Navigating the Straight and Narrow

Isn’t March supposed to be the calm before the storm of activity that April and May bring?  Perhaps more than Mother Nature is confused.  It’s been a rough month full of distractions.  The muck and mire may be trying their best to suck us down, but with Longview a little over a month away, we’re trying to find the straight and narrow.

Nutmeg’s long athletic body is finally showing it’s down side.  In all the snow and wet she’s been slip sliding around and shifting her pelvis out of place.  We are making great friends with our chiropractor and exploring some of the many, many options available to horse owners that want to supplement their athletic horse’s joints to protect them from wear and tear.

As we explore our options and weigh the pocketbook a little event called Longview keeps popping up.  Entries are open, but what to do?  Will we have it together in time to compete?  Should we drop down a level just to be safe?  Should I put the money set aside for the entry fee toward further investigation of Nutmeg’s new found love of the bunny hop?  I have very firm beliefs when it comes to putting the welfare of the horse first, unfortunately life is rarely found to be black and white.

These days I find myself pondering an image from my childhood.  It came from Pilgrim’s Progress when Christian was traveling through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.  The graphic depiction showed Christian perilously navigating the thin, winding path with a sheer drop off on either side (side note: maybe this explains my fear of heights).  In the depths of the cavern all sorts of glowing evil things loomed waiting to gobble him up if he should take a false step.  My current tribulations certainly don’t compare in gravity, yet I find myself thinking that we’re at a turning point and these decisions really matter.

Normally I live much like I drive through snow.  I have a clear plan on where I’m going, I set my sights, and hit the gas.  There are moments when I’m jerked around a bit.  I slip, slide, veer and correct, but if I keep on the gas and keep my nose headed in the right direction, we make it there.  I guess its good we live in the middle of nowhere and have very little oncoming traffic as that complicates things a bit.   The point is, I thrive rolling with the punches and dealing with every little hic-up as it occurs.  Driving in a straight line is not my strong suit.  Finding the straight line under pressure is even more difficult, and if it’s buried under an even blanket of snow – forget about it!

Life would be much simpler if the direction was always clear.  Step off the path and you plummet to certain death.  For me anyway, that makes decision making quite a bit simpler.  So, do we keep pushing forward, chancing the footing on the slope of medication?  Do I take a stand, firmly holding that even the slightest indication of a problem, is a problem and life as we know it should halt in its tracks?  Or is there ground to walk on in the middle?  It may not be a Fresh Perspective, but it’s one that we face every day.  Black, white, or gray?  Which way is the best way? 

Prepare, Plan & Ride It Out

Prepare for the worst.  Plan for the best and ride what you have.  I think I’m going to paint this on the barn wall.

Kat did not approve of the weather.
Here she is waiting for it to change already.

It has been an interesting few weeks in Mid-Missouri.  The old saying, “If you don’t like the weather in Missouri, just wait five minutes” has made a resurgence and the folks that have been around a while have been taking trips down memory lane.  In the past several years our “snow storms” have dropped two to three inches, maybe six if we were really “hit hard.”  Well, this year we received eight to ten and then three days later it snowed again adding ten to fourteen inches.  After a day to breathe, it snowed another three.  What a winter wonderland!  Unfortunately, beauty comes with a price.  So…

Prepare:

Admiral prepares to be
my snow wheels.

Not much keeps me from my job, but in the spirit of preparation I gathered all important files onto a flash drive, printed out some forms and informed my boss that my dedication ended at leaving my horses without hay or water for a day.  I would make it home, or I wouldn’t leave in the first place.  He wasn’t pleased, but I assured him that with the trusty internet he’d hardly know I was missing.

I was prepared to work from the safety of home, but fickle Missouri has long since taught me that the worst predictions rarely come true and predicted fair weather can be hazardous.  So…

Plan:
I was planning for the best.  We’d get a little snow.  They would get the roads clear as quickly as possible.  I’d be in to work as always.  It would be a grand adventure but nothing out of the ordinary.  This realistic plan enabled me to think through my preparations with a clear head instead of a giddy school girl dither.  We didn’t go buy twenty gallons of water and a pallet of pork and beans.  We parked carefully, but we didn’t reserve a hotel room.  We were prepared, but planned to continue on with life as normal.  Then it started to snow and it didn’t stop. 


Vaughn thinks its deep enough.

So…

Ride It Out:

I didn’t go into work and they definitely knew I was gone.  Two hours into my work from homeattempt the power went out.  Thirty-eight and a half hours later we had used the tractor to drag my husband’s truck to the end of the driveway, hauled one to many buckets of manure through thigh deep snow, made and tipped over one gigantic snow man, and eaten every bit of snack food in the house.  It was boring, exciting, frustrating and peaceful.  We were torn between the anxiety of missing our work obligations and the comfort of having each other’s company.  There truly are no snow days as an adult.  The responsibilities are still there, you just can’t do anything about them.  So we made the best of it.

The horses thought is was great fun for about 15 minutes.
Then they were ready to be back inside.

And that’s life.  Our little snow storm gave us some great perspective.  You can’t control every aspect of your surroundings.  Prepare for the worst.  Make sure you have the skill sets and the equipment to deal with anything that could possibly come your way.  For a horse show, that means practice, practice, practice before you go.  Present many different questions in many different ways.  Pack carefully.  Take emergency equipment.  Pack an extra change of clothes and an extra days’ worth of food.  Then plan for the best.  There is no sense worrying over the future.  If you have prepared for the challenge, plan on rising to it successfully.  Be optimistic, you’ll have more fun that way.  Whatever happens, ride it out.  Sometimes the sun will shine and sometimes it will be thirty and raining.  Sometimes your horse will be a perfect gentleman and sometimes you’ll be sitting on a dragon.  All you can do is ride what you’ve got and smile!

A rare dragon moment caught by cell phone.

For everything there is a season…

     …And a time for every matter under heaven. 

-          Ecclesiastes

Rush, rush, rush.  Push, push, push.  If you are a part of a competitive sport.  If you work for a company. Really, if you are at all “connected” to today’s world, you feel the pressure of becoming the biggest and best you can be as soon as possible.  To what end?  Well, that’s a different discussion altogether.  For today, let’s talk about the journey.

A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.

You’ll hear two different lines during the winter months in the Midwest, either “Why can’t it be spring so I can get back to competing” or “thank goodness for the winter so I can get back to training.”  I won’t condemn either attitude.  In fact, I’ve been known to say both!  The point is, there is a time to put in the work and do the training and a time to reap the rewards.  When you are in show mode, more than likely your brain is thinking performance more than training.  The winter is a great time to think about training.

A time to break down, and a time to build up.

With that in mind, winter is also a great time to really get back to the basics.  If during the competition season you ran across a piece that was missing from the puzzle or a block missing from your foundation, now is the time to fix it.  If you gave your horse a true vacation after the last competition of the season, starting back to work is the perfect time to check all the basics.  You can use the dressage training pyramid for a guideline.  As a rider, do I understand my position and how it affects the horse?  Do I know what suppleness feels like?  How is my balance, coordination, relaxation and poise?  Will my horse work in a steady rhythm?  Is he relaxed?  Can we communicate freely?  Are we straight?  Can my horse carry himself for one stride, two, three?  If you find a place where either of you are lacking, now is the time to break the problem down and figure out why.  Then you can build back up with all the pieces in place.

A time for war, and a time for peace.

There are multiple camps on how to best train a horse and everyone has an opinion.  Some want to dominate.  Some want to caudal.  I find that somewhere in between works well for me.  There is a time when the horse must listen and must submit and they probably won’t like it.  But there are times when the battle can be avoided if the approach is tweaked a bit.  We also have to keep our emotions in mind.  There is a time when we can safely and effectively tackle a problem and there are times when it’s best to put it off for a different day.

A time to keep, and a time to throw away.

Winter season means Spring Cleaning is right around the corner.  For horse people, that means blanket cleaning!  I have to give props to the blanket manufactures.  They really have done a great job making blankets durable, but there comes a time when it’s time to toss or recycle.  There are many charities that love to get used horse blankets, from animal shelters to elephant rescues.  You can also recycle them yourself by removing any usable straps and hardware.  This is a great time of year to also go through your tack and miscellaneous horse items.  Seems horse people have quite the knack for collecting.  May Hoarders never come to my barn!  Remember that leather which isn’t in use needs to be taken care of or you run the risk of dry rot.    

A time to weep, and a time to laugh.

Horses certainly give us plenty of both!  If you trip up at the second to last fence, you can weep for the victory you may have lost or you can laugh, because that’s life with horses and at least you are still both safe and sound.  I would say there is certainly more to laugh over, but if you live with horses long enough, the times to weep will come.  Why then weep needlessly when you can laugh?

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.

It’s a classic in the horse world.  You just galloped around a cross-country course foot perfect.  As you land from the final fence you drop your reins and start patting your horse.  You are thrilled!  Then he trips, you tumble over his ears and the finish line is still twenty feet in front of you.  There are so many things to celebrate, staying in the dressage ring, safe cross country, clear show jumping, a good finish.  Don’t celebrate too soon or too hard.  Remember you still have a job to do.

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.

Discernment is the ability to judge well.  It doesn’t mean that you judge everyone around you constantly and you certainly shouldn’t go around spouting your “knowledge.”  There is a high likelihood that your peers are paying a professional for their help.  You might to agree, but use a little discernment.  Unless something is truly dangerous, it’s probably a good idea to keep your mouth shut.

A time to mourn, and a time to dance.

I mentioned earlier that horses will give us our share of heartache.  So will life.  Horses get hurt, people die.  Life changes.  That’s life and it’s okay to mourn.  There’s nothing quite like crying into your horse’s mane.  Mourning, however, looks to the past.  Don’t forget that the future is the only thing you can change.  Get back on your horse and dance, live, enjoy the present.

For everything there is a season… We might not like the season we are in, but there is a reason for it.  Look for the reason.  Find the purpose.  Give this season of your life a Fresh Perspective.

Rainey Reflections

It’s raining in January.  Actually, it’s pouring with added thunder, lightning and a tornado watch.  I love this part of the country.  The saying is true; if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes.  It does present some challenges though.

In the past week, I’ve celebrated having twenty minutes of twilight when I get home from work, 60+ degree afternoons, and I’ll get to make snow angels tonight.  Nutmeg, Admiral and Vaughn have worn every piece of clothing they own, except for their tack, and have covered their entire bodies in a combination of mud, clay, manure and straw.  Nutmeg of course added a little blood to the mix for a colorful flair.  It’s always a challenge to stay enthused about our equines during a typical Midwest winter.  Here is how I cope:

I’ve been doing a lot of reading.  It seems to be the only activity that satiates my equine craving when the ground is so frozen the horse apples turn to hockey pucks in five minutes.  Although I’m not sure reading is any easier on the pocket book then showing, the lessons seem to come a bit cheaper.  How cool is it there are books about everything!  Anatomy, philosophy, schooling exercises, physiology, grooming tips (for some reason these books remain my favorite).  Some are very, very old.  I gave up on ever owning a copy of Le Maneige Royal when I saw its $235 price tag.  Yes, education isn’t cheap but goodness! 

But I digress…if you have a thirst for knowledge you can find someone who has trampled all over the subject in a book at some point in history.  It’s really quite incredible how as humans we feel the need to hash and rehash an idea so many times.  I can’t point fingers since most of what I write is just an idea someone or something else sparked in my brain, but think about it for a moment.  As far as we know, we’re the only species that can “learn” by some method other than direct experience.

Believe me, I have tried sitting and reading Nutmeg classical dressage books and heaven knows I’ve done everything short of feeding Admiral books about being a bold cross country horse, but until I put my butt to the saddle and give them the actual experience needed, they aren’t going to get any better.

Are we really so different?  Does all the time we spend reading actually make us any better?  How can we access our skills until we put what we’ve learned into practice?  We may feel smarter and more enlightened, but until we actually do it, have we really learned it?  For example, I’ve read about haunches-in hundreds of times.  I’ve studied pictures and watched videos, but my many failed attempts suggest that I don’t really know it.  Earlier this month, Nutmeg and I were lucky enough to receive some very patient instruction in lateral work, culminating in haunches-in.  We both learned a lot, but I still wouldn’t say that I know it.  I have a greater understanding and a greater appreciation and when we finally do it, I believe I will know the moment, but until then I can’t say that my reading has improved my riding.  It simply improves my recognition of the real thing when it appears.

My Fresh Perspective on this rainy and reflective day is that all the learning we do isn’t for knowing it is for recognizing.  Only when we recognize something can we begin to know it.  The application goes far beyond horses and riding.  If you’re lucky enough, saddle up and start the journey.  I’m going to go read another book, so I’ll know when I get there.  

Baby, Its Cold Outside...

...and we have a clinic this weekend!

If you have hot water in your wash rack (or a wash rack at all), consider yourself blessed.  If you have heat lamps, well, you’re just living the dream.  For the rest of us, presenting our woolly beasts looking their best during the cold winter months takes a few tricks and a whole lot of elbow grease.

The Woolly Beast, slightly less woolly to help prevent puddle playing.

First, there is absolutely no substitution for daily grooming.  You’ll run across some people who tell you not to groom in the winter because it strips the natural oils from your horse’s coat.  That’s baloney.  Too much washing or using grooming sprays and stain removers can remove those oils, but good old fashioned scrub-a-dub rubbing is one of the best things you can do for your pony.  Plus it’s an excellent work out and will warm you up quickly.

Along with good deep currying, pick out your horse’s feet, and invest in a good super stiff brush.  Brushes come in as many shapes, sizes, materials, and bristle lengths as custom ordered saddle pads.  Probably more.  Each has its purpose, but you can pretty quickly evaluate which brushes will work best for you.

This is my “Mud Brush.”  I only use it to get caked on mud off legs and on fuzzy, fuzzy horses in the winter (its getting a little ragged and needs to be replaced - I know).  It has very stiff long plastic bristles.  The stiffness will flick the mud chunks off and the long bristles reach through the thickest coats to get the grime up from the skin.  It’s one of my winter staples.  It is also handy for brushing mud off the outside of turnout blankets in between washing.

If you’re lucky enough to have a horse with a relatively thin winter coat, you’ll need a brush with a little less bite.  Long bristles are still important to reach down to the skin and to help flick dirt up, but softer is kinder to those with a little less fluff.
I rarely use a finishing or soft brush in the summer (I usually just use a rub rag), but in the winter, a good quality (horse hair is you can afford it) short to medium bristled brush is great at removing dust and carrying those natural oils throughout the coat.  It makes them shine and helps protect them against the elements.

If you really do groom daily and you keep your brushes clean, you’ll be set with just those simple tools.  However, everybody takes a holiday now and then and occasionally there are occasions that warrant an extra special sparkle.  Even in the winter your steed can turn heads.

My favorite curry.  The big teethe break up dirt well.
The small side is perfect for faces and hard to scrub spots like the hocks.

First, start with a solid grooming session.  Your currying should bring any dirt, dandruff or scruff to the surface.  Now you have two options.  If you’re into disposable and you don’t have easy access to hot water, baby wipes are your friend.  Baby wipes are the best dust remover hands down.  They also work wonders on manure stains.  Scrub-a-dub and use a new one frequently.  They are also great for finishing touches like wiping out your horse’s nostrils and wiping out under his dock.  I also use my baby wipe supply to keep the inside of my horse’s blankets clean.  I just use a wipe or two to wipe out the grime that accumulates around the shoulders.  Just a little attention to detail can really help prevent shoulder rubs.

If you have hot water, you can save a bit of money by “hot toweling” instead of using baby wipes.  I like to work with two buckets of hot water and several towels.  Most people like to use dish washing gloves, but I’ve never been nice to my skin, so I don’t bother.  Basically you wet the towel in hot water, wring it as dry as you possibly can, they scrub an area.  When the towel gets to dirty or too cold, rinse it in the second bucket of water, wring it out, dunk in the first bucket, wring and repeat your scrubbing.  It takes a long time and a lot of water, but if you’re careful to get the towel dry enough each time, the horses seem to really enjoy it.  It’s kind of like going to the spa and having a hot towel yourself.

Finally, if you want your fussy pony to look her best, you might consider making her just a little less fuzzy.  Besides a tidy bridle path, your clippers can trim up the billy goat whiskers (if your horse lives outside, I wouldn’t cut the feeler whiskers on his nose, just the long shed hairs under this jaw bones), outsides of the ears, and the fetlocks.  One note of caution with fetlocks, if your horse is prone to scratches, don’t take off all the hair.  Clip carefully leaving a little peak at the back of the fetlock.  This helps precipitation drip off instead of pooling between the heel bulbs leading to all kinds of unpleasantness. 

I let my horse’s manes grow a bit longer in the winter.  We don’t have a lot of shows in the area and none that require braiding.  I think just a little extra fluff can help keep them warmer.  I certainly don’t like going out without my stocking cap!  If you’re trying to be presentable, don’t hesitate to even things up a bit, or even pull to about four inches.  If you want to leave it long – the French braid is your friend!

For finishing touches, wood putty matching your horse’s hoof color can fill in cracks.  Baby powder dusted lightly into white leg marking can lighten them up a bit, and don’t forget the importance of clean tack!  You’ve scrubbed the horse; don’t ask him to work in dirty equipment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a lot of work, but pretty much anything in life worth doing is.  So, bundle up and get scrubbing.  The cleaner they are before you ride, the cleaner they’ll be when you’re done.  Grooming is good for them, good for you and more than a means to an end.  Hopefully by Spring you’ll have a Fresh Perspective on grooming.

 

 

Reaction

“A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually.  One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.”   - Rita Mae Brown

There is a lot of reacting in the world right now.  We’re reacting to tragedy.  We’re reacting to prophecy.  We’re reacting to holiday sales and reacting to holiday stress.  Why are we so compelled to react? 

Reaction, an action performed or a feeling experienced in response to a situation or event.  Reactions are a response to physical or mental external stimuli.  We can’t avoid outside stimuli.  Perhaps for brief moments we can escape, but invariably the world will get through.  As compelled as we may be to try and create a utopia around ourselves, it won’t happen.  Something will always upset the balance.  Our horses will throw shoes and people we’ve never heard of will make decisions that leave gaping holes in our lives.  We can’t control the stimuli but we can actively prepare.

Reactions tend to be negative.  Since a reaction is a response, something came first.  You’re already one-step behind.  Navigating life a step behind leaves us feeling like we’re always running to catch up.  It isn’t much fun and lately it has a host of people feeling helpless and out of control. 

With horses and life, you know that someday something is going to go “wrong.”  You’ll arrive at the show late, missing half your tack, the wind blowing, and Mr. Sleepy breathing fire.  Will you react by blaming the weather, the traffic, your work schedule or your lack of planning, all while hyperventilating or will you have a plan for how to deal with the circumstance?  That’s the difference between reactive and active thinking.

You obviously cannot plan for everything.  There will be unimaginable circumstances, but if you’ve practiced dealing with situations, your brain is going to handle a new “crisis” a little better.  Take the example of Mr. Sleepy hopping off the trailer breathing fire.  How will you handle the situation?  Will you react by getting upset at the circumstance or will you actively take steps to make the circumstance better?  Stay positive.  There is a lot of power in visualizing your desired outcome.  So Mr. Sleepy is dashing around the dressage warm-up like a barrel horse, ride him like you want the ride to go.  Post slower, breathe deeply, smile!  You’ll be amazed how well actively choosing your ride can make it a reality.

Due to current world circumstances, I wouldn’t feel right ending without mentioning that there are situations that we have absolutely no control over.  No amount of preparation will prepare us for them because they are unimaginable.  However, that doesn’t give us a free pass to react out of pain or anger.  Be actively compassionate, but look to the future not the past.  There is so much more I could say about choosing to be an active thinker both in and out of the saddle, but for now I'm going to leave you with this.  Be active in your life.  Make a difference to those around you, because you choose to, not because they do something to prompt it, and that’s my Fresh Perspective.

Yo-Ga Girl!

Time to hit the gym.

What?!?  I thought the holidays were a time to slack off a bit.  Let yourself go.  New Year’s is the time for gym busting.  Well, with a swim suit clad vacation looming and the horses on their self-inflicted winter break, I figure this is the perfect time to start the toning.

Normally I rely on manure bucket slinging (64 calories per stall), wheel barrow pushing (63 calories every ten minutes), hay bale hauling (20 minutes – 249 calories.  Straw 20 minutes – 181 calories) and the ever present hike for the horses (ten minutes – 40 calories) to help maintain my fitness, but this season we’re stepping up our game in the saddle which means I need to step-up my game outside of the tack.

It’s nothing fancy and it’s fast.  I have to fit my “work-out” in on my lunch break, which makes me feel a bit like wonder woman by the way.  I dash to the gym, do a presto-quick-o change of clothes, a set of twenty-five decline bench sit-ups, elliptical or stair climber for a mile, then a second set of sit-ups.  That leaves just enough time for either stretching or a quick cool down walk followed by a shower.  It might not be glamorous, but it’s a great way to refresh your brain before heading back to work.

After a couple of weeks, I’m really starting to enjoy the routine.  Hopefully the horses like the idea, because unbeknownst to them, they are getting ready to hit the gym too.  Nutmeg can throw her shoes and Admiral can spend every day recreating his mud pack, but when dinner rolls around its yoga time!

Nutmeg and I ventured to a new chiropractor over the weekend.  There were a lot of little things nibbling at me telling me she needed to visit the chiropractor, but I just couldn’t get to the big city to see our previous expert.   It was an informative afternoon and she didn’t beat around the bush.  She pointed out that compared to her neck and hindquarters, Nutmeg’s back is pretty weak.  Enter horsey sit-ups!

If you’ve ever goosed a horse by getting cold water under their tail before they were ready, you’ve seen a horsey sit-up.  You can stimulate that tucking motion without the cold water enema by stimulating a point on either buttock about a hand's with from the top of the tail.  We will also be doing belly lifts and shoulder stretches.

I’ve always said Nutmeg was a stiff horse, but our discussion with the chiropractor was really enlightening.  Just like I desperately need to stretch every day to keep my mobility, Nutmeg needs similar stretching to keep her limber.  There are a plethora of loosey-goosey horses that stay limber all on their own, but Nutmeg is not one of them.  Since I’ll be taking her to the gym each evening, Admiral is going to participate as well.  Stretching and muscle building will compliment his recovery program very well and it’s something we can do even when he insists of remaining covered in mud.

The holidays are a great time to take a break.  Your horses need time to relax and let down just as much as you do, but that doesn’t mean you have to turn them out into the wild and turn a blind eye for a month.  There are lots of ways to take a break, without losing all the hard work you put in over the year.  Spend time working on ground manners, go for some leisurely trail rides, groom, groom, groom and my Fresh Perspective for this winter, pick up the habit of horsey yoga!