Unexpected Gains

For a little over a week Legs has been off. The horse has been doing so well since the Jody Strand clinic I was getting close to putting him back into the bridle. Every day we seemed to be another step closer to that ride I had pictured in my mind.

Then on the 21st I found myself riding that horse I had just before I went to the US National Championship Horse Show in Tulsa. The difference in that ride was like day and night from the one the day before. I was at a loss what could have happened to the horse in that brief time but whatever it was it was clear the horse was hurting. I got off and called the chiropractor not wanting to reinforce anything involving pain with work.

The chiropractor was booked up for a week so poor Legs didn't get worked. The horse was clearly upset that he was being overlooked. Pinning his ears and shaking his head at me whenever I walked by his stall. I was relieved when Thursday finally arrived so we could get the horse fixed and back to work.

I could tell the horse's body was a mess because Legs kept nipping at me as the chiropractor made his adjustments. Trying to keep my hands out of his reach, I grabbed onto his halter. Then with one smarting adjustment to his hindquarters, the horse threw his head into the air jerking me nearly off my feet. The concussion of the head toss hit me right in my injured shoulder and I let out a scream of pain.

The chiropractor asked if I was ok and to be honest, I was not sure. A searing pain still shot through my shoulder and I didn't know what to think. The only thing I was sure of was wishing this session with the chiropractor was over.......which it wasn't. I stood there holding the horse until the man was finished then went into the house to apply ice.

Luckily I had physical therapy scheduled that night. I told her about the incident. When she worked my arm to push the limits of mobility I have, it actually managed a huge improvement.

Leg's head toss had torn lose some very old scar tissue. For the first time in nearly twenty years I can put my left hand straight up over my head. There was even an improvement to my range of motion to the side. That sucker may have hurt like h*ll but it was certainly worth it. Whooda thunk I'd get such a benefit from the horse protesting.

Legs is doing fine and should be back to his old self by the middle of the week. The horse is going to require follow-up care so I still can't imagine what he did to himself. But we're both fixed....... and that's cool.



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Getting Ready for Spring - - The Results

Part 1

It was nearly a week before we began to see signs that Solidare was gaining weight. Subtle changes made the mare not look "quite so bad" at first. It was more of an impression than anything clearly measurable but it was all we had to gone on.

At first it was hard to trust this belief but as each day went along it became a little easier. By the end of the second week there was no doubt Solidare was gaining weight at an appreciable rate. Her ribs were not quite so exposed and something about else about her looked better too although I couldn't quite put my finger on what that was.

Along with the weight gain, the mare was acting as if she felt better too. Solidare still wasn't moving around much with her feet unless asked to move but she was turning her head to see what was going on her about her. This was something she hadn't seemed to care much about just a few short days before.

Before long I also noticed Solidare's appetite seemed to improve with the amount of time she was hand walked. I stumbled across this information by accident. Checking on the mare before I loaded horses to go work, most mornings I'd find her hay strewn all over the place. A couple of mornings I found the mare had completely cleaned up all her food.

When I went searching for clues to explain the difference between these mornings, I discovered on the days Solidare had finished all her breakfast, Dave had handwalked the mare while Lindsay feed the rest. On the other days she wasn't hand walked until sometime in the middle of the day.

I decided to track this information to see if or how the hand walking was really affecting her meals. At first we just tracked the time of the day of the walking and what effect it had on her eating. Then we got more specific and tracked the actual time walked compared to her consumption of food.

What i learned from this was the mare definitely ate her morning meal much better when she was hand walked before she was fed. If she wasn't handwalked before that meal, it affected how she cleaned up her food throughout the entire day. If I added a second bout of hand walking i could actually increase the mare's allotment of food and she'd clean it all up.

That's when I began to suspect this whole problem with Solidare losing weight had been caused by her lack of movement. It made sense that her immobility could affect her gut. If her gut slowed down it would not utilize her food like it should. That would explain how the mare could be eating as much as she was yet still losing weight.

I called the vet to talk to him about these observations. He was totally in agreement that the mare's immobility could very well be at the root of her poor condition. There is really no other explanation for the improvement in the mare's condition.

The other good news is that Solidare's body is beginning to show some signs of improvement in muscle tone. Obviously we have a long way to go, but there is definitely evidence the hand walking is affecting more than just the mare's appetite. For the first time in weeks, it looks like there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

To be continued................



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Getting Ready for Spring - - The Next Step

Part 1

As we discussed that terrible decision I know is coming some day, both the vet and his assistant nodded their heads. Both saw the sadness and discomfort in the mare's eyes but both also saw her looking to us to fix it. We were all in agreement. The mare had not given up.

Armed with that information I took my mare home to make the best of her treatment plan. This whole thing still felt out of control and totally unexplained but I would have to make the most of what I had. I had to think we were on the right track even if I didn't really believe it. For now it was all we had.

The following morning I called the vet to get the mare's test results hoping to find some answers. Everything seemed normal except the mare was ever so slightly anemic. However, the thyroid results were not in so I crossed my fingers hoping it was that. Normally an improperly functioning thyroid in a pregnant mare is an easy fix.

I decided to put Solidare on Red Cell to treat the slight anemia. The vet had mentioned it even though he didn't consider it to be absolutely necessary. Both of us figured it couldn't hurt to give the mare the added boost. With the way she looked, I was willing to do anything.

It wasn't until the next day the results of the thyroid test arrived. The mare's thyroid function was normal just like her liver and kidney functions had been. We still had no idea what caused the weight loss issue with this mare.

The vet recommended I give the mare a couple of weeks with her diet changes, the Red Cell and the hand walking to see if the mare would come around. Of course, that meant if she continued to decline we would have to act on that immediately. Otherwise, it was going to be a waiting game.

A part of me groaned at the prospect. Trusting the mare would get better without added intervention just didn't seem possible but he's never let me down in some pretty desperate circumstances. I acquiessed to his opinon although I feared waiting and watching would be unbearable.

In those two days waiting for the test results there had been no further deterioration in the mare. At least there was that to hang onto. I knew the evidence of gains would take longer to notice. It was reasonable to assume we were on the right track.

The hardest part of this plan was the hand walking. Forcing the mare to move when she really didn't want to was not going to be easy. It felt the same as the experience of either watching or participating in making a colicy horse move. You want to do what's best for that horse but your heart breaks all the while.

With each step I grimmaced for the mare and frankly, I finally took the easy way out. I just couldn't handle watching my mare in such shape so I asked Dave to do the hand walking for me.

It probably turned out better for the mare that I did that. Solidare could feel my pain and was getting stressed by it. She walked with me but she worried the whole time.........wondering what the problem might be. Her lower lip quivered and flipped and sweat broke out on her neck....... all because I was so worried about her.

With Dave the mare was able to focus on her walking and the world around her. Within a day or two it actually began to look like Solidare was enjoying these outings even though she was being forced to move. The mare would hear Dave coming and knicker at him softly at first. Then when she'd hear him pick up her halter the greeting would become more intense. That was our first sign that maybe things were turning around for Solidare.

To be continued.........

The Results



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Getting Ready for Spring - - The Discovery

Part 1

Once we were sure the foal was alive, the vet took Solidare out of the palpation chute to look her over in her normal stance. It was then he discovered the reason for Solidare's recent lack of movement.

Just the way the mare stood with one hock stretched out behind her told him the mare had probably torn the tendon over the back of her left hock. When he examined the hock more closely he confirmed the diagnosis. The change in Solidare's gait and her reluctance to move were the result of this new injury.

This diagnosis put us in a catch twenty two. For the hock to heal the mare needed to stay as quiet as possible. Yet, if the mare and the foal were to survive, the hand walking needed to be continued to restore the lost muscle tone so the mare had a shot at a normal foaling.

The foaling issue would have to take precedence over the tendon issue. There was no question about that but there were added risks if the tendon did not heal. The more compromised the mare's legs are the more likely she will harm herself getting up or down. There was the likelihood she might tear something else. If that happened it would most likely be catastrophic.

I know first hand from the dislocated fetlock back with Lindsay's therapy horse that a horse with weak ligaments or tendons is at risk of further injury. That horse had a mild strain to his suspensory ligament that led to that dislocated fetlock.

From what we could tell, the horse laid down with the weak leg underneath him. Then when he tried to get up, the suspensory ligament couldn't support all his weight putting part of it onto the collateral ligament. Not intended for such use, the collateral ligament blew out allowing the bones of the fetlock to spreak all over the place.

Luckily for us Solidare is wiser than that gelding. I'd noticed recently she has been exclusively laying on one side as evidenced by a stain I keep fighting on that side. The mare is not laying down with her weakest leg underneath her. The question is how long her already compromised legs will hold up to the abuse they're taking because of these injuries.

The vet did recommend some changes in Solidare's diet. He wanted the mare to be getting more fiber so I was to cut back on the alfalfa and feed her at least half of her forage in grass. Also, her senior feed was changed to T.A.C.O. but the ration remained the same. Minor adjustments really so I was left still worrying about my mare.

Before I took Solidare home we talked some about the big decision. Watching this mare the past months, it has been at the forefront of my mind. When is that time? When enough is enough? When does an owner make the decision to put a horse down?

For me it is about the horse. It is not about my own discomfort looking at her condition. It is about what Solidare thinks of her life. As long as she has that twinkle in her eye that says she's happy to be alive, I will respect that and give her the time. When the day comes that she tells me she's had enough, I will respect that too.

This day at the vet was a hard one for me. While the mare's eye clearing showed her discomfort, it did not say she was done to me. I thought it was clear she was looking to us for help. The mare wanted to be better. She believed she could be better. I needed to believe it too.

I guess I needed to know I was not reading something that really wasn't there so that's why I began talking to the vet about that difficult decision. I wanted to know if the vet saw the same look that I saw. I wanted to know I wasn't prolonging this mare's life just to save a foal. I wanted to know that Solidare had a chance and that she wanted that chance.

To be continued...................

The Next Step



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Getting Ready for Spring - - More Problems

Part 1

It only took me a couple of days to realize part of what I was seeing was the mare had lost a lot of muscle. Evidently Solidare was only moving if she absolutely had to, so many of the muscles in her body had begun to atrophy from lack of use. The mare wasn't just loosing weight, she was loosing body mass as well.

This situation sent up a ton of red flags of its own. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like for a mare to try to give birth with her body compromised by wasted muscle. There has to be some kind of muscle tone to push that foal out. Without that, both the mare and the foal could die.

As soon as I became aware of this situation, we began hand walking the mare. I hoped this forced exercise would remedy this problem enough to keep Solidare and her foal from jeopardy. I knew full well there probably wasn't enough time to build the kind of muscle really needed for such a task.

If we could get back some of what the mare lost before foaling, maybe it would be enough to get the foal safely into the correct position and maybe even into the birth canal at the appropriate time. From there we could intercede in such a manner as to not compromise the mare's health or that of the foal.

It was hard to see Solidare's shuffling gait as she was walked around the farm. Always trying to please, the mare went as asked but it was clear that she was uncomfortable with the task. Still if there was to be any hope for her and this foal, this exercise had to be done like clockwork.

Since the mare was dropping weight too, I made arrangements to get her to the vet. Her teeth had been recently done but she again had some points I could feel. With her impaired balance, getting her teeth floated would be more easily accomplished in his palpation chute, than on my farm so I loaded Solidare up and took her to him.

While I knew Solidare's problem really shouldn't be about her teeth, I was hoping it was something that simple. The mare looked as bad as she had when she first came to my farm. There had to be some kind of explanation for this.

When the vet walked in he was taken back by Solidare's condition. "Boy........this isn't what I'm used to seeing on your farm." he said with a worried look on his face. I knew exactly how he felt, I felt that same way too looking at this lovely mare in such dire condition.

He asked me about feeding, worming and the like. Everything was as it should be except for the condition of the horse standing in front of us. It just didn't make sense but something was terribly wrong.

Besides doing her teeth again, we would run all kinds of blood work looking for the culprit. The obvious one could be her thyroid wasn't working properly but kidneys and liver can do some strange things too. Oh, and one more thing, the vet didn't think she could possibly still be pregnant. If she was he doubted the foal was still alive..

As I suspected when the vet checked her teeth, they were not the cause of the mare's problems. She did have some mild points but nothing that would interfere with her eating her food or digesting it properly....... and at this point we were thinking it had something to do with her utilizing her food.

After the blood draws were done, the vet decided to check the mare to see if she really was still in foal. It seemed to him like he reached in there forever but he did indeed find Solidare's foal. Not only that but it kicked out when he thumped it on the head to see if it was alive. There wasn't much doubt at least one of them was healthy.

To be continued.............................

The Discovery


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Getting Ready for Spring - - The Struggle

Part 1

Keeping Solidare's weight right as the foal grows inside her has been a guessing game. About the time I'd think I had a handle on it, the mare reacted in a way I wasn't expecting. The line between light enough for her legs and too thin (for me) was crossed several times in the early part of this pregnancy. I finally gave up and opted towards getting as much weight on her as I could hoping that would balance things out in the long run.

Then there was another issue developing that worried me. As the mare's fetlocks dropped a little more, Solidare began to move in a much more cumbersome manner. While she didn't complain about moving, she appeared to be spending a lot more of her time lying down.

When the mare did move, my heart broke for her. Before she had looked crippled on those fetlocks but hadn't acted that way. Now she really looked like a crippled horse. She was beginning to move in a crab like manner. This change had happened slowly over time, I thought, but it just didn't strike me as being anywhere near this bad until the mare hit the second trimester in her pregnancy. What the implications of this change might be only time would tell.

I spent many a sleepless night browsing the web looking for suggestions that might help Solidare. The hard part was I didn't really know what I was looking for. There are lots of suggestions of what to feed pregnant mares but there was nothing there I didn't already know. Then the issue of relief for those poor back legs of here didn't seem to render much help on the internet.

I spoke to a number of vets. None of them were worried particularly about her weight. They thought I was doing all the right things. For her fetlocks, the Ortho-Chon II I'm supplementing the mare with was considered to be the best possible answer. All their responses did was make me feel more and more powerless. I wanted to do more.......just couldn't figure out what "more" would be.

Keeping Solidare at a good weight became all the more difficult The farther into the pregnancy we got . I was relieved we haven't had a colder winter. I don't know how we would have managed if we'd had the kind of winter we did last year. Solidare sure didn't have any extra calories she could afford to lose keeping herself warm. Everything seemed to be going to the foal.

The former history with the mare didn't help either. All the little tricks I'd used with her over the years just did not seem to apply. She'd always been a easy keeper up until the last trimester of her other pregnancies. Now the mare wasn't easy at any part in this process. Nor was there any relief from the tricks that had worked with her not so easy to keep broodmare buddies. It was beginning to be clear that Solidare was writing a new book for this pregnancy and I didn't have a clue what the next chapter might hold.

While I have never felt comfortable with this process, I did think I had it under control. Monitoring the mare regularly I thought I could avoid any serious issues. Then I learned something new....... just because we're watching doesn't mean we can avoid life's little twists.

The beginning of February suddenly Solidare began losing weight. Throughout the pregnancy this hadn't really happened. Changes had been subtle. They had happened slowly with no big fluctuations. Now the change was so dramatic there was no question we were going down hill.

It didn't matter that the mare had all the food in front of her that she could eat or that she had appeared to be gaining weight just a few short weeks before. We were losing ground and I was really beginning to worry.

There was something else happening too, though I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time. Looking at this mare, I felt really scared for the first time. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why.

To be continued.........

More Problems




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Computer Issues

My computer has been down since early Friday morning. I managed to post on Solidare using Dave's laptop but it was not wilthout it's trials so I probably won't be posting again until my computer is fixed.

I do have my computer back but am unable to get onto the internet. So far we haven't been able to figure out what is causing this issue. The internet was working fine for my SIL when he fixed the thing. Don't know if my cable modem is fried or what.

I am having serious withdrawal not being able to visit the blogs of my friends. I'm hoping we'll get this figured out soon. In the meantime the weather has been unseasonably warm and dry. Rain is due back here on Tuesday. The horses think spring is coming and are shedding their winter coats. The frogs are singing their mating chorus two months early. I sure hope we don't get a freeze that messes this all up.

Getting Ready for Spring

It's getting close to foaling season. Normally I'd be excited at the prospect of seeing the new additions to our farm but not this year. As the projected foaling date gets closer all I can do is pray.I've never been so concerned about a mare foaling as now.

I have put off breeding Solidare for three years. Worried about the condition of her back legs I just couldn't bring myself to do it despite the fact every vet I spoke to was encouraging me to breed her. Even though the mare had dropped some on both hind fetlocks, those vets believe breeding the mare will turn out fine. I was even told that mares with fetlocks much worse than Solidare have had several more foals.

Solidare, herself, had input on this situation. Each year she has cried and cried over the new foals of the other mares. Her heart was breaking because she didn't have one of her own. I tried to turn her out with the mares with foals at their sides hoping this would soothe her breaking heart. Solidare's response was to try to steal those foals. It was clear Solidare was only going to be happy with one of her own.

Looking at her age and her aching heart, I decided last breeding season that I would allow this special mare one more foal before she's retired as a broodmare. The vet checked her over thoroughly and determined she was indeed safe to breed. Despite my trepidations I proceeded with the plan and Solidare was bred.

It was only a couple of months into the pregnancy when my fears were realized. Solidare dropped farther down on her already compromised feltocks. The arthritis in those joints became even worse and the supplement that had been providing some relief became less effective. I dreaded seeing what the rest of this pregnancy might bring.

The damage to Solidare's fetlocks happened during her first foaling here. The pregnancy went long and the mare's system was over saturated with the hormones produced for foaling. The end result was the ligaments and tendons in her back legs became stretched from the excess hormones. Those hormones that are so necessary to cause the relaxation of the pelvis for the foal to move through have actually shortened the life expectancy of this mare from the damage they caused.

Because of this condition, it has been necessary to keep Solidare's weight on the light side. By keeping her weight down we can help minimize some of the stress on those joints that are no longer in the correct position for weight bearing. With the mare being pregnant balancing a good weight for the pregnancy while still minimizing stress was going to be difficult.

To be continued..............

The Struggle

Life........and Its Lessons........Wrapping Up

After the post, The Final Straw, there's been some discussion on the facebook page where that post showed up. People have stepped forward to say their experiences with this trainer has been different than mine.

I have no problem seeing that and I'm glad for them that their experiences were successful. There were people at the barn getting along famously with this WT while I was there. He seems to have a full barn most of the time now so he must do ok with some people and their horses. Still that does not change my experience. It was as I posted. I can still hear those words in my head as clearly as the day he yelled them at me.

I was basically called a liar in one of those comments because of the afore mentioned words. That person's experience with this trainer was different than mine and she's sure the trainer would "never" use that word. All that means is she really has never heard him use the word. To her that meant I must be a liar It does not, however, make her assumptions true.

I would never accuse someone of being a liar because their experience was different than mine. I accept that people are very different and their relationships and experiences can be different as well. Just because some of the things I wrote were not the experiences of others does not mean they are a lie. Maybe it just means they've never seen the man as angry as he was at me that day.

I am not a liar. Believe me sometimes I think life might be simpler if I were. I'm not going to tell you that I was never a liar. The first thirty years of my life I was darn good at it. Therapy changed all of that for me. Now I no longer have to keep track of what I said so it doesn't come back to hit me in the face. The truth is just so much easier in that respect. Others might give it a try sometimes.

There are other comments on FB I have not addressed. I see no point in addressing them other than in this way. It's clear the mind of the commenter is closed to anything but her version of things. I have listened to what she has to say and even tried to open up a dialogue to resolve our conflict but there is no interest in that. I think that speaks for itself.

I repeat the point of the posts in this series including the one on my experience with this trainer were not intended to target anyone. If I had intended to do that people would not have been wondering who the trainer was. The post was about my experience and what I should have learned from it.

As for those lessons, I'm not going to tell you I did learn something at the time. Quite honestly it escaped me. All I could think of was how miserable an experience it was. Looking back now it's much easier to "get" what I could have done differently.

If I had it to do over, I would not have stayed when it was clear there were communication issues between him and my horse AND between him and me. Thinking I could hang in there and it would all work out was naive. We were not a good fit for whatever reason. It would have been better for all concerned if I had left early on. I get that....... but hind sight is always 20/20.

Also I really should have learned about writing things down. A written contract on what was expected, what things would cost, all those things. That's one I'm still struggling with today. That "friend" word can still get in there and common sense flies out the door. I really need to get over that.

Telling this story was about those pieces that made the whole, the things that happened that built up to the ugliness at the end. There was plenty of information there in those pieces of information telling this was not the right place for me if I had only paid attention to it but I didn't. I discounted my feelings and tolerated things that were not right for me. As a result the situation escalated.

At some time there will be others out there caught in the same trap. They'll be thinking if they just do whatever well enough it will work when it probably never will. Sometimes people just don't gel with other people. Sometimes trainers, farrier or vets don't gel with certain horses. That's just part of life. What's important is that we recognize when we find ourselves confronted by such situations and do what is best for ourselves and the horse.

The bottom line is all of this is really about the horses. As owners we are responsible for seeing our horses are in safe situations. No one starts out with enough knowledge to do that and some won't have that kind of knowledge or experience in their entire lives. Yet horses must rely on us to care and advocate for them whether we have those skills or not.

We have to be willing to look at the pitfalls in the industry and to examine our mistakes for the horses sake. Trusting a horse to a trainer, a farrier, a vet does not necessarily mean a horse is safe. There are lots of those people out there that don't have the horse's best interest at heart. They are in it for their own agenda.

We will never be able to compile a list of who is and isn't reputable or right for us besides that information is all subjective. What works for one will never work for another. But we can share our experiences so we can spot those warning signs and get ourselves and our horses out before real harm is done.

I can't tell you how many times a person has told me about something they knew that might have helped me. They kept it to themselves when I was wading in over my head. Only after I've drowned did they share what they knew. Yet maybe if I'd had that information ahead of time, I would have made a different decision and not made such a mistake.

This behavior of sharing after the fact is common every where in life, not just in the horse industry. We could save ourselves a lot of grief if we'd only share our experiences so others don't have to make the same mistakes. That why they teach history in school......so we can learn from it and move on. Yet there can be no history to learn in the horse industry if we don't share our experiences good and bad. Currently that rarely happens and frankly it's one of my pet peeves.

My mare, Scandalous, might be alive to this day if I'd only been told why we didn't turn geldings out with mares when I first worked as a groom. Yet, it was only after my daughter's gelding killed my mare that I heard the trainer's story of such a happening in her youth. Even the vet that came that fateful day had seen the same thing happen numbers of times he said. Yet he admitted it wasn't something he shared with his clients. Why is that?

A friend of mine had experience with this WT before he began to train Arabians. He didn't tell me his experience until after I had mine even though he knew I was taking my horse there. Had he shared his opinions with me first, I doubt I would have ever been in that situation. I have a lot of respect for this man's opinion and we share the same beliefs about how a horse should be trained. Yet I was not given the benefit of his input.

Nobody talked about the vet who mistakenly used alcohol when he was supposed to be oiling horses for the trip to US Nationals. The vet realized his mistake yet hid it from the owners and trainer. Those people watched in horror as their horses died an agonizing death still being treated by a vet who KNEW the horses could not be saved.

Those horses should have been euthanized immediately but they were treated for countless hours because the vet was trying to save his own *ss. Even when one of the owners discovered the truth, others in the community were not warned. Would you want to have this vet work on your horse? Fortunately he is no longer in the area but he was around for years after this incident. He was even at my farm a time or two. He sure would not have been had I known this story. Luckily he did no damage here.

I have a friend who stayed in a boarding facility for three years where she was miserable. Her belief system was that you look for a place that will take good care of your horse and everything will be fine. It wasn't fine for her. She stayed because she thought there was something wrong with her. It never occurred to her that it was it just was not a good fit and it was ok for her to move on. Doing so didn't make her a bad person or a bad horse woman. It just was not the right place for her and her horse. It happens to people sometimes but she didn't know that. No one shared their similar stories with her until after she moved and I hadn't learned my lesson about "fit" yet.

The woman down the road from me bought a horse from a well known breeder at the time. The horse was wonderful at the breeders. Two days later it nearly killed my friend at her farm. She was told after the experience this breeder was known for drugging horses before showing them to prospective buyers. The information came from a former employee of the breeder who was a friend of hers and knew she was going there looking for a horse.

I have heard stories of people who have left the horse industry because of their bad experiences. Instead of learning from the things that didn't work well and moving on to those that did, they gave up and left. Sure it was an accumulation of things over time before many left but others left after one incident with one buyer or seller, one trainer or boarding barn, one show season without success.

These people believed they couldn't trust the industry, it would scr*w them every time. Maybe in a way it would. Many of the things that happened to these people might have been avoided had others they came in contact with shared their stories. As I've said before it is this "don't tell" practice in the industry that sets people up. I'll bet many of you have your own stories about how this practice set you or your horse up.

A final note, yes, this series of posts is all about negative things that have happened in the industry. However, I have over 1000 posts here. A very small percentage of them are about the negatives. There have been plenty of posts about good things that have happened in the industry and people I have met with integrity and honor. Nearly all of these posts are about my experiences and what they were like for me and about my love of the Arabian horse. It is my web log after all.




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Life........and Its Lessons........Finishing Up with the WT

Part 1

Despite the ugly lesson with the WT, I got through the horse show. I kept my distance from the trainer and his wife so I didn't blow my stack. I still had hopes that my horse might do something in his classes at this show.

That, however, was not to be. The hunter pleasure classes were huge. There was no room for a horse that was not working properly. The trainer's ride was clean but the horse did not get a prize. My ride lacked the confidence necessary to be seen in a large class. I chalked this show up in the column of learning experiences and took my horse home.

This was not the end of my relationship with this trainer. As it turned out there still was the matter of the bill that he sent to me. There were items on it I had already paid for as well as amounts different from what I'd been told.

Me, I wanted to fight over it. My husband wanted it paid so the whole ugly experience would be over. My husband won out saying the backlash this WT could cause me in the industry just wasn't worth it.

Years later I can tell you paying that inflated bill did not stop the backlash. This trainer has taken every opportunity possible to trash my reputation. Even now things he says filter their way back to me. Although it might be interesting to note he is cautious about who he speaks to about me. He seems to carefully chose people who wouldn't know me or those he knows can't wait to get on the band wagon due to their own issues. All the while he avoids those who would not tolerate him running me down.

I hope anyone who thinks like Dave did, that complying is a form of protection, can learn from Dave's mistake. I know I will no longer go along with that notion. I will stand up for myself and what is right despite what those people who revel in wallowing in the mud think. Time is the true test of one's integrity not the twisted tales of those trying to cover their own tracks.

When my horse was still with the WT, I had pictures taken by Jeff Little. This was right before the horse showed at the Midsummer Classic so we took pictures of the horse in western tack as well as hunter tack. I was hoping to get pictures we could use for advertising.

When the proofs came there was one of those once in a lifetime shots of the horse under western tack. To this day that picture has never been used, nor will it ever be, because I won't do anything that might make this trainer look good.

It was not the WT's training that made Legs roll over in the bridle so beautifully. It was Mary Little in her infamous bear suit. The horse was worried about going towards her so he dropped his b*tt down and pushed deep underneath himself hooking over with the reins draped hanging in the bridle like a superstar.

The WT nearly got dumped when they tried to take the hunter pleasure shots. Those shots were beautiful too but just not that once in a life time look. I have used the hunter pictures when needed because I didn't think they would set the WT apart like the western shot would have......still, if I could, I'd have his face fuzzed out on both those shots.

To be continued.................

Wrapping Up



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Life........and Its Lessons........The Final Straw

Part 1

Once we began riding the horse hunter pleasure, part of the plan for Legs changed. The original plan was for just the trainer to show the horse in the open and that was it. Now that the horse was doing hunter instead of western, I was to show the horse in the amateur division as well but only in the one region. The WT would show him in both regions.

Me showing the horse in the amateur division may not sound like such a big deal but it was. I hadn't been on the horse but a couple of times in his months of training and that was only when it was "allowed." (One of those allowed times just happened to be at that schooling show where the other trainers were watching and that was western.) Doing the hunter thing was a whole different ball game........and I'm not crazy about riding hunter.

If I was to show the horse, obviously I would need to ride him. Yet still that was kept to a minimum. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I rode before regionals.Like so many other trainers this WT wasn't all that happy about the amateurs "screwing" up his horses. There was always some reason for the lesson to wait.

That message you won't ride the horse unless I let you is all too rampant in the horse industry. That message "you'll screw up (my) horse" can only cause confidence issues with the rider. It also keeps amateurs believing they "need" trainers. I don't know if that's why trainers do it or not but it sure doesn't do much for trainer/client relationships.

It seems to me if the amateur is paying the training, it's up to them whether they ride or not. It's the trainers job to deal with any issues that might arise afterwards. And if a rider doesn't have confidence, time in the saddle is the only thing that will fix it. Telling them they "can't" will only make it worse.

Riding a horse that "feels" like a stranger is tough. That would be the single most reason I don't do the trainer thing very well. Not getting to ride my doesn't help me OR my horse one bit.

The problem I had with Legs every time I rode him hunter was the horse would break into the canter every time I tried to push him up into the bridle. At first I thought I was cueing him too strong so I backed off some with my cue using less and less leg. Then I went to just using my seat. Even that didn't stop the behavior so I just thought about pushing him up. The horse would still break. It took me a while (a while as in weeks later) to figure out the horse didn't understand the request to round up.

Now we are back to that frame versus function debate. As it turns out this particular WT was/is a believer in frame. His whole approach is about attaining that frame with little regard to function but then I actually heard him having the discussion with a BNT. The description of what he's trying to accomplish and how clearly fits frame focused training techniques.

Legs didn't get my cue because he had been asked to go in a given frame BEFORE he'd learned how to go forward as the means to round up. That's why his head position was erratic when he was going slow. The horse didn't have enough impulsion to keep his head steady. Even in hunter the horse was not rounding up off my legs or seat.

I did manage to get the horse qualified for Region 5 ath the Midsummer Classic in June. We placed third in a class of 6 even with a break from the trot to the canter. Since that didn't get me qualified I rode the horse in the championship. Legs won that class with 9 horses in it. There was a small break but I caught him before the judge saw the mistake.

From there is was on to the the Region 4 Regional Championships in Salem. I didn't get to practice between those shows because I wasn't showing at Region 4 only the WT was. They had what the WT considered to be a clean go but the horse did not place.

By the time we got to Region 5 I had not had a single clean ride on the horse. I was not the least bit comfortable riding a horse in the regional class when I couldn't be sure we'd be doing the requested gait. It is the most uncomfortable time I'v ever had showing a horse.

Regionals is where everything changed for me. I was taking a lesson on Legs in the outside "dressage" arena at the fairgrounds in Puyallup. I was wired with one of the walkie talkie ear things so I could hear the WT and he could hear me.

If I remember correctly I had just asked the horse to canter. Legs gave me a poor transition so I stopped him to do it over. This WT began screaming obscenities at me. "WHAT IN THE F**K DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" rang in my ear.

My response was "I'm asking him do this thing over because he didn't get it right."

"WHO IN THE F**K DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? I'M THE F**KING TRAINER HERE! YOU ONLY DO WHAT I TELL YOU TO DO!"

I was mortified. There were people all around hearing this trainer screaming at the top of his lungs at me. I pushed myself through the lesson but I was fuming. I had had it.

That was it for me. The proverbial light bulb went off in my head. No trainer worth his salt would ever tell a rider NOT to fix and error. Heck, I've even heard them say it's better to do something wrong that nothing at all. Yet, here is this guy thinking I should be nothing but a passenger. Finally, loud and clear, I got the message this guy was not for me OR my horse.

To be continued...................

Finishing Up with the WT



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Life........and Its Lessons........What to Do........

Part 1

There were a couple of other things along the way that suggested this trainer (WT) might not be the right fit for me and my horse. One of them was this guy didn't even know that Legs was a quality horse until he got him to a schooling show and the other trainers began asking him about the horse. He actually told me at the show how much attention he'd received because of Legs and that he was realizing that Legs must indeed be a nice horse.

I chalked it up to his background being in another breed. The same was true when he made a comment about the horse's conformation. The WT thought the horse should have straighter hocks and shorter pasterns. While there are things I would fix on this horse given the chance, his hocks and his pastern length are not on that list. His hocks and pasterns fit the breed standard to a tee. Straighter hocks and shorter pasterns would take away part of the great movement of this horse.

It was obvious this trainer didn't know about conformation in the breed he was training. That might have been why he made unfounded snap judgements about other horses in the barn.One of those horses was a half Arabian pinto mare.

Although the WT told the owners how lovely the mare was every time they visited, when they weren't around he did nothing but slam the horse. He called her names and wouldn't work her because he said she had a lousy withers so she would never amount to anything.

That mare's withers was like that of many Arabian horses. It's not stopped them from reaching their potential. Yet this WT did everything he could to be sure those folks kept that horse in training even though he knew he wasn't going to be working their horse except enough to get by. He blamed her lack of progress on the horse. Yet continued to tell them she had potential, he just needed more time.

That was not the only thing this WT did that made my question his integrity. During the time I was there, I saw the man work horses that were hurt. The vet would say "hand walking" and the trainer would ask if the horse could be lightly lunged. The vet would repeat "hand walking" and the trainer would come back with "it's OK if we lightly lunge." Finally the vet shake his head saying, "Whatever you say........"

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I didn't get these things figured out until almost the end of my time working with the trainer. It was difficult to see these different types of behavior and not say or do something about it. If I had trusted myself enough to train my own horse, I think I would have left at the first sign of such things but that's not what I did.

The hardest times were when clients would ask me questions about their horses. Fortunately it didn't happen often, but it did happen. The WT had told the client one thing while the vet had said another. I told the clients what the vet said and prayed I didn't lose my job. I don't know what the clients did with the information because it didn't come back on me.

Not long before show season the WT decided I should have to pay show fees even though that had not been part of our agreement. I figured he was probably right since I was getting both board and training so I agreed even though that was not our original agreement.

At one point I even brought Dandy in for training but it only took a couple of times seeing the WT riding him to know that was a mistake. Dandy is not an easy horse. Getting him to use that neck of his properly is difficult. At this time I was just beginning to get the neck lifted up at the base of his shoulder. The WT wasn't. I took Dandy home.

It wasn't until the first Arabian horse show when I saw my stallion in the ring that I began to worry if I was doing the right thing having my horse in training with this man. The horse was vertical in the bridle but he didn't know where his head was supposed to be. One time it was high. Then it was low. Sometimes it was actually in about the right place. But a good western horse should look the same whenever you look at him in the ring, no matter what gait. A horse changing the height he carries his head numerous times during a class would not be doing his job. Legs was clearly not doing his job properly.

The horse did place third in one class and second in another but it was not the picture of my horse I wanted people to see. The horse just was not right and nowhere near doing what he is capable of. He was not ready to be in the ring. I informed the WT that I wouldn't let him show my horse again in western as long as he was looking like that.

The trainer's response was he would show him in hunter. That's what we did at the next show. The horse was second in two different classes. Each had about ten horses which was much bigger than the western had been and the horse looked good as a hunter. Well at least in the beginning he did.

It was at this show the WT and I had a conflict because I asked a question. He again assumed the question was a challenge when that had never been my intent. He told me if I didn't like "it" I could take my horse home. That's exactly what I did BUT we had a talk later and decided to work things out.

Part of working things out meant I kept my horse at home and brought him over for the trainer to school each day. Then I worked only on Mondays when the trainer was not there. I was OK by me even though it meant I was stuck cleaning stalls. It was still better than working with this man.

To be continued.................

The Final Straw



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Life........and Its Lessons........A Little More about Work

Part 1

When it came time to get Legs started under saddle after his recovery period was over, I began doing the work myself. However, I wasn't really confident that I knew enough about stallions to be doing it. I was afraid I would miss something I should have corrected that would later lead to issues.

When the halter trainer I was working for at the time suggested I take the Arabian horse to a relatively new local trainer, I was skeptical. I knew of this trainer and didn't really think he could get the job done. The halter trainer assured me this trainer was a good choice AND he suggested that I would ruin Legs if I did it myself. He also said he thought I would be able to work the training off.

I seem to be susceptible to suggestions that I don't know what I am doing. Despite the fact that I had my friend, Jean, telling me I should do the training. She is the one who started Legs in the first place. It was while he was there we discovered his injury and got the horse treated yet I didn't have the confidence in myself that Jean did. I let myself get talked into going the direction the halter trainer suggested.

I talked to this man (For future reference I will be referring to him as WT)
Since I really didn't have the money to pay for training I decided to see what he had to offer. That first conversation did not go well and I should have cut and run right there but I did not.

I must, however, take responsibility for the fact it did not go well. I told the WT about the halter trainer's recommendation including my negative response to it. I guess it put him on the defensive right from the start but it didn't stop him from telling me he would let me work off training and showing my horse. I was to work as a groom five days a week with the day starting at 8 am feeding the horses. We did not, however, put this arrangement down on paper. That was my second mistake.

Once again I agreed to hire myself out as "slave labor." This time was worse because part of the time I was expected to clean stalls. I never have agreed to this arrangement had I known stalls were part of the deal. I have an old neck injury that makes stall cleaning difficult and painful but I persevered wanting to get my horse trained and shown.

The WT didn't work horses on Monday. The horses were turned out in the arena or round pen one by one and some outside if weather permitted while stalls were cleaned and buckets washed and refilled. The process took the whole day. In the winter scrubbing all those buckets turned my hands purple on more than one occasion.

The rest of the week, the trainer arrived about 8:30 or so and marked his board for the day's work. He numbered the horses in the order he wanted to work them. All horses were also marked with either, R for ride, GD for Ground Driving or L for Lunging. Any horses marked with an L were to be lunged by the grooms. All other horses were to be tacked up appropriately for the trainer to work. After filling out the board, the trainer left to finish his breakfast I presume and usually returned around 9 to begin working horses expecting those first horses to be ready and waiting for him.

It would be good to note here the trainer had a particular methodoloy to the way he numbered those horses. The newest horse in training was number 1 and so on down the list. As a new horse arrived each horse dropped a position in priority. The only problem with that was when the WT was done for the day which was usually around 3:30, he would change the status of the unworked horses designated to be worked by him to an L for lunge. That left the remaining work for the grooms to finish up.

If your horse was farther down the list, it didn't get worked much by this trainer over time. He likes to visit either on the phone or in person and to go to lunch with visitors to the barn whenever possible. There were lots and lots of days the horses farther down the list were bitted up and lunged instead of being worked by the trainer. It was not uncommon for that to be how the most of the day went.

I was glad my horse was at the top of the list for the brief amount of time he stayed there. By the time he was down to fourth, I was glad I was there to assure my horse did indeed get the training I was working for.

It wasn't just that first conversation with the trainer that didn't go well. It seemed nearly every time I asked the trainer a question, he took offense. He seemed to think I was questioning his decisions instead of trying to clarify his instructions. I chalked this attitude up to the fact I had offended him by thinking he couldn't get the job done and tried to give him a wide berth. But this uncertainty about his reaction to me also caused me to not speak up about things I would normally have mentioned.

Legs seemed to get along with the trainer ok......... or at least that's what the WT was always telling me. To be honest I saw him have a lot of fights with my horse. One of those fights evem led to Legs falling to the ground with this guy still on his back. Luckily neither the horse nor the trainer were hurt. The WT insisted the horse caused the wreck.......and in my insecurity, I bought it. When it came to being a good advocate for my horse, this was the second time in his life that I had let Legs down.

To be continued...............

What to Do



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Olympic Tears

I love the Olympics especially the Winter Olympics. There's something magical about the ice and snow mixed in with the already emotional aspect of all of those athletes chasing their dreams. I've been mesmerized from the first time I saw the games back when I was a teenager.

With the Winter Olympics being just a few hours north of me in Vancouver, Canada, I've been longing to be there since the location was first announced. I can't imagine the Winter Games will ever be closer to me but it just wasn't in the cards for me to get there.

I think the appeal of the games for me comes in the stories of the struggles some athletes have made to get there. I love those vignettes that feature the personal stories of the athletes, their goals and their inspirations. For some the dream is just to get there. For others it is to win a medal. Still others want nothing less than that gold and to hear the anthem played for their country. For me it doesn't matter which scenario it is, it is about the dream.

Hearing their stories is a reminder that it is really possible to chase one's dreams and be successful despite all the odds. It doesn't matter their dreams are different than mine. It is their struggle that inspires me. It can fill me up and get me back on track when life gets tough and the dream gets a little fuzzy. It can also bring me to tears.

I expect that I will cry at the most unexpected moments when I watch the Olympics. However, I never expected I would cry because of something that happened before the official start of the games. Yet I cannot help but cry hearing of the 21 year old luger from Georgia who was tragically killed in yesterday's training run.

Hearing the official report the accident was the athlete's error didn't strike me as hard as hearing the TV news men's translation. They said the course was designed for the elite of the sport and this 21 year old athlete was too inexperienced to be ready for the ninety mile an hour speeds this track was capable of producing. I guess I heard "an athlete in over his head, fighting for his dream anyway."

It touched me in a familiar way. I felt a connection to this young man trying to defy the odds for the love of his sport. I couldn't help but think this luger from Georgia, formerly part of the Soviet Union, must have been so proud to be there representing his country despite whether he was ranked at the top of his sport or not. What were the odds he would ever get there? Just being there, participating must have been a dream come true.

I'm sure dying there was never in his plan. Yet, from what they say he went down that course giving it everything he had. He was not timid or shy about this world class course. He embraced it..............it was his dream after all.

I can't help but think about the risks we all take chasing our dreams. Like this young man some of those risks we take are our very lives. I know when I climb up onto a green horse I am taking such a risk, probably even more so because of my age. I get reminded of it more frequently than I care to admit. Yet I don't let it stop me.

I'm pretty sure this young Georgian would not give up his sport had he seen this wreck happen to someone else. I've already heard that the other men competing in this event have decided to make this a great luge event in honor of their friend. That's the spirit of the Olympics that speaks to me........ keep going no matter what.

I'm sure through the course of this Winter Olympics there will be lots more stories that bring tears to my eyes. Just the thought that other Olympians will continue on chasing their dreams is inspiring, I think. There is so much on the line for so many. I expect I will see more black armbands as athletes honor their fallen comrade as they continue on.


The price I pay pursuing my dream seems small thinking of Nodar Kumaritashvili, his family and his comrades. I can't think of a better inspiration as I continue on in this endeavor of mine. This will not be an Olympics I forget..........especially this luger from Georgia whose name I can't even spell, let alone pronounce.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........ More Life Lessons of a Vehicler Kind

Dave was in a wreck this week. A kid in a brand new truck backed into him in the Safeway parking lot and did major damage to Dave's little car. They exchanged information as the kid moaned and groaned about just having gotten this truck after another accident.

Dave felt sorry for him. Didn't pay the kind of attention he should and ended up with bogus information. That's right, the kid lied about everything. Phone number, insurance company, driver's liscense numberm they're all bad. Dave had to file a phantom driver claim to get his car fixed.

The things Dave has learned..........

1. Don't be sympathetic towards someone who has nearly totaled your car. Just because they're acting contrite doesn't mean they are or can be trusted.

2. When you write down the license number of the vehicle don't put it on the piece of paper you hand to the other guy with your information.

3. When getting the other driver's information, get proof it is valid.

4. Being a nice guy sucks sometimes.

At least Dave was not hurt.........but I'm pretty sure his ego is smarting some. Poor Dave!

Life........and Its Lessons........A Little About Purpose

Part 1

From the sound of the comments on this series of posts, I think I need to restate my purpose in these posts. While they may focus on the negative aspects of my time in the horse industry, these incidents are not the whole story about the horse industry or even the whole story about my time working as a groom. They are but a small wedge of information belonging to a bigger picture.

As I said when I first began this series, in the past I have applied a filter of sorts in posting about some of my dealings in the industry. I mostly wrote about the positive side of my experiences chasing my dream. I left out some of the more negative ones. When I did post about negative aspects of the industry, I only posted those things that were not so up close and personal to me with but a few exceptions.

The problem in doing that was I left out a part of the information that has sculpted who I have become in this process. How I treat both people and horses has been affected by all parts of my experience, not just the positive ones. The negative things I've encountered have influenced me as well. I want very much to never treat people or horses in some of the manners I have experienced.

These antidotes are not just information for others to learn from my mistakes. They are reminders to me as well of things I need to consider in my future dealings. Had I paid attention to some of these earlier issues, I might have avoided future pitfalls. Instead I stumbled right in up to my neck because I had not been paying attention to what should have been lessons from the past.

If I could go back and live these first years of my horse experience over, I would do it pretty much the way that I did. While the facility and the trainers didn't seem to appreciate what I did for them, I never would have had Scandalous had I not worked at that farm.

The first two horses I bought on contract were through the trainers at this facility. They certainly did the right thing when it mattered most. The trainers were very flexible in negotiating the terms of that sale to fit my needs as well as being lenient about me making payments when Lindsay got sick. I will be forever grateful to them.

I also learned a great set of horse keeping basics while I worked in this facility. I may not have gotten the benefit of direct learning on my riding skills but I did on lots of other things.

I sucked up tons of information by watching and asking questions. I took every opportunity available to convert the things I was seeing into workable knowledge. I never had problems with these trainers answering my incessant questions that helped me accomplish that task. The very foundation of my my riding skills I learned in those first years I worked as a groom even though I rarely saw the back of a horse.

This learning experience was worth every inconvenience. Again, my point in posting about those things I'd previously left out was for the value of the lessons. I should have applied that information to my future interactions with horse people but I did not so now I am adding that omitted information because it needs to be incorporated to avoid future pitfalls.

It was not and is not my intention to point the finger at anyone specifically. We are all human and we all make mistakes. We all do things we are not proud of in our interactions with others. Sometimes we get that and strive to improve and other times we don't. Horse people are no different in that way. These posts are no way intended as a slam on the horse industry.

What is my concern is to tell the whole story of my journey chasing my dream. I now see the error that avoiding those negative aspects has caused for me. Talking in generalities of what could and might happen is just not as effective a learning tool as talking about personal experiences....... at least that's what I have found to be true for me.

By relaying my personal stories as I've made my way through some of these obstacles I'm hoping things might get better both for me and maybe others travelling the same road. There are so many lessons in life, I sure hope not to have to learn them all the hard way.

I will continue on in this series telling more of those things that I had previously left out. I believe it is the culmination of these incidents that led me to my current predicament. How it all turns out, I guess only time will tell....

To be continued.............

A Little More about Work



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Life........and Its Lessons........A Little About Work

Part 1

This would probably be a good place to begin the experiences I had either working for others in this industry or others working for me. Those situations have been laden with lessons.

Way back when I began this blog I posted how this dream of mine began. I mentioned I had worked as a groom but really didn't get into the details of how that came about or what our working arrangements were.

I worked for free up until the time I bought Scandalous on a contract. Grooms came and went, new ones were hired but I was never asked if I wanted the paying job even though I seemed to be the only reliable "employee" they had.

From the first day I arrived I worked six days a week and usually a minimum of 9 hours a day just because I wanted the experience. I showed up even when the roads were closed because of snow. I did the job even when the trainers were not there. I was reliable, willing and a fast learner. Before long I was as competent as most grooms who came and went.

I even worked a big sale they had just because they needed me. They didn't really ask me if I would work, they just assumed. It involved lots of extra hours and I did it without complaint. I was the only unpaid person involved and there were lots of people brought in and paid to help.

Yet, the daughter of the facility owner complained to a trainer about me because I hadn't dropped what I was doing to do her bidding . I got my *ss chewed by one of the trainers. When I explained that I was completing another task I had been assigned first that involved a hot sweaty horse and that I had come back to do the second job once I was done with the first, the trainer backed down. But I remember thinking at the time my efforts nor my loyalty were being appreciated much.

When I did buy Scandalous, I asked them if I could work off her board. The problems getting that worked out are here Despite all of the unpaid and unrecognized extra hours each day after that, not to mention, all the times I stayed at the facility to care for the horses when the trainers were gone to shows, you would think I might have earned some loyalty from them. That was not the case.

I remember at one point the trainers bought farm jackets for the paid employees. I was not included in that gesture. I told the trainer I felt like "FF's b*astard child." She sputtered as she tried to defend herself.........but her discomfort seemed to be more because I had said something than because she had forgotten about me.

It was another of those "ah ha" moments. There was no loyalty towards me at all, yet that certainly was not how I treated them. Granted we had no agreement that I would ever get paid but the fact they got more than double if not triple sometimes the amount of work out of me they were due, I guess I expected a little bit of something..........a thank you might have been nice......or that farm jacket.

You might think I would have learned from these things when it came to that contract on the third horse. I didn't however. I blindly went into it expecting the owner of the facility would do right by me.......yet she never really did.

She did, however, give me two aged ponies for my kids when we moved to our new farm. Both ponies had foundered so many times the owners couldn't even remember. Those ponies had lots of issues. Their feet were bad and the one probably had Cushings.........his hair grew continually. I had to body clip him several times a year so he wasn't miserable sweating underneath all that hair........even in the winter in the beginning.

I appreciated those ponies as did my kids but looking back I wonder if this gesture wasn't just about money too. With me taking over those high risk ponies, she no longer had to worry about them, nor pay for their illnesses.

The ponies did not live long once I got them.........but they did not founder either. Both died from colic. My vet figured it was from the years they lived on a sand lot so the owners didn't have to worry about them foundering.

My vet thought those ponies had the best years they had had in a long time living at my farm. They got to graze in pastures and were feed a proper diet.........not feed nothing but local grass because it was an easy way to keep them from foundering. Their feet got to be healthy again and their coats and teeth improved immensely.

Still both the job and the ponies were a situation of my making. I tolerated being "slave labor" so that I could learn. I took the ponies despite their issues because I knew my kids would love them. I probably would do it all again both for the lessons I learned about horses and the lessons I learned about some horse people.

To be continued......................

A Little about Purpose




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Life........and Its Lessons........Buying....the Unexpected

Part 1

When we sign a contract to purchase a horse we generally think of that contract as an obligation. We tend not think about the legal rights a written contract give us when making decisions about the welfare of the horse. I would imagine that's because we don't think about "life" getting in the way and causing unexpected issues.

As I mentioned before this particular horse was Lindsay's therapy horse. He started off as my first show horse with the intention he would move on to Lindsay sometime later down the road. However, Lindsay's pony died during the first year of her cancer treatment and she needed another horse immediately.

Lindsay's desire to live and fight her illness were tightly tied to her connection to "her" horse. We didn't have the money to pay off the horses we were buying on those contracts so we sure didn't have the money to get Lindsay a new pony. Instead this third horse took over the duties of that pony.

Because Lindsay was already attached to this horse using him as a replacement for her pony was acceptable to Lindsay. Otherwise I hate to think what might have happened. Lindsay health was precarious and her survival still a big question.

At one point in this journey the horse injured himself and was on stall rest for a time. Lindsay's health was bad enough she wasn't getting any therapy riding anyway. At least she knew the horse was there for her in the barn. That connection was the thing that was important to Lindsay's well being.

One morning I went to the barn and found the horse standing in one corner of the stall looking at his food in the opposite corner. The horse hadn't touched a bite which was not like this chow hound at all. I immediately began looking for some explanation.

As I stepped into the stall my eyes scanned the horse looking for some explanation of the untouched meal. As my eyes travelled down the horse's back legs, I saw the problem. My heart sank into my stomach as I saw the horse's right hind hoof was rolled over onto it's outside and the toe was touching the inside of the left hind hoof. I didn't know "what" specifically the injury was but I knew whatever it was it was NOT GOOD!

I moved the horse's hay right in front of his face where he could reach it. Then I raced to the house to call my vet. I tried to stay calm not to upset Lindsay. I also called my neighbor to come sit with her while I tended to the horse.

When my vet arrived, he didn't know what to say. He had never seen such an injury. He recommended I take the horse to Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital in Snohomish for treatment. I agreed so my vet stabilized the leg with a splint made from 2 x 4's and duct tape so we could make the trip.

That silly horse began kicking the walls of the trailer from the time we closed the doors. We hurried to get on the road so hopefully he would discontinue the kicking and not do anymore damage to an already frightening injury.

Before we left, I called the holder of the contract notifying her of the injury. When I arrived at Pilchuck I learned the woman had called the vet there and was insisting the horse be euthanized so she could get her money from the insurance I was contractually obligated to carry.

I was appalled at the seller's request. I was equally appalled that the veterinary hospital was actually considering giving her what she wanted. Luckily as the buyer on the contract I knew what my rights were in this case even though I didn't really "own" the horse yet. Washington State law gave me the right to make the decision about whether the horse got treatment or not as long as I paid for that treatment.

Even at that this veterinarian was more intimidated by the woman with money than by me. He told me I was putting HIM in an awkward position by not allowing him to do as this woman asked. I gave him an earful about how he would look to a jury in a courtroom having euthanized the horse of a child with brain cancer because a wealthy woman wanted her money.

Fortunately it didn't ever have to go that far. When the x-rays were completed the horse was diagnosed with a dislocated fetlock. The horse's colateral ligament had blown allowing all of those tiny bones in the fetlock to spread all over the place. This was an injury the insurance company would find reasonable to treat. That diagnosis gave the vet what he needed to placate the woman who thought more of money than my sick child.

I will never forget this woman's lack of compassion and integrity. I suppose I should have known that she was capable of this. I had other dealings with her that clearly showed money was her god.

To be continued....................

A Little about Work



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Life........and Its Lessons........Buying

Part 1

Probably the slipperiest slope in the horse industry has to do with contracts, I would think. All kinds of contracts from the sale or purchase of horses to contracts for work can be difficult. I would imagine it is the nature of the beast such transactions require close attention. That is why contracts are important.

I have bought and sold a number of horses on contracts. . I've also managed to get myself in trouble with contracts for work. It seems like the biggest pitfalls in the horse industry for me fall into these categories. While, so far, I have managed to weather such things, it has not been without some wear and tear.

I find myself looking back at these situations and wondering what I might change. What can I do to assure I get from any arrangement what I expected to get when I entered into it? I imagine that is probably the $64,000 question to most people (for those of you too young to know, "the $64,000 Question" was the name of a quiz show back in the day.)

Obviously when I started out in the horse industry I made lots of mistakes. Some of those things bit me while others did not. Just because a mistake didn't get me in some way, doesn't mean I can't learn from it.

I would imagine everyone "knows" that contracts are important and they should be written. I certainly know that but not being an expert on contracts and particularly on those involving horses, there were lots of things I didn't know.

Expectations can be different though unspoken, any contract needs to cover all expectations or things can turn out badly. That is one thing I have learned the hard way.

The first horse I ever purchased was on a contract. It was a basic format provided by the trainer at the farm where the mare lived. There were, however, unusual payment terms made to accommodate my form of income. The requirements were not really spelled out at the time. Payments were scheduled at specific intervals while my income was more sporadic.

It was not a problem in and of itself but only because the party holding the paper did not turn it into something. The lope holes for abuse are evident looking back at that old document. The specifics of the payments involved really should have been spelled out. I am fortunate I was dealing with a person with integrity. She was willing to work with me and the fluctuations of payments instead of cashing in on my inability to meet the terms of the contract as written.

The second horse I purchased was a horse for Dave.That purchase was also made via a contract. The document was the very same format as that used for my first horse. The only differences were the dollar amount and the information on the horse. The seller involved was different but fortunately connected to the first party.

The payment issues were spelled out the same way as on the first contract and I had the same issues meeting those terms. BUT my life got way more complicated because my daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I was unable to make my payments as I had with the first horse or anywhere even close.

There were no provisions for late payments or emergencies in that contract. Luckily for me, the party I was purchasing the horse from took into account what was happening with my daughter and allowed me to be late paying off that second horse. If I recall correctly she didn't even charge me the added interest the contract would have allowed. I paid no more than I would have had the horse been paid off in a timely manner. Again, I lucked out, I was dealing with a woman with integrity and compassion.

That was not the case, however, with the third horse I purchased. That horse, too, was purchased on a contract. It was purchased at almost the same time as the second horse. The party I purchased the horse from was more interested in her money than in the spirit of our contract.

There were terms of the contract that were not put on paper. Those terms specifically were I wouldn't begin paying for the third horse until the second horse had been entirely paid off. The fact that was not written came back to bite me. Instead the date the second horse was scheduled to be paid for was used as the start date of payments on the third contract. That put me into a very difficult situation when I didn't get the second horse paid for on time.

There was no way I could begin making payments on the third horse when I hadn't even paid off the second. My daughter was fighting for her life and her illness was eating up every cent we had.

That third horse was Lindsay's therapy horse and the major reason my daughter was still alive. Yet I faced the prospect of losing him because the holder of the paper was not honoring the spirit of our original transaction. I had really messed up by not making sure it was written into the contract the way it was agreed upon.

.For me, when I had negotiated the purchase of the third horse, it clearly meant that I would not/could not begin paying on the third horse until the second contract was completed whenever that might be. I never would have purchased this third horse had that not been the case. I made the mistake of assuming, because this was someone I knew, this was understood and would be honored yet that was not the case.

While the contract I had didn't guarantee me the terms that we had agreed to, it did afford me protection in another way. Having the contract did "save" me from something that could have ended quite tragically.

To be continued.......................

Buying........the Unexpected



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Life........and Its Lessons

Part 1

The easiest thing about horses is the horses themselves. The difficult part is the people that surround them. I hear lots of comments about the horse community and its people and most of them are not good. There seems to be this blanket acceptance by many that horse people are not worthy of trust and its reasonable to expect getting scr*wed if one participates.

I prefer to believe that horse people are like all other people. There are good ones and bad ones. I don't think we have any more than our share of the bad people despite the political bull and the unscrupulous ones that are out there. Just because I bump into those less desirable situations from time to time doesn't mean I want to blame the industry. Individual people and their principles are the reason, not the horse industry.

The thing that puzzles me about the industry and this notion is the unspoken rule we don't talk about what goes bad. Despite the belief of many that horse people cannot be trusted, many of those very people will support the notion of not talking. The belief is if a person talks badly about trainers, breeders, buyers, you name it, it will only hurt the person who does the talking.

Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows I am not a proponent of this concept. I believe we need to share what difficulties we have so others might learn from them. This industry will never get "better" if those doing the wrong aren't held accountable for their actions. Speaking out is the first step in accountability.

I have been criticized and even warned for posting about my less than favorable experiences with others. I have also been thanked for it. I'm glad to see that at least some are appreciative of my speaking out. As for those that say I will pay, I am undaunted by such threats. The horse industry's dirty little secrets will continue to be pitfalls unless they are out in the open. I refuse to enable such things.

While I have posted about a number of issues I've encountered in the industry, I have not posted about a few others. Up to this point I have kept a buffer of sorts in place determining what I talked about and what I didn't. I have decided it's only fair to my readers to let them know that buffer has been there.

That buffer had to do with how close the involved parties were to me. It also seems to be situational. I have posted about some difficult things close to me.......but I have definitely left out others as I struggled trying to figure out how I would tell the story. Honestly, I have reacted some to fear of repercussions.

With recent events being what they are, I can see my use of this buffer is about to be tested. I find it extremely difficult to write when an elephant is in the room.........if you get my drift. The current situation affects my life so profoundly it is hard to separate it from my every day life. That means I either stop blogging or...........I spill the beans.

I have decided that I will not let the behavior of others prevent me from blogging. As for spilling the beans, I've also decided I will probably do that too at some point. First I will address the generalities of those things I've avoided posting up to this time. I would like my readers to understand some of the pitfalls I've encountered and the lessons I have learned.

To be continued.............

Buying



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MEMO to the President....... Stimulus Ideas

Note: I got this in an email today and couldn't resist posting. Don't be put off by the address line or what looks like political nature or this memo. This may not be a political blog BUT the subject matter definitely fits here.......and it just might give you a much needed good laugh.

TO: President Barack Obama
RE: Economic Recovery Stimulus Ideas

Mr. President,
It has come to my attention that you're having some challenges with the
Economy. If I understand things correctly, we're in a recession,
Consumer confidence and spending is down, credit is tight, investors are
Spooked, we need renewable energy, and health care costs are through the
Roof. Trillions of dollars, not to mention our future, are at stake. Mr.
President, I'm just a regular citizen, but I think I have a solution.

Give every American a horse.

My proposal may not make sense to you at first, but let me give you a
Little background. First of all, horses in the U.S. Are a multi-billion
Dollar industry, and that's just at my house. I suggest you have your
Economic advisors do a little research on the spending around horse
Ownership. You'd be surprised, Mr. President.

Start by visiting the tack and clothing retailers like State Line or
Dover. Look at the variety of goods available there. Now take into
Account that every horse owner, especially if it's a woman, is buying
Not just one or two, but tons of these items. Believe me.

So my thinking is that if you give every American a horse, starting when
They reach the horse-receptive age of 10, you're going to do two
Things: boost consumer confidence and boost spending immediately.

Horses make us feel good, and once Americans all own horses (at the
government's expense, of course), they will all logically fall into the
Pattern that every horse owner succumbs to: accessorizing.

For starters, we need horse-care implements like buckets and muck rakes,
Hoof picks and curry combs. And we need at least basic tack, halter,
Lead line, saddle, saddle pad, bridle and bit. But then the fun begins.
Zebra print leg wraps. Neon bright fly masks. An assortment of sheets
And blankets for all seasons; you've got your cooler, your lightweight
Blanket, your medium blanket, your heavy blanket. Then there is your
Stable sheet and your pasture sheet. Also your hoodie, and tail wrap items.
And that's just the clothing for the horse. Don't get me started on the
Clothing for the rider, even if he or she doesn't show. Since most
Americans don't have a basic riding wardrobe, the stores would be
Swamped for jeans, boots, breeches, T-shirts, dozens of pairs of cute boot socks, and the ubiquitous ball cap.
Tell the retailers to get ready. It'll be Christmas all year long.

Now lets talk about support industries. In addition to the usual veterinarian and farrier expenditures, people also give their horses
Chiropractic, massage and acupuncture, not to mention buying more
Beauty products for their horses than they do for themselves. All those
Professions and industries will benefit. And of course there will be a
Big spike in hay and grain demand, so the farmers will be happy too.
You see, that's the secret to jump-starting consumer spending through
My stimulus package. People will spend money on their horses when they
Won't spend money on anything else!

But, your advisors might say, there's a catch. Aren't we paying the
Price, in global warming, of the large number of livestock animals we
Currently have? They produce all that methane!

Ah, Mr. President, here is the real beauty of this idea. When you introduce the Methane-Assisted Natural Unrefined Renewable Energy
Plan (M.A.N.U.R.E.), you'll be a hero for coming up with an
Alternative, renewable, home-grown source of clean energy. Just
Challenge the energy gurus to come up with a methane gas collection
System that can harness all the natural resource produced by all those
Horses to power our cities. Talk about shovel ready projects:
M.A.N.U.R.E. Fits the bill!

And you keep stressing how we need new industries for investment; well, under the M.A.N.U.R.E. Plan you can sell Petroleum Offset Opportunity units to investors. By buying these units, investors can
Help us gradually convert from a petroleum-based economy to one based on
Horse P.O.O.

Health care costs will go down, too, as everyone cares for their horses.
You can give tax credits based on the amount of time people spend
Working, riding and hanging out with their horses, which will
Automatically make them healthier. (Don't tell the docs, but most horse
Owners already get their own basic healthcare from their vet.)

One more thing: everyone is annoyed by these corporate CEOs and their
Big bonuses in a down economy. So give the executives, say, one horse
For every $100,000 of bonus money they've received. Those bonuses will
Be plowed back into the economy in no time.

Finally, because you, Mrs. O, and the girls are such role models, you
can encourage us all by getting a pony for Sasha and Malia. It will
teach them responsibility, help the First Lady plow the garden, and as a
bonus: free fertilizer for the Rose Garden.

If you don't believe me that horse ownership stimulates spending, go
ahead, Mr. President. Buy that pony for your girls. You'll see.

====================================

I don't know about you but for me there were lots of things missing from the list of things needed if you own a horse. What kind of blaring ommissions did you see??


====================================

The reality:
The California horse industry produces an annual economic impact of $7.0 billion with activity distribution as follows:
$2.5 billion - racing
$1.6 billion - showing
$1.9 billion - recreation
$798 million - other activities
The California horse industry generates $210 million in state and local taxes.
Average directly spent annually PER horse in California: $4,091.00
- American Horse Council Foundation
The Economic Impact of the California Horse Industry
(DeLoitte, 2005) -- Jaede Miloslavich
Executive Director
Action Coalition for Equestrians (ACE)
www.acequestrians.org