This morning I went out for the first time in almost a week to feed breakfast to horses and donkeys. I've (and my daughter) been sick with a nasty cold and my husband has been doing the entire roster of chores - he is now getting his turn with the cold and so it's time for us to get back to our regular routine again.
The horses were totally silent as I mixed tubs. As I've written before, there is usually an entire symphony of sound outside the feed room door as I mix and prepare the feed tubs. At first I thought they were all just preoccupied in paddocks, but then I realized they were all in the barn - but they were truly not making a peep.
So I called out: You are all so quiet today!
Salina instantly did a big whinny. Then one by one they all began to do their usual routine. Keil Bay and Salina are what I call the Hanoverian chorus. The rest add their own sounds to the mix. It was good to be back in the barn, and with the temperature going up to the 60s today, I felt almost naked. No snow pants, no Lands End parka, no hat, no gloves.
Although the cold was gone, what we have now is one big muddy mess. Six inches of snow is melting into already fairly saturated ground. I don't remember seeing standing puddles in the arena before, but there were some up at the shady end.
All the equines needed grooming, so after doing some tidying up in the feed/tack room, and doing some mucking, I came inside for a snack and something to drink, and then went back out to the field with the grooming bucket.
Cody enjoyed his grooming so much that when Keil Bay approached, Cody pinned his ears at him! I have literally never seen Cody pin his ears at all, but at Keil Bay! I was shocked.
Keil Bay wanted his grooming done as a sort of progressive party. We started in the front field, passed through the paddock for a spell, and ended up in the back, standing at the arena gate while my daughter rode Cody and then her pony. Keil Bay went into a sort of trance as I used the tiny black currycomb I have for horse faces. It is rubber and very soft. I made little circles all over his face, and even did his eyelids, which he loves. He dropped his head, closed his eyes, and heaved a big contented sigh. We did a little bit of ground work in the arena, and then I moved on to groom the lovely black mare.
Rafer Johnson did not want to wait, so he wedged himself between me and Salina, and I got a nice rhythm going of a few strokes on Salina and a few on Rafer Johnson. He ended up putting his entire head into my arms and gave me a super-duper donkey snuggle. I think he missed me.
I noticed that Salina's neck muscles seemed tight and hard, so I pulled out one special grooming tool that is pretty hard rubber with lots of "prongs" and began to use it gently but firmly across all her major muscle groups. She lowered her head and began to chew softly as I worked. Finally I pocketed the tool and used my hands to massage her neck from poll all the way down through her shoulders and onto her forelegs. She really loved this, and I could feel some difference in her muscle tone as I worked. I think it's time for a professional massage for her - but for today she was happy to get what I could offer.
As the sun went down on the last day of the year, I was in the barnyard with Keil Bay, Salina, and the donkey boys, who kept sneaking into the hay tent every time I turned around. Cody and Patch Pony were under the barn shelter eating hay from piles.
It was a mushy, muddy mess out there, with some areas still slick with melted snow that has turned solid again during the nights, and other areas that are melted down but have big chunks of frozen snow/ice/mud lying about.
Hearing the sound of equines eating hay, snorting softly, obviously okay with whatever the weather has given us, I was very happy indeed to be with them, spending the last day of this year with such a loving, generous, funny, and talented bunch of equines.
Happy New Year! Enjoy this last day of 2010!
billie hinton’s camera-obscura:
life and lessons on November Hill Farm
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
foxhunting scenes
Although I have not been given permission to post some of my favorite foxhunting images (the ones that feature my lovely daughter) these are some of the photos from a recent hunt.
I am struck by how timeless the images are. Except for the horse trailers, the scene could be from years ago, or yesterday.
The hounds in the kennel:
A closer look. They look so peaceful to me, and the two in the back look like the rear guard.
Riding out, hunt masters first.
And the field rides behind:
This little guy had to stay behind - he's too cute for words with those flying nun ears!
A view from the front, with the whipper in and hounds leading the way.
The hunting photographs have tempted me - I wonder if the Big Bay would mind the dogs and the horns and all the horses?
I have to confess, I also love the attire. It's amazing how elegant the women look with the black coats and stock ties and gloves.
I am struck by how timeless the images are. Except for the horse trailers, the scene could be from years ago, or yesterday.
The hounds in the kennel:
A closer look. They look so peaceful to me, and the two in the back look like the rear guard.
Riding out, hunt masters first.
And the field rides behind:
This little guy had to stay behind - he's too cute for words with those flying nun ears!
A view from the front, with the whipper in and hounds leading the way.
The hunting photographs have tempted me - I wonder if the Big Bay would mind the dogs and the horns and all the horses?
I have to confess, I also love the attire. It's amazing how elegant the women look with the black coats and stock ties and gloves.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
would you use Gumbits to alleviate teeth grinding in your horse?
As usual, I've been on my morning meander through the internet, catching up on various blogs, doing the clicking that leads me from one thing to another thing to yet another, and enjoying all the information that unfolds as I click and read.
Today I was quickly caught up in a post about the use of Gumbits, a small "treat" that is apparently being used to deal with the grinding of teeth in horses.
It caught my eye because Keil Bay has occasionally ground his teeth under saddle. His previous trainer both told me about it and demonstrated it when I first looked at him. He didn't grind during any of my trial rides, and as it turned out, he has ground them with me three times since he came to live with me, 6 years ago. All three of those times were when I was riding in a lesson, following the instructions of a trainer. My sense was that when pushed hard to do an exercise (not the same one), he resorted to the grinding.
He also did the grinding fairly regularly when ridden by my trainer.
My response to the grinding was to ride him in such a way that did not lead to tooth grinding. That led me to go against the recommendations of my trainer at the time: instead of entering the arena with contact and warming him up doing walk, rising trot, and canter, I came in and rode him on the buckle using walk, sitting trot, and then a big fun canter. Instead of insisting that we drill movements over and over, I began to leave the back arena gate open and take little "mini-hacks" in between our arena work. By accident, I discovered that he loved to pop over baby jumps, and so we used that as a way to insert some fun into the arena work as well.
As it turned out, my doing these things not only led us away from the grinding of teeth, but led to the most beautiful, light, relaxed, classically correct rides I've ever had on any horse. And for Keil Bay, it led to a trust that I would not ride him straight into resistance and then rely on his kindness and general safeness to wrestle him through a movement, but would do everything I could to ride him into relaxation, and only then would we try some of the more difficult movements.
But still, even given all that, even given the fact that he has not ground his teeth in at least two years, I wondered this morning if I'd had the Gumbits to use when we were dealing with this, would I have tried them?
This is what the company says about the product:
GumBits was conceived and developed by two Atlanta women in a quest to aid in the daily training of their dressage horses. By promoting the salivation process, they eliminated the teeth grinding which often can occur during the intense training of high performance sport horses.
Not only does GumBits encourage chewing activity, trigger salivation, and eliminate teeth grinding, horses love the sweet taste. GumBits are made of all natural FDA approved ingredients and is safe and palatable.
I tuned in to the line: eliminated the teeth grinding which often can occur during the intense training of high performance sport horses.
What is it about the intense training of sport horses, in particular dressage horses, that leads so often to teeth grinding? Apparently the Gumbits are being used to address the grinding of teeth, to create "foam" at shows, and to make the training sessions more pleasant.
My take on teeth grinding is that it is a symptom of something. Dental issues, tmj issues, ulcer issues, pain/discomfort issues, or perhaps the only way a horse can "resist" a style or session of riding that is physically or psychologically (or both) uncomfortable.
Does using Gumbits therefore mask a symptom we need to be paying attention to? What does it say about the show scene if creating foam via a treat in the horse's mouth is used as a way to make it appear the horse is "on the bit?" (don't get me started about the whole "on the bit" thing)
I can easily imagine Keil Bay loving a sweet treat. And maybe it would cause him to salivate and forget all about whatever it is that pushes him to grind when being ridden a very specific way. But if I give him the treats, am I simply masking a bigger, deeper issue?
Where is the line between creating a dressage "facade" and actually doing the slow, kind, layered work of training that leads to a relaxed, happy, balanced horse that both looks AND feels good doing his job?
Certainly, to a large degree, the answer to this question depends on one's riding goals, as well as one's philosophy about what constitutes solid horsemanship. While I know what my own answer is, I concede that there is no one right answer - we are all where we are on our paths, and so each person's answer might be different.
The critical thing is that we each think through scenarios like this regularly, to examine our goals, to look at, step-by-step, the pros and cons of what we do in our work with horses.
Often we do things simply because it's what the majority of riders and trainers do. And we use the justification that, hey, it works.
I maintain that by questioning things, and most importantly, by listening to our horses, and letting our horses be our trainers, we end up with a much greater depth of knowledge, and even more, a much greater connection to the animal carrying us around on his/her back.
I would love to know what readers think about this.
Today I was quickly caught up in a post about the use of Gumbits, a small "treat" that is apparently being used to deal with the grinding of teeth in horses.
It caught my eye because Keil Bay has occasionally ground his teeth under saddle. His previous trainer both told me about it and demonstrated it when I first looked at him. He didn't grind during any of my trial rides, and as it turned out, he has ground them with me three times since he came to live with me, 6 years ago. All three of those times were when I was riding in a lesson, following the instructions of a trainer. My sense was that when pushed hard to do an exercise (not the same one), he resorted to the grinding.
He also did the grinding fairly regularly when ridden by my trainer.
My response to the grinding was to ride him in such a way that did not lead to tooth grinding. That led me to go against the recommendations of my trainer at the time: instead of entering the arena with contact and warming him up doing walk, rising trot, and canter, I came in and rode him on the buckle using walk, sitting trot, and then a big fun canter. Instead of insisting that we drill movements over and over, I began to leave the back arena gate open and take little "mini-hacks" in between our arena work. By accident, I discovered that he loved to pop over baby jumps, and so we used that as a way to insert some fun into the arena work as well.
As it turned out, my doing these things not only led us away from the grinding of teeth, but led to the most beautiful, light, relaxed, classically correct rides I've ever had on any horse. And for Keil Bay, it led to a trust that I would not ride him straight into resistance and then rely on his kindness and general safeness to wrestle him through a movement, but would do everything I could to ride him into relaxation, and only then would we try some of the more difficult movements.
But still, even given all that, even given the fact that he has not ground his teeth in at least two years, I wondered this morning if I'd had the Gumbits to use when we were dealing with this, would I have tried them?
This is what the company says about the product:
GumBits was conceived and developed by two Atlanta women in a quest to aid in the daily training of their dressage horses. By promoting the salivation process, they eliminated the teeth grinding which often can occur during the intense training of high performance sport horses.
Not only does GumBits encourage chewing activity, trigger salivation, and eliminate teeth grinding, horses love the sweet taste. GumBits are made of all natural FDA approved ingredients and is safe and palatable.
I tuned in to the line: eliminated the teeth grinding which often can occur during the intense training of high performance sport horses.
What is it about the intense training of sport horses, in particular dressage horses, that leads so often to teeth grinding? Apparently the Gumbits are being used to address the grinding of teeth, to create "foam" at shows, and to make the training sessions more pleasant.
My take on teeth grinding is that it is a symptom of something. Dental issues, tmj issues, ulcer issues, pain/discomfort issues, or perhaps the only way a horse can "resist" a style or session of riding that is physically or psychologically (or both) uncomfortable.
Does using Gumbits therefore mask a symptom we need to be paying attention to? What does it say about the show scene if creating foam via a treat in the horse's mouth is used as a way to make it appear the horse is "on the bit?" (don't get me started about the whole "on the bit" thing)
I can easily imagine Keil Bay loving a sweet treat. And maybe it would cause him to salivate and forget all about whatever it is that pushes him to grind when being ridden a very specific way. But if I give him the treats, am I simply masking a bigger, deeper issue?
Where is the line between creating a dressage "facade" and actually doing the slow, kind, layered work of training that leads to a relaxed, happy, balanced horse that both looks AND feels good doing his job?
Certainly, to a large degree, the answer to this question depends on one's riding goals, as well as one's philosophy about what constitutes solid horsemanship. While I know what my own answer is, I concede that there is no one right answer - we are all where we are on our paths, and so each person's answer might be different.
The critical thing is that we each think through scenarios like this regularly, to examine our goals, to look at, step-by-step, the pros and cons of what we do in our work with horses.
Often we do things simply because it's what the majority of riders and trainers do. And we use the justification that, hey, it works.
I maintain that by questioning things, and most importantly, by listening to our horses, and letting our horses be our trainers, we end up with a much greater depth of knowledge, and even more, a much greater connection to the animal carrying us around on his/her back.
I would love to know what readers think about this.
Monday, December 27, 2010
me and my kindle
I'm inside with a cold watching my husband roll the hay barrow down the hill. The sun is out today, and although it is 30 degrees with winds blowing in (up to 35 mph by the afternoon) the geldings were out playing this morning and we decided to give them some hay out in the sun, on top of the snow, and give them a few hours out of their blankets so they can run and roll and get some sunshine all over their bodies.
My son had this cold last week, then husband got it, and daughter. Finally, on Christmas day, after most everything I needed to do had been done, it kicked in for me.
Fortunately my Christmas gift was a Kindle, which I've been eagerly awaiting. I've had the free Kindle for Mac software on my desktop for months, and although it's great for doing research or checking formatting issues, it's not all that much fun to slide my desk chair into place and settle in for a good read.
I tried putting the software on my old Mac laptop, but it's just too old to support this new technology.
And I spent a long weekend with an iPad a few months back, buying and reading most of Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom, enough to know that reading a book on an electronic device was vastly more appealing than I ever thought it could be.
Since Christmas morning when I opened the Kindle and powered it up, I have carried it around the house with me, charmed by its lovely habit of putting a new image onto the screen each time I put it to sleep. It's like a mini-magical Etch-a-Sketch, and who knew that putting a device to sleep would be so much fun?
I finished Freedom, bought Emma Donaghue's Room, am nearly done with that, bought Caroline Leavitt's Pictures of You for next read, and have downloaded samples from about 10 different books I've been wanting to browse.
The Kindle is light in the hand, easy on the eye, and the ability to shop for a new book and have it in my hand in less than a minute is like some kind of childhood fantasy come to life.
I thought I would be sad about the lack of color, but to be honest, as someone who adores black and white photography and pen/ink sketches, the black and white images on the Kindle are so charming I really don't care about the color.
That's not to say I won't be first in line when Amazon puts out their color version.
Love, love, love it - more than I can say.
My son had this cold last week, then husband got it, and daughter. Finally, on Christmas day, after most everything I needed to do had been done, it kicked in for me.
Fortunately my Christmas gift was a Kindle, which I've been eagerly awaiting. I've had the free Kindle for Mac software on my desktop for months, and although it's great for doing research or checking formatting issues, it's not all that much fun to slide my desk chair into place and settle in for a good read.
I tried putting the software on my old Mac laptop, but it's just too old to support this new technology.
And I spent a long weekend with an iPad a few months back, buying and reading most of Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom, enough to know that reading a book on an electronic device was vastly more appealing than I ever thought it could be.
Since Christmas morning when I opened the Kindle and powered it up, I have carried it around the house with me, charmed by its lovely habit of putting a new image onto the screen each time I put it to sleep. It's like a mini-magical Etch-a-Sketch, and who knew that putting a device to sleep would be so much fun?
I finished Freedom, bought Emma Donaghue's Room, am nearly done with that, bought Caroline Leavitt's Pictures of You for next read, and have downloaded samples from about 10 different books I've been wanting to browse.
The Kindle is light in the hand, easy on the eye, and the ability to shop for a new book and have it in my hand in less than a minute is like some kind of childhood fantasy come to life.
I thought I would be sad about the lack of color, but to be honest, as someone who adores black and white photography and pen/ink sketches, the black and white images on the Kindle are so charming I really don't care about the color.
That's not to say I won't be first in line when Amazon puts out their color version.
Love, love, love it - more than I can say.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
snow day!
No need to take any photos - the blog itself is exactly what it looks like here right now. We woke up to 5 inches and it is still snowing - gorgeous landscape but of course we know what it means to horse folk: extra mucking, a week of mush and mud, and sometimes, a few grumpy equines.
Inside the house I am grateful for the two LL Bean Waterhog door mats I finally got - should have gone ahead and gotten 2 more for the laundry room!
Corgis are bringing in balls of snow on their bellies every time they go in and out. Mystic is outside in bliss - he is one snow-loving feline.
And the power is off and on, so I'm going to go ahead and hit send before it catches me.
Will close with one of my favorite poems from childhood - which reminds me what I wanted so much way back then, and now have, and thus I can end on a grateful note:
Inside the house I am grateful for the two LL Bean Waterhog door mats I finally got - should have gone ahead and gotten 2 more for the laundry room!
Corgis are bringing in balls of snow on their bellies every time they go in and out. Mystic is outside in bliss - he is one snow-loving feline.
And the power is off and on, so I'm going to go ahead and hit send before it catches me.
Will close with one of my favorite poems from childhood - which reminds me what I wanted so much way back then, and now have, and thus I can end on a grateful note:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
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