Exercise with Heike Kemmer

Olympian rider Heike Kemmer shows us exercises for riding. Narrated in German, you can still get a lot out of it, and it's fun to watch a rider in goofy positions...

Laser Amulet 17.5 medium setting

I tried this saddle -- what a great-feeling saddle, with thinline padding on the seat and underside. I wanted it to work, but it didn't feel super stable on his back no matter where I adjusted the tree. Ri seemed to like it well enough, but it slid forward onto his withers within ten minutes. To be fair, the county does that too, but I have a mattes pad to keep it in place...

Dressage instruction is hard because...

I'm learning a few hard truths about myself these days -- I'm not much of a student, apparently.

Maybe I'm just not a good listener. Maybe I can't multitask.  Maybe it's hard to hear over the buzz of the arena lights. Maybe I'm just not a quick study.

Maybe all of those things are true. In a recent instruction session, I got the impression that the instructor felt I was not engaged in the process. I dunno, maybe I wasn't. Here's how I see it.

1. There are always two conversations going on -- the instructor, and the horse.  
2. I am certain that instructors want riders to think for themselves -- they don't want to have to tell you to do every little half halt.
3. Given that you have to listen to your horse. You're sitting on 1200 lbs of muscle, how can we not give them priority? Their conversation seems much more immediate than the distant voice in the background.
4. As a result, my fastest response is about 3-5 seconds behind in responding to the instructor. Or all too often, I miss the instructor comment entirely. 

Am I alone in this?

 How many times have you felt exasperation when an instructor says "circle at E" -- and by the time you've processed it, you're passing E? I feel dense as a post, and I can only imagine how much my instructor would like to throttle me by the neck. 

I rode in a clinic over the weekend. It was useful, and I received a clear message about what I need to work on as a rider. I failed to deliver on the goods when the clinician asked for things, though -- IMHO it was partly nerves and partly the problem of dueling conversations (described above).

The clinician is not at fault; other people manage. My only defense is that failing  to deliver the goods is not the same as not trying. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak!

Shackles and chains: Why I use chains

Thanks to sam_j98 on Flickr

One of my readers recently sent me an email asking why I used chains over both my horses, even Harv who she observed seemed "mellow" and "old." Harv might take issue with that last descriptor! He's mature.

It's true that most of the time they're pretty easy boys. The keyword here is "most."

Most, often, usually, seldom -- but not "always" not "never"
Some people don't think a loose horse is a big deal, and "most" of the time it isn't. The farm where I board is basically safe but here are a few things to think about

• It is near a curvey, tree-lined, county road that sees a lot of traffic. 
• There are drainage spouts (with sharp-edged PVC pipe) and holes around the property. 
• We are adjacent to a small church where children play regularly. 
• There are animal holes everywhere.

If this doesn't spark some dark imaginings of what could happen, I'll be a bit more explicit and expansive...

• I have seen a horse get injured on a drainage ditch pipe -- he severed tendons on the metal corrugated pipe, and it was a career-ending injury for a spectacular working hunter. 
• Horses that run out on the road not only endanger themselves but carloads of unsuspecting people. A loose horse can equal a lifetime of litigation.
• Imagine a big scared horse running into a yard full of unsupervised kids. More litigation, to say nothing of psychological toll on everyone involved if a child is harmed.

 Now a bit from the personal histories of my boys...

• The barn owners where I board are energetic, vibrant people but they are in their seventies, and they handle my horses often. One of the owners was bringing Ri in from the pasture a year or so ago, and there was a freakish event that no one could have predicted. Ri bolted and left  the barn owner on the ground with a broken arm.
• I was walking both my horses out to the pasture one evening, and out of a treeline a herd of deer came running right at us. Riley would have been okay, but Harvey (my "quiet oldster") had a meltdown, and Ri followed suit. I dragged them back to the barn but it was scary. Had I not had the chains on they both would have been long gone.

The blog reader who emailed me was nice but in her questions there was an opinion too -- she even said point blank that a chain over the nose is a crutch. I disagree. Chains are floppy and harmless until you need them. These animals weight thousands of pounds and when they get loose you have to think about a) an injury and b) the fact that you have a galloping liability on your hands. 

Jumping form critique!

So normally we look at dressage talent, but this jumping video merits a look, I think. My thoughts? Built a little downhill, and a little dive-y at the jumps, but overall I'm impressed!

You kind of wonder what prompted this, doncha?

Hennycam: a new twist

 As much as I love Hennycam, I always missed seeing the other perspective -- that of the spectator. Take a look at the new split-screen that gives both views! Henny is a cross-country machine -- the confidence he has in himself and his rider are evident here--there is never hesitation, never a bauble. He is beautiful isn't he?  I get teary when I watch stuff like this...

My birthday: A horse for every decade

Today is my birthday -- the big 5-0! It seems fitting to share a beautiful horse for every decade (my favorite being the first one). For more eye candy go to Performance Sales International Auction.

Oh, and pssst! It is a year for b-day milestones. Harv turns the big 2-5. He's been rocking the world of eventing, dressage, and international finance for a quarter century! What shall we do to celebrate?

Sir Caramello  (check out the tail!)

Sir Donnerhall X Feiner Stern

Dai Jin

Don Frederico X Weltmeyer

South Coast (3 years old!!!)

Sir Donnerhall X Londonderry

Saphira
St. Moritz X Ehrentusch

Der Designer
DeNiro X Weltmeyer

Cartoon FEI pony! I want I want...

This pony reminds me of a certain cartoon animal from The Lion King. Anyone care to guess which one? He is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE. I want I want.

Sport horse conformation: Saddle position

I'm now evaluating Riley's back, trying different saddles, and experiencing the new problem of  "saddle sliding forward."  Believe me that was never a problem with the Harvster (shown left at about age 11). He has a nice big wither, but I always felt like I was sitting in the back seat :-).

What is saddle position?
In sport horse breeding, one of the points of the conformation evaluation is "saddle position."  I figured it was an assessment of the back and wither area, but I always wondered what exactly was being evaluated. I posted my question to the COTH breeding forum. and...

I got  a great answer from TrinitySporthorses.com:

"They are mostly referring to the withers. They should be of moderate height and gently sloping into the back. Flaws would be mutton withers (very flat), withers that come to an abrupt end (rather than flowing harmoniously into the spine), extremely high withers that could make saddle fit very difficult. In a sport horse, you want the line of the front leg to be well in front of the withers, as this will make them lighter on the forehand. In some registries, the score for saddle position is part of the score for shoulder. ."

 What does a good saddle position look like?
You can see a photo of an awesome Bridlewood Hanoverian mare below--she got a "9" for saddle position...

Read more about Liandra: Check out them dapples (to say nothing of the neck)!

Here is a UK stallion that got a 9 for saddle position...

Dark DeNiro, UK Stud

At the moment, Ri seems straight-shouldered and muttony (when standing, at least). A friend is loaning me a thinline pad to see if the saddle will be a bit more stable...

I dreamed I crashed through the judge's stand

Have you had that sort of dressage dream? It is the horsie equivalent of walking into class naked or finding out you're signed up for a class that you've missed all semester. It seems a little far fetched, but...

Guess what, it really does happen!

And I guess the announcer was speechless.

Saddle fit: Pointless exercise (but fun, maybe)

Amitybee asked for photos -- well, I don't have photos of MY saddle right now but I recently tried a friend's Black Country Vinici, 17.5. Although I LOVE Black Country saddles and monoflaps in general, this was not a perfect fit. Anyone care to critique the fit? I have no dog in the fight, am not using the saddle, it's just an interesting exercise!

Totilas babies: Taking a peek into the crib

Well, I've looked at some of the Totilas offspring on Youtube. Here are a few of the nicest ones IMHO. They're lovely. When you consider that he's probably being bred to top mares (for that stud fee you're going to use your best lady horses), and all the hype, you'd kind of expect something special-special. I wonder if Totilas was a real stand-out-wonder-baby or if he grew into it.

I don't mean to knock the youngsters -- they're very elegant and obviously big movers, and who knows what they'll grow up to be?  You can see the Totilas  body type seems to be passed on.

For sheer antics, this one is fun to watch...

Riley: Whither the wither?

War may be hell, but saddle searching is somewhere along the way there. Recall that I was whining about the clinic last week. Yes, the clinician was pretty candid about my problems, but you know, for all my complaining I think he really helped me. But there is something I haven't told you (yet).

The real bummer was that he thought Riley looked like he might be hurting somewhere. Backsore, maybe.

Great.

I sort of knew this. Ri has been girthy and nasty when I saddle him up, but saddle fitters come out every few months and say the saddle is not a bad fit. It does slip forward. I wanted to hold out till he stopped growing before addressing it.

I don't think it can wait. So here I go again. Saddle fitting purgatory, don't want to buy new and have his back change, but don't want to buy used (again) really. And I have no $$$ to finance this. At least not any $$$ that is not earmarked for retirement.

I work with a great saddler, and she asked me for pix of Ri "naked." Look at his little baby back! Whither the whither? He looks like a yearling, and that sleepy baby face cracks me up.

Don Frederico mare

I especially love this girl's walk -- she's a total Marilyn Monroe -- but her gaits are so lofty and regular for a youngster! I love the low-key way she is being ridden -- it looks like she is choosing her own pace, not being pushed into it. I have to admit to loving the big-show trots, and I suppose they are okay for doing a video or at an action. At home, schooling, this strikes me as a very nice pace. Besides,   this mare doesn't need to be run off her legs to be impressive.

Illustration of "the auction trot"

To me this pretty much defines the auction trot. The Europeans seem to have this kind of video perfected. The mare here is THREE YEARS OLD; she's pretty game, I like her sensibility.

Now compare this with the typical sale video made in the U.S. She's not the same type of horse as the one above, but I think this shows her off to advantage.

Snippet from an instruction session

I think this snippet is a nice summary of where I (and frankly most people, at least in the U.S.) need to go in their riding. It's a good way of describing the goal of dressage at its most basic level, too.

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

"Where seldom is heard a discouraging word..."

This does not describe my last clinic on Ri-Ri. I have a confessional personality, and would post even the most unhappy of  scenes--but Bob did not get much footage. Last time he videotaped he filled up the HD drive on the cam, and I could barely retrieve/edit the humungous file on my little Macbook are. This time I suggested he break the session into segments. Well,   he only shot a minute or two at a time, and he missed a lot. I'd intended to share a whole segment of sitting trot work but it didn't get captured.

 I'm not sure there is anything with sufficient context, or sufficiently instructive, to share. Some of it's a bit harsh -- wish he hadn't captured that. I learned a lot but not all of it was easy to hear. I'll write more later...

Nice horse and nice video

I love the narrative, the shot selections, everything about this video. This lady shows us how it's done...

What do I like about how the video was produced? Start with classy intro followed by immediate action footage -- not five minutes of grooming, mounting, walking, or worse yet a "photo slide show." I enjoyed the narrative about the horse and what he does, the quality of the video, the music that is not overpowering, the informal yet professional tone overall.

Movie pitch-men: "Where do they get these ideas?"

So, while waiting for War Horse, Bob and I watched previews. I thought about one of my favorite movies, The Player with Tim Robbins. You see a lot of "movie pitch men" in that movie, saying things like "Think Out of Africa with Julia Roberts!"

Well, as Bob and I watched a preview that made me think of movie pitch men. This preview:


I can't imagine the hutzpah it took to pitch that movie. Can you imagine that conversation?

"It'll be great! Imagine the wide appeal... Ancient Rome...gladiators....flying Herculean superhero.. green aliens...monsters in various shapes and sizes.....starships. How can we go wrong?"

It's good to touch the green, green grass of-- January???

Harv has a big winter coat that he doesn't really need right now, with temps of almost fifty degrees! He's making do, and one of the big compensating factors is that there is green grass to enjoy.

Nice mare: different but nice

Plainer headed, but I love the outline and the steady contact; the rider is awesome, check out the posture and those hands-that-never-move at the trot. What do y'all think?

The Harvster falls down

It's true, he did fall, while GRAZING of all things. 

How'd that happen?

It was fifty degrees Saturday, and sunny. I took him out to the "back forty" of the barn property, where the summer grass was never mowed -- long, tall fallen over, I thought he'd love it. It turns out he had trouble with the long stems, and I turned him back toward the barn. There are shallow ruts where the tractor comes by, and he stumbled into one and fell completely to his side, legs in the air, like a big bug. It knocked the breath out of him, and he made that awful 'falling horse' sound--you know, like a dinosaur? 

Is he okay?

Fortunately, the surrounding ground was soft and grass-covered. It was, as Bob said, an old man's fall. He got right back up, looking momentarily alarmed, but well, there was grass around, ya know, and soon he was munching again.

One of the reasons I retired Harv is that he seemed a tad unsteady on his feet. He still gets a head of steam and charges around, and he always seemed fine under saddle--but just walking out in the pasture, down the aisle, etc., he'd start to trip and catch himself.  Seeing that fall Saturday, I do think I made the right decision.  I've done some of those neuro tests on him, the tail pull, etc., but he reacts normally to those.

Here he is continuing his grazing tour. Looks pretty good for a horse that can't eat hay, don't ya think?

Finding a source of local chopped hay has been a godsend.

Mr. Smith goes to UPenn

Bob and I had an 11:45am appointment at the  Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine at UPenn. The drive and directions were easy-peasy, and it took us perhaps an hour to get there. The building is nothing short of spectacular, all glass and chrome and sunlit. We were in awe.

We waited almost an hour to meet with our specialist, but it was well worth it. The dermatologist, a young, attractive African American woman, gave us the kind of thoughtful, informed examination we were hoping for. Here is the outcome...

• It's unusual for psoriasis to start this late in life (sixty years old).
• It's unusual to have this kind of full-body, big-red-guy reaction without some kind of precipitating incident. Usually this kind of thing is a response to  something that taxes the immune system -- the flu, a serious injury, major surgery, exposure to something toxic, etc.
• Bob isn't sick enough to indicate he has a scary underlying disorder--the kind I found described in the medical literature. His version of exfoliative dermatitis was no picnic, but at least he didn't feel sick. People with the serious underlying disorders are very, very ill. 
• Topical treatments aren't recommended for him, since it would require an all-over-body treatment.
• She went over the available medications and the pros and cons of each, then she indicated her recommended treatment, which was Humira or Enbrel.
• She recommended a specific dermatologist to work with in our area.

Bob's skin is about 50% better now, but the doctor said he might have a flareup again when the prednisone wears off. He does not feel comfortable going to the gym, or to his favorite activity, contra dancing, while his skin is this way. He hopes to try some natural remedies --including homeopathy -- before going the prescription route. The prescription drugs are powerful, and the side effects are scary to me, too. But I hope he does not wait too long before starting more conventional meds.

Oh, and he needs to stop smoking. But that's another blog post.

A little luck, a little velcro

This isn't a new video, but it's a classic. Talk about grace under pressure, on the part of both horse and rider!

War Horse: A Review

Bob and I went to see War Horse tonight. 

The <7 word summary
Too much war. Not enough horse.

A review for horse people
Those hoping for horsie realism will be disappointed. 

• The movie started with the birth of Joey the War Horse. I laughed out loud at the many-weeks old foal that they tried to pass as a newborn. Bob even exclaimed, "they squirted a 2-month-old with water."
• Joey's early training started out fairly promising, with the boy Albert averting his gaze from the horse as he offered him a bucket of grain. The equiscenti know that horses, being prey animals,  don't like to be stared at. This horse training realism falls apart in the subsequent scenes, where Albert taught Joey to ground tie by explaining verbally, in English, what he wanted. That happens a lot in this movie.
• Also, Joey learned to accept a harness because Albert put it on first. Hmpf. Horses don't learn through observation, studies have shown that.

Oh, I could go on, but most of the fake horse behavior does advance the plot and establishes Joey as a heroic, altruistic character.  The real problem with the movie?

Too much war. Not enough horse. Very, Very Formulaic. I could predict several scenes ahead what was going to happen. And the war scenes were looooong.


One interesting thing was how many scenes were reminiscent of Gone with the Wind. Did anyone else feel that way?

Both as an equestrian and as a movie-goer, my advice is to give this a pass. Let's wait for the next movie, WARmblod Horse!

What a face! What a name!

What a looker! But is his name really Schmuckstück???? I guess it's German for "jewel." In the next few days I'll be posting some young prospects for our review. which one would we pick?

This is such a refined horse, and there is a fair amount of activity in front and behind. I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more elasticity, but maybe they're just pushing him a bit too much to bring it out....

Devotion: A stallion

Love the activity!!! This licensed Hanoverian stallion is by Don Frederico.

Padre as Breyer Horse Model: Giveaway Alert!!!

This is a heads up -- as soon as the Padre Breyer Model becomes available, I'll be offering a giveaway.

I need to think about what folks should do to enter -- it's usually a story or idea (maybe "what/who should the next breyer horse model be?"). Any ideas?

Congrats Patti for helping Breyer to craft this gorgeous model, I love his mane, and having seen him in person I can say the likeness is amazing!

Bob update: A whole lotta dunno

May 2011

The Bob situation (you remember, the full body skin reaction, Erythroderma,  I told you about?) has seen some action, but no definitive answers yet. 


Has his situation improved? Well, yes and no. Bob sees some slight improvement in his arms/shoulders, which is true, but his midsection and legs are still pretty bad. He is on Prednisone (prescribed by the ER doctor). The local dermatologist he saw yesterday said the Prednisone was a bad idea -- when the dosage ends this Friday he will likely have another flareup. Based on his skin biopsy she has diagnosed this as psoriasis and is recommending he try several kinds of drugs -- all with icky side effects. I've asked him to hold off till we see the dermatologist at UPenn.

Is it an allergy? The allergist he saw said no.


Is it an immune system reaction? Well, I think psoriasis is an immune system thing, but is it a bigger problem than just that? We don't know. 

File under Scary Things.  Maybe 15-20% of people who have his symptoms (Erythroderma or Red Man syndrome)  end up having some serious underlying disease -- a lymphoma, or lung cancer, or leukemia are common. I'm thinking that in these cases the disease must be fairly advanced to elicit that kind of full body reaction, but that's just an educated guess. Bob's bloodwork looked good, but then again he's a smoker. I want to rule the possibility of the scary things ASAP, but it'll have to wait until the UPenn visit on Monday...

I'm hanging a lot on our visit to UPenn's Perelman Skin Center.  Looking foward to getting some answers!

Mules in dressage

Great gift for horse owners (a post-gift-analysis)

Harv thinks this is a nice alternative to his usual monogram.

I got some great gifts this Christmas -- a bronze purse, horse videos, an Ariat shirt, a vintage show jumping poster, and more.

File under "give this next year!"
One fun and practical gift really stood out this year. Struggling to buy for your horse-loving friend? Think halter tags! I now have one for Ri, one for Harv, and to make a "larger" gift give more so that your recipient can use them to tag blankets too. Add a cell phone number on the back, and folks will be able to identify you as the owner!

Thanks to the person who thought to give me these. Harv likes his -- he thinks it makes him look distinguished. I think the looks especially nice on his coincidentally new halter. Riley has a show halter with orange piping and his tag is on that one, not his muddy pasture halter.

As Charlie Sheen would say, "Winning"

New Year's Day is a good time to take stock of the year, and what better way than to think about our competition year? And while it's not "all about winning" it's hard to deny the feeling that goes with being top of the heap. This photo was taken at a year end award banquet held in our area this year, and it captures that unique, wonderful feeling -- the look on her face is not so much happy, but triumphant (or maybe she's just determined not to let that long ribbon touch the ground)...

Stephen Crowers Photography