces, posing with their obviously much loved horses. The two stories were completely unrelated, and there was little information, but both seemed to have been competent horse people who simply had misfortune. The woman was riding a new horse, the little girl was on her way from the barn to the arena at a rodeo when her horse slipped and fell with her, landing on her in just the wrong way.

I thought of those people and the people who loved them and my heart just ached. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about them. I thanked God I had been scared to ride up the slick hill. I thought of how my husband, who doesn’t care much for horses, would feel if my son or I were badly hurt or killed in a horse wreck. I thought how I would feel if something happened to my son. Am I just being selfish, pursuing this obviously very dangerous activity with my kid?

So there you have the flip side of the coin. One moment I think I’m not doing enough and I’ve become a big chicken, the next moment I’m wondering if we ought to ride at all. These horse blogs make feel connected to so many people, and their triumphs and tragedies, for better or worse.

It’s a tangle. Any thoughts?

Feeding Grass Clippings

It's been a wet spring, and the grass outside practically grows in front of our eyes. We do a lot of mowing of both our lawn and our property, just to keep things looking tidy.

My husband (who just ducked out of this photo) noticed that our two donkeys, Mr. Chocolate and Mr. Big, followed him up and down the fence line whenever he brought the riding mower out. They were not a bit scared of the noisy motor (which would send a lot of animals bolting across the field) and this tickled him immensely.

But we thought it kind of strange, how they'd be attracted to a running lawnmower. Then it dawned on me - they've probably been fed grass clippings at one point in their lives - and they were waiting for someone to toss some over the fence.

Have you ever done this? Don't do it!

Why? - you say - when they eat green grass anyway? Because when animals graze, they have to tear off the blades of grass and chew them. With a pile of grass clippings, they simply gorge themselves, and the lumps of grass in their belly easily ferment and can cause colic.

Why take the chance? Inform your neighbors, also, because sometimes well-meaning people whose lawns border your pasture think either a) a pasture is a convenient place to dump grass clippings, and/or b) they are giving your horses/animals a treat.

Anyone have any experiences with colic from animals eating grass clippings?

Please share your experiences.

Over-reacting or Responsible?

Keeping in line with the previous two posts, mine is also horse-health related.

A little over a week ago, the boarders and students in my barn received an email from the barn owner/trainer that the barn was on "lockdown" for thirty days because of the EHV-1. No horses were alllowed in. If you took your horse out of the barn, you couldn't return it until the lockdown ended.

The barn owner consulted with her veterinarian and read several press releases from reputable sources on the subject. There was also a horse diagnosed about 20 miles away with the virus. Her barn is a busy one, and horses come and go several times a day.

I applauded her quick action as responsible and unselfish. After all, Kari and the assistant trainer stood to lose a month's worth of lesson fees from haul-in students, not to mention entry fees from shows during the lockdown period. I appreciated her willingness to put the health of the horses over her financial gain.

In talking to other friends, the majority of them were not taking their horses anywhere until the threat was deemed passed by those in authority.

Other horse owners I knew were not so concerned. They discounted the EVH-1 threat as over-reaction by the horse community. They continued to go on their group horse activities, were offended when a local show was cancelled, and considered the entire thing to be an unfounded panic. Their lack of concern for their horses irritated me. Especially when they complained about a show being cancelled or chastized their friends for not going on a organized ride.

I held my tongue, but it was difficult. From my viewpoint, the only way to stop the spread of EHV-1 was to cease all horse travel and make sure all people handling your horses take precautions. I considered their actions self-serving and showing little concern for the horse. They considered me an alarmist given to bouts of panic.

Now that the risk of EVH-1 is waning, the people who didn't believe it was a serious issue are defending their stance by pointing out how it didn't become an epidemic and stating those of us who chose to keep our horses home were being paranoid.

I see it differently. I believe it's because of the responsible actions of people like my barn owner who who prevented the disease from becoming an epidemic.

What do you think? Was it all hype and hysteria? Were the extreme measures taken by many barns necessary? What would you expect a responsible horse owner to do in this case?

Another Controversial Subject

by Laura Crum

Today I want to discuss something that’s been on my mind for a long time, but the recent “equine herpes” scare has brought it to the forefront. My topic is vaccines, and veterinary wisdom in general.

First off, if there was an effective vaccine against the current equine herpes, I would be lining up with the rest of the world to get it. I am happy to protect my horses from any real and present threat via vaccines. But the fact is that I don’t vaccinate my older horses (who have all been vaccinated for many years) on a yearly/bi-yearly schedule, as veterinarians usually recommend. And the reason is not because I am an irresponsible owner, or because I am cheaping out. The reason is that I don’t think such “over-vaccinating” is in their best interests.

I came to this conclusion because I had to do a huge amount of soul searching and research over whether to give my baby/child the officially recommended vaccines. In case, you don’t know, when my child was a baby, if I had followed the schedule, he would have had roughly sixteen immunizations by the time he was 18 months old. Some of these were for things like diptheria and polio, which are not seen in this country at this time. Others were for tetanus (which is always present), whooping cough (still active) mumps and measles (still around but rare), chicken pox (very much present but usually not dangerous).

I will spare you the enormous amount of agonizing and research I did, and merely say that I came to the (well-informed) conclusion that I would follow a modified shot schedule that I believed would likely give my son immunity to the diseases that were actually around and would not overstress his system. Because contrary to what they tell you, I believe there is a downside (in some individuals) from too many vaccinations. I said this to my small animal vet many years ago and he pooh-poohed me. And yet this same man very recently said to me that he is seeing all these diseases in dogs that used to be relatively uncommon and one of the things he attributes it to is “over-vaccination”. If the subject hadn’t been so close to my heart, I would have laughed out loud.

Both my small animal vet and the best horse vet I know have stopped recommending that I vaccinate my older animals, who have been vaccinated a good deal in their lives, on a yearly schedule. They know, and I know, that these animals probably already have immunity, and more shots will merely stress their system. All the horses on my place right now are in their teens or older and I no longer give them annual shots, though we did vaccinate for both strangles and West Nile, when these two diseases were actively present in our area. If they get a deep cut or puncture wound, I give a tetanus booster.

On the other hand, I am giving my puppy a modified shot schedule for parvo/distemper, and she will definitely get the rabies shot. I am not someone who believes vaccines are evil. As with many things I choose to take the middle road. One of the things I learned in my research on infant shots is that 98% of the population is adequately immunized after two shots (with the correct spacing/timing). The following booster shots (for infants—the shot being the D-TAP) were to immunize the 2% of the population that is resistant to immunization. So all these little babies are being over-vaccinated to insure that that 2% is immunized. This is justified on the basis that the unneeded vaccinations do no harm. I don’t agree with that point of view.

I won’t go into the details of why this approach is pushed by our government and our doctors, but I did, in fact, discover why. And also how nefarious the whole business is.

I’m not sure if the same politics applies to veterinary medicine, but I do know that many things that once were “pushed” by vets are now said to be dangerous, and some vaccines/wormers that burst upon the market as the new “white hope” were later proved to be very problematic and were responsible for not a few equine deaths (remember the injectible wormer?).

So my topic for today is vaccination. Do you, like me, vaccinate your older animals as you feel its needed, or do you continue to vaccinate them on a yearly schedule? I’d be interested to hear your point of view.

EHV 1 Alert!!!!!!!!!!

By Terri Rocovich
Rocking Horse Ranch

I have a VERY serious subject to my blog today. As I am sure many of you have already heard, there has been a major outbreak of the EHV-1 in the western Unites States. EHV-1 is a strain of the Equine Herpes Virus that commonly affects horses around the world. There are actually 5 strains of the Equine Herpes Virus but the most common are EHV-1 and EHV-4. Both of these strains generally manifest themselves as upper respiratory tract infections and/or can cause abortions in pregnant mares.

What is unusual about the recent outbreak of EHV-1 is the number of cases that have resulted in EHM - Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy which is a neurologic mutation of the virus that affects the horse's brain and spinal cord and can lead to paralysis and death.

All of the current reported cases relate initially to a Cutting Horse Championship Show in Ogden, Utah that took place 4/29 - 5/8. The suspected first case exhibited neurologic signs at the show and was taken to a nearby equine hospital where it was later euthanized. So far all of the confirmed cases of EHM are in horses that attended the Utah show or a subsequent Cutting Horse Show in Bakersfield, California. No secondary or unrelated cases of EHM have been reported to date.

As of today, there are nearly 50 confirmed cases in 9 western states plus Canada. There are also over 20 unconfirmed cases. California is one of the hardest hit states with 18 confirmed cases in over 12 counties. Other States affected are Texas, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Colorado, and Arizona.

Precautions to Take

EHV-1 is EXTREMELY contagious and can be spread by either direct or indirect contact (nasal secretions) or infected aerosolized droplets ( i.e. sneeze or cough). People can easily transmit the virus on our hands, shoes or clothing or it can live on other items like tack, grooming equipment, manure forks, buckets, feed tubs, water sources, or even the tires of your vehicle. Therefore good barn hygiene like frequently cleaning water buckets and feed tubs with a 10% bleach solution or other disinfectants like chlorhexidine and biosecurity measures such as not sharing or disinfecting brushes, tack or other commonly shared items. Infected or suspected horses should be isolated at least 60 feet away and extreme sterile protocol should be used when around that horse.

Horses can be latently infected, and potentially infect other horses without ever displaying symptoms themselves. Incubation period of EHV-1 is typically 1 to 14 days. EHM generally appears 8 - 12 days after primary infection. Horses can shed the virus for up to 21 days after they stop showing clinical signs. EHV-1 and EHM are designated as "reportable diseases" which means that a veterinarian is mandated to report any case to the state in which the case is identified and the horses must be quarantined.

Clinical Signs to watch our for.

Fever and/or a nasal discharge are usually the first signs of the disease. Fevers of 102 or greater are of concern and a vet should be consulted. Other clinical signs include: Inappetance, ataxia (stumbling/incoordination), paralysis, lower leg swelling, inability to urinate or pass manure, urine dribble (incontinence), reduced tail tone.

How to stop it.

Most vets agree that the best way to stop any virus is to simply stay at home limiting the mixture/exposure of horse populations. This is the approach I am taking with my facility. Even though no cases have in reported in San Diego county where my farm is and I don't have any clients or known horses near me that were at that Cutting Horse show, I have seen any number of diseases spread like wildfire over the years and no horse show is worth putting any of my horses at any degree of risk. Wisely, several shows in my area have already been cancelled but many others have not including a Rodeo with participants from all over the western U.S. that took place in my area this past weekend. As a result, I have placed my facility on a 21 day quarantine (no horses in or out) from today just in case it could have been brought into the area by horses co mingled at the rodeo. I may be cautious to the extreme, but to me it is worth the peace of mind and luckily all of my clients are in agreement.

Other prevention.

There is no vaccine for EHM and vets are in disagreement as to whether horse owners should booster with the vaccines known to protect against EHV-1 and EHV-4. From what I have read it is important NOT to booster your horse if you suspect any level of exposure. For example, the weekend prior to the announcement of the EHV-1 outbreak, I had been at a Eventing Horse Trials with a few of my students of which one of the horses lives at my barn. After hearing of the outbreak the next day I chose to have my vet nasal swab this horse and send it to UC Davis to test for EHV-1 exposure. After getting a negative test result, we boostered every horse on my facility with Rhinomune a strong modified live vaccine (a killed vaccine like Pneumabort -K should be used on pregnant mares or breeding stock). A few of the horses had mild reactions (not uncommon) to the vaccine but everyone was back to normal within a day. My decision to vaccinate was based on the fact that boostering can reduce virus shedding within farm populations and enhance protection against EHV-1 even though it won't protect against the EHM neuropathogenic mutation.

Not to be taken lightly.

This is clearly a serious situation that every horse owner needs to pay attention to whether you show or not. Many horse owners today keep there horses at stables with large populations and any travel in/out while this outbreak is prevalent can put your horse at increased risk.


The most up to date information that I have been able to find is on the following web sites:

www.aaep.org
www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/animal_health/equine_herpes_virus.html
www.thehorse.com

I hope that this danger passes by quickly and that every one's horses remain happy, healthy and sound!

Promotion 101

I just came back from the Gaithersburg Book Festival in Maryland, a well-run book extravaganza held on a perfect day and there were lots of families and book-lovers.

Between my session and a signing, plus driving, I only got to say hi to a few fellow authors and attend one session on promotion. Of course. I add the 'of course' because it seems as if getting my books into the hands of readers is always on my mind. The talk I went to was about using social networks/media to promote your business. The speaker was Jennifer Abernethy a business woman turned entrepreneur who out of necessity began promoting herself and her business on Facebook, then Twitter and Linkedin, and now has a book (another 'of course' goes in here) that would tell me how to sell a million books. Not. I didn't buy it because she has an updated one coming out in 2012, and as she herself said, the internet/twitters/iPhones of today will be obsolete by the time we blink.

A friend of mine also just came back from a writer's panel in NYC. The word there is that editors are looking for great writers, not just writers with great media presence and huge blog followings, BUT(and here's a big 'but')if you don't sell tens of thousands of books when your novel is published, you won't get a contract for a second novel from that publisher. I am experiencing that right now with one of my YA novels.

Hmmmm. It's no wonder I get worried. Those of you who don't write to pay bills or write for smaller presses or self-publish, may not need to worry. Writing to make a living is much harder than writing because YOU LOVE TO WRITE. I know that I DO and SHOULD write because I love to write, but I also pay college tuition for my daughter and buy feed for my horses. It's a dilemma that I have not solved in the twenty-seven years I have been writing and publishing. Some years have been down-right scary! (Which is one reason why I teach.)
So once again, my blog is not about horses but it sure is about books! And how to sell them. Anyone have the magic answer?

Qrac meets Kwintus

Qrac is home! After five weeks at a the equestrian facility where he’d been living since I brought him back from the South of France, I took a deep breath, grabbed my courage with both hands (that’s a French saying, by the way. I just translated it directly and think it came out kind of cute. Does it exist in English?), and, last Saturday morning, hauled him over to “my stables” where I introduced him to Kwintus.

I’d initially chosen to stable him temporarily elsewhere because, as yet, my stables doesn’t yet have an indoor arena, and I thought it would be safer to get to know him in an enclosed area. Also, my trainer lives close by, making it easier for her to come more often than just once a week. It worked out really well, and despite the pickle I got myself into in the two weeks where Marie-Valentine was away coaching at FEI competitions(remember the tumbleweeding I described in my previous “Semi-Floppy” post?), our final week there was brilliant as I managed to have a lesson a day. By our final lesson last Friday tumbleweeding was almost a distant memory. So happy was I that I joked with my trainer about employing her full time! Imagine how cool that would be?! I really need to play the lottery…

Jokes apart, as brilliant as it was to for me to have more regular access to Marie-Valentine’s lessons, I was impatient to take Qrac “home”. For one, I missed seeing Kwintus on a regular basis, and with Qrac stabled at one end of lake Geneva, and Kwintus stabled at the other, it was hard to go to both places in one day. I mean, I could manage it, and did so a few times, but it meant spending hours in the car, leaving little time for anything else. But the main reason I couldn’t wait to take Qrac to live with Kwintus was because he never got any fresh air. His stable was dark and small and dusty and muggy, and I literally felt guilty putting him back inside after I’d ridden him, knowing full well he wouldn’t get any light or air or exercise until I returned twenty-four hours later. None of the horses stabled there were being let out to graze yet, and even if they had been, Qrac couldn’t have joined them because the fencing wasn’t adequate for a stallion. And since I was mostly riding in the indoor arena, the poor guy hardly went outside at all. I lay awake at night, worrying about him, which was probably silly as he was perfectly fine. But still…


Ideally, on a totally selfish basis, I’d have left him there another few weeks, and have continued to take umpteen lessons a week with Marie-Valentine, consolidating the progress we’ve made, stabilizing the contact and the reaching and the tempo. But I wanted him to be able to graze. I wanted him to have fresh air. I wanted him to more room to move around in his stable. And if it meant I’d only see my trainer once a week, then so be it. We’re not going to the Olympics any time soon, so what’s the rush?


Luckily, Stephanie (the owner of my stables) has recently had the small arena fenced in, and so if all hell breaks loose and Qrac goes loopy while I’m riding him (or even just lunging him), he can’t get out and gallop away on a testosterone fuelled rampage. Not that I think he’s going to do anything of the sort, but I’ve got a vivid imagination.

Qrac has settled into his new and improved lodging beautifully. He goes out every morning for about two or three hours, after which he gets a bit bored and bolshy, so he’s brought in again. He seems to be very taken with Kwintus who is now his next door neighbor, to the point where I’m beginning to wonder whether my stallion might swing both ways! Actually, it’s not just Kwintus he’s into; he gets pretty noisy and hot under the collar whenever there’s any equine activity in the courtyard. I’m guessing he’ll calm down in a week or two, as he reacted similarly when we first arrived at the previous place.


As far as working him goes, I began by lunging him in the small, fenced arena for two days. I had every intention of riding him on the third day, only to arrive at the stables to find he’d cast a shoe clowning around in the field and had to call a local farrier to the rescue. I finally rode him for the first time on Tuesday, with mediocre results. Distracted by Kwintus and Coconut in the adjacent field, I had a hard time keeping him focused, and so we did our fair share of tumbleweeding which was a little disheartening , but I told myself to be reasonable and to give it time. And sure enough, the next day he was much better, responding to my “semi-floppyness” and to my half halts, and enabling me to actually ride his hind leg. I was so pleased by how he went that I my self-confidence shot up, and I actually took him for a cool-down ride around the countryside all by myself! And today, after our workout, I repeated this feat of bravery, even pushing my limits by asking him for a trot! How about that? Are you impressed, or what?!

So, all in all, things are going well. There have been some slightly hairy moments, and I’m becoming more and more aware that owning a stallion is far more complicated than owning a gelding. Qrac is a very laid back stallion, but when he starts snorting and prancing and displaying his very impressive equipment I must admit I tend to get a little nervous. Consequently, I’m already considering having him gelded, as I think it will make life easier, both for him and for me. And even if he is an approved stallion, I didn’t buy him with the intention to breed, so why keep his extra bits if his extra bits might cause even the slightest concern?

What do you think? Do you have any experience or advice?