Author: Amanda C

The new barn is only about 25 minutes from a 1,000+ acre park that has a lot of equestrian trails, so on Saturday we decided to take the boys. We were thinking it would be a nice relaxing change of pace, we would get out and enjoy some nature and look at the scenery, and just enjoy the horses. Henry was not on board with any of this.

Henry has been foxhunting. He road hacks. He’s a freaking EVENT HORSE, for god’s sake. I will admit that he hasn’t done much actual trail riding like this, but it’s not as though the horse only ever sees the inside of an arena. We ride out almost every single ride. But there was something about this place, with all of it’s terrible horrible nature… Henry was a spooky snorting idiot the whole time.

He spooked at everything that moved. He spooked at everything that didn’t move. He was convinced that every little stick on the ground was definitely a snake. He gave any little depression/ditch/hole a very wide snorty berth. If anything so much as moved in the brush, lord help us. And then there was that time when we encountered (brace yourselves for the horror) another horse and rider and I could actually feel Henry’s heart pounding until the demon was safely past.

Dumb. Real dumb.

He was so busy snorting and spooking at all the fake snakes that he missed the one actual snake that crossed our path. For real, he was too busy staring down at a stick and he totally missed that thing slither across the trail in front of us. Thank goodness. I can’t imagine how smug he would have been if he realized all of his idiocy had been justified.

We tried to get down to the river access, but with all the rain we’ve had lately the water was too high. We still got a nice little hill workout out of the deal, going down and then back up the steep trail that leads down there. Up until this point lazy-ass Dobby (I swear, the horse walks SO SLOW) had actually been keeping up with Henry. Then the big long hill happened, Dobby thought he was gonna die, and then he was out of juice. Henry had no problem leaving his ass to get eaten by wolves or bears or whatever else he thinks lives out there (neither of those things actually live out there).

I think the best part was when we were walking along the river trail and A MASSIVE LOG had fallen across the trail. And by massive log I mean like the tiniest little tree ever, it barely qualified as more than a stick. It was about the same size as a ground pole. Henry completely refused to go over it. Like… snorting and the whole 9 yards. At one point he reached his nose toward it and touched another stick, spooking himself. This is my Prelim event horse, ladies and gentlemen. Refusing a tiny log. And then spooking and snorting as he walks sideways past a puddle.

Yes indeed you can hear me say “This is really embarrassing” as we’re both cracking up. Oh Henry, you weird little horse.

So as it turns out, Henry isn’t much of a trail horse. Nor did he find the day to be at all relaxing or pleasant. He might be scarred for life.

It’s kind of sad when the 4yo OTTB on his very first trail ride is much more chill.

Oh well… at least the humans had fun?

If you’re getting tired of these pedigree breakdown posts, I’m sorry. I won’t stop. I’ve become dangerously obsessed with studying this stuff and my spreadsheets are out of control. But also this time I’ve tried to pull in a few more “fun facts” as I’ve gone through the field, so hopefully it’s a little more interesting even for those who aren’t breeding nerds.

Today is Day 2 for dressage at Luhmuhlen, which is always one of my favorite cross country courses. It looks like something straight out of a Grimm Brothers fairy tale, like you might turn the corner and run into Hansel and Gretel. If you have a Horse & Country subscription (do I have a subscription to pretty much all of the streaming equestrian event channels on the internet? maaaaaybeeeee…) you can watch the live stream online. If not, Eventing Nation has pretty good coverage.

This year there are only 34 starters in the 5*, an even smaller field than Kentucky, but it’s chock full of an interesting mix of heavy hitters and first timers. My usual disclaimer: if I was unable to find enough of a horse’s pedigree to calculate a meaningful stat, they were excluded from the numbers.

As usual, the most represented stud book is Irish Sporthorse, with 10 entries. Of those 10, 4 have traditional Irish breeding (no European warmblood). Despite the Holsteiner studbook having only 3 horses representing, 55% of the field carries some Holsteiner blood within the first 3 generations.

The average blood percentage of the field is 56%. I looked at the pedigrees a little differently this time in that I broke out one more generation of sire information. This time I looked at the entrant’s sire, the sire’s sire, the dam’s sire, and the dam’s damsire. This revealed something kind of interesting. If you look at just the sire, sire’s sire, and damsire, the number of full thoroughbreds is about the same – 7 horses have full TB sires, 7 horses have full TB sire’s sires, and 8 have full TB damsires. But if you go back a little more and look at the dam’s damsire, the number of full thoroughbreds doubles – to 15. That’s exactly half of the pedigrees that can be verified that far back. Is it an important place in the pedigree to have blood, or is that just a coincidence?

This field is chock full of horses that came up through the FEI young horse classes – 62% of the field participated in 6yo and/or 7yo 2* and 3* classes.

Several sires show up more than once throughout the field, with Irish Sporthorse stallion Touchdown being the sire of two horses and the sire’s sire of another. Touchdown (now deceased) was a 5* showjumper, sired by the Selle Francais legend Galoubet and out of an Irish mare that had a full TB sire. Touchdown has been a successful producer of showjumpers through the 1.60m level and eventers through the 5* level.

The stallion that shows up the most throughout the field, despite having no direct offspring, is Contender. He is represented via his sons Contendro I, Contendro II (full brothers), Con Air, and Cristo.

For the thoroughbred stallions we see a lot of the usual names like Heraldik xx, Master Imp xx, Mytens xx, Damascus xx, and Sir Ivor xx.

The most eye-catching horse in the field is probably Tullabeg Flamenco, who is hard to miss with his buckskin coat, 4 white socks, and a blaze. I am admittedly a little obsessed with him, so I fell down a rabbit hole while looking into his breeder and family. Bear with me here. Tullabeg Flamenco is one of at least 6 full siblings, out of a skewbald Irish mare named Tullabeg Heidi and by the dun stallion Tullabeg Fusion.  One of the older full siblings, Tullabeg Vision, is competing at the 3* level. Another, Tullabeg Tango, is being produced by 2018 WEG silver medalist Sarah Ennis and currently competing at the 2* level.

If you dig more into the families and siblings of the entrants, you find some other very successful mares. The dam of Ascona M, Naomi IV, is also the dam of Clifford M, a 4* horse ridden by American rider Charlotte Collier. Ascona M is by Cassaro, while Clifford M is by Cristo (one of the Contender sons mentioned above). Cristo is also the sire of  Luhmuhlen entrant, Calle 44.

Paulank Brockagh’s dam, Calendar Girl (by TB stallion Triggerero xx) is also the dam of 4* horse Paulank Kings River. Both horses are ridden and have been brought up through the ranks by Australian Sam Griffiths. Palanks Brockagh is by Touchdown, and Paulank Kings River is by Kings Master (by TB stallion Master Imp xx).

On a sort of interesting note, American hunter stallion Ultime Espoir also has an offspring in the field – Efraim. Of course, as is typical of many hunters of these days, before Ultime Espoir came to America, he was a jumper in Europe. Efraim is one from one of his earlier European crops.

Let’s see how the weekend unfolds! The leader after dressage is Brookpark Vikenti, a traditionally-bred Irish horse with 81% blood by the TB stallion Master Imp xx. Can he keep his lead? Who are you rooting for?

On my last update about the new barn and how the boys were settling in, Presto was kind of being a dingus. He spent most of the first couple days staring out his window into the distance, snorting and pacing and flagging his tail like he was trying out for some kind of elite Arabian squad. Luckily that was just a phase, and he finally settled back into his normal weirdo self (which is loads better than his cracked out Arabian self).

Presto is not the smartest horse in the world when it comes to social situations, so he’s currently missing many chunks of skin and fur. When other horses come at him he just kind of curls himself up into a ball rather than MOVING OUT OF THE WAY, so… I dunno if/when he’ll figure that out. His right flank especially has like 5 chunks missing right now. Pretty sure at least 4 of them are because of Henry.

He did make a new friend in a black gelding named Otis, who actually seems interested in playing with him. That’s rare. But naturally, this has caused Henry and Otis to kind of hate each other. You should see the mare glare they exchange from across the barn aisle, and Otis tries to bite Henry when I lead him past his stall. Poor Presto doesn’t even know that this whole power struggle over “ownership” of him is going on. He’s just delighted to have discovered that this place has ROUND BALES, which he rolls on, scratches himself on, tries to climb on, and eats almost non-stop.

I’ve seen him out there basically hugging the dang thing, he loves it so much. I mean, he was born in one, so I guess it makes sense.

Last week I ponied him with Henry once, and got him out for grooming a couple times. He’s already spent some time under his new Tree of Knowledge out in front of the tack shed. It’s nice and shady and right in my line of sight, so it’s perfect for baby horses. He’s pretty solid at the whole Tree of Knowledge idea by now though, so he mostly just stands there like a decent citizen.

Yesterday I decided it was finally time to do something a little more involved, so I put him in the crossties, tacked him up, and took him out to the arena to lunge. I thought he might be a little wild, but… I got like a minute in before the barn owner was like “do you need a whip?”. I think she was tired of hearing all my clucking, trying to get this crazy childerbeast to keep trotting.

We practiced his whoa and his go and his standing skills, then I left him groundtied while I waved the whip around his head, smacked it on the ground around him, and stood behind him and waved it in circles above my head. Presto stood there looking bored like “stupid human tricks, am I right?”. So I guess we’re definitely back to normal now.

Oh, and… he fits in Henry’s dressage girth.

It’s a 28, and considering that Presto is literally 2 inches wide, I have no idea HOW, but that’s a new thing we’re doing I guess. Granted, I have to put it up all the way on both sides, but… it does technically fit. He’s hardcore growing right now so he’s mega awkward and scrawny despite spending 20 hours a day knee deep in hay. You can tell he’s starting to get a little deeper through his body though.

He’s come a long way from that little bebe we saw on the ultrasound 3 years ago today (thanks facebook memories!) during his fetal sexing appointment.

He was still cute though, even then. Big ears and all.

 

 

If you follow Riding Warehouse on social media (I have to assume that you do, because if not you’re missing out on all kinds of things), you may have noticed their ongoing #WinItWednesday campaigns. As you can probably guess from the name, they give cool stuff away pretty much every Wednesday to one Riding Warehouse follower. This week I’m really excited to team up with them for a big giveaway – you could win a Champion helmet of your choice!

Some of you may remember my Champion skull cap review from January, and I’ve really continued to love my Pro-Ultimate SNELL skull cap. It’s comfortable, very ruggedly-made, and I love all the little features like the metal safety buckle, removeable liner, and extra ventilation.

There are only 4 equestrian helmets in the world that carry a SNELL certification and Champion Pro-Ultimate skull cap is one of them. It definitely gives me a little more peace of mind to know that I’m wearing one of the safest helmets on the market.

For those who don’t need a skull cap, Champion has a variety of other styles to choose from as well. The brand is just now starting to establish themselves in the US, but they’ve been a leading brand in the UK for a long time and have a great reputation for safety and high quality construction.

How to enter? There are two ways! Check out the facebook post here:

Or the Instagram post here:

You can enter on both, if you choose!

If you don’t want to take your chances with the giveaway, ALL Champion helmets are 15% off exclusively at Riding Warehouse through this Sunday, June 16th! I really can’t say enough good things about mine, it is by far the best skull cap I’ve ever owned.

If you were on social media the past few days, you may have seen the new data analysis study regarding air jacket safety. If not, see this link (be aware, this is the summary… you have to have a subscription for access to the full paper). Basically the authors analyzed FEI fall data, and from this data concluded that “Riders wearing an air jacket had 1.7 times (95%CI 1.14–2.64) increased odds of sustaining a serious or fatal injury in a fall compared to riders not wearing an air jacket.”.

While I’ve been questioning air jacket safety and the lack of research surrounding them for years, I think it’s important to recognize what this study is really telling us before anyone gets too up in arms or jumps to a conclusion about air jackets or the study. The conclusion of the study states:

Riders wearing an air jacket were over represented in the percentage of serious or fatal injuries in falls compared to riders who only wore a standard body protector. Further research is needed to understand the reason(s) for this finding. It is recommended that additional data on injury outcomes, rider characteristics and the biomechanics of falls be examined in future analyses, and that air jacket and body protector characteristics be further investigated.

So really, this study says “hmmm… we need to research this to figure out why we’re seeing this trend in the numbers.”. Which we do. While correlation does not equal causation, the data we do have definitely raises some questions and highlights the need for more and better data. There has been very little research done regarding air jackets as they relate to equestrian usage, and we really don’t know anything about failure rates, their influence on fall trajectory and direction of impact, potential destabilization of injuries, the risk of burst fractures, potential differences between inward inflation and outward inflation, any possible mental/risk-taking factors, other rider-related factors that might come into play with their use, etc etc. There are a lot of unanswered questions.

It’s also important to recognize that the FEI data itself is not very complete. Since it’s from FEI, it is all upper level competition data, but it’s not giving us particularly specific information about the types of injuries or how they occurred. I personally would be very interested to know what kind of body protector was worn under the air jacket in these cases, because it sure seems like people love to throw them over a 10+ year old cardboard-thin Tipperary and call themselves safe. (On my sandbox for a minute asking people to PLEASE invest in a good quality BETA 3 approved vest and replace it every 4-5 years, whether you wear an air jacket or not… we know for a fact that those work)

One of the authors of the study, Lindsay Nylund, commented on social media with a bit more information:

Thank you all for your comments and questions in relation to this study. I cannot respond to them individually as the debate has progressed, so I will try to address some of the major points raised. Firstly, the conclusion was, “riders who wear air jackets are over represented in the number of serious/fatal injuries in falls.” The results of the data analysis revealed a 1.7 times increase in relative risk. The probability that this finding was due to chance is less than 1 in 100 (p=0.009).

Nowhere does the study conclude that air jackets are the cause and no recommendation is made that riders should or should not wear an air jacket. Unfortunately the data available to the authors could not establish the reason(s) for the finding and hence why it is suggested that further research and investigation be carried out. The discussion section of the paper, explores some of the possible reasons for the finding to provide some focus on where future research efforts could be focused, but these should not be confused with the conclusions or imply causation. The reason(s) must either be due to air jacket characteristics (such as lanyard pull forces – reported in a Swiss study to be in the range of approx. 20 to 60 kg, or possible restriction of torso movement transferring injury risk to the head/neck, etc.), AND/OR due to rider characteristics (such as riders who wear air jackets having increased risk of injury in falls due to rider anthropometric characteristics or fitness levels, or pre-existing injuries, more rotational falls, etc.), that were different from the cohort of riders who fell not wearing an air jacket.

The analysis was limited to injury outcomes in falls (expected versus actual), not differences in fall rates for riders wearing/not wearing an air jacket – we did not have data on the number of starters wearing an air jacket. If 55% of the 3,305 riders who fell were wearing an air jacket, then you would expect 55% of serious/fatal injuries to be for riders wearing air jackets (if air-jackets were doing no good or no harm). While there may well be confounding factors that are unrelated to air jackets, the counter-intuitive finding in the data suggests that the matter needs to be investigated.

Indeed, the study raises more questions than it provides answers, however it does highlight the need for further research and investigation. It is up to each rider to decide whether they think the benefit of wearing an air jacket outweighs the potential risk that it may be increasing their overall serious injury risk, but wouldn’t you prefer to know that there may be a problem and make your own decision? It is fine to speculate about possible reasons and this can assist researchers to identify the data that needs to be collected and analysed. Important questions which need to be answered are: What are the rider, air jacket, and body protector characteristics that we need to collect data on? What is the best way to collect this data? How and when can it be obtained? How can we as riders, instructors, and industry bodies support the research that is needed to understand the reason(s) for the finding? What is it going to cost and how can it be funded? How quickly can further research be carried out? Thanks again for your comments and questions.

It has always bothered me how our industry has swallowed this item as a safety revolution, hook line and sinker, without having any actual research to back that up. It also concerns me that it seems as though most people think that the air jacket is more important than the body protector underneath. Or that the large majority of wearers do  not follow the recommended service, maintenance, and inspection protocol. For example, Point Two’s policy says “We recommend you have your vest or jacket serviced yearly or after six inflations. Your safety depends on it.”. I don’t think I know anyone who actually does that. Some companies don’t even offer any kind of servicing or maintenance protocol. If you like wearing an air jacket, by all means please use it. But understand what it’s meant to do, what it’s not meant to do, and understand how to care for the equipment properly. And, ya know… put a good quality body protector underneath.

So why, in this FEI data, do we see such a disproportionate number of injuries with riders wearing air jackets? We don’t know. Could be so many reasons. Maybe air jackets are safer in some instances or not others. Maybe they have an effect that we don’t know about. Maybe there are other factors at play that would change the data completely and show that air jackets really do help prevent injury. The bottom line is that we have no idea. This data analysis just illustrates how little we DO know, and how much we need some solid research into the air jacket safety equipment so that we can understand how/if it really works. The next question is: how do we get those answers?