New Horse; Includes discussion of Conditioning

[Robert MoonShadow]

Hey Jen! You have the magick of coming up w/ beautiful horses time & again…!!!

I’m curious as to if you’re perhaps chasing bubbles, here? From my travels, I recall that Ohio & your area have a bit of real estate between them – do you expect an actual visit from them? Because unless you’re actually in mid-pull w/ a log attached to him as they pull down the drive, how would they ever know? Just don’t post any photos of him actually pulling a log anywhere online, and I, for one, can guarantee that I won’t ever snitch you out! 😉

{I knew you had a wee bit of pirate in ya, you outlaw, you!!} :p

[jen judkins]

@Robert MoonShadow 23493 wrote:

{I knew you had a wee bit of pirate in ya, you outlaw, you!!} :p

Nice to hear from you, Pirate Farmer! 😀

Thanks for all the support. I think I will simply start a conversation with the rescue group. They seem reasonable and I came highly recommended…so I think we can talk. It may just be an educational thing. Their only exposure to working draft horses is the Amish farmers who dump their unwanted horses into the auctions. Its no wonder they are suspect of anyone wanting to ‘work’ a horse on a farm or in the woods. I’ll let you know how it goes.

But in the end, I will do whatever is right for the horse. A horse without a job is a waste of talent and energy….

[Carl Russell]

jenjudkins;23496 wrote:

….But in the end, I will do whatever is right for the horse. A horse without a job is a waste of talent and energy….

And a waste of your talent.:D

[Mark Cowdrey]

Andy,
What does this mean:
“can easily be made aerobic or anaerobic “.
Sounds like it is 2 different kinds of exercise?
Thanks,
Mark

[Andy Carson]

Mark, aerobic versus anaerobic is exercise/training lingo for whether the activity in question can be performed using oxygen taken in during respiration while the activity is going on (aerobic) or whether the activity involves too great of an exertion to maintained with the oxygen brought in and the body must make energy without oxygen (anaerobic). Think of a power-lifter or a weight pulling horse (anaerobic athlete) versus a marathon runner or an endurance horse (aerobic athlete). I think most animal related activities (and many human sports) fall somewhere in between these two extremes. Serious human athletes often have circuit training regimes where they focus on strength one day and endurance on another. I read a book once about athletic training for horses (this was really designed for eventing horses) that recommended similar regimes where aerobic and anaerobic workouts were alternated on specific days of the week. It made a lot of sense to me so I stuck with it for a while. I even got a stethoscope to monitor her heart rate and breathing because it seemed that the more weight I put on the sled the more she wanted to pull and I didn’t want her to hurt herself. It definitely got my horse is shape, and man did the food fly through her then! The point I was making was that because the sled can be loaded with different weight easily, one can design a challenging workout that will last only 15 minutes, or an equally challenging workout that will last 3 hours. This is how I kept myself busy before I had a farm 🙂

[jen judkins]

While I agree, Andy, that a sled or stone boat provides an easily measurable way to strengthen a horse’s muscling and endurance, I find skidding wood provides other benefits. All that stopping and fiddling you mention, strengthen the horse’s mind and provides the basis for a good partnership. I love the finesse of it. Approaching the log, applying the chains, positioning the horse, hooking on, moving the wood strategically, stop, reposition, etc. All these things teach the horse patience, to tune into the teamster and apply energy in a focused and efficient manner, which is something I want in place before I set him to the task of fairly mindlessly pulling a load around the country roads. In my mind skidding wood (or something that simulates it) is a pre-requisite to driving in a cart or sled in many ways. But that may just be me and my own experience. I get bored easily, lol!

[Carl Russell]

jenjudkins;23512 wrote:

While I agree, Andy, that a sled or stone boat provides an easily measurable way to strengthen a horse’s muscling and endurance, I find skidding wood provides other benefits. All that stopping and fiddling you mention, strengthen the horse’s mind and provides the basis for a good partnership. I love the finesse of it. Approaching the log, applying the chains, positioning the horse, hooking on, moving the wood strategically, stop, reposition, etc. All these things teach the horse patience, to tune into the teamster and apply energy in a focused and efficient manner, which is something I want in place before I set him to the task of fairly mindlessly pulling a load around the country roads. In my mind skidding wood (or something that simulates it) is a pre-requisite to driving in a cart or sled in many ways. But that may just be me and my own experience. I get bored easily, lol!

You nailed that one Jen….. There is physical conditioning, and mental conditioning, but perhaps most importantly is the operational conditioning. There are many tasks that require a certain functionality, but skidding logs from the woods is such a varied and challenging exercise that, to do it well, the teamster needs to possess skills and leadership that go a long way toward building a horse….. from the inside out.

Not that Andy is incorrect, nor anybody else for that matter….. I have traveled a lot of miles on the road and around the field too…..

Carl

[blue80]

Hey that looks like my horse that was stolen 6 months ago!

Just kidding.:D Always talk out here of western stock getting taken back east and sold where there are no brand inspections…. Bunch of local cattle guys saying they are missing stock this year.

Jen, can you expound more on the “stifle issues” What are the symptoms, and how do you diagnose what the actual causes are?

[jen judkins]

The Vet in Ohio took some xrays and thinks it is OCD, which is a common developmental problem in drafts. His stifles were injected and he is sound, but it remains to be seen whether I can get those joints working properly. One of the problems is that he has been untreated probably for years and so has accommodated to his discomfort by loading the front end more than usual. His hind end is teeney and underdeveloped because of this compensation. The trick will be to get him comfortable enough to build up the hind end and start to move more naturally, pushing from behind.

OCD is an arthritic condition where small chips of bone develop and cause pain in the joints. I think it is dietary. It happens in young horses that are growing fast. Probably get too much calcium or too acidic a diet during that important growth period. I’ve reversed bone spavin and other arthritic conditions with special diets and corrective trimming before….we’ll see if this guy responds. For now he is pasture sound, even on the hardpack we have right now, so I am opptimistic.

[Tim Harrigan]

Good points on the conditioning of draft animals and there is no question that real work sharpens the intent and demands on both the teamster and the team. I am a proponent of measured conditioning, though, and I have never seen it as mindlessly pulling a load. Pulling a known load trains the observant teamster to read the response of the team to various levels of exertion and effort. The response is both physiological and mental, and it can be functional as well if you demand the level of precision and responsiveness required in real work. Usually, though, that is not one of the higher objectives in this type of conditioning. This type of conditioning is, I think, respectful of the animals in helping their transition from a period of inactivity to more demanding work. This is something many of us see every year in events like plow days. Too often a team is not conditioned to the physical demand, perhaps the teamster underestimates the exertion needed, and the team refuses to pull, jumps the furrow, or is generally unpleasant because they have been poorly prepared.

It is unfair to expect a team to be mentally tough if they are not physically conditioned. The effort required of stone boat loads is readily transferable to other working loads with a level of awareness that is within the reach of most good teamsters. I think it should be a goal of draft animal practitioners to understand the flux of physical and mental limits of their team, and to be able to take them to that limit if necessary, and rarely ask them to move a load that is beyond their capability.

Not many of us work our animals on a daily basis. That puts us in the position of having to make extra efforts to see that they are ready to go when the time comes.

[Andy Carson]

There are many ways to skin a cat, but I like the sled alot and as it is so easy to monitor weight and exertion and large gains in condition can be obtained pretty fast. I have included a photo of my horse when I got her, one two months after conditioning with almost exclusively a sled, and one two months later with conditioning both with sled and real work. I know alot these gains are due to nutrition as well, but sleds work pretty well.

[dehutch]

Sorry to get in late on this but FWIW, in most jurisdictions, content of phone conversations and emails that are not specifically referenced as being binding in the written contract itself are known as “parol evidence” which would not be considered in adjudicating a contract dispute unless the contract itself is ambiguous. To get an adjudicator to admit parol evidence, the Rescue Organization would have to acknowledge that they drafted an ambiguous contract, a confession not likely to gain traction. Plus, as others have pointed out, dragging a log is not likely “logging” under the definition. I’m not sure I’d discuss it with them though… “Let sleeping dogs lie” and all that…

I found Countrymouse’s approach to physical conditioning quite reasonable given the fact that a horse with a stifle injury has a joint not likely optimally supported by good muscle tone complementing the collateral and cruciate ligaments. It seems like improving the muscle mass and tone prior to abrupt, heavy pulling is less likely to result in further injury. I suppose it’s akin to a weight lifter being sure he can lift 150 lbs before he tries 250.
There is no doubt universal agreement that “Operational” conditioning is the ultimate goal but I took Andy’s comments to be limited to physical conditioning which would seem to be the first step in rehab. The ground sled has certainly worked for me and your previous horse.:)

[jen judkins]

@dehutch 23531 wrote:

There is no doubt universal agreement that “Operational” conditioning is the ultimate goal but I took Andy’s comments to be limited to physical conditioning which would seem to be the first step in rehab. The ground sled has certainly worked for me and your previous horse.:)

Smooches to Peanut!!!!:D

No, Doug and Andy, I was in no way triing to debunk the sort of physical training you are speaking of and use it often. I guess I just like the mental challenge of keeping a horse on cue while skidding wood…which, btw, need not be heavy work and can be graduated to heavier loads fairly predictably once you get the hang of assessing wood.

If this were a horse I knew well and had a working relationship with and simply had an injury to rehab, I would go to the sled or stoneboat right away. But this is a horse I don’t know well and I prefer to cement the relationship first, the muscles and working physiology second. Its a preference. I am a woman. I work alone for the most part. I get to choose what is the best path for me and him:p.

[jen judkins]

BTW, before and after photos for Reno. These photos were taken about 15 months apart.

[Andy Carson]

Jen, I am sure your method works too. I have to say “Nice Butt” (on the horse).

[Author]

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