The start of a new year, wow! So what’s new with all of you? I have booked myself and Tori into a reining clinic in Prince George on the 17th through 19th of January, and am hoping that will give me a focus to aim for.

Tori is being especially hot and silly lately, spooking at the same end of the arena, walking fast with her head up and back hollow, racing around at all gaits and just generally doing things that drive me crazy. It’s hard to clear my mind enough to ignore all those things!

Yet in order to get her ready for the clinic, I have to. Maybe that will be my new year’s resolution. On the other hand, new year’s resolutions seldom last through January and this is something that I need to work on all the time with her!

It’s funny sometimes, when you deal with a horse like this, how good some rides can be. And then other rides just feel awful! I think much of the difference comes from the attitude I’m carrying when I begin the ride. Actually, with Tori being as sensitive as she is, I have to be in neutral before I even start to handle her.

Photo credit: Chris Hassell

Most people realize how sensitive horses can be to your moods, as are most animals that are handled often. Yet we tend to forget this when we climb into the saddle, expecting our horses to pick up where we left off, ignoring all of our excess baggage. It doesn’t always work - especially with a horse as sensitive as Tori. With Raime, I could always depend on him to be the same, very seldom did he have a bad day - even when I was tired or stressed out.

With Tori, I’m not even sure if it is her own agenda or mine that sets the mood, but some days we sure have some wrecks. I think where I go wrong is that on my bad days, I react to her small mistakes, whereas on my good days, I not only ignore them but spend time soothing her and working her through them.

Of course, for those of you who who have always ridden uncomplicated horses, you probably are shaking your heads thinking What is she talking about??? But for those of you who have a Tori, or a Laredo, or a Tawnie in the barn, you’ll understand, and hopefully you’ll be rooting for me every time I head up to the arena!

‘Til next week,
~ Kristi :)

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Does your horse push into you with his shoulder? Does he step on your feet? Does he swing his head around and smack you with it? Does he generally act like you aren’t even there?

Chances are, if you said yes to any of these questions, you already recognized your horse in the last two weeks issues. Hopefully you have already started correcting that behaviour with the helpful tips from those columns.

However, the above mentioned crimes have slightly different corrections than for the horse who was dragging you away.

For the horse that crowds you, steps on your feet or just generally acts like you aren’t there, you have to realize that he has absolutely no respect for you or your space. You will have to instil that respect, and the only way to do it is to make the horse uncomfortable enough to stay out of your space, so that he learns any infringement will be met swiftly with a punishment nasty enough to warrant not doing it again.

The reason I come down so hard on this type of misbehaviour is that in case of an emergency situation, this horse will flatten you out of fear of something else, and you will get seriously hurt. The horse needs to learn that no matter what happens, going through you or over top of you is NOT an option. Period.

Have you ever watched horses out in the paddock together when they have just been fed? You can quickly figure out the pecking order by observing for a few minutes. The alpha horse will start on the nearest pile, and then move to another one soon after - I have never quite figured out if he does it just to prove he CAN move the other horse away from it, or if he actually thinks it might be better food.

The interesting thing is where the moved horse goes to - if the next horse over is lower on the pecking order than the moved horse, he will move that lower horse. However, if the next horse is above the moved horse in the pecking order, the moved horse will squirt out between the alpha horse and the eating horse and circle around to another pile. That is respect, in its purest and simplest equine form.

That is the respect that you need to instil in your horse in order to prevent yourself from being on the receiving end of 1000 lbs of horse escaping over top of you when something else puts him on the run.

Continued next week....

If you have comments or suggestions along the way, please share with me at kristi@hiway16.com

Chances are, if you’ve read a horse magazine in the past few years, you have heard of EPM. However, if you live in northern BC where I live, you likely haven’t paid much attention to EPM as there have been no reported cases of it here.

Still, sometimes we horse owners get worrying about things that we don’t understand, especially in light of the recent West Nile Virus scare. I’d like to help you gain a better understanding of EPM.

Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis is caused by a protozoal parasite called Sarcocystis neurona. This protozoa is introduced into the horse when the horse inadvertently eats the infective sporocysts, which are passed in opossum feces into grass, hay, or grain.

Fortunately for those of us who live in northern BC, we don’t have opossums. There are some opossums found on Hornby Island (a small island near Vancouver Island) and in areas of southern BC. Even if you don’t live in those areas, horses may be purchased from areas and feed can be imported from areas with opossums.

EPM is most often characterized by asymmetrical symptoms (symptoms that are not the same on both sides of the horse). Many of the symptoms of EPM could be mistaken for other diseases or conditions except for the asymmetry.

Incoordination, stiffness, and abnormal or stilted gaits, difficulty standing or rising, and muscle atrophy, especially along the topline and hindquarters are often signs of EPM. Other symptoms found can include difficulty swallowing, sweating without apparent reason, seizures, loss of sensation or paralysis in the face, mouth and neck, sleeping more often than usual or suddenly falling asleep, collapse, and assumption of a splay-footed stance or leaning against walls for balance.

The symptoms vary from horse to horse depending on the location and severity of the lesions that develop in the horse’s system - along the spinal cord, in the brain stem, or in the brain itself.

As with many other diseases, not all horses exposed will develop EPM. Many will develop an immune response and never become sick, while others may carry the organisms for a long time before developing symptoms.

More information on EPM next week.

Northern BC Horse is sponsored by local businesses who support equine sports in our area including:

• Baerental Ranch
• Burns Lake Building Supplies
• Griffin Crick Ranch
• Hoskins Ford
• Northern Horse Supply
• Ridennoure Paint Horses
• The Tack Store

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