Once, Twice, Three times a... whole lot worse.

I rocked up to Pony Club on Tuesday about 2 and half hours early. I was (as to be expected) the first one there and spent an hour messing around with Jack until other people arrived. That’s the problem with living quite a bit down the motorway when your rally starts at 6’oclock. You’re either stuck in traffic for hours if you want to get there at 5 or you have to leave early so you don’t get in the traffic and consequently hang around pony club for a few extra hours. It comes down to whether you want to wait in traffic for a couple of hours or wait at pony club for a couple of hours. I know what I would rather do.

It was the Dressage and Show Jumping night at Pony Club. I tacked Jack up all nicely in his white saddle blanket and white boots. I’ll have to post a picture of him in this gear because he looks great. One of the instructors who teaches some of the younger kids commented to me on how beautiful he was (we get this a lot). It turned out that she was to be our dressage judge and when Jack and I presented ourselves to her she said “Oh I can’t wait to see this horse! He is so beautiful” to her writer so hopefully we started off on the right foot. Our test wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was sure he was going to do his tiny mincing steps but he actually had quite a reasonable trot and canter which I was very happy with. His circles were wonky and he always came late into the canter but I took him deep into all the corners (except one) and collected him back into me. It wasn’t a beautiful test but it was much better than I anticipated, especially since we have done no dressage schooling at all.

I took him to the show jumping next. My friend Simone and her horse Rocky were jumping when we arrived (clear round) and she wandered over to talk to us. Since she had finished she decided to go back and un-tack. Jack tried to follow and we I told him not to, he reared. A big rear. In the middle of quite a large group. I threw myself forward and he came back onto the ground. He tried it on a couple of more times but I told him off good and proper. I decided after that not to do the show jumping. It sounds like I’m wimping out but it seems when I’m getting close to my... er time of the month (sorry TMI) I tend to get more nervous on horses and find it harder to deal with their antics. It usually only lasts for a couple of days but If something happens during those days I don’t deal with it calmly and easily like I do the rest of the time. It happened a couple of years ago when I didn’t want to canter. I had been riding for 3 years and had cantered and galloped hundreds of times but suddenly I was too scared to canter on a horse. Again, it only lasted a couple of days but it was still there. So I didn’t think it would help either of us if we did the show jumping. I’m not ashamed of my decision because I really think that if something else had gone wrong I wouldn’t have been able to handle it and we both could have ended up getting hurt.

The next day I went to see Jack with the good intentions of working on refining our transitions. He had other plans. He was dead lame in the same foot. It was really bad this time. He could barely walk and obviously it hurt a lot. He didn’t want to put any weight on the heel of his foot. Since the stone bruise should have been healed by then I thought that he must have an abscess close to his heel. It was already getting quite late so I opted to soak his hoof in Epsom salts and call the vet today. Unfortunately I had to work so my awesome dad said he would go out to see the vet. The vet confirmed my suspicions. He had an abscess in his heel. So she cut the abscess out and drained the whole. She wrapped it up with poultice and bandages and gave him a tetanus shot. He is not on antibiotics at the moment because she thinks that if we let the hole drain and change the bandages daily he shouldn’t need them. She estimated that he would be alright to ride in a week which falls in nicely with when the farrier is coming to see him. So hopefully this will be the end of his lameness saga in that leg. I was hoping that our first official competition would be at the end of this month but I doubt he will be fit enough what with all this time off. I will have to find another competition for us to make our first. I’m just thankful it wasn’t a major problem and didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. Because really I need both of those limbs to ride.

I promise to put more pictures up!!

Horse Records Take II

Late last year I wrote a post about Horse Records and how important they are to anyone who owns a horse. You can read it here. I strongly recommend that you read this post as it has a lot of useful information in it and can really help you and your horse.

After an influx of emails and general interest requesting templates and originals I decided it was high time to re post the Horse Information File Template. Instead of using Google Documents, which I never really liked and though looked totally unprofessional (not that I'm a professional at all but I like to take pride in my work), I hit upon a new hosting site called Scribd which has a much better system for uploading Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, Plain Text, HTML, Powerpoint, Excel, JPEG and other documents.

You can access the Horse Information File Template by clicking here which will take you straight to the document and you can download it by clicking the download button on the toolbar once you get there.

Horse Information File Template - Upload a Document to Scribd

If you would rather me email it to you, click on the "Email Me" button under the Contact header on the sidebar and I'll get it off to you as soon as possible.

I've also made the template available on the sidebar under the "Horse Resources Section" along with a "Day Before Show Checklist" and "Horse Show Checklist" which you may find useful.

I hope this helps you all. Let me know if you use it and what you think about it as I would love to hear feedback.

Hoof Update

Reds foot has been dug into to get the nail out and to leave a hole for drainage. We're hoping an abcess doesn't appear otherwise things are going to get even more complicated. His hoof is bandaged and hes wearing a boot.

Well we rushed up to the Saddlery Warehouse this morning to pick up a boot and some flyspray for Red. The flies were annoying the heck out of him so something had to be done. On they way up Auntie Sue called to ask that we bring bandages too because Reds one was starting to come off. Unfortunately they didn't have flyspray, only fly repellent wipes. We rushed to the pony club with our bag of goodies and started working on Red.

We soon realised that the boot was far too small to fit over his hoof with the large bandage on. So while I waited over an hour with Red my mum and Auntie went back to the saddlery shop and got the next three sizes up. When they finally arrived back I wrestled with Red to get the shoe on and then went through the complicated process of tightening it.

Then it was time for the injection. The vets had shown my aunt how to give the injection but she wasn't too keen on actually sticking the needle into him. She told me how to do it and one of the other pony club mothers stood with me for moral support. I held the needle next to his skin for a couple of seconds trying to compose myself while she gently encouraged me along. I took the plunge (haha) and then pulled the syringe back to make sure I hadn't hit a large blood vessell (I didn't) and then injected the penicillan in. It took awhile as the liquid was quite thick. Thankfully Red barely battered an eyelid.

Hes on twice daily injections, with twice daily feed laced with pain killer. The vet will be coming to see him on Monday, and thats when the injections can stop. Since the rest of my family won't inject him it will be up to me. I'm supposed to be going away on Saturday and I've offered to stay home and do it, but the general consesus is they want me to go and they'll pay someone else to do it.

Breaking News!

Big dramas today Auntie Sue went up for a ride this morning only to find Red had a twisted shoe. He was incredibly lame and we spent ages trying to get hold of a farrier to come pull it off. Unfortunately none of the local farriers could be contacted we called the vet. Two vets came down and pulled the shoe. A nail had entered the sole of his hoof and they had to do a bit of digging to get it out. Red didn't like that.

Red was given a tetanus shot and he's on a course of antibiotics. I'm leaving in 10mins to buy him a boot to protect his hoof. Poor boy, its been one thing after the other lately. I'll keep you updated on his condition.

Survive summer with your horse

For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere the Summer season is just about upon you. Soon you'll be packing away the heavy coats and jumpers and pulling out the the cotton tops and sunscreen. Here are some tips on surviving the heat and everything else that comes with it.

• Buy some horse safe flyspray. Trust me you are going to need it. When the flys are many horse are continually stomping their feet to get rid of the irritating little insects. Frequent stomping can lead to tendon, tendon sheath problems and it can also loosen shoes since horses don't have the same twitch reflex as they do on their upper bodies. Fly Masks are also a great peice of equipment to keep those blasted things from irritating your horses eyes. For more on keeping flys away check out this article.
  
  
  
  This poor guy is covered in flys.
  
  
  
• Are your rugs ready? You may have already put your Summer rugs on your horses but if you haven't pull them out of storage now and check them over. If they need repairing send them off to be done or if you know how to do it yourself get onto it. Send your Winter and Spring rugs off to be washed, mended and waterproofed ready for next time. Also make sure your fly sheets and show rugs are in good repair.
  
  
• Exposed, unpigmented white and pink areas of a horse like the nose can get sunburnt easily. Protect your horse with sunscreen or a nose shade.
  
  
• Along with the rain and sun of Spring and Early Summer along comes Laminitis aka Founder. Horses and ponys who have suffered from laminitis before are more likely to get it again. By clicking on the link above you will be taken to a great page the explains all about Laminitis including causes, signs and treatment. Its a good idea to check it out.
  
  
• Have shade available in the paddocks. This can be anything from trees to a stable. I hear of many people putting fans in their stables and their horses have access to them at all times.
  
  
• Hot and humid weather can be hard on all horses, creating extra stress on the cardiovasicular system which can result in heat stress, and dehydration which can then lead to heat stroke and even death. If a horse fails to regulate its body temperature or when there is excessive fluid and electrolyte loss from sweat, serious medical problems can occur. If your horse is sweating a lot make sure you keep an eye out for heat stress signs such as:
  - Temperature above 40C (normal is 37.2C to 38.2C)
  - Rapid heart and pulse rates that don't recover after exercise.
  - Rapid breathing that doesn't slow after exercise
  - Less sweat then expected
  - Hot skin (this might progress to cold skin if the circulation shuts down)
  - Signs of dehydration which include loss of skin elasticity, sunken eyes and
  ceassation of urination.
  
  If you suspect your horse is suffering from heat stress call your vet immediately. Get your horse into the shade in a well ventilated area and sponge or spray the large blood vessles along the inside of the legs and belly with cold water.
  
  Make sure cool, clean and freash water is always avaliable to horses during the summer months. Some horses are very picky about dirty or foreign water. If you think your horse isn't drinking enough try adding mollasses to his water. Some horses need electrolytes during the summer, especially if they are being worked hard and sweating eccesively. Talk to your vet about adding electrolytes to your horses diet. If you can try exercise your horse in the cool of the morning or evening. As well as being nice on your horse it can be nice on you too.
  
  
  
  
  
• Travelling with your horse in summer requires some special consideration. Heat can be unbearable in a trailer or float. If you can try driving in the early morning or evening, or even possibly at night. Offer water frequently to your horse. Avoid covering him in the float. If you are going on a long trip with your horse, let him off the float to have a break or two, take off his hot horse boots so he can air his legs. Plan to miss the traffic, its going to be much hotter sitting in traffic than if your driving at 70km an hour along the motorway.
  
  
• The ground is going to be hard in the summer so remember to think about your horses legs. This is especially important if your horse is old or has bad joints, or if your jumping or doing cross country. If you think the ground is too hard, especially at competition just don't ride. Your horse could be far more worse off if you do decide to ride.
  
  
  
• Make sure you cool your horse down properly after a ride. Walk him around for about 10 minutes and then hose him off. Scrape the excess water off and hose him again. Again scrape the excess water off. If you don't scrape the excess water off it can make your horse hotter.
  
  
• Look after yourself. All you New Zealanders are going to remember those old slip, slop and slap ads. You know 'Slip on a t-shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat'. Well that informatins still counts, when your riding or working with your horses in the hot sun make sure your being 'sun smart'. If you don't follow these rules your going to get sunburnt which can then lead to melanoma. Trust me you don't want this. I know a few people who've had this and they've had to have big chunks of flesh cut out. Also make sure you have a water bottle on hand at all times. Don't let yourself get dehydrated. Be smart!
  

So there you have it. Look after your horses this summer. Now that daylight savings is here you'll have more time to ride then ever! Happy trails.

Survive winter with your horse

For those of you in the Northen Hemisphere you are just about embark on the cold, windy, stay in bed, put on a warm jacket and give your horse a heavier rug season i.e. Winter.

Because Winter is never nice I thought I might give you some tips on making it more enjoyable. Since Auckland doesn't get snow I'm not sure if many of these ideas will work in a place that has a lot of snow, but you can take what you want and adapt it to your own enviroment.

• Get your horse rugs sorted: Pull your winter rugs out from storage and make sure they are clean, mended and waterproofed(hopefully you did this last spring when you took them off). If your like me you'll send your rugs off to be cleaned, mended and waterproofed as soon as they come off the horses so you don't have to worry about it when the time comes to use them again. Store your summer and spring/autumn rugs for the new seasons in a rodent free, out of the way place. Don't be like one of my friends and leave the rugs hanging on the fence throughtout the seasons. She often goes to put them on her horses when its time for the change only to find they are mouldy, rotting and cannot be used. This wastes money and time.
  
  
• Be ready for the cold: Make sure you have sutible horsey type clothes ready for winter. I always make sure I have waterproof jacket and pants, warm jumpers, stockings, wooly socks and fingerless gloves ready for my journeys into the elements to ride Red. I'm thinking seriously of investing in some Ear Warmers. Make sure you have a pair of good fitting gumboots. They will save your riding boots from the mud and a good fitting pair means they are least likely to come off when the mud is really sticky (trust me you don't want this).
  
  
• Dentist visit: Get the horse dentist out to do the annual matinence of your horses teeth. Horses can have a difficult time retaining a healthy weight when they can't grind their food effectively. If your horse is a hard keeper over winter he may have dental problems.
  
  
  
  
  
• Try something new: If your horse is a dressage star why don't you have some jumping lessons? It will be a breath of freash air for your both. Are you an eventer? Try a short competitve trial ride. Maybe go on a hack to the forest or beach with your friends! It will not only be lots of fun, but it might give you the motivation to get out and ride when the weathers cold. Whatever you do don't get stuck in a winter rut.
  
  
• Set your goals: Winter is a great time re-evaluate where you are and to make some new goals for the next season. Set yourself short term goals to work on over the winter and also medium and long term goals to complete in the future.
  
  
• Get fit! When you can't get out to the barn or paddock to ride why don't you pull out the pilates video or jump on the tread mill instead. Keeping fit and eating healthy foods during the winter will help you stay in top gear for the next season.
  
  
• Be a spectator: If your horse is turned out or its just too cold to go riding try to improve your riding skills by watching someone else. Treat yourself to some new training videos or tag along to a friends lesson. We can all learn from others no matter what level they train out.
  
  
• Train! If you are not turning your horse out winter is a good time to train without the constant interruptions of shows. You'll have time to work on those small problems that always loose you marks in the dressage test. Maybe you'll have time to finally do that trailer training you've been wanting to do for so long. Winter is also a perfect time to work on ground manners that may have lapsed over the last season.
  
  
• Tack room clean up: Winter is the perfect time to clean out your tack room, re-organize it and make sure everything is in tip-top condition. Any tack you don't want you could sell on Ebay and perhaps buy something you've been wanting for awhile.
  
  
  
• Groom to high heaven: Horses that have been turned out still need regular checking and grooming. Daily grooming will keep your horse more comfortable. Hoof care is especially important in winter as foot abcesses, wall cracks and seedy toe are more common in winter.
  
  Hopefully some of these help you get through the dreary winter season. Stay warm, have fun and happy riding to you all.
  

Saturday at the Pony Club

Having a horse and being part of a horsey community is amazing. The friends you make, the horses you ride and the experiences you have are really something special.

Yesterday we had a working bee at pony club and the jobs we did really could have come straight out of 'The Saddle Club'. When I arrived it was well under way, it took me awhile to get myself together yesterday thanks to a really good book that I didn't want to put down.

Recentley our pony club has bought a lot of new equipment. We've bought a bunch of new pipe arenas for ODE's, a new cross country course is going to be installed soon and we bought new show jumping jumps! The SJ jumps needed to be painted so thats what we did yesterday. The poles had been layed out on the hitching rails and most of them had been painted by the time my friend Emily and I had arrived (she was late too). But we picked up a paint brush and helped finished them off. I put a little bit of paint on Emily's cheek and needless to say she needed revenge. She first got me on the hand, then on my ear and a little bit of hair and then on my eye!!! I had a stripe down my face that made me look like a Native American in war paint.

We were then given the job to paint the trotting poles with black oil paint. Which was rather unpleasent since oil paint is hard to get off. I got some on my jeans :( and all over my arms which no amount of scrubbing will take off. Em was wearing shorts so she got spots all over her legs. While that was drying we went up to Westgate (a shopping centre) to get some lunch. We didn't get all the paint off and we got some weird looks from people in Subway.

When we got back to Pony Club we finished the black poles and went for a ride. I got to try out Reds new shoe! The farrier opted to put a heavier shoe on his club foot as recently hes been throwing that shoe a bit. He also it said it would help Red to canter on his right lead as thats one of our big problems. So first I did some jumps on him and he would canter on his right lead while we were doing that and I was really pleased, I thought that problem was over. But alas when I cantered him in the open he was back onto his left lead! But at least its an improvement! He wouldn't even canter on the right lead when we were jumping before that shoe was put on.

Emily jumped on him while I went on her baby Harlequin. Shes a great rider, especially compared to me and she gave me some good tips on getting him going well. When I got back on him I tried them out and he was a gem! Thanks Emily!

I also wormed Red by myself yesterday which I was very proud of! Red is a terrible wormer. He hates the tube coming anywhere near his mouth! But I worked with him calmly and managed to do it! He does stick his head straight up as soon as he tastes the wormer which makes it difficult to administer the full dose in one go, so I had to do it three times till it was all in.

Anyway today I'm going for a ride and giving him a bath (another thing he hates) but he's got some bad dandruff that needs dealing with.

Horse Records

I'm a big advocate of keeping up to date records of your horse. I consider it an important part of horse ownership. I keep records about Red. Not just medical records but records on what he eats, his dental work, his farrier work and a lot of other information. As well as showing me when things like his next dentist visit must be it also can provide important information to my vet if he suddenly falls ill.

Almost everything about Red is kept in this file. And its readily accesible to anyone in my family. I keep one copy in my personal records, one in the telephone box at our house and one A5 size record in the car. My auntie also has a A4 size copy and a A5 copy for her car. I update it anytime new information comes in and I print it off once a month.

I also include pictures of Red in the file. Pictures of his markings, his brandings, a side on shot and also a head shot. I also ensure someone from my family is standing in one or two of the pictures so that if he gets stolen we can prove he is ours. These photos are updated every 3 months.

I encourage everyone to create a file for their horse(s) if they haven't already done so.

Blogger doesn't support PDF files so I'm unable to post a link to my records here but if you want to see how I do it, you can email me at katieandred@yahoo.co.nz and I'll email you my file and also a template of my file so you can work off that.

Here are also so good links that I found helpful when doing my file:

• For the Record: Keeping Medical Files for Your Horse This site gives you an idea of what you need in your records
  


• Know your horse's vital signs This site shows you how to take vital stats of your horse
  


• Preventing Horse Theft And this one gives you some good ideas about keeping those theifs away. Its a PDF file.

There are also a few programs that you can purchase off the internet that are desgined especially to help horse owners. I can't reccomend any of these as I prefer to make my own but if you have a huge stable full of horses it might be worth looking into.

So good luck to you and your horses! It really is a good idea to keep up to date records.

Happy Riding.

Some news...

So it was Pony Club sign up day on Saturday. I went along, paid my money and applied for grazing for Red and Phoenix. Things with Phoenix are just sitting on hold at the moment until I find out whether he can come onto PC grazing earlier then the rest of the summer grazers. Honestly I think the committee should let him considering they have let 4 other horses onto the PC land recently and I have a valid reason for Phoenix coming early. The committee meeting is this week so hopefully I’ll be able to give you some good news. If the committee says no Phoenix will go to graze at my friends house for a couple of weeks but its going to be a nuisance since I’ll have two horses at two different places with limited time!

We were also given a new PC key at sign up. We have had heaps of attempted break-ins and we think a few of the old keys are in the wrong hands. Its not like everyone has access to the club rooms. The key is just for the front gate and the toilets. In one of the attempted break-ins the people rammed the gate with their car and smashed it to pieces, they then tried smashing one of the clubrooms door down but didn’t succeed. There are some mighty big dents in the door though. The front gate had to be replaced. Also there has been a sneaky old man stealing our old arena turf! The bark has been piled up in a massive mountain to the side of the arena and we use it for heaps of the muddy spots around the grounds. Twice recently while my dad and I have been there in the early mornings a old man drives in with his white 4-wheel drive and trailer and starts shoveling the bark into his trailer. Once its full he drives away. Now my dad and I always thought he was ligit. I mean how many people would steal bark when someone was watching! But nope! That old man is a thief! I happened to mention it to my friend’s mum who is on the committee at PC and she was like “What?!” So I told her all about him, how he comes in after us and leaves before us. So she checked it out and he has no permission to do it! Luckily some alarm bells rang in both my dad and my own head and we wrote his number plate down… but I had to take it off this site in case he saw it and I got sued for defamation. So hopefully he’s been reported to the police!

In other news it was wet, windy and cold today which means one thing: Red did not want to be ridden. But sometimes we have to do what we don’t want. Luckily I’m so in tune with my horse that I know he’ll most likely spook on days like this because he’s a High Strung Horse . So I was ready. He spooked a few times but they were nothing to worry about. Except one time I was changing my stirrup length when there was this MASSIVE bang which gave ME the fright of my life. Red instantly felt my fear and he then spun but it was all good. He settled after that. I take all responsibility for that spook, the rest was his fault.

If you have been reading the national news in NZ, you’ll know that Equine Flu has broken out in Australia. All horse imports and exports have been banned in and out of New Zealand. The races have closed down, as have many other horse related sports and clubs. For those who don’t know New Zealand and Australia are the only two countries in the world with a large equine population that has not had the Equine Flu. That means all our horses have no immunity against it, which in turn means if it gets to New Zealand it will spread rapidly through the equine population. Other countries with large equine populations have annual vaccinations against the Equine Flu. I’m guessing that once this crisis is over it may start to become implemented here. I’m not going to tell you all about what the Equine Flu can do, but if you are interested you can read about it here . I’m praying it won’t make it to New Zealand. The horses that have been imported from Australia recently are being tested but it will be awhile before we find out if the virus is here or not. Let’s just hope it doesn’t arrive because it means many will have serious problems with our horses and also we won’t be able to compete! I am so looking forward to this season and I don’t want anything to stop Red and I having fun. And if any Aussies are reading this I’m sending all the healing warmth I can from here! I hope your horses get better soon!


Heres a pic of the happy, healthy Red. He better stay this way.


Until later!

Girth Galls

So it looks like Red has got the start of some girth galls which is realllllllly annoying! He's never had them before so I'm thinking hes getting a little bit fat at the moment with the horses now getting hay every day and that his girth is getting too tight! So I guess its some bareback riding for us until the lumps go away.

He is also starting to get a infection kind of like rain scald or mud fever on his back so I'm going to give him a iodine wash, I don't want it spiraling out of control like it did when I first got him. He had scabs filled with pus the size of a golf ball all over him then. Its all the silly winters fault I tell you! I can't wait for summer! And the new season, its going to be an amazing season I can feel it already!

I went to a sleepover on Fri night with some of my PC friends. We started these sleepovers this off season and they are always fun. They usually consist of lots of junk food, movies, silliness and no sleep. We had a video camera this time so we did lots of stupid home videos of us fighting. The next one is at Emilys house in a few weeks hopefully, so I can't wait!

Well I shall be off now! I've got some Blue Heelers to watch :)