Farley and the Pigs

I've learned several things this week.

Whip on my super-special-once-in-a-while-Starbucks-drink doubles the calories of the beverage.

It takes a year to put the pieces of your life back together after a major life transition.

Farley is seriously freaked out by pigs.

I've already set up the scenerio, so if you haven't read my previous post, please go back and review. 

I believe that I was mounted, the pigs were lurching towards me in an ungainly way (have you ever seen a market hog gallop?) and Farley was looking like the cover of a Black Stallion novel. 

An important thing to realize as I go through this scenario is I have a 13 year old been there, done that horse.  She's not a green horse.  How does this affect the situation?  She's not a spooker or a looker.  Where with a green horse, depending on the personality and where we were in the training I might encourage some curiosity, or insist that the horse ignore the distraction.  At 13 and many many miles under her belt (girth), I give Farley some "rein" and some trust.  Meaning that if she insists something is worth looking at, I will let her contemplate it before asking her to move on.  It's never a good idea to totally put your wellbeing in the hooves of a flight animal, BUT she has saved my skin more than once, has shown good judgement and has earned the right to check out a situation if she wants, and it is safe.  If something weird happened and I fell off or had to let go of her, we were in an extremely safe environment. 

The second thing to keep in mind is that she is an ENDURANCE horse.  She has a job.  Her job is not to explore new things and play games.  I don't want to create a situation where My horse sees something novel and insists on going through the charade of "I'm scared" because it gets a predictable response: ie, work stopping, a game that comes with treats.  Again, this isn't a green horse that needs to learn that the world is safe and I'm the leader.  There are many circumstances on the endurance trail that the horse will encounter something unexpected and scary and MUST ignore it and carry on with the minimum of fuss and time. 

Based on my goals for an endurance horse (ignore distractions, but not experience internal stress for doing so, and think past obstacles with a minimum of direction from me) I handle situations like the pigs that will increase the likelihood of getting the end behavior at rides --> which means that we practice how we play. 

Why would I pounce on the opportunity to play with pigs, something that I had an inkling would provoke the biggest fear response in Farley that I've seen in 5 years?  Because she's an endurance horse.  Just like my comment months ago about the importance of being able to go home at speed because if you can't canter to the barn at HOME in control, how are you going to control your horse at the start of the ride, if you can't deal with a novel, scary situation at home, how are you going to deal with it on the endurance trail?  And you will have to.  I've seen and done the weirdest things at endurance ride, including cantering next to railroad tracks in the desert and having to pass a freight train yard with locomotives blowing and moving and we even raced a train at one point.  Farley had never seen a train before.  

The first question was:  Stay mounted or dismount?

Normally the answer is stay mounted.  Know thy horse.  Farley is a spooker in place, not a bolter.  HOWEVER, she was seriously freaked AND it had been awhile since I had ridden her, AND these pigs were very used to horses and were likely to run up to her and go under her belly or sniff noses.  Getting off was a perfect opportunity to.......Review whether I still had Respect on the Ground.

Horses that invade my personal space piss me off.  I can confidently say that any of the horses I have owned would willingly jump on a cliff if there was a cougar chasing them, than invade my personal bubble.  Invading my space results in an IMMEDIATE, rememberable reprimand that makes clear in no uncertain terms that it is NOT OK to come into my space uninvited.  I tend to not touch my horses reassuringly when I'm on the ground and they are spooky because I don't want them to recognize being close physically to me as an appropriate response if they are scared.  I use my voice when necessary, and I do use a firm hand on the neck or shoulder of the horse to use as a buffer that can help push me out of the way if they unthinkable happens and they do try to go over the top of me.  I was trail riding with my aunt early in Farley's career and she wasn't very thrilled to go over a creek.  I got off and asked her to cross.  My aunt said in amazement that Farley actually seemed to change direction in mid-air to avoid interfering in my space. 

Dismounting during the pig situation was the perfect situation to review whether Farley had forgotten the lessons of "thy shall not squish Melinda, no matter what's chasing you". 

Now what? 

Like one of my readers commented in the previous post, I tend to talk to the object instead of the horse.  Again, I want to reward the horse for switching over to a calm thinking, working brain and tend to completely ignore the horse when it's snorty and doing an arab impression.  Horses that lower their heads, start chewing, or start paying attention to me and sighing get attention.  Horses that are behaving like idiots do not.  Especially if they are seasoned 13 year olds. 

I like following scary objects.  It's how we started working calves in that reining clinic I went to and I tried doing the same thing to pigs.  Except the pigs kept running up to us to say hello.  LOL.  We walked in circles and long lines away from and towards the pigs.  Mostly ignoring them, but I just "happened" to make sure that they were a central feature in our "random" figures.

I was feeling quite proud of myself.  Farley started looking relaxed and I was about to hop back on and then......the pigs got out of the gate. 

Crap.

I'm not a pig person.  To say the least.  During showmanship round robins I always gritted my teeth during the pig portion, picked the small brown breed and prodded it around the arena in front of the judge hoping hoping hoping my pig didn't get in a fight and needed to have the stewards rush over with the plastic boards to break it up. 

"Here piggy piggy piggy.   Here piggy piggy piggy."

It didn't work. 

I walked Farley out of the arena and attempted to herd pigs.

Which is a lot like herding cats.

I yelled and shouted and flapped my arms and ran at the pigs, Farley trailing behind me.  When the pigs looked at me with their squinty eyes and decided to herd me instead, Farley and I retreated to the safety of the drive way and studied the oinking ham and bacon and legs and got the girl whom they belonged too. She picked up a a crop that was next to the arena and expertly directed them back into the arena (a technique I was able to copy when the piggies attempted the same great escape when I exited the arena after my session). 

It was nice that the pigs naturally provided me an opportunity to do something that I consider important after the neutral interactions where all parties involved are calm.  Now, I act like a maniac, not acting calm at all and usually whatever critter is in front me, whether cow, calf, sheep, or pig is bouncing and dashing around --> all while IGNORING Farley completely.  Farley knows that if not given instructions, than no matter what I'm doing, even if it looks completely insane than she is to do.....nothing.  Thus, if my back is too her and I'm choosing to chase scary things and yell like a banshee with aggressive body language but I'm ignoring her....she is not to react.  Again, this is behavior that is built over years and many different situations.  And I use all sorts of novel situations to present themselves to reinforce it. 

I tend to use NATURAL situations that present themselves, rather than artificially set up situations.  If the pigs hadn't gotten out, would I have run around yelling and darting around in the tight space they had gotten into with Farley trailing?  Probably not.  Would I have let the pigs out on purpose to play with them?  Probably not.....but would have made a point to ride past the pen.  On the other hand, I try not to overface my horse with a situation that I know they don't have a foundation to be successful in.  Thus, if a huge, rumbling, piece of farm equipment pulling a rattlely, tipsy, swaying trailer is coming down the road and I know that we've just worked through "normal vehicle" issues, than I might chose to turn off the road and make a non-issue of it by taking a grazing break or choosing an alternative route where my horse doesn't have to deal with a situation she's unready for.  Is that horse ready for an endurance ride?  Perhaps not.  I like to see my horses handle novel, strange situations with a minimum of fuss 80% of the time before taking them to a competition.  Does it mean that my horse never has a melt down?  Of course not.  But what it means is that TYPICALLY my horse reacts in a way to novel situations that does not put me, her, or the riders around us in danger. 

I mounted back up.

It was time to go back to work.  My goal before mounting was 20-25 minutes of walk trot dressage.  Now, considering the time spent on the pigs, and the fact that I feel like horses go through self control fatigue, just like humans and dogs (see Tess's blog a few months back for more discussion on that topic), my goal was a few laps of good, relaxed walking on the bit. 

There was of course was one more big spook, as the pigs moved around and I gently insisted that we focus on working. 

Everyone handles difficult situations a little different, depending on what they do with their horse, their comfort as a rider, and the individual horse.  There is certainly more than one "right" way to handle this situation.  Would my approach work with every horse?  Probably not.  I tend to chose confident horses that aren't drama queens, even if they are spooky.  Even Minx, who spooked, spun, bolted, and dumped me all the freakin' time was basically a confident horse that was just reactive --> I just never could get my neurons to fire as fast as hers.  If I had to reassure an unconfident horse through every little thing on the trail I would probably give up endurance and decide to do 100 miles on foot instead :).  So, this approach seems to work well with the horses I get along with, which is probably a certain personality in the first place!  However, I hope there might be a tidbit in here that helps you work through a situation, even if how you apply it is different. 

Does anyone have different thoughts?  Do you disagree on any of the points above or have an alternative to one of my decisions that has worked well for you?  What sort of weird situations have you gleefully put your endurance horse through because you knew it would come in handy some day?

Inquiring minds want to know....

I'm finishing up a story that I'm titling "Farley and the Pigs" and I want to know, what would YOU do if faced with this scenerio?  Post in the comments or post on your blog (but put a link on the comments here so we can all go and read it!). 

You have just saddled up your horse, whom you haven't ridden in 2 months (or at least, you can't remember the last time you rode it).  You are in a dressage saddle, jeans, and don't have a halter on under the bridle.  It's a rather windy day.  Your plan is to go into the arena and do some walk/trot dressage, 20m circles etc.  You know there are 2 market pigs in a pen on the end of the arena (hidden by the arena's solid walls) that are sometimes let into the arena for exercise.  You mount up and notice that your horse is a wee bit skittish.  You do a lap and realize that the pig pen gate is open and 2 largish pigs (whom you have met and know are friendly and not a menace) are lurching towards you and your horse.  Your horse freezes and snorts.  What do you do next?  How do you handle the situation?  How do you conclude the session? 

I'll return with "the rest of the story" and how this situation is perfect for conditioning the endurance horse soon!  Please comment on how you would have approached this --> inquiring minds want to know!

Things you should NOT say

I love medicine.  Diseases that used to really concern me as a private owner, aren't as big a deal know because I either understand the etiology of the disease or know that they can be managed fairly successfully, or compared to the million other things that can go wrong, a particular, highly publicized disease just really isn't as big a deal comparatively.

Last week Reed (Matt's Golden Retriever) was diagnosed with hip dysplasia.  It's not an especially mild case, but it isn't so severe that he shouldn't, with pain management live and enjoy  most of his usual daily activities.  He's 2, both parents were "certified" although now I understand that hip dysplasia is a disease of many different influences, some known and some not, and genetics are just one part of the equation.  We did our best at the time.  He is guaranteed against genetic defects such as this, but the guarantee is another puppy, something this house DOESN'T need, and Matt and I love this dog --> he's the dog that all the children's story books describe. 

So how did I try and make my boyfriend feel better, as he was understandably upset that is wonderful companion had just been diagnosed with a disease that he has been obsessed about ever since he got his first dog (a German Shepherd)?

I said the following:

You know, being a Golden Retriever, this is probably not what ends up killing him, it will probably be something like cancer or someother disease, so this isn't really a disaster......

You can imagine how that went over.  Yet one more piece of evidence that I'm much more suited for something like research, or public health, or really anything that doesn't require me to try and make people feel better......

Know thyself

Today I finally checked an item off my todo list that has been postponed and postponed and postponed yet again for at least a month.

Wash my sleeping bag.

Let me put it a different way.

Wash the sleeping bag that Tess has peed on three times, that I've climbed into after innumberable endurance rides and civil war reenactments caked with sweat and dirt and manure, that has endured a combined total of WEEKS of backpacking nights, that covered an injuried stranger who had fallen off the cliffs onto the beach....

You get the picture.  The bag was used and abused and although it was holding on strong as ever, that "strong" was starting to refer to it's odor rather than its function. 

Lovely eh? 

How does this have anything to do with horses and endurance riding you might ask? 

But of course, you wouldn't, my readership being FAR too polite to question the direction this post is going.  Right?

Do you know why I have a Marmot synthetic sleeping bag instead of the down sleeping bag I coveted?  It wasn't cost --> this was a gift from my boyfriend and he was fully prepared to buy me a zero degree down bag. 

It was the "know thyself" clause. 

As much as I wanted the that down bag, I wasn't sure that I could be counted on to not store it tightly packed in a compression sack.  I'm horrible at doing routine stuff like washing it.  I tend to skimp on weight in my pack which means the chances it would stay dry in a downpour in my pack in a waterproof container was nonexistent.  In short, I knew, even though the down bag would be superiorly warm for my ever cold ass (and yes, when your ass has as much "padding" as mine it is icy cold.....), I knew that it would be unsuitable based on the reality of my personality.   Let's face it.  Even with pee on it, it sat in my truck for a MONTH before I took 45 minutes and $3.50 out of my day and sat in the laundromat. 

Buying horse tack and equipment, ESPECIALLY for the endurance rider is very similar.  We have wonderful products at our disposal.  Horse have a mental check list of what is theoretically "best" for the horse.  And then there is what we will REALISTICALLY do. 

Let's take saddle pads.  Theoretically real, sheepskin fleece is fabulous for the horse.   there's always a few outliers who do well in anything, or who have a fleece phobia for some reason, but if I have a horse that I know nothing about and I'm going to slap a pad and saddle on and go 50 miles on it (yeah right, but let's use our imaginations), fleece is my first choice. 

I own, like, zero fleece pads.  That's not true, I actually own a wool felt one and a fleece one, but they are for special circumstances and since their use is not ever day and limited, you'll get my point.  Read on.....

Why do I not ride the majority of my miles in something I know will probably be my best bet for problem-free conditioning? 

Know thyself.

The probability of maintaining a fleece pad by washing it, removing stickers, fluffing it with a slicker brush, pulling foxtails out of it, keeping it off the ground etc. is absolutely NILL.  On the flip side, expecting my horse to be clean enough that it doesn't GET dirty is also........nill. 

So I use a Haf pad with those little nubblies thingys on the back for the majority of my conditioning rides.  I save the wool felt pad for 100's, when I think it really matters.  And I keep my old Toklat Woolback pad because I can't bear to get rid of it, and the new ones really suck.  The Haf pad rinses off between uses, and doesn't attrack stickers.  It's always clean, always dry, and always ready to go. 

Let's talk about bridles, breast collars, stirrup leathers.  I'm not so good at maintaining my leather goods.  I have the stuff, I know how to use it, I've tried to establish good habits by being diligent for long periods of time, but let's face it.  I have way too much to do than to worry about oiling and cleaning leather.  I think most endurance riders already have this figured out.  Biothane,  Beyond inspecting it for damage and wear, it gets cleaned approximately every 1-2 years.  In the dishwasher.  Same for my bits.  For stirrup leathers, which are so very very very important for safety, girths etc. it would be folly to expect myself to actually maintain leather ones - "know thyself".  For saddles I tried really really really hard to maintain my leather saddles, knowing I wouldn't be able to afford to replace it if the leather cracked or failed.  However, it still didn't get done every ride, or even every week, and you can't imagine how relieved I was when I got my Wintec and didn't have to feel guilty over the amount of tie I was NOT spending cleaning it.  (I'm better with other people's tack - I'm borrowing a saddle right now that is leather and that gets better maintained than any of my own leather goods!). 

I don't blanket my horse for a variety of reasons, but one of them is I would be far too lazy to actually wash the blanket. 

I tend to inspect the horse with my hands and brush tack areas off before riding, and rinse afterwards, but actually bathe my horse?  HA!

It's not all negative.  Take wormings and vaccines.  I'm meticulous about it.  I don't need reminders to come in the mail to remind me that it's west nile time, or remind me to rotate my wormers.  So I do all my own health care management (as much as I legally can).  My horse is barefoot in part because I'm meticulous about looking at and noting changes in her feet.  I know her feet better than my own hands. 

I think all of us have our own style of horsemanship and there are many shades of "doing right" --> especially in a sport of endurance riding where stepping outside of those shades often results in a pull and (should) a reevaluation of horse management.  If your system is working for you and your horse, meaning --> you aren't gritting your teeth at the frustration and annoyance of a bunch of tasks you find time consuming and never ending, and your horse seems happy, then stick with it!  Don't switch to fleece when synthetic is working, just because someone says you "should" and it's "best".  Don't take the shoes off your horse if you know that you'll never find the time to evaluate the feet and without the pressure of shoes on the horse, never schedule the farrier appointment.  Don't switch to a girth that must be washed and cleaned regularly, if a synthetic girth is working for your horse and you can easily hose it off. 

Remember that you can make compromises too.  Let's say that you find out that you really do need to use a wool or fleece pad for 50's and 100's, but your horse is perfectly fine with your synthetic up to 35 miles.  Condition in the synthetic, and then use the high maintenance equipment the day of the ride. 

As long as your equipment and management "shortcuts" aren't compromising the safety and health of you or your horse (and in the case of my lack of maintenance of real stirrup leathers, it WAS a potential issue!), then I say try it.  And remember to come back to that if you start seeing issues at a certain distance or under certain conditions (like season). 

More "clearing the pipes"

Occasionally I like to count calories in one of my fitness apps just so I can see how appropriate my caloric intake is and take a quick look at the nutrition and see if there's anything glaringly absent.   I compare it to how I manage my horse's nutrition.  Do I weigh her hay every day?  Or weigh the beet pulp and stable mix?  Or even the oil?  No.  But, on a regular basis I like to put a weight tape on her, test her selenium levels, weigh her food stuffs and see whether my estimations of weight and volume have migrated, or if there needs to be an adjustment to the program.  Tracking the data too often will make me compulsively crazy --> and studies have shown that the body is remarkably good at maintaining equilibrium and weight.  Especially us pesky humans. So, Farley gets a nutrition and health "check up" every so often (once a week I remeasure my volume of feedstuffs other than hay, once a month I weigh hay, 1-2x a year I measure selenium), and I do the same for myself.  I drag myself over to my parents and jump on the scale (I've weighed the same, +/- 3 pounds or so since the beginning of high school), track my food intake in an app, and run a 1 mile test on the track.  FYI the mile test is the best indicator of ANY of this crap of where I am health-wise.  The times and effort required absolutely follow my fitness and health better than any other parameter, including blood pressure, weight, cholestrol, or the amount of calories I'm taking in. 

As you might expect, today's post is yet more ramblings on the atrociously named book mentioned in my previous post, "The first 20 minutes".  (And yes, Funder is absolutely correct in pointing out how fluffy this title is - see my previous post for the FULL, fluffy title).  I will warn you now that this isn't a particular "light" read.  The book covers SCORES of studies, often with contridictory results, woven into the authors tongue in cheek commentary.  In a way it reminds me of my blogging style --> discussion of the evidence and different theories, not all of it fitting into a nice little package, and then the authors "bottom line" summaries at the end of each chapter, suggesting what changes she recommends for diet and exercise based on the discussion during the chapter.  It's effective, and I feel like I am permitted to actually use my brain and critically evaluate the evidence and either agree or not agree --> but not necessarily being lead down the yellow brick road by an author who pats you on the head and tells you not worry your pretty little head about the details. 

For the last 3 or 4 days I have painstakingly recorded my meals and exercise into an app that calculates the nutritional data and presents it in fancy pie charts and data tables.  And, I must admit I giggle each time I see my stats compared to the "recommended intakes".  Most of these programs assume you are trying to follow the government recommendations/American Healthy Heart Whatever guidelines.  Apparently, I should be limiting my sugars to 33 grams per day.  What's to laugh about?  I exceeded that today at breakfast.  For my post workout meal I had a glass of milk and 1/2 a cup of unsweetened applesauce.  More carbs than I would typically like, especially in the morning, but I'm trying to be conscious of the 2:1 refueling ratio. That particular meal contained 34 grams of sugar.  A red, bold, flashing alert blinks at me from my screen.  I have similar results blinking on all my previous days --> what's hilarious is that all sugars are still being treated the same.  The lactose sugar in milk products.  The fructose in fruit.  I consume none to very few foods a day that have added sugar, yet every day I am double the recommended amount of sugar grams (but very low in overall carbohydrates).  I laugh because the guidelines don't GET it.  Not all sugar is created equal.  Not all carbs are created equal.  The ONLY numbers I trust when it comes to my nutrition are the protein and fat amounts.  I feel like all the numbers related to carbs and sugar are at best misleading, and at worst a deception that forces dieting people every where to reach for those highly processed foods full of artificial sweeteners, added fibers, and processed flours.  Overall calorie consumption matters --> but what matters just as much is where those calories come from. 

This next statement is so important that I'm giving it its very own paragraph, and bolding it. 

Why do we have nutritional guidelines that cannot be met by consuming unprocessed foods?  In order to meet the guidelines as stated, much of my diet HAS to be processed.  And I think that is the greatest disservice human nutritional science has done to date. 

Let's contrast that to the horse nutrition field, where more and more we are recognizing that horses, both pasture ornaments and performance equines, function and perform the best on diets that are as close to an unprocessed and natural diet as possible.  Anytime you process the food (dried hays as opposed to fresh pasture), you have to make up for it (in this case, often with vitamin E supplementation that is lost in the drying process).  Yes, those high performance animals need additional nutritional support.  But lets be honest with ourselves --> who among us are elite marathoners?  Planning on running an ultramarathon in the next month?  The average human has much more in common with the pasture ornament than the Derby contenders, or the 100 mile endurance horse. 

When I look at my nutritional profile I look at overall calorie consumption, fat grams, protein grams, and the amount of calcium.  I have added a vitamin D and Calcium supplement to my diet daily since a close family member has been diagnosed with osteoporosis and I am at risk.  I consider vit D and Calcium low risk supplements and because of my demonstrated risk, and my concern that I don't get enough of either, I've decided to supplement. 

I ran today and I felt strong, and able, and powerful.  My problem all these years in my running is I've never really pushed.  I've always focused on exercising below a level that would hurt, or that I would be really tired, or winded.  Gradual increases in distance, and long slow runs have been the mainstay of my running since I was 16 years old.  Speed training was for advanced runners, increased your chances of injury, and not needed for the recreational runner happy with a 4 hour marathon PR.  However, I'm happily discovering the joy of letting myself go, instead of plodding along, knowing that I will never feel or look like that gazelle (at least now I can feel like one even while Tess bounds ahead of me giving me the perfect visual example of what I don't look like.  LOL).  I find that by varying my speed (1 min sprints followed by 75 seconds of walking or slow jogging/running) my muscles and joints don't feel as tired.  It's like by keeping up the same shuffling pace over hours and double digit miles, only certain parts of my physique were used and abused. 

And yes, I'm still running BAREFOOT.  In the last year I have run in shoes once.  I ran with a friend at school and forgot my run-a-mocs and running in town over sidewalks with broken glass makes me cringe, so I set out in my running shoes.  I didn't make it even 1/2 a mile before I was exhausted and my feet hurt.  I have not been injured since running barefoot.  A word of caution --> I also transitioned into the shoes over many many months.  If you switch to barefoot and expect to go out for your normal run in a week or even a month, you will probably be sorely (from injury...) disappointed.    I can't even hike in regular shoes any more.  I did the 4 day Point Reyes Hike in May/June in a combination of run-a-mocs and crocs and my feet never felt better.  I no longer wear "true" barefoot shoes during my normal daily activities, since I can't afford to buy a new pair every 6 months or so (I'm hard on shoes), however my normal shoes are chosen for an absolutely neutral heel to toe angle, and the ability for my foot to flex normally, and although they aren't as comfortable as going truly barefoot (measured as the amount of time it takes me to kick them off once I'm inside or sitting down), they haven't set me back in terms of being able to do my athletic activities truly barefoot, so it's an acceptable compromise between my checkbook and my health.

One more caveat to the book --> the information presented in "the first 20 minutes" is specific to humans.  Although in some general concepts can be applied to horses, the specifics can NOT.  Use it for your human self, and if it serves as a jumping off point for further research on how to condition your endurance horse --> good.  But please please please don't think that because it's good for the human, it's good for the horse.  Generally, animals respond in specific adaptive ways to exercise, but the horse is a whole 'nother animal :).  Even if you adamantly believe, like I do, that I'm secretly all horse inside. 

Clearing the pipes

It's been a while and every time I try to write a post, I get stuck on the long list of little things that i need to write about before I can get into anything good. It seems silly, but it seems like other bloggers go through the same thing --> due to life circumstances, they take a little break from blogging and then, instead of being able to pick up where they left off, you have to do a "pipe cleaning" post that blows all the junk out of the pipes so you can dive back into the creative process of blogging without being distracted.

 So here we go. Hold on folks, because it's been a fast and furious ride since I posted last.

During the last couple months of school, I signed up for semi-private agility lessons with a local (Davis) agility training, with Tess. After 2 lessons, it became apparent that even though at over a year old, and the foundation training Tess SHOULD be ready for formal instruction, AND even though we had some of the more advanced mechanics down, like weaving 12 poles and a contact behavior, Tess was not mentally mature enough for the stress that comes with lessons. I'm quite proud of myself. I have a history of being impatient, trying to stick to arbitrary timelines, even when there isn't anything but an internal pressure to do so, and then paying the consequences of pushing too hard. I don't want to ruin/burn out my first dog like I did my first endurance horse. And after doing some some reflective thinking I wrote an email to the instructor, thanking her for her time and explained that Tess needed a bit more time to be a puppy. And then I stopped training. For months. She's been getting all her kibble in her food dish - I haven't been using it for training. Any praise and reward for a job well done has been my excitement and joy and body language. Individuals mature at different rates, and I think Tess's breeding tends to be slow maturers (especially considering that at a year + she still hadn't had her first heat cycle and her brothers and sisters and mom were similar) and although she may have been physically ready for the demands of agility, she was showing classic stress behaviors that showed me that she was not.

There's going to be a trend in the next couple of posts, and that is BOOKS. Now that I'm on break from school, I've been reading a lot more and it feels GOOD. I need to give a shout out to the book "Control Unleashed", specifically the "puppy program edition". During the second agility lesson the instructor recommended that I look into getting the DVD called "Really Reliable Recall" and use that to reinforce Tess's recall. While I was on cleanrun.com, I saw that they offered Control Unleashed as an ebook, a book that I had seen a lot of discussion about on some email lists I belong too. I buy very few books, but from the discussion on the lists, I felt like it was a book I needed to read. It has COMPLETELY changed my way of looking and interacting with Tess. It was like the author had me and my dog in mind when she wrote the book. Ever since reading and putting the CU principles into practice, it's like Tess has breathed a huge sigh and relief and amazement that I can finally speak her language. The biggest change in our interaction has been looking at the environment as a source of reward for Tess that I can give her, instead of a training challenge where Tess can only be successful if she ignores it. Working on the CU tasks, which are much more about mental readiness and stress management, is what we've been doing during our months off, and I saw immediate improvements in my relationship with Tess. Now with her at 16 months, she's finally starting to really mature, and she has some coping skills for managing stress (and I have a much bigger dose of patience) I think we MIGHT be ready to start reintroducing some formal training concepts very slowly, in low stress situations. The biggest thing I've learned over the last couple of months is to enjoy Tess as a DOG and for who she is, and realize that she's bonded to me and likes me and wants to be with me, even if don't have treats or I'm not being especially fun and exciting. She loves me for who I am.

Speaking of patting myself on the back for a new found patience and a "there's a right time for everything" attitude, there were two MORE situations in the past couple weeks that highlight how well I've learned this lesson. When I got back from AZ, my intention was to restart Farley's conditioning program. However, when I got to the stable, I found out that she had been getting 50% of her ration in the form of oat hay. As most of you, grain hays are very high in sugar. Bad. For a horse that is doing aerobic work, who is an arab mare, who has had a prior tye up. I probably would have been OK to start her --> she wasn't super fit coming off of a hard race. We would have started slow anyways etc etc. But why take the risk? Why not give her another week or so on 100% grass and not risk a potential problem? Because of my silly arbitrary schedule? So, I walked away and let her sit for another week or two. In the past I probably would have pushed it, and although I might have been OK, there's a really good chance it would have bitten me in the ass. Just because I'm anxious to get on my horse and ride (Tevis coming up, all the chatter as my friends finish 50's is KILLING ME!!!!!!!) doesn't mean there's any reason to push. I've started 5 100's. Finished 3, including Tevis. I have a great horse who's healthy and blast a ride. What do I have to prove?

And then there was my other plan that was to start as soon as I got home --> marathon training. Or at least, "regular running that would lead to 1/2 marathons in the fall". I had all my runs mapped out and they led to a certain race the beginning of November. Obviously it was imperative to follow the schedule or I wouldn't achieve my (all-too-important-and-the-only-reason-I-exist) goals. And then I tried waterskiing for the first time at AZ, and took a weird fall, and made my achilles (the one with the chronic overuse injury) rather grumpy. Considering that I was in pain when walking, it would have been foolish to try running. Trust me, that hasn't stopped me before. How do you think I ended up with that damn chronic injury in the first place? In a remarkable display of maturity and self control I walked for a week and a half. And didn't obsess over my running schedule, or even redo it a million times for when I "thought" this injury "should" be ready for running. My new "there is a season turn turn turn" philosophy seems to be working. This morning, I felt like it was ready for a run and turned in a rather speeding interval work out and it feels GREAT. Goodness knows I've been through enough soft tissue rehab periods with horses that you would have thought I would have got it before now --> hand walking only, even longer than you think necessary, and THEN, SLOWLY return to regular work. Right. Check. I think I've got it now........

Speaking of running....let me introduce you to another life-changing book that I'm in the middle of reading. "The first 20 minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can: Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer". It's like all the reading I've done about exercise physiology over the years has been condensed into a solid, one stop, book. I'm less than 1/2 way through the book and here's how it already changed my work out, as evidenced by this morning's run.
-I exercised in the morning (rather than the afternoon)
-I warmed up slowly for 3 minutes (before: what warm up?)
-I did some dynamic stretching: skipping forward and backwards, butt kicks, and toy soldiers (before: stretching?)
-I did some high intensity intervals
- 1 minute at 85-90% max, 75 seconds walk/jog at perceived effort of ~3. Repeat 6 times, will eventually work up to 12 reps. (before: 3 minutes of running at ~60%, 1 minute of walking, repeat for 30-60 minutes)
-I had a glass of milk and square of dark chocolate (before: I KNOW about the 2:1 carb: protein refueling, but it's always difficult for me to remember exactly what food have that natural ratio and I'm not hungry after exercise anyways, and I probably ate right before the run anyways.....)

 Some of the concepts, even though based in solid science are going to be hard for people to swallow. I pride myself as an endurance rider, for being able to evaluate the evidence and be able to kick out beloved concepts that do not hold up to scrutiny and integrate new concepts that do, while evaluating how these concepts work together for ME, the individual. That's what all of us as endurance riders do, and I think it's one of the most important foundations of our sport. We've tested and evaluated protocols for our horses for years, now it's time to do it for ourselves, the riders. This is the book to get, as a starting point. Some of the information was new to me, some was old hat, and some was stuff I had suspected based on my experiment of one, but didn't have any evidence before.

To give you some tidbits......
-chocolate milk is the best post-work out refuel drink that naturally has the ratio of carbs to protein that is ideal for the physiologic state your muscles are in after exercise. -20 min a day of exercise (brisk walking) is what you need. You can split the 20 minutes any way you want and it counts. Don't have the equivalent 20 minutes a day? 30 minutes 3 times a week of high intensity interval training is equivalent.
 -exercise is a very inefficient way to lose weight. It's about diet. However, exercise will help your body to accept it's new "weight point" and stop sneeking compensatory measures your body WILL take try reach it's old, heavier set point. This only works if you aren't exercising to the point where you are contributing significantly to the negative balance of calories from your diet....BTW, another way to significantly burn more calories during the day is to stand. Remarkably, even though you are in a negative energy balance because of the calories burned, calories burned because of standing don't activate the body's "compensatory" mechanisms like running or dieting.
-If you are going to eat low carb, high fat diet, EXERCISE. You'll have the same parameters as those high carb people when it comes to heart health. I believe in the low carb, high protein and fat diet, but I'm also active and exercise. From my opinion and not the book: If you plan on remaining sendentary, perhaps the more carb heavy diet is more appropriate.....but since you SHOULD be exercising anyways, IMO this is not an excuse to say that low carb doesn't work....
-stretching isn't all it's cracked up to be. If you are going to stretch, than do dynamic stretching, like I did in my run today. Stretching can be detrimental to athletic performance and the key is to do dynamic stretching that activates muscles and joints within the range of motion that you will be doing for that activity. FYI, this is one my boyfriend absolutely balks at. I don't see him changing his "reach for the toes" routine before runs anytime soon.
-Nothing solves the DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). Not NSAIDs, not ice baths, not massages. And BTW, that ibuprofen we take before exercise to stave off soreness? Not only does it not work, it's actually hindering our body to be able to adapt to exercise. Same with any vitamin antioxidants we may be pouring down our gullets. I think this is enough for now. Coming up: My new job, more books, and why I have a smart phone.
-Thirst IS a good indicator of when and how much you should drink.

Back from Vacation!

Howdy!  I'm back from a wonderful vacation....updates and pics coming soon.  Just wanted to drop a note saying I missed you'all and I'm excited to catch up. 

Thoughts on I'll Have Another's injury

Just saw this annoucment: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=20153

 It makes me wonder, with a potential Triple Crown winner on their hands, why the trainer didn't get the filling in the leg ultrasounded prior to letting him do the gallop? The article doesnt say whether the horse had a history of filling, which might have influenced his decision.

I'm not one to try and play "back seat vet" or "back seat horse owner" since there's always circumstances that aren't fully reported, BUT with it being such a public case, and dealing with several cases of "superficial digital tendonitis" I just wonder. The last thing I would do a week prior to Tevis would be to take my horse out that had filling in one leg and do a conditioning ride on it --> If I had any thought I would do Tevis on that horse still, I would ultrasound it first to see what, if any, visible damage there was, before risking further damage.

Further out from the race, I might do exactly what the trainer did --> give the horse some time off, wait until it dissapeared (I think they waited?) and then go out for a light conditioning ride and see what happened. I do this all the time, especially with my horse's history because filling isn't a reliably indicator of whether there's an reinjury in Farley's leg right now (although it IS an indicator that I did something that was probably too much).

Even with tremendous public pressure I'm glad the decision was made for the horse's sake, although I'm dissapointed (as I'm sure everyone is) that there will be no triple crown winner this year. May we all have the determination and courage to do the same by our horses when that time comes!

Mickie is missing - UPDATE FOUND

UPDATE: I found her this evening in the bushes of a neighbors house.  Was on the porch and when I called her, immediately ran and hid (typical for this cat, very shy).  Would look at me but very hesitant to come forward so I ran into the house for a can and a canopener.  She's never been on wet food in her LIFE, but because when I originally accepted her company at the Wild horse Sanctuary I lived and worked at I used to share my can of tuna with her, I think that's why she comes running at the sound.  Sure enough, it worked like a charm, she came to me, and is recuperating in the bathroom where she won't be stressed by the activity of the household.  Hopefully if she gets outside again, she'll be familiar enough with the neighborhood that she'll stay close again.  WHOO HOO!

 PS - ignore the shredded towel -> it's a dog towel. 


Original Post:

Just wanted everyone to know that my cat is is missing.  Obviously none of you are local and I don't expect search parties are anything!  But I would appreciate good thoughts being sent her way.  I'm leaving for a week out of state in a couple of days and it's now been officially 24 hours since she went missing.  She was a feral that chose me almost 10 years ago and has chosen to be a house cat since then, although for a couple of years she did have to be a ranch kitty while I finished college!  She slipped out of a screen in the bedroom that had a tear in it wednesday early morning and I haven't seen her since.  She's a shy cat that likely hid somewhere and i fully expected to see her that evening but so far no luck.  She's wearing a safety collar and is easy to identify so I'm hoping that if I leave a message at the pound i have a good chance of getting her back if she was picked up (instead of "random tabby").  Of course she's the only pet I have that isn't microchipped! I'll update this with a picture of Mickie once I get home. I can't figure out how to post blog pics from the iPad and my email posting isn't working right now.

The last of the nutrition stuff

Some thoughts on Hay

Many many many of the issues in our horses come back to how we feed and the nutrition.

For you cow people,  the hind gut of the horse functions like the rumen (that’s where the stuff ferments etc) --> dysfunction in this part of the GI system will result in SYSTEMATIC effects.  I can think of more than one disease that fits this definition, such as laminitis/founder.
--> in the future, will probably find out that hind gut dysfunction has an impact on lameness.  KER at the AERC convention talked at length about how different feeds, such as corn, function in the hind gut and warned that it’s really not a good idea to feed substances that alter the physiologic environment of the hind gut (like corn).   He talked about feed stuffs in light of ulcers etc, but what you put into the horse goes beyond ulcer risks. 

Horses are fed on a dry weight basis as a % of BW --> The reason that grazing on a pasture is so good for a horse is because moisture is so much higher on pasture, and it takes all day for the horse to eat 2% DM of BW on pasture.  However, that same a 2% dry matter in a flake of hay can be polished off in an hour. 

Based on nutritional content of a “typical” pasture, a “maintenance” horse can probably be maintained on pasture, working horses probably have additional requirements.

Grain hays: tend to higher in NSC (>20%).  May have lower protein.  Bottom line: although I may occasionally feed it (for example, if it’s at a ride and it’s at the check and that’s what Farley wants), I will not make feeding grain hays a typical practice.

Legume hays:  VERY high protein (even though it is lower quality than dairy alfalfa, still running over 20%) and Ca.  Typically high calorie.  Low starch and sugar (low glycemic) but some carb sensitive horses can not handle it (11%). Experts are not sure why. Adding more than 25-30% to the horses diet is not recommended --> diets that contain over this amount are hard to balance nutritionally.  in addition to the additional water needed to process the protein (as discussed earlier in the blog), high protein --> causes body temperature to go up!!!!!!  At this point you may be saying, why the heck would I ever feed alfalfa to my endurance horse?  Alfalfa has a more complete amino acid profile (lysine) than other hays (such as grass), which is needed when the horse is under significant work and building/repairing muscle.  Additionally, the calcium has a buffering property.   I plan to make sure I include alfalfa in my horses diet before, during, and after an endurance ride, even if I don’t typically feed it.  Alfalfa that is added to the diet should be fed in the morning because that’s when the acid content of the stomach is highest.  Why? The horse stomach continually produces acid in its stomach regardless of whether it’s eating (because from an evolution standpoint it’s a grazer), and the horse is usually not eating as much at night, if at all.

Grass hays: moderate protein (10-12%, which is PLENTY of protein for the performance horse! However some areas are growing grass hays that have 18% protein.  Know the forage in your area!), lower calorie, moderate NSC (~12%).  Grass hay is suitable for most horses.  I personally love grass hay for my endurance horse and this makes up the bulk of Farley’s diet. 

***remember to look at the leaf to stem ratio regardless of the hay in your hay quality evaluation.

If you are buying hay in large quantities, hay analysis is fairly cheap ($26 or so).

I think we all know to look at the NSC’s, calcium, Se, Copper, Iron etc in hay analysis’, but something else to look at in your hay analysis is ADF. 
-Do not want an ADF over 32% or so for performance (or other high energy need horse)!

To weigh or not weigh?

Interesting fact: Flakes tend to be consistent in one load of hay because of how it is baled --> so if you weigh flakes at the beginning of a load, you have a good estimate of what flakes in that load will weigh. 

Thoughts on other Feeds

Dr. Thunes mentioned Triple Crown several times in her presentation.  In generally, Triple Crown, and other companies that are fixed ingredient/fixed formulation feeds will cost a bit more, and flutuate with feed prices, because they don’t sub in ingredients.  My favorite companies, like LMF, Elk Grove Milling (stable mix), are fixed ingredient/formulation products. 

Dr. Thunes opinion is low level deficiencies cause problems in the older horse, even if the younger version looks fine.  Thus, feed a ration balancer.  Hay is predictably low in minerals and vitamins, thus feeding a ration balancer is an EXCELLENT idea, unless you are feeding another complete feed AT the manufacture recommendation.  I personally don’t know of ANYONE that feeds as much complete feed/senior feed etc. at the manufacture’s recommendations, so my suspicion is that most of us fall into the category of needing a ration balancer, if our horses’ diet consists mainly of hay. 

There’s a particular ration balancer she liked for California hays --> if you are feeding a California hay, email or comment and I’ll give you the specific product (triple crown).

One question I had for Dr. Thunes was feeding a ration balancer on top of another feed that is being fed below the manufacture’s recommendation.  For example, I feed EGM Stable Mix at various levels depending on the amount of work Farley’s in, but as this feed is formulated as a “complete” feed that can completely substitute for hay in the horses’ diet, it is unlikely I will EVER feed enough for her to meet the recommendation on the bag.  This applies to other feeds too --> I fed LMF Gold for a while and while the manufacture’s recommendation was around 12 pounds or so (relying on memory here….) I never fed over 4 or 5 pounds because I didn’t need to based on her body condition (adding most of these feeds in order to maintain a certain level of calories, or for mashes at rides for hydration etc.). Am I creating an imbalance by adding another feed on top of the ration balancer?

Her answer was that feeding a ration balancer on top of another feed, as long as I fed the feed below recommended manufacture’s amount is fine, even in the case of a feed like LMF Gold, where I’m feeding a higher %age of the recommended as compared to Stable mix.  Feeding a ration balancer on top of beet pulp and oil is also fine.  If at some point you feed enough of the “feed” to meet the manufacture’s recommendation on the bag, then discontinue the ration balancer. 

I had pretty much come to the conclusion that there was no use for stuff like grains, corn, in my horse’s diet.  Thus, I surprised to learn that anaerobically working horses need grain!!!!!  They NEED the starch.  There IS a place for these feeds in SOME horse’s diets.  That being said, endurance horses are working aerobically so it’s unlikely that the endurance horse needs substantial amounts of starch or grain in their diet.  High levels of fermentable fiber (like beet pulp), hay, a ration balancer, and some oil should probably be the basis of the endurance horse diet (not corn, molasses, grain hays, etc.)

One of the things that seems to shock horsey non-endurance people when they ask what my horse eats at rides is my attitude of “my horse can eat whatever she wants”.  They always ask about colic etc because of letting my horse try novel hays and mashes at rides that she doesn’t have access to on a regular basis at home.  There’s a couple of strategies that might be worth considering if your horse eats a fairly simple diet of grass hay, oil, beet pulp at home, but you want to provide more options at a ride without worrying. 

-One is to introduce alternative feeds 1-2 weeks before the ride.  In those 1-2 weeks I stop the oil, increase vitamin E concentrations, increase Se supplementation and add a small flake of Alfalfa.  If I haven’t been feeding EGM mashes, I start adding them in those weeks and I rotate LMF gold or whatever other feed I have at hand that I plan on bringing to the ride. 

-Another thought is to pick a feed whose top 3 ingredients are typical forages that the horse might see at a ride, OR feeds that you can break out and offer separately so the horse has more variation on ride day, without those feeds being truly “novel”.  For example, if you pick a feed that contains “Oat, beet pulp, etc.” in it’s top ingredients, you could offer that as a mash during the ride, OR offer an oat mash, beet pulp mash etc. as separate choices. 

I’ll end this post with 3 of my favorite feeds :) --> triple crown, LMF, EGM. 

EGM Senior Stable Mix -> has a higher fat content than the “regular Stable Mix”.  I think this is regionally available in the west so sorry all you folks on the east coast.  It’s an affordable feed with a fixed ingredient list, and it’s a local company.

LMF Low NSC Feed -> I used to feed LMF gold but I think this would be a better choice for Farley.

Triple Crown Low Starch -> I got a sample of this at the AERC convention and I was really happy with it.  Great palatability, made a great “milk-shake” mash.

I hope you got a few gems out of these posts.  I know I sure did. 

continuing with the nutrition stuff

It's going to be a scorcher today.  My guess is the weather is trying to prepare me for what Arizona is going to feel like next week.  I see napping in my future and a distinct lack of motivation to run. 

We are nearing the end of the selenium and vitamin E discussion.  Just a couple of wrap up points, some product recommendations, and some miscellaneous tidbits.

Vitamin E and Selenium Wrap up/Product Recommendations
I continue to feed and recommend the Selenium supplement sold by Platinum Performance.  I trust the company and had good results with it actually making a difference in the Selenium blood levels of my horse.  I've heard recommendations for smart pak, so if you are already a customer there, that might be a consideration.  I would also trust products from KPP (Kentucky Performance Products) or KER (Kentucky Equine Research).  My preference is feed my Selenium and vitamin E separately, so I can monitor both and adapt to the other nutrition parameters/practices in my horse's life.  For example, if I start feeding a complete feed or ration balancer  that has adds a certain amount of Selenium to my horse's diet, I may want to back off on my Selenium supplementation, however, adding a complete feed or switching to a different hay supplier doesn't necessarily mean that the vitamin E supplementation need goes away - I need to be able to supplement them separately. 

I'm currently feeding vitamin E that is sold at Walmart for humans.  It's ~$22/bottle (although on line it's listed for $15, but I've never bought it for that price, so I'll use the $22 number for this purpose).  It is possible for Farley to pick out the little capsules if I'm not watching carefully.  I'm not sure they break down well in a horse stomach --> they don't' break down noticeably in mashes.  I guess it SEEMS to work, but I have very little evidence either way since I don't measure her vitamin E levels.  KPP sells a vitamin E supplement separately.  In a cost analysis, the KPP product is $52.52 for 2 pounds.  From their webstite, 7g of powder = 1,000 I/U.  Thus to feed 3,000 I/U per day (my maintenance dose), I need to feed 21g of powder.  A 2 pound tub would last ~43 days, or approximately $1.22/day.  My walmart stuff lasts ~62 days, or ~$0.35/day.  Huge difference in cost.  There may be other options as well --> Smart pak looks like it has product that is in between the cost of Walmart and KPP.   KER has a vitamin E only supplement that has "nano" technology, (hind gut buffer so you know that it will be absorbed) but it's pricey.  Dr. Thunes recommendation was that I use the KER product for dosing the 5,000 I/U in the 2 weeks prior to race to make sure that my horse has sufficient levels. 


Sorry folks, but my time allotted to blog today has just ended so I'll have to get to the rest of my points (balancing the ration and my misc points) in the next post.  Finding the product links took me more time than I thought it would!

OK OK OK.....

So I didn't post daily and the series isn't finished......as an appeasement I give you.......

A write up my mom did about the first day of the backpacking trip.  As an incentive I will tell you that it contains cute pictures of Tess!!!!  It was the longest trip I've taken yet at 3 nights.  I would love to do the John Muir trail in a couple of years so I keep pushing a little further and harder each time to see how realistic that goal is. 

This has never happened to me, but I thought it was HILARIOUS because I could totally see it happening.....yes I have a roomba vaccum and I have dogs --> dogs that have not yet figured out how very funny (NOT) this would be.  The video is a little slow, but watch it 'til the end. :)

Series is continuing!

more on vit E/Se/Balancing rations

Let's move onto Selenium.

Selenium

Selenium has a very narrow range of "OK".  Too little is bad, too much is bad.  This scares a lot of people.  Talk to knowledgeable people in the animal medicine field about selenium supplementation in horses and the first thing I get is a look of concern, followed by "did you hear about the polo ponies?".

The polo ponies had an overdose of Se given by IV.  Not orally.  Someone made a decimal point error the ponies received many many many times the safe amount of Selenium.  I asked every nutrition professor and nutrition guest lecturer of whether they had EVER heard of a Selenium overdose that occurred in horses as a result of ORAL supplementation.  The answer has been no.

That being said, if you are going to supplement Se, keep in mind that most feeds have Se in them and it can add up very quickly if you are feeding 5 pounds of this and 2 pounds of that and scoop of that over there.....I try to keep my feeding routine very simple (not feeding a lot of different feeds or "complete" supplements), supplement with a product from a company I trust, AND periodically test Farley's Se blood levels.  Personal research has made me comfortable with a level of 0.3ppm or above in endurance horses.  There's nothing published that I can find, and no one I've talked to in the nutrition world has been able to give me a definitive answer.  However, from my research, and people I've talked to, and personal experience, I shoot for a blood ppm level of 0.30-0.45.  Considering that the upper safe level is 0.5ppm ("normal" is 0.08-0.5ppm *I think*  Need to go back and double check the range) I'm operating at the top of the "safe" range and need to be careful.  I don't always get my hay from the same sources although my other feeding remains fairly constant and depending on whether the hay is local or shipped from the NW (Oregon, Washington etc.) the Se levels can vary GREATLY, which is why it is worth my time to keep an eye on Farley's Se levels.  Even though in my opinion oral supplementation is generally safe, especially if you have a baseline Se value for the horse and you know you aren't sitting at 0.45 or 0.5, if your hay source varies AND you are feeding a multitude of different feeds/supplements/mashes etc., I would DEFINITELY be testing blood levels regularly if I decided I wanted to supplement.

Selenium is "vitamin E" sparing, meaning that when you have sufficient levels of Selenium, vitamin E doesn't get "used up" as fast.  Selenium, like Vitamin E participates in the antioxidant process and neutralizes radical oxygen species (ROS).

Radical Oxygen species
I thought that it might be useful to briefly discuss what ROS's do since both vitamin E and Selenium are both neutralizing them and it seems that this actually might be relevant to endurance horses --> since apparently deficiencies may be linked to all sorts of things, and it is my belief that one part of why Farley tyed up in 2010 was related to being deficient!

ROS are generated by inflammation, radiation, oxygen toxicity, chemicals, and reperfusion injury.  They alter the membranes of cells in ways that decreases stability and maintenance of permeability --> which leads to collapse of cell structure and cell rupture.  This is BAD.  There are several defenses against ROS, one of which is antioxidants.  Vitamin E "quenches" the ROS.  The "used" vit E is then regenerated by vit C.  Glutathione (another antioxidant) regenerates vit C.  Selenium reacts with the product that vitamin E changed and changes it further into something harmless (water I think).

So, as you can see, Se and Vitamin E participate in the same process, BUT they aren't necessarily directly linked.

Deficiencies of vit E and Selenium

Now that I've thoroughly bored the vast majority of my readers, let's go on to conditions that cause deficiencies!!!!!!!

Even though I explained (in probably unnessarily complicated biology) that Se and vitamin E and not necessarily biologically linked, except as participating in the same cycle, deficiencies of Se ARE linked with vitamin E deficiencies!

Here's the short list of conditions that create deficiencies that I thought relevant to endurance
-Consumption of grains or forages deficient in Se of vitamin E (for horses, almost everything we feed them is vitamin E deficient.  Most feeds are OK in Se, but depending on where you live your forage may or may not be OK).

-diets that include unsaturated fatty acids (I mentioned this in my fat post.  Feeding fish oil requires an increase in vitamin E!!!!!!!!  IMO choose a different oil to feed your horse....)

-stress and high rates of production (ummm......IMO there is just a *wee* bit of stress associated with running 50-100 miles.  What do you think?)

-Damage to tissues (oh I'm sure horses coming off of a 100 *never* have damaged tissues......or muscle repair....or soreness....or any other type of tissue repair going on....)

Supplementation
I've already touched on Se supplementation, but a note about vitamin E supplementation: generally regarded safe.

As with anything you can over do it, but that 3-5K I/U range that mentioned in my last post is what I consider appropriate for my endurance horse.

I'll get into the specifics of what I feed and why, and what I'll be switching too in a next post :).

Just a note: There are tests that you can do to test levels of both Se and vitamin E, however the only one I've seen done in my experience is the Selenium test, since that's the one with the narrow margin of safety.  With more wiggle room on the vitamin E, I just don't see the sense personally to spend the money.

To be continued!.....

Revisiting vit E, Se, and overall nutrition of the endurance horse

During the last block of my first year of vet school I got to sit through some lectures on nutrition, including a lecture on equine nutrition given by Dr. Claire Thunes.  I learned some really interesting stuff that I wanted to pass along to you. 

The good news is, if you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, especially through Farley’s tye up an my discussion of vitamin E and Selenium supplementation, there’s probably not a lot of new information here.  I think that many endurance riders ARE well educated on the importance of vitamin E, Selenium, and the role of forage in a performance horse diet.  As always, there were a few nuggets of information that were new to me and I’ll be implementing them into Farley’s nutrition routine. 

I’ll start with the introduction and general information that was presented during my nutrition class, and then follow it up with specific performance/endurance horse information that I learned in the equine portion of the lecture.

Warning --> this is probably going to post in several parts over the next couple of days.  I’ll try to work on it daily and have the series finished up by the end of the week :). 

Vitamin E

The term “vitamin E” is a term used to describe several compounds.  There’s all sorts of naturally occur forms with various names, but the one you need to be aware of in terms of meaningful nutritional activity is alpha-tocopherol.  D-alpha-tocopherol has the greatest activity, synthetic sources of vitamin E are a racemic mixture of D and L-a-tocopherol (I see some of you gamely reaching deep into the recesses of your brain trying to recall your organic chemistry.  Don’t bother.  Basically, look for the alpha-tocopherol designation on the vitamin E label, and realize that D and L forms exist, which are mirror images of each other, and the mirror images have different biological activity.  See?  Simple!).

As most of you probably remember, Vitamin E is one of the fat soluble vitamins and is unstable/reactive and has to be packaged nicely so that it stays good for the body to use.  Vitamin E is often used to control the rancidity of fat in foods while it’s in storage, but it’s a balancing game because the same factors that will cause fat to go rancid (heat, light etc.) also cause vitamin E to break down, in addition to the vitamin E that used up controlling the rancid fat……How food is stored MATTERS.  Hot warehouses are not your friend.  Putting your horse/dog/cat food in a clear container where the sunshines is not good.  Putting that food anywhere the sun can heat it up (like a garbage can out in the open) is not good.  The unstable nature of Vitamin E is one reason I’ve struggled with how to supplement it.  It has to be processed with a stablizer/carrier --> I’m feeding a human supplement, but how much of that is actually bioavailable to the horse digestive system since that’s not what that particular product was designed for?  How was that supplement stored before I got it, especially if I am feeding a horse specific product that wasn’t stored in a human grade warehouse?  How am I storing it?  Fortunately I was able to talk to Dr. Thunes about my concerns and got some really good advice that I’ll be sharing later in the post :). 

I’m getting off track, biology first, THEN practical application.  I know --> most of you probably don’t care about all this theoretical stuff and just want me to get down to the bottom line, but trust me, I’m only sharing the nit-picky details that I think are important as you make your own decision (perhaps in conjunction with your vet) about what program you want to put together for you and your horse. 

Alrighty.  So how/why does Vitamin E work?  It’s primary function is that of an ANTIOXIDANT.  I won’t bore you with the details, but basically it protects the cell membranes in the face of oxidative damage (I think --> anywhoo it’s some sort of oxygen-type radical damage that I don’t feel like looking up).  In the whole cascade of antioxidant activities, it works in CONJUNCTION with Selenium. That’s why vitamin E and Selenium are often talked about in the same breath. 

Natural sources of vitamin E aren’t even worth mentioning.  Of course I was given a list in lecture --> vegetable oils, eggs and liver, green forages esp alfalfa -- that we all dutifully copied down.  The nutritionist giving this lecture was primarily a small animal person and although many of the concepts were universal, some of the information given, like good sources of vitamin E in animal diets, didn’t ring true from what I knew of horse nutrition.  When I ran these sources by the equine nutritionist, I was told that most vegetable oils lose the vitamin E during processing, and drying forages completely destroys the vitamin E in them.  Thus feeding dry forages to horses does NOT provide vitamin E (even if it’s alfalfa) and feeding oil will not substitute for vitamin E supplementation.  On the other hand, fresh pasture has LOTS of vitamin E.  However, I think at least in my part of California, adequate access to pasture is a rariety for most horses. 

In my equine nutrition lecture is was recommended that performance horses have a high level of vitamin E in their diet --> when I asked afterwards exactly what levels were recommended, it was in line with what I’ve been feeding.  3,000 I/U normally, increased to 5,000 I/U 2 weeks prior and 2 weeks after an endurance ride. 

It was the equine nutritionists belief that Vitamin E deficiencies (because you can assume your horse doesn’t get any from the hay…..) MIGHT cause some of the disease processes that we are seeing --> i.e. small deficiencies of vitamins and minerals may not seem relevant/harmfull right now, but over time may lead to a shortened career or life span. 

Continued in the next post….

10 steps to civilized living

How to integrate yourself back into the modern day world after a fabulous 4 day backpacking trip:

Step 1: Look at your face in the starbucks mirror and realize that in addition to the overall dirtiness of your face, there are distinct lines of dirt as if you decided to do some sort of weird Indian warpaint.  Complain to your hiking buddies that they didn't even have the courtesy to tell you, and be told that they didn't even notice.

Step 2: Drink a mocha coconut frappichino while finishing off the rest of your backpacking food.  On the patio.  Because you smell too badly to further integrate yourself into society just yet.

Step 3: Take a shower.  Realize you have ZERO spare clothes.  And since you sacrificed extra clothing in your pack in order to take a pillow, there's nothing that you haven't worn for 4 days.  Borrow clothing from a family member.

Step 4:  Joyfully exclaim that you managed to escape the forest of poison oak with a mere 5 patches of the stuff on various unmentionable places of your body that you didn't bother to apply ivy block. 

Step 5: Sleep.

Step 6: Unpack, wash, dry, and put away gear.  Scamper after the puppy as she realizes she's next on the list for the same treatment.

Step 7: Clean house.  Check on horse.  I use the term rather loosely as I stood at the front of the stable and called her name.  From 6 paddocks away, Farley pricked her ears and walked towards my direction.  I decided she looked fine, paid my board bill, took stitches out of a goat (my first step towards being a small ruminant vet!), and left. 

Step 8:  Put on a sundress and go out for a date night.  There's nothing more civilized than dinner (with a gift card!) and a movie with the boyfriend. 

Step 9: Sleep

Step 10: Peruse facebook.  Discover you have to relearn to type.  After several hours of spying on your friends and family, decide you are caught up on the world events and are ready to rejoin the land of the normal. 

And the last step of all to return to civilized, normal living: WRITE A BLOG POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!