Cari Swanson

Fitches Corner Event

The Hudson Valley hosts many top equestrian events throughout the year and this weekend is one of the hottest events to attend. Fitches Corner, located in Millbrook on Mabbettsville Road and the Shunpike (route 57), begins tomorrow with dressage and ends Sunday with a day of Cross Country and Stadium Jumping.

The host, Fernanda Gilligan, takes care to make it fun and easy for competitors to attend. Saturday evening is the Blue Jean Ball, a party for everyone involved as well as the community to eat, drink and dance into the early hours or the next day.

There are over 30 vendors in the Marketplace for shoppers and for those who may have forgotten something. This year also marks the first time Bit of Britain is represented on the show grounds. Many call this event a Mini Rolex due to the extraordinary attention to detail to every aspect of the weekend.

The cross country course is beautiful and challenging at 3 levels, Novice, Training and Preliminary. You will watch local riders as well as some of the best riders in the country riding their young horses over this challenging course. The water jump is a great place to watch the action, and then walk around the course to watch all the obstacles being ridden by a very talented group of athletes.

Enjoy the day and cheer on your favorite rider!

Treating Hives

Many horses develop small bumps or raised areas on the skin called hives, or the technical term Urticria. These are caused by an allergic or hypersensitive reaction. The cause can be topical from an insect bite, fly spray, shampoo, a saddle pad with detergent on it, or systemic from a food or drug that may have caused a reaction. Generally hives are not life threatening, with the exception being if the throat area closes and the horse cannot breathe.

If they do not resolve themselves in a few hours, it is necessary to call the vet who can administer drugs to reduce the swelling and discomfort. Try to identify what could have caused the hives by checking food sources and external causes in his environment.

Hot Summer Days

Horses can suffer from heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Take care to know your horses normal temperature, heart rate and pulse. On extremely hot days be sure to keep a close watch over your horses condition. It is a good idea to ride early in the day or at dusk when the air temperature cools down. After your work out you must cool your horse out completely. The length of cool down will depend on the environmental conditons, amount of work and each individual horse.

Signs of a heat stroke include hot dry skin, high pulse and respiratory rates and a high temperature (101 is normal). Use the pinch test to check for dehydration, that is pinch some skin together and let it go, if it returns to normal immediately all is well, if it remains pinched, call your vet immediately.

Some horses have a condition known as anhydrotic, that is when the horses cannot sweat normally. These horses are prime candidates for heat stress and must be monitored closely on hot days.

Of course, make certain to have fresh water available to your horse all the time. Feed an electrolyte supplement in daily feed on hot days to encourage drinking. Horses drink 5-10 gallons of water a day and this is critical to maintaining a healthy horse.

Learning to Canter

A student has mastered the walk-trot work and is now ready to start to canter. She does not have the confidence to canter yet and would like some easy excercises to help her succeed in this next step.

First of all it is important to realize that the rider is elastic and moves her arms with the movement of the horses neck in both walk and canter. This is critical to understand because you do not want to ask your horse to canter and suddenly hang on his mouth which will throw him off balance and almost always force him to trot.

The best way to experience a successful canter is to ride a school master on the lunge. That way the trainer can ask for canter from the ground and all the rider has to do is sit and relax and feel the gait.

Next, the rider can ride several trot to walk transitions to engage the horse and confirm that the horse is in front of her aids. Now ask for a half halt as if you want to walk but instead, ask for canter with the correct aid. A common error is for the rider to pitch forward with her upper body and grip with her knees. Always go back to the correct rider postion to set yourself up for success.

Another easy way to ask for canter is to trot a 20 meter circle with a small cavalleti on the track, when the horse trots over the pole, sit and ask for canter. This is almost always successful. Be sure to have a qualified instructor on the ground assisting you in this lesson. They can monitor your position and help you correct any mistakes.

Riding with Focus

When training yourself and your horse it is important to ride with concentration and focus. Learn to discipline yourself to ride correct transitions and geometry. Always prepare your horse before you ask him to perform anything and be quick to soften the pressure once he complies with your request.

The balance and rhythm of your horse will improve dramatically if you remain focused and ride correctly. Take the time to learn correct circles, the 20 meter as well as the 10 meter circles will continue to help balance and supple your horse.

A great excercise to ride for suppling your horse and learning to ride accurately is to carve out 10 meter circles along the long side. Ride from cirlce to circle maintaining the same balance and rhythm. This is a wonderful test of rider as well as horse.

Congratulations to Kayla and Joa!

Two of my accomplished students–Kayla and Joa–have recently qualified to enter Lendon Gray’s Dressage 4 Kids Show in Saugerties at HITS in August. This is a great accomplishment for both students who have recently taken to riding dressage. They have worked hard to master the basics of dressage training and their dilligent focused work has paid off. Now they have to study the written materials and continue training so that they can achieve personal best scores at the event. Good Luck to both of you!

For more information on qualifying scores visit www.dressage4kids.com

The Horse Report

Every week you can listen to the Horse Report on virtualhudsonvalley.com. In this weekly report, I discuss many aspects of the horse world and how it relates to the equestrian activities in the Hudson Valley. If you know of any upcoming events or clinics and would like to share this information, please contact me so that I can report on them.

You will also hear from Leslie Land, the garden expert, Alex Tuller, the cooking expert, Ilana with The List, and Dean Temple, our host who will have you laughing every week.

Check out virtualhudsonvalley.com and send us your feedback on the entire program. We are always looking for ways to improve the content for our listeners, so we need to hear from you!

Horses with Charisma

Horses with Charisma, what qualities make a rock star personality in a horse?

Many clients want a horse who oozes attitude,but with that attitude comes a strong character that must be managed and controlled. Some horses actually puff up and love to show off in the competition arena and it is this extra star quality that makes him a champion. The judges call this the “wow” factor and often reward each movement with a higher score simply because of the “je ne sais quoi” quality of the movements. It is much like celebrities who shine in the public eye–they possess star quality.

These horses need extra attention and require an entourage of people to look after their every need. They can be quite demanding. The pay off is that they are true champions–revelling in the spotlight. You can see this quality in many of the world champion horses in the world of dressage, jumping, racing, or any of the other equestrian sports.

Much can be attributed to the relationship the horse has with his rider too, some people bring out the best in their horses–it is a team effort. You often hear about horses that give it all to one person, yet perform poorly for others. That is precisely why the chemistry of horse and rider is so important, as with any great dance partnership.

Not everyone can handle this type of personality and must take that into account when looking for a partner. Some people are better off with a workmanlike personality, a horse who does his job willingly and happily but does not need all the attention.

Understanding the Age of Your Horse

It is important to understand a horse’s life-stage characteristics in order to fully comprehend what he is communicating. Knowing how a horse matures physically and mentally will help you design appropriate management and training programs.

Consider that one horse year is equivalent to 8 human years until he is two years old, after that, each horse year equals two and a half human years. Thus, the horse to human equivalent is as follows; a weanling is four years old, a yearling is eight years old, a two year old is sixteen years old, a five year old is twenty three and a half years old, a 12 year old is 40 years old, a twenty year old is sixty one and a thirty year old is 85.

The adult prime of a horse is the five to twelve year old. This is when his mental and physical ability is equivalent to a human in their twenties or thirties. They are at their peak for athletic performance and hopefully have many life experiences that have made him more sensible. His nutritional requirements are basic. He can remain physically fit with moderate exercise, and his immune system is at its peak.

The middle aged horse is 12-20 years old and will lose some stamina and muscle tone, however, depending on the breed and quality of training and conditioning can remain healthy and competitive into their twenties.

The Senior horse, at age twenty to thirty, is like his over-sixty human counterpart and will suffer from dental changes that may include lost, worn or broken teeth that may lead to difficulties in chewing and maintaining weight. It is important to switch to a senior feed to maintain the quality of digestion and nutrients. Vision and hearing may deteriorate and should be considered if behaviour changes occur.

The geriatric horse of over thirty years might be physically impaired, however, under the proper management and care, he may be useful and happy for many years. My favorite horse, Fella, lived well into his thirties, his spirit remaining strong until the end. In his last years he enjoyed free range of the farm and spent many afternoons napping on the freshly cut lawn.