omranchstables.com Blog

My purebred Egyptian Arabian, Omofillya or ‘Filly,’ and I have been patiently and carefully moving through an 11 month project. She is soon to present with God’s grace a live foal. Her due date is April 24th. Less than one week away is this date but I have two feelings by observation and experience of the past and present. I am predicting a May foal. I have a strong feeling that this is a colt and will be born on May 1 or 2nd. I may be wrong but that is just my feeling all along. She shows no imminent signs that she will foal tomorrow. I check on her daily to see.

She’s been enjoying the safe confines of a double sized mare foal stall to ensure that she never eats any North Carolina grass which would endanger the fetus. I hope that this pregnancy reaches a normal end, we pray, and if all goes well, we will start her new foal in its training as an Arabian Race horse.

So much hope and excitement here. Filly is doing marvelously well despite some sessions of long periods laying down in her stall to endure braxton hicks cramps. Dr. Tom Redding assures me that this is normal for mares especially those that are confined in the last 3 months. I have walked and trotted Filly in hand for 20 minutes a day religiously, only missing a few sessions due to bad weather. We are so proud of Filly and will be even prouder still of her foal, God willing all goes well. The moments of excitement of birth are rapidly approaching. I can hardly believe it. A year has flown by so quickly. I still remember taking her down to Florida to Rosebrook Farm as if it were last week. We bred Filly to Doran FBFar, a undefeated Arabian Champion Race Horse with many titles and fabulous blood lines. Doran’s brother is Fryvolous who won multiple titles and thousands of dollars in prize money and is now racing in Dubai.

I recently purchased a Piaffe whip for Baby’s training as well as the DVD of the work in hand by Arthur Kottas, Director of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. This is only part 5 of a series of Classical Dressage for the Modern Sport Dressage Horse DVDs that he has authored. It is fabulous to say the least. I have learned a great deal from watching this DVD.

In the past I have learned a great deal watching my former instructor, Lynn Leath, ride attending her high level Dressage Clinics at North Star Training Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Once I started my riding facility in Pittsboro, I had little time to attend the clinics as well as little extra cash to pay for lessons so I had to do more watching of Dressage clinics on DVD and on the RFDTV’s broadcast of various Dressage clinics and worldclass competitions. Watching videos of world class riders as they ride in clinics and in competition has been the best substitute for expensive lessons. The great thing is you can watch multiple times and then go out and do your best to practice what you have learned. Nothing beats knowledgeable eyes on the ground and I miss Lynn’s knowledgeable eyes and commentary. But I must do the best with what I have.

Of course I have the opportunity to apply what I have seen as often as I have time for as I have more than one of my own sport horses to train to perfect our skills.

I am so pleased with this Classical Dressage video of Arthur Kottas as it shows everything that one must do to train their apt student horse in hand in Piaffe and Passage. I do not often have the benefit of eyes on ground, as in instructor or students around my facility to watch me. When students are here, I am paid to watch them and then they are on their way. I do not take instruction as I once did as I have found it most beneficial to follow the road of Classical Riding and my former instructor teaches Modern Dressage, which is not possible nor comfortable for my horse, Baby, who is a Half Arabian, to do. My former instructor is very successful riding her Warmbloods in the style of Modern Dressage. I found it to be more like torture for me and my horse. I much prefer the fluid style of Classical Riding. Classical Riding is correctly executed when the horse is ready and able to voluntarily perform at each level until they reach the high school with Piaffe and Passage as well as the Airs Above the Ground.

I have great respect for my former instructor, however, because of all of her great success in that level of Dressage as it is extremely difficult to pull off well and it takes a great deal of resources to compete on that level because of the type of horse you must ride, the world travel for both horse and rider as well as the amount of money you must spend on veterinary therapy of the lameness that inevitably results from such style of riding.

In Classical Riding there is less injury if any from overbending and repetitive stress on the joints that is caused by Modern Dressage style. In Classical Riding the horse is allowed to mature and reach each level throughout the lifespan. Baby is now 18 years of age and has matured very nicely, is sound and happy. He escaped the commonly fatal outcome of Laminitis this year and I am pleased to say that when I geared up according to the method I have learned from repeatedly watching Athur Kottas’ DVD, I had outstanding results immediately.

The first time out, when I introduced the Piaffe whip while walking Baby in hand and then going over the in hand half halt, tapping his hind legs lightly, he first got somewhat confused attempting to go in a small circle as he was accustomed to doing when being lunged on the lunge line. Then as he learned to do the half halt in hand and understand that when I tap his hock with the Piaffe whip that he should collect and raise the leg, while also taking more weight behind, he became very pleased with himself.

Baby loves to learn and I make sure to immediately reward him with praise when he gets something even slightly correct. The first time out our goal was simply to understand the half halt in hand and to raise a hind leg at the tap of the whip. Mission was accomplished in about 15 minutes. I have a very smart horse. This process was repeated on both sides and so pleasingly my Baby aced his first Piaffe in hand lesson.

We have had time to do his second Piaffe in hand lesson today and I was thrilled with the results and the potential that I experienced with him. First the goal was to repeat the success of the previous lesson and see if a next level could be attained and that would be that he would begin to raise a front foot with the movement of his weight back on his hind as he lifts one at the tap of the Piaffe whip. This is kind of ambitious. But he did it!!! And with many praises and sugar cubes he figured out what he was supposed to do. What I did not count on was two different extras thrown in by Baby himself as he was feeling absolutely fit and brilliant in the exercise.

While he was attempting to figure out what I wanted with the half halt and taking more weight behind he did a Levade in hand…Just like that..There he was up on his hind quarters with his front hooves up in the air! I praised him up and down and he was so very pleased with himself. I was very very excited that he can do this on his second Piaffe lesson. I will save that for later of course.

Then after we completed the lesson in hand, which, to keep in fun, we finished after getting a couple successive Piaffe steps with many sugar cubes to stress the success immediately, we moved on to our Classical Riding under saddle. I wasn’t aiming for much, just suppling shoulder in and basic bending. But he decided he would like to do some Passage for a little bit and that was great. Then as the work moved forward, he was feeling extremely energetic and would love to have sprinted wildly across the arena. A contributing factor to this mood of his was the crisp 30 F weather with sun shining brightly. He loves the winter weather for training and completely wilts in the late Spring until summer is past. But sprinting is not permitted during training in Classical Riding, of course. So I thought to channel his exhuberence into the work of cantering after a little collected bending and suppling. We did some surpentines, some half pass, and shoulder in, at the trot and then when he was settled into calmly moving forward with his energy, we did collected canter work with some flying changes through the center line. Then as we approached the first flying change at the centerline, what a pleasant surprise he gave me, boom, a Capriole with me on his back! Bare in mind that horses can do these kinds of movements easily at anytime they wish. The trick is for the rider to cue them to do these and do them correctly. We have much work to do in that department, however, I was thrilled with the results of his work today and thrilled to feel the power and the air as he and I were a pair above the ground of our humble clay and sand arena at Om Ranch Stables.

This past September my dear horse Baby got a strange very high fever up to 106.1F that lasted about 3 days fluctuating from 104 to 106 to 103 until finally the NC State Vet School brought the fever down to normal. They gave a diagnosis of colitis although, Baby never did develop diarrhea. We will never really know what caused his fever and just as things started to improve for him and the doctors gave the ok to take him back home after a 3 day quarantine at there emergency clinic in Raleigh, NC, he started to lean back on his rear legs giving the signs of laminitis in his front hooves.

The Vets did say that endotoxemia could yield Laminitis at some point after a horse runs a high fever. I had cautioned the vets that he might also develop Laminitis from standing for days on their hard concrete floors. I had called the first day he was admitted to request that he be given extra shavings for his bedding since he’d not been used to standing on hard floors. His stall is clay with rubber mats and Streufex.

When I was ready to pick Baby up they called me and said he would not be cleared to go home due to this development. I immediately thought of Barbaro and all the long months on a hard floor. My friend Rex Brewer, a sale rep of Magna Entertainment, where Streufex horse bedding is made and I had attempted to get some Streufex over to the New Bolton Center for Barbaro but no one would call us back to arrange to receive the product for Barbaro. I always thought that Barbaro would have survived his broken leg and the Laminitis had he been provided a clay floor and lots of Streufex horse bedding.

Sure enough, I would get the real chance to find out if I had been right about how good clay and Streufex is for Laminitic horses. I told the doctors and NC Vet School that I was taking Baby home. I thanked them for doing such a great job bringing his fever down but I would not leave him for another moment on those hard floors. I knew that would kill him for sure.

So I loaded him up, paid my bill and left with the antibiotics that were prescribed for him for the entire month. I did as the doctor requested and got some xrays of his hooves the next day from my local vet. Yes, he had some slight rotation but not ready for Euthansia. Thank God! I could see he was sore and could not stand long. He was leaning back for a few hours but once he spent the night back on his own bedding and got off the hard floors he stopped leaning in pain off of his fronts. But he was still very sore and took many rests laying down. He was not able to hold his hooves up for cleaning and rasping for long. I began to have him stand on a wooden 4 by 6 by 2 inch treated wood board, positioned so I could rasp under his hooves while he was standing on the hoof being rasped. That worked great. The hardest part of this process was putting on the pads at first as he couldn’t hold his leg up long and I had to be very accurate and fast getting the pad on correctly. But the routine became more manageable as he was an intelligent patient. He helped me as he learned what he needed to do to get those pads on. I then began to apply Davis boots to his fronts after a while and that was good and much easier for him. This helped him stay out a little longer each day.

He had been barefoot most of his life and this was also a blessing. It seemed to me that his great hard hooves were better able to recover or better able to endure whatever damage from the Laminitis. The damage was mitigated by his healthy barefoot condition. He was able to heal as he was encouraged to rest lying down often in the soft Streufex horse bedding. His hooves kept contact with natural earth elements of the clay floor covered with Streufex, cushioning his sore hooves. This type of floor most likely plays a role in drawing out infections and healing hooves.

Having had the advantage of being barefoot and having very healthy hooves before the bout with fever and Laminitis, he really did fare much better than many horses who normally wore shoes all of their lives. His hooves were tender but in good condition to endure what must have been very painful. He took his meds each day with molasses, bute and antibiotics for the first week and then after about a week the bute was discontinued. He had been turned out each day in a pasture with little grass just to get some circulation and light exercise. He looked ready to come in after about 2 hours and carefully walked in. I had been duck taping pads to his front hooves and wrapping his legs with Icey Hot liniment. This really seemed to help him endure and move as needed so that he would get the circulation into his damaged hooves.

In about two weeks he was walking on rocks again and as the pads would fall off he felt ok to walk on rocks regardless. He was getting better rapidly after about one month of the gradually increased turn out.

Three months later he is in the pink. No pain in his hooves and back to normal with daily routine of 12 hours out and 12 in. He gets ridden lightly in Dressage and in pasture. Soon the work of collection will resume. He has made what I consider a full recovery and I must conclude that Streufex and clay floors as well as barefoot routine rasping is the way to keep a horse sound after Laminitis as well as a diet with Nutrina Lite horse pellets and good grass hay.

Baby will no longer be allowed to graze on a pasture with much of any grass, especially in the Spring time. He will have to be kept on grass hay and very little turn out in grassy pasture. He will always be vulnerable to Laminitis. But He did manage to recover very nicely as long as he was not left to be stalled on hard cement clinic floors in Equine Hospitals.

We had a wonderful ride with my two Arabian horses who are training in Classical Dressage at their own pace, not mine. It was complete bliss to ride in Classical style with no stuffy Warmblood judges leaving notes to us that we should go back to training level for not riding in the overbent, under the bit style they seem to promote.

These two beautiful horses are Baby and Filly. Their registered names with the Arabian and Half Arabian registries, are Om Ofillya, my purebred bay Egyptian Arabian mare and Keval Ananda, my half Arabian gray Gelding, who is working in Intermediare and Grand Prix at age 17. Filly is about second level but can’t wait to reach Grand Prix, as she has been doing Piaffe and Passage since I first started riding her.

The Thank You I have titled this post goes to my two horses for their fine performance at the new Lowell’s Run Warehouse in High Point, NC grand opening and especially to Liberty Property Trust, http://www.libertyproperty.com/ and Amy Amrich. I do not have the names of the board of directors at Liberty Property Trust, however, I do thank them from the bottom of my heart for their kind donation for our performances at their request on April 19th, 2007.

Filly was ridden in her first impromtu Musical Freestyle, to Mozart’s Overture to Le Nozzi di Figaro. I chose this music for her sheer exuberant style. She loves to run, since she has race horse genes. Getting her to collect and be on the bit is fine but she must do this at a brisk pace. She was a blast to ride. She loves to sit down. So if I can ever find the best way to channel her energy through her back she will breeze to Grand Prix.

Baby was ridden in fine accomplished style to Mozart’s aria from Don Giovanni, Ah! Taci, Ingiusto Core. For warm of each ride, the music of Mozart from his two Piano Concertos  #17 In G, K453 and #18 In B, K 456, were ridden to, along with selected favorite arias from Le Nozzi Di Figaro and Don Giovanni. The audio was run by my student’s father, Dr. Todd Granger. My able assistant groom, Miriam Granger and long time student and owner of American Quarter horse, May B Croton’s Oil, or “Crow” did a great job helping out. I couldn’t have done it without them.

We had a very nice audience of investors, clients and members of the Liberty Property Trust staff and I was even told the the Mayor of High Point, North Carolina, where Lowell’s Run is located was in attendance. Baby and I stopped to chat a little with them as they stood on the long side of the temporary Dressage Arena that Amy Amrich had set up for us. She did a great job supervising the landscapers to clean the rocks out and pad the Olympic Size 200 by 66 foot flat arena with wood chips. She had plants put out at the places where each letter should be, as I had requested.

I was delighted to find out that Baby and Filly actually enjoyed working in the wood chips after we cleaned out any large chips. At first I thought the footing was a bit thick, but I road Baby for more than an hour as my audience kept watching us from the warehouse docks and then came out, fine suits, evening attire and all, to see us up close and personal. They did ask, “When is the barrel racing going to start?”

I hollered over to Miriam, “We should have brought Crow!” her retired North Carolina State Barrel Racing Champion. Maybe next time. Baby and I could have barrel raced there as well. I started to ask Miriam to move three of the plants into a triangle pattern so Baby and I could do some barrels in our pink shadbelly and dressage tack. He can do it and very fast as we have been practicing canter pirouettes for a long time. We did do some barrel racing, bareback for Miriam for one of her lessons. It was fun! Baby was pretty fast for his first time and really, bareback is the way to learn barrel racing.

My pink shadbelly that I made as a practice with dollar a yard pink material was a tad small but worked just fine for this event. I made it before I make my expensive competition shadbelly as the instructions advised. I had a pink dressage pad for Baby. The pink theme was all about the color of Baby’s muzzle and skin, the Baroque Period, when Classical Riding had it’s rebirth with the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and Mozart walked and wrote his celestial music. The theme of pink seemed to cause folks to think Baby was a mare. They often make this mistake. Others have called him, ‘her’ or ’she’…I always correct them. It must be his pink skin or his sweet gorgeous eyes and kind demeanor.

Whatever it is, we are a harmonious team. Filly and I also became a harmonious but breathtakingly fast team that evening in the light drizzle under cloudy skies, perfect weather for riding horses comfortably out doors in the warming weather of a North Carolina Spring. I was so worried about humid hot weather for the event and prayed for a cool day. Our prayers were answered and it was so much fun. We hope to put on more exhibitions in the future for special events such as this grand opening.

The charitable nature of the fine people at Liberty Property Trust, http://www.libertyproperty.com/will always be remembered by the riders and volunteers at Chatham EquiTherapy, Inc. which resides and operates at Om Ranch Stables in Pittsboro, North Carolina.

Well, I wondered if I would ever reach this level of work in my Classical Dressage training with my horse Baby or any horse, for that matter. I am very pleased to announce that we are joyfully working all the elements of Grand Prix on a regular basis in Baby’s training. Baby is now 17 years old. We started two tempis about one month ago and the funny thing about it was how easy it was for him to do the first try. Then after the success of a few more sessions I decided that we should just throw in for the ones and boom, he did them as if he had been doing them all of his life or at least picked them up where he left off in a previous lifetime.

I am thrilled of course with all of our progress and mostly his progress in the past couple of months with his canter piroettes, his beginning of Passage work and some hints of Piaffe. Now I realize that flying changes are just a lot of fun for horses so flying changes really are not surprising to do in any number be it fours, threes, twos or ones as long as the horse is listening for his queues from the rider. Baby enjoys doing them and that is what is the most pleasurable about doing Dressage for me. My horse needs to have fun doing the work or we won’t puruse it. He listens for his queues like a good soldier awaiting the call of duty.
I work him on these things twice a week and ride him without tack on three days of his four day a week training routine. I work all of the elements bareback and with no bit, just soft reins attached to his halter. He loves this and volutarily moves in self carriage with his poll the highest point. He could raise his poll and give in his jowl a little more, but that is a goal that I expect him to reach in his time. I refuse to engage in any forceful struggles of yesterday, embarrassed and humbled as I am to admit our past mistakes. He has long since forgiven me for my ignorance and is most appreciative that I have become more educated.
I am going to begin working him in hand in the Piaffe any time now, then we will work him bareback as he gets it from our in hand sessions. I have some visions of adding Corbette, Capriole, and Levade if things really go well and I learn the process from the Lippizaner trainers. He loves learning new things and I am ever amazed at how quickly he learns. It is almost as if he tells me. “It’s about time you caught up with me!”

I only tack him up completely on one day of the entire week. I firmly believe he does his work with complete soundness and pleasure because he feels me on his bare back being completely dependent on our harmony to do the work. He also appreciates my light touch or trust in him with no touch on his mouth when working with no bit. When he is tacked up we use the snaffle bridle and perhaps once a month we use the full bridle. As show season approaches, should we attempt to show at Prix St. Georges, Intermediaire I, II or Grand Prix, we have no clue. I see the realm of the High School to be something I will work and hone to a competitive level for show if we enjoy it enough and if we have all that money we need to purchase FEI level required memberships, passports and all that political Dressage Show horse bureaucratic nonsense. I have more artistic goals in the near term in mind. Dancing and painting with my horse. You might see us in our own ballet some time on You Tube or Yahoo videos once I get something put together.

Keep checking back for this living Classical Riding Portrait in the making starring Baby and I…;)

I have had this fine young horse on my mind since May 5. 2006. Along with millions of others who have a connection to horses or just love a true Champion with the spirit of a real fighter, I have wept today and will probably continue to do so for some time.

We have not lost a beloved hero, we have gained a dear and much needed inspiration for how we can move forward in a time when moving forward instills the greatest uncertainty and foreboding. Barbaro was here with us, sharing the earth and the air and the light where we all struggle with triumph and tragedy together for many reasons.

I have read many great descriptions today of some of the reasons Barbaro captured so many hearts, inspired so many to love and admire his spirit.
I will have to express simply that Barbaro was fearless and fortuituous. He was honest and bold. He didn’t hold back. Going forward, he can be described as a soul to emulate, even if he was as some have simplistically put it, ‘only a horse.’

What does this matter? We can still follow him and learn something about bravery in a time when a good portion of our citizens are turning away from bravery when we need it the most.

The reasons for falling in love with Barbaro are many, but I feel deep in my heart, the biggest reason was his bravery and willingness to sacrifice and give all that he had to give. He was a true spirit, fast for sure but one we can look up to and hope to find a glint of it in ourselves. We need to be brave as our nation forges on in the dark days to come should too many of us lose our way.

I’ll pray that Barbaro’s courage will spark the same in the hearts he won as his soul moves onward into his rightful place in the eternal flame of True Champions.

A successful foundation for any horse in Classical Riding can only be acheived after perfecting the shoulder-in. This is a lateral movement that results in proper straightening of the horse, promotes freedom in the shoulders, suppleness and most importantly the proper bending of the hocks. The proper bending of the hocks occurs over time and allows more weight to be carried on the hind quarters for future advanced high level movements with collection such as Piaffe and Passage.

The problem today with many dressage enthusiasts, is the degree of unnatural bend that is executed in the lateral movements. Over bending the horse while doing the shoulder-in will create a canceling out of the benefit of working the shoulder-in when the horse shortens his stride behind to compensate for his discomfort at being overbent. When over bent the horse is forced to shorten his stride, his inside hind and inside fore legs will not reach forward over the step of those of the outside. The exercise, done over time in this exaggerated position will not allow the horse to benefit from the increase in strength to the hocks when done correctly and gradually.

The improper bending and lateral work done will result in lameness in the hind quarters that have not been properly developed. Patience must be exercised along with regular proper execution of the shoulder-in, so the horse will become proficient at his own pace, avoiding injury and promoting pleasure in the horse as he or she performs this important movement in Classical Training.

The proper execution of the shoulder-in is mandatory to moving forward to each gradually more collected movement in the high school in Classical Training.

Source: Podhajsky, Alois, Die Klassische Rietkunst The Complete Training of Horse and Rider In The Principles of Classical Horsemanship, Wilshire Book Company, 1967, p.133-136.

I have started working full time again in another field aside from horses. I earned a Masters Degree in Computer Information Science and now am working in various IT orgnizational structures to gain valuable experience in IT management so I can someday offer my own consulting services from my own home based IT consulting firm. Hopefully the time missed with my horses in this endeavor will be worth the sacrifice.

What sacrifice? My time is diminished considerably for riding at this time so I must find ways to ride despite my packed schedule. I still must ride for my own well being. But time is so limited. I had to find a way to ride without it taking the usual two hours per ride due to tacking up, riding, taking off tack and cleaning up tack. So how does one do this?

Leave off the tack. All of it! I ride twice a week, my days off with all tack and twice a week with no tack. Basically I ride Baby, my most well trained and favorite horse with his halter and some soft reins that I made which are simply two lead ropes that I made out of lots of braided yarn and two single snaps that snap to the halter on each side. I get on his back for about twenty minutes or perhaps to lead a lesson with my students twice a week. It takes no time at all to pick his hooves and brush him and get on him this way. So a busy schedule does not have to hamper our riding time.
I have found that I can carry on with anything we do with full tack, almost better than I do with tack. He is more comfortable and I am balanced enough to ride him over low jumps and in canter piroettes as well. It took a little practice to get to this point of comfort, but he loved it from the beginning.
It is true, if you have heard, that riding bareback does improve the seat. I would add that it also improves a horse’s ‘throughness’ and ability to collect. I felt so good about it that last week, Baby and I demonstrated barrel racing in the three point pattern complete with flying lead changes and we did a pretty good time to boot. I actually prefer riding bareback now and wish that Dressage shows could be held with or without tack. It would be wonderful to see a horse and rider do Grand Prix with no tack. I know it can be done.

I just recently started using Streufex in my barn. I have to tell you that this was an expensive change but really rather a vast improvement for the health of my horses and myself. Streufex is a straw based horse bedding that provides a pillowy soft, highly absorbent and efficient method for maintaining the horses comfort level while they are stall bound. Streufex is a pelleted horse bedding that is high tech in its packaging. The design starts out in a neat pellet form which then expands as the horses use the bedding. A wonderful property of this type of horse bedding is the way it absorbs moisture as cat litter would. It does that very efficiently, allowing removal of urine with less bulk. It also keeps the manure together so that it is easily removable as well, saving time for the caretaker.

What I find to be one of the best features of Streufex is that it is very soft for the horses to stand in. They are not as stressed by a hard unforgiving floor of concrete and rubber mats. It is also much more dust free, so much more than wood shavings, which tends to grow mold and mildew, allergens of many animals and humans who live and work in barn areas.

Streufex is more expensive to purchase at first but it lasts a long time so really it is more economical to use. For more information on Streufex, visit http://www.fex.at

The idea that you can push your horse to perfection has created a frenzy in the Dressage community of our time that is fueling a varying degree of denial in its particpants. Some of us do not see, that what we do to press our horses into molds that we see others doing with ’success,’  is to some degree, on the spectrum of horse abuse.

We see the rewards of world class recognition and read about how they did it and how they look while doing it and in frustration and much misdirected focus, we strive for the same goals. In that effort we are doing the opposite of what the original and most beautiful harmonious art of Classical Riding is meant to be. Art is beauty. It is not beautiful to force and drill a horse into perfection.

-Elsa Ayala

“Just as experience dictates to the ballet teacher the length of time necessary to train his students, so the horse, too, needs time to mature into a great fourlegged dancer. This fact cannot be obliterated by seeming successes that supposedly prove the opposite.
“For, even if someone should succeed in training a horse to high school level by the age of eight, this individual occurrence cannot shake the foundations of the classical art of riding, if this dressage horse is completely unsound and unusable by the age of ten.”
- ALOIS PODHAJSKY

Savior of the Lippizan Stallions in World War II and former Director of the Spanish Riding School