Level Of Awareness

A couple of new tack catalogs arrived in the mail this week, big red letters on the cover indicating a SALE. I find myself flipping through the pages mindlessly because over the years I have all but memorized what the companies sell. Occasionally there is something new to look at. It just so happens I am on the hunt for a few things for the upcoming endurance season. This time however I couldn’t help but notice how there seemed to be more and more pages of gadgets and devices filling up the catalogs that claim to hold, tie, fix, shape, and probably scare horses into doing some of the things we ask of them.

Since the weather is absolutely foul in my neck of the woods, I have had to settle for simply watching from a distance as the horses romp and play in the pasture. Considering my observations along with the gadgets in the catalogs and I can’t help but wonder. Why on earth do we need all these gadgets?

When I watch the horses in the field, it becomes blatantly obvious to me that these fine creatures are more than capable of performing beautiful movements without all the gadgets. Even more amazing, they do it in ways that appear to be nonphysical and nonverbal ways. It’s more subtle, a look, a flick of an ear, a shift in weight. One horse’s subtle body language, an ounce of an expression, can ripple through the herd to take some type of action like run , look, go closer or just pay attention. I think of the situation in our little herd. Roman, perks up his head .. some noise or movement has drawn his attention away from grazing. His head goes up, his body goes more rigid or on alert, his ears forward . His whole body is charged with contained energy. The rest of the herd suddenly stops grazing and adopts his energy, posture.. ready to take whatever action.

Now imagine if we as horseman could somehow take that level of awareness and energy and harness it so that we as humans could communicate with our horses as horses communicate with each other.

I hate to make broad sweeping generalizations but it seems we as a society have somehow become pretty tuned out to most things. Think about it, how many of us go from work to the grocery store and while there, notice a gathering of people blocking the aisle way to chat, completely tuned out the fact that they may be in someone else’s way. It’s even worse nowadays with all the ipods and iphones and all the other gadgets on the markets today for people.

By becoming more aware, more focused on our surroundings, it would be truly amazing at the influence we might be able to have on the horse and to take it one step further, an influence that would actually make sense to him. How many of us could have avoided those hours spent trying to figure this round pen ground work thing out and standing in the middle of the round pen doing some kind of natural horsemanship Irish jig. We were just simply trying to go through the motions of what we learned at the clinic we attended or from the video we recently watched but we were missing the one key ingredient. We weren’t really tuned in….We weren’t clear on what it was we were asking of the horse and we probably didn’t really even know what we wanted to get out of this so called session. Meanwhile, the horse is out there trying to make sense of all these confused signals were sending that we expected him to understand when we didn’t’ even understand ourselves at the time.

In all seriousness , there are times when we do influence our horses and don’t even realize it. I think back to when I was showing and 3-day eventing in Pony Club. It never failed, my horse wouldn’t stand still to be mounted at these events. At home, he would stand like a statue. The fact that I was a ball of nerves may have had something to do with it although no one bothered to point that out at the time!. Ofcourse that had everything to do with it! We are influencing our horses all the time by our energy and emotions and the trick is to get that working for us instead of against us.

So, I could certainly call that 1-800 # and order that tiedown or chambon or some other gadget to get my horse to carry himself in a certain way or “frame” because that’s what trainer Joe down the road uses and his horses look nice. Using those devices might get the job done for a lot of people because horses will always try to find the comfort in most situations, and therefore yield to a given device out of fear or pain. Here’s the problem with that ….

For me, it’s not about how the horse looks on the outside, it’s about how the horse feels inside. I want to have a partnership with my horse and buying gadgets just doesn’t seem to fit into that equation. It’s kind of akin to sitting in the dentist’s chair as they are inserting 2’ needle into your gum and telling you to “just relax”. I yield for fear that if I don’t it might hurt worse. Not that different from a horse probably when he has training accoutrements hanging off of him.

In any good relationship, I think it’s a safe bet to say that it works best when you both want to be in said relationship.. correct? And then once that is established , doesn’t each party usually want to do things for the other willingly? And then, don’t good relationships grow to where each can tune into the other s thoughts so well that they can finish each other’s sentences or know what the other is going to do before they even do it? I would say that they are tuned in to each other. That is the sort of relationship I want to foster with my horses and by using gadgets and devices , it doesn’t fit.

So, I will choose to go without the tie downs, the chambons, and all those other devices designed to push, pull, strain, hold, etc. Instead I will strive to tap into a deeper level of awareness because the connection I am looking for goes well beyond physical contact or direct actions. I just hope my horse will be willing to continue to share his secrets.

Dashing through the Snow.....

Other than Christmas Day, our weekend was filled with many hours of being on ladders and scaffolding 20 feet in the air. Not my idea of fun since I am a major chicken when it comes to heights! Nevertheless,the work had to get done.

We are placing tongue and groove on our ceiling as part of the final repairs left remaining from our lightning strike last March . With school not back in session until the 5th , this was Tom’s one opportunity to get it completed before summer. Thanks to some very dedicated friends, we completed one side of the ceiling Saturday night at 8:30. It took 33.75 hours total and we were all exhausted. One more side to go.

While there was much work to do, I did manage to sneak out of the house for a few moments Saturday afternoon. The sun poked out and there was a break in the snow. I needed a horse fix. We have been getting plummeted with storm after storm, leaving no opportunity to ride.

While my good conscious told me to just go out for a short break to pet on a couple of horses , my bad conscious won out and I grabbed for a halter, caught up Rebel and climbed on bareback. My heart jumped with joy and I headed out along the pasture fence line for a trot around. As I rode along, Brego , Cass and Roman followed up behind like a parade wondering where we were going but not wanting to be left out.

Just my luck, I happened upon some fairly deep drifts out in the arena and couldn’t resist. Rebel willingly responded to my suggestion for a little more speed as we bounded through the drift, the snow sent flying, glistening in the sunlight and biting at my cheeks as it danced and sparkled all around me.

The other horses seemed to sense the new energy in the air and decided to make their own game of it as they ran around the pasture racing each other through the snow , jumping through the drifts. It almost seemed they were relieved for some excitement to arrive after being hunkered down with bad weather for the last several days.

There is nothing like bounding through a snow drift on a horse, and just for a moment I remembered what it felt like to be a child again, uninhibited exuberance to be riding bareback , invigorated by the cold air on my face and warmth of my horses neck against my hands, leaving me with a smile on my face for the rest of the day.

( unfortunately, no pics were taken since I snuck away leaving Tom to the work!)

HOLIDAY WISHES

To ALL:

FROM ALL OF US AT ACER FARM, WE WISH EVERYONE A VERY HAPPY , HEALTHY AND SAFE HOLIDAY SEASON.

The Magic of Winter

Winter Beauty When it's winter in the Valley and my breath hangs in the air,The snow will crunch beneath my feetand glisten in the air.The stars at night light up my worldso I never walk alone;It's clear and crisp and beautifulin the Valley I call home _ Joan Adams Burchell

Who's Stirring up all the Dust????

Susan over at the The Pony Expression http://qiwmn.bravejournal.com/ tagged me for a fun game of "Photo Meme" . It a fun game horse bloggers are participating in to try to keep things interesting. The idea goes like this; Go to your photo album, pick the 6th folder and then pick the 6th picture in the foler. Then post about what the photo is about. Last but not lieast, tag 5 other people to do the same by leaving a comment on their blog. So heres' mine. Now I have to go find a few more to tag!

This is our 2 year old Morgan/Barb colt . As you can see he decided to lay down and take a break in the middle of a training session. Actually this was his second time being saddled and he was really good about it. We finished up our session and I was ready to head otu the gate when Brego started acting like he was wanting to lay down. It's not uncommon for a colt to try to lay down in the beginning stages of saddling and I am glad he decided to try it before I was on him(although he still might) Typically they are just trying to get the itchy thing off their back. I always let them go ahead and do it so they can see that rolling with the saddle doesn't make it come off.. He did this on both sides and seemed satisfied when he was finally done

Feeding Down to a Science Part 2

On the December 7th post, I began the process of evaluating JB’s feed in an effort to play scientist for a bit in determining if his ration’s were on track.

I began in the last post figuring out exactly what JB needed to begin with. The process I went through to calculate his rations out is to be used as averages and is not absolutes. I had to keep in mind a few things in this process like: his current condition, his weight, appearance, energy levels, and attitude.

Several times during the course of trying to work out some of these figures, Tom would ask me why I was going through all of this. It was a valid question, seeing as how difficult it was and how the variables can change so easily regardless of what numbers I came up with.

So what motivated me to do this in depth analysis? Other than the fact that once I start something, I see it through to the end, and by getting as close as possible to seeing where JB was at with the feed he was receiving was important given some of the conditioning rides this past summer . Many times he seemed sluggish. I was never really sure if it was his energy level or the fact that he really didn't want to leave the herd. I was hoping this might reveal something more. Was his lack of enthusiam to go due to his feed not supplying enough energy level or was it just the fact that he didn't get excited about leaving home.

Here is what I found:

The last post I left off knowing two main things; the first was how much % of his body weight was he receiving in forage and concentrate combined. JB who weight roughly 850 lbs or better, is receiving 1.87 % of his body weight in forage and .28 % of his body weight in concentrate for a total of 2.87% of combined feed of his body weight. He was a bit above the recommended percentage, (2-2.5% of body weight) for his body weight but I feed him enough hay so that he has it in front of him most of the time.

The second bit of knowledge was determining what JB actually needed in daily requirements. For ease of reference I have listed this again below: again for 850 lbs

Digestible energy:19.5 mcal/day
Crude Protein: 1.7 lbs/per day
Calcium: 24 gram per day
Phosphorus: 16 grams per day
Vitamin A: 17 IU’s per day

The next step was to take his grain ration (Running Horse Cut and Slide) and his hay ration , about 22 lbs of hay per day , and calculate those items above for each, giving me his totals.

At first glance I thought getting this information for his grain and hay would fairly straight forward but as it turned out, I had to do some additional research to find the right numbers for the type of hay I feed and I had to some additional calculation to manually figure out the requirements for the grain he receives. The rep at Running horses surely thinks I have gone a little crazy.

I will start with the Hay. On the websites I was using for reference
www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/AS/AS-429.html did not list the types of hay that I feed. I was able to locate another site that allowed me to key in a much closer version of the hay that I feed. That site is http://nrc88nas.edu/nrh/. There is a tool on the page that you can use and fill in the feed type and the appropriate maturity levels of the hay. The tool will then calculate for you and will even allow you to customize it to your horse. The problem with this tool is that it calculates in percentages and for my purposes I needed lbs per day or grams per day. So you will have to do some additional calculations as a result.

The hay that I feed is mostly grass. I know that it has quite a bit of crested wheatgrass and some Timothy. Other than that, I can’t really say exactly what it is. In some bales there is more alfalfa. So, I had to use my best quess based on what I see in the bales. Unless I wanted to pay to have samples taken from the core of every round bale I have sitting out there, it would have to get me close enough. While it would be nice to be that accurate by testing, it wasn’t economical.

On the tool , I chose the option of Grass Hay – cool season (mid- mature) and Wheat hay ( mid to mature). JB gets approx 22 lbs of hay per day . Since I don’t know how much of that 22 lbs is grass and how much is Crested Wheat, I split the difference in my calculations, 11 lbs of each. I had to do some initial converting from Kg to lbs, and percentages to grams. For simplicity, I will give you my calculations for the lbs and grams that I have already done the conversions on. I have also shown below that I took those numbers and multiplied by the 11 lbs of each for final totals.

Grass Hay Cool Season:

Digestible Energy : 99 Mcal/lbs x 11 lbs = 10.89 Mcal (this was in Kg and had to be converted to lbs; ff you know there are 2.2 lbs in every Kg, than you can take 2.18 mcal/kg in this case, divided by the 2.2 gives you the .99 mcal/lb
Crude Protein: .146 lbs x 11 lbs= 1.61 lbs
Calcium: 32,99 grams x 11 lbs = 32.9 grams
Phosphorus: 1.32 grams x 11 lbs =1. 32 grams
Vitamin A :not available

WheatGrass Hay

Digestible Energy : .97 mcal/lbs x 11 lbs= 10.67 Mcal
Crude Protein: .113 lbs x 11 lbs= 1.24 lbs
Calcium: 15.47 grams x 11 lbs =15.4 grams
Phosphorus: .09 grams x 11 lbs = 9.9 grams
Vitamin A : not available

Vitamin A % was not available but I know that Vitamin A is lost as hay is stored. The final piece to calculating hay requirements is to calculate the total amounts of nutrients fed for the two hays fed.

HAY TOTALS

Digestible Energy: 21.56 Mcal/lbs
Crude Protein: 2.85 lbs
Calcium: 48.46 grams
Phosphorus: 11.30 grams
Vitamin A : not available

Then I compared just the nutrients JB was receiving from Hay with the nutrient requirements that he needs . His numbers came out a bit in excess and initially I was a bit concerned, however there are quite a few variables. His weight is likely more than what I calculated at, the hay types I used from the charts are Hay types on the east coast and may have different nutrient values than what I am actually feeding, and then there is nutrient loss. I also am not certain if this truly is mid to mature level feed because given our spring last year, what would typically be mid to mature might have instead been cut a bit later.


The last part of my analysis is to include the requirements I was able to determine from the grain that JB receives. Last summer I started him on Running Horse Cut and Slide. According to the feed tag, for every pound of feed he receives the daily minimum requirements found on the feed tag. For instance, the feed tag indicated 15% protein for every pound fed. If I were to feed 4 # per day, it would calculate out to .6 lbs of protein, .36 lbs of fat, etc. JB received at the height of his conditioning 2.4 lbs of this grain per day... which really isn't much and quite a bit less than the recommended amounts.


The one thing I did not have for the grain was Digestible Energy. Many feeds will not list DE on the tag and therefore you will have to use the Crude Fiber and Crude Fat percentages to determine the DE (MCal/lb) of the grain mix. I was able to find a reference on the internet on how to calculate DE if it is not on the feed tag That link is www.infovets.com/healthyhorseinfo/A575.htm

For Running Horse Cut and Slide, 14 % crude Fiber and 9 % Crude Fat, DE works out to be 1.15 Mcal/lb. At 2.4 lbs of Running Horse per day, I came up with following nutrient values on his grain ration:

Digestible Energy: 1.15 Mcal/lb x 2.4 lbs = 2.76 Mcal per day
Crude Protein : . .36 lb/day
Calcium: 10.23 grams
Phosphorus: 7.6 grams
Vitamin A: 9000 IU’s

In addition to the Hay values outlines above, combined with the grain, I can see JB is in excess on most of these items.

Digestible Energy- JB needs 19.5 Mcal/day; he is receiving total 24.32 Mcal per day with hay and grain concentrate. He is in excess of 4.82 Mcal /day

Crude Protein: JB needs 1.7 lbs per day; he is receiving 3.21 lbs per day. He is in excess of 1.51 per day.

Calcium: JB needs 24.15 gram per day; he is receiving 58.69; he is in excess of 34.54 grams per day.

Phosphorus: JB needs 16.42 grams per day, he is receiving 18.9 grams per day. He is in excess 2.48 grams per day.

Vitamin A: JB needs 17.4 IU’s (1000 IU) per day or 17,400. This was an unknown on the hay but the grain indicated 3750 IU /LB. Based on the 2.4 lbs he was receiving per day, he was getting 9000 IU’s per day. I am fairly certain he is receiving at least close to the remaining 8400 IU’s /day in his hay.


To go one step further, I want to calculate the Calcium to Phosphorus ratio; Even though JB’s intake is in excess of the requirements I know that these two minerals should more importantly be in balance with each other. Too much Phosphorus to Calcium or not meeting the minimum requirements could lead to various diseases. If I divide the calcium by the Phosphorus I come up with 1.82:1 which is an acceptable range.

What does all of this analysis tell me?

Well, in an broad sense, it tells me JB is getting plenty of what he needs. His Digestible energy is a bit high but I know that his DE requirements can increase dramatically when carrying a rider so I may not be as high as the numbers actually look. Also, he may weight more than 850 lbs which would change a few #’s. I can also see that JB may be a bit high on the protein for an endurance horses needs. That might be part of his lower than expected energy levels that he seemed to be displaying. I might opt to go to the senior feed that Running Horse offers or look at other options that would get the protein levels down without cutting back on fat levels too much. It’s possible that I may consider giving JB straight beet pulp this summer with just a touch of grain for extra flavor. Grain concentrates, like what I feed JB should be in the 7-10% range for fat levels. Running Horse is 9% per pound so it’s right in there. Fat is one of the most important feed requirements for an endurance horse because it can be metabolized for energy during aerobic trotting and cantering speeds, and helps conserve muscle glycogen (high energy sugars) during prolonged exercise. Also, aerobic metabolism of fat produces metabolic water within muscle cells, which may be of benefit to maintain cell fluid levels during exercise.It appears this “fat” topic could launch me into further research of available feeds on the market that provides adequate fat for energy but without the added protein. I’ll save that for another day. If anyone has any recommendations or suggestions on feeding the endurance horse, feel free to share. In the meantime I might put a call into my vet for more accurate feed recommendations. Turns out, she is an endurance rider

Riding out the Storm

Last Friday evening's drive home from work found me stuck in traffic moving at the speed of snail. The predicted storm had in fact arrived and while it wasn’t the first snow of the year, it was the first snow that was mking roads a challenge. Not exactly having the best read left on my tires, I dropped my Dakota into 4 high and made my way through the idiot drivers. By the time I arrived home, the wind was already picking up speed. The forecast predictions were -20 to -30 with the windchill factor. …Fabulous…

Cold, zero degree temps are one thing adding wind to the equation , that bring on a whole new level of complications when dealing with horses and livestock in general. It takes one person to get the gates and the other running with forkfuls of hay, all the while trying not to lose your own breath as the wind blows in your face.

That was pretty much our routine over the weekend with the storm that blew in ,and while we didn’t get quite as cold as they had predicted, it was plenty bitter out there. Regardless, we braved the weather 3-4 times a day to check on horses, throw more hay if they were out and when we could stand it, pick iceballs from horses hooves, not an easy job when it’s below zero and the ice is mixed with sand and gravel. Kinda resembles cement. We have tried everything from WD40 to Vaseline to try to prevent the snow from balling up in horses hooves and if the conditions are right, nothing seems to help. (If anyone knows of any trick, please do share!) One thing we didn’t have to worry about this time was water staying open. The insulated boxes were working like a charm.!

Saturday night, we were relieved when the wind let up just a bit but then watched the temperature continue to drop well below zero. We resigned to stay close to the woodstove when we weren’t out checking on horses. Besides, it seems I have caught the bug that Tom was just recovering from and staying warm and comfortable was at the top of my to do list.

On Monday, it’s sure to happen that the talk in the break room will be the weather and as usual there will be the one person in the crowd that pipes up to say “ Oh, I didn’t think it was all that bad out”.

As I think about the frozen appendages and eyelashes I suffered , clearly, this person doesn’t have livestock to deal with!