An aquatic Porkchop

Hampton swimming. Unsure if he likes this new activity.

In an effort to increase Hampton's fitness over the winter, I jumped on the chance to tag along to a little place called Bluegrass Aquatic Rehabilitation just south of town. 

It's not fancy, but the people were nice and knew what they were doing. Because of their excellent horsemanship, there were no problems and no theatrics getting first-time swimmer Porkchop into the pool. At first they took him around for just one lap to give him the idea of the activity. Then they took him back in for another 5 laps.

Pool overview

Hamp did great, although his eyes were bugging out of his head and I kept getting some major side-eye. It was also interesting noting the difference in how the horses would breathe while swimming. Hampton almost seemed to hold his breath at times, while his barn mate took a very rhythmic 13 breaths per lap. 

After the horses swim, they spend about 30-40 on the hot walker to dry off and keep their muscles moving. It's really a great workout and low-impact on Hampton's feet. He had never been swimming before (although has done the aquatread) so I wasn't sure if he would 1) cannonball in 2) drown or 3) run someone over.

Definitely adding this to our list of winter fitness activities! 

One foot in front of the other

It's a miracle - I have taken the time to blog.

My new job and Hampton and life in general has kept me quite busy and exhausted and trying to multi-task to my maximum abilities. 

But it's all good.

This is the kind of adventures I get to go on
for my new job.

Anyway, Hampton is doing much better these days. It seems that little period of unsoundness was a result of a nasty case of sulcus thrush in his left front foot. This falls entirely on me for not keeping on top of it. It was so bad that when I gently stuck a hoofpick in that sulcus crack it started to bleed. Kind of a lot. So clearly he had some necrotic and painful tissue.

So - I have been soaking ALL his sulcus cracks with Tomorrow (dry cow mastitis stuff), because he has contracted heels in all 4 feet really. But the left front I then butt floss some gauze into that crack so it will open up and allow air in there.

The nerdiest of nerds.

Then he got expensive frog pad shoes to help mechanically open up his heels and offer him some cushion. I also left his bell boots off because I was afraid they were trapping crap and moisture. Naturally, Hampton pulled a front shoe on Thanksgiving. Thank fuck he pulled the shoe off the good foot. So I guess the bell boots go back on.

I love horses.

He is back to feeling much better and working great so I will take it.

This brings up a good point. He apparently can feel that foot. This is the foot that was nerved just a year ago. So that development is quite disappointing. So I am not sure how much longer Hampton will remain serviceably sound. I don't think I would do the neurectomy again since he seems to regenerate nerves at a bizarrely rapid pace.

However, at the moment he is going great and I will just enjoy that while I can and will cross other bridges when we come to them. Not sure what else there is to do. I mean technically none of us know how long our horses will be sound so .... *shrug*

You know I have adventures planned as well. Annnnnd got suckered into fostering another cat. This cute guy still has his trouble puffs so he has to live in my spare bathroom. It makes me feel terrible but I guess it's better than a cold cage or death. I named him Sly. lol

Porkchop the Schoolmaster

Hurricane deployment number 1 in the books!

Probably the cutest place I saw the entire 11 days. 
Cute park in Sebring, FL.
Not pictures, 3 cop cards and some drug lords.

I survived, and will never move to Florida. Moving on.

I cannot thank the plethora of people who took care of my boys while I was away. I believe this was the longest I have ever been away from Hampton. He of course seemed unbothered.

Hampton got to play Schoolmaster while I was gone and he was SUCH a good boy. 

He was a lesson horse for a really fabulous teenager. She was very deserving of the ride
and I was more than happy to offer it.

My barn friends traded some rides on him and I am so thankful they kept his muscles moving. The more movement the better for Hamp. Even though he lives outside 24/7, he still sometimes gets stiff when he has more than 2 days off in a row. #oldman

And a very deserving teenager took a lesson on him. It made my heart burst when I got video of her doing tempis with him! I'm not sure she has done them before! And there goes Hampton just the perfect schoolmaster. Somehow this 2 year old random gelding I bought in 2009 is now giving FEI level lessons to a young rider. I'm not sure how this all happened. *sniffle*

Unfortunately, Hampton is back to suffering lameness on his left front. I'm not sure if his neurectomy is no longer effective, or an abscess? Or what? It's very disheartening. It's almost a year to the day since his nerve surgery. Not going to go to dark places just yet as I have not even consulted a vet yet about it, and the girls DID find a stick wedged in his frog and some seepage of goop so will hold off on being depressed until we can figure out what exactly is going on. Horses, man.

Anyway I am very happy to be home and catching up on blogs, sleep, Buckley demands, eating actual meals, laundry and usual orders of business. Whew.

90 degree turn: Part 2

Somehow, in a series of events, networking, good luck, good friends, persistent friends, and successful interviews I was hired on as a property adjuster in August 2022. Changing careers at 42 took some rather large balls, but nothing changes if nothing changes.

How much do I know about insurance? Minimal.

How much do I know about adjusting? Absolutely nothing.

But this company was willing to take a chance on this jaded journalist, and train me.

Blog gets old media of Hamp today.
I am in desperate need of updated photos.

This job means a flexible schedule, holidays and weekends off *cough* SHOWS, work from home and work out in the field and endless learning opportunities. Plus there is quite a bit of room for advancement just within the company, not to mention the field of insurance. 

My mother was worried that "people will hate me" since insurance adjusters are often met with resentment from clients, and sometimes you are meeting people at the worst times in their lives. I had to remind her that I was certainly NOT liked as a journalist either. Refer back to 2016 and on thank you. And so far I have only run into kind and professional people on site. Plus, I get to do cool things like climb on roofs.

This my hooman.

As of Wednesday, I now have my KY adjuster license!

And one month into the job I am already getting deployed to Florida for hurricane claims. It will probably be about 10 days. Talk about being thrown to the wolves. It should teach me a lot though. Bring it on.

90 degree turn: Part 1

I DID NOT DO THIS. lol

In a wild turn of events, I quit my job in August.

I had been designing, photo editing, copy editing, writing and basically nose-deep in newspapers for almost 20 years. It was my first job out of college and print journalism was all I knew.

I designed pages, sorted through photos, read stories and worked with other journalists (sometimes until 2 am) to produce pages featuring major historic events including

• 5 presidential elections
• Hurricane Katrina
• Virginia Tech shooting
• Stock market crash/housing market crisis of 2008
• Osama Bin Laden killed
• Hurricane Sandy
• Death of Pope John Paul
• Death of Ronald Reagan
• Sandy Hook shooting
• Boston Marathon Bombing
• Sam Sex Marriage legalized (one of my favorite nights as a journalist)
• Brett Kavanaugh confirmed to SCOTUS
• The COVID-19 pandemic
• Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington DC
• Couple of impeachments of Trump
• Overturn of Roe v. Wade
• Covid -19 vaccines
• Haiti earthquake
• Two Triple Crown winners
• Multiple Olympics
• Jerry Sandusky/Penn State
• Larry Nassar/USA Gymnastics

When I was furloughed in 2009, I bought this thing.

... plus hundreds of local events, deaths, murders, you name it for newspapers including Detroit Free Press, Indianapolis Star, Louisville Courier Journal, Lansing State Journal, Muncie Star Press, Lafayette Journal & Courier and more.

It was not an insignificant career.

It was a career where I saw both the best and the worst of humanity.

A career where the president of the united states challenged the free press in ways it had not been challenged. I saw journalism change dramatically with the internet and social media. People no longer got their news and facts from trained, unbiased journalists. Instead they got it from Facebook or some website and then blamed the "liberal media" if they saw news they didn't agree with. I heard things like that even from my own family. 

I didn't do this either lol. FFS

I scarified a lot for a career I enjoyed. I worked nights and weekends for years. Sometimes we would not put the paper to bed until 2 am. I never made much money, but I made things work. I was good at my job.

But layoffs and furloughs started to wear on everyone. I barely worked part time the summer of 2020 because of furloughs thanks to Covid. I knew something had to change. 

So I started to sort of poke around for other jobs and careers I could possibly get into.

Nothing really went very far. Until the summer of 2022.

Tip toeing back onto the ship

Hamp loves the stormy, cool fall weather.

We were so very lucky to have one of my all time favorite clinicians, LS, in town recently.

Hamp has been back in full work, and while he does occasionally still have some drainage from his sinus he seems to be back to normal and the hole where his tooth was extracted is fully healed. I owe Rood and Riddle a damn kidney but I suppose life could be worse. lol

Anyway, our lesson with LS was wonderful and she was very encouraging about our Grand Prix journey. Basically saying I jumped ship based upon one bad show and what the hell is wrong with me. hahaha. "Do the Grand Prix" she said. And then she told me several stories regarding her own GP disasters, and disasters from other international trainers that were FAR worse than my little incident. If you aren't having disasters in the show ring, you aren't riding and showing enough. And probably not training your own horses. And for the horses and riders you think are perfect, even in the Olympics, they most assuredly are not.

I will need to drink excessively build up some more nerve, but maybe GP is back on the table.

Anyway, I took notes and gathered tidbits from my lesson and several others that I watched. 

• Passage in haunches in
• Put passage "over the trot"
• Push him into passage, no hands!
• Scrunch boobs to belt in passage
• Put him on the bit, let go. Repeat until you die
• Not so much bend in GP zig zag (I was overbending his neck)
• Bring lower legs back
• Hold a grapefruit behind your knee
• H/J riders are rewarded for being immobile and doing as little as possible. Dressage is about influencing the horse. It is a sport, you will work very hard and that's not a bad thing. 
• Post with great clarity
• Medium across diagonal. Walk at X. Back to medium trot

And I WISH I had some media because Hamp worked so great. #fail

You know what else is failing? This box.

I hope to spend a few days to a week at her farm in VA (maybe 2023?) for a boot camp. I think that would really help confirm the tweaks she makes. 

The winter will be about building strength, self carriage and engagement. He needs to crawl out of his skin waiting on my aids. And we need to add a lot more walking for fitness. Hampton is at the point where he doesn't need to school All The Things all the time. He needs to be fit so that I can preserve his soundness. 

Until next time!

Kraken released

 Hampton had his lavage tube pulled Tuesday and was released back into the wild!

I'm not sure there was a happier horse on the planet that morning. haha! 

Jokes on him because it's back to work this week.

Head like a hole

 Last Thursday I dropped Hampton off at Rood and Riddle hospital in Lexington.

Within the hour, the vet had examined him, took X-rays and determined it was indeed the cracked molar causing his sinus infection. We were able to avoid a CT scan thankfully! I am working on getting that X-ray and will share it of course hahaha. Dr. Brad Tanner was Hampton's doctor and the level of care is just phenomenal. 

His suite at the hospital! He was rather annoyed there was nothing to crib on lol

As soon as that was confirmed, Hampton had the green light to get his tooth extracted and sinus trephination. The tooth did come out in pieces, but overall it went ok. And his sinus procedure also went just fine. He now has a lavage system in place. There was a good amount of pus they flushed out the first time. Poor guy. 

I went down Friday morning and walked him for a bit. Actually, he ended up
walking me. Gave zero shits about the tube in his face.

At Rood and Riddle

And he did so well he was discharged on Saturday! Our regular vet will lavage him today (Monday) and Tuesday one more time before he gets this fine accessory removed. And then he can go back outside AND go right back to work. He will still have some staples in his head but a flymask should keep that protected.

Back home!

Hamp handled this all like a champ. And while QUITE expensive, this really ended up being pretty easy on the horse. I am sure his face is sore, but he is acting quite chipper with a good appetite. I have been hand walking him and he has been dragging my ass around. I ended up putting a chain over his nose so I am not flying a large kite.

He will be on Doxycycline for about a week, and Gastroguard but he is off bute! And thankfully our barn grain is mostly beet pulp so it soaks into a nice mash really easily. And I have to rinse out his mouth once a day as well. That is probably the worst part of all of this because he flings water everywhere and I end up soaked. Punk.

Get me the F outta this place lady.

Stuffing his face back at home.

So it's looking like a very swift recovery. Now I just need jingles for ME who has to survive handwalking this thing a couple more days!

Mirrors.

 You know how people say that horses and riders mirror each other?

This has always been true about Hampton and myself, but this week we took it a little too far.

First, Hampton shows up with a snotty nose. Just one nostril. No other symptoms.

It smells like something DIED in there, too.

It's a cracked molar and he has a secondary sinus infection. He will be making another trip to Rood n Riddle this week to have that extracted and likely a sinus trephination. Yep, that's when they drill a hole in their head to let crap drain out.

Recovery will hopefully be easy and swift. Although, this likely ends our show season unless I find something to hit up in the fall/early winter. 

Hopefully will be back in the ring in no time.
(From the I-1 in June)

Then, I was eating pizza and started chewing on something really crunchy. I cracked a crown, and have to have that replaced. Plus a filling. Both molars lol.

Life is getting a little crazy and I'll have an update soon but except for our tooth issues it's so far all awesome news.

Off to the dentists we go.

Myth busters Monday: Feeding dry beet pulp

A young Hampton snoozing in his food

 If I feed dry beet pulp to my horse will his stomach explode?

Myth. 

Beet pulp is sold in either dried shreds or pellets and yes, when you add water to it it does expand. But it expands too slowly to worry about. Given a horse's stomach capacity and how quickly it empties into the small intestine (and beyond) when it becomes full, it's an extremely unlikely thing to happen.

There is a large university study which further dispelled the stomach-exploding myth in a study where horses ingested up to 45 percent of their total diet from dry beet pulp. No adverse effects were noted. No colic, choke or change in manure moisture.

(Two sources have mentioned this study and I cannot find it online anywhere...grrr)

Throwback to our jumping days!

Beet pulp seems to also suffer from rumors that feeding it dry can cause choke. It's more likely that a choke would be caused by bolting feed, or some abnormality with the horse. Not so much beet pulp itself. Although, sometimes the pellet forms DO come in rather large, hard chunks so personally I wouldn't try my luck there.

Nonetheless, many feed beet pulp soaked and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It makes it easier to chew, adds some hydration, you can sneak supplements in it and it can slow down a horse who wants to hoover his feed.

Just use caution not to soak it for too long (more than 24 hours probably) because it will ferment.

Hampton's grain contains quite a bit of beet pulp and it's such a great forage to feed. And I don't soak it. Except when I add beer. haha.

More on Beet Pulp from The Horse.

A porkchop and steak

 We took a rode trip last week to a little farm about an hour away. The gal who runs it is a super horsewoman and let a group of us come and work cows for a couple of hours.

It was the perfect activity for a 90+ degree day because we did nothing but walking, so it wasn't physically hard on anyone but for sure mentally engaging.

I thought that maybe Hampton would be scared of the cows, but he was not. At all.

At first he was curious.

Horses with previous experience started first.

Then we started just slowly walking the cows around the arena. Confident horses led first, while others could follow and gain confidence.

It took maybe 30 seconds before Hampton realized "Oh, we chase these things???"

And then he turned into GODZILLA.

I mean ears pinned, neck-snaking, steak-eating MARINE on a mission to kill.

He absolutely loved the game, and when I asked him to stop and stand (and let others take a turn FFS Hampton) he stood politely and watched. Never got wound up. It was like he was a cow horse in a previous life. We did a little modified team penning too!

Highly recommend doing a little cow clinic like this. The two biggest rules was always be facing the cows, and the slower you go the better. It was such a blast and a great break from dressage. Hamp and I did a buffalo clinic about 10 years ago and I guess he must have remembered. haha.

Will for sure be doing this again!

Myth busters Monday: The P stance

Oh boy I was a little scared of the hits I might get if I titled this The Pee Stance. 

Do you have to stand up in your stirrups when you horse pees? 

Hampton. Currently NOT peeing.

I know I was taught to do this because otherwise you hurt their kidneys. (I grew up with VERY old school saddleseat instructors)

False. BUNK.

1) the bladder does the peeing, not the kidneys. And I can't think of any saddles that sit anywhere near the bladder. 

2) The kidneys are really quite protected from even western saddles. They sit underneath thick muscle, fat, the spine and a couple of ribs. In fact your vet can feel the kidneys during a rectal exam. The kidneys sit pretty low. If it were true that a rider puts pressure on the horse's kidneys, then we would need to stand up ALL the time.

Source: https://equusmagazine.com/diagnosis/excessive-urination-in-horses/

You can of course stand in your stirrups if you feel like it might help you horse get out of that parked out stance a little easier. Especially if you have an older horse or something like that.

But do I stand in my stirrups for Hampton? No, I quit doing that years ago. He hasn't had a problem. Plus I am barely a flea to him. Maybe if I was riding a smaller, petite pony I would be courteous. 

Verdict: Do what you feel is best, but you aren't putting pressure on their kidneys. 

Myth busters Monday: Will I boil my horse?

In an effort to blog more often, I am going to try out this Myth busters Monday theme. Looking for myths, old horseman's tales, etc. to tackle so if you have one - comment!

First, a repost of mine from Aug. 2018.

To scrape or not to scrape?

Also known as, will I boil my horse if I leave him out in the sun soaking wet?

Since it's hot as balls a bit toasty again in KY and everyone is sweating, here's some science I thought I'd share.

Disclosure: I am outright stealing this from a post on FB. It is credited to Dr. David Marlin.*

After you hose your horse off, do you scrape the water off or no?

Hot and sweaty at Regionals 2017.

MYTHS

Myth 1 - “You should never put cold water on a hot horse"
Explanation - Ice-cold water(0-5°C) on hot horses does not cause shock, laminitis, kidney damage, muscle damage, tying-up or heart attacks!

Myth 2 - “Water left on a horse will heat up and insulate and make the horse hotter."
Explanation - Flawed physics! Water is a better conductor of heat than air. A wet horse will actually cool faster than a dry one, even if humidity is 100%.

Myth 3 - “Scraping is essential." Explanation - Scraping just wastes time that could be better used putting more water on to cool by conduction. Scraping also wastes water when water is in short supply. Water which could evaporate on the horse. Water evaporating on the ground doesn't cool horses down.

Myth 4 “Concentrate on large veins, arteries inside the back legs, large muscle groups"
Explanation - NO. Cooling by evaporation or conduction works by cooling the blood flowing through the small blood vessels in the skin. The more skin you cool, the quicker you cool the horse. Apply water all over.

I'll admit, I followed the old rule of always hose, scrape, hose, scrape for a long time until I read the actual science behind it. How would I have known any better? But now I just keep hosing Hampton, and then turn him right back out. In the sun! *gasp* No scraping anymore. Here's more:

Evaporation and conduction.

Ideally, I would hose Hampton and then let him sit under a fan for a while. I mean think about it - when it is 95 degrees, and you splash water on your face or over your head, do you get hotter or do you get a cooling effect? 

So there's no harm in the hose, scrape method. But it seems a little pointless.

(Edited to add: Sometimes I will go ahead and scrape off his belly in an effort not to totally soak the barn aisle after he is hosed)

What method do you follow?

----

* Dr. Marlin's credentials: 25 years working on equine thermoregulation. 20 plus scientific papers on equine thermoregulation. Working with endurance horses in the Gulf. Advising the racing industry on prevention and management of heat-stroke. Working with Governments on heat legislation. Working with charities on thermal stress. Working on the 1996 Atlanta, 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Currently working on the 2018 Tryon World Equestrian Games and Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Author of the FEI Guidelines for National Federations on the management of horses in thermally challenging conditions.

Damn, it's 7 a.m.

This was 6:45 am haha

Meadowlake near Lexington has been hosting these one-day rated shows on a Wednesday and it is fabulous. I wish there were more shows like this.

Anyway, my barn friend K and I hauled down early (3 am wake up call), showed our horses and were back home by 11. Really not a bad way to spend a morning. And then have the afternoon to day drink. 

Put the boys on the trailer at 4:30 am. Wonder what they were talking about.

I did the I-1 this time, again in the snaffle. And once again, Hampton was really quite nice. No diving, no shutting down, no getting stuck. Ears up, no grinding teeth. Out test was smooth and organized. I did screw up the start of the two-tempis, but that doesn't bother me. It was just a minor bobble.

Decent line of 3s in this video. I think he looks higher in the poll than in the double. And he did a weird stutter step in the last change. Also, had I been more anal I would have started the changes a little later so that the third change was right over X. 

Sidenote: I was suffering from a VERY poorly located abscess that hindered by ability to really sit and anchor in the saddle so I am super proud of Hampton who went into school master mode when I couldn't be 100%.  (no, I'm not posting a photo. But it's on my bikini line. My crotch, if you will. From a stupid ingrown hair.)

Post-ride grazing time!

Here's a video of the canter zig zag. The GP Zigzag is what started the entire meltdown back in May. So I was like whaaaaaat is ganna happen here. Nothing. Nothing happened. He did it very nicely.

The judge rewarded us with a solid 64.2%. Nothing lower than a 6! Of course Hampton needs to be more uphill, and have more engagement. Which will forever be my struggle. But I had a willing, happy horse and I think it boosted his confidence and definitely mine. Showing in the snaffle seems to be working.

Winner!

I'm not sure what to do now. Do we try an I-2? I am scared to death of another GP test like we had in May. Should I work my way back up? Or just stay at I-1 where Hampton is quite happy? Lots to think about. 

Horse show mornings are the best.
Especially when you are done before 8 am lol

He has also been sweating really great lately! My combination of OneAC, SweatWell, and Beer seems to be working for the moment. Plus electrolytes. *knocks on wood*

And in other news, Buckley got a summer hair cut and it really highlightsh his fupa.

Frayed on both ends

Kentucky is currently hotter than satan's buttcrack at the moment. Swamp-ass weather. Swamp boobs. You name it.

Hampton's symptoms of anhidrosis started early this year. We tried two more Grand Prix's in May but ... it was a massive, massive failure. One go resulted in the worst score of my life. And the other I retired when he quit at the start of the canter zig zag. I mean buried his poll and shoulders, stopped and grew roots. Completely offline to any aids. Total 404 error shutdown. Normally a happy worker, his face looked almost catatonic in photos. With cranky ears and grinding his teeth. He was back to normal thankfully when we returned home but gave ulcer meds anyway.

Stepbrother Royale is a newly minted Second Level horse now by the way!

I am not sure if this was a result of lack of energy due to the anhidrosis, some training issue I have created in the show ring, ulcers, me just sucking at riding, or something else. But the Grand Prix is on hold. Maybe temporarily, or we may never return to showing that level. I have always said I would stop pushing when he said no. He has already gone FAR beyond what his confirmation is really appropriate for. 

We still school all the GP at home (and wonderfully, he doesn't shut down ever at home). But as far as showing, I am going to enjoy my absolute bomb PSG/I-1 schoolmaster I have produced. And while we are at it, I'm trying things like showing in the snaffle. 

Drove up to Hoosier Horse park at 5 am. Showed the PSG at 8:30 am, home in Louisville
by 11 am. That is how you horse show!

We tried a PSG last week in the snaffle and I wasn't sure exactly how it would go. He can be a bit of a monster at home in it. To my surprise, he was ... lovely. Up in the poll, no diving, no teeth grinding, no shutting down. Just an organized, mistake free PSG. (and won the class!) Still kind of lethargic, but smooth and obedient. And much happier. We will try an I-1 in another week or so and see how that goes in the snaffle. Maybe he is just a snaffle horse and it simply has taken me 10 years to figure it out. ha.

He is still sweating but it's wimpy and patchy and just not enough. He is currently getting One AC, a beer, the new Finish Line sweat supplement and cold showers.

It was 97 here. Some sweat on neck and shoulders, but he was
puffing. Nostrils flared.

He is also dealing with that old huge hoof abscess that blew out in October. It's finally just about at the bottom of the hoof and while I don't think it hurts him, I wonder if his foot feels weird or unstable as now the crack grew.

yikes?

Otherwise he is wonderful happy Hampton. And my only concern is to keep him that way. If this heat ever breaks we will be back out on trail rides and finding other trouble to get into. For now, it's 15-20 min rides in the mornings.

Hamp: Is you real duck?
Me: No.