Show Me Your Hooves and I Tell You ...

2 weeks ago, when 'Lillian' and I were taking out 'Luke' and 'Mr F', we had to cut our ride short due to 'Mr F' being quite notably lame. I know by now that 'Mr F' hasn't a high pain threshold (unlike 'PL' who marches on no matter what!) but I decided it be wiser to turn back home.

I admit I am no good at guessing which leg is the problem leg, although I could just make out that there was a diagonal issue. It's a tricky one to guess which leg is the culprit if the lameness is only very slight. At first I thought it was his front right / back left but then I figured that he was putting weight on the front right so that meant the actual issue was on his front left! 

Admitedly, I wouldn't do well if I'd be a lion having to eye up animals' movements for picking the best prey ... I probably would land up very hungry and line up for the zoo where I'd be fed ... 

Exacmining his hooves also didn't return any results. He didn't seem sensitive nor where there any suspicious holes, or smelly spots and his frogs were ok, too. Perhaps it was that hoof again with the crack which has been there now for 2 years, more or less prominant, depending on season.#

Then of course there is the thought of arthritis, 'Mr F' being 23 years of age could make this a possibilty.

As always, when things aren't right we sometimes may not be looking in the right places. As I was having my dinner I was pondering what changes I made recently to 'Mr F's environment. I coudn't not think of anything ... oh wait! Garlic! Just over 3 weeks ago I have started giving him garlic granuals, hoping it would help with the flies, circulation and hopefully make him a smelly host for the lice he tends to attract in winter.

I suddenly recalled a conversation I had with the barefoot trimmer lady that mentioned to me some time ago that her horse (mare) had an allregic reaction to garlic. And so I was wondering if perhaps the garlic was perhaps causing a mild reaction in 'Mr F's body. 

He seemed a little less 'cheery' - althought at the time I put it down to the heat (we had some quite hot weather for more than a week). When 'Neill' came to treat 'Mr F' just over a month ago, he mentioned a tight area in 'Mr F's digestive system which was partly cause for 'Mr F's stiffness. 

Perhaps the garlic was affecting some of the bacteria in 'Mr F's stomach and he was feeling discomfort, which then manifests itself in discomfort when moving.  

I took him off the garlic straight away, just to see if it would make a change. On our evening walks I noticed that after 3 days he was a little better but still stumbeling quite a lot and feeling discomfort still.

When the barefoot lady came to sort out his feet, we both could not find anything wrong with his feet nor his legs. His puls seemed fine in all his feet, perhaps the one with the crack in the hoof was a little stronger. 

After 'Mr F' has had his hooves trimmed, he seemed to walk a little better again. This is often the case even though there are only 5-6 weeks in between trimms. The heels on his back hooves are very low even though I don't ride him without hoof boots. We also discussed the garlic and she did mention that she had just had 4 cases of horses going mildly lame; and these horses had been on feed were the manufacturer decided to add garlic to the forumla without mentioning it on the package.  

I know many people feed their horses garlic and it has of course great healing properties. I myself consume large amounts of it because I like it.

But with regard to the horse, the debate is still an open one.  I don't have to time to type it all up here but you can have a read for yourselves if you are interested, start here  or go and google. :)

It's now been just over a week since 'Mr F' is off the garlic and he seems now fine again. I have not yet ridden him but we have been out for strolls in the woods going up and down the steep slopes and he seemed ok, back to his usual mobility. 

I will try and take him out at the weekend at some point.

Knowing Me Knowing You - Part IV

Growing Old Gracefully -  Or Becoming Victor Meldrew 

For non-UK readers: Victor was a grumpy old character in the sitcom  'One Foot In The Grave'.

Over the past 3 years I have often been observing these horses and how they communicate with one another. At the beginning, I used to almost constantly talk to 'Mr F' when with him, not realising that to him, my words mean nothing of course, appart from the tone of voice.

The longer I spent time with them, the quieter I became while with them. Aikido - or more the spiritual side of it (sadly mostly ignored in practise!) - greatly hightlighted how to be just 'present', with no mind (ideally!). 

And so 'Mr F' and I have developed a quite intricate communication system ... or more to the truth: he is slowly teaching me his way of communicating. 

Their lanaguge is so very versatile. It can be so soft and gentle and then suddenly really harsh and painful. Eitherway, it is always a very clear language leaving no doubts at any time.

Greeting them for example:

If you watch horses meeting each other, either old friends or new ones, they greet each other by holding their heads very close and smelling each other. 

But if we humans go and greet them, we stick our hands right into their faces - would you like to be greeted that way? They too have what we call 'personal space' requirements.

Realising this, I have started to greet them in the same manner they do. Try it out, its most interesting to observe.  

'Mr F' isn't a very cuddly horse (compared to 'Luke'!). There are moments when he does like being petted but its more a case of placing my hands on his neck or shoulders. More often we just stand next to each other, and sometimes he does rest his chin on my shoulders when he is dozing off. But each time the contact has been his choice.  'Madame' is quite similar in that aspect. But both do like their ears scratched!

And so I keep copying their behaviour ... and indeed we seem to have some form of silent communication taking place. The more I learn, the subtler the communication becomes, sometimes not even guestures but just being with them. We kind of just know. But this means that I too have to be totally open and truthful, by this I mean that it won't work if my mind is in overdrive or I am expecting things to happen. It only works if nothing else exists but the very moment.

It's the eyes, too. I read a great deal in their eyes. Sometimes, when 'Mr F' isn't feeling well, his eyes are somewhat 'shut off' ... it is though as if there is another layer. I cannot possibly describe it with words. His eyes shut off too when he is in panic or overly exicted as he used to be at the beginning when we joined our first few large group rides. The eyes glaze over and I know I have 'lost' him, he is not 'present'.  I wonder if they 'see' the same in our eyes.

For me, body language has become important, especially as I am horizontally challanged at only 5feet which is certainly not very intimidating. Yet if you truely and openly mean what you are portraying with your body, they understand. 

'Luke' is a great example for this. He used to have the habit of making it impossible to enter the stable or move him away from a gate short of spooking him. Being some 600+kg of weight, you go try move that with its legs firmly planted on the ground, with a look on the face saying "Go on, try make me move!"  And all this of course each time you want to get on with stuff in a hurry ... 

Here I want to add that it does help that 'Mr F' is at the top of the pecking order, so I can copy him. It also helps because the other horses observe the interaction between the two of us. So they learn that if she can make him move, gosh that I sure should move too! What he says goes, end of. None of the horses ever argue. His gestures are clear and often hardly noticable. Only as I am more finely tuned to them do I see them. And I also notice that there often are no guestures whatsoever ... but yet still the other horse in question moves out the way, clearly  Before I often wondered: 'now why just did that other horse move so suddenly?'.  I am pretty certain that they must have means of communicating via telepathy as well as body language.

But one thing is for sure: when they do communicate they mean it. If 'Mr F' wants 'Luke' out the way, he is very clear with his guestures. There are phases, too. At first it's quite often just the years pinched back lightly, then a little more. Or depending on positioning, the hind leg comes up or the tail is swished angrily. If that's not working, the head goes down, and for more emphasis it is being swayed left to right. And last phase: a crafty bite! Not at anytime is there any hesitation in any of 'Mr F's guestures. 

And with 'Luke' having his own little underling, I could observe him too, doing just the same, equally as effective. It's never over the top, just as much as it requires to get the other horse to move.

The only exception here is 'PL' who does everything with great drama and then doesn't know how to finish off what she started ... but she is a special case in everyway.

Our latest pass time is the communial grooming. I was introduced to this by accident really, I was scratching 'Mr F's neck one morning in the stable, and 'Kitten' saw this as an invite and did the same to me, and 'Luke' too joined and did the same to 'Kitten' and 'Mr F' then scratched 'Luke'. One big daisy chaing of scratching.  But I have written about the grooming ritual somewhere else in this blog.

Being able to communicate or at least listen to the horse, or for the horse to know that I can listen, is very important. And if you have a horse that is in pain, you will be grateful if it can show you where the problem is. Some horses are so used to not being listened to that they just put up with what botheres them until they can't cope no more. 

'Mr F' signals in many ways that he is unwell. He either looks at the part that is not right, or he looks at me in his "Come on, you should know something is wrong." way. Also if he is suddenly anxious to leave his mates behind, that too is the final indicator that something is not right. He never cares if we go out alone (unless there are horses in the yard that are being fed at the time of our departure, how do I dare delay his dinner!) but when he does I know something is up.

Closeness:

Each horse is different. 'Luke' especially is very much one for cuddles (anyone that is willing basically), 'Kitten' too enjoys it but only if she 'likes' you. 'Mr F' isn't really very much into the touching business unless the hands rest on the body. I have seen people go to him sticking their hands into his face and sometimes it has happened that they get a little nip. He does warn them though by usually moving his head away from them first. But often that is not clear anough so here comes the nip.   I do warn people though. 

And of course there are moments when 'Mr F' and I do have quite some arguments. He is used to the other horses moving out of his way at his command. I don't do that ... it took a while for him to let me be equal.  He still gets very grumpy with me if I forbid him to eat another horse's food. In the old days I would have had no chance of stopping him, he would just have run me over, which is why I used to separate him during feeding. Only with time has he accepted me as the one that sometimes holds the cards ... albeit he does so grudgingly.

And yes, I do get the occasional nip myself, and sometimes it is deserved (although it only happens when I am chatting with someone else and am not paying attention to what I am doing). But if it isn't, he gets a nip back straight away. Just like it is among them when they are in the field.

He is in fact very good at being grumpy, perhaps due to his age. Hence why 'Lillian' and I call him 'Victor Meldrew' at times.  Other's have compared us to 'an old married couple' ... 

Many people will of course say that this is not acceptable behaviour. Which is OK. But 'Mr F' is not a pet. He is not a dog that one can just pet at will, there is still a little bit of freedom left in these horses and I personally like them to keep that while they can. Yes it has to be safe for the humans, but I don't want a dumb horse so that they no longer communicate.  To understand them, I need to be part of them, or at least be kind of accepted as one of them, not separated from them. And so I do learn everyday, I learn when things go wrong and when they go well.

May the language lessons continue! :)

TREC

Lately I have been somewhat thoughtful in terms of riding, part of me enjoys it greatly but the other part of me is constantly aware that these horses really don't want to be ridden if they had a choice.

I doubt they get up in the  morning thinking: "Right then, come on, someone saddle me up so I can go out. I want to compete, I want to do high jumps or elegantly move around in a menage."

On the other hand it is very clear that they do enjoy going out, because they can see different scenery. To me the grazing pasture is similar to how we feel about our desk jobs in the office - 'stuck' in there all day long and any chance to get out is taken immediately.

I know that 'Mr F' loves new surroundings, but he'd probably love them even more if he could see them by just being led. Which of course we do quite regularily but the distance we can cover this way is restricted of course.

Sometimes I much prefer to just be with them and observe these horses. Although I don't look much into the future unless its necessairy, nor do I look in the past as that is gone. Yet I do sometimes ponder if I would want another horse once 'Mr F' is no more. And I think I wouldn't, despite the fact that I feel very drawn to these beings. As a rider, I don't think I do them justice, for a start and I wouldn't want a horse if I cannot have it with me where I live so I can check up on it at any time I am at home.

And I am not interested in competing, neither dressage nor show jumping interest me.  Yet I did actually very much enjoy polo. Although we were part of a team, it was just me and the horse, both equally relying on being able to trust each other (see the polo post in May 2016).

But 'Mr F' is too tall and also too advanced in age to start a career of this kind. Although I must say he is perfectly used to me swishing anything from rope to plastic bags to fly swatting leavy branches next to his head while we ride and he doesn't blink an eye! I am sure he'd cope with the polo malet ... 

Hacking out in big groups is also not really my cup of tea as I am not interested in chatting when I ride and often there are riders that don't control their horses.

It is not that I don't like people but I want to concentrate on my horse rather than just being a passenger nor do I want to deal with other horses out of control, I quite often have my hands full with 'Mr F' or at least in the past we have had some quite disasterous rides.

And so, every know and then pondering over the rider - horse relationship, I went to listen to a talk about TREC - Techniques de Radnonnee Equestre de Competition.  

The name gives it away: the origins of TREC are in France and it was introduced to the UK by the BHS (British Horse Society) in 1998.

It is designed to test the skills of both the rider and the horse and consists of 3 separate parts:

- Mounted orienteering

- Demonstration of control over the horse's paces

- Obstacle course

Usually done solo or in pairs. 

 

I must say I really liked the mounted orienteering side of it. 'Mr F' loves to explore and so do I. Perhaps one day I might give this a try. I wonder if I can attach saddle bags to the barefoot pad ... not sure if my map reading skills are up to scratch ... 

The control of the horse's pace is where I would certainly fail as I have not trained this with 'Mr F' other than when hacking out, which isn't quite the same.

But the obstacle course sounds great and I guess that 'Mr F' will probably be quite good in dealing with it all since we have done so many 'silly' games over the years.

I think anyone that likes to work with their horse but doesn't fancy show jumping or dressage but wants to go on adventures, TREC is the thing to do. Or you can organise your own with a group of people. Nothing sounds nicer than to go out into the wilderness, just you and your horse ... :)

For those readers from the UK: here the link to the TREC GB Website.

We shall see. Currently 'Mr F' is a little unsound, 2 days ago he showed some mild lameness although today it was no longer noticable. I will take him out for a ride later today and see how he is doing.

Enjoying The Sunshine

'Mr F' and 'I' have been taking it easy over the past weeks. We do go out for walks all over but quite often into the little wooded area which is our 'Gymn'. It is a smallish area with many 'bump's and it is covered in overground tree roots. With it being so warm, its a welcome escape from the horseflies!

On this note: they have this week returned once more, but in even greater numbers than the previous year. And although we swat them in disgust, just have a look at how beautiful they are closeup (macrophotography is another pass time of mine):

A Cleg Fly - just look at those eyes! Magnificent!

We have been out on the odd ride with 'Lillian' and 'Luke' but with 'Tom' having broken his leg, time is becomeing a little precious for the time being. But that matters not because there are many other ways of enjoying the company of the boys. 

I guess i am becoming more and more 'one of them' in their eyes. The grooming ritual still continues and it is a most welcome back massage still. And now with the weather so nice you have to tie me down to keep me indoors unless its work. 

Making the most of the weather, I have my breakfast with the boys in the field in the very early morning and take my salad out to them in the evening. The boys join for part of it, eating grass nearby. Listening to the rhythmic chewing sounds, the bees buzzing and the birdsong, what could be more relaxing and peaceful? Oh yes, and not to forget the calves next door, they always turn up too, as though they are on a timer ...

The other morning I went out to have a cup of tea, it was beautifully warm and I sat down to enjoy the sunshine. Quite often now, the boys come and join. Of course the first to join what the farm cat, followed by 'Mr F' who decided to lay down very close! Sometimes we forget that 48kg and 547kg aren't quite the same ... and 'Luke' too joined us. Accompanied by the birdsong, it was most peaceful.

Since 'Neill' has treated 'Mr F', his body shape is improving again and he has put on a little weight. He is also much less sensitive around his belly and when riding, I can now feel a lovely figure of 8 movement in walk. And of course we have done some more cantering, which is most enjoyable.