Author: Amanda C

Yesterday I did a ground driving session with Presto for the first time in a few months. All in all I’ve ground driven him less than 10 times ever, and only maybe 4-5 times with a bit… I’m not trying to do anything too specific, I mostly just want to give him some idea of how to understand and be comfortable with the bit well before I swing a leg over and actually try to ride.

I really haven’t done much of anything with him, aside from grooming, for almost a month. We’re at that point where honestly he’s quite ready to throw a leg over and start riding, but also he’s not three yet. If I can get a ground person to come help me, I do want to do a few very quick and basic “rides” on him this winter, but otherwise he’s just kind of chilling, and I’m in waiting mode. Every once in a while I get him out for a short lunge or ground driving session mostly just to check in and make sure he remembers everything. He always does.

I took him away from all the other horses, groomed him, tacked him up, led him out to the arena, and he still looked bored with it all. The blown-over dressage letters that Henry spooks at every time are mere curiosities to Presto. He wants to go put his nose on them, but he’s never once even looked at them in a semi-anxious way, not even when footing gets kicked onto them and they make a scary (according to Henry anyway) noise. At the beginning of every session I always lunge Presto for a couple minutes first, going over his voice commands. He knows whoa, walk, and trot 100% now. They’re good enough to where you can even transition between gaits pretty rapidly. The word canter is only about 50/50, mostly because I rarely canter him on the lunge line. He’s a big rangy horse with a big step, I don’t think his balance or his body is really ready for cantering on a 20m circle yet.

Once I’d practiced his voice commands both ways, I hooked up the long lines. One little squeeze on the left rein to move his nose left, one little squeeze on the right rein to move his nose right, and I was satisfied that he remembered what the bit means, so off we went around the arena. We turned, we went straight, we circled, and we made a somewhat drunken attempt at a serpentine. It’s a little hard to ground drive him because he’s almost TOO sensitive and turns a little TOO well. It would be a lot easier from the saddle where I could use my leg and body. But, he definitely remembered it all, and he did everything I asked, as if he does this every day. I halted him and took the long lines off then led him over to the stepstool, jumping up and down and leaning my body over the saddle from both sides. Again, never moved a muscle. At this point we were all of 15 minutes in and I had accomplished everything I had set out to do. I slid down and declared him to be the most boring baby ever.

And when I say boring, I mean that in the best possible way. He’s smart, he retains things easily, he’s confident, he’s obedient, and he’s not emotional. He can go for a long time between training sessions and pick it right back up as if it’s a daily occurrence. He’s very calm about “working”, and is far more of a thinker than a reactor. There is no “well let’s see what kind of mood he’s in today”… so far he’s always the same.

Don’t get me wrong, he can definitely be a goofy baby in his free time. He loves to run and buck and snort and turn into an arabian anytime the neighbor cows make an appearance. But so far, when it comes to his job (if you can even call it that yet), he’s very steady, predictable, and easy.

Things might change when I swing a leg over and actually start doing things… we’ll see. I’ve had some that were exactly the same for groundwork as they were under saddle, and others that were totally different. He IS only 2 years, 8 months, and 9 days old, after all (but who’s counting?).

ME. IT’S ME. I’M COUNTING.

I am kind of functioning at peak anxiety level right now. Work has been BONKERS in a way that it has never been before. Not just busy but also weird things happening and random problems that seem to sprout up every couple hours and need to be fixed, plus process changes and system changes that may or may not be working. Our customers are trying to wrap up their end of year spending so everyone needs everything RIGHT NOW. I don’t recall a time when I’ve ever been this stressed out at work, and I’ve been here almost 15 years. It feels a little like this:

Plus the place that I like to escape to so that I can look at pictures of ponies and see all the fun things that are going on – social media – has been batshit crazy as well. It’s like a weird game of “how freaked out can you make equestrians on social media in one week”, and the universe accepted the challenge. The depo debacle, a trainwreck of comments at the ML reappearance, the FEI making helmets mandatory (I CAN’T BELIEVE PEOPLE ARE STILL ARGUING ABOUT HELMETS IN 2019), and then the GM thing. Bam bam bam bam one after the other. Like for real, I doubt the Chronicle’s facebook page has ever gotten this much action in a week. It’s madness.

And then I had the bright idea to listen to the Hunting Warhead podcast, about the biggest child sexual abuse websites on the dark web, how they got busted, and the people who created them. It’s beyond fucked up. I mean, really though, everyone should listen to that podcast, it’s so important to understand, but jesus christ.

Oh yeah, and my horse is lame. Makes sense since I just finished paying an unrelated $1300 vet bill. WHY NOT GO FOR ROUND TWO. IT’S NOT LIKE I’M TRYING TO SAVE MONEY FOR A HOUSE OR ANYTHING. No profit sharing or bonuses at work this year either. Hope no one wanted Christmas presents.

Also this morning I tripped over nothing and fell down while carrying all the horses’ breakfast. So. You could say things are going well for me at the moment.

In between torturing myself with real life, people screaming “it was a different time!” on social media, and dropping shit, I’ve retreated to the holy sanctity of memes. You can always count on a good meme to make you feel better, ya know? That’s the kind of mindless entertainment I need right now. Here are a few of the week’s favorites:

(Hair is currently burgundy as I work my way through my arctic fox colors…)

And perhaps the most relevant:

Might try that in the next meeting. That should go over fine, right?

I’ve also started putting together my big annual Black Friday sales list, which kinda makes me want to a die a little bit in and of itself, but hey why not. If any business owners are reading this, please shoot me a message via my comment page or on my facebook/instagram with info about your sale so I can make sure you get included. This will go live next Wednesday or Thursday and as usual I’ll keep updating it as we move through the weekend. Hope everyone is ready for some shopping (I’m not, because horses)!

Happy Friday!

I have had my JRT mix, Stewie, for 14 years. He is without a doubt my OG sidekick, having outlasted many relationships, had many horse-brothers, and been on all kinds of crazy adventures with me (fact: he LOVES kayaking, and he’s also finished a 5k.). I got him when he was just 6 weeks old, sourced through a post on an online horse bulletin board of someone giving away some “oops” puppies. He’s the first dog that was ever completely my own, and I must say, he was the cutest puppy ever.

He’s been around horses for his entire life, too, obviously. I couldn’t bring him to the barn with me daily, because he wanted to stay right on the heels of whatever horse I was riding, but he still got to come out on a pretty regular basis and roll in dirt, wallow in ponds, and try to sneak bites of horse poop (why, dogs, why?).

It’s gotten a bit harder to do that in the past several years, though. Some barn owners don’t want you bringing dogs out, which I completely understand and respect. Stewie knows Henry, but they’re more like cousins who only see each other a couple times a year on holidays. They get along well though. Henry isn’t worried about dogs, and Stewie is scared enough of horses to generally keep himself out of harms way, but not so scared that they can’t interact.

Not to mention the elephant in the room – Stewie has aged. He’s still got a lot of that natural JRT zest, but he’s a little more… senile than he used to be. Plus he’s gotten quite hard of hearing.

When I moved out to the farm I decided to bring him with me. I prefer having a dog around when I’m alone, plus he really isn’t happy at home when I’m not there. He’s been my best dude for 14 years, and he’s not that “into” anyone else. Not to mention that, if we’re being totally honest, he much preferred being an only dog. He and Quinn the corgi aren’t enemies, but they aren’t the best of friends either. So Quinn and the cat stayed in Austin with the SO, and Stewie moved out to the farm with me. At 14, he’s finally a full-time barn dog.

And well… he loves it. He sleeps all day when I’m at work, then when I get home he comes out to the barn with me and hangs out while I do chores. He rolls in the grass, chases lizards, and goes around cleaning up whatever few pellets the horses dropped in their shavings. When I drive the spreader out to the way back, he waits for me about halfway down the alleyway, and as I come driving back he gallops along in front of me, leading the charge back to the barn. He’s delighted, and it’s adorable.

I do have to watch him extra-closely, especially since he’s almost deaf. He’s got that terrier instinct to want to put his nose in places he really shouldn’t, so I always have to keep an eye on where he is and what he’s getting into. There are snakes and coyotes and other critters out here. I also can’t call him if he gets too far away, since he can’t hear me. When I’m working directly with the horses, he has to stay inside.

Living the barn dog life, I can really see how much he’s aged, which makes me sad. But on the other hand he’s still pretty spry and happy and energetic for a dog that’s creeping up on 15. I do know that he’s quite enjoying his new role, though… he definitely LOVES being a barn dog again. That makes my heart happy too.

I figure there will be a lot of funny faux-pas type stories as I go along with my new full time farm living, so why not just go ahead and start a series? I’ve already been laughing at myself a few times, but my favorite dumb moment so far has been my misadventure with the alarm. The property is rigged pretty thoroughly with cameras and a Ring system, which the alarms are also synced with. To start the story of how I so thoroughly tested the alarm system, first I have to set the stage for you.

See, it was cold last week. Really cold, especially for a Texan, and especially in November. I mean seriously, a month ago it was 95 degrees, and all the sudden we had a whole week where it got down into the 20’s. And it was raining. There was legit frozen shit falling from the sky (ok, not at the farm, but nearby). I know I’m a baby compared to northern standards, but I was a popsicle.

So on one of those cold nights, after spending days being some level of cold 24/7, when I got in the shower after cleaning stalls and feeding the horses, I cranked up the hot water. I mean really really hot. And I let it run until my skin was pink from head to toe and I was enveloped in a steamy wonderland and I was finally hot again. It was delightful. Eventually I climbed out of the shower, feeling refreshed and happy in that glorious way that only a truly hot shower on a really cold day can achieve.

And then, my dog pushed the bathroom door open.

As soon as the door cracked enough to release all the steam in the bathroom, it billowed directly into the smoke alarm. It immediately started blaring with that horrible ear-splitting screech, making me jump completely out of my skin. Mind you, I had barely even reached for a towel at this point, much less dried off or gotten dressed.

A few seconds after the smoke alarm started blaring, the Ring alarm started blaring too. From on top of the refrigerator came another ear-splitting screech, so now there were two sources of screeching creating a lovely cacophony of noise in stereo. As I’m fumbling with the towel, trying to get out in the hallway to turn the smoke alarm off, I now hear my phone in the bedroom (from yet another direction) alarming too, because the Ring sends you notifications when alarms are triggered. Make that THREE sources of screeching.

So there I am, dripping wet, losing all of my glorious warmth by the second, trying to silence all these alarms coming from all different directions. I got the smoke alarm first, hoping that if I silenced the source it would shut all 3 of them up, but the Ring kept going. I had to dash across the house clinging to my towel (hello, across the street neighbors) and try to figure out how to turn it off. I was unsuccessful, so I dashed back to the bedroom, still in my towel (hello again, across the street neighbors), and opened the Ring app, where I was finally able to shut off the alarm.

Now I was wet, cold, wrapped partially in a towel, and had left a trail of water in my wake from one end of the house to the other. And I was definitely no longer relaxed. Probably a bit traumatized about taking hot showers forever, honestly. I’ve developed a real complex about it.

And then of course, the home owner texted and asked what was on fire, because I forgot they get the Ring alarm notifications too. God, I can only imagine them sitting there eating dinner or something in Florida and all the sudden their phones go off with a fire alarm at home. I had to explain that no, nothing was on fire, I was just cold and took a shower so hot that the steam set off the smoke alarm. Only me. ONLY FREAKING ME.

I guess, in the alarm’s defense, it was a really hot shower.

Well guys, we’re almost a week into the announcement of the USEF ban on depo and nobody has imploded yet. Whew, it was touch and go there for a while. My goodness. If the comments on the COTH facebook thread about it weren’t enough to convince you just how much credence this ban has, nothing will.

The whole depo thing is a little confusing to me, to be honest. It was never on the prohibited substances list before, but the drug rule is:

Any product is prohibited if it contains an ingredient that is a
prohibited substance, or is a drug which might affect the performance
of a horse and/or pony as a stimulant, depressant, tranquilizer,
analgesic, local anesthetic, psychotropic (mood and/or behavior
altering) substance, or might interfere with drug testing procedures.
The USEF provides a common list of prohibited substances, however,
the number of substances that potentially affect the performance of a
horse are too numerous to list.

Considering that everyone says they were using depo to help horses “even out their moods” or “make them easier to handle”, it was technically already prohibited for that purpose. Just not expressly prohibited and testable as illegal. Of course, Perfect Prep would also fall under the psychotropic category IMO, and they have been a friggin sponsor for USHJA. That one has always really confused me, but that’s a rabbit trail for another day.

So what is depo, really? It’s a human hormone that most will be familiar with:

Medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), also known as depot medroxyprogesterone acetate in injectable form and sold under the brand name Depo-Provera among others, is a hormonal medication of the progestin type. It is used as a method of birth control and as a part of menopausal hormone therapy. 

Depo is particularly interesting due to it’s rampant misuse and the deaths attributed to it over the past couple years. I’ve never quite understood why in the world people were giving human female hormones to geldings. It makes no logical sense, unless the depo was giving some other effect outside of basic hormone therapy. Most over the year have used it in geldings to modify mood or behavior, although Depo defenders are very quick to insist that it isn’t a sedative. Technically they’re right. However:

Dr. Stephen Schumacher, DVM and chief administrator of the USEF Drugs and Medications Program, spoke about the perceived calming effect that MPA has on both mares and geldings and stallions, and the possibility that it’s related to the fact that MPA reacts with GABA receptors in the brain (much like benzodiazepines such as Valium or Xanax) to create an effect similar to tranquilizers. These receptors are very similar across mammalian species, so although the research hasn’t been done on horses specifically, it’s likely that the effect is similar to species that have been studied. 

While it’s not explicitly manufactured to be a sedative or tranquilizer, in horses it certainly has the potential to work like one.

More recent studies also showed that it does not in fact have the ability to prevent ovulation in mares either, which was why most mare owners used it. Depo was a common alternative to Regu-Mate, since it’s easier to administer, but now we know that it doesn’t actually do what everyone thought it did for mares. In fact, from another article:

When MPA seems to be working better than altrenogest for mares, it’s likely because it’s working on the GABA receptors in their brains rather than preventing them from suffering the discomfort of ovulating at a show.

Basically, it’s covering up their anxiety about the discomfort, rather than actually addressing the physical issue that causes the “misbehavior” in the first place. Reading through the comments from a lot of depo users, that was a concern I had over and over again. People claiming that depo helped a horse with bad behavior, or one who didn’t like being turned out with other horses, or one who was sore, or one who was unhappy in the barn. It was concerning to me that people so often resorted to a needle in those behavioral situations, rather than looking deeper at the underlying problem. So much of what was described, particularly with the geldings who used it, sounded suspiciously like management issues.

I’m definitely not on board with giving it to geldings and stallions in any scenario, since it doesn’t make any logical sense whatsoever. I do understand, though, why people might have opted for it for mares in the past, thinking that it helped with their cycles. Of course, now we know that isn’t true at all, plus there IS a scientifically proven, USEF-compliant, FDA-approved alternative – Regu-Mate (altrenogest).

“Medroxy (depo) is probably our single most abused drug currently,” said Allen. “If we had nothing to control estrus behavior in the mare, then it would be a different question, but we do, and it’s approved, and it’s FDA approved.”

The common complaint with Regu-Mate is that it puts the humans who handle it at risk. To an extent that’s true, it IS a hormone, so you don’t want to get it on your skin. However, I’m gonna call bullshit here. I worked at a breeding farm for years and handled Regu-Mate on a daily basis for much of that time. It’s called gloves. You can even use a handy little dosing gun to make it easier to administer. It’s just… not that hard or complicated. At all. Plus it’s SO MUCH safer than depo, and it’s actually proven to work. I admittedly don’t really understand the backlash against using Regu-Mate.

Another pro-depo argument that I saw was that banning depo will mean that horses will have to be lunged a lot more, which is even worse for them than an injection. That one admittedly shocked me a bit. Especially when it came from the same people who insisted that depo isn’t a sedative. Those two points, uh… definitely don’t work together. If we find ourselves in a sport where horses either have to be lunged to death or given mood-altering drugs, either we need a different horse for the job or we need to look more closely at the sport itself. Maybe both. Excuse my language, but that is fucked up.

I have never used depo, so okay maybe I just “don’t get it”. But to be honest, we know that a) it has caused horse deaths in the past 2 years. b) it does not work in horses the way we thought it did – it does not suppress estrus. c) for horses it actually most likely works more like anti-anxiety medication. d) it can potentially cover up underlying problems. e) it was being used for mood-altering reasons. f) due to all of the above reasons, it really has no legitimate use for horses at all.

I have a hard time looking at all that and understanding why anyone would still want to use it, or advocate for it’s use as a legal substance in equestrian sports, yet it still seems to have a lot of supporters despite all those things.

Maybe this will make people take a harder look at their programs and the suitability of their horses. Or maybe they’ll just find the next best “non-testable” thing and use that instead. I don’t know. But I do think, for sure, that banning depo was the right move overall, and there’s no doubt at all that it was being heavily misused. How often are we reaching for a needle when horses are trying to tell us something?