smellshorsey

Shut Down by Lightning

Lightning will strike twice and I'm here to prove it. I haven't been posting or visiting lately because I haven't had Internet access. The first time it struck and knocked out my modem. We have cable Internet, so I had to wait for the repair guy to come out this way. That took a few days. The modem was partially damaged but he connected me a different way and I was back online.

Then, on July Fourth, God put on a tremendous fireworks show with a great blessing of rain and enough lightning to power the U.S. if only we could capture and control that energy. This time the lightning struck us more than once and knocked out our telephone, Internet and cable TV. It took days and days to get a repair, and it's not quite right yet (so I get to wait for the repairman all day Friday). It fried the cable connections down by the street as well as the one leading into our house. We heard it when it hit. Yee ha! That'll get your attention.

But I'm back. And as I type this, I see another storm coming. Our Thunder Hound, who is afraid of lightning, has already stood on his hind legs to look in the window to tell us, "Let me in!" And he's in, probably trembling by my daughter's feet downstairs.

The grass is green and life feels good. One of my hay suppliers has already had a first cutting (which he saves for cows). Soon, surely I'll be getting 2008 hay. When it rains every day the grass grows -- but the farmers can't cut. As long as the grass is growing I'll sit here happy.

And my tadpoles are getting really big. No legs yet. They look like little black shiny whales.

So I'm back -- for now.

Looking for Good News in a World Where Starving Horses are Left to Die on the Side of the Road

I'm down to two bales of hay but know where I can get some more -- if they don't sell out first. We've had some rain so surely somebody will be cutting soon.

I'm happy to report that my two horses are in good shape. Lucy is, in fact, overweight. She looks like a big orange pumpkin. A shiny, cute, fat pumpkin. All is well at my place. (Except for the stupid whining cat stuck in the hayloft.)

I'm telling you all this because sometimes it feels like horses all over America are starving and being left on the side of the road. And it feels that way because -- guess what -- it's true. I'm sad to report that some lowlifes left a horse to die on the side of the road in Clarendon County, S.C., yesterday. Yes, they trailered it there and left it to die. Guess they were too ???? (poor? heartless? on drugs? couldn't be bothered?) to feed it and too worthless to bury it. The horse was 500 pounds underweight and was too weak to walk onto the trailer when animal rescue came to save it. They had to put it on a board and lift it.

When they got it to the vet's, the horse ate a little, drank a little, then died.

Now, if that horse's owners had enough gas and a trailer to take the poor creature to the side of the road to leave it, why didn't they take it somewhere 400 pounds ago?

If you can stand it, you can read the story and view a video from WIS-TV here.

Preventing a Sore Back in Horses

Now that Buddy's better, we're on a program to prevent his sore back from recurring. Here are the written instructions from our vet:

This is wonderful news!

So now you want to keep a close eye on Buddy, watching for pain to return and catching it before it gets to the bucking/bolting stage.  It would be good to incorporate some strengthening/stretching exercises in his riding.  Your instructor can help you with this- asking him to lift his back, for example: warm up, then either start or finish up the ride with 3 to 5 minutes of "long and low" large serpentines/changes of rein -or- a few ground pole exercises (3-5 poles) -or- trotting or slow cantering uphill in 2-point.  When you get off and groom him, ask him to lift his back several times by running your hand under his midline, then have him stretch his nose down to between his front legs for a treat.  If he begins to get sore again, we can catch it early and modify his training schedule and/or help him out with a little medication.

Isn't our vet great? We love her and hope to see her infrequently.

Lily enjoyed having instructions to follow this morning. Buddy enjoyed getting treats for flexing his neck. And no, he wasn't cussing.

 

Sore Back Leads to Bad Temper

Last week in Lily's lesson Buddy was his evil twin, rushing after jumps, not wanting to transition from the canter to the trot going downhill, and doing some bucking after jumps. It was mostly out of character since (1) it was at the end of a lesson and he was tired and (2) it was mercilessly hot (90s). Who takes off bucking at the end of a lesson in hot weather?

Tori, Lily's new teacher, approached me with concern. "I think Buddy hurts," she said. "He shouldn't object to a downward transition going downhill."

Now, Buddy is a hard one to read. He takes off bucking and farting across the pasture whenever he can think of a reason. Tired of eating grass? Better go gallop, buck and fart. Butterfly landed on the pavement at the high school ten miles away? Better go gallop, buck and fart. So, when he does the same when Lily's riding him, I'm confused. Does he hurt, is he having fun or did she just make him mad?

So we had the vet out. She checked Buddy out thoroughly and decided that he had a sore lower back. She says that happens a lot to horses that canter and jump a lot. She put him on bute and muscle relaxers for a week.

He continued to gallop, buck and fart in the pasture, but this week at his lesson, except for one crow-hop, he was positively angelic. Sorry I was too busy watching to take photos!

The hope is that his back has relaxed and with care won't hurt. I'm pretty good at hoping.

Just wish Buddy could talk and tell us if he's having fun -- or hurting. Or maybe not. He probably cusses like a sailor.

Big Brown Snubs Racing After Being Offended by Hooters Tie-In

Nothing bad happened in the Belmont today, as far as we can tell. Big Brown didn't want to run, and he didn't. When his jockey couldn't get anything out of the horse, he pulled him up. According to the AP story,

Big Brown was rank at the start and failed to respond when Desormeaux asked him to run in the last turn. At that point, Desormeaux eased him up.

The loss hit Desormeaux especially hard.

"This horse is the best I've ever ridden," he said. "Something's wrong, and I took care of him."

Thank you, Desormeaux. Bless you. Something was wrong, and you did take care of him.

Will we ever know what was wrong? Already the announcer-pundits are speculating. Big Brown's owners hadn't dosed him with steroids since April. Were the steroids why he won before? Was it the quarter crack? Is he bleeding internally? Was he struck by another horse? Does he have a mucous problem? Was it just too hot?

They'll be checking him in and out. Who knows what they'll find. I hope nothing serious.

The announcers kept saying before the race that Big Brown is an intellectual horse. (And just what is that?) Maybe an intellectual horse decides he's had enough -- especially when he heard that his owners were signing him up with Hooters -- and he calls it quits.

Big Brown just said, "No." He way outclasses his owners.

 

Big Brown Turning NASCAR?

When I heard that Big Brown was named Big Brown, I didn't think UPS. I thought "big brown horse." Which, while not exactly poetic or inventive, will do. Then I found out that one of his minority owners has Big Brown (UPS) for a client. Whoop de do.

I like UPS. They bring me stuff in spite of the fact that the dog tries to run them off. They do a good job. Then I hear that there's a whole marketing campaign waiting on Big Brown's Triple Crown win (if he wins Belmont today). Hmmm. I'm in marketing. I wish they wouldn't, but I could see how they would. And truthfully, I would enjoy seeing pictures of Big Brown on their brown trucks. They can put his picture everywhere. He's a beautiful horse and so long as they don't run him into the dirt and break him down because he's no longer a horse but a commodity, I won't flinch with disgust when I see him in their corporate imaging.

Here's a horse with his hoof stapled together running (and winning?) a race. Could be a good motto for a delivery company. "Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor not having any hooves (tires?) to run on, or even good sense for that matter, will keep us from delivery on our appointed route."

They're even going to have some UPS logos here and there at the Belmont. Well, it can't be any worse than Rolexes all over everywhere at Rolex Kentucky. Which doesn't set the standard for taste. Just because the watch is expensive doesn't make it tasteful to stick it all over jumps and everywhere else.

But now Big Brown's owners have crossed a line -- and been chased back over it. One corporate sponsorship wasn't enough for Big Brown's ever greedy owners. A horse worth $500 million (and more than that if he wins today) needed to run not only for them and UPS, but HOOTERS. How low can you go?  That would gag a maggot, as my brother used to say.

I'm so far on the outside that I can't even guess what is going on, but the New York Racing Association has told Hooters that they can't be a sponsor because of a conflict of interest with an unnamed sponsor. Hooters' response? "That's just plain mean." (See story here.) Maybe it's just plain good taste, though that would be a surprise. Since when does propriety and taste count when there's money involved?

My response? Thank God they can't paint logos on horses. They're trying to turn Big Brown into NASCAR.

I hope Big Brown and the other horses stay safe today. I'm not sure I want him to win. Well, I'd love it if he won. But only if he had different owners.

The Toronto Star has an informative story about the history of the Belmont (Winston Churchill's mother, Jennie, attended the first race) and about the sorry doings of Big Brown's owners:

BB's connections have histories racing is properly ashamed of, starting with his loud and obnoxious trainer, Rick Dutrow Jr., who guaranteed a Triple Crown win for weeks and badmouthed the other horses in the race as unworthy of a challenge – which they might well be. Michael Iavarone, one of Big Brown's principal owners who presented himself as a Wall Street banker seeking to raise $100 million for investing in racehorses, was recently revealed as a penny-stocks hustler who ran afoul of securities regulators for making illegal trades.

Meanwhile, the horse, which obviously has talent and ability, has been turned into a corporate shill for a delivery company (UPS), with the Hooters girls signed on as official T&A.

From Winston Churchill's mother to the Hooters girls. Things have changed at the Belmont.

If the Grass is Green, Can Hay be Far Behind?

Praise the Lord! It's raining. Pouring. We need it. (This photo is not local.)

I'm down to my last five bales of hay. My friend and hay supplier is bringing me 10 more square bales in the hope that it will last me until first cutting. The only hay that's been cut in my part of S.C. is hay grown in irrigated fields. The farm where Lily takes her lessons is out (but they have large grass pastures). A wholesaler we rely on in the next county is out. I paid $12.99/bale for two bales of alfalfa a few days ago, hoping to stretch out my coastal (I really don't know what I'm doing here, but I wasn't going to buy the timothy for $16.99. Not yet at least). I guess alfalfa cubes might be a better choice -- and I do know to soak them.

It will be a few weeks still before first cutting from my supplier. Somehow, we'll make it until then.

And yes, I know not to stock up on first cutting -- too many weeds. But after the past couple of years, it will be hard not to stock up on anything I can find.

But I'll try to be strong, have faith, all that. I'm just glad I only have to feed two horses.

And you've never seen people more grateful for the rain than S.C.'s horse owners. If it weren't lightning right now, I'd go dance naked in the rain.

Big Brown Has a Quarter Crack but Will Still Race

Big Brown, whose owners are hoping will win the Triple Crown after his wins at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, has developed another quarter crack. They're giving him two days off, then fixing the quarter crack. They plan to run him in the Belmont. Here's a quotation from the referenced article:

"This is a very, very minor crack," hoof specialist Ian McKinlay said, adding the fissure was about five-eighths of an inch long. "We will put a set of wires in and patch it up."

"Ian keeps telling me it's nothing and he'll be fine in a couple of days, that he will be able to fix it up by Thursday," Dutrow said. "I am sure he will be 100 percent, yes. If we get to breeze him Tuesday or Belmont week, or even Wednesday, we can live with that."

Big Brown has had problems with quarter cracks before. In fact, he had to take the month of January off to heal a quarter crack. Here's an excerpt from a Suite 101 report dated two days ago about how Big Brown has been free of quarter cracks since then:

McKinlay treated Big Brown's first quarter crack by lacing the crack together with wire. Curl used the same technique in the colt's second quarter crack, which developed in his left foot. After Big Brown' s first race this season, Curl told Dutrow he thought rubber cushion Yasha glue-on shoes, developed by McKinlay, would work for the colt.

A set of Yasha glue-ons were anchored to Big Brown's feet 21 days before the Kentucky Derby. Dutrow says the colt's feet went cold within 24 hours of the shoe-fitting. Although the Yasha glue-ons are expensive, as much as $550 a pair compared to regular nail-ons at $25 a pair, Big Brown hasn't had any further problems with his feet.

Curl's philosophy is when the feet are right, the rest of the horse does well also.

So now, Big Brown has his third reported quarter crack. Fortunately, my knowledge of quarter cracks is all academic. To refresh my memory, I went on a search. First I went to my out-of-date Illustrated Veterinary Encyclopedia for Horsemen, which gives you a summary of things with pretty good illustrations. It didn't educate me much other than to learn (1) a quarter crack is not a good thing and (2) it must be pretty serious if they're having to wire it together.

What causes quarter cracks? The Suite 101 article says:

Curl notes that quarter cracks are not unique to the Thoroughbred racehorse. Any breed can develop quarter cracks. The causes of quarter cracks range from running on hard surfaces, to concussion, to thin hoof walls, to imbalance of the medial lateral foot.

Big Browns' quarter cracks were atypical, says Curl. A hoof wall separation initiated the cracking. Possibly a bruise on the bottom of the foot prompted the beginning of a separation, Curl explained. This leads to an abscess which can't drain. The abscess pushes infection up the hoof wall. That, in turn, separates the hoof wall (the fingernail) from the laminae (the membrane that is at the core of a laminitis infection).

The separation of the fingernail is difficult to detect since it can't be seen. A horse can run a race, or perform workouts, and cause the infected area to heat up, but if it cools back down, a problem won't be detected. If a problem is susptected, and the horse is suspended from workouts for a short time period, his next work, or breeze can cause the abscess to break out through the top of the hoof.

Ian McKinlay, who is based in New York, and treated Big Brown's first quarter crack, said he sees the condition more frequently in Standardbreds. He believes tracks becoming harder may be a root cause of the trouble. Curl and Dutrow believe that a wall separation developed over time in Big Brown's case because he has always trained on good surfaces.

And another source says:

"A quarter crack is a stress fracture of the hoof wall and it is telling you that the horse has been overworked and needs a rest. But trainers know that these products are available and that they can, if they're used properly, keep a racehorse working. I'd only repair a wall injury if the wall is in such disrepair that it is not weightbearing or if the horse is standing on its sole. Then build the wall up, by all means, so the horse has something to stand on until the foot regrows." From www.hoofcare.com

What does this mean for Big Brown? Amateur speculationist (I made that up) that I am, I can only figure that his owners will do absolutely everything that they can short of killing him to give him a chance to win the Triple Crown. Will running on a quarter crack kill him? Not unless it indicates that the horse is breaking down in other places.

I assume he will get doctored on enough to run, and he might just win again. Then he'll spend his life getting to meet lots of lady horses, and we can only hope he's not passing on  genes for more bad Thoroughbred feet.

And if all does not go well in his future public races (after what happened to Eight Belles), as I have said before, the racing industry is handing their future to anti-racing forces. No one will defend them when they become indefensible.

Race sound horses in a safe environment, all will be well. Race unsound horses until they break down in tragedy on national television, you deserve what you get.

UPDATE May 26: The New York Times is running a story on this now, which you can read here.

And here's a photo of a quarter-crack repair of the type Big Brown has received.

Looking for Hay Alternatives

My hay supply is dwindling and although my pasture is green, it isn't enough. I have to feed hay all year. The thought of doing what I have to do -- find hay and stock up for the coming winter -- makes me tired just to think about.

The hay fields have been converted to corn fields to make fuel for me to burn in my car. Other countries are buying up our hay crop. I wonder if this summer will be yet another drought? The price of gas and fertilizer will drive the hay prices up whether or not we have enough rain. Ouch!

The two hay suppliers I consider friends have more friends these days than your average philanthropist. I may start baking cakes for them and other bribes. I do so hate to beg but beg I will. And then pay a fortune.

If you search for "hay alternatives" on the 'net you'll find out all kinds of information that basically says there are alternatives but none as good as hay (except maybe alfalfa cubes). Beet pulp is easy and readily available (and really fattening) but it can only be part of the solution. Shoot.

Many alternatives, such as haylage, apparently carry the risk of botulism. And I don't think I can get my horses to eat ground up peanut shells. I don't even want them to.

Anybody have any success with "alternative fuel" for horses? I hope some feed company is out there working for a solution, because we're certainly ready for one. I've checked several feed manufacturer sites and nobody's talking about developing a hay alternative.

I can't use round bales. Colic, colic, colic. It has to be good hay. Horse quality hay. Hay that was babied from the moment it sprouted to the day it was baled. I feed it to them on a swept concrete pad, which seems to cut down on waste.

Sigh. Since when did dry grass get to be such a rare commodity?

Thoroughbred Racing is Playing it Stupid

Horse racing needs to change before it's forced to change. Right now, they're playing it stupid, racing too-young horses that have been bred for speed at the expense of soundness. Eight Belles was three-years old and 17 hands high. The average amateur, like me, wouldn't even start jumping her until she was five because her bones haven't finished developing. Am I smarter than the megabuck owners and trainers? I'd have to say "yes." Just look at the outcome

Here Eight Belles was on national TV, running her heart out at the Kentucky Derby, but her legs couldn't take it. Not one ankle broke, but both. A tragedy and a spectacle -- and ample justification in the minds of those who would like horse racing outlawed.

The Jockey Club may as well be sending multi-million dollar donations to PETA. How stupid can they get? Ruffian, Barbaro and now Eight Belles breaking down in the middle of high profile races.

I got Lucy, my fat Thoroughbred who flunked out of racehorse training when she was two, on the New Year's weekend when she turned three. I treated her like a baby. She was a baby and didn't finish growing until she was past five. I didn't start jumping her until she was five. This is considered common sense.

I caught a snippet of Glenn Beck's program this morning (I don't care for him as he's just too angry and loud for me). He was talking about how horses don't want to run, that the only reason that they run is that the jockeys beat them every day, and that every horse he's ever seen in a pasture is standing there eating. He's never seen a horse run so therefore horses don't like to run. (He should come here on a chilly morning if he'd like to see a performance. Or we could put him on a TB at the back of the hunting field and see how hard it is to keep the horse from catching up.) Glenn Beck is obviously ignorant, but that doesn't keep him from talking. And he's not the only one.

The way for horse racing to fix this public outcry is .... drumroll .... to fix this situation. Breed for soundness and speed. Race horses when they're older. That's the choice. Fix it -- or be shut down by people who know less about horses but seem to care more about them than the industry.

Here's a more informed and interesting article here.

And here's what my horses like to do in their pasture just to scare me (these are not my horses -- I run out to stop them before they commit suicide rather than run out with my camera to catch them at it).