On Holidays Part 1

We begin our African adventure. It was a long drawn out affair to get here; 1.5 hour flight to Seattle, 10 hour wait for our departure to Dubai, 14 hour flight from Seattle to Dubai, airport shuttle to hotel in Dubai for a few hours shut eye before hopping on another 3.5 hour flight from Dubai to Cairo. Once we arrived in Cairo, we were greeted by Mamoud who briefed us on our upcoming itinerary and then delivered us to the local regional airport for yet another 1.5 hour flight for our arrival in Luxor.
We were greeted in Luxor by another friendly representative of Lion Dog Safari named Ahmed, who delivered us to the beautiful Steigenberger Nile Palace Hotel. Here we enjoyed the only authentic Thai cuisine in Luxor; and a peaceful night sleep. The following morning Ahmed introduced us to the guide who would navigate us through the next part of our journey; touring around Luxor and the 5 day river cruise down the Nile.
Ayman is a University educated man with a wife and beautiful baby girl named, Ereni. We have found Ayman to be wonderful company and very passionate about the political situation Egypt is currently facing under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ayman also proved to be extremely resourceful when Gord’s backpack caved under the weight of all his electronics and broke a strap, and then again, when he was able to get Gord hooked up with Internet while we are in Egypt. While this country seems quite behind in many respects, Gord has ended up with a better internet connection than we have at home – go figure.
Yesterday we spent the morning visiting the tombs at the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, and the temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the status of Colissi of Menmon. Ayman then took us to a factory where we got to watch them hand carve all kinds of authentic artwork on genuine stone. I picked out a lovely Onyx pot for my collection and a hand carved Sand stone tablet with beautiful colours. The weather is quite lovely at around 20C, however Ayman finds it cold, as it is their winter here.
We then boarded our ship, the Crown Jewel, where we enjoyed lunch and relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon. After dinner, there was a cheesy belly dancing show and Ayman confirmed that belly dancing is not considered a respectable profession in Egypt.
After the show, we met up with Ayman and he took us for a walk downtown to Luxor. The weather was pleasant and it is Saturday night, and so there were many people on the street. It is an entirely different world here and it was fascinating to see the local people doing what the local people do. Considering the political challenges Egyptians are facing, they seem to be amazingly happy as we watched them dancing and laughing on the street.
There is no social support for poor people here and it was very hard for me to see a young mother with her infant child, begging in the street - absolutely heartbreaking.
In a society that does not look after their poor people well, animals do not fare well here. It has been so hard to see the horses and donkeys pulling carriages and carts through crazy traffic; that appear starving and are obviously lame. I just want to do TTouch on them and bring them to a sweet grassy field.

Tovie

Happy 2103!

Contrary to popular superstition, 13 has always felt like a lucky number for me, so I am very excited to be entering 2013.

While 2012 was filled with amazing horse encounters and experiences, it ended with great sadness on New Year's Eve, when my beloved kitty Clover died unexpectedly. Clover's little buddy Goblin is still looking for him and missing their daily wrestling matches. Clover was the best farm kitty and greeted everyone with hugs and purrs. He was always sitting in the driveway when we arrived home, no matter how long we had been away. Perhaps he was guarding the property, or he somehow knew we were coming and was waiting to greet us. If we were outside, Clover was always nearby waiting for any opportunity to be petted or treated. There is a huge hole on the farm without that big beautiful orange tabby cat.

You are greatly missed,
Tovie & Goblin

Finding the Right Horse

Having fun with our horses, versus being frustrated and scared, completely depends on finding the right horse and developing our skills as horse handlers.

While having a horse that is very well trained can definitely help you develop your skills, even the best trained horse can easily digress to the level of an inexperienced handler. My criteria for choosing the right horse, is finding a horse that truly wants to be with you. This connection is difficult to convey to first time horse buyers. In a perfect world, every first time horse buyer would be matched with a horse they connect with; and has received adequate training and a temperament to fill in for any lack of expertise.

It could be said that purchasing a horse is similar to getting married. You will appreciate the one you marry far more if you date a few others first. On the other hand, if you rush into marrying the first person who comes along, you may not appreciate them if they are great, and if they turn out to be not so great - you will spend a lifetime trying to develop and/or improve the relationship.

Shopping for that first horse takes patience. Often the excitment of finally making your dream of horse ownership come true can blind folks to reality. Not much different than rushing into marriage while still infatuated, or because it is easier than letting go. Again, just like marriage, the more difficult the horse, the greater opportunity for learning and growing. The problem with this is that folks getting started with horses later in life are not bouncing as well when they hit the dirt.

When students seek my assistance to purchase their first horse, I encourage them to meet and try out several horses before they ask my opinion. As with everything about horses, this too has become a learning experience for me. More often than not, by the time I meet the horse, the decision has pretty much been made. This means I am really going out to see if there are any obvious concerns about the horse. However, it has become clear that even when everything seems to be going well, a bad match can still happen.

For example, one of my students bought a lovely, quiet mare who didn't show any cause for concern during the 3 visits prior to sealing the deal. However, it turned out this mare had lived most of her life alone, and had therefore not developed adequate social skills when exposed to other horses. While her aggression towards other horses is understandable, this is a problem that poses real danger to anyone riding near her.

Another example; a student who purchased a lovely morgan cross. This horse seemed to be a perfect fit for a beginner, age, exerpience and temperament. However, after being brought home, this horse started to act out under saddle. When a thorough check of saddle fit and extensive ground work didn't fix the problem, the horse was sent back to the original owner. Upon arrival, the disgruntled seller saddled him up and off he went without a hiccup. Clearly, it wasn't an issue of a dishonest horse dealer. This man had personally trained and ridden this horse for 10 years and had never seen him act up under saddle. Needless to say, he redeemed his reputation when he was able to demonstrate the horse was good - for him.

On the flip side, I do a lot of work at Dare 2 Dream Horse Rescue, teaching beginners who are considering purchasing their first horse. My initial reaction was; beginners should not be starting out with young horses. However, after 2 years of observation, it is remarkable to see that the majority of these partnerships are working out extremely well. Folks volunteer at D2D, grooming and handling the horses, often in a very minimal way. What Brenda and Henry are very good at, is noticing when a strong bond developes between the horse and a volunteer, and then helping them nurture that bond.

I firmly believe the trusting relationship we have with a horse has a huge impact on the success of that partnership; and to me success means safety.

Happy horse shopping (or should I say dating)!

Tovie and the "Boys"

A Little Irish Dust (aka Navar)

Have you ever got up in the morning with your day all planned out and have it completely change in the blink of an eye? Well that happened to me last Tuesday morning. My morning routine is pretty normal (boring), and always includes a quick check on Kijiji Livestock to see what's new in horse, and related product sales. This morning however, there was an ad that caught my attention - you guessed it - A Little Irish Dust (formerly Louie). He is a yearling gelding and my all time favourite colour, a beautiful grullo.

Buying another horse was defintely not on my list of things to do that day but after calling the number, the ball started rolling. As it turned out, I had met the breeder previously and truly admired her facility and philosophy. In fact one of my former students has boarded her fabulous horse Deuce Bigalow there for a couple of years, and takes riding lessons with Muffy Knox. After talking to the owner, Heather Tanner, about this yearling and learning more about his temperament, I simply had to go meet him. For sure I didn't need another horse because Dexter definitely has my heart and full attention these days, so I took Gord to be my voice of reason. We decided not to make it easy and decided to leave the horse trailer at home.

As you probably guessed, this youngster had me at hello. Heather has done an amazing job with his handling and even Gord couldn't find anything thing to fault, except his young age. My thinking is that young horses are started too early, before their joints are fully developed, and in many cases this causes their early demise, as happened to my beautiful Nugget. Gord's voice of reason was that I will be caring for this youngster for a couple of years before he'll ever be ridden. My response was - ya so what's wrong with that? We grow our own hay, trim our own feet, do our own de-worming - not much cost to own one more and the extra feet to trim are OK by me. In hindsight, we should have taken the horse trailer to save a second trip.

When we picked him up, he jumped right onto the trailer without hesitation. I am so used to fixing problems, that I was surprised he went without issue. Heather's comment was, "he's always been handled by competent handlers and so he has never learned differently". Heather was absolutely right. He loads, picks up his feet and leads like all our other well trained "boys".

Unfortunately, most folks just starting out with horses are going to make mistakes. Our horses will give us honest feedback how we're doing. When we handle them well, they respond well. When our horses aren't doing what we think they should, it is an opportunity to reflect on how we could do things better.

Needless to say, the name Louie didn't work for me so I changed his barn name to Navar. Captain Navarre was the hero of my all time favourite movie - Ladyhawk, also starring Michelle Pfieffer and Matthew Broderick. I've shortened it for simplicity but it still makes me smile every time I say it.

I've promised Gord that, barring anything horrible happening to any of our boys, I will never ask for another horse. I'm not sure he believes me.

Tovie, baby Navar, and the big "boys".

Another Sad Horse Day

Nadine is a new student of mine who recently bought her first horse. Her father has had experience with horse buying and selling in the past and so he was her advisor. Since Nadine had only taken a couple of lessons with me, I agreed to board Bentley for the short term to allow Nadine to continue her lessons, using Bentley.

When Gord and I went to pick Bently up, we were a little surprised at her father's recommended horse. Firstly he was huge and Nadine is an itty bitty little thing. Secondly, he hadn't been handled much so was not terribly confident or trained. Thirdly, he had a terrible crack in one of his front feet that was filled with epoxy. Needless to say, he was not a horse I would have recommended as a first horse. Anyway, the deal was done and so we loaded Bently up and got him home.

As with any horse we bring to our property, they are intially kept in a wooden paddock to be introduced to our "Boys" over the fence. Bentley didn't cause as much of a ripple in the herd as our other young visitor Honey, a 2 year old filly.

Amongst horse people, there is a little joke often said a few days after buying a new horse, that goes something like this. "Whew, the drugs have worn off, so I guess I didn't get hoodwinked into a buying a crippled, green, or worse, psychotic, horse." Unfortunately, that was not the case with Bentley. He started showing signs of being sore within a couple of days of his arrival. Eventually, his lameness couldn't be explained away and so Nadine brought in a vet to x-ray his "epoxy" foot. The x-rays revealed the huge crack was caused by the fact that half Bentley's coffin bone was actually missing - something the vet had never seen. He guessed that poor Bentley had received a traumatic injury to that foot many years ago (perhaps a nail penetration), and the ensuing infection had eventually eroded half of his coffin bone completely away. He went on to explain that perhaps with the right shoeing, Bently could maybe be made comfortable, but would not likely ever be sound enough for riding. Nadine made the brave and necessary decision to put Bentley down that day - only two weeks after purchasing him.

Most of the students who come to me have never owned a horse previously so this sad turn of events provoked some thoughts that I would like to share with anyone looking to buy a horse.

Most folks buying their first horse are not discriminating enough to be able to weed out inappropriate horses. Unless they have a very specific competitive purpose for that horse, most folks absolutely fall in love with every horse they meet. I encourage my students to go meet several potential horses prior to making that crucial commitment. Sometimes, that first horse may work out, but not as often as we'd like to think.

Clearly Bentley had been drugged so he appeared sound at the time of the sale. In fact, Nadine mentioned that the bill of sale had clearly stated, "guaranteed sound at time of delivery". This statement alone should have been a huge red flag.

I also encourage folks to go meet the horse more than once. A warm, summer afternoon may make even the greenest horse behave like a calm, reliable trail horse.

The truth is, that buying a horse is similar to buying a used car - buyer beware. As we recently learned with Nugget, it costs approximately $450.00 to have a horse euthanized and disposed of. It is much more cost effective to give a horse bute for a few days prior to selling them so an unsuspecting buyer gets stuck with the vet costs, or worse, as was the case of Bentley. In fact, we gave Nugget bute for a couple of days prior to our appointment to have him put down, to make the trailer ride more comfortable. When we arrived at the vet the day were having him put down, Nugget didn't show any signs of lameness at all. He was so good in fact, that I even joked with the vet that I should quickly sell him before the drugs wore off.

Most often, it is a simple matter of compatability between horse and human. My experience with Dexter taught me that in spades. The best advice I could give someone shopping for a horse, is to go meet at least 10 horses that meet your basic requirements (i.e. training level, size, gender, health, and temperament), and then buy the one that chooses you. You will notice that breeding and colour are not among the list of requirements, there is no wrong breed or colour, of the right horse for you.

Tovie and my "Boys" (a hodge podge of colours and breeds)

Dexter and I at Oxley Ranch

Dexter and I spent a wonderful weekend at the Oxley Ranch located in the Foothills west of Stavely. The Ranch is run by Jennifer White and her daughter Heather. As it turned out, Dexter and I were the only guests, so we had Jen and Heather all to ourselves and that suited me just fine.

Jen and Heather took Dexter and I on three amazing rides but my favourite was the long ride up to the "plateau". It was like being on top of the world with a breathtaking view in all directions. Aside from the view, there was a fully intact ancient medicine wheel and an eratic that had been used as a rubbing spot by the buffalo for thouands of years. It was a magical day spent at a magical place.

Dexter and I also had an opportunity to ride among the cattle on the ranch to see how he would respond. As with everything we throw at this little horse, it was uneventful and he really seemed to enjoy pushing the cows around.

What I discovered about my horsemanship over the weekend, is that I ride my horses cautiously. I've never had to use them for work; whereby you need them to respond instantly and willingly to get a job done. I admired Jen's riding ability and how well her horses responded to her. When I mentioned that nobody but me had ever been on Dexter's back, Jen offered to get on him to see how he is with someone else. Again - uneventful. What I did get to see is how much more capable Dexter can be when asked for more. It gave me a new perspective and more to work on to bring Dexter to a higher level.

Willow Creek winds its way through the ranch and at the end of a hot day of riding, it was great fun to float along with the current. Heather introduced me to the cowgirl version of a day at the spa - a wonderful mud wallow. That would have been a great picture - Heather and I covered in mud from head to toe. To exfoliate dead skin, you just lie in the creek and let the minnows do the job. While their nibbling didn't hurt, it definitely took a bit of getting used to.

Thanks to Jen & Heather for a terrific experience!
Tovie & Dexter

It's Another "Boy"

Last week, Gord learned about an auction being held in Claresholm today - the Western Working Horse Sale. Gord and I love auctions but don't typically attend unless the weather doesn't have anything good in store. The only reason we decided to attend this one was because Ron Anderson was the announcer and we trusted that Ron Anderson wouldn't associate his name with a disreputable sale.

We invited some friends to make a day of if and my BFF, Sherri decided to come with us because her hubby Mark, had to work. Gord didn't really want to haul the trailer but I suggested it would be worthwhile to have it "just in case".

The best thing about an auction of this calibre, is that each horse is demonstrated prior to the auction so you get a chance to evaluate them prior to sale time.

There were 44 horses - it was the last horse that caught all our attention - a beautiful blood bay. 18 years old and a seasoned, money earning, reining horse.

Sherri and I had a chance to talk to his owner, Colin Brown, to learn more about his background and personality. We were both drawn to his lovely disposition, but it was when we saw his demonstration that I was really sold. Just prior to him coming on the auction block, Sherri and I discussed the possibility of co-owning him and how that might look.

We decided he would be a wonderful teacher for me to get a better feel for more advanced reining manouvers; and a wonderful first horse for Sherri to become more confident in the saddle. Because of his advanced training and the fact that he had earned good money in the show ring, we thought his price would likely go to $5,000.00. We agreed to bid to $4,000.00, or $2,000.00 each. Gord took care of bidding and managed to get us a great deal that Sherri and I were both more than happy with.

Needless to say, Gord won the bid - Sherri and I were thrilled.

After the sale, Sherri and I were greeted by many folks who congratulated us on getting the best horse in the sale. It gave us a lot of confidence that we weren't buying a horse that was being dumped. The owner even gave us his number and offered his assistance if there were any issues or if we just needed help to learn Dude's buttons.

In fact, I had a full circle moment when Ron Anderson approached me to say he knew the horse personally and that we were very lucky to have him. My first potential horse experience was a horse named Dollar who was boarded at Ron Anderson's facility in Springbank. Dollar was a former barrel horse who had a nasty case of heaves; and was owned by one of my co-workers. At the time, I was considering purchasing Dollar at a significantly reduced price. Even though Dollar's owner was Ron's client, I appreciated when Ron quietly said to me, "it costs just as much to board a healthy horse as it does a sick one". Although I wanted this horse (any horse) with every ounce of my being, Ron's advice steered me clear of buying Dollar.

I realize Ron has no idea how his small snippet of advice shaped my horse experience in such a positive direction. It wasn't long after that I was given Apache for free -the greatest first horse I could have had. Just thinking about Apache fills me with wonderful memories.

Dude will undoubtedly be a wonderful first horse for Sherri and he will help me become a better rider. In my opinion, these type of horses are worth their weight in gold but because of their more advanced age, folks won't consider them. My thinking is that they may not be around for long but their experience is invaluable to keeping us safe building our confidence.

My greatest wish for all my students is that they find their Apache, or Dude.

Many thanks to Ron Anderson, Apache, and the "Boys" for a horse experience that has exceeded all my "little girl" expectations.

p.s. The name "Dude" simply didn't feel right for Sherri and I. Dude's auction number was 44 and Gord happened to mention "44 Magnum". We both loved Magnum and so it is. I happen to be a huge Tom Seleck fan so for me it will always be Magnum PI!