You can take the horse away from the racetrack but you can't take the racetrack out of the horse. Freedom did a few laps in the field today and showed that he truly can fly.
Freedom flying
Category Archives: 1
What to do when your horse chokes
Nasal discharge is the most common indicator of choke.
Choking, in horses, happens when their esophagus becomes blocked — usually from bolting their food or from eating very dry food without having access to water. Unlike when a human chokes, a horse can still breathe, but choking can be quite serious. Horses that choke can damage their esophagus and, if the backed up food, saliva or water gets into their longs, they can develop pneumonia.
While I have never seen a horse experience an episode of choke, one of the horses at our barn had a serious incident of choke this past fall. She’s a horse who loves her food and is always in a hurry to eat as much as she can. She got into the grain room and then also got into a tub of hay stretcher pellets. These pellets lodged in her through and got stuck.
What are the signs?
Horses that choke present in different ways.
- They may get agitated.
- They may extend their necks.
- They may appear to be gagging (horses are unable to throw up).
- Discharge will likely come out of their nose.
- Sometimes you can feel the mass in their neck.
It’s pretty horrifying. And it makes you feel quite helpless.
What you should do when your horse chokes.
The most important thing to do is call the vet. Sometimes choke can clear on its own, in few minutes, and sometimes it will be necessary for the vet to come and help the choke clear. Choke is easier and more successfully treated when it first occurs.
Once the vet is on the way, you should try to keep your horse quiet and calm. Don’t let it eat or drink and avoid exercise.
Sometimes you can help clear the blockage by massaging the neck gently.
Sometimes your vet might suggest dosing with Acepromazine. In some cases it can cause the esophagus to relax enough that the horse can swallow the mass. If that doesn’t work, the vet may try gently dislodging the mass with a tube.
If that doesn’t work, your vet may sedate with Xyline. Once your horse’s head is lowered (as the result of the sedation) they can use a warm water lavage to wash down the impacted feed.
After the impact is cleared, your vet may prescribe antibiotics in case any fluids have been aspirated.
Preventing future episodes of choke
Once a horse has experienced an episode of choke they are more likely to choke again because there may damage to their esophagus. To keep your horse safe from a another episode of choke there are some steps you can take:
- Add large rocks to your horse’s grain to slow down their eating
- Soak grain or any pelleted feeds before feeding
- Don’t feed grass clippings
- Avoid feeding dry beet pulp, especially to horses that bolt their feed.
- Avoid feeding large chunks of apples or carrots.
As for Curly, our resident food bolter? She has made a full recovery without any serious complications. She gets only soaked feed and all pelleted feed is kept under double lock and key.
Certainly Curly’s experience with choke has changed my opinion about it. I’ve never had a horse that bolts their feed. Mine have all taken their time eating. But I no longer discount the risk of choke. I continue to soak Freedom’s feed and it’s something I plan to continue. It seems a very simple thing to do which can help prevent great distress to my horse.
Has your horse ever choked? What did you do?
Here’s a video that shows some of the symptoms of choke.
Merry Christmas!
Freedom the energizer bunny hunts historic Lincoln
After a three hour hunt last Sunday and a hack on Monday, I assumed Freedom would be tired when we hunted on Tuesday. It was a hunt right in my backyard and I planned to hack to the cast. It was going to be in the high 60s and I was pretty relaxed about it.
Boy was I wrong. There was something in the air on Tuesday and lots of horses were maniacs, including mine. I don’t think he took a single walk step from the time we left the barn until we were 15 minutes from home — 2:45 hours later. He jigged, he jumped, he bounced and he flung his head up down. Silly me, I’d left my martingale at the barn as I thought that with no jumps, I wouldn’t need it!
Considering it is November, the weather was amazing — and there are still enough leaves on the trees glowing in the sun to make it seem like the beginning of fall, not the end.
This hunt starts in a big open field at the Codman Estate, built in 1741. The home to five generations of the Codman family, it is now a Museum and the grounds are the home of such important events as the town’s annual Easter egg hunt. We cast the hounds and had a great view of them working the field. Then we had a quick run through the woods, coming out on a street with the most amazing Bauhaus era houses. The most famous of them 
is the Gropius house, built in 1938. Walter Gropius was the founder of the Bauhaus school and a pioneer of modern architecture. The Gropius house is now a museum but the other houses on the street are equally fabulous and still lived in, some by the original residents.
The next cast took us into the fields of the Food Project, a program that teaches sustainable agriculture practices. The sillies really came out in that field. Two horses were bucking like crazy and the rider behind me was looking pretty pale as his horse tried to pass us at a dead gallop.
From there we hacked over Pine Hill to meet the hounds for the third cast. This took us around Flint’s Pond on the trails that surround the Decordova Museum. There’s a great wide trial that takes you around the pond. Luckily those trails don’t get too much use because the hounds and horses going full tilt would have been quite a sight.
We ended at another open field and a lovely pond.
From there, I hacked back home. Dressed in my formal hunt clothes I attracted some attention as I rode through town. An older gentleman asked if he could take my picture as I passed Bemis Hall — built in 1892, this magnificent old building was originally the Town Hall.
The rest of the hunt hacked back and were treated to the view of a magnificent red fox catching mice in the Codman field! Lucky for him, the hounds were already back in the truck. Although, since they are highly tuned to following the scent of anise, I’m not sure that a real fox would be a recognizable quarry.
Here’s some video from the hunt. Since it was taken on horseback, it’s not the steadiest.
We’ve battened down the hatches
Our horses live outside with access to their stalls. Whenever there’s a big storm, like Irene, or mountains of snow, I worry about them but there’s not much that we can do. Last night we battened down the hatches and prepared for Hurricane Irene. My husband got out his power tools and fixed the stall door (brought down by that other force of nature, Curly), so now the aisle is safe for horses again. Another boarder put away anything that could get blown away — toys (horse and human), pitchforks, and small creatures.
Freedom is happier being out than in. He absolutely hates being confined to a stall for longer than it takes him to eat a meal. I tried keeping him in overnight when I first got him and he rubbed a bloody patch on his neck from weaving with his head over the door. That’s the last time I kept him in. There are times when he will stand in his stall — mostly when it’s very hot or very wet — but only if the door is open.
While part of me would like to think of him being safe and tucked into a dry stall, I think that if the wind gets very strong, he might be safer with the freedom to move around, rather than get spooked when he’s trapped inside.
I suppose what worries me the most is a that a tree will come down on the fence line. That’s happened before. Last time the horses were still in their pasture looking at the ruined fence with a perplexed expression.
At this point we’ve seen only heavy rain. Sheets of rain are falling as I type. The wind has been only moderately blustery. I’m hoping that all we’ll need to do is bail them out when this is done. I just hope that others, who are closer to the eye of the hurricane (or tropical storm) are safe too.
The art of antique crate labels
When I was growing up, my father collected antique signs. I loved some of the old images which were amongst the earliest commercial images. It’s not surprising, then, that I felt an immediate attraction to antique crate labels as soon as I saw them.
Fruit and vegetable growers started using colorful labels on their caratesto identify (and advertise) their wares starting in the late 19th century. The crates were used as in-store displays, so the labels were an important part of the marketing effort and often featured vivid and appealing artwork, much of which had an Art Deco influence. I, of course, have collected only those labels that feature horses on them. Luckily for me, there are many!
According to this website, very little is known about the artists who produced these wonderful images.
Many of the artists were German immigrants who came to cities like New York and Chicago and attended trade schools to learn commercial art skills. They would often head for California to work for large printing houses like Schmidt Litho in San Francisco or
Western Lithograph in Los Angeles, just two of the hundreds of companies producing labels in the late 19th to early 20th centuries.
Individual label artists were rarely, if ever, credited for their work. In fact, it’s even unusual to find a printing company’s identification on a label. In some instances, as with certain Western Lithograph labels, this branding is accompanied by a date indicating the month and year it was printed. A large company might employ 100 artists, who worked anonymously.
It is interesting to note that fruit crate labels from the early 20th century document many European artists’ initial impressions and romantic notions of life in the United States. Perhaps, their idealized portraits of glorious fruit, colorful cowboys and Indians, rosy-cheeked children, and wholesome “pin-up girls” reflect the spirit of optimism shared by immigrant artists recently arrived in the fertile agricultural regions of California.
Most of these labels were printed by the great lithographers of the era in San Francisco. Most of the original paintings — created on linen — are lost. And the when cardboard boxes were introduced in the 1950s, growers turned to this more cost effective way of shipping their fruit. Luckily, many of these wonderful labels were saved and they remain as a testament to the inspired and idealistic artists of the era and provide a glimpse into the California of the first half of the Twentieth century.
Another reason why these images resonate with me is that my maternal grandfather was a commercial artist for an advertising agency. While he did not create the artwork for labels, he was responsible (anonymously) for the ads that appeared in magazines. An impressive artist and photographer in his own right, I’ve never known what campaigns he worked on.
Stay tuned for some more fabulous label art! Or you can check out my new Website, Le Cheval Nouveau, where I’m posting all of the images from my collection.
How did we get so crooked?
Haunches in is a good exercise to strengthen the inside hind leg.
We had a really good hunt season. Freedom’s ability to jump in the field really grew as he gained confidence and learned to settle better on the approaches to each fence. So I was a bit surprised when I had my first post-season jumping lesson and learned just how crooked he was! Sure, we can jump a single fence just fine but jumping a course? Well, that proved to be more difficult.
Freedom was consistently landing with his haunches falling to the right. The extent of this crookedness really came to light after we landed over the first fence in a four stride line. I just could not get the striding to the fence – mostly because we were coming at it at an angle!
While hunting is good for creating a bold, enthusiastic jumper, it’s also easy for horses to get “one sided.” As I wrote in my post, “Don’t Forget about Dressage“, even during hunt season it’s important to keep your horse supple and balanced. Out in the hunt field it’s hard to keep track of which lead your horse takes or which diagonal you’re on. So it’s easy for your horse to always to favor his stronger side.
With Freedom, I’m sure that part of the reason he became so crooked is due to the muscle he pulled over the winter which affected his left hind. He got progressively better (more about the acupuncture treatment later) but I bet that because of this weakness he started to move a bit crookedly and it became habitual.
Getting him straight wasn’t easy. He didn’t want to stay straight and he threw a right old temper tantrum to see if I was really serious.
In the end, though, patience won out. We made some real progress in the lesson and by the end he was jumping the line and staying straight all the way through.
Now I just have to work on strengthening Freedom in the right ways to correct his imbalance. We’ll be doing a lot more bending exercises, keeping his body in alignment on circles and serpentines while I try to supple him in both directions. I’ve been consciously keeping his haunches from falling out by moving my right leg farther back and reinforcing my message with a tap from a dressage whip as needed. I’ve also started to add some haunches in (travers) to strengthen him equally on both sides. And, of course, I am working hard on keeping myself straight.
I can’t wait for our next lesson to see how we’re doing.
Riders4Helmets announces largest helmet giveaway — and the chance to win an iPad2
The popular helmet awareness campaign Riders4Helmets.com has partnered with generous sponsors to offer the largest ever giveaway of riding helmets with a combined value of over $6,500, in addition to a highly sought after iPad2. Visitors to the Rolex Kentucky 3DE (April 28-May 1) may visit the Riders4Helmets area in the “old” indoor arena to register for the giveaway, receive helmet safety literature, and, have the opportunity to participate in helmet fitting demonstrations (times available online). Equestrians who are unable to attend Rolex may register for the giveaway by visiting www.riders4helmets.com (see giveaway tab on website). The giveaway closes midnight on May 1st, 2011.
Riders4Helmets would like to offer sincere appreciation to all of the sponsors who have made this giveaway possible. The iPad2 giveaway is kindly sponsored by: Riders4Helmets.com, EquestrianCollections.com, Horseshoes by Design, Triple Try Farm, Rise Systems LLC, Equestrian Aid Foundation, Broadstone Equine Insurance, New York State Horse Council, Rancho Los Ecuestres, Evadi Farm. The helmet giveaway is kindly sponsored by: GPA, Samshield, Troxel, Charles Owen, International Riding Supply (IRH), Tipperary, Ovation, Devon-Aire, Pegasus and KEP Italia.
Riders4Helmets horse and rider logo wear will also be available for purchase at Rolex, the proceeds of which will be used to fund educational events such as helmet safety symposiums. The logo wear collection is sold exclusively online by EquestrianCollections.com who are donating 100% of all proceeds from sales of logo wear to the Riders4Helmets campaign, in support of their efforts to increase the use of helmets by the world-wide community of equestrians.
The Riders4Helmets campaign has rapidly gained the support of equestrians around the globe. In the United States it was the organizer of National Helmet Awareness Day in 2010 and hosted the Riders4Helmets Helmet Safety Symposium in January 2011. Plans are already in the works for International Helmet Awareness Day 2011, and the 2nd Riders4Helmets Helmet Safety Symposium, both to be held summer 2011. “We are delighted at the support the equestrian world has shown Riders4Helmets,” said organization co-founder Lindsey White.
For more information on the Riders4Helmets campaign, visit www.riders4helmets.com or contact Lyndsey White at lyndsey@riders4helmets.com. You can also follow the campaign at www.facebook.com/riders4helmets and http://twitter.com/riders4helmets.
Riders4Helmets was founded in early 2010 by Lindsey White and Jeri Bryant after Olympic dressage rider Courtney King Dye was seriously injured in a riding accident. King Dye, who remained in a coma for a month following her accident, was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident and is currently undergoing rehabilitation. Jeri Bryant donated her helmet campaign t-shirts (featuring the slogan “Strap One On–Everyone’s Doing it”) to an eBay store set up to raise funds for King Dye, and a partnership was formed, resulting in the Riders4Helmets campaign.
