Changes for Spring 2013

It's that time again! Time for me to get back to endurance. Time for me to share my thoughts with those that care to listen.

There have a been a few changes around our place and I'll catch you up on them right quick.

Sib

So let's get the saddest news out of the way first. Sib is no longer with us.

Sib was our Siamese cat that came with us on every ride and went on every overnight trip. When she was a year old, she suffered massive seizures for several days and only by God's grace was she able to pull through that episode. After nursing her through that, she was put on anti-seizure medications which she took twice a day until the day she died.

This spring, Sib became more and more unsteady on her feet and began to lose weight. We took her to the vet, but beyond supportive care which included some pretty strong antibiotics, Sib did not rebound.  She got worse and worse to the point where she would stop breathing sometimes while she slept. She had a lot of other systems shutting down, so we made the tough choice to let her go in peace.

We will miss her sweet face and her gentle ways. Our lives are less full now, but we were blessed with her presence for 10 years longer than we otherwise might have been.

Serts

The next bit of not-so-good news regards Serts.

Rinnah really wanted to compete in the 2013 Chicken Chase ride. So I had agreed to sponsor her on the LD ride on Sunday at Chicken Chase.

Serts turned 24 years old in March of this year. I began conditioning him for the spring season in February.  I started him slowly as usual, but when I tried to move up in mileage, he was not handling it well. He was pokier than normal and a bit more sour than normal. You have to realize, he's a lazy horse to begin with and thinks anything more than walking to the next grass clump is too much effort. But this spring, I noticed more hesitation. I also noticed more swelling in his rear legs after a ride; even the short, easy rides I was asking of him. Serts was also dragging his rear toes very badly. He wore through the toe of a brand new Renegade boot in less than 40 miles of training (not all at once, of course!).

When Daniel and I took the horses to Tennessee Equine Hospital for their yearly appointments, I asked Dr. Matt to do a lameness evaluation on Serts to try to determine why he was having more trouble in his hind end.

Dr. Matt hooked Serts up to a fancy machine with accelerometers and wireless transmitters and watched Serts put through his paces. The result was some hind end lameness in both hind legs. Most likely due to arthritis.

Serts is now on an intramuscular joint medicine injection every 2 weeks. I have semi-officially retired him. IF he gets better to the point of being able to condition again, we might enter him in an LD in the future, but at this point, Serts has been retired from LD competition and is on a walk-only regime.

While Serts is still happy and healthy, he is my only JR horse and Rinnah and Lillie are disappointed that their plans for the year have been thwarted.

Snap

On to happier news!

Snap turned 5 years old on April 15!

2 days later, I saddled up Tanna for a training ride. I decided to take Snap along on a lead rope and pony him. Snap is a very mouthy horse and likes to mouth Tanna or me when he's being ponied. So this time, I put his bridle on so he could play with his bit instead of us!

Then I put his reins on. And then, I decided to try to hop on him bareback.

I led Snap over to a clear area, put a 12" step next to him. I used the step and popped up on Snap on my belly. I balanced myself and gauged Snap's reaction. Idle curiosity. So I smoothly sat up (thanks to years of riding bareback when I was a teen). Snap turned to nose my foot, but didn't seem upset in the least.

This first ride was about just letting him get used to me. I spent an hour on his back. I let him graze for the first 10 minutes and then asked him not to eat. So he just stood there with me and then backed up several steps. I turned him around and he stood still again. I did not ask him to move forward. I simply let him decide when he wanted to do that. I let him graze some, then asked him not to eat. He would back up. I would turn him around. We repeated this for a long time until he finally took a few steps forward to a better patch of grass. I let him eat, then asked him to not eat. He walked forward again. Yay! We did this for about 20 minutes, wandering around the front pasture for a bit. Finally, I steered him back to the house and hopped off. A successful ride!

Truck

The last major change around our place is a 2006 Chevy 3500 dually flatbed 4x4 truck. Daniel's boss upgraded his work truck so we bought the old one. The truck has another very nice feature for a farm truck. The flatbed is also a dump bed! Hello, gravel! We need lots of gravel at our place and a dump bed is just the thing.

Tanna

Tanna isn't a change, except as the years go by. He is now 19 and is conditioning well this spring. He looks incredible. As a precaution, I have started him on the same intramuscular joint med injection that Serts is now receiving. One never knows, but I wonder if Serts would be better today if I'd had him on the joint med back when he was 19.

Snap, ponied

For me, it was a very cold morning. 21 degrees (F) at 7 AM. 2 hours later it wasn't much warmer, but Rinnah (10) and I were bundled up and outside to play with the horses.

Since it was so cold, I didn't really want to take the horses on a training ride and get them breathing hard, so the plan for the day was to let Rinnah play around on Serts bareback. In the meantime, I would have Snap in hand and play with him. Tanna would have to watch from the paddock this time.

Rinnah brushed Serts and put the bareback pad on. I showed her how to tell which side of the English girth went against Serts' belly and she put the girth on and tightened it up. The next part took awhile, but after a few false starts and a couple of explanations, Rinnah had the breast collar on correctly. I had her remove it and then put it back on which she did quickly. Finally, the bridle and then Rinnah used the trailer wheel well to mount.

For the next hour, we played in the pasture and round pen. Rinnah riding Serts, and me working with Snap on the lead rope. Rinnah did circles in the round pen, while I did circles with Snap, just on the outside of the round pen. We changed up speed and direction, giving me opportunities to correct Snap when he wanted to bolt or kick. Then I moved into the round pen with Rinnah and we continued the same patterns, just with no fence between the horses. Again, I had opportunities to block Snap's bolting and attempted kicks. I made sure Rinnah and Serts were never close enough to actually get kicked if Snap got one off, but he never did. I always managed to read the signs and block him.

Next, Rinnah went outside the round pen and I worked Snap free in the round pen. Lots of good interaction and work as Rinnah continued to do circles on the other side of the fence.

All of this led up to the last 10 minutes. Rinnah asked if I wanted to ride Serts and pony Snap. I still wasn't completely confident, so declined, but came out of the round pen with Snap on the lead rope and put him right next to Serts in the pony position. Then I asked Rinnah to walk Serts around and I led Snap, keeping him in the pony position. Things went really well, so I decided, yes, I would pony Snap.

I tied Snap to the round pen, making sure the rope would be easy to get to and untie from Serts' back. Rinnah hopped off Serts and went into the round pen, just in case something happened. I got on Serts and approached Snap to untie the lead rope. Serts pinned his ears in a nasty look at Snap. I corrected him quickly. I got the rope for Snap and settled him into position with his head at my knee on my right side.

Then I nudged Serts and we walked off and Snap followed!!! I cannot convey the joy and elation when they both just walked off like that. I was super duper thrilled. I have not ponied Snap before this. He might have been ponied before, but if he was, it was over 2 years ago. I tried it with Tanna once, but that didn't end well due to Tanna flipping out and I hadn't tried since.

Rinnah ran and got Daniel to get the camera to take some nice pictures of my and my boys while I walked around and did a couple circles both ways (Serts into Snap and Serts away from Snap). No issues. So, so happy!! Rinnah did a fantastic job helping me today and I am looking forward to taking Snap out for some more pony sessions in the near future.

Vitamins - Re-evaluate Your Vitamins Every So Often

Several years ago, Tanna came up anemic in a routine blood test done by my vet. At the time, I was feeding a hodge-podge of vitamins, so I went looking for a single good multivitamin. On the recommendation of another rider, I looked at HorseGuard's Mega-Dose.

I am a numbers girl and I have an extensive spreadsheet set up to evaluate my horses' entire ration for nutrients. I plugged the numbers in for Mega-Dose and was pleased with the overall addition to the rations and was able to replace several supplements I had been feeding. In February 2006, I began to feed the horses 3 oz of Mega-Dose a day.

On a recheck several months after feeding Mega-Dose, Tanna was no longer anemic. Count me happy.

I continued to feed Mega-Dose for years. And continued yearly blood work on all my horses to keep an eye on any anemia problems that might pop up.

In March 2012, Tanna again came up anemic. I was concerned, but gave him Red Cell for a month and a recheck showed him ok. I couldn't just add Red Cell to his ration, though. Red Cell has massive amounts of Vitamin A, as does Mega-Dose. Even his feed (Nutreena XTN and Omolene 100) has some Vitamin A in it.

I finally got around to re-evaluating the rations and to my absolute surprise, Mega-Dose changed formulations somewhere along the way, decreasing the amount per pound of many vitamins and increasing the dosage from 1.5 oz per 500 pounds of animal to a flat 4 oz recommendation.

Here is the Guaranteed Analysis of Mega-Dose as of January 2013 as shown on the Horse Guard website:

And the Guaranteed Analysis from a bucket from 2006 or 2007.

To further belabor the point, I've put the "Per Pound" numbers side by side in the following table to show the changes to the formula. Only 2 values increased. One was Biotin to a nice 128 mg per pound instead of 85.28 mg per pound. The other was the addition of Magnesium. Every other number dropped some or even significantly.

Nutrient	Measure	Mega Dose 2006 (1 lb)	Mega Dose 2013 (1 lb)	Difference
Biotin	mg	85.28	128.00	42.72
Calcium	g	3.73	2.80	-0.93
Choline	mg	667.00	500.00	-167.00
Cobalt	mg	16.00	12.00	-4.00
Copper	mg	800.00	300.00	-500.00
Folate (Folic Acid)	mg	9.80	8.00	-1.80
Iodine	mg	10.60	8.00	-2.60
Iron	mg	2,132.00	400.00	-1,732.00
Lysine	g	3.73	2.50	-1.23
Magnesium	g	0.00	0.70	0.70
Manganese	mg	935.00	0.70	-934.30
Pantothenic acid (B5)	mg	107.00	80.00	-27.00
Phosphorus	g	3.00	2.50	-0.50
Riboflavin (B2)	mg	117.00	88.00	-29.00
Selenium	mg	28.60	12.00	-16.60
Thiamin (B1)	mg	67.00	50.00	-17.00
Vitamin A	IU	266,500.00	200,000.00	-66,500.00
Vitamin B12	mg	0.40	0.30	-0.10
Vitamin B6	mg	80.00	60.00	-20.00
Vitamin D	IU	21,320.00	16,000.00	-5,320.00
Vitamin E	IU	10,666.00	5,000.00	-5,666.00
Zinc	mg	2,132.00	800.00	-1,332.00
Vitamin C (absorbic acid)	mg	675.00	510.00	-165.00
Methionine	mg	24,000.00	2,500.00	-21,500.00

I am very annoyed at myself for not catching this sooner and I honestly don't know when the formula changed.

I guess the lesson for me is to re-evaluate the ration every so often to be sure something hasn't changed.

As a result of this discovery, I have decided to discontinue use of Horse Guard's Mega-Dose and go with a different option.

I'd love to hear what your favorite multi-vitamin is as I research new options for my horses.
  

Bound for Nationals

With Snap waiting in the wings for his turn and Rinnah and Lillie learning to ride better and anticipating their first AERC rides, do I really need more?

Apparently, I do. I have entered the 100 mile AERC National Championship ride. This year, the NC will be held at Biltmore Estates in Ashville, NC.

Due to my religious belief that Saturday is the Sabbath of the Lord God and we are to rest on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-10), I do not have many 100 mile rides that I can actually attempt as most 100 mile rides are held on Sabbath. The National Championship 100 Mile ride is held on a Thursday. This year, that's September 20.

With a full team of support behind us, Tanna and I completed a 100 mile ride in 2008. Those AERC National Championships were held at Clark State Forest in Henryville, IN.

I have sent in my entry and my full payment. Ride day is 5 weeks away. Eeeek!

Renegade Boots on Serts

A few years ago, after all my trials and tribulations with "easy"boots, I shipped off my box of boots in various styles, sizes and condition to a friend who had better luck with them than I. And said, no more hoof boots!!! Metal shoes all the way, baby.

Then I started hearing things about a new hoof boot on the scene. Renegade Hoof Boots. I was interested, but not ready to use them, so just watched.

Last year, Serts began interfering with his hind feet. He would kick his opposite hind ankle, creating open wounds on both ankles. Not good.

I experimented with some hind interference boots and settled on Toklat Valena Boots. However, while they protected his legs from the open wounds, they got yucky with sweat and could hold sand and dirt next to his lower leg. Also, one of his ankles would generally swell after every major training ride even wearing the Valena boots. I had my most awesome vets take a look at him to be sure there wasn't some arthritis or other issue going on in the ankle (he is 23 after all), but they couldn't find anything, so I concluded it had to be because the boots were helping, but still not enough protection.

This year, I heard a friend mention that she was planning to use Renegade boots on her horse's hind hooves. Something snapped in my brain and I thought "Why not try that on Serts??"

I had already succumbed to the allure of the Renegade Hoof Boots and had ordered a pair for Snap. Since he's a baby, not doing much, it would be "fun" to test out new boots. I had ordered the wrong sizes for Snap, but they fit Serts' hind feet fairly well!

I had a size 2 and a size 2W (Snap's front hooves are different), but with the 3/8" cutback option for rounder hoofs.


After the first ride or 2, I decided I needed another size 2 (also with the cutback option) and I have been using those this summer.

So far, Serts has been ridden 110 miles in the boots. And NO open wounds and NO post ride swelling! Even after 4-8 hours riding! Yay!!

One boot has a hole in the toe because Serts tends to drag his toes. That might start to be a problem if the cables are exposed, but for now, it doesn't seem to make a difference. Not sure why the other boot doesn't have a hole in it. Maybe he stopped dragging that toe or maybe something else is going on.

This week, I pulled the tension straps (the lower strap that actually holds the boot on) off the boots and discovered that the older boot straps are pretty worn; meaning the velcro teeth are worn enough to compromise the strength of the hold. Might be one reason the strap has come undone a couple times. The newer boot strap is much better. They upgraded those. I'm going to buy some of the newer straps to replace these.

Since I had the boots all apart anyway, I just stuck them in the dishwasher to get them really clean. :) The green boots are the size 2s with the most miles on them. The brown one is the 2W and has less than 20 miles on it.

Renegades are expensive, but so far, I like them better than easyboots.

For Tanna, I want to use them in the winter when he's barefoot so I can still go on long training rides when I feel like it. He's got good feet, so I probably will only keep front boots for him. I'll also grab a set for Serts' front for the winter too.

I don't want to use them in competition much just because I don't want to have to worry about them. I have to with Serts as it's much better for him than using metal shoes on the hinds and I don't want to fuss with plastic shoes. Those have their own issues, some of which have nothing to do with the actual shoes themselves!

So far this has been a one-horse trial and only with hind hooves. Most of my easyboot trials were with Tanna and he did not do well with those for very long. Once I piled on the mileage, I saw multiple issues that I couldn't solve. So it will be interesting to see if he will do well in Renegades and how Renegades do on front hooves, but I won't see that until after our fall season when I pull metal shoes.

I'm also watching the mileage I will get out of each boot. I've read the boots can get 400 - 600 miles on them. If so, my boots should last another 300 miles, I hope. I am already replacing the velcro straps, but they're not expensive and if you order a pair, you get a couple extra tension straps anyway.

Bonus: My larger Stowaway pommel pack that is generally used on Serts holds a spare boot in one of the side pockets. :) That's the 2W. I'm not sure if anything larger will fit as I don't have anything larger at the moment. I doubt I'll get anything larger in the near future. I'm pretty sure the 2W will fit Serts' front feet and he's definitely got the biggest feet of my three horses.

A Different Kind of Riding

This summer, I've been having fun riding...a bicycle. Daniel decided he wanted a bike, so we bought him a bike. I thought it looked like tons of fun, so I followed suit.

This is me all ready to go for a ride. My bike is a 29 inch mountain bike. A Raleigh EVA Sport.

I have been running in Skirt Sports running skirts, so I was thrilled to find a biking skirt on sale not too long ago. The shorts in the biking skirt have some additional padding and the skirt is split up the sides to accommodate sitting on a bike.

My Nike running shoes that were causing blisters during my longer runs have been re-purposed for biking shoes. I replaced the seat early on with a more comfortable seat, added a mirror for safety when riding on the road, and added a water bottle holder.

Daniel installed a Garmin Cadence/Speed sensor for me and I added mounts for my Garmin units. The Forerunner 910xt is a great biking unit as well as a running unit and great for the horses, too. It is one of my favorite units with its long battery life, large memory storage and small form factor that makes it easy to move from the bike to my wrist and back again.

I love my Garmin biking jersey. Very comfortable and stylish. Makes me feel like a real cyclist! :)

However, I probably smash that image with my Tipperary Sportage horse riding helmet. Hey, I figure if it'll protect my head falling off a horse, it'll protect my head coming off a bike. One of these days I might spring for a bike helmet, but for now, the Tipperary works well.

The bike is fun and keeps me active on days when I don't want to run and the horses are resting or it's too hot to ride the horses. It's also a great cross training activity to keep my legs strong by using my muscles in a different way from riding or running.

Lillie's Recent Adventures

Over the last 2 years, I've tried repeatedly to get my niece Rinnah to an LD ride, but something always comes up to prevent us from getting her to the start line. Our closest call was in November 2011. We were actually ready to take the horses to vet in and a freak incident left Serts with a leg wound that was just serious enough to keep him from starting, but not serious enough to cause any permanent damage.

Well, we are still trying and will try again this fall. Rinnah will turn 10 next month.

Rinnah has a younger sister, Lillie, that just turned 8 this month, making her old enough to enter SERA sanctioned rides. Lillie has been riding since she was 4 years old.

Lillie's 8th Birthday Party at Circle E Guest Ranch.

Over the years, Lillie has ridden bareback and in a pony saddle on the ever patient Serts. Mostly at a walk unless she was riding double with me. Then we'd do some trotting and cantering.

This year, Lillie decided it was time for her to learn to really ride. So she approached me this spring and announced she was ready to learn to trot like a distance rider. I never pushed her to trot before as I wanted her to enjoy riding and she wasn't old enough to enter a distance ride anyway. But I was happy to hear my little buddy announce she was ready to come on training rides with me, too.

A few weeks ago, Lillie came to Percy Warner with me to learn to trot on trail. We saddled up the horses and I let her get on Serts while I was still finishing up with Tanna's tack. Another pair of riders had just left for the trail and Serts decided he should follow them and forget about Tanna still tied to the trailer. I instructed Lillie and she made Serts behave, even though he was being a pain. Proud moment for Aunt April. :)



After my customary 10-minute walking warm-up, I asked Lillie if she was ready to trot. She looked at me with big eyes and shook her head no. I said, "we're here for you to learn to trot. You have 5 more minutes to prepare yourself." Less than 5 minutes later, we took a few trotting steps and the lesson commenced.

Lillie managed to trot for a minute or so at a time for several sessions before she let me know she was having rubbing issues. The flap of the Bob Marshall Sports Saddle was rubbing her left leg. Her riding tights were too short and exposed skin at the exact wrong spot. So we finished the ride at a walk.

Returning to the trailer, I pulled out some vet wrap and wrapped her left leg, then watched her trot up and down beside the practice ring near the parking lot. She was grinning like she was on a roller coaster. Her leg did not hurt. :)

The next weekend, we headed to Circle E Guest Ranch near Winchester, TN, to get in some more miles. I had never been to those trails, so we were unable to make a lot of time and ended up walking a lot, but Lillie was a trooper and trotted anytime I asked. She even learned to shorten her reins while Serts was trotting as I stopped telling her every time we would trot and she just had to adjust.

Near the end of that ride, Lillie even learned to canter! Serts cantered up a small incline for several hundred yards. What a fast learner this kid is!

Yesterday, I took Lillie out to Natchez Trace Parkway for a longer, tougher ride. The goal was to ride around 18 miles fast enough to finish an LD if that's what we were doing. We parked at the Hwy 7 trailhead and headed south. We made it to the Hwy 50 trailhead where I sponged the horses, encouraged them to drink and Lillie and I took a pit stop before heading back to the truck.

Without the pit stop, which was leisurely and probably longer than it strictly needed to be, we averaged 5.2 mph for the first part of our ride. Not bad for an 8 year old kid on a 23 year old horse in 90+ degree weather. The trip back to the truck was slightly slower averaging 5 mph, but still respectable and right on target.

Now, lest you think Lillie never complains, she did. She repeatedly mentioned it was hot and about 5 miles from the end, she asked a couple times if she could get off and run with Serts. I explained that even trotting slowly, Serts could trot faster than she could run and if we didn't keep going, it'd be that much longer before we made it back to the truck with the cooler with ice cold drinks. It was hard to blame her, it WAS hot and muggy out, but I also explained that this is where distance riders know they're distance riders. When we keep going, even when it might be a little uncomfortable.

We did hop off the horses and walk them in the last 3/4 mile (not included in the 5.0 average speed ;-)) to stretch out our legs and give the horses a nice long cool down. We let them graze on the abundant grass and took our time getting back to the trailer.

Lillie has logged 33 miles in the last 3 weeks with her longest outing being 17.5 miles. I am pleased beyond measure with her progress and determination and I think she will be ready for an LD ride this fall as well. I have my eye on BSF and Yellowhammer for LDs for the girls. 

It's great to have riding buddies that I don't have to school all the time any more.


I have to relay one quick story before I close this long post. About 2 miles from the truck on the way back, I was about 3 horse lengths in front of Lillie. I heard this plantive "Aunt April!" Not loud, not panicked, not high pitched. I almost didn't hear her. I glanced back to see the poor kid standing in the left stirrup, hanging onto Serts' mane, the Bob Marshall Sports Saddle almost completely on Serts' left side. Um, yeah, that's not good. Serts was still walking, might have been slow trotting some. I turned Tanna and blocked Serts while calmly instructing Lillie to stop her horse. After Lillie stopped Serts, I grabbed the rein myself and said, "ok, now get off." Lillie dropped quickly and smoothly to the ground and then stood there staring and talking a mile a minute. I interrupted to tell her to take the reins back and hold Serts. I straightened the saddle, then hopped off and adjusted the girth a little tighter. I boosted Lillie back into the saddle, got on Tanna and we were headed back down the trail. The entire thing took about 2 minutes. Good thing Serts was wearing a breast collar and a crupper and was trained to both. He never batted an eye at the saddle and kid hanging off his left side.

So now I have 2 girls to ride with me and condition Serts. Maybe I'll actually get the pleasure of their company on an LD ride this fall. Anybody got a nice JR horse for sale so I can take both of them to ride at the same time? ;-)