And So It Begins...

And So It Begins... Feb 14 2008 The 53rd Annual Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show. It's officially kicked off this evening with a concert by Heart and Emerson Drive. All week, vans have been pulling into the WestWorld grounds, unloading horses, setting up barns, conditioning and polishing horses. Today, last minute work and training creates a busy atmosphere, for a show expecting to attract over 2500 horses, competing for over $1 million in prize money in more than 640 classes over 10 days. The tents: There's UPS and FedEx and barn supply delivery trucks rolling in and out of parking lots, delivery men and women scurrying in and out of tents, and media and show office trailers. Volunteers and workers unloading boxes, stacking brochures and programs, constructing trusses. The vendors: Still-empty booths; booths set up and ready for business tomorrow: pony tails for your hair or your horse's tails; boots for you or your horse; rugs, sparkly belts and blouses; hats, tack, horse statues, Western decor, photography, silver and turquoise jewelry, art. I stop by and say hi to endurance rider Janice Taylor of Janus Studio from Kentucky, with her lovely fabric painting and wall hangings. And there's still more. Food stands getting ready: hot dogs to gourmet coffee to sushi. Blindingly-shining new silver trailers, trucks, sports cars. Plentiful ATM machines strategically placed. The barns: Last touches being put on the barns: newly planted flowers, canvas and wooden panels with stable names resembling permanent barns, artificial grass, wood chips, neatly raked paths. Cars, trucks, horse trailers parked by the barns, jamming the aisles, unloading horses and equipment. Barns in every direction of the compass, and spilling out across the street to the north, filling up with horses. The arena: There's horses training: dressage, driving, English and Western pleasure, lunging sprinters going around and around and around; prancing shining Arabians; high steppers and slow-motion 4-beat canter-ers; greatly bowed necks, high-headed and high-tailed spirits; tail bags, neck warmers; sweating necks, bathed bodies; whips N' spurs, spit-polished silver tack that makes you squint in the sun, double reins, monster bits, martingales; three (that's THREE) young girls wearing helmets. Trainers training: "Don't let him do a quarter turn with his hip out there or you'll have a lot more to fix." "It's not jabbing, it's pressing him over." One 10-year-old girl on a high stepping Arabian, riding like a pro, wearing a two-way radio on her belt, being coached by her instructor while weaving through 15 other riders in the covered arena. The first classes begin tomorrow morning at 8 AM.

---

Sharing Strangles

Monday February 11 2008 This was Rhett 3 weeks before: And this is Rhett now. Getting better, no temp, last of the lump under his jaw disappearing, legs no longer swelling, good appetite, tail carriage up, finally putting weight back on. Symptoms started coming back 10 days ago, so he went back on the daily antibiotic shots; and fearing his guttural pouches had become infected - which would mean a costly, and rather dreadful, treatment - we Xrayed his head. Fortunately, nothing showed up, but we are keeping with the antibiotic shots a while longer to make sure this is going to really get knocked out this time. Rocky finally started showing symptoms of strangles a few days ago - thick snot in one nose, and coughs. That makes the last of the 7 horses having finally gotten the nasty disease - though some got much sicker than others. They all feel good enough, when I turn Jose and Rhett with the others, to run around the big paddock together, and, if you're Rocky, to run around to avoid being caught. The horses all had the strangles - and now I've got it. Thick snot on one side of my nose, swollen glands, cough, feeling like absolute crap. I know how the horses felt.

---

This Vet Plays Polo

Saturday February 9 2008 This weekend was my first time to watch polo. Stacey the vet was playing in the second game. High intensity and serious playing the first game: lots of shoving and swearing and hot tempers. One referee had to warn one of the players. Fast horses, serious bits and tie downs and double reins; equine polos and bell boots; human gloves, spurs, kneepads, helmets (though a few brave (?) souls didn't need helmets). The second game would be less intense, and Stacey had the right idea: go out and have fun! "I haven't played polo in a year and a half, so what? I have never ridden these horses I'm borrowing, so what? Come on - we're chasing a little ball around with sticks on horses. How seriously can you take yourself?" Polo started in Persia in the 6th century BC, both men and women playing. Most of the horses nowadays are Thoroughbreds (many off the track) or Thoroughbred crosses, with a quarter horse or paint thrown in here and there. There are 4 riders on each team, 4 chukkas in a game; each chukka lasts 7 1/2 minutes. It's usually fast paced and furious - sprinting starts and skidding stops, whirling around, running across the 100 by 50-yard field, horses bumping, riders bumping and leaning out of their saddles. Horses must be rested for at least a chukka before going back on the field. Then there's the object of actually hitting the ball with the mallet, either forward or backward or sideways, while always on the move, trying to get them through your 2 goal posts at the ends of the field. Stacey started on a stout paint mare, spent the first 2 minutes of the first chukka swirling in the cluster trying to break the ball loose. Then there was Stacey sprinting across the field after the ball, urging her mare on, polo stick in the air, racing another rider; there was Stacey and the paint mare getting the lead and positioning themselves to get a good aim on the ball; there was Stacey slowing and starting to make a curve at a gallop; there was Stacey's saddle, something dangling and flopping underneath the horse (the girth), suddenly slipping sideways with Stacey crashing straight to the ground. There was Stacey rolling under hooves; there was the paint mare, saddle under her belly, continuing across the field, starting to buck, getting the saddle onto her hips, panicking, bucking frantically, running faster, past the goal posts, aiming for the spectators near the fence, spewing stirrup leathers, broken breast collar, cinch, and, finally, the saddle, and swerving to a stop at the fence. There's people catching the mare and starting to lead her out the gate; there's Stacey getting up, saying, "Oh I'm all right," and heading off the field. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd have limped right on to my car as I walked off the field and drove home, taking this as a sign that maybe I should wait another year and a half before I try polo again, and definitely on a different horse. Stacey is not me, and she was not limping, and she climbed right back on the resaddled paint mare (new cinch tightened) and went right back out onto the field, and on went with the game, just another day on the polo field! Stacey did well the rest of the game, as did the little paint mare, who came out again for the 4th chukka. After the game, Stacey petted her mount and took her for a bath. "She gets real physical out there, she knows just what to do. She loves it out there!" As does Stacey apparently - she's headed back tomorrow for another game, hopefully with a good and tight cinch this time... and maybe a bottle of Ibuprofen and a tube of DMSO.

---

Anatomy of a Vet's Day

Friday February 8 2008 Stacey Sickler is the veterinarian who's been taking care of the strangles horses here. I arranged to tag along with her Friday on her rounds. I am to meet her at Santolina Farm at 9:30 AM. I get a call from her assistant at 9:20, saying Stacey's running a bit late but will meet me there. 9:35: Stacy arrives at Lomita Farm, a nice Breeding and Therapy Rehabilitation Center tucked away near Cave Creek. They breed Arabians, National Show Horses, and Quarter Horses, and have just added some beautiful Gypsy Vanners to their program. At the farm Stacy chats with the owners; chats with a groom, who knows which horse needs which vaccinations; palpates 3 mares; gives rounds of WEE/VEE/Tetanus vaccines. Always in one hand is her cell phone and the other hand is her recorder, to efficiently keep track of what she's done with each horse, (early on in the morning, the recorder ran out of battery power and said, "C U" and switched off). The other hand holds the vaccines. 10:58 AM: Leave Santolina and drive to pick up Stacy's assistant Carol on the way to next call. 11:33 AM: Arrive at Hilde's place. She's got 2 trail horses; 1 gets vaccines, 1 gets vaccines and gets her teeth floated. 12:16: leave Hilde's; drive to next call. It's a fancy stable in an 'upscale neighborhood' - tucked back in a beautifully landscaped area (read: native plants left alone and encouraged to grow, narrow dirt roads), to give one horse a Legend shot. Talk to another owner who drives in. 1:15 PM: leave; have some time before her next appt, so actually go to eat Radical Pitas. 1:57 PM: on to next call, at a boarding farm. 2:28 PM: arrive, meet with owner, implant microchip in neck on Thoroughbred, back to Santolina farm to drop me off, day over at 3:00. I've planned to watch Stacey play in a polo match (!) tomorrow, and ride with her again on vet rounds on Monday.

---

The Merriment of Strangles

Tuesday February 5 2008 Frustration? Pain? Boredom? Or... humor? With this nasty strangles going around the herd, Far had developed a large hard lump under his jaw for quite a while. It was so sore in the last few days he couldn't put his head all the way down to eat out of his feed bucket on the ground, so we had to tie it up on the fence for him. When the lump finally busted the other day, we put him in a pen, just so he wouldn't drip gunk out all over the bigger paddock. The busted lump is nasty, still dripping, and very sore, but as compensation Far did have a nice little pen of his own, with his own water and constant supply of hay, and grain twice a day in an elevated bucket, one that wouldn't bump his tender jaw when he ate. And a roof - which came in handy when it rained all day yesterday again (!) here in the desert. The other horses hung out by him during the days and nights, so he wasn't lacking for company. His jaw did hurt though, and he gratefully accepted sympathy, as long as a human wanted to stand there giving it. This morning, upon bringing him his feed, I discovered Far had been quite busy overnight. Five blankets had been hanging on the back boundary of his fence, out of the rain, out of the reach of Jackson, who likes to remodel and redecorate things. Five blankets that had been dry and hanging were now wet and sandy and spread around Far's pen, two of them dragged out from under the roof and dropped in last night's rain. The other three blankets suffered a far worse fate, having been dropped very carefully, calculatingly, into the middle of his pee spot in the pen, swirled around, and stomped on. As I gasped my initial great dismay, Far innocently ate his grain. Far accepted commiserating pats for his hurting head, and congratulations on his artistic redecorating achievement. If you're stuck with strangles, you might as well make the mostest of it. Jackson was certainly jealous. Later Far and Jose discussed the Blanket Toss Game, and Jose had a great horse laugh. Guess who apparently has a sense of humor? Obviously Far, who had the great visionary blanket rearrangement idea in the first place, and who studiously watched me groan and screech like a girl as I picked up the nasty wet sandy blankets from the muck and put them on the little hay cart with the flat tires and no handle but a string that hurts and cuts off the circulation in your hands when you pull it, and as I pulled the cart across the big paddock, through the heavy soft sand in the wash, where one of the blankets fell off, and as I struggled up the little hill on the other side to the gate. And obviously me, who will be getting sand and other... stuff all over me as I throw the blankets on a fence, pressure hose each of them - the inside and outside (think how heavy they will be to flip over!) in the warm Arizona sunshine in my shorts and tank top, with the rest of the horses watching me over the fence.

---

Ravenous

The Raven II's been taking his Horse Care Job very seriously here in Arizona. He checks on Jose and Rhett to make sure they are getting better. He gives lots of get well kisses (Jose loves them). When he's not nursing horses, he's enjoying the nature around the desert. Just like the other birds around here - hawks and flickers and phainopeplas and owls - he can sit on top of the cactus without getting hurt. He likes the barrel cactus and the saguaro and the cholla and the baby cactus and the agave. He found a bird nest, wondering if he might fit inside. He likes Sebby the dog and the garden sculpture. He's gearing up for the 3-day Eastern Mojave Scenic ride February 16-18, although he hasn't ridden in a long time and will probably be sore (but he'll still be happy). He's looking forward to meeting some visiting Aussies there, including Jay Randle, one of his biggest fans!

---

Freedom! (Sort Of) by Jose

Saturday February 2 2008 Dear Diego, What a great day in Arizona! Rhett and I got taken out of our pen for a few hours and turned out with the other horses - on a whole acre! We ran around and around and around with everybody with our tails in the air. Then we ran around some more. Seb the dog ran around with us barking because he was happy too. He went and jumped in and out of the water trough then ran with us some more. I snuggled with my girlfriend Tess, I lip and neck wrestled with Bossman Rocky, I rolled and rolled and scratched my back in the soft sand, then we ran around some more then I rolled some more then we ran around some more! We were puffing and even broke a little sweat in the warm sun. It's not quite like 200 acres in IdaHome, but it beat the round pen! In the evening when M came to catch Rhett and me to put us back into our round pen after a few hours of freedom, Rhett said he wasn't going to let M catch him. He's not getting shots anymore, but he wanted to make sure he wouldn't get caught just in case. But all M had to do was pull a carrot out of her back pocket and he was a total sucker (he falls for the Carrot Capture every time) and let her slip the halter on him. While she did that, giving him a bite of carrot, I pulled the other carrot out of her back pocket and ate it. M led us back to our round pen for the evening, which was fine because she said we'd get turned out again tomorrow with the gang and because our hay dinner had been laid out for us. And we got our usual evening grain - we are still working on getting fattened back up, especially Rhett. Rhett gets extra treaties in his bucket because he's still a skinny bones. M told me that it is snowing in IdaHome again Diego, so you enjoy the room to run around and I'll enjoy the sunshine for you, and when we see each other again in IdaHome we'll both race around with everybody very far up the canyon in the sunshine. Love, Jose

---