Neighbors Banging On The Door, Never A Good Thing When You Have Horses...

I admit I'm a little bit of a safety freak when it comes to my horses. Ask anyone who has been to my barn, and I think I've driven them all nuts with the extra precautions I take so that the horses there don't get injured, sick or loose from their designated containment areas. Still, as any horse owner knows, sometimes it doesn't really matter how good your intentions are or how much planning you put into making a safe haven for the equines in our lives - something is always bound to go wrong.

I'm not usually much of a football fan, but in recent years I have reluctantly decided that any true Western Pennsylvania native has a true human duty to root for the Steelers. (It's just, well, un-Western-Pennsylvanian not to do so - at least that's what my Steeler-crazed neighbor friend says anyway). It was a cold and very rainy Sunday afternoon, I had the flu (read: I was completely miserable), and I was laying on the couch watching the Steelers slog through another home game (you'd think with a brand new stadium built in PA, they would be able to keep the footing even the slightest bit stable in inclement weather - after all, Pittsburgh is just plain known for inclement weather, so they should have planned ahead!).

About halfway through the second quarter, there was a very loud banging sound on the back door - the rapid-fire kind of knocking that stops the hearts of those of us who are fortunate enough to live in the country (no one just suddenly comes knocking on your door on a Sunday afternoon in the pouring down rain and fog). My husband made it to the door before me. As I was struggling to my feet in the midst of piles of tissues and blankets, I heard the back door slam and two of the most dreaded horse-owner words on the planet.... "horses" and "loose", in the same sentence.... Followed closely by the words "colic" or "can't stitch that shut, that's for sure"....

I threw a jacket on over my flannel jammies, and bolted out the door. My husband -and a guy I didn't even know - were running toward our barn, barely visable in the fog and rain. When I got to the barn, one of the main gates to the indoor arena was swung wide open, and the gelding (in his stall) was barreling back and forth and tossing his head, bellowing his protest at not being in on the action.

All three mares were missing. In a downpour you could barely see through. In the fog. At dusk. In deep, slippery mud.

I have learned after 20 years in horses not to immediately panic at every 'little' thing. However, I must admit, panic was pretty much the first thing I did. My three mares are adventurous types as it is, and had been cooped up in the barn (confined to the 50X60 indoor arena) due to a way-too-muddy, way-too-steep, clay-based pasture. For weeks. One of them was my 24-year-old mare that has recently had some arthritis issues and is mostly blind in her right eye. The other two, a 10-year-old and a 4-year-old, always managed to get into everything, and rarely would come to my calls under the best of situations. Surely they had led the old mare into disaster. Panic was definitely the first reaction.

I could hear my husband and the other guy calling to the horses outside the barn, over the whinnies of the gelding, who had now whipped himself into a frenzy in his stall. I grabbed two containers of grain and headed out in pursuit.

Guys (especially non-horse guys, bless their hearts) rarely know what to do in a situation like this. They just went running out into the rain, in two different directions, calling to three missing horses in the pouring down rain (as if, like Trigger or The Black Stallion, they would come trotting around the corner saying 'Oh, thank God you've come out of the house to rescue me!'). Us horse girls know that loose horses that have been cooped up in a barn on a rainy day could be miles from the nearest human within minutes. And they don't come when they're called, even on a good day.

I looked for hoofprints in the mud, while the two guys relied on their eyes to try and spot three blanketed horses in the rain (sure, one of them was a bald-faced Paint, but with a black blanket on, she may as well have been a tree in that weather). It took several minutes of piecing together the muddy prints in the driveway and (ahem) neighbor's yard, to spot them grazing at the top of the hill. On any other day, it may have been surreal. Today, I didn't want to own horses anymore.

Of course none of them had a halter on. The guys decide to herd them (in ankle-deep mud and soft, wet grass) toward the barn, by waving their arms wildly and yelling at them. Just as I yelled to the unknown guy that the black horse was blind in one eye, he actually caught the 4-yr-old... by wrapping his arms around her neck as she trotted by with the rest of them.

Had this been any other situation, I would have laughed out loud. She trotted right up to me (as I suspected she would - she truly is the adventurous one, however all thoughts of straying beyond the norm are stopped by her stomach, every time), and dug into the grain, with the poor guy still swinging from her neck. I put a halter on her, and handed him the end of the lead (failing to tell him that, as soon as the grain ran out, she would start rearing and trying to get away to be with the other horses - oops on my part).

By this time, I'm soaked to the skin, muddy to the ankles, and wishing I had gone the route of dancing lessons instead of horses when I was a kid. The Paint mare has a mean streak, and every time I got close to her, she'd pin her ears and chase the black mare away - usually closer to the road, which made my heart pound even more. I genuinely did feel bad for the stranger I left with the 4-year-old, though - she was rearing and spinning and whinnying, caught up in the moment and trying to get back to her friends, held by a guy who very obviously was not a 'horse person'.

The old black mare's stomach eventually got the best of her (she is the grandma to the 4-year-old, after all) and I was able to trick her into being caught. Knowing the Paint would follow, we thanked the guy who alerted us to this whole mess (who, coincidentally, was the neighbor whose nice green yard they had tromped through), and led the three strays back to the barn.

I missed the rest of the Steelers game (they won), and prolonged my flu by several days. Being a true horse person, I stripped all of the horses of their sopping wet blankets, dried their coats with a hair dryer, and replaced the wet blankets with dry ones - long before I did the same for myself. No one got hurt (well, except for the neighbor's yard), and (thankfully) I was the only one who got sick (and I was sick already). The gate was re-secured with new chains and harder-to-break snaps, and the gelding eventually calmed down once the mares shared their adventurous stories with him.

This horse addiction thing? Yeah, it's apparently here to stay. Although some days (like the day of this incident), I sincerely wonder if this 'addiction' is truly more of an 'affliction' instead....

~ Deb

Curiosity Is Apparently Gunning For The Gelding....

We all have that one horse in the barn - the one you love with all of your heart, but one that you just want to strangle when it gets itself into the most precarious situations. As the old saying goes, 'Curiosity killed the cat'. However, in my barn, curiosity has apparently left the barn cat alone (she's living just fine) - it's apparently gunning for my 4-year-old Paint gelding, Reggie.


Reggie has always been a curious horse. I've had him since the day he was born, and he has gotten himself into some pretty weird and stupid situations (like the time he hung his blanket up on a bucket hook and apparently stood there all night with one leg dangling in the air by his blanket strap, waiting for me to untangle him in the morning - he limped around for a whole day, I have pictures).

The other night I braved the bitter cold to feed the horses. I had three of them turned loose in my indoor arena, so they could move around to keep warm (plus, no stalls to do for a while - hooray!). They were unusually quiet at feeding time, and as I rounded the corner to fill the second bucket I got that 'something just isn't right' feeling. I hadn't turned the arena lights on (the light from the aisleway dimly illuminated most of the arena anyway, and I could feed them in the dark if I had to), and I suddenly found myself tripping over a large board on the floor. Which is strange, because usually the boards are happily living where they belong - on the wall.

I forced myself to look up and around. There, scattered all over the usually-clear arena floor, were 12 rough-sawn boards (complete with nails sticking straight up in the air, of course!), and the huge corner post. On the arena floor. On a bitter cold night.

My first reaction was to finish putting grain in the buckets along the non-destroyed walls, and I ran to switch on the arena lights. The whole way there I'm thinking 'This just isn't possible - horses cannot pull entire walls down. You're hallucinating. And it's cold out here - you're done feeding, get back in the house where the warm people belong. The Super Bowl is on for pity's sake - there's cheese dip!'

As I switched on the overhead arena lights, it was apparent what had happened. Coincidentally, at the same time, if horses could point fingers at one another for blame, the two mares would have been pointing directly at Reggie, screaming "HE DID IT! I SAW HIM!".... Like a bunch of little 2nd-grade girls.

We had a nylon rope attached to the big corner post in the arena (up high). It was used to help wrangle round bales of hay out of the backs of pick-up trucks, and then tucked behind the wall when not in use. Like a CSI investigator, I pieced together the course of events that had to have taken place....

Reggie is a very curious animal. He's bred to be a barrel horse (his mom was my World-level hunt seat horse), and his brain is just constantly working. Due to a major leg injury on my part (6 surgeries), he hasn't been broke yet. So his little 4-year-old mind has not been put to use yet, at least not put to use for anything good. He's fairly tall, and can get into things my other horses can't reach. Apparently he found the nylon rope behind the wall, fished it out, chewed on it for a while, and then somehow managed to take off running with it, pulling the entire wall down with it. Fun, huh? I love horses.

I am stunned that none of the horses in that arena were hurt. With all of the nails sticking up (he pulled the boards straight out of the wall, leaving the nails at the ends sticking straight out - he only bent a few), I'm shocked that there wasn't a single puncture wound, scratch, or gash on any of them. I cannot imagine the amount of force it must have took to get that wall down, or what it must have sounded like. And I had only left them alone in there for a few hours!

I've included a photo to show the damage done. It's repairable, and could have been so much worse, but geez - that gelding is going to get himself in some serious trouble someday! I still love him, of course (I'm a horse owner, after all - my 'children' can rarely 'do wrong') but, wow....

As for the barn cat, her curiosity only allowed her to peer around the corner as we dragged all of those boards out of the arena and did a nail-count to make sure we got them all. If I'm correct, I think she would have pointed a grey paw of blame at Reggie, too. ;)

~ Deb

Confidence - What The Judges Want To See!

If there's one trait that successful horse show enthusiasts share, it's confidence.  Most of the top riders and competitors in the world are not only successful when they are competing with their equine companions, they are successful in business and life as well.

Not everyone can ooze confidence and poise at all times, especially under the stress of competition with a large animal that has a mind of its own!  Let's face it, sometimes our equine companions can spend hours at home performing every element perfectly, and then completely blow it once they hit the show rings, simply because someone in the stands opened a package of crackers that echoed funny off the walls and sounded like a monster.  And this constant concern of that 'horse-with-a-mind-of-its-own' element while competing at horse shows, whether at small back-yard fun ones or in the exclusive World Show arenas, can certainly rattle even someone who thinks they're confident of their overall performance.

The trick to horse showing is often creating an air of confidence that might not really be there.  It's a game we all have to play with our minds in the warm-up pen and when we hit the in-gate...  After all, what we're trying to do is to show the judge's you deserve to win no matter what, right?  And it's up to convince the judge, or judges, of this confidence, whether or not it exists.

Here are a few tiny tidbits of show-ring flair that might help even the backyard competitor bring their A-Game to the show pen:

Be prepared.  One of the best things you can do for you and your horse is to make sure that you belong in the class you are showing in.  Even small horse shows require a significant amount of cost to get there and enter, and with today's economy, you want to make sure that the horse you're showing is going to do the best job in a particular class.  For instance, barrel horses rarely make competitive Western Pleasure horses - and your Showmanship horse won't necessarily nail all of your Western Riding patterns, either.  It's important to pick and choose your classes wisely, and make sure that you are showing the judges you are prepared for the class, and are ready to win!

Show With Eye Contact.  It never fails to amaze me how many people enter the show arena with their heads down, looking at the ground in front of them (which could be dangerous when riding or driving a horse) or just plain look like they're embarrassed to be there.  When you are competing, no matter what level, you want to confidently show that you and your horse are completely prepared for this competition, and that you not only want to be there, but that you deserve to be there as well.  Take the time to sit up straight, put a big smile on your face, and enter the arena with an air of confidence and excitement to be there.  It will make a big difference in your overall performance!

Ride (or drive, or lead) With A Purpose.  Particularly in pattern classes where there is a lot to remember, riders and drivers quickly forget that they have a 'whole package' to sell to a judge, not just showing off your ability to remember a sequence of movements you're required to do.  Make sure you know your stuff inside and out before you even walk into the show ring.  Ride into that ring like a runway model with a brand new outfit to show off - you want to 'sell' to the judge that you have a purpose for being there, and that purpose is to win!

Make Sure Your Equipment Is Clean.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to make a good first impression on the judge or judges you are 'showing off' to.  It is true that many classes are won or lost based on the first impression a judge gets of you when you enter the show ring.  They sit back and look at the overall package, how it fits together, and if they like what they see.  I don't think I have ever entered the show ring with any part of my equipment or show outfit not in sparkling clean condition - that means every aspect of my turnout is sparkling, neat, and in excellent condition.  Going into the show ring in any other condition shows the judge immediately that you weren't prepared (and obviously didn't care, so why should they?).

Be courteous. Judges are people too, and when they ask you a question, say 'good morning', or ask you to perform a certain task in the arena (such as backing up your horse), smile and be courteous to them.  When they say 'Good morning' when you trot up to them in Showmanship class, say (with a smile) 'Good morning sir/madam.'  Don't carry on a conversation with them, but show them the respect that they deserve as the chosen judge for that particular competition.  They were hired to be there - show your appreciation for their role in your horse show experience.

Following just these few simple steps and concentrating on your overall confidence in the horse show rings could very well help to bump your placings up a few notches. Showing horses is both a terrifying and exciting activity at the same time - being prepared for your competitions both mentally and physically will help ooze the confidence of a well thought-out show plan, and success in the show pen.

~ Deb

It's Not The Truck and Trailer In The Parking Lot

Several years ago, a friend and I traveled together to horse shows with our little group of miscellaneous pleasure horses.  Compared to now, those seemed like much simpler times, and definitely a time when I seemed to be able to focus on one horse's show career at a time (oh how I long for those days).  We had a few Paint and Appaloosa horses we traveled with at the time (and we were in a transition between deciding whether we wanted to show APHA or ApHC shows... so we just showed the regional Open circuit instead - it was a transitional year).  Our two main horses were a 16-hand, hard-to-keep-sane black and white Paint gelding that I showed, and her breeding stock (almost had enough white on his hock to make regular papers) APHA gelding.

Back in those days, we'd show one show on Saturday, and another show 5 hours away on Sunday, all while working full-time jobs (I worked two jobs, at the time, to support my 'horse habit'), and trying to justify being so tired all the time because of our 'hobby'.  We chased points like there was no tomorrow, and worked diligently on our horses' training year-round.  We traveled in her truck and 3-horse trailer - nothing fancy, but we kept it clean and neat and maintained as best we could.

We always used to drool over the huge truck and trailer rigs that would pull into the various show grounds each weekend - we dreamt of what it would be like to drive a brand new F-350 and a 6-horse rig.  We admired the parking lots full of those rigs, and wished that we, too, could have all of those things.  We also dreamed of having living quarters as well, so that we could stay at the show grounds instead of limping to the nearest $25-a-night hotel just to shower and rest before the next day's events.

The horse I rode that year was extremely unpredictable in the show ring - one class he'd be just fine, and the next he'd leap into the air like a bronc if he happened to be off the rail when the announcer called for the canter (he snapped at the very thought of a horse transitioning to before he was cued to do so).  My travel partner's horse was often lazy and brooding in his classes - a horse you couldn't just smile and ride down the rail, you had to work to make him look pretty (and look good doing it!).  We struggled all year long, but got better with every show, learned how to bypass our horse's shortcomings, and actually accumulated quite a lot of year-end awards that year, as well as enough Jackpot money to pretty much break us even every weekend on gas and expenses.  To us horse show addicts, breaking even is like winning a million dollars.

Above all of the ribbons, jackpot earnings and blood, sweat and tears that went into showing those geldings that year, however, I think we learned a very important lesson that lives within me to this day.  For as much as we talked about the pretty rigs that other horse show enthusiasts somehow managed to obtain, we learned a very important lesson - it's not the truck and trailer sitting in the parking lot that takes home blue ribbons or accumulates points.  In the end, it's the performance you and your horse put on in the ring that counts the most.

There's a funny thing about horse shows (and other animal shows, I guess) - nothing else counts to a judge except what he or she sees in the show ring for that particular class.  There really is (or rather, should be) no difference between you (who may have driven onto the grounds in a rusty, barely-held-together rig), and the girl sitting next to you (who may have driven onto the grounds in a $100,000 truck and trailer).  What the judge sees is your performance, confidence and poise that you possess when you first hit the in-gate.  They aren't judging you by the truck and trailer you drove in with  - they are judging you by what they see now, when it counts.

So many of us get caught up in the politics of the horse show rings - trying to out-do one another with fancy trucks, trailers, stall curtains, and monogrammed halters and blankets.  The truth of the matter is that if you really want to win, and if you really care about the sport you are participating in and the goals you've set for yourself, how you got there is really not that important.  What's there at the time, in the show ring, in that particular class, is (and should be) really all that counts.

I have traveled all over the country showing horses, in fancy rigs and not-so-fancy ones, over the past 20 years.  I have competed with horses literally a fraction of the price of many of my competitors (in fact, one of my most successful show horses was purchased for $500 out of a field back in 1988, with no bloodlines or show background to speak of).  That year I struggled to show the black and white gelding (who, by the way, turned out to be one of my favorite horses to ride and show, because I learned so much from him about patience, thinking ahead, and working with an individual personality to the best of his abilities), I learned that whether you drive onto the grounds in a beat-up rig or something everyone turns and looks at as you pull in, it's what's inside that rig that truly matters.  

That is, after all, what we show for, right?  The horses we're proud of and worked hard on to present in the show rings, not the rigs we drive...

~ Deb

Miniature Horses - The New Showing Rage!

I have been showing horses for over 20 years now (seems hard to believe!).  When I was younger, my initial focus was on pleasure horses - Hunter Under Saddle, Western Pleasure, Showmanship, Western Riding, Hunter Hack and Trail.  And, like all young riders, I was a fierce competitor, but had no idea that, eventually, I wouldn't bounce back up quite as quickly from injuries as I once did.  

When I was 21, I had a pretty bad accident when the horse I was riding slipped on some hidden ice underneath the arena footing while running around an end pole during a fun weekend barn show (my show mare was pregnant at the time, so I had borrowed a friend's horse).  He fell right on top of me - more importantly, my right ankle and knee.  When he scrambled back to his feet, I was briefly hung up and still attached to him, so when he took off running, he managed to dislocate my right hip to 'finish the job'.

You never realize how much 3 seconds of your life can really, truly change everything, until it happens to you.  The injury that began that day (I was 21 years old - I'm now 32) has since turned into 6 massive ankle reconstructions and two nerve surgeries on my knee, hundreds and hundreds of hours of rehab, procedures and injections I wouldn't let my horses endure, and thousands of hours dragging myself around on crutches in various casts.  It hasn't been fun.

Through all of this I tried to keep riding and stay competitive.  I was even breaking horses and riding the 2-yr-olds and 3-yr-olds, and competed with my APHA mare at the World Championships in several different events (Hunter Under Saddle, Western Pleasure, Showmanship, Horsemanship, etc).  

I was introduced to miniature horses when a friend of mine was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer.   I started making very frequent trips to visit with her, and during that time was introduced to a little miniature horse stallion that I fell in love with.  At the time, I said (in all seriousness) 'What can you do with these little things?'  Boy, was I surprised.

Showing miniature horses was not exactly something I ever would have sought out on my own.  I ride 'the big ones', and had most recently gotten my feet wet in the fast-paced world of barrel racing.  How could I possibly get any kind of adrenaline rush out of showing a 31" midget horse?  With a severe injury still plaguing me and facing still another surgery, I decided to give it a try.  And I learned something very important - miniature horses offer an amazingly excellent alternative for those who are injured, unable to ride 'the big horses', or simply have a smaller space to keep horses and a smaller budget for their care.  Or, in my case, I was just genuinely intrigued that you could show them!  ;)

Miniature horses offer a variety of activities for horse enthusiasts - driving, jumping, halter, trail (obstacle), and even a versatility class.  They are compact enough for even the smaller children to safely handle, and generally have a pretty good attitude about being toted around the country to different events.  If showing isn't your main interest, they are excellent trail companions to drive through the woods as well, either alone or in tandem.  They are also always a crowd-pleaser at fairs and parades as well.  

I must say, I was pretty surprised at how fun and fulfilling showing miniature horses can be.  I have shown at the World level 2 years in a row now (AMHA) and have brought home 3 Top Fives and 2 Top Tens in Hunter, Jumper, and Showmanship.  I also drove a miniature horse to his Country Pleasure Driving Hall of Fame in 2007, accumulating all of his points and championships as a one-horse, one-driver team.  I also have several Regional, All-Star and Hall of Fame Top Ten placings as well with several different horses.  I'm hoping to head to Oklahoma this year to compete at the AMHR Nationals with a few new prospects.  I've sold several of my 'big horses' to concentrate on showing the minis for now as my ankle and knee continue to heal.  

(It's addicting, I'm telling you....)  

However, I must caution anyone thinking of 'downsizing' to miniature horses to try your hand at 'their world' - the little buggers are definitely addicting, and you can't have just one.  ;)

You can find out more information about the two main miniature horse associations by visiting the American Miniature Horse Association web site or the American Miniature Horse Registry web site.  But enter at your own risk - you'll be hooked in no time!  

~ Deb