Guiding Hula: Part one--Getting To Know You.

Hula’s first professional training session was more of a “getting-to-know-you” ride.  Much can be determined from the first ride on a new horse.  An experienced trainer can assess how much training the horse has had and in what discipline by how the horse responds to different cues.  The trainer can also discover past injuries or sore spots that the horse may have by how she moves or if she avoids certain movements.  Just like humans, horses have directional preferences, i.e. right-handed/left-handed and will tend to be more supple when turning to one side and more stiff or reluctant to turn in the opposite.

 

Behavior and personality traits are also determined by the first ride.  Is the horse willing to follow her riders cues even if she doesn’t quite understand what is being asked or does she balk and refuse to do whatever is asked?  Does she follow willingly throughout the ride or does she try to end the ride with bad behavior?  The latter usually indicates the skill of the previous rider.  Young or inexperienced riders tend to stop riding when the horse becomes uncooperative or behaves badly, thus teaching the horse that they determine the length of work time instead of the rider.  Many good horses end up in bad places because of this.  

 

Jeremy’s opinion of Hula was that she was rather green or inexperienced inside the ring.  She was stubborn and determined to call the shots, only trotting when she felt like it and flat-out refusing when she didn’t.  

 

Unfortunately for her, Jeremy was similarly determined to be the one in control.   There were several differences of opinion but Hula eventually conceded to her rider’s insistence.  Prior experience would make one think that Hula had not had such an insistent rider in a while but the diva in her enjoyed most of the attention she was getting.  

 

Jeremy was quiet, offering lots of new experiences but making her as comfortable as possible.  His requests were, at times unfamiliar to her but he praised every attempt to follow them.  He would ask and then make it easy for her to get the answer right.  Confidence is an excellent reward.  

 

After a short amount of time Hula’s first training session was over.  She had done everything that her trainer had asked of her and had received lots of praise and rubs for her efforts.  Horse and rider left the ring feeling tired but happy. 

Guiding Hula

This fall I spent some long overdue time at Carousel Horse Farm in Casco to enjoy the beautiful fall foliage in the peak of color and to catch up with some of my favorite horses. 

Traveller, Rose and Big John, Rockette, Cricket and Vista were all busy with trail rides out to view Mount Washington and the fall foliage from the trail while Abby gracefully pulled wedding carriage along the road for those guests less inclined climb into a saddle.   

Standing at the hitching post was a newcomer to the Carousel herd, a spectacular solid-colored registered Paint Horse named Hula.  Hula came to Carousel this summer to join the other trail horses as they carry guests through the woods and pastures on guided trail rides.   

Hula, a young horse, seemed a bit unsure of herself with the novice riders but soon gained confidence under the direction of the more experienced trail guides.   As trail-riding season is winding down decisions are being made on which horses to keep for next season and which ones would be better suited for a different job.  With Hula’s petite stature of 14.2 hands, rich solid black coloring and her sweet, quiet disposition it was decided that Hula has more potential as a 4-H pony with her own special person.    

Fortunately for Hula, Carousel horse farm has several skilled riders that can train her in the basics of what she needs to know to succeed.  Jeremy, a newcomer himself to Carousel Horse Farm, has agreed to guide her along this journey and I will be following Hula and Jeremy as together they unlock Hula’s full potential. 

I'm Back In The Saddle Again

The "saddle" being my comfy office chair, writing about my wonderful, crazy, horsey life. 

Yes, I am back after a long summer hiatus in which I have gotten my son off to college and my daughter successfully started in her senior year of high school!  In the midst of my busyness I have also spent a good amount of my time at Carousel Horse Farm, one of my favorite places in the world.

In the coming weeks I hope to fill you in on a bunch of horsey happenings both personally and at the farm.  I have added a few things to my bucket list—we will see where that leads! 

I will be doing some traveling as Molly and I check out various colleges that have equestrian programs.  Touring collegiate barns should offer plenty of blogging fotter. 

Christmas is coming and that means at least one carriage ride in beautiful Freeport, Maine courtesy of Freeport Carriage Company as well as my third (or is it fourth) annual trip to Woodstock, Vermont for the horse and carriage parade during Wassail Weekend and a visit to the Vermont Horse Country Store. 

Hang on, dear readers!  There is so much more to come!

Exercising--Horsey Style!



Brad, always covered in mud!
Recently adopted through Open Gates Equine Rescue

In my recent blog I discussed the subject of being a plus-sized rider.  I encouraged my plus-sized friends to give riding a try but to be sure that your body is fit enough for equine activities.  I believe I even vowed to hit the gym to tone up before the fall riding season arrives but then I thought, “Hey!  Just owning a horse provides a better workout than Planet Fitness ever could!”  This workout is accomplished without ever hoisting my ample backside into a saddle. 

 There are three basic needs that a horse requires: Food, shelter and care.  Each comes with their own workout benefits.

Hay is the mainstay of a horse’s diet.  It is well known among horse owners that hay is cut and baled during the first heat wave of the summer; in our area this is the last week of June or first week of July.  The outside temperature is low to mid-90s on the ground with about 75-80% humidity; increase this reading by about 30˚ if you are up in the loft stacking hay. 

Lifting and loading 100 bales of hay, once out in the field and again from the truck to the conveyer (or conveyor to barn loft), provides great upper and lower body workout.  Each bale weighs 40-60 pounds; remember to lift with your legs for maximum workout benefit and lumbar support.   An additional benefit is the sauna-effect that you get from a heavy workout in the oppressing heat and humidity.  Talk about a detox!  Remember to drink plenty of water.   This strenuous marathon is repeated again during the dog-days of August when the temperature again rises above 90˚.  Depending on how many horses you have, there can be multiple hay-runs per summer. 

Whether your horses are kept in a barn or reside in a paddock with a run-in shelter, all that consumed hay ends up somewhere on the ground in the form of manure, the removal of which is a daily chore that provides excellent exercise potential.  Armed with your favorite wheelbarrow, stall fork and iPod, your daily workout routine is thus:

Bend, scoop, throw, rake-rake-rake; bend, scoop, throw, rake-rake-rake; lift the bag of shavings, scatter left-to-right or right-to-left, fluff-fluff, fluff; refill and carry 5-gallon water buckets to stall.  Move your wheelbarrow to the next stall and repeat.  This exercise makes you question why you ever wanted so many horses.  

 

In a paddock with a run-in shed the exercise is the same, except you must traverse the entire paddock picking up poops as you go; empty wheelbarrow and repeat in next paddock.  A major drawback to the paddock method is that your horse finds it hilarious to empty your wheelbarrow where it stands once it is filled.  This time you will question why you needed this horse. 

 Finally, caring for your horse(s) includes daily grooming and hoof care.  Embarrassed by those flabby upper arms?  Fear not!  Grooming a muddy horse will tighten those arms in no time.  Let me just warn you, your horse will always present to you caked in mud.  I don’t care if you live in the Mojave Desert; he will be caked in mud.  The process is as follows:  

Curry comb in right hand, brush in the left hand—circle, circle, circle; brush, brush, brush; circle, drop curry, bend over, stand up, repeat until side A of horse is completely clean from top to bottom.  Switch to other side of horse, reverse brushes and repeat circuit.  Depending on the amount of mud and the cooperation of your horse, (Why, oh why, did I want this horse?) this workout routine can last up to 30 minutes. 

 

Hoof care provides strength to the lower back as well as thighs, glutes and shoulders.  Cleaning hooves also provides added agility training.  To clean a hoof you will: 

Bend at the waist, cluck to your horse, touch his hoof (be ignored); lean into him to shift his weight off said hoof, cluck, grab fetlock, lift, sidestep to avoid kick; lean way into him, mutter obscenity, wrestle hoof into flexed position, drop foot and retrieve hoof pick from grooming box; lean, wrestle, cuss, threaten, scrape about half hoof contents, drop hoof.  Repeat for three more reps.  Additional disincentive is a bitten backside (front hooves) or corneal abrasion from swishing tail (back hooves).  Repeat process for each additional horse. (I heard you mentally writing your sales ad!)

 

If you faithfully follow this workout routine the results are guaranteed to put you in tip-top physical condition for riding, if you still have the energy (or the horse).  Join me next time as I discuss the workout involved in riding; it’s harder than you think!

Blogger's Note:  The picture above is Brad, a special horse that I worked with at Open Gates Equine Rescue in New Gloucester Maine.  Brad was my inspiration for this post; always covered in mud and very fond of upsetting my wheelbarrow while I cleaned his stall or paddock.  Brad was recently adopted to a wondeful family in Standish, Maine.  There are other horses waiting for adoption at Open Gates. 

Keepin' Horses Cool on the Trail.

Neigh there!  Hot enough for ya?  Yup, us too.  I wanted tell you about how our two-legged friends keep us comfortable here at Carousel Horse Farm.  Like most two-legs, we don’t get a day off just because it’s hot.  If the heat index is below 90 we still do our jobs just like you do.  Luckily our two-legged friends here at the farm work hard to keep us comfortable in this heat. 

First of all, most of our trail rides start and end through the nice cool woods under a canopy of shade trees.  We are never asked to trot or canter too much when it is very hot but we do love to stretch our legs and take a good trot to outrun the biting bugs, not to mention having the wind in your mane feels really good. 

Let’s talk about sweat.  You do it and we do too.  Like you, it means that our cooling systems are working just fine.  It’s our body’s way of cooling itself off.  We stay well hydrated when we work so we can stay healthy.  Did you know that we can actually get sick if we drink too much ice cold water when we are working?  Yup!  It’s called colic and it’s like a really bad belly ache.  Our two-legged friends make sure that we have fresh water to drink but that it’s not too cold—tepid is good.

You may think that our equipment makes us hot.  After all, our saddle pads are made of thick wool and look really hot and we sweat a lot under them.  What you may not know is that the wool saddle pads wick the sweat away from our body and keep the saddle from rubbing raw spots on our back.  The same is true of our girth strap (it goes around our belly and keeps the saddle from falling off).  The sweat actually keeps it lubricated so it doesn’t rub us raw.  If you notice, when your ride is finished our two-legged friends will loosen our girth straps to give our skin a chance to breathe and the sweat to evaporate so we can cool off. 

Finally, when the day is over and the last rider has gone home we get a real treat.  Saddles and bridles are taken off and put away and, like you, we enjoy a nice cooling shower from the hose.  After our shower, we roll in the dirt and scratch all of our itchy places.  Then it’s a supper of grain and turnout to the pasture to sleep under the stars.  We relax, graze, catch up with our other horse friends; sometimes the deer come to visit.  It’s the end of another great Maine day.  We are lucky to have such a great job.  We look forward to seeing you soon.  Traveller.

Unfit to Ride

Hi, my name is Rose and I am an unfit rider.  That’s the term I’m sticking with.  “Unfit.”  It’s one of those ‘politically correct’ terms that are careful not to offend anyone or make one feel a lack of self-esteem.  It is just the generic term for “really shouldn’t be on a horse.”  Yeah…I like that.  Unfit to ride. 

Okay, who am I kidding?  You see the picture, right?  You have eyes, I have thighs we both see the (egads) naked truth.  Or do we? 

 A quick Google search of the question, “How much weight can a horse comfortably carry?” instantly yields 48.7 million responses.  People are talking, folks!  Skinny as a rail barn princesses are searching for the answer so they can snicker and chide the chubby rider at the barn.  Plus-sized empty-nesters have typed the question secretly into their search engine as they contemplate riding lessons.  Weekend warriors, trying to decide between the dude ranch and the ATV vacation search for the answer. 

Google says….well, the quick answer is that a horse can comfortably carry 20% of its weight in rider and tack.  Given that formula and doing the math reveals that I would need a horse that weighs about 1,500 pounds (No. I am not going to tell you how much my saddle weighs)!  Remember, though, I said that was the quick answer—as in all things there are variables. 

I spoke with Tiffany Payton, owner of Carousel Horse Farm.  Tiffany offers trail rides to riders of all shapes, sizes and fitness levels and that question comes up daily.  Here is her not-so-quick answer:

 It all depends on the fitness of the rider. 

Really?

Tiffany explains that while weight is one factor to consider, it is not the ONLY factor to consider.  Anxiety, muscle control, level of fitness, balance and experience are just as important, if not more so, than a rider’s weight.  A rider can be heavy but easier for the horse to carry if they have strong core and leg muscles, are at ease and comfortable riding and have quality tack.  The flip side is that riders who are anxious and rigid, have little core strength, poor balance or ill-fitting tack can cause even the best horse to be uncomfortable.  Remember, riding is a sport and requires cooperation between horse and rider. 

Carousel Horse Farm also employs several draft or draft-cross horses that are more suitable for heavier riders.  All of the horses at Carousel Horse Farm [insert the link again] are kept physically fit as well.  The horses work year-round, weather permitting, so they do not get out of shape through the off season.   Meticulous hoof care and attention to nutrition and overall health of the horses also keeps them in tip-top shape for their jobs.    

 
Now back to my original statement.  Am I “unfit” to ride?  Weight and appearances aside, the answer is yes.  Sitting at home in front of my computer and blogging about riding makes for very fit fingers but the rest of me should really hit the gym for a few crunches and squats before I hit the trails.  My favorite time of the year to ride is the cool, crisp days of autumn so I have a few more weeks before visiting the local gym!  I will see you on the trails!

All Fired Up for the Farrier!

Hi All!  I don’t know about you but all the cold, damp weather we have had has put me in quite a funk.  A quick poll of all my horsey friends have confirmed that everyone is tired of rain and mud and ready for some well-deserved warm, dry weather. 

My blog today comes, in part, from my friend Miriam Bisbee.  If you read any of the small town papers around the Lakes Region of Maine, you will likely recognize Miriam.  She was blogging the old-fashioned way long before computers or the “digital age”.  At 91 years of age, she still writes columns for The Independent keeping her readers updated on the Maine Wildlife Park where she regularly tends the gate.  Miriam also writes a column for our church newsletter, First Church Notes, called “Looking Backward” and relates to us what life was like when the 20^th century was young.   Her recent article was interesting to me, as I am sure it will be for many of you.  Miriam remembers “Getting the Horse Shod” and really, aside from a few modern variations in the composite of the shoes themselves and the specialty shoeing preferred for various equestrian sports requirements, the art of shoeing a horse really has not changed. 

Looking Backward:  Getting the Horse Shod

By E. Miriam Bisbee

As I've mentioned before, the motive power for our transportation when I was young was a horse.  We had no worries about flat tires but contact with the highway is always a source of wear and that's where the iron hit the road. 

A horse's hooves, like your fingernails, are constantly growing and so, the edge the shoe was nailed to, slowly extended till it was ready to break off.  Before that happened (we hope) the horse had a date with the blacksmith. (If you'd referred to him as a farrier we wouldn't have known what you were talking about and I'm not sure he would have, either.)

Our blacksmith, Charlie Shaw, had a shop on the Gray Road in West Cumberland -- the building is still there although Charlie and his skill are long gone -- and the shortest way for us to get there would have been to drive to Rte. 100 and head toward Portland for a few miles, but that is not the way we did it. Even then Rte. 100 was a busy highway and a horse and wagon were almost as much of a hazard as a stationary object on a well-traveled road. So we crossed Rte. 100, travelled a considerable distance out of our way on back roads and reached our goal from another direction.

Charlie would have a roaring fire in the forge but the first order of business was to remove the worn shoes and trim away the weak edge of the hoof (like cutting your fingernails) and the "frog" under the hoof, a sort of structure of dead cuticle. Then came the process of fitting the shoes. They were heated in the forge -- a few turns of the bellows brought the fire up to nearly white heat -- and the shoe came out red hot and malleable enough to be shaped on the anvil with a few well-placed blows from the hammer. The shoe would then be cooled in a handy tub of water and tried to the hoof for the proper fit. When it fit to Charlie's satisfaction he would drive in calks (for traction) and nail the shoe to the hoof. It still amazes me how patiently our horse endured the process.

As long as horses are still used for work or pleasure the farrier's skill will be in demand; lucky the child who has the chance watch this ancient skill in action!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 In a world where it seems everything has been improved and modernized to the point where the “old ways” are obsolete, it fascinates me to see skills such as these that really cannot be done any other way. 

There are variations in the field of farriers and blacksmiths.   Not all farriers shoe horses and not all blacksmiths make horseshoes.    Working horses, such as carriage horses, trail horses and ranch horses, as well as show horses require shoes in most cases to protect their feet from excessive wear and hazards.   In this case, they would need the skills of a farrier with blacksmithing skill who can craft and fit a metal shoe to their feet in such a way that their hooves will be protected and balanced and the horse can comfortably and safely do their job. 

Many pleasure horses enjoy natural, balanced  hoof trims and do not require shoeing.  Horses that are used for pleasure riding, gymkhana or trails where the paths are smooth and soft and pose few risks of stress injury, are perfectly suited to being barefoot.  This is assuming that the horse’s feet are in good condition which can best be determined by your veterinarian and your farrier. 

Whether they shoe horses or do natural barefoot trimming a farrier’s job is extremely demanding.  He or she has a backbreaking job, done in extreme heat or extreme cold conditions often with very uncooperative customers (I am talking about horses, not their owners…).  In a typical day the farrier can be bitten, leaned on, kicked, stepped on and even pooped on.   Want to make your farrier's day?  Have your horse(s) in the work area on time with their feet cleaned and ready for them. Thank your farrier for all their hard work and hey, maybe make them some cookies!  They like that too! 

Blogger’s note: I would like to gratefully acknowledge Adam White, a farrier in Christchurch , New Zealand for the use of his photos in this blog.  I found Adam through a search for appropriate photos for this story and have been following his Facebook page since.  He has excellent photos of his work and both his Facebook page and his website have a lot of fascinating information along with before/after photos of some of his clients.  Thanks Adam!)