Category Archives: Horse Health

Good Stories, Horse Health, Other

Spring Riding

This spring has been a strange one for me. Early this year, a friend and I sat down and planned out a number of major ride plans and several lesser ones as well. We scheduled things out on the calendar, so we could designate specific days for these rides and block them out, so that nothing else would inadvertently get scheduled over them, as has so often happened in the past. We scheduled a three-day trip to the Moab, Utah area, one to the Grand Canyon, one to the Wind Rivers, one to Yellowstone, and monthly day rides for our local Back Country Horsemen chapter. We were pretty excited.

Then real-life happened. Our very first trip, to the San Rafael Swell area, was downgraded from an overnighter to a day trip. We left early one morning with another rider, all loaded into my truck/trailer rig. We hadn’t even gotten out of Spanish Fork, before my truck suddenly overheated!  We limped it back into town and ended up transferring our horses and tack over to our buddy’s truck/trailer and headed out…later than we had hoped.

We had a nice day ride in Buckhorn Wash, but we didn’t get as far up the canyon as we had hoped. Still, a nice trip.

Turns out my truck’s thermostat was stuck. A $15 part that took all of 5 minutes to replace.

Then our Moab trip was cancelled, due to weather concerns and other things that got in the way. However, I was able to occupy my time helping a friend purchase and tune-up a couple  Missouri Fox Trotters he bought for his family. He, being a first-time horse owner, asked for my advice in helping him select the “right” horses for his family. He had found a pair in the local classified ads that he thought might be likely prospects, so I went with him to take a look.

After giving them a good “once-over”, I saddled each one and took a couple turns around the pasture. Since neither horse was registered, I had two purposes in mind: First, to make sure they would actually gait, and secondly, to see what their temperament was like and what level of training they might have. Both geldings gaited very well, showing a nice Fox Trot as well as a nice canter. Both, however, needed some mileage put on them, as neither had been handled at all for more than a year, before they would be ready for my friend and his kids. Both horses had very gentle and friendly temperaments, though, and the price was good, so I recommended he have both horses checked by a veterinarian and, barring any issues from the vet, buy both horses (they were siblings and had been pretty much raised together).

It seems I only got a photo of the older gelding, but they look pretty similar.

Based on my recommendation, Dave bought the horses and hired me to put some mileage and trail training on the youngest gelding, who was about 6 years old and still showed some “green” tendencies. During his training, I also spent time working with my friend and his sons, teaching them a little about horsemanship and working with good horses, so as to ensure both the riders and horses would enjoy each other and neither would develop any serious bad habits. After putting about 50 miles on the younger horse, I put another 50 on the older gelding, who was about 13 years old and a little steadier in his mentality, but a bit skittish from lack of handling over a long period of time. Due to spring weather along the Wasatch Front, it took me over three months to complete the training. I look forward to riding with Dave and his sons later on this summer.

During that same time frame, I helped another friend get his three wonderful mares bred to a couple Rocky Mountain stallions located north of Salt Lake City. I’m still working on that project. Two of the three mares didn’t settle from the first breeding, so we tried again and are waiting for pregnancy confirmations.

Due to all the above, my horses didn’t get all the attention I had hoped to give them, in preparation for my fifth or sixth attempt to cross the Grand Canyon. My followers will recall that last fall I was actually on the road, headed to the Grand Canyon to make my crossing, when my truck’s engine failed, thus ending my trip just as it was getting underway. So, after so many failed attempts to make this trip happen, I wasn’t too surprised when I had to cancel it again. Sadly, my partner, who was to shuttle my truck and trailer around the Grand Canyon as I rode through it, had a death in the family this past week. That sort of brings things back into focus and reminds me how much more important are our family relationships than horse trips.

I have begun to think that maybe the Good Lord just doesn’t think crossing the Grand Canyon is a good idea for me. Still, I got a very good reminder this past week, that He is mindful of me and watching out for my welfare.

Last Tuesday, I hauled the two geldings I had been training up to Heber City, Utah, and delivered them to my friend’s place. The trip includes 22 miles up and back through Provo Canyon, a winding route with a maximum speed limit of 55 miles per hour. Upon my return I was a bit rushed and hurried down the canyon to meet my daughter, who needed help moving from Provo, Utah to Morgan, Utah. I picked up my 18′ contractor’s trailer and loaded it up with all her and her husband’s belongings, and headed northward. The drive was about an hour and a half up I-15, US-89, and US-84, to Morgan, where we unloaded and I headed home in the fading light.

I had just gotten back onto US-84, headed back toward Ogden, when I noticed something bouncing down the highway alongside my truck. I couldn’t tell what it was, but I figured I must have run over a rock or something and sent it bouncing down the road. I gave it no further thought.

The following day was rainy, so I spent the day working on my computers at home. Thursday, however, showed some sunshine, so I grabbed my son-in-law and picked up a load of 8,000 pounds of hay. We hauled it to my hay storage barn and unloaded about half of it, before I had to call it quits for the day. I’m just not the man I used to be.

On Friday morning, I hitched up my 4-horse gooseneck trailer and loaded up my three horses for a trip to the vet for Coggins tests and spring shots. I hadn’t gone a mile before my truck again overheated!

The veterinarian’s office wasn’t far, so I limped it in to Benjamin, Utah to make my appointment. I was able to limp back to my pasture afterward without doing any damage to the truck’s new engine (remember the engine failure last fall? I spent $18,000 on a new engine). I got the horses unloaded and trailer unhitched and limped carefully home, where I could further diagnose the problem.

Once home, it looked like it might rain again, so I limped on over to my hay storage barn, where about fifty 80lb bales were waiting for me to finish unloading and stacking them. I got that done and went back to trying to figure out why my truck was overheating.

Now, I have been my own mechanic for more than 50 years and in all that time I have had only one thermostat failure…and that was just last month on my truck! So, having just recently replaced my thermostat, I started looking at the temperature sending unit as a possible target for replacement. So, I drove my truck back to Spanish Fork to the local NAPA auto parts store. After some conversation with the store manager, he came out with me to take a look and see if we could determine whether the new thermostat had failed or if it might be a problem with the sending unit. As he walked past the front of my truck, he pointed at my front left wheel and said, “I think I would be more concerned about that than a thermostat!”

I walked forward to see what he was talking about and saw this:

 

Five of the eight lug studs had broken off! My life sort of “passed before my eyes” and I suddenly remembered that “rock” that was bouncing down the road beside my truck on Tuesday evening near Morgan, Utah! Well, I very thankfully bought a new thermostat, as well as 8 new lug studs and 5 new lug nuts and again limped my way very carefully back home!

I was able to replace all the wheel studs without trouble and was back on the road this week. I replaced the thermostat, as well, have have had no further trouble with overheating.

My takeway from this incident is simply this: I think the Good Lord is not done with me yet; He has a few more things He wants to do with me before He takes me home.

With my 50 some years of mechanical experience, I have now had only two thermostat failures. The second may have saved my life, as my next trip was about 75 miles to Ogden, Utah to help a friend, which would have taken place early Saturday morning. Had that thermostat not failed, I would never have seen those broken wheel studs. I cannot explain how that wheel did not come off, as I was traveling home from Morgan at speeds in excess of 80 mph at times, pulling a trailer.

Last Friday, I drove back up to Heber City to finish up helping my friend get settled with his new horses. On the way back down Provo Canyon, I saw one of my lost lug nuts (they are extra large and not hard to see) in the median about half way down the canyon. Yesterday (Saturday), I drove up to Orem, Utah to take my grandson to his baseball game. I saw another of my lug nuts in the median on I-15 on the way (a car had run over it and it was bouncing down the highway, just like the one I saw near Morgan). It is pretty evident to me that I started losing them in Provo Canyon and lost the other 4 en route to and from Morgan. I must have driven more than 150 miles with my wheel about to fall off!

I have no explanation for how the lug nuts became loosened nor how that wheel stayed on once the studs began to break.

Like I said, I guess the Lord is not done with me yet.

 

 

Good Stories, Horse Health, Training

I have a new boy in the herd!

Finally!

My mare, Calypso, a Rocky Mountain Gaited Horse, was a week overdue from the latest possible date I calculated. The best I can calculate, she held the foal for 353 days! Normal gestation is 330-345 days. I was getting pretty concerned! My new boy was born early Saturday morning, April 4, 2020.

I had been going out and checking on her every few hours, because I wanted to be there for the birth. I wanted to be able to do some imprinting training with the foal during that critical two hours right after birth. On Friday night I was exhausted and slept like a rock.

I got a call about 7:30 Saturday morning from the landowner from whom I rent pasture, letting me know I had a new foal. Dangit! I missed it! I arrived about 8am. We think the foal was probably born a little before daybreak. He was already standing when I got there. The three geldings with her in the pasture where curious and wanting to get to know the new arrival, which was causing Calypso to get agitated and protective, so I pulled her out of the pasture and carried the foal to her.

Well, I missed that critical imprinting period, but I was able to spend a lot if time in close contact with him. I spent most of the day caressing, holding, and touching him all over.  Now, two days later, he’s a little wary of people and he prefers his mother, which is the way it should be, but he’s friendly and unafraid of people.

When Chief was born I had the help of a couple other people, who handled him before I was able to get there a couple hours later. The imprinting done with him has made a marked difference in the way he relates to people and to me in particular. I wanted that for this new boy as well, but missed the opportunity.  Still, I think the time I was able to spend with him has had some effect. He will not leave his mother to come to me, the way Chief would do, but he is not afraid.

Last month, my mother told me she had a name for my foal if it turned out to be a colt. She suggested “Trooper” and I liked it. So, the new boy’s name is Trooper. He is half Missouri Fox Trotter (Chief is his sire) and half Rocky Mountain Gaited Horse, so he should be a well-gaited horse.

The pregnancy was accidental, as she was placed in the same corral as Chief and several other horses when Chief was just getting old enough not to be “shooting blanks” at 18 months.  When I realized she was coming into season, I immediately separated them, but when I went out to feed the following morning, Chief had completely destroyed the gate between their corrals and they were standing together in her corral looking very satisfied and content.  Chief is now a gelding.  I look forward to watching Trooper grow and I’m hoping he’ll get to 15 hands. We’ll see.

I had thought Calypso had had foals before, but it didn’t take long to recognize that she was having a hard time figuring out what to do. It is apparent to me now that she was a maiden mare, and at age 15, many of her maternal instincts were vague to her. Initially, she would not allow Trooper to nurse, wanting to keep him directly in front of her. When Trooper would move back to try to nurse, she would move her hindquarters away from him to keep him right in front of her. It took some work to get her to stand still and allow him to nurse. I used treats as a training aid, giving her a treat as soon as the foal began trying to latch onto a teat. That worked well and within a few hours she was standing to let him nurse as long as I was holding her head, but she would not stand still for very long and would start to fidget and lift her leg to get Trooper off the teat. It was obvious Trooper wasn’t getting enough milk, although he was able to get the full load of that all-important colostrum.

Trooper was beginning to weaken and was having a hard time standing by the time we were finally able to get Calypso to stand long enough for him to nurse well. By late afternoon, however, she was beginning to relax. By Saturday evening she was allowing Trooper to nurse without me holding her and his strength and appetite had improved. He began nursing every 15-20 minutes.

Once I saw that Trooper was gaining strength and his appetite was strong, I felt comfortable reintroducing Calypso to the other horses. I pulled the dominant gelding out and put her and Trooper in with Chief and Chocolate. They were curious, but respected Calypso’s defensive posture and they caused no problem. I then brought Bandit back into the pasture. Chocolate immediately took up a protective stallion-like posture between Calypso and Bandit, like he was protecting Calypso and Trooper from an invading Stallion. However, they all returned to normal without any fighting or problems. I was confident that everything would be fine by the time I left them that evening.

When I checked on him early Sunday morning, Trooper was feeling good and starting to test out his long legs. I shot this short video of him:

Sunday afternoon I got a call from the landowner, telling me that somehow Trooper had gotten through the three-rail fence and couldn’t get back into the pasture and Calypso was going crazy! I got there in short order and carried Trooper back around and put him back in the pasture and all was well. I doubt Calypso will let him get near the fence line again!

So, I have a new boy in my herd. He’s almost an exact copy of his mother, all black with a white star on his forehead. He is showing some silver highlights in his coat, but I think that’s just his new foal fur and that once he sheds it off he’ll be black. I hope I’m wrong and he keeps that silver-black smoke-like color. We’ll see.

Every foal is a new adventure. I’m looking forward to this one.

TH

 

Horse Health, Training, Western Horsemanship

Let’s Talk About Horse Age

Recently, I was perusing comments on the Youtube video of a particular horse trainer, whose methods I like and learn from.  In this video, he happened to mention that the horse he was riding was a 2 year-old stallion. That brought on a whole thread of comments about how he shouldn’t be riding a 2 year-old. Some of the comments were nice,  some not-so-nice, but the general consensus was that he was riding that young stallion way too early.

So, let’s talk about horse age a little.

Everybody knows that there are seven dog years to one human year, right? Well, not really. You see, some breeds of dogs live longer than others. Some breeds have an average life span of a mere 6 or so years, while other breeds have an average life span of more than 15 years. The longest lived dog I ever heard of was an Australian Cattle Dog that lived to the grand old age of 30 years, which would translate to 210 human years! The point being that such comparisons of animal years to human years, while somewhat based on physiology, are really nothing more than what we might consider “rules of thumb.”

In recent years, particularly over the past 20 or so,  the trend toward starting horses under saddle later than age two has become somewhat of a fad. Now, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but I call it a fad, because, like all fads do, it has in some circles gone to an extreme. For instance, in the comments referenced above, one commenter said she doesn’t start her horses until they are seven years old. I consider that to be extreme. I can’t imagine the economics of feeding and vet care for a horse for seven years before starting it.

On the other hand, the professional and amateur horse competition world has traditionally started horses into racing, rodeo, and other competitive disciplines at the two year-old mark, which I also consider to be extreme. However, there’s a caveat here. Read on.

In the horse world and the human world, there are physiological and psychological changes that occur at various stages of development. In the early years, the brain is like a dry sponge and absorbs and assimilates vast quantities of information from simple survival skills, such as breast feeding, to more advanced skills such as social skills and athletics.  The physical development keeps pace with the psychological development. All of these skills relate to survivability in their respective worlds. The rate of development of these knowledge, skills, and abilities is related to the relative life span of the species. Both humans and horses learn certain things easier in their early years. While both are able to learn and develop knowledge and skills throughout their lives, their ability to do so is generally reduced significantly as they get “over the hill.”

Humans are among the slowest developing of all animal species, having an average life span currently averaging 77 years for a man and 81 for a woman (North America), whereas a horse living past 30 years is uncommon. However, with regard to the physical and psychological development of humans and horses, there is room for age comparisons, but they are not precisely equivalent.

One factor that applies to the horse world that does not apply to humans, is that, by tradition and under regulations of most competitive horse disciplines and registries, horses are aged by birth year, rather than birth date. For this reason, over the years, horse breeders have bred their stock to foal in the early months of the year. By doing so, a young horse may be comparatively older, both physically and psychologically, than another horse of the same age that was born late in the year, and will therefore have the competitive advantage.  Such that a two year-old horse born in February, will actually be nearly three years old in December, while a two year-old born in November of the same year will not yet be two years old, by birth date, in December, and on January 1, they will both be regarded as three year olds.

Now, if we transpose those numbers to human years, we can see what a huge difference that can make. I do not subscribe to the average “horse years” often stated to compare to human years for the same reasons I mentioned above regarding dogs, however, I have observed over the years various age ranges for horses that have some correspondence to human years. For instance, a two year-old colt by birth month, meaning actually 24 months old, in my experience, is roughly equivalent to a 12-14 year-old human boy.  At this age, important hormones are starting to flow and there is a major development advancement during this period, both physically and psychologically (although the physical development seems to be foremost). A colt that is three years old, meaning at least 36 calendar months, would be roughly equivalent to a 16-18 year-old young man in both physical and psychological development.

Now, the reasoning behind starting a horse later, rather than earlier, has to do with the physical development of the horse. Various growth plates and joints are still maturing at age two that may not complete their growth and development until as old as age five. Many people believe irreparable damage may occur to the young horse if started at age two. While this growth and development also occurs in humans, although at a much slower rate, nobody seems to think it unconscionable to start a child in sports at a very early age.

Now, if we make further comparisons, which I believe are truly comparable and relevant, we can see what a difference a year makes in a young horse. Let’s say a young man has aspirations of becoming a professional baseball player (any sport will do). If his parents start him in sports at an early age to teach and train him to the sport, he will have a physical and mental advantage over other boys who start later (Whether that advantage remains in later years is another discussion). However, the average boy who has been properly coached from an early age, say four or five years old, will be a star player by the time he is in his later years of high school, whereas the boy who starts playing sports at age 17 will likely find he does not have the knowledge, skills, or muscle conditioning to be competitive among his peers. He may also find he is prone to injury, due to the lack of coordination and strength the other boys enjoy.  Young men who begin to augment their physical development in their early years, say from age 12 to 18, by activities such as sports, weightlifting, running, and other strenuous physical activities will be physically stronger and healthier, and often better socially adjusted, than their counterparts who are not involved in sports or other physical activities, over the long run. That is about the same developmental stage as a horse between the ages of two and three years (24-36 months).

Now, let’s say we subscribe to the idea that a horse should not be started until the age of five years, which is a number I commonly hear. That is roughly equivalent to the age of a human in his/her late teens-to-early twenties. In my mind, that’s a little late to be starting their training under saddle, as it would also be late to start a person on their way to becoming a professional athlete.

To extend things further, a horse about 10 years old is roughly equivalent to a human in his/her early thirties or so. A horse about 15 would be in the 40-45 year-old human range.  A horse 20 years old would be roughly equivalent to a human about 60-65 years old. A horse about 25 years old is roughly in the range of 75 years old for a human.

Some ranchers will bring in their young stock to break and start training in their second year, give them 30-60 days training, decide which horses they will keep, sell the ones they won’t, then turn the rest back out on the range until their fifth year (at which time they will be 4 to five years old). They will then bring them back in, finishing their training, and put them to work. That seems like a reasonable regimen for a working horse.  For a horse intended for trail riding and pack trips, such as I do, I see no reason not to start a horse’s saddle training at age two (although I look at their actual age by birth month). I do not, however, start putting long, hard miles on them until they are past three years old (36 months). Even during training they will not always be ridden daily. I have experienced no problems with that process.

Now to address the opposite end of the spectrum.

We all know some 75 year-old humans who still get along pretty well. Some still hike, bike,  and participate in a variety of other sporting activities. A few even run marathons. However, the fact remains that a man’s average life span is currently 77 years and a woman’s is 81. A horse that is 25 years old should be handled with care, with the understanding that you simply cannot work it into better condition. It’s condition is deteriorating and no amount of feed or exercise will improve that. It will tire quickly and can be over-taxed easily. As a general rule, if it has been kept in good condition during its lifetime, it will be so much the better in old age, just like a human.

It has become a common practice to feed older horses a variety of food supplements for various ailments, such as arthritis. In my opinion, horse vitamins and food supplements are no more effective on horses than they are on humans. Many food supplements for humans are purely placebic in nature. Those that actually have some science behind them are formulated for specific issues and are more effective for some people and issues than others. The same applies to horses. There is more marketing science behind many of them than physical science. Most food supplements, both for humans and for horses are much more effective in creating profits for the producer than health benefits for the patient.

Don’t think I am against proper nutrition, or against supplementing an older horse’s diet. Proper feeding is always important at any age. It is true that feed quality, particularly hay, varies from year to year and from region to region and that supplements may be required to maintain a well balanced nutritional diet. Feed can be tested and proper supplemental nutrition determined.  I am, however, stating my opinion clearly that many of the food supplements marketed for horses are effective only in making the horse owner feel better. Some may even be harmful. Do your homework.

So, to get back to the main point of this post, and to come to a conclusion, for a person to state emphatically that another who has started a horse under saddle at age two, without any other information than that, is likely to be wrong. One two year-old horse may actually be much closer to three than two. Another two year-old horse may not yet have reached 24 months of age. One horse may be further developed physically than another at the same age. A horse intended for a life of casual trail riding will not have the same risks of injury or harm at an early age as one intended for heavy ranch or show work, but may benefit greatly from the physical development and training during that period. There are a wide range of considerations in determining at what age a horse may be beneficially and safely started.  Actual age is only one of them. One person’s decision to start a horse later should be considered a personal decision, rather than a moral imperative applying to all.

That’s the gospel according to Tony.

I found the below-linked article informative with regard to bone and joint development in horses:

Equine Growth Plate Fusion Chart

Horse Health, Tack and Gear, Western Horsemanship

Let’s talk about bits…

I recently saw a photograph on facebook that showed a horse with a damaged tongue. The associated post indicated the photo was taken by a vet, who said the tongue damage was from abuse from a snaffle bit. The vet said he/she sees this kind of tongue damage regularly.

Tongue damaged by a snaffle? I doubt it.

Quite frankly, I believe neither that the horse’s tongue was damaged by a bit nor that the person who wrote the post was a vet (I hate to be the one to tell you, but not everything you see on facebook is true). The ensuing discussion on the post inspired me to put down a few words about western bridle bits. I will restrict my comments to the world of western riding, as I have very little knowledge (regrettably) about English riding.

There are, in general, two major categories of bridle bits for western riding: The jointed or hinged mouthpiece bit and the solid mouthpiece bit (the mouthpiece being the part that goes inside the horse’s mouth). There are numerous variations within these two categories and several minor offshoots as well.

Then there are bits with shanks and bits without. The shanks, when coupled with a chinstrap (also called a curb strap or curb chain), provide leverage on the mouthpiece, which is how the shanked bit operates. These are often called “leverage” bits and are correctly referred to as curb bits.

Some curb bits are made with swivel joints where the shank attaches to the mouthpiece. Frankly, I’m not sure there is any real value to this, but it is the current fashion over fixed shanks welded to the mouthpiece.

A bit without shanks is called a snaffle bit. Most snaffle bits are jointed or hinged in the middle of the mouthpiece. A hinged bit with shanks about two inches long is called a Tom Thumb bit.  These are often referred to as snaffles, but that is a misnomer, as it has shanks and operates by leverage. It is a curb bit. Snaffles do not operate by leverage.

Tom Thumb bit is a jointed curb bit

Because a snaffle does not operate by leverage and because most are hinged in the middle, they are generally regarded, although incorrectly, as gentle bits.

O-ring egg-butt snaffle bit

Snaffle bits are often used by horse trainers on fresh horses in the  breaking process. Many trainers, myself included, will use a snaffle bit only long enough for the horse to learn the primary basic commands (such as stop, go, left, right, back) and will then transition the horse to a braided rawhide bosal.

Braided rawhide bosal with horsehair mecate

Most of the horse’s training will be done in the bosal, which operates by pressure and bumping on the horse’s nose and under the bars of the lower jaw, until the horse understands well its commands and becomes compliant and obedient. In this way a horse can be trained without the risk of injuring or desensitizing the tender mouth. The horse will then be transitioned to a solid mouthpiece curb bit, that is properly designed and suitable for the use of the horse, after it is well trained. The stiff braided rawhide bosal is not a gentle training tool and a horse can develop calcium deposits on its nose and on the bottom of the jaw if the bosal is overused or improperly used. There are softer bosals that are of little use for reining training, but are often used as “bitless” bridles.

That said, I have discontinued using a bosal on my Missouri Fox Trotters once I start training them in their gaits. The bosal causes sores on their nose, due to the MFT’s head motion in its Fox Trot. I tend to transition them to the solid mouthpiece curb bit earlier than I used to do with Quarter Horses. My Fox Trotters are so easy to train and so willing, that I have experienced no ill effects from doing so.

Now that we’ve discussed some basics about bits, let’s take a closer look at how they operate.

First, we’ll talk about the snaffle.

There are a wide variety of snaffle bit designs, each with it’s purpose. Snaffles attach to the reins and bridle by a ring on each end of the mouthpiece. This ring may be round ( O-ring) or a D-ring.  The snaffle is not intended to be used with a chinstrap, but I have seen it done. Since the snaffle has no shanks, use of a chinstrap adds no leverage and the only function of the chinstrap is to keep the bit from pulling the ring into the horse’s the mouth if the horse is not responsive to a side pull or if the bit is improperly used. Some people use large rubber washers on the sides of the snaffle bit for this same purpose, as well as to keep the bit from pinching the sides of the horse’s mouth.

D-ring snaffle with copper rollers

There are egg-butt snaffles, that are round and larger diameter where they contact the bars of the jaws and narrower at the hinge in the center.  There are narrow egg-butt snaffles, as well as twisted wire snaffles that are quite aggressive and generally used for correction training and refresher training on non-compliant horses. There are “French-Link” snaffles that have two or more joints or hinges in them. Ironically, the gentlest of the snaffle bits are chain snaffles that are simply pieces of flat-link chain joined by the rings at the ends. There are snaffles that have solid mouthpieces as well.

Again, a snaffle has no shanks. If it has shanks it is not a snaffle.

Twisted wire ring snaffle – very aggressive – for correction training

I want to reiterate here that among most horse people, a snaffle bit is generally considered to be a gentle bit. One of the primary purposes of this article is to educate the reader about the true nature of how a snaffle functions and why it is a good and appropriate training bit for fresh horses in the breaking process, but, in fact is not a gentle bit and should not be used on a horse that is not completely compliant, except in its initial training.

A snaffle bit operates by three mechanical pressures that cause pain in the horse’s mouth. First, as the reins are pulled or as the horse resists the bit, the bit hinges in the middle, causing pressure on the bars of the lower jaws, just ahead of the molars. At the same time, the point of the hinge pokes into the roof of the horse’s mouth, again causing pain. Thirdly, the hinged snaffle has what is often called a “nut-cracker” effect on the horse’s tongue, causing pressure and discomfort.

Nut-cracker effect: pinches tongue, pressure on lower jaw bars, pokes into roof of the mouth

While the purpose of this post is to educate my readers to the fact that the hinged snaffle bit is not a gentle bit, I have never seen a horse’s tongue damaged by a snaffle, as indicated in the mentioned facebook article and I believe that photo is taken out of context and that the post is a fraud. I have, however, seen a horse’s tongue damaged in the way that photo depicts from being badly cut (not by a snaffle or any other bit) and surgically repaired, which is what I suspect happened to the horse in the photo.  It is virtually impossible for a snaffle bit to cause the damage indicated in the photo.

Having said that, I reiterate that a snaffle is not a gentle bit. Due to the pain and discomfort caused by a hinged snaffle bit, horses that continue in a snaffle past their initial training, particularly in the hands of an inexperienced rider, often learn to raise and shake the head and open wide the mouth to escape pressure from the bit. Raising the head positions the snaffle bit so that it pulls only against the soft edges of the lips at the sides of the mouth. Opening the mouth and raising the head relieves the pressure on the jaws and the roof of the mouth and most of the pressure on the tongue, thereby rendering the snaffle bit almost entirely ineffective. The rider then responds to this misbehavior by pulling harder on the reins in order to retain control, which exacerbates the situation.

I am convinced that this misbehavior, or “fighting the bit,” is much of the driving impetus behind the “bitless” movement. Many people who change to bitless bridles and promote them as being safer and gentler than any bit, are those who, prior to switching to bitless, used snaffle bits on their horses for general use, believing the snaffle to be the gentlest of bits.  The misbehavior of the horse, then, leads them to believe that the horse will misbehave with any bit. The refrain I often hear in promotion of bitless bridles, “How would you like a piece of steel in your mouth?” is utterly without merit and ridiculous.  Most horses, once relieved of the discomfort of a snaffle bit, will change their behavior markedly after a short while, regardless of whether the transition is to a bitless bridle or to a properly designed and adjusted solid curb bit.

There is a very good reason why snaffle bits are commonly used in the initial breaking and training phase of a horse’s training. They are aggressive and painful bits. The hinged snaffle bit, in trained hands, quickly teaches an untrained horse the basic control commands, so that a horse may be broken to the saddle and trained safely.  It is pain compliance – No doubt about it. Once those basic commands are taught and learned, the horse should be transitioned to something else.

If a horse is compliant and the rider has gentle hands, a hinged snaffle may not cause a horse any more discomfort than any other kind of bit or bridle. However, most riders are not always gentle with their hands and most horses are not always compliant.

Now to talk about solid mouthpiece curb bits a little bit (no pun intended).

Solid mouthpiece curb bits have shanks that are intended to operate in conjunction with a chinstrap or curb strap, which gives the bit leverage, causing pressure on the bars of the lower jaw.  This also rotates the mouthpiece, causing pressure, via the design of the mouthpiece, either on the tongue or on the roof of the mouth (or both), although not with the pointed poking or pinching of the hinged snaffle. The shanks provide advance warning to the horse that pressure is about to be applied, allowing the horse to respond to a light cue, before firm pressure is applied.

The headstall attaches to the upper ring of the shank.  Some bits have a middle loop on the shanks, located at the same point in the shanks where mouthpiece attaches.  This loop is there for the purpose of attaching a second set of reins to the loop (which I have never seen done in western riding) or to use the bit as a snaffle (no chinstrap and no leverage), should the rider choose to do that. However, to use the bit as a curb bit, the chinstrap attaches to the same loop, at the top of the shanks, as the headstall (see the photos below). I have seen chinstraps improperly attached to the snaffle loop, which causes the bit to function improperly. The reins attach to the lower ring at the bottom of the shanks.

The tighter a chinstrap is adjusted, the quicker the horse feels input from the reins. The adjustment of the chinstrap also adjusts the position of the mouthpiece in the horse’s mouth as the chinstrap engages. I tend to keep my chinstraps fairly loose, as most of my riding is trail riding and I do not want my horse to feel input from movement of the reins except when I intend to give input.  The length of the shanks also affects how quickly the horse senses input from the reins, as well as the amount of force that can be applied to the mouthpiece. If you have a show horse and need the horse to feel input from even the most subtle cues from the reins, you might try a snugger chinstrap and/or longer shanks (many show classes limit the length of the shanks).  A properly adjusted headstall and chinstrap make a lot of difference in how the horse responds to a particular bit.

Most solid mouthpiece curb bits also have a port (the bend in the middle of many bit mouthpieces), which applies pressure on the roof of the mouth or on the tongue, depending on the design of the bit. Some solid mouthpiece curb bits look like Spanish Inquisition torture devices, but are, in fact, quite gentle in the hands of a trained rider on a trained reining horse.

Spoon bit for a reiner

These are often called “spoon bits” and have larger, elaborate ports, which allow the well-trained horse to sense very subtle cues via the port. Cues from the rider that may be imperceptible to a judge on the ground may be felt easily by the horse. These bits are not intended for horses not trained to them. Due to the look of them, many people unfamiliar with their use believe they are  cruel “correction” bits. They are not.

Medium port grazing bit

The port and shanks of a solid mouthpiece curb bit are designed with the use of the horse in mind. For example, the snaffle bit is generally intended for training or correction.  The bit commonly called a “grazing bit” was designed with a solid mouthpiece, a low or medium port, and fairly short shanks that are bent back toward the rider. These were designed with the rancher in mind, so that his horse might comfortably graze with the bit in its mouth, without the shanks getting in the way or causing discomfort.

Bits designed for gaited horses tend to have longer shanks and broad ports that are designed to go over the tongue with little or no pressure when the horse holds its head properly in its gait. The shanks are generally longer than those of a grazing bit and angled differently, providing more subtle cues to the horse’s mouth while in gait. A Western Pleasure bit (often a simple grazing bit) is designed to relieve pressure from the port on the tongue and roof of the mouth when the horse holds its head low and vertical, placing the port in a neutral position with a loose rein. A spoon bit on a reiner puts little or no pressure on the horse’s mouth while the horse is doing its work, but allows the subtlest of cues to be transmitted to and felt by the horse. Those are such technical bits that even the weight of the reins is important.

Robart Pinchless Gaited bit

I have found I like a bit made by Robart and marketed by Amazon for my Fox Trotter and my Tennessee Walker. It has a wide, rounded mouthpiece that has a steel swivel (not a hinge) in the middle, allowing single-rein control as well as normal neck-reining. It also has copper wire inlaid into the mouthpiece, which helps keep the horse’s mouth moist. Note also, the center loop, for use with a second set of reins or to set the bit up for use as a snaffle.

Imus bit, similar in design to the Robart bit

 A similar bit, marketed by several sellers, such as Imus, uses a copper swivel, however some people have told me the copper swivel wears out over time and breaks.

I have found this design, properly adjusted, to be quite comfortable to my gaited horses. Again, bits for gaited horses generally have longer shanks and differently configured mouthpieces than those made for Quarter Horses. Gaited horses generally hold their heads higher and at a slightly different angle than Quarter Horses while in gait, thereby making a regular ported curb bit somewhat uncomfortable to them. A Quarter Horse is trained to carry its head low and vertical, which places the ported mouthpiece in a neutral position, bearing no pressure on the roof of the mouth or tongue. The medium or high ported bit reinforces this head-hold training, while a bit for a gaited horse might prove uncomfortable or ineffective for the Quarter Horse.

It is true, that any of the above bits may be used cruelly by the rider and that non-compliance of the horse may cause discomfort or even pain to the horse. However, that is less likely to be the case with a properly adjusted solid curb bit than with a snaffle bit. Additionally, the length of the shanks on a curb bit provide a little advance warning to the horse that pressure is about to be applied, whereas the snaffle provides only direct pressure on the bit. This is why horses may learn to respond more precisely to a curb bit than to a snaffle.

In case you are wondering, I am not a proponent of bitless bridles. I have nothing against them and I have seen some horses function better in a bitless side-pull bridle than with a bit. However, I believe that to be the result of faulty training or handling earlier in the horse’s life or possibly a health or injury issue respecting the mouth.  My horses handle well with a solid curb bit and I have experienced nothing that makes me think a bitless bridle would better suit my needs or theirs. I make no recommendation one way or the other. I prefer a bit.

So, the moral of this story is this: If you regularly ride your horse in a hinged snaffle bit and find your horse developing the habit of opening its mouth, raising and shaking its head, or general disobedience relative to the bit, try moving to a properly designed and adjusted solid curb bit and see if that behavior doesn’t change.

You’ll be surprised at the results.

Did I mention that a hinged snaffle is not a gentle bit?

TH

P.S.

Since I first posted this article, I have learned that the damage to the horse’s tongue, depicted in the featured image above, was probably caused by a rubber band tongue tie, which is used in some disciplines, such as racing, to keep the horse from getting it’s tongue over the bit. Occasionally, such a tongue tie is improperly installed for one reason or another, and forgotten, causing damage as seen in the photo. I will restate here that such tongue damage is impossible with a snaffle bit.

Horse Health, Tack and Gear, Western Horsemanship

A little of my own experience at horse training…

I have a horse up for sale. He’s a very handsome, good, solid four year-old palomino paint gelding I bought earlier this year for a  pack trip. We were short one horse for a trip from Eagar, Arizona to Flagstaff, Arizona, about 200 miles total. Let me tell you a little about him.

When I came across Reno, I was actually looking for a mustang in the $5-800 range, that maybe needed a little  training. They are pretty much a dime-a-dozen around here, because so many folks get caught up in the romance of adopting a mustang and training it themselves, only to find out they are in way over their heads. Then, a couple years down the road they end up selling an unbroke or greenbroke mustang for almost give-away prices. Well, it’s simply a fact, and that’s what I was looking for.

Reno, as advertised

Anyway, back to Reno, I came across an ad for him and really liked the photos they included of him. He was advertised as being about 14 hands and a 3 year-old. The asking price was above what I was looking for, but was still within my range, so I decided to pass by and take a look. He was located in Heber, UT.

I found that he had been raised from a foal by the family who owned him, and that he was very personable, almost a puppy dog personality, but, also like a puppy, he was somewhat disrespectful. Now, a disrespectful puppy is one thing, but a disrespectful horse can hurt you. He wouldn’t let me lift his hooves, cow-kicked when I messed with his belly, and would turn his rump into me when he was annoyed, rather than moving away as a horse should. These things I can work out of a horse with a little training. What I look for is good conformation, good straight legs, good hooves, and a good attitude. With the exception of a quarter-crack in his right rear, he had all these things. He was also a little taller than advertised, coming in at about 14.2 or so, and stout, which I liked.

After a good inspection and a couple weeks of thinking about it I decided the quarter crack was due to lack of hoof care and not to any kind of coronet injury and that it would heal up just fine with some good care. I dickered with the owners and we agreed on a price that was good for both of us.

I have to be careful when buying a horse, because I rarely sell them. I get pretty attached to my animals and once they are mine I tend to keep them, regardless of any shortcomings they may have. I wouldn’t be a very good horse trader. So, two rules I have set for myself when horse shopping are 1) I don’t take my trailer or any money when I look at a horse for the first time (unless I have to drive a couple hours just to see it), 2) I don’t hand over the money until I have the horse in the trailer. Rule #2 is very important, because I generally  buy horses that “need an experienced rider,” which usually means they have little to no training and might not have ever been in a trailer. Once I get a horse into the trailer, I’m good to pay the money.

I forgot that rule with Reno. I bought him, paid the money, then headed out to the trailer. That was a mistake I won’t make again. What a rodeo! It took us more than two hours to get him loaded. He fought, reared, fell over, and pawed. We finally got him into the trailer and headed home. Getting him out of the trailer was just about as fun. He eventually tried to turn around in my 4-horse slant-load and got stuck in the loading door. He reared over backwards and fell out of the trailer onto his back. No harm done, just shook up.

So, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

The first thing I had to take care of was the disrespect. This horse was about as friendly as any horse I have ever owned. In fact, I think he likes people better than horses. Having him in a pasture with four other horses was good for him, because they began right away to teach him the horse etiquette he had never learned, being raised by people with no other horses around.

The cow-kicking and moving away from me were first on my agenda.

Now, from my experience with horses, I have learned that training a horse is not a whole lot different than raising kids. In fact, I often wish I had garnered more horse training experience before my kids came along, but I just didn’t have time for both back then. I find that horses require a gentle, but firm hand and consistency in order for them to progress well from step to step in the training. The one exception to that rule is when something they do can get someone hurt. There are times when swift and severe punishment will cure a bad habit faster and more surely than any other method. The horse learns very quickly that “when I do that, I get hurt.” So, with that in mind I decided to cure the cow-kicking the very first day.

I have a very stout lead rope, made from the shrouds of a heavy military cargo parachute. It is about 3/4″ thick and has a very heavy brass snap hook on the end. With Reno dressed in a stout flat-braid nylon halter and a strong lead rope tied to a solid post, I moved in beside him on the “on-side” with my heavy shroud lead in my hand, dangling the heavy snap hook on about three feet of lead. With my left hand I began to touch and rub Reno’s belly. As soon as his left rear hoof came off the ground in a cow-kick I swung that heavy lead and whopped him hard on the rump with that heavy snap hook. He was quite surprised by that, so he jumped and moved away from me. We did it again. As soon as the hoof came off the ground, I whopped him. The fourth time I rubbed his belly, his hoof stayed on the ground. He has never again attempted a cow-kick as I touch his belly, rub him, brush, or saddle him.

Next up was teaching him to move away from me, rather than showing me his rump. We started that lesson when we worked on the cow-kick, but there was more to do. I found that he would not let me lift his left rear hoof. As I would try to reach for it, he would move into me and warn me off with his rump, threatening a kick (which he never did). We started working on this by me taking something pointed (not sharp) in my hand, such as the handle of a rasp, the handle ends of a pair of nippers, or a hoof pick, and whenever he moved into me I would let him move into that pointed object, so that he would feel it. The harder he pushed, the harder he felt it. He didn’t like that and learned to move away from me. I would not poke him with it, or push him away with it, but let him move into it. That way, as soon as he stepped away, the pressure was gone. Had I followed him with it, he would not have learned how to avoid the pointed object poking his hip by moving away. Now this, being a more gentle (but firm) method of training, it was several sessions before he learned not to move into me. Now, several months later, he moves away with a simple nudge from me with no stubbornness at all.

The third thing we started working on was lifting his hooves. While he was still somewhat disrespectful, he allowed me to lift his fronts and his right rear, but would not allow me to lift his left rear. I don’t know why. There is no apparent injury or scar I can see, but for some reason he’s touchy about the left rear. When I would try to lift it he would  cow-kick and move away from me. He wasn’t really trying to kick me, he just didn’t want me lifting his hoof. To address this, I took my heavy lead rope and looped it around his left rear pastern, under the fetlock. I would lift his hoof with the rope and simply hold it off the ground while he kicked. I would hold both ends of the rope in my right hand, while leaning against the horse with my left, so I could keep my balance as he kicked away. You have to stand back a bit, just to make sure he doesn’t connect with one of those cow-kicks. After a minute or two, he would get tired and stop kicking. As soon as he stopped kicking and let his leg relax, I lowered it to the ground. If he kicked as I was lowering it, it got raised up again until I could lower it all the way to the ground without a struggle. In this way, after a number of sessions, Reno learned that when he was relaxed I quit bothering his leg. He also learned that the kicking did no good and was just wasted energy. Now I can lift all his feet without trouble. In fact, he lifts them for me as I reach for them. He is learning the respect lessons.

I started riding Reno shortly after I brought him home. The owners told me they had given him to a local rancher for the summer, to have him broke and trained. They said they had often seen the rancher’s kids riding him around. At the time I didn’t think too much about that, except to consider him somewhat saddle broke. I found out pretty quickly that Reno was simply greenbroke, meaning I could saddle and ride him, but he didn’t know much else. I took him for a couple rides in the local area and was pleased with him. He learned pretty quickly that I was easy to get along with and we had no real problems on the trail. In fact, my dad and I took Reno along with the rest of the horses on a three-day ride south of Moab, Utah in April, on which I was quite impressed with Reno’s calm demeanor and good head on the trail. We went up and down, and round and round, trail, no trail, bushes, gullies, over fallen trees, and even through a tunnel under a highway. Reno took little convincing and was willing to give anything I asked of him a try. I was very pleased.

Reno in his first packing training experience

I later took Reno on a  day ride as a pack horse. I Loaded a 50# sack of feed in each side of a set of hard-sided, bear-proof paniers, and took him on a trail ride. As far as I know this was his first experience with a pack saddle. At first he was scared by the noise the paniers make, being hard plastic, and we had a little bit of a rodeo for a few minutes. After that, he settled down and did well. It didn’t take him long to learn to keep the paniers away from things like rocks and trees. Once we rounded a narrow trail with a rock face on his left and Reno allowed the left panier to hit the wall. The force knocked him sideways off the trail and down a steep embankment into the shallow river below. Once he got his feet back under him, he simply climbed back up the embankment, let me grab his lead rope, and we went on. By the time we were done for the day, Reno had learned to keep those paniers away from obstacles near the trail. From that day to this he has never rubbed my leg or knee on anything alongside the trail.

In May, Dad and I embarked on our pack trip. We had four horses and a mule. The horses were rotated as pack and saddle animals, to keep them fresh and rested. Reno was everything I hoped on the trip. Never did I have any problem with him.

Well, I did have one problem. When I was leading him as a pack horse, whenever I stopped to rest the horses he would walk up next to my right leg and drop his head to graze. When he would lift his head the lead rope would come up under my stirrup and get wrapped around my leg. When I complained about it out loud, Dad laughed and said it was my own fault. He pointed out that whenever Reno came up next to me, I would reach over and rub his neck and scratch his ears and he liked it! Ah, well, I guess that’s a bad habit I taught him.

You can see a video of me on Reno, crossing Clear Creek on the Arizona Trail, about 70 miles south of Flagstaff, Arizona here:

After we finished the pack trip I decided to continue Reno’s training. There are a few things I like my trail horses to know, such as moving off leg pressure and heel cues to move their fore and hind quarters; there are times on the trail when you need to position a horse in order to cross an obstacle or ascend or descend a particularly difficult place.

I took Reno into a small training arena to start working on his cues, only to find that he became extremely excited in the arena. As calm as he is on the trail, I was quite surprised. He was, in fact, so excitable in the arena that we did very little training at all. I just tried to work on him simply walking around the arena calmly. I found I was having to handle him more aggressively with the snaffle bit than I like, occasionally causing him to get a sore mouth, so I have moved  him to a 3/4″ braided rawhide bosal for this training. He responds much better in the hackamore.

I generally start all my horses on a snaffle bit, then move them to a bosal hackamore for the bulk of their training. When they are easy on the controls I move them to a solid curb bit. Reno had been doing so well in the snaffle, that I had just left  him in that and hadn’t done much hackamore work on him. He’s progressing well now.

The only thing I can guess with Reno is that the former trainer (the rancher) probably had his kids riding him most of the time. I expect that was often out pushing cattle, which would explain is calm demeanor on the trail, however, my guess is that the kids also attempted to try roping off him in an arena. I expect he got spurred a bit in the doing. That is the only explanation that comes to mind and fits the evidence. Regardless, I have been spending my time lately, trying to continue his training and get him over his excitement – fear – inside enclosed areas.

I normally train with spurs on , as I find horses tend to learn quicker with their judicial use and I can give more precise cues with the touch of a spur than with a heel. However, with Reno, I have removed my spurs. He over-reacts to them, I suppose, as a result of being exposed to some undisciplined spur use from his previous “trainers.” With much patience and a gentle hand, I have been slowly getting Reno to recognize what I am asking with my heel cues. He is very willing, but still reacts more out of fear than desire to learn, which makes learning difficult. Fear simply isn’t a good training tool. My job, therefore, is to teach him that my cues don’t hurt and that learning to respond to them calmly brings peace and rest (my, that sounds almost religious!).

Reno gets better each day. I have been trying to ride him more often this winter, when time allows. When I can consistently ride him an hour or two every day or so he improves rapidly.

The problem with that is that every time I ride him I like him more and more and want to sell him less and less!

He’s a good horse.

Reno, south of Moab, Utah April 2016
Horse Health, Western Horsemanship, Western Trails

Spanish Fork Peak Trail, Spanish Fork, Utah

Had a nice ride today with my baby sister, Crystal Barton. We started up a trail to climb Spanish Fork Peak, me on Reno and Crystal on my mustang, Jimbo. Reno, just didn’t have it in him today. He started huffing and puffing about 1/3 of the way up, and just wasn’t recovering fast enough for me, so we headed back down.

By the time we reached the truck he was doing much better, so we drove over to Diamond Fork, a little farther up Spanish Fork Canyon, and did a little riding in a little easier terrain.

Me on Reno, SF Peak in the background
Me on Reno, SF Peak in the background

Reno will need a little more work before he can make SF Peak, which surprises me, coming off our 200-mile pack trip last month. He’s young (just turned 4), so he just needs a little maturation and patient work. The trail heading up to the peak climbs several thousand feet in a matter of a few miles. It is an excellent trail for “legging up” a horse before the fall hunts, but one can easily over-do things and end up on foot. Today, turning around was the right thing to do. No sense in over-working or hurting a horse for a pleasure ride.

For those interested, the trailhead we used is up Spanish Fork Canyon (US Rte 6). Coming from Spanish Fork it is about a mile past the giant windmills. There is plenty of parking for trucks/trailers in the north side of the highway. The iron swing-gate is just west of the parking area, about 100 yards. The trail starts as a two-track, passes a fenced-in utilities installation, then heads straight up a canyon to the north. Just stay on that trail heading north and ignore anything that turns off either way. The trail heads straight up the canyon for a couple miles, then winds around the peaks and saddles and eventually arrives at the very peak. One can return on the same trail, or go over the mountain and come down Mapleton Canyon (which requires juggling vehicles and trailers for the return to the other trailhead).

Ranger and me on top of Spanish Fork Peak, 2016
Ranger and me on top of Spanish Fork Peak, 2016

The ride from Rte 6 to Mapleton Canyon parking area took us about six hours, as I recall. I forgot to take my GPS, so I can’t say exactly how far it is or what the elevation change was, but my guess is 7 or 8 miles total, end to end. Elevation change, according to maps, is about 4800′, so you are climbing at a rate of more than 1,000′ per mile. That’s a tough climb for a horse, especially when you are starting above 4700′ to begin with.

The trail is steep, but otherwise not what I consider challenging. There are a couple steep sidehills that might be a bit scary for the novice trail rider, and the occasional detour for a fallen tree, but other than that the worst of the trail is that it is quite rocky. Last year my horse made it over the trail barefoot and never got tender. I would rate it intermediate and above, for both horse and rider. Take a breast strap, and a crupper or breeching is recommended for narrow-shouldered horses.

There is a small lake or pond (depending on the time of year) just past the peak, on the way down toward Mapleton Canyon, but the water is often stagnant and filthy. Horses will drink it, but they don’t like it much. I saw no other water available when I went over the trail last year. The horses will be thirsty when you get down the mountain.

Crystal on Jimbo, climbing toward SF Peak
Crystal on Jimbo, climbing toward SF Peak

I recommend riding this trail the first time with someone who has been on the trail before, as the trail can be hard to find in a couple places if one doesn’t know where to look. The trail gets some foot traffic, especially during hunting season, but it is closed to all but foot or equine traffic. It sees little enough traffic that the trail is rather lightly visible in places and appears more like a deer/elk trail than a foot/horse trail, at least on the south side of the peak.

Last little note about the Spanish Fork Peak trail: The views are absolutely spectacular, once you get above the trees and break out on the west side of the mountain they are amazing. However, for most of the trail you will be in the trees and in the canyons, where the view is limited.

P.S.

I seem to have lost all the photos I took on my first ride over the Spanish Fork Trail. Sorry. I’ll get more on the next trip.

Great Western Trail, Horse Health, Tack and Gear, Western Trails

Wrapping it up: Days 24-28, The Blue River to Eagar, AZ

This post will conclude the documentation of the horse pack trip Dad and I did from April 11 through May 8, 2015 from the US/Mexico border to Eagar, Arizona. The trip was 355.2 miles, according to my DeLorme InReach Explorer GPS, and spanned 28 days. This post covers Days 24 through 28.

When we left it at the end of the last post, it was somewhere around 3:00am Sunday night and I awoke to the sound of a whinney off in the distance, up the canyon a ways, where five of our horses had wandered during the night as they grazed, leaving the Queen Bee, Lizzy, staked at the edge of our camp.

The next sound I heard was the rumble of thundering hooves, as the whole herd came at a full gallop toward camp. I don’t think Dad even woke up, but I was curled up in the fetal position in my mummy-style sleeping bag expecting to be trampled at any moment. Well, the horses galloped into camp, but luckily, as they did Sunday afternoon, they stayed to the trail and passed by us about 30 feet away. Whew! They immediately settled down to their grazing again and all was well. I went right back to sleep.

Down in the Blue
Down in the Blue

We broke camp the following morning, as usual. I decided to ride Lizzy, as her back was doing much better, and pack Daisy and Ranger. Daisy’s saddle sores had gotten pretty bad, so we put the salve on her and put a pack saddle on her with no packs. We just rolled up the manty canvasses and tied them to the saddle. Ranger had a light pack as well, because we were down to the last of our feed. We divided the rest of the gear and supplies evenly among the three pack animals that were carrying a load, and all three were fairly light. Clancy was doing a bit better, so he was going to be walking, rather than riding.

Black was doing better. His swelling had gone down quite a bit and he was moving better. The bute had been helping. We gave him his morning dose and by the time we got started he was doing better. Dad was riding Jimbo, so Black had a light pack on.

The travel was pretty good, as we were able to follow the designated trail much of the day, however, since the USFS and BLM have removed livestock, for the most part, in the Wilderness area, the trails are quickly disappearing. Cattle no longer move through the areas, cowboys no longer use the trails, fires have swept through some areas, and so they are simply disappearing. Trails that have been in existence for hundreds of years are now just gone. It’s rather sad.

Anyway, for much of the day we simply made our own way, but it wasn’t too bad. The Blue was running low and there was plenty of open ground in the riverbed and surrounding benches to allow us to pass through most areas with no problem. At one point we spied a couple of caves up on a sidehill. I just had to explore them (my brain still thinks I’m 15), so Dad took a break and the horses grazed while I took a look.  They were deep enough to make a small room, but I found no buried treasures.

The weather was a bit wet, broken clouds, sprinkling just enough to get things wet in the morning. Later in the day we could see clouds building south of us. Eventually, those clouds began to build in our direction, so we were watching for a storm.

We expected to be able to find adequate grass for our horses down in the Blue riverbed, but surprisingly we found very little. We saw a few head of cattle, but they were very wild, obviously holdovers from many years back. Still, the grass in the area was grazed low. Apparently the elk herds are strong in that area. Whenever we found any quantity of grass at all, we stopped to let the horses get a few mouthfuls.

We passed the HU-Bar ranch about mid-morning. We were back into familiar territory, as Dad had been down in that area in the past. About lunchtime we found a patch of grass and decided to let the horses graze while we ate lunch. We also pulled out our slickers, as the sky started to spit a bit of rain.

Just as we were about to wrap up our lunch break, a couple cowboys with their dogs showed up. They were hunting stray cattle. Back in the old days, this would have been known as “rustling”, but what they were doing was removing lost cattle from areas where they had been restricted by the USFS. These were cattle that had once belonged to some local rancher, but that he wasn’t claiming, in order to avoid being fined by the USFS. So, these locals would go out and find the strays, then take them to market. At today’s prices, it brings in a little extra to keep their families fed or spare change in the pockets. It wasn’t easy work, because those cows we saw were wilder than deer!

The cowboys hadn’t brought their slickers along, so as the drops started falling, they headed out at a pretty quick pace. That worked out pretty well for us, because they were familiar with the actual trail. On our way forward, we simply followed their tracks, which likely saved us a couple hours by the time we covered the next six miles or so to the Blue Road. As it turned out, we got enough rain to get everything wet, but no downpour. We heard some thunder back down the canyon, but none close enough to be of concern.

We hit the Blue Road about 4:30pm. We had made about 16 miles, but figured we needed to make another eight miles to make it to our stopover place at Blue. We contacted Dick Goodman by text to let him know where we were and when to expect us and about two miles farther along he and his wife, Jean, showed up in their pickup. Clancy was about done-in and I was carrying him on my saddle as much as I could (the strain on my back was quite painful). We put Clancy in Dick’s pickup and they took him on to the house for us. Although he was in pain, he left us barking and howling to let us know he didn’t want to go. Dick returned a bit later and went ahead of us, opening all the gates as we approached. That was a big help, as getting on and off the horses this late in the day was a chore.

We finally arrived at Dick’s place, where he had made arrangements for us to use a corral, around 8:15pm, long after dark. We unpacked the horses, fed and brushed them, then headed for Dick’s house. We were beat. Our horses had fared well, but were tired as well. We had made 26 miles on the day, in just short of 12 hours of riding.

Dick had an RV he let us stay in. It was nice to get a shower and rest in a bed that night.  Dick and Jean treated us to baked beans and hamburgers. The following day, Tuesday, was wet and rainy. We decided to stay the day. It was a good break for us all after a 26-mile day on Monday. Mom and my sister visited and brought a lemon pie. We had a fine dinner that evening.

During the day on Tuesday we were able to talk to a couple fellows who know the Blue Wilderness area very well. Our plan was to ride Grant Creek Trail from the Blue River, near Dick’s place, to the top near Hannagan Meadow. We’ve made that ride several times before and know it to be a beautiful and pleasant ride. The advice we got, however, was to abandon that idea, as the trail system had received no maintenance in the past several years, and fires and disuse had made most of them impassable by horse. It was a tough decision, but in the end we decided to ride the Red Hills Road to the top. We figured we were about fifty miles from Eagar, by the route we would ride and that it would take us about three days.

Ranger's lump on his back
Ranger’s lump on his back

We also decided to leave Lizzy and Daisy. Lizzy’s back was sore again and the lump on her back had swollen overnight. She also had several rub sores on her shoulders and rump from the straps of the pack saddle. Daisy’s saddle sores had gotten worse as well, and, quite frankly, we were tired of her mare-ish antics. Even after all this time, she was disruptive to our string. Neither horse was of much use to us and there was enough grass available now that we did not need to haul feed, so we called my brother-in-law to come pick them up. My mother took Clancy home with her. We also sorted out some items of gear we wouldn’t need and left them with Dick. He’d bring them up to us in Eagar later. We ended up with only two pack animals, using paniers, rather than Decker-style packing. We found our process of packing and getting ready to move went much faster and easier.

So, for the last three days of the trip, it was just Dad and me, three horses, and one goofy mule.

On Wednesday morning, after an excellent breakfast provided by the Goodmans, we packed up and headed up Blue Road. About two miles up, we came to Red Hills Road, which we took and started the climb up out of the Blue. We ascended more than 4,500 feet in a matter of twelve miles. It was a fairly easy day on Dad and me, but was tough on the horses.

Once on top, at an elevation of over 9,000 feet, the land levels out a bit. There was plenty of grass and we stopped several times to graze the horses. In the late afternoon we stopped near US 191 at a set of corrals used by the USFS. Although there was plenty of grass, we had made previous arrangements with a friend to leave a bale of hay there at the corrals. We released the horses into the corrals and fed them. It was still fairly early in the day, around 5:00pm, so we had time to gather firewood and make a nice campfire. We enjoyed the evening sitting around the fire talking about our trip and our plans going forward. We made 14 miles and climbed over 4,500 feet. Our camp was at about 8,090 feet elevation.

Camp at the corrals on Highway 191
Camp at the corrals on Highway 191

Our original plan had been to use this first leg of the trip as a “shake-out” that would let us know how well we had prepared and whether we had the right horses and gear to continue. If the answer was yes, we would continue on to the second leg of the trip, to Panguitch, Utah. We made the decision several days earlier that we would stop at Eagar this year. Our gear proved to be good, although we had taken quite a bit of gear that we never used, but we found pretty early on that two of our horses were not the right animals for a trip of this kind. In particular, Daisy was a horse we wished we hadn’t brought from the very first day. Lizzy, on the other hand, was a good horse on the trail, but she has a very fine coat of hair that doesn’t offer sufficient protection to her from abrasion. She gets a rub sore wherever a strap rubs her. Additionally, as she lost weight, the saddle put pressure on her spine, which caused the lump on her back. I have seen this on other Fox Trotters, and even Ranger was somewhat affected the same way late in the ride. She just wasn’t the right horse for a ride like this. We decided the wisest course for us was to stop at Eagar, learn from our experience, and plan to make the second leg, from Eagar to Panguitch, the following year.

We passed a pleasant evening. We watched a herd of elk pass near our camp. We slept well and were well rested the following day, Day 27. Packing up and getting rolling was a much quicker and easier process, as I said before, with just four animals. We were up and moving before 8:30am.

We stayed mostly to USFS roads, passing by Springdale and seeing a few houses here and there. We traveled at a very good pace and made good time. I was riding Ranger during the morning, but he kept walking with a short-strided and choppy gait, which worked on my back and made things quite painful for me. Before lunchtime I switched my saddle to Jimbo and rode him the rest of the day. I like riding Jimbo. He has the best training of all our horses and is very pleasant to ride. Later that evening I found Ranger had two loose shoes, which I tightened. I think his sore back contributed to his choppy stride. He is normally very smooth to ride.

Camp near Big Lake off USFS 24
Camp near Big Lake off USFS 24

Again, this day, traveling by USFS roads, we found that the topo maps provided with my DeLorme InReach Explorer, were grossly inaccurate. We found mislabeled roads and roads shown on the map that were nonexistent, as well as roads on the ground that did not show on the maps. That was a very frustrating thing. We found during this trip that our good old-fashioned paper maps were indispensable. Between the three – GPS, electronic topos, and the paper topo maps – we did ok.

We made camp that night about 3 miles or so west of Big Lake, near a stock pond. It was a pleasant spot with good grass. We were lucky to get it, as a couple pickups and motorcycles stopped by looking for a campsite that evening. It was a cold night, at about 8,500 feet elevation. We had made 19.6 miles.

Ice from our bed cover
Ice from our bed cover

In the middle of the night we had an unexpected shower. I jumped up and spent the next few minutes running around in the cold rain in my underwear trying to cover everything up. It was nice to jump back in the sack and cover up. The following morning we had small puddles of ice on top of the top cover of our bed.

The next morning, Day 28, Friday, May 8, 2015, was a nice day, with broken clouds and just a hint of a breeze. At 8,500 feet, though, that doesn’t make for a warm day. We slept-in a bit and didn’t roll out of our bags until 6:00am. We were packed and rolling by 9:15am. We were thinking that if we made good time and didn’t make any navigation mistakes, we might reach Eagar that day. It would be a long day, however, and we had no desire to push things like we did down on the Blue. We considered that we might need to make camp short of Eagar and finish on Saturday.

Out on top, White Mountains
Out on top, White Mountains

We passed through some beautiful country, with which we were already familiar. Dad and I love that area, up in the tops of the White Mountains. The Wallow Fire of 2011 blackened much of the area, but not all. We passed through some burned areas, but for the most part it was green and nice. We passed a very pleasant day. As we passed the Black River, we filled our canteens and watered the horses. We gave them a break to graze on the grass, which was abundant here.

We did, in fact, make very good time on the dirt roads and we were coming down Water Canyon, above Eagar in the late afternoon. As we came into town on the south side, about a quarter mile from where our trailer had been dropped off for us, Black started limping. By the time we got to the edge of town he was limping badly, so Dad dismounted and waited with the horses while I went on to the trailer and came back for him.

Wouldn’t you know, that by the time I got back to pick up Dad, he had lost Honey the mule. Honey, recognizing the area, since she had been kept for a while near where we were, and seeing her buddy, Jimbo riding away from her, she pulled away and ran off, still packed with our gear. It took us a while to finally locate her. A local fellow found her wandering around and corralled her. With Honey in the back of the trailer with the horses, we drove the four miles or so to the pasture and home.

I have to admit that the end of the trip was somewhat anticlimactic, but we were glad to be home. We made 22.4 miles that day, arriving at Eagar at 6:30pm.

Our total travel mileage was 355.2 miles from the US/Mexico border to Eagar, Arizona, in 28 total days, 21 travel days.

Black was back to normal after a few days of rest, as were the rest of the horses. Only Jimbo and Honey arrived at the destination without a single mark on them. The others all had their bumps, bruises, and scrapes. After all the headaches and problems he gave us during the first few days of the trip, Jimbo turned out to be the most solid, capable, and reliable horse of the bunch. We were lucky to have him along. Daisy’s saddle sores have since healed up, leaving only the white telltale marks, but her disposition hasn’t changed any. I still want to spit on the ground every time I think about her. Lizzy is still my favorite trail horse, but she won’t be coming this year, due to her propensity for rub sores. We’re keeping her at Eagar as a backup, just in case. Dad’s Little Black will be with us this year. He and Dad are a package deal.

On the Trail
On the Trail

There was one day on the ride last year, during which I had thoughts of regret at dragging my dad out into this difficult and somewhat dangerous endeavor. Thoughts that it was my selfish desire to drag him along and I shouldn’t have done it. I thought, “What in the world am I doing out here with my 81 year-old dad?”

Two months ago, Dad and I were out for a ride south of Moab, Utah, tuning up for this year’s ride. As we walked along side-by-side on the horses, I mentioned those thoughts and feelings to him, expressing to him that I was having doubts about our plans for this year’s ride from Eagar to Panguitch. Last year’s ride was 355 miles in 28 days. My figuring has this year’s ride estimated at about 620 miles and 42 days on the trail (not counting rest days). Dad looked at me with a wry grin and told me not to worry. He hadn’t had even one minute’s regret during that ride last year. The thought hadn’t even entered his mind.

That was all the confirmation I needed.

So, Dad’s 82nd Birthday is Monday, May 23, 2016. We will be mounting up on Tuesday to head for his hometown, Panguitch, Utah, planning to ride into town just in time to ride in their Pioneer’s Day Parade on July 23. His high school class will be holding their 64th class reunion that week as well. A fine homecoming for Dad.

I’m glad we can do this. It’s quite a thing.

Buena Vista Peak, Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona

 

 

Great Western Trail, Horse Health, Western Trails

Days 16-18 – Camp at the Gila River

At the end of my last post, Dad and I had arrived at the Gila River, just a bit north of the small town of San Jose, Arizona. We arrived on a Saturday evening, after having made nearly 20 miles on a late start that day. Poor Clancy was very foot-sore, so I had carried him on my saddle much of the day. We arrived at the river, at a place called Diversion Dam, which, as the name indicates, was near an irrigation diversion dam. We crossed the river, very shallow at that point, and made camp in a small sandy area on the north side of the river.

It was becoming pretty obvious, by the gathering clouds, that we were going to get rain that evening, so after unsaddling and unpacking the horses, and caring for them, Dad and I stacked our gear and covered it in preparation for the moisture.  We then had our dinner of re-hydrated corn chowder. After dinner we selected a decent  sleeping area, laid out our bedding, and covered it with a plastic tarp.

Camp on the Gila River

Now, that plastic tarp had been pretty ill-used, having been the cover over the pack of our mustang, Jimbo, who had gotten it hooked up in a barbed wire fence early in our trip. Still, it was better than nothing. By the time we got our bedding prepared, it was after dark and we were both absolutely exhausted. With Clancy already asleep between our sleeping bags, Dad and I pulled our cover canvas up over our heads and passed out.

About 3:30am, I awoke with water dripping directly onto my face. It was raining, a nice light, steady rain. I crawled out of my sleeping bag in my skivies and tugged and pulled and tightened lines, and finally was able to redirect all the drips so that they fell on our bedding where it would run off without soaking us. I was cold and wet and by the time I slid back into my bag, I was shivering. As I got back in bed, however, out of the corner of my eye I saw something dash by the foot of our bed. I looked, thinking Clancy had gotten up with me. I growled at him to get in out of the rain. When I did, something next to me moved and Clancy poked his sleepy head up out of his place between our sleeping bags, where he was snug and warm.

Two extra dogs for the night
Two extra dogs for the night

Whatever I had seen, it wasn’t Clancy. I was worried that maybe a coyote or bobcat had invaded our camp, so I got out my flashlight to look. As I strained to see into the dark, something licked me on the back of my neck! Startled, I turned to find two wet and cold dogs wagging their tails at me and trying to lick my face. They were both soaked to the skin and shivering. Rather than waste time trying to run them off (I didn’t have the heart to do that) I simply told them to come on under the tarp and lay down on the canvas between Dad and Me. Clancy simply wagged his tail and tucked his head back under the tarp. The two dogs laid down comfortably and went right to sleep. They were still there when we awoke at sunrise on Sunday morning.

When I got up I noticed both dogs had collars and tags. I took a look and found the telephone number of the veterinarian out of Thatcher, only about 20 miles away. I had sufficient cell phone coverage, so I called. Of course, being a Sunday, they weren’t open, so I left a telephone message that we had found the dogs and a description of where we were camped. She called me later that day, told me she had gotten the message and had passed the information on to the owner. She said the owner would pick the dogs up later in the day. About 3pm or so, a lady did, in fact drive down to the river and picked up the dogs. She told me she owns a nearby ranch and that the dogs, who belonged to her late mother, would occasionally take off on a little walkabout and be gone for a few days. She appreciated us taking care of them for the day.

That afternoon, Al Smith, who guided us through the Chiricahuas, showed up at camp with an apple pie and some soda pops. We passed an enjoyable hour or so just talking, and that apple pie sure hit the spot!  Later in the afternoon, a couple dropped by, having seen our horses, to meet us and see what we were about. They were Josh and Melissa Patton. Turns out we were in Josh’s regular horse camp, so he was just checking us out. They ended up very generously bringing us a bale of wheat hay for the horses. It was a welcome supplement to the horse’s diet. They certainly enjoyed it.

That evening, as I was feeding the horses, I noticed that Daisy was acting sore. I checked her over and discovered she had a very swollen udder. It appeared to be lactating a bit as well. Though she had not recently foaled, her udder looked as if she had mastitis. I told Dad we had a problem. As we checked her and discussed the possibilities, it suddenly occurred to me that I had the veterinarian’s telephone number still in my iphone, thanks to the two lost dogs that visited us for the previous night!

The following morning, Monday, I put in a call for the vet, which she returned shortly thereafter. I told her our problem with the mare. She was out to see us at our camp by 9:45am. Her diagnosis was that Daisy had likely been poked in the udder by a mesquite thorn, which had caused the infection. The actual puncture wound was right on the nipple. The vet was able to drain quite a lot of the infection, relieving much of Daisy’s discomfort. She provided us with antibiotic for the infection and bute for the pain. She gave us instructions for medication and told us Daisy should be fine to continue. What a relief.

Al Smith stopped by again, so with his help we got the horses saddled and packed and were ready to make tracks by about 11:30am. Our original plan had been to follow the Gila River, however, after talking to Al, the Pattons,  and checking with the local BLM office, we were convinced that following the Gila was a bad idea. Much of the Gila River in that area flows through the Gila Box National Conservation Area. In recent years the Bureau of Land Management has removed cattle from the area, which has had a very detrimental effect on the trails. There are no more trails through the area along the river, so we would be fighting our way through brush, quicksand, and deep areas of the river with no marked trails to show us safe routes of passage. The quicksand in the Gila is a real danger, not just a bit of mud. We were told of a hunter who lost several mules recently, when they were stuck in quicksand and could not be extricated before they drowned.

The route we decided upon led across the Black Hills, which lie between Safford and Clifton, south of the Gila River. My DeLorme Explorer iphone application, Earthmate, which provides topographical maps on my iphone, showed a jeep trail that took off from a dirt road not far from our location, which led in the general direction we needed to travel, and eventually joined with the old Clifton highway, now the Black Hills byway. We headed that direction, generally following the guidance of my GPS and the topographical map. We wandered around for a couple hours looking for that jeep trail before we were convinced that our topo map was wrong. According to the map and my GPS, we were standing exactly on the road…but there was no road to be seen anywhere and we were in the middle of some very rough and difficult terrain, with prickly pear and volcanic rock everywhere.

From the location where the road should have been, we could see a power line heading over the mountains toward Clifton. We decided we would follow the power line service road, knowing it would be a rough and steep road, but would eventually get us where we needed to go. Experience also told us that any fences we might encounter would likely have unlocked gates or gaps on the service road. Ranchers also tend to use them for access to the back country, so we hoped we would be able to find cattle water troughs every few miles within striking distance of the service road. That turned out to be the case, once we got underway.

As we headed in that direction, though, I started hearing a “clink-clink” sound from Ranger’s right rear hoof. When I got off and lifted his hoof, I was quite surprised to find we had worn out the shoe and it was literally falling off his hoof! The shoe itself was no thicker than a nickel and the nail heads were completely worn off. The shoe had not been pulled of, but was simply falling off. A quick check of the other horses told us we were in trouble. I tacked Ranger’s shoe back in place and we headed back to our camp on the Gila. We traveled about five miles that day and ended right back where we started.

On the way back, seeing I had cell phone signal, I called Al Smith and asked if he might be able to assist us again. He showed up at camp shortly after we arrived and drove me into town to buy some horse shoes and nails. While we were in town, I had Al stop by the local Sonic Drive-in and I bought us all hamburgers and Cherry Limeades (I don’t ever remember a better tasting hamburger!). We spent that evening pulling shoes and cleaning up hooves, but we ran out of daylight and energy before we finished.  We completed the shoeing job the following morning. Al came back out to lend a hand and we had all the horses re-shod and ready to hit the trail just before noon.

I did the shoeing on Lizzy and Ranger. While I have been trimming my horse’s hooves for about ten years, this was my first experience of actually shoeing a horse. With Dad and Al coaching me, I did a fair job. I am proud to say that neither horse became sore or lost a shoe the rest of the trip, more than 170 miles through some of the roughest terrain on earth. I learned a lot…among other things, that I’m glad I don’t do that for a living. It’s hard work!

At camp on the Gila River
At camp on the Gila River

Our stay in the Safford area was supposed to have taken two days, Saturday and Sunday. Due to some unplanned delays and problems, we ended up staying four days. However, looking back at it, everything that happened there was providential. There is not one thing that could have happened differently without creating a potential disaster for our trip. We were able to order new water filters which were overnight expressed to us from Montana on Friday night. On Saturday night, we had two wet and cold lost dogs join us for the night.  They provided us with the phone number for the local veterinarian, who was able to come to our camp to provide the necessary care for the mare with the infected udder. Then, our little misadventure with the missing road allowed us to discover that our horses needed to be re-shod before we got out into the middle of the lava rock of the Black Hills, which likely would have lamed horses and put us afoot. The four day delay also allowed Clancy’s feet to heal up and gave us and the horses some much needed rest.  We were very well blessed by the Good Lord that all those things happened right there near Safford, where we had all the help we needed. Those things could not have happened in any other way that would have allowed us to continue our adventure without serious problems.

Thank you Lord.

That day, Tuesday, Day 18, we made only 11.6 miles, having shod five horses (the mule was shod the previous Saturday), started late, and having passed through some steep and extremely rough terrain. We camped that evening at a water hole not far from the Double C Ranch in the middle of the Black Hills, south of the northern end of the Gila Box. It was the first decent campsite we had seen all day, so we called it quits a little early. We made ourselves a small campfire and enjoyed a restful evening.

Good Stories, Horse Health

One of those special days…

Have you ever had one of those days in which everything just had to work exactly right…and then it did?

I had one of those days today.

This week I had a number of things on my plate that just had to get done this week, because there was no other time to get them done. They were important things. Among them were several work assignments, Cub Scouts Den Meeting, making appointments for vet checks on my horses, brand inspection and hauling papers on the new horse, buying supplies, and working on my truck in preparation or an upcoming trip. By the end of the week I had accomplished all but a few things, but those few things were very critical and my time to get them done was very limited. Things had to work just right.

Dad and I have been planning a trail riding trip to the Moab, Utah area. He and Mom arrived last night after a long drive from Arizona. They are staying at my sister’s home in Lehi, Utah. Before we could go on that trip, I had to do some work on my truck, as wear on some of the steering components had become a safety issue, particularly while towing a trailer. I also had to get the brand inspection done on my new horse, Reno, so we could legally haul him to Moab.

On Friday, I was down to the last few items on my list:

  • Replace steering components on my truck, install a steering box stabilizer kit, install a new track bar, and install a new steering damper
  • Get truck wheels aligned
  • Get Coggins tests and spring shots for horses
  • Get brand inspection done and hauling papers for Reno (the new addition to my herd)

I called Rocky Mountain Vet and asked how soon I could get my four horses in for spring shots, worming, and Coggins test. They had an appointment available Saturday (today) morning at 8:30am. I jumped at that.

I also contacted a local Brand Inspector, who informed me that my Bill of Sale for the horse I bought a couple weeks ago in Heber, Utah, isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. After checking with her supervisor, and finally calling the Deputy Bureau Chief of the Utah Department of Agriculture, they convinced me that in Utah ownership of livestock can only change hands by a valid brand inspection performed by one of their inspectors.  I was informed that I would have to take the horse back to the previous owner and have him prove that he owned the horse, and had the legal right to sell it, to a Utah Brand Inspector, who would then provide documentary proof of that fact and would give me a proper brand inspection and hauling papers for the horse.

I contacted the Brand Inspector for Wasatch County, Lou Stevens, who graciously agreed to meet me and the previous owner on Saturday (today) in Heber to handle the formalities. An appointment was set for 11:00am.

So, I went to work on getting things done. On Friday (yesterday) afternoon I started in on the truck. It was more difficult and time-consuming than I expected, but after a few small prayers and a few magic words, about 4:30pm I headed to Spanish Fork to an alignment shop. I had set the wheel alignment by simple measurement, which is only close, but not accurate enough for more than a short drive to the alignment shop. I made it to the shop just in the nick of time for them to get my truck in.

Alas, after about 30 minutes, after all the other shops were closed, they informed me that their equipment would not work on my truck, due to the custom manual-locking hubs I have installed on the front axle. They recommended another shop. I was able to arrive at that shop as the employees were leaving. They informed me that their equipment wouldn’t work either and recommended another shop, Sid’s Alignment in Springville, Utah. So, I went back home wondering how I was going to make my appointments the next day without ruining the tires on the front of my truck.

So here was the plan for today:

Ask Dad to get up early to make the 40-minute drive from Lehi, so he could help me load up the horses in time to make the 30-minute drive to get to the the vet in Spanish Fork by 8:30am, then find an alignment shop that was open on Saturday that could align the wheels on my truck in time for us to drive the 50-plus miles to Heber to meet the Brand Inspector at 11:00am.

No sweat! Nothing to it!  At least not until you consider that the new horse took me over an hour-and-a-half to load when I bought him, and that I hadn’t had a chance to work with him since. I was going to have to load him up with the other horses, unload him for the vet, load him again for the drive to Heber, unload him there, then load him up again for the trip home. The positive thinker I am, I was thinking that this was going to be a good training day, for the horse and for me! Then there’s the issue of finding an alignment shop that is open on Saturdays and which has an immediate opening to align my truck, so I can make it to Heber by 11am.

I knew there was no room for error and that the stars were going to have to align perfectly for me to get everything done. I also knew that if these things didn’t get done today, our trip next week would be delayed and shortened.

Gonna need help on this one.

Dad never batted an eye when I asked him to be at my horse pasture by about 7:40am to help me load my horses, even though he would have to drive 40 minutes to get there. I figured I would get there about 7:15 and would have the other horses ready, so that we only had to work with the difficult one after Dad arrived.

This morning I headed over to the horse pasture, about five miles from my home, arriving about 7:15. Dad was already well on his way. He arrived shortly after I got there, while I was hooking up the trailer. It didn’t take us long to catch up the horses, even Jimbo, who has returned to his former mustang skittishness and has been hard to catch lately. We decided to load Reno, the new horse, third, so that there would be horses in the trailer before we tried to load him. Surprisingly, he hopped right in after only minimal coaxing. We had all four horses loaded and were rolling toward Spanish Fork by 7:50am.

We arrived at Rocky Mountain Vet at about 8:15am and had the horses unloaded and waiting when they opened shop at 8:30. The only problem we had was that Reno didn’t want to back out of the trailer, so he turned around and nearly got himself stuck in the process. But he squeezed out and all was well. We were done with the vet checks, shots, and Coggins tests by 8:50 and were ready to load back up. Again, Reno loaded with minimal trouble and we had all the horses loaded and were rolling by just a hair after 9:00am.

We located Sid’s Alignment Shop in Springville about 9:15. Turned out they are closed on Saturdays, but Sid, the owner, was there working on a vehicle for one of his kids in his spare time. After talking with him a bit, we set a 7:00am appointment for Monday, the earliest he had available, which meant I was going to have to drive to Heber and back with the wheels set “by eye”. As I was about to drive away, however, Sid came out to me and asked if I had time to wait until he finished his daughter’s vehicle. If so, he would pull it in and do it right then, turned out he had several other appointments he wanted to fit in on Monday, and if he could get mine done now, it would help him. Of course, I responded in the affirmative!

Sid finished the car he was working on and had mine done and out by 10:15am. We are lucky he wanted to do the alignment this morning, because he found a loose caster adjustment bolt, which is likely what was causing all the extra wear and safety issues. He got it properly tightened and my wheels properly aligned, saving my tires for the trip next week. Sid would not allow me to pay him any extra for his extra efforts. Thanks very much, Sid. I’ll be back.

I called ahead to Lou and told him I would be about 15 minutes late for our appointment. He wasn’t worried at all and simply said, “See you there.”

We arrived at the home of the previous owner, Travis and Terra Naffziger, in Heber, Utah about 11:19am. Travis had been able to locate photos of the gelding from when he was a foal alongside his mother, with which proved ownership to Lou’s satisfaction. We headed outside for Lou to do his brand inspection for my ownership and traveling papers. In unloading Reno, he again decided he didn’t want to back out. In turning himself around he got stuck and literally fell out of the trailer. No damage done, but I could see I was going to have to fix this trouble and train him out of that bad and dangerous habit. My trailer just isn’t wide enough for a horse his size to turn around.

We got the inspection done and I got my temporary brand inspection and hauling papers, which will allow me to legally haul Reno to Moab next week. We headed for home a little before noon.

Turned out that Lou Stevens’ high school football coach, a man he highly respects and loves, was one of my dad’s best friends and classmate in high school in Panguitch, Utah, class of 1952.

For all Dad’s help I treated him to lunch at Hub’s Cafe in Heber. While we were there, I was admiring some cowboy artwork by Russel Houston, who likes to paint cowboy golf. Dad informed me that Houston is a nephew to my great grandmother, Mary Dempster Sargent (Houston).

What a small world we live in!

Dad and I arrived back at the pasture in Salem, Utah about 1:45pm.

Then the fun started! It took us nearly an hour to get that silly gelding, Reno, out of the trailer. I refused to allow him to attempt to turn around in the trailer, so it took us that long to coax him to back out. We finally got him to back safely out of the trailer, so we counted it “good” for the day, having won that day’s training battle and made all my appointments. We’ll have to work on Reno’s training issues some other day.

So, today was one of those very satisfying days, in which everything had to happen just right…

And it did.

I think there are days in which the Good Lord looks down on me and smiles. I think it is more likely one of those sideways sort of grimaces that say, “That poor boy needs some help today.” He always comes through when I need Him. He surely did today. Thank you Lord.

Special thanks to:

Dad
Louis Stevens, Wasatch County Brand Inspector, Heber, Utah
Dr. Walburger, Rocky Mountain Large Animal Veterinary Clinic, Spanish Fork, Utah
Sid, Sid’s Alignment Shop, Springville, Utah
Travis Naffziger, previous owner of Reno, Heber, Utah

>

Great Western Trail, Horse Health

It’s raining today…

It’s raining today, which is appropriate.

Last night I made the decision to euthanize Penny, who has been my faithful friend for the past three years. Tomorrow I will make all the arrangements.

This will probably be a surprise to those of you who have been following my entries on Penny’s Laminitis. Her prospects, initially, for recovery were very good. The vet, after taking X-rays three weeks ago, indicated that with proper care and hoof trimming she should be back to normal within six months. That same night, Penny escaped her stall and spent an unknown amount of time grazing in the lush, green pastures of the small farm where she is kept. By the following morning, when I found her in the pasture, the damage was done. She relapsed almost immediately.

Once she began recovering well from that relapse, I tried to slowly transition her back to pasture, believing that it might be possible, since the initial trigger for her Laminitis was not the grass, but an overload of sweet feed. Not to be. After two efforts at transitioning her to the pasture, I found that any quantity of grass in her diet immediately brought back the symptoms of Laminitis. I resigned myself to keeping her in a stall and hand-feeding her until she was well enough to begin to ride again, at which time I would find her a new home.

This past week I was encouraged at her progress. Although she was still tender, she was able to walk with me around the pasture, and would do so willingly. I had noticed she was dropping weight rather quickly, so I did some research to find a supplemental feed that might be tolerable for her in her current state. I came upon Timothy hay pellets, which, according to my reading, as well as the labels on the bag, contains no more than 8% sugars, which is well below other kinds of feed. As I have been mixing Penny’s Bute dosages with about 1 pound of alfalfa pellets, I thought it would be safe to replace the alfalfa pellets with the Timothy pellets, further reducing her sugars intake.

I started with one pound of Timothy pellets, moistened, and mixed with the Bute, morning and evening. After two days she seemed to be ok, although I noticed that she may have been slightly more sore on her rear hooves the second night. On the third night I increased the Timothy pellets to two pounds. That was last Thursday evening. On Friday morning her her rear fetlocks were very swollen and she was obviously hurting. By Friday evening, once again, she was in full-blown Laminitis and her fetlocks were swollen tight as balloons. I soaked her rear hooves in cool water to try to ease the swelling and the pain.

I immediately discontinued the Timothy pellets and tried to administer Penny’s Bute dosage orally. She was in such pain that I suppose it really didn’t matter much to her any more, and she took the Bute orally without resistance. I thought I would let her go until Monday and decide then whether to call the vet again, for an evaluation and to decide then whether to start treatments again or look at “other alternatives”.

Yesterday morning, I found that Penny’s swelling had reduced substantially. I saw that she had lain down during the night, which must have helped. I was greatly encouraged, until I saw that she had not finished her hay from the night before, had not drunk any water during the night, and was having a difficult time standing. I went back out to check her at noon and found her down in her stall.

I called the vet.

The vet arrived about 5:30 pm or so. After examining Penny, the vet spoke with me and very carefully gave me her prognosis: Penny has very little chance of ever recovering to the point of leading a pain-free and productive life. There is the slight chance of recovery to the point of soundness…as in, “it has happened before”…but it would take at least a full year of very strict and very expensive veterinary and farrier care, all based on the slight hope of more than a partial recovery.

Penny and I have lost the battle against Laminitis.

With her prognosis now being very poor, with little chance she could ever recover to the point of being sound, euthanasia is my only choice. Within nine months I will be moving two thousand miles across the country. She could never stand the trip. Not being sound, I would never be able to find a home for her. Her sensitivity to pasture grass is such that she could not even become a “pasture buddy” for another horse. Even if I got her to the point that she was comfortable, and were able to find new owners who were willing to take her on, the care required to keep her so would be a heavy work and financial burden, and it would only be a matter of time before her end would be the same: more pain, more suffering, and euthanasia…or a slaughter house. The only humane decision I can make is to put her down. I can do her this one last kindness.

As a young boy, I remember once becoming disoriented and lost while riding my horse on remote trails near the stables where we kept our horses. After trying to find my way for a while and getting nowhere that I recognized, I remembered what my father had taught me, that if I would “give the horse her head,” she would lead me home.

Tomorrow I will give Penny her head.