Old School

This week I had popped over to the trade show at FarmFair where one of my friends from the 4-H days had a booth.  (She makes the most delicious chaps and leather goods.) We were talking about Scratches and she said it's the easiest thing to care for.  All you do is slap on some Vaseline and off you go.  She swears by it.  

This got me to thinking about other old school or homemade remedies for horse issues.  I've used the classic Epsom Salt and Bran poultice for abscesses which works amazing.  (That one came my way from my amazing vet.)  All you do is mix up 1 part Epsom Salt to 2 parts bran, add hot water, and place in a diaper.  Vet wrap the diaper around the hoof (taking care not to go up too high and cut off circulation).  I add duct tape to reinforce it and change the poultice daily.  It's now become my go to treatment plan.

I know many people swear by feeding bran mash on the coldest days helps prevent colic.  The thought being the horses are getting more moisture in their guts than they otherwise would.  

And of course there's the tried and true vet treatments.  Many of the best things you can get from the clinic are things they've made up themselves.  One vet has what we call Magic Lotion.  Because it really seems to be magic when used on cuts.

But it got me to wondering - what other things do people do that are tried and true?  What do you do?

The Devil

The devil reared its head today!  Yesterday, Tessa was a darling.  She worked like a charm.  And I stood back and let her.  Today, she's was a rotten apple.  Heh - it would helped if I hadn't bunged up the pattern.  Heh - perhaps next time I'll read the pattern before the run...  Oh well, live and learn.  But she also needed to listen.  As in, do what I asked.  Sigh.  

This was her final trial.  Now she's back to being a pet.  My beloved (and sometimes not so beloved) companion.  

Tessa's been down the road with me.  Together we roped and rodeo'd our way around Alberta.  She made more miles as a pup riding shot gun in my truck with a horse hitched behind, than many people do.  She's moved with me.  Survived boyfriend's with me.  Sat on my lap, and held my hand while I was immobilized with chemotherapy.  Absorbed tears in her curly fur as I fought through life's pitfalls.  And made me laugh and smile with her antics and verve for life.  We've run many miles together - both on foot and horseback.  She's made me scream with frustration as she willfully made her way in my world.  And she's made me cry with fear as I held her hand while she survived broken legs, teeth and now old age.  

My girl is getting old.  And she's not doing it well.  As I write this, she's laying in the corner, snoring with her tongue stuck out.  And when she gets up I'll check to see if she's leaked on the floor.  

As much as she frustrates me at times, and as much as I know there are better dogs out there, I love the little monster.  She's been my companion for 10 years now.  She's challenged me and definitely made me better for it.  I've learned a lot from her.  She's earned her place in my home and my heart.  And now, it's my job to care for her through what life may through at us.  Keep her safe and healthy for as long as I can.  

Here's to Tessa - my little devil dog.

To The Point

I had published a post called Affected.  In my mind, the purpose of the post was to share what I was feeling and to make information available.  Did I fall down with my ability to communicate what I wanted?  I think so.  The bottom line is I am now the owner of a dog affected with CEA.  Did this hurt?  Of course.  And I wanted others to have the information that I now had so that they could learn.  From my mistakes and discoveries.  It was not intended to put people down, place blame or pass the buck.  And I apologize if that's how it was perceived.

I pulled the post because I don't like the battle ground it's become.  That's not why I blog.  For the most part I write because I enjoy it.  I want to tell stories, share thoughts and part of my life.  I don't write a blog to be famous, controversial or to promote myself.  That's not what I'm interested in.  

I think, I want, for the collective whole of the Border Collie world to accept that CEA is out there and that not all people test.  And we (as a collective) need to push for better regulations.  I say this because it is important.  Why should someone new to the sport have to talk to the "right" people to learn about it?  I want it to be easy for people to get information.  I will help and share with anyone who asks it of me - to the best of my limitations.  And I always forward people to breeders or handlers that are more skilled than I when I can't help them.  I love the dogs.  I really truly do.  And I want others to be able to easily access and learn about them.  

That was my point.  I wanted anyone who had a dog with any of that breeding to be able to go, "Oh, my dog has those bloodlines too!  Maybe I should get them tested."  That's why I put the pedigree information out there.  Not to be negative.  To share what I've learned.  I put the OptiGen information out there for the same reason.  And I don't believe just because a dog has bad genetic results that that dog is "bad" or should be destroyed.  I don't believe the dog's in Reba's pedigree are bad.  They've proven themselves in their discipline.  I do believe we need to do a better job.  My informal poll today found about half (give or take a few) test.  Half do not.  

To be brutally honest.  I'm a sponge.  I absorb information like crazy.  And when I spoke of going to look at Reba at a trial no one told me that I should ask for testing.  As someone new to the trial and herding world, wouldn't that have been the kind thing to do?  I take responsibility for the choices I've made and I want others to learn from the mistakes I've made.  But the rest of the herding world needs to step up to the plate and advocate for change so that ALL dogs are tested.  So that just like ISDS, it becomes a registry matter.  That's the point I was trying to make.  

The bottom line is I learned a painful lesson.  I didn't want it to be wasted.  I wanted others to learn from my experience so that with luck and care, it doesn't happen again.  Would you want this to happen again?  So why not educate and advocate for change?

And for the record - when I'm quoting hard and fast facts - expect to see a reference.  I'm way too academic not to.  Everything else is an opinion or something I've picked up over time.  Be it right, or wrong.  

Got it?

Education

I am a strong believer in education.  I believe that as we learn - through mistakes, through science, through books, through people, we ourselves become better.  More.  It appears based on my last post that some may believe I'm whining.  Am I upset?  Of course.  I have an emotional attachment not only to the dog, but the people around the dog.  

Today, I go to FarmFair to compete at a large trial.  Today, I go to sit with people I call friends.  People who just happen to own some of these wonderful, talented dogs on Reba's pedigree.  Today, I will sit down and tell them about Reba.  Will this be fun?  Easy? Not particularly.  Today, I will gently, politely and nicely suggest that perhaps testing some of their dogs would be a good idea.

These are people I care about.  They have value to me.  They are NOT bad people.  They have GREAT dogs.  But I need for us (a big, huge collective) to get better at making breeding choices.  Testing dogs DNA is somewhat new out here.  It's something I wasn't even aware was possible up until about a year ago.  For this reason, we must get on the program.  As a collective.  

Don't get me wrong.  Reba is still a spectacularly talented and well bred dog.  And so are her parents, and grandparents.  Perhaps that's why I was so surprised to find out she is Affected.  

If I hadn't been down with the flu, I would have been on the phone.  As it is, I will see at least three owners of dogs on her up close pedigree today.  And I will burst their bubble of naivety, just as mine disintegrated.  And no, I will derive no pleasure out of doing this.  Reality is, that keeping my mouth shut and head down would be the easy road.  But I've never been one for doing things the easy way.  This way, while hard, in my opinion is the right way.  Let everyone learn from this is all I ask.  It's become clear that no dog is "safe". And the word needs to get out.

You Know When...

For the past couple of days I've had an "off" tummy.  Not having time to be sick I just bore down and continued about my merry way.  This morning I woke up (6:15 am), stood up, and lay right back down.  It appeared nausea had joined the party.  This was not good.  With studied carefulness, I grabbed Ginger Ale and made my way to work.

I know, normal people do not go into work when they're sick.  But I work with little ankle biters and in truth it's more work to not work than work.  (Got it?)  So I heaved my arse into the truck and gagged my way to work.  Once there, I popped into the boss's office to head's up them.  Meaning if they see me bolting down the hallway please make their way to my classroom and ensure my charges are still living and intact.  

By the time recess rolled around I carefully walked myself back to the office and informed them I was not going to make the day.  (Last day before a holiday too!)  Sitting in my classroom, listening to chaos slowly invading my world, I waited and watched the clock for my replacement to arrive.   With 30 minutes left, I gingerly pulled the garbage can between my legs.  Ever so carefully without moving any muscles - terrified to speak to the bee bopping hive of activity my lack of attention was creating - I sat.  I sat so still because I knew if I moved even an eyelash the wrong way bad thing were going to happen very, very quickly.  Taking deep breathes, and using iron control and self talk, I willed the gorge threatening to jump out of my throat to go back to it's home in my tummy.

I knew if the bad thing happened I'd start crying.  And I was pretty sure once the bad thing started to happen it wasn't going to stop any time soon.  And I still needed to drive myself 30 minutes home.  I also knew my little darling would not deal well with their rock (me) falling apart.  I had already laid a contingency plan telling the kids that if I quickly left or bad things happened my daily helper need to bust a move for help.  It would have been great if I could have opened my mouth, without bad things happening, to put that plan in place.

As it were, for the first time ever in my career I had to leave work early.  As it were, I made it home by the skin of my teeth before very nasty things happened.  

Hopefully this passes (heh) fast, and I'll still make Mayerthorpe Saturday.  It's looking like a faint hope at this point in time.

Selling in a Buyer's Market

Having recently been a seller and someone who keeps a fairly close eye on the horse market, I feel I have a pretty good idea of reality.   With Izzy nicely rehomed, I had been thinking about my horse situation.  

I have a beautiful, athletic, smart 11 year old mare with something major wrong with her stifle and the very real possibility that she may never be sound again.  Once she foals in May, I will be doing some hard thinking about keeping her.  I neither need nor want a broodmare.  She'd be amazing in a therapy program as long as there was no riding her involved.  Her ground manners are impeccable.  I have Roxy, who while home for a training break generally lives at Jason's barn.  She's turning into a legitimate contender and for that reason I'm content to leave her be.

But I also at times crave the feel of riding a horse.  That was my biggest motivation to resume taking lessons.  I also have nothing at home I can just hop on and ride.  So when word reached my ears about a family I know, who was looking to sell one of their steady geldings before winter, I perked up.  Could be interesting.

And was it ever!  It never fails to amaze me in this horse market when people who are trying to sell just don't seem to care.  After the third or fourth time I was asked to reschedule viewing the horse (with very little notice I might add), I was kind of irked.  It did not appear they were too interested in selling.  So I decided I didn't need or want the horse nearly bad enough.

However, in telling my friend Jen, she thought we should go check it out.  She might be interested.  Gritting my teeth, I made arrangements and we went out and tried the horse.  I use the term tried lightly.  It was hands down the strangest viewing I'd ever attended - and I've bought and sold a fair amount of horses in my time.  We wandered out into the pasture where the horse was eating his cubes.  The husband of the owner (because true to form the owner backed out last minute) stood beside the horse.  We stood there for a bit - just standing around the horse - when I asked Jen if she'd like to see the horse under saddle.  At which point she looks at the husband and asks "Can we saddle him up?"  With overstated nonchalance, the man ambles off to get a halter, catches the horse, saddles and bridles him.  

Jen is a brand new mom via C-section so I hopped on the horse.  I did think it a bit odd he never even offered to ride the horse first but chose to ignore it.  Next I put the horse through some rudiment gaits - in total we're talking about a 5-10 minute ride with quickly fading daylight and horse unfriendly terrain.  As I'm dismounting I asked when the horse had last been rode.  Flabbergasted at the answer (a year), I gave a wide eyed look at Jen.  The horse had been good.  But simple reality says not all good horses have good days - especially with a year off.  And you'd toss someone who's never rode the creature on their back?  Gutsy move.

The other thing that left me slightly startled was the condition of the horse.  He was a bit light weight wise, had extremely bad scratches, could clearly use a deworming, and needed his feet done.  Um, are you trying to NOT sell this horse?

Jen, however thought she'd offer something on the horse.  When she called today the owner was incredibly rude to her.  Leaving both Jen and I with a sour taste in our mouths.  I was not impressed and now have no interest in buying the animal simply on principle.  The truly funny part, is I had decided if Jen decided the horse didn't fit with the program I was going to offer on it.  Reality says there's a lot of nice, plain jane horses out there.  And reality says there's horse owner who'd be happy with my disposable income and caring home.  But this one, this one just didn't seem to care - and that's their loss.

Secrets

I must admit to having a secret or two (or three or four). *cough* And this one has been burning up inside of me.  The urge to spill all has almost, almost taken me over the edge - but I resisted.  Until now.

Last Friday, I once again began taking lessons.  And wonders of all wonders, the lesson horse did not aggravate me.  In fact I enjoyed it.  Well, I enjoyed it until my poor calves began to spasm in agony.  At that point I wasn't thinking this was a great idea.  Did I mention my instructor forgot I hadn't been on a horse in a very long time?  Every Friday, I head to a local jumping stable Gorsline, with my friend Jen as the instructor.  I like the challenge of the jumping world because it's unfamiliar for me.  I also like the sweat factor in developing a greater degree of fitness.  I figure it's a way I can enjoy riding and still stretch my brain and body.  

Tonight, I went with Jen to take a gelding on a test drive.  I had been on the fence over purchasing this horse for a while now.  Simple fact - I don't NEED another horse.  However, want, want can get me into trouble every now and then.  

I had had a perfect brain wave - perhaps Jen would be interested.  And after viewing the horse she is.  So now, I sit back and wait and watch to see what happens.

Ahhhhhh - relief.  The secret's out.  

Or is it?