it's going to be a long weekend

My husband and daughter have set forth on a photographic expedition and the chores are overwhelming me after only one day. It's amazing how much work it is when one person has to do it all.

The equines were absolutely nonplussed yesterday evening when I put on fly masks and opened the gate to the front field. They got a few hours of bliss and I could barely get them to come in for dinner so I could close the field off and move them onto the back again for the night. Keil Bay came in when I called - and finally Salina and the donkeys begrudgingly came, but Cody and the Little Man HID from me and had to be retrieved with a flashlight.

I went to bed last night with an ice pack and an NSAID, remembering something the vet said to me a few years back: Bute is your friend.

Maybe he was talking about ME and not Salina!

This morning I was awakened before dawn by Moomintroll on my chest, pushing at my face with his mitten paw (he's polydactyl). My husband does the early morning cat, Corgi, and hay for equines feed, but today I had to drag myself out of bed and do it myself. I confess that I simply opened the gate to the barnyard and let all the equines come in to the round bale until breakfast.

I may be exhausted but I will be very popular!

the FEI comments, and I have a few questions

This afternoon I received this comment on my recent FEI post about the new guidelines for stewards. Malina, the FEI press manager, has commented here before and I'm glad she has returned to shed some light on the guidelines.  Her comment:

Hello Billie,

The new Guidelines for Stewards were issued on 15 April 2010; they were announced that day and published on the FEI website. I tried to post a comment on your blog to alert you to the fact but it never appeared. That might be because I included a URL, I've had that problem before.

In any case, I wanted to clarify that, according to the new FEI Guidelines for Stewards, any head and neck position achieved through force or aggressive riding is unacceptable for any length of time. Even a head and neck position achieved harmoniously and without force can only be maintained for a maximum of ten minutes.

Also, just to confirm that the FEI has stated categorically that the use of rollkur/hyperflexion is unacceptable and the Stewards will intervene. The diagrams that will be provided to Stewards will illustrate what head and neck positions are acceptable. The new Guidelines will be implemented from 15 May 2010.


All the best,
Malina (FEI Press Manager)


My questions:

How are force and aggressive riding defined, exactly? I have not yet seen anything revealing how this will be determined by either stewards or judges.
  
For example, the riders in the photos HERE.

The rider in blue shirt on black horse and rider in tan/black shirt on bay horse appear to me to be riding with force. The arms are behind the riders' torsos, which are torqued back, the curb shanks are nearly horizontal, the horses' muzzles are nearly touching chests, mouths gaping open, and horses' tails are not at all relaxed and swinging. Is this not force and/or aggressive riding? Is it not the perfect illustration of rollkur/hyperflexion?


Secondly, I am very curious and eager to see the diagrams that to my knowledge have not appeared anywhere as of this writing. When will they be revealed to the public? It's pointless imo to refer to them if they are not able to be examined.


As you can tell, I am very frustrated about the way this recent announcement was handled by the FEI. It feels like the assurances that were made have not been honored, and with the current brouhaha concerning McLain Ward and Sapphire, it also feels like the FEI's inconsistency in addressing these issues across the board is veering wildly from no response at all (Patrik Kittel and Scandic, on videotape) to targeting a horse who by all accounts appears to be in sound jumping form and has now been completely disqualified in a whirlwind of "protective action."


What is the bottom line here? If rollkur/hyperflexion is no longer allowed, then why am I seeing photographs of Anky et al doing it as recently as this past weekend? 


To my knowledge there was no intervention by stewards.

The above horses are not happy athletes. The riding does not meet the current FEI guidelines. Why is it being allowed?


If all this is going to change, in a 180 degree turn for the better, on May 15th, I will be thrilled. But I see no evidence to think this is going to occur. I sincerely hope to be proven wrong.

more FEI insanity

I've been following this story all week but haven't posted anything about it. But HERE'S A LINK to a site that has really followed the various press releases, interviews, etc. and presents them in sequence.

Worth a read.

My latest feeling is that there should be some legal action put into play against the FEI. For both not protecting horses when it should AND for targeting riders and horses inappropriately.

Disgusting.

light and shadow

Another of my daughter's photographs - until she gets her own site up and running, I will continue to post her work and enjoy the fact that I'm off the hook for taking my own!!

I love this one because of the contrast between the light and shadow, and the quality of the light coming through the leaves shaped by the dark trunk and branches of the trees.

I have many, many negatives of photographs I took simply exploring the way light falls onto different surfaces, and the patterns it makes coming through various objects and filters. It's so much fun seeing her explore some of those same things.

Today is a gray day, and I notice as I look out the window that with gray you lose both the brightness and the shadows. Gray brings everything to the middle.

Interesting because it works that way psychologically as well. We all need some gray for balance, but the highs and lows we experience are like light and shadow - they seem to go together, the contrast being part of what defines them.

All my novels explore light and shadow in the lives of the characters, most of whom have to learn about their shadows in order to find the light. It's a fascinating journey, navigating the shadows, following a path through darkness into something lighter, and being able to enjoy the light because of the shadows that surrounded it.

Yesterday evening I mowed the weeds, mostly buttercups, in the front field, while all the equines grazed the front yard. Because of the way we have the front enclosed, as a temporary grazing area, we monitor things closely when the horses and donkeys are up there. A dark grey was beginning to roll in anyway, but as evening approached the front began to get murky, and the young, round evergreens that seem to sprout up everywhere looked like figures looming beneath the trees. The horses are more alert when in the front yard, attuned to the same sights and sounds, but in a different way because of the smaller space they're in.

Between the buzz of the mower and the overall dimming of the day around me, my biggest connection to the world at large was the movement of the horses and donkeys. I discovered that even when I was mowing away from where they grazed, I could sense their movement behind me. I'm not sure how - it was not by sight or sound, but a distinct change in the air around me that caused me to turn and look, and I'd catch sight then of the shifting herd.

It was nearing dark when I finished up, and drove through the gate at the top of the field and on through the darkened barn aisle, the headlights of the mower cutting a vague path as I passed through. The horses were happy enough to be driven up as a herd by my husband, back to the security of their regular areas.

In the barnyard, the feel was different. We all let our guards back down, and let the night and the possibility of rain take us over.

a cat and a quarter horse

My daughter captured this photo of Mystical Kit and Cody the other day.  It offers an up-close glimpse of the feline-equine connection here, and I love the perspective she chose.

Each day when the horses get their grass time the cats seem to cluster up front - on the porch, in the grass, in the front beds where they can hide and watch. The horses are slightly less interested in the cats when they're grazing, but they are aware of them and often choose to interact.

We're having a lovely week weather-wise. The temps are near-perfect, and the pollen is gone. We could do with some rain, but otherwise, it's glorious weather.

Sometime around 5 p.m. every evening, the chorus begins. The geldings begin to stroll up and down the paddock, awaiting the moment when the gate opens and they can get to the good stuff. Keil Bay issues his most musical, inviting whinny, over and over again - his version of a siren song - hoping that I'll not be able to resist and will let them down early.

Yesterday Cody went into a full gallop between the dry paddock and the green stuff. But as he neared the gateway to the green, Salina flagged her head and told him NO.

Cody went from flat out gallop to dead halt in about 3 feet of space. I realized a few moments before he stopped that he was going to, and I held my breath a little because with his PSSM issues, this is a move that would completely test his ability to use his hind end muscles.

I half expected him to dig in with his front legs and stop in the unbalanced, uncoordinated way you sometimes see horses do, or to wheel around instead of stopping - but he didn't. He came underneath himself and sat into the halt as nicely and as controlled as I've ever seen. This isn't a move we do under saddle here - gallop to halt - so I've not really seen him do this quite so clearly. In the open field he's more likely to dodge than halt.  Seeing him do this made me happy - there's no doubt his PSSM is in good control if he can stop that way.

It also lets me know that he's ready to step up in his work under saddle. I think a few jumps are in his future!