Adrienne Baisch Dressage & +4 Performance Horses

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Adrienne Baisch Dressage & +4 Performance Horses Dressage is the main focus here, but variety is the spice of life so we mix in a dose of Working Equi

Truth.
17/07/2024

Truth.

25/05/2024
18/03/2024

In light of the trainers this horse industry has lost in the past 2 weeks...This whole culture of "No one cares. Work harder" is really detrimental to the health & wellbeing of people in this business. We need to support each other for real.

Rodent control is on the job this morning💜 Good kitties
02/03/2024

Rodent control is on the job this morning💜 Good kitties

I need one of these guys to come fetch some pigeons...
20/02/2024

I need one of these guys to come fetch some pigeons...

A little fun to start the week off right!
19/02/2024

A little fun to start the week off right!

Mac â€đŸŽ„
26/12/2023

Mac â€đŸŽ„

What a fun summer!!
24/09/2023

What a fun summer!!

Back in June, when we opened the doors to Sage Hills, we had some wonderful spring weather to celebrate đŸŸ
24/09/2023

Back in June, when we opened the doors to Sage Hills, we had some wonderful spring weather to celebrate đŸŸ

Sage Hills Equestrian!  Its getting closer to opening day & I can't wait!! So excited & grateful 🙏
28/02/2023

Sage Hills Equestrian! Its getting closer to opening day & I can't wait!! So excited & grateful 🙏

I adore my bays. Happy Day of the Horse
14/12/2022

I adore my bays. Happy Day of the Horse

It's a wrap for 2022 IDEA show season! Congratulations to everyone! **Jane Hochberg 1st Level Res. Champion **Monte (Jan...
13/11/2022

It's a wrap for 2022 IDEA show season! Congratulations to everyone!
**Jane Hochberg 1st Level Res. Champion
**Monte (Jane's horse) 1st Level Res. Champion
**Katharina Jarvis Rookie Cookie Rider of the year
All your hard work has paid off! Im so pleased for you!🏆đŸ’Ș🎉

21/08/2022

Best way I've seen to wrap a hock..

😁
06/08/2022

😁

My boarding business can break even
 and other lies I tell my boyfriend.

A memoir.

In the comments of my last satirical post there was a couple (well I’m assuming they’re a couple- I mean he questioned her horses so it might be over now đŸ€Ł) having a side bar discussion about boarding barns not making any money. He disagreed with her and I’m paraphrasing here, saying if they don’t make money it’s cause they’re not being managed right.

Ouch.

That slow clap from my boyfriend is prob what ya’ll can hear right now though.

But seriously, I talk to horse people all the time- and from all walks of the industry- big jumper barns, other eventers, backyard people, lesson barns with a small number of boarders and the word on the street is the same. There’s no money in boarding horses.

So why?

And why don’t people outside the industry believe us?

Before this current inflation crisis I think it was commonly accepted that barns would absorb price increases, and that services and products could be used or asked for carte blanche. It didn’t matter if the farm had estimated that most horses eat 8lbs of grain a day, if your Fluffy needed 15lbs well, that’s what he got. Fluffy ate his 15lbs and the barn owner ate the bill.

That doesn’t happen in the rest of the world, sure there’s all you can eat buffets if you like cheap food and roaches, but in most cases, if you want extra guac, you pay for it.

And it was common for boarders to just take extra of what they wanted, my boarders thankfully don’t do this, but some clients get that Italian mother feeling that their pon pon needs just one more flake of hay, and people would just take it. It’s hard to understand in the world of horses that all those supplies are budgeted out for the month and come with a hefty bulk price tag.

Oh and unforeseen expenses- horses are the GOAT of unforeseen expenses! Vet bills, missing shoes, broken halters
 but the havoc they wreak upon properties is tenfold. Undisclosed cribbers show up, (ughhhhh I’m sidebar talking about one of mine here- thank god he’s a good man despite this and gas prices are so high cause I was tempted to put him on the trailer and send him back!) and eat fences, warp gates and whatnot. Horses kicking through paddock fencing, ripping automatic waterers off the stall wall, tearing fans down, I even had one pull a piece of ceiling molding off. They’re like Guns and Roses in a hotel suite. Appetite for destruction for REALLLLL. Forever ago, this naughty rockstar behavior was left to the barn owner to fix out of pocket. It’s not right but it was the norm, or at least nobody asked for payment and nobody offered either. Now, if your horse breaks something, you’re going to get a bill. It sucks. It’s an expensive lesson. Take it out of their carrot allowance I say.

And then there’s customer loyalty- horse boarding is more like the wine business than the spirits business. You have a vodka brand, it’s your brand, the only one you’ll drink. Wine? Chardonnay is Chardonnay- the one with the foot or the kangaroo are interchangeable (they’re not, drink the Roo please, I worked there in a past life) and the same can be said for boarding barns. Board rates go up and people go looking for a better deal, not all of course, but that’s a real fear for barn owners. If we’re struggling to pay the bills already, what happens if people leave? I was told of a barn that started the month with a $5k DEFICIT, because they felt they couldn’t raise board for fear of losing people and they would try to make it up in lessons and whatnot. That hurts my heart, and I know what kind of stress that puts on people struggling to survive. This ladies and gentlemen is what I laughingly call “Horse Math”. Where the numbers never add up and getting to zero feels like winning.

In some ways, boarding barn owners are like dairy farmers- milk is 6 bucks a gallon for you and me- the farmers are only making 75% of what it costs to produce that milk (estimates are they’re making $1.45 on what cost them $2.00 to produce). The cost to run the niche farm exceeds what you can get for your product. Bigger isn’t better, but it pays the bills apparently.

I think agriculture in general is a tough gig, with multiple variables that all have to go right at the same time to turn a profit; but profit isn’t the only reason we do it. It’s the love of the land, and the animals. It’s sharing, and fostering, that love with other like minded people. It’s building a future that’s more than cars and concrete. It’s tough work, I mean if it was easy anybody could do it.

So yeah, my boarding business doesn’t make any money, but as Henry Ford said “ A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business”
and hey, that’s a guy who knew a thing or two about horsepower!

So kick on horse friends; and remember to hug your horses and be thoughtful boarders.

29/07/2022

Those would definitely stay in!!

Good info on footing.
03/05/2022

Good info on footing.

Discover what scientists are learning about footing and its connection to lameness and other horse health issues.

Its a long read but makes some interesting points about lower leg protection.
14/04/2022

Its a long read but makes some interesting points about lower leg protection.

Boots and bandages - are we harming our horses as we try to protect them?

Bandaging and booting our horses is becoming more and more popular, especially with the popularity of matchy matchy sets. But are we doing more harm than good? Most people will have come across the articles in magazines and comments from vets saying they are, and yet still they become more and more popular. Why is that? Why do riders still cover their horses in thick fleece bandages or fluffy boots despite the dangers? Tradition I suppose. Wanting to fit in. Or just habit, some will feel like they haven’t finished tacking up if they haven’t put the boots on.

I know this isn’t about dentistry (for which I apologise) but I am a vet first and foremost, and as a dressage rider I am asked why I don’t use bandages all the time. I’ve written about this several times now and no one pays attention, so rather than stating facts and quoting research, I’d like to take you through my journey of discovery, please bear with me. Facts and papers are at the end.

Rewind 12 years and I was in my final year at vet school. Prior to and during vet school I had a horse and we did dressage. I had planned to ODE but this horse pulled every tendon and ligament known to vet kind. He spent more time out of work than in. Each time I would up my game with the latest boots/bandages on the market. From fluffy boots to wraps to sports fetlock boots, fleece bandages to gamgee and cotton to the half fleece/half elastic bandages. I learnt new techniques for better support, figure of 8 bandaging to cradle the fetlock etc etc. I’d been there and done it. My collection was extensive.

Right at the end of vet school I had my rotations. I chose Equine lameness as one of my options. During in this I very vividly remember a wet lab with Dr Renate Weller where she had a skinned horses leg (showing all of the tendons and ligaments) in a machine that mimicked the pressures a horse applies to their limbs. She took us through walk, trot, canter and gallop, loading this leg so we could see the inside workings of the horses leg without the skin. It was fascinating I can tell you, and I very clearly remember thinking about my horse and wondering how on earth we are suppose to support this limb when it undergoes these incredible forces! Half a ton of animal pushing down a tiny spindle of a leg held by tendons barely thicker than my thumb. Craziness!

Fast forward just a few short months and I was a fully qualified vet in the big wide world. I attended my first BEVA Congress and during the break I wandered around the stalls looking at the latest inventions and technologies companies bring to these gatherings. Here I came across a company with the Equestride Boot which caught my eye. Now if you haven’t seen this boot, it’s wonderful and I’ve since used it a few times in rehabbing very severe tendon and ligament injuries with great success. The boot is a carbon fibre boot that stops the fetlock dropping, which stops the tendons and ligaments being fully loaded while they heal. This boot is super strong. You couldn’t ride a horse in it as it is limiting the range of motion so much, but they can move about easily enough at the lower settings to rehab etc. The guy on the stand (I’m afraid I can’t remember his name) showed me their research and in the straight talking Irish way explained the stupidity of expecting a thin piece of material to support a horse. And of course it can’t! Literally no bandage or boot (short of this very expensive carbon fibre rehab boot) is capable of reducing the amount the fetlock drops. Thinking back to Dr Weller’s demonstration, I could very clearly see how ridiculous I had been to ever believe a scrap of material could do anything to reduce or support that pressure.

But the boots/bandages don’t actually cause any harm do they? Surely it’s ok to use them on the off chance they might help and if we look good in the meantime, great! Well, not long after this, research started appearing that got me very worried about my bandage collection. Heat. Anyone that uses bandages and boots will not be surprised to see sweat marks under their bandages/boots after they’ve been removed. They trap a lot of heat. The horses body and legs generate a lot of heat when working. The tendons/ligaments in the leg, along with an increased blood flow generate ALOT of heat. Fleece bandages/boots in particular, hold this heat in the horses leg. Very few boots and virtually no bandages (especially if you use a pad under) allow the legs to breath adequately. This heat is easily enough to kill tendon/ligament cells. Each tendon/ligament is made of thousands and thousands of cells all lined up end on end and side by side in long thin spindles. They stretch and return to their original shape and size like an elastic band, absorbing and redistributing the pressures applied from further up the leg and from the ground impact below. All of these cells must work together as one to do this effectively.

Just a little side step here to explain how tendons/ligaments heal. A tendon/ligament cell can not be replaced like for like. They always heal with scar tissue. This is why reinjury is so much more likely if a tendon/ligament is blown. The fibrous scar tissue doesn’t stretch, it isn’t capable of stretching or absorbing the impact of a horses movement. It will always be a weak spot. In a full blown sprain/strain the whole (or most) of the tendon has been damaged. But this heat injury might just kill a few cells at a time. Those few cells are replaced by fibrous scar tissue, then next time a few more etc etc. Like a rubber band degrading over time the tendon/ligament loses its elasticity and eventually goes snap. Then you’ve fully blown a tendon/ligament. The injury didn’t start to happen at that moment, but that was the final straw. The damage adds up over time, each time thermal necrosis (vet word for cell death) occurs.

So if using boots/bandages can not offer any sort of support, and using them generates heat that slowly damages the tendons/ligaments until they give way. Why use them? Protection. This is the only reason to use boots. To stop the horse brushing, injuring themselves catching a pole or over cross country. But for goodness sake make sure your boots are breathable! If the horse is sweaty under the boot but not above or below, the boot is not breathable enough. And don’t use fleece bandages just because you like the colour. These fleece bandages are the worst at holding heat in the leg, way above the threshold for thermal necrosis to the cells of the tendons and ligaments. If your horse doesn’t need protection, don’t use boots. I haven’t for the last 12 years and *touch wood* I haven’t had a single tendon/ligament injury in any of my horses. I will never go back to boots or especially bandages now. I don’t use them for schooling, lunging, jumping, travelling, turnout, stable, in fact I don’t use them at all. Ever. But I don’t hunt or XC.

I hope you have found my story useful and can make informed decisions on boots and bandaging going forward.

For more information on the Equestride boot and their research into support offered by boots and bandages, visit http://www.equestride.com/ and https://www.equinetendon.com/services/equestride/

The horses leg under the compression machine at the Irish Equine rehabilitation and fitness centre https://fb.watch/cmVMt6-iOJ/ (I highly recommend you watch this incredible video. It clearly shows the amount of force the leg goes through and demonstrates the real purpose of boots)

Other relevant papers-
https://equimanagement.com/.amp/articles/horse-skin-temperature-under-boots-after-exercise
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8f15/0ea480edca142260d01f419f80d2e7e7fb29.pdf
http://www.asbweb.org/conferences/1990s/1998/59/index.html

Edit 1 - I am getting asked about stable wraps very frequently. This post is about riding, the tendons and blood flow create heat which is trapped by bandages/boots during exercise. This doesn’t occur in the stable stood still. If the horse has a strain/sprain resulting in inflammation, then there is an increase in blood flow and there is heat being created. In this situation you should not be bandaging. But if it’s cold and an old horse needs stable wraps to keep the joints warm and improve sluggish blood flow (filled legs) you can use the heat trapping to your advantage. But you need to be careful in summer.

Edit 2 - the other thing I’m being asked about is compression. Compression DOES NOT control inflammation. The inflammation still occurs, but the swelling can not escape the bandages and the increase in internal pressure reduces blood flow, causing ischemic damage. Like laminitis within the hoof. The hoof capsule prevents swelling so the inflammation expands inwards and cuts off the blood supply. This is why laminitis is so painful and difficult to treat. Compression is only useful in the case of leaky vessels, for example reduced blood pressure, reduced movement so the blood isn’t being pumped backup the legs, or osmotic imbalances eg low protein with diarrhoea. In these situations, compression of the legs can encourage blood to return to the vessels and continue circulating.

Great chart!
11/04/2022

Great chart!

Motivation Monday
.. just a reminder!

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