Show season is winding down here in SE Pennsylvania.   It’s the time of year when we start to think about putting pajamas on the horses at night, and should we clip.  As we move into winter our thoughts go to teaching our equine athletes new things that they can show off next show season!  We start to work on whatever is next for our horse to learn: changes, better balance, getting suppler, being less on the forehand, staying steadier around a course.

We work on our horses’ fitness as well.  Riders typically expect their horses to be at the top of their game physically.  Can your horse expect the same from you???  What are you doing to stay riding fit?  It should be fit to ride, not ride to be fit!

You want your horse at proper weight, but are you?  Did you know that the experts say that a horse should not carry more than 20% of its body weight in equipment and rider?  For a 1000 pound horse, that means the saddle, bridle and whatever other tack you are using, plus you, should not weight more than 200 pounds.  Apparently, carrying more than that is bad for them and can cause injury over time.  Lots of riders don’t know that, have never given it a thought, or have never done the math.  It’s something I have to think about all the time with regards to my lesson horses.  I am always considering rider weight and my horses.

More than our weight, what about our fitness level as riders? Watching riding lessons you hear things like this all the time:  ride more with your seat; you need a stronger core; quiet the hands; hold your position; stay more organized in your body, stop gripping with your leg, and many other things.

I know I have said things like that thousands of times!  As an instructor I was limited to only being able to help my riders while they were in the saddle.  Much of the work needed to have quieter hands, a stronger core, and a better seat comes from the time out of the saddle.  It was up to my students to figure it out once they went home.  Ya know what, most of them didn’t.  So the lessons went on the same way, over and over and over.

NOW I can actually help the rider in AND out of the saddle.  << insert Angels singing ;-)>> Now when I say you need a stronger core it doesn’t end there.  I have a program I can hand them, that if they do it, they will have a stronger core and lots of other progress in the saddle.  Those riders are able to find and activate muscles now that they couldn’t before, like those upper abdominal muscles that are so important.  Those riders have better strength in the muscles needed for riding, like their back muscles between their shoulder blades.  Those riders are now stronger, more fit and therefore are able to use their bodies more efficiently in the saddle so they not only ride better, they can ride with less effort and for longer.

It’s been fun to watch from the instructor’s seat!  It started with one client who asked me what I was doing to stay in shape.  First that client started using the program.  Then as another rider saw what a difference it made, she started using it.  Then a 3rd rider saw the 2nd rider improving rapidly and decided she needed to do it.  Now when they arrive for their lesson all they can talk about with each other initially is how they are doing in their workouts.  How they are getting stronger and more flexible.  They are super excited to try out these new bodies on the horse.  They laugh about what a difference it has made.  They also tell me how they are fitting into dresses and pants they haven’t worn in years as their body shape changes, sometimes even though they aren’t losing weight.  Others are losing the weight they have always wanted to lose.  There is a big smile for those victories as well.

I love that I can now share this simple workout and meal plan with fellow riders as well as help keep them motivated with the fitness accountability group!  Being their fitness coach is just an extension of being their riding coach.   It’s fun to watch them interact and support each other in the group.  It’s fun to see them celebrating each others successes as well as giving advice and being encouraging when one of them is struggling.  They keep me on track to!  On those days I just don’t feel like working out, I just check in with the group and they give me the nudge I need to keep going!  When I need a new healthy chicken recipe for dinner, I ask the group.  Poof, recipes appear!

It’s not just the riders that have benefited from this.  The horses are so much happier!  It’s is easier for them to carry this fit rider!  The rider is holding their body in place and balancing themselves better so the horse is not needing to do it.  Now the horse can just focus on his job, not the riders unbalance!
It’s a win, win, win!  The riders are riding better, progressing and having more fun.  The horses are happier.  The riding instructor feels less like a broken record and gets to do more fun, interesting and challenging things with their riders!

All this started because I decided to lose weight and get in better shape.  I am so happy I did.

If you would like more information or would like to join our Fitness Accountability Group, just let me know!  We are not an exclusive club!   You don’t have to ride at our barn.  You just have to want to improve, and to commit to wanting to eat healthier and get regular exercise!

Remember, life’s a journey…enjoy the ride!

Here in Bucks County PA we are suffering from NO rain!  We need it desperately!  We don’t need build an ark kind of rain, but some nice slow steady rain for a few days. I know my pastures are TIRED and THIRSTY!  
One thing I have always noticed in my 30+ years of barn managing is that people often forget that all of this dry weather brings up lots of issues in terms of horse and pasture management.  Horses are at greater risk of colic and laminitis (founder) now while the grass is stressed from this drought and after we finally get rain and it begins to grow again.  Grass after a drought should be thought about just like it was spring grass.

I thought I might share some articles that people might find helpful and interesting.  Feel free to share and comment to add to the discussion!

http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-health/preventing-grass-founder.aspx
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/28103/managing-horses-during-drought
http://stablemanagement.com/article/horse-pasture-management-drought-situations-29096
https://www.southernstates.com/articles/managing-pasture-during-drought-conditions.aspx
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/26766/pasture-sugars
http://www.safergrass.org/pdf/VCNApreprint.pdf
http://www.safergrass.org/pdf/nfcfactors.pdf

As barn managers, we wear a lot of hats.  The worst hat is the one we wear on the day one of your horses needs to be euthanized.  See for good barn managers, we love your horse like it was one of ours.  I equate it to loving a step child or an adopted child.  While the horse has its own human, its owner, it also has us.  We feed her, clean her, talk to her, monitor her, scratch her favorite place, attend to her injuries and care for her when she is sick. While most horse owners spend a couple hours a day, several times a week with their horse, we spend 12 hours a day with them or more.

We know all their little idiosyncrasies, quirks, moods, likes, dislikes, and routines.  We spend all day in the barn with them.  We change their blankets when it warms up.  We do cool showers on a hot day.  We apply fly spray when they start stomping bugs.  We go out and reapply their fly mask when it falls off again, and straighten their blankets when they get crooked.  We administer their meds, dress their wounds, wrap their legs, and assist the vet.  We see them at their worst and we see them at their best.

Our job is to make them feel safe and secure.  It’s our job to give them a barn that is consistent and predicable so they can be relaxed.  It’s our job to worry so they don’t have to. We laugh at them when they are silly.  We scold them when they are naughty.  We know every facial expression they make.  We know from the barn door when something isn’t right with them with one glance or whinny.  We celebrate their birthdays.  We celebrate their blue ribbons.

It’s also our job to end their lives with the vet.  I never let a horse that has been in my care leave this world alone.  They should have someone who loves them there to see them on.  Most owners can’t be there for those final moments.  They don’t want that to be their last memory of their beloved horse. I totally understand that.  Horses don’t typically just lay down and go to sleep.  It’s more like a tree falling over, hitting the ground with a thud.  So that is our job too.  To be there for those final moments, telling her that it is ok.  It is Ok to go.  That they were a really good horse, and that they are loved.  That we did everything we could for them and that we will miss them everyday.  It’s our job to send them off properly, kindly, decently, respectfully, and lovingly. 

We do it with tears in our eyes as our hearts break yet again.  We do it because it’s the right thing to do for the horse and it’s the right thing to do for the owner, even though it’s the hardest thing to do for us.  We love them too.

Then we take care of the owner. We comfort them, give them a shoulder to cry on.  We give them big hugs.  We make sure they can get home ok.  We call them to make sure they got home ok. 

Then we take care of the body.  We make the necessary phone calls.  We wait for the truck to come to pick up the body.  I can’t personally watch the body be removed because I don’t want that to be my last memory of my lost friend.  I know how they do it.  I hear the sound of the winch as they get the body onto the truck.  I know what it would look like if I would go out there to see it. Then we clean everything up like it all never happened.  We rake the drag marks up from where the body was. You see, the rest of the clients don’t want to see any of that.

 Then we go back to the day to day activities of the barn.  The horses that remain still need to be fed and cared for. We go back to helping young riders lift saddles.  We go back to giving warm welcomes to the lesson clients as they arrive at the barn.  We go back to looking at that little scratch on that persons horses hip. We go back to talking to you about your horses supplements. We go back to checking to see if your saddle is pinching your horse’s withers.  We walk past that empty stall over and over again.  We have one less to feed, one less to hay,  one less to water, and one less to bring in.

We call the owner to check on them later in the day to see how they are doing.  When it’s all said and done we clean up, put everything away and turn off the lights like it was just another day and we go home.  Then we cry.  Then we grieve.