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?

Thoroughbreds are seriously having a moment this fall. First we had Unmarked Bills running clear around a tough Burghley on his first ever attempt, on a course where many other very experienced horses came to grief (Indy 500, another american OTTB, also ran clear across that controversial and influential course). Then we had Paddy the Caddy, a fan favorite, winning the Fair Hill 4*L in October. Plus Mucho Me Gusto‘s win the West Coast 5yo YEH Championships, and Not Ours going from kill pen to second place at the 5yo East Coast YEH (a mere 0.04 points behind the imported warmblood winner). It’s been a fun time to be a TB fan.

This past weekend provided ample opportunity to keep waving that Thoroughbred flag with enthusiasm. Willingapark Clifford, a full TB, won the Adelaide 5* again – the first horse to ever win Adelaide 3 times. Third place at Adelaide also went to a full TB, Sky’s Da Limit.

As if that weren’t enough, Ocala Jockey Club also had thoroughbreds making headlines, with full TB’s taking the win in both the 3*L and the 4*L. They offer great prize money for thoroughbreds at this event, and boy did the horses deliver. Campground won the 4*L, Il Vici won the 3*L, and Bogue Sound was 2nd in the 4*S. Phillip Dutton’s mount Sea of Clouds had one of only two double clear XC rounds in the 4*L on Saturday despite being new to the level and was my personal favorite in the division on that phase. Steady Eddie also carried Mike Pendleton to his second 4*L completion in a month, making them qualified for Kentucky.

There were so many great moments with thoroughbreds this past weekend, I can’t name them all or we’d be here all day, but those were some of the highlights for me. It was a great weekend of sport, especially if you are a thoroughbred fan, and I greatly enjoyed having live streams available. I can’t thank events enough for doing that, it’s really great to be able to watch from home when you can’t make it to the event in person.

I did want to talk a little bit about the commentating though. It’s often painful to hear the commentators, who tend to be upper level riders, try to talk about breeding. I don’t know if they just need to be provided with more/better information or what, but boy was I cringing. First they didn’t have the sheets with the horse’s information on them, then when they got the sheets a lot of it was incomplete. This isn’t their fault or the fault of the person who printed the data, which usually comes from the FEI or USEA listings – best case scenario all you get is the sire and dam name, plus so many horses are listed without any registry or pedigree information by their owners or riders. Even though it’s actually quite easy to find with a tiny bit of digging… I was successful in tracking down most of the “unknown” horses within 30 seconds. SIGH. Come on people. Please put in accurate data for your horses.

A lack of info led to a lot of missed opportunities to point out cool things, like “this horse is by the same sire as Deniro Z” or “this horse is out of the same dam as Tim Price’s 5* winner Ascona M” (yes, both of those scenarios were true). You know… things that, at least to me, are really fun tidbits to know and say out loud on a commentary, and can lead to good discussions or comparisons of horses. But they have no way of knowing most of that from the limited info on those sheets, and most people don’t carry those facts around in their head (ok I do but that’s because I have no actual life, those people are busy riding like 10 horses a day and showing every weekend). There was also no breeder information discussed, not even once, which made me sad. So many of those horses were American-bred, many produced by actual event horse breeders specifically for this sport, and none of them got acknowledged on the live feed. Some breeders even had several horses present. Missed opportunity for some conversation (and great self promotion) there.

I also don’t think that top level riders tend to be great at commentating on the breeding aspect in general anyway. At one point both of them discussed that they had never heard of a “German Sport Horse” and the conclusion was that it must be something that people made up because they didn’t know what the horse really was. Yeah no. It’s an actual thing. One commentator also said that Oldenburgs can be a combination of many different things, which… is actually true of any of the warmblood registries except Trakehner. Trak is the only one with a closed book (they don’t accept anything but trakehner, arabian, and thoroughbred).

Which kind of tied into another comment about how a particular stallion was originally an Selle Francais but was sold to Germany so now it’s a Holsteiner. Much laughing ensued, because they thought this was hilarious. Sigh. No. That’s not how that works. See, a horse can only have one actual REGISTRATION, and that happens when it’s a baby. That registration will never change. That SF stallion will always be a SF. Stallions and mares can be APPROVED for breeding with multiple registries though, and that’s where it gets confusing. They can produce offspring for a different registry than their own. Registration and approval are different.

For example, Presto’s sire Mighty Magic is registered Holsteiner. This will never change, he will always be a Holsteiner. However, he has also been approved for breeding with Selle Francais, Anglo-Arab, Hanoverian, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Rheinland, Westfalen, and Swedish WB. That means he can produce offspring eligible for registration with ANY of those registries. To make it even more complicated, there are some registries that will accept foals for registration if they are by a stallion that is approved with certain other registries. For example, sBs (Belgian Sporthorse) is Presto’s registry. While Mighty Magic was not expressly presented for breeding approval with sBs, they accept foals by him for registration based on his other approvals and his sport results. Presto’s dam Sadie was not born sBs either, but she was presented for inspection to sBs and they approved her for breeding in their mare book (she is also approved Westfalen – just like stallions, mares can have multiple approvals).

Presto’s sire and dam were both approved for breeding with sBs, and that’s the registry we went with for him, therefore Presto is Belgian Sporthorse (even though yes, he was born and bred in the US, he actually has a Belgian passport and papers). Presto will always be a Belgian Sporthorse, even though his sire is registered Holsteiner and his dam is registered German Sport Horse (to make it more fun, HER sire was registered Hanoverian and her dam was registered thoroughbred).

This is very convoluted and confusing to an non-breeder, I get it. It’s why these are registries, not breeds. It’s also why the registry ultimately matters so very little, and tells us almost nothing about the horse. To know anything about what you’re really looking at, you must look at the actual pedigree. Most people have no idea how any of that works (as evidenced by a podcast I listened to last week when a big name rider said “well she’s Dutch, so we knew she would jump”. God, cue a massive amount of twitching.). It’s really not THAT hard to learn though, especially if it’s something you comment on to the public. Or if you buy young horses.

Another pet peeve, since I’m on a roll – one commentator kept saying that Zangersheide was German. It’s not. It’s a Belgian registry (there are 3 in Belgium – BWP based in the northern Flemish part, sBs based in the southern French part, and Zangersheide which started off as a private studfarm and turned into it’s own registry later).

I don’t know how to help with any of this though. Part of me wishes they’d throw a breeder in the commentator booth, with the express job of saying who bred the horse, where it was bred, and maybe a quick tidbit about the bloodlines. That would be my absolute dream come true. Let the riders commentate on the horses and the riding, and let the breeding person talk about that part. At the very least it would be nice to provide the commentators with some kind of pre-prepared fact sheet, with more detailed and accurate information about the horses. Show/live feed organizers, I personally volunteer to provide that. Dead freaking serious.

I love having the live feeds so I’m not complaining at all, don’t get me wrong. The quality was super and it was really really really well done. I’d rather listen to wrong information all day long than not have a live feed, that is 100% for sure. But I also feel like if we’re gonna do something, it’s worth doing the best we can. The live feeds especially are such a great opportunity to get more information out there, to recognize our breeders, and to really talk about the horses. It would have also been cool to discuss the thoroughbreds in more detail and what lines they shared – valuable information for people picking up horses off the track, and fitting with the ties to the Ocala Jockey Club. It’s how we learn, and we’re missing a good opportunity for some “free” public education.

Am I being crazy? Does the public not really care about any of this? Am I the only one getting twitchy about these things? Maybe so…