Vintage Riders Equestrian Club - Public

We have an 8:30 am to 10:30ish ride time April 6&7 open. Please email [email protected]. (Not gmail). Indoor arena Bradner area.

COMPLIMENTARY EDUCATIONAL SESSION
Join us for Identifying PPID

Horizon Equine is excited to welcome guest speaker Dr. Douglas Myer, Technical Services Veterinarian with Equine Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health. Dr. Myers will lead a discussion on the signs and symptoms of PPID, also known as Equine Cushing’s Disease.

SPECIAL EVENT INFORMATION

Date:
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024

Time:
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Registration:
5:45 pm
Location:
Horizon Equine Veterinary Clinic
1625 Angus Campbell Road
Abbotsford, BC V3G 2G4

Light meal & beverages served.

Please RSVP before
Friday, March 27th
[email protected]


SPONSORED BY
BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM

2024 DENTAL AWARENESS INITIATIVE

Thanks to all Horizon Equine clients who scheduled their minis, donkeys and horses for dental appointments during our 2024 national dental awareness program.

Don’t be disappointed.
Given the volume of appointments experienced, clients might wish to plan for 2025. Don’t miss the 15% savings to standard dental services which includes the oral exam, sedation cost and dental float.

Next year’s campaign will run Monday, January 13th through to Friday, February 28th, 2025.

If you haven’t read Rudy Horsemanship’s post about giving permission to put your horse to sleep, please head on over and check it out.

Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/100064702805224/posts/799783608855059/?

Yesterday morning I had to make that difficult decision. My soon to be, 29 year old horse, had colicked the night before. The vet came out and assessed him and gave him meds believing it would pass. We can second guess ourselves forever, but with hindsight, I wish I’d let him go right then. He had a long night of discomfort even with two different medications on board for pain.

I made the call first thing in the morning and am forever grateful to the vet for coming right away to release him from his pain.

Yes, he was old, but as you can see from his picture last summer he was quite possibly healthier than he’d ever been. Don’t ever second guess your gut. We turn off intuition and think about the judgements that will come if we don’t try everything to save them. The thing is, as Rudy Horsemanship says, few will judge, if any.

Are there times to pull out all the stops to save a horse, absolutely! Particularly when they are in their prime and there is every hope of a full recovery. But know it’s okay if you don’t take the extra mile. Know it’s okay to release them from their suffering. Know that it’s okay if they are failing, or you are struggling financially, or making tough life decisions and your not sure your beloved horse will be in a good place moving on, that death is a viable and in my humble opinion, good option.

I had already spoken to my vet and suggested we make plans for this spring/summer to let him go on a good day. I waited that dreaded ‘day too late’.

Talk about death. It’s inevitable. My prior career exposed me to more of it than I would have chosen, but I have a great gratitude for life and an even greater appreciation for the peace a good death can bring. It’s okay to let them go. It just is.❤️

Great evening, we are always learning something new in this club! Thank you Horizon Equine Vet Clinic (formerly Agwest).
Next meeting is Feb 20th on the topic of spring trailer prep and maintenance with Kevan Garecki. Email [email protected] if you would like to attend.

On January 23rd Dr. Jane visited the Vintage Riders Equestrian Club - Public to give an educational talk on common skin conditions in horses. The talk centered on being able to recognize certain skin conditions, when to call your veterinarian, treatment options, and how to prevent the spread of certain infectious diseases. Dr. Jane would like to thank the VREC for hosting her as she loves to teach and visit within the local equestrian community!

Wait for it……

Caught in the act 🫣 🎥 @missmookxx _ #latteart #latte #artwork #coffeeporn #coffeelife #coffeehouse #latteartporn #拿鐵 #咖啡拉花 #coffeebreak #coffeeaddicts #latteartpractice ##拉花 #拉花教學 #咖啡 #freepourlatteart #lattearttutorial #latteartvideo #latteartphilippines #latteartgram #latteartist #freepour #freepourart #latteartclass #coffeeprops #coffeesesh #coffeepeople #coffeeheaven #coffeecommunity

“Where’s your horse? Are you not riding today?” asked my friend Sue, when I showed up at the arena door without my partner.

Fridays are lesson days, for me. Every week, I join a handful of others for an hour of learning with our teacher. A few of us, like me, having been hauling to ride with this man for more than a decade. Things have to be downright serious, before any one of us would choose to miss a lesson. So, it was notable that I’d seemingly chosen to watch, rather than ride.

“Oh, he’s here. He’s just not ready to join us.” Sue looked at me with only a raised eyebrow. She knew that there was probably a roundabout reason for me to leave my horse out in the parking lot.

The horse in question is a smart little chap. Green for his age, he was wide-eyed when we’d first loaded up and headed down the busy four-lane highway to the public arena, an hour's haul from home. He’d been uncomfortable with the other horses standing too close, or circling us at a lope… but he’d quickly caught on. Even our teacher’s crackling microphone failed to faze him, after the first little while.

The second lesson, he was getting into his groove. Each week, he’d feel a little more comfortable, a little less surprised about the idea of going public. A lot of horses—and people—are nervous about riding out in open country but for a homebody horse, ‘civilization’ in the form of arena riding can be an eye-opener, too.

I first noticed his changed outlook a couple of weeks ago, at every single stop light, going through town.

‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’ came from the trailer, every time we slowed down and waited. Whenever the light turned green again, we would get moving… but to my horse, we were underway only because he’d stirred us into action!

I could feel what was going on, that there was an undesirable pattern forming, but there were a lot of lights enroute. Within minutes, I knew we were building a problem where none had previously existed. The next block, I could see a gas station with a fairly big parking lot. I slowed my truck, signaled the turn and pulled in, near enough that we could still hear the traffic on the road beside us, but without the pressure of having to go with the flow.

Even though we were going to be late, we needed to do some horse training.

Sure enough, as soon as I stopped the truck, the trailer began to rock and roll. I got a few looks from pedestrians passing by but could only smile grimly and wait. Bang! Bang! Bang! went my little pilot in his cockpit, growing evermore exasperated at our failure to launch. Whenever he’d stand quietly for a few minutes or so, we’d continue on…

We had to stop and regroup three more times, before pulling into the parking lot of the public arena.

Bang! Bang! Bang! went his front foot on my trailer, when I shut down the truck. Bang! Bang! Bang! as I organized my bridle, cooler and riding boots. Bang! Bang! Bang! when I grimly decided that I was going to walk away from him and wait for him to stand. Every time I stuck my ear to the arena door and listened, I could hear cycles of banging.

This is a hard thing to do, when you’ve got a trailer that wasn’t cheap and would be even more money to replace, now. It doesn’t deserve to be kicked and dented in but my endless parade of colts and spoiled horses is also why we traded my sweet, padded slant-haul for a heavy-duty stock trailer. I'd been 'taking a knife to a gunfight'!

Waiting is a hard thing to do, when you’ve prepaid for an hour-long lesson and you’re watching it begin, without you. My teacher is used to me bringing horses who have fundamental lessons to learn, before we worry too much about exercises on collection, or lead changes. He didn’t pressure me, knowing that I’d join them quietly when the time was right. Judging by the banging coming from the parking lot, the right time wasn’t going to be anytime soon.

Eventually, the pauses between the banging grew longer, as my horse began to listen for footsteps. As I made my way towards the trailers in the parking lot, I knew that he could hear my boots upon the gravel. I angled over to where he’d be able to see me. Each time he began to bang on the aluminum walls of the trailer, I would stop and walk away. When he’d stop, I’d pause, turn around and start walking back to him. Silly, you say?

Three or four times of this and he was in clear understanding that being noisy meant I was leaving. Soon, he was standing quietly while I opened the door, unlatched the divider and went to unload. The little horse was pretty heated up. Already saddled—a practice I do whenever I'm hauling colts or green horses to ride—the steam was rising from his body in the cold air.

We walked to the arena, pulled open the door, bridled up, cinched up and joined our class.

It reminded me of the times I’d needed to take my children from the grocery store, leaving our full cart until later, whenever they’d had meltdowns over chocolate bars at the checkout.

Was walking out convenient? Did I feel self-conscious, as they learned how to cope with me saying ‘No’? Would it have been easier to just chug along, or buy the candy, pretending that everything was all right? Would they have figured out how to act with dignity, eventually, had I not turned their outbursts into learning opportunities? I dunno. Looking back, all I know for sure is that those kids turned out all right. I can even smile about our most trying days, which is something of a miracle.

A lot of people wouldn’t let have the horse bang, as I did. They’d have redirected his focus with a flag, or worked around the issue, or told him verbally to knock it off. They’d maybe have got him off the trailer before he did any damage, before he caused such a brouhaha.

This latter thing becomes even more important when we've made our way back home. Too many horses demand to be unloaded the very instant the truck is turned off!

For me, it is more important that he learn how to self-soothe/regulate and to conserve his energy. A ‘public veneer’ of pleasant manners isn’t always a bad thing! I will not always be there to flag him, or to yell at him, even if the latter method actually worked. Instead, I choose to ignore the outbursts—he’s safe enough on that heavy-duty stock trailer—and be ready to praise his change towards good.

I’d feel differently if my horse was panicking or scared but his bangings and outbursts all have a manipulative slant to them. He doesn’t need rescuing. He needs to come up with a better way.

Will I have to do this every time I go somewhere with this horse? Maybe for the next few trips, yes. I will have to be ready to pull off and wait, should he want to stir things up, in the future. But as I said before, he’s a smart guy. If I commit to being his teacher, he will commit to figuring it out.

Here's an old 'pic from the past' of my '01 Chevy with Rockabilly, ready to head out for an evening lesson. The truck would eventually die a warrior's death, when it was hit, along with our little car, by lightning!

New clinic announcement. Contact [email protected].

One of our proactive members is excited to host this JVL Natural Balance workshop at her place. It’s going to be fun. Some spots are still open. Come join us!

The Show Jumping Industry Proves We Just Don’t Get It I am old school. Well, I am also getting older as later this year I turn 55. As a junior rider, I rode in clinics with the likes of George Morris and Ian Millar. THEY WERE TOUGH! Hard on the ego an…

The BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food have issued a disease alert. There have been two confirmed cases of equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) at a boarding/training facility. Facility managers are implementing voluntary movement restrictions as well as biosecurity measures under veterinary supervision.

Disease: Equine Herpesvirus
Species Affected: English sport horses
Location: Langley Township
Date(s): December 2023/January 2024

Super video - thanks BCHBC

Trail_Etiquette_by_Gallatin_Va.flv Gallatin Valley Back Country Horsemen Trail Etiquette.

WestCoast Working Education chapter of WE Canada.

Best wishes to all for a safe, relaxing and merry day full of comfort and joy, gratitude and forgiveness. Everyone

I am beginning to suspect that we, the modern riding population, are experiencing more injuries through our equine endeavours, than ever before. This hunch is a hard thing to quantify, for we probably have a smaller percentage of (wo)mankind riding than has ever done, historically.

Are we actually seeing more horse-related injuries, or is it due to the speed and broad sweep of the news that is now at our finger tips?

In my lifetime, I have been fortunate to know and work with horses and their people in situations ranging from farming with drafts… to ranching with stock horses… riding, driving and showing ponies… schooling sport horses in dressage… running a commercial guest ranch with paid trail rides… teaching 4H kids… riding and racing sidesaddle… having my own lesson program… buying, training and selling all breeds of horses… and judging a variety of disciplines at open and breed shows.

Thus, I have had the good fortune of riding and driving for many years, in complete safety. I have also had the very real misfortune of having been injured and I have witnessed many wrecks.

I have gained a real-life appreciation of the split second between being hunkydory and being in serious trouble. The causes of horse wrecks are variable but in most cases, they come down to a failure on our parts to ‘read’ the situation, whether in our horses, the environment we’re in, or the state of our equipment.

What, then, keeps us trying? What makes any one of us believe that it will all end well, despite growing statistics—or is it fear mongering—to the contrary?

I will say that I am mindful to not follow social media pages specializing in ‘bloopers’ or wrecks, nor do I watch or share videos of people and their horses getting into trouble. I do not write or tell detailed stories of when things went badly, though I have experienced my share of them. I take no pleasure in sharing, or perpetrating, any such horror.

Still, you and I are constantly being told to be careful, that we may well get hurt in this passion of ours. ‘Horseback riding’ ranks within the top twenty sports in which to be injured, according to a wide variety of sources in any five-minute Google search. If we can believe what we read, we’d be wise to heed these warnings!

I think that our safety with horses is a many-layered issue. As such, I’m not sure there is an easy solution.

First, we have several generations of horses now, who have never held a daily job. If we are to understand science, the DNA of each of us stores the memories of our mothers and grandmothers. This means too few of our horses now have any recollection of working with mankind. More prosaically, these same horses have often limited turnout, due to no fault of their own. Nor can we blame their owners or caregivers. The price of real estate and urban encroachment is far beyond the control of any one of us.

We are seeing more horses living on packaged—read, higher energy foodstuffs—than the traditional homegrown fodder. Our horses are now living lifestyles that require us to be better, more highly-skilled horse(wo)men. Many of us, on the other hand, are living lifestyles that require more forgiving horses. I am convinced that the two states are not coming closer together but rather, growing farther apart.

We are seeing better bred horses, than ever before. By that, I mean bigger, stronger, faster, more specialized and athletically reactive horses, than at any time in our history. As human beings, I don’t see the same parallel in the development of our own physical prowess. If anything, the general population is going backward in our fitness. As ageing baby boomers, we are certainly in the majority of all the riders I see.

We are now largely urbanized. Most of us last coexisted with large livestock at least two or three generations away, when our grandparents last lived on the farm. Therefore, fewer children are growing up ‘reading’ large animals from first breath. More and more, we are forced to schedule our time with horses in one-hour time slots. Again, largely due to necessity, rather than by choice.

There’s no getting around the fact that safe horses—high-mileage, proven and well-educated—are beyond the financial realm of most of us. All around performers with proven safety records are, more and more, marketed to the wealthy. That leaves the rest of us the project horses, the unsound and unskilled, so-called ‘problem’ horses that are affordable and in plentiful supply.

We are currently undergoing a sea change in how we approach horsemanship. Better for the horses, I dare say but not always conducive to building those stoic beasts who can roll with the punches. We’re trying hard to better listen to our horses… but are they actually being understood?

I recognize that I am among an entire generation of riders who are feeling uncomfortable and maybe even a little bit guilty about what we thought we knew for sure. We certainly don’t want to be perceived as demanding users of horseflesh, in any way. While we grapple with this inconvenient truth—balancing, balancing, always trying to find our balance—the tail may well begin to wag the dog.

Yes, we are the dogs in this scenario and we will be, until we somehow work our way through the pain and guilt that comes from using other living beings for our own ends. Somehow, we will endeavour to move past our history of overpowering others… of colonialization and past brutality. Or, so I wonder, as many of us work on our former selves and try to evolve, whole and unscarred for the future. Horsemanship has always been a way of bringing our hidden issues to a head.

We are but humans, frail and living in our heads, we who miss all the signals and are outweighed ten-to-one by these animals with whom we want, so badly, to commune in harmony. They do not always seek us, in return. Why would they? Horses stay true to themselves and it is us who are constantly changing the rules of the game: how they are kept, how they are ridden, how they are to be honoured.

As horse(wo)men, our pensiveness—be it evolution, or revolution—is coming at quite a price. One of the currencies with which we are paying, might be our own safety. I am always looking for answers. Your thoughts?

Shown here, a happy ride home with Doll from one of the daily chores of my past, opening up watering holes in the frozen creek. Safe or unsafe? I'll let you be the judge, though there were no iffy moments that I can recall. Some horses are just safer than others, which is something I'm no longer all that comfortable uttering aloud...