who jumped it better: brief thoughts on OTTBs

A few bloggers are posting about OTTBs, and whether or not they're suitable horses for adult amateurs. It's provoked a lot of really positive discussion, and has been interesting reading everyone's opinions.

SprinklerBandits made the case against, and Lauren @ SheMovedtoTexas made the case for. Nicole from Zen and the Art of Baby Horse Management added her thoughts, as did Calm, Forward, Straight. (Did I miss anybody? Lmk and I'll add it!)

I don't want to recreate that wheel, but had my own little thought based on observations from a recent lesson. This will take the form of, "Who Jumped it Better" (except not really bc it's not a competition - just a comparison). I'm approaching this from a mercenary and superficial point of view - just to see what people think.

So below are two pictures video stills** and gifs, with minimal context. They are both accurate representations of each horse's typical way of going. And, for the sake of comparison, let's say all other things are equal - health, soundness, price.

(**My apologies in advance that the stills aren't the same angle or phase of take-off. But I still think they demonstrate.... something? maybe?)

• Isabel is an experienced and game nearly-14yr old <15hh (terrible that I don't know the exacts!) Arabian mare who has a 'been there, done that' attitude. She's got hops and doesn't care who knows, and will crack that back of hers over the merest of crossrails. She's show-ready today, tomorrow, yesterday, whatever.

• Wick is a green-as-grass 7yr old 16hh OTTB (26 starts, last raced in 2013) who has been jumping regularly with B in lessons for all of 10 weeks. He literally just figured out how to actually, ya know, JUMP two weeks ago when we ran him through a chute. No matter tho - his long back and legs make him a smooth ride even when he has to scramble a little. He's got a great brain and a whole heart full of try.

So. If you're looking for a jumping prospect, which do you choose? Why?

Does your answer depend more on your immediate goals? Or long-term goals?


There's no right or wrong answer here (honestly I'm not entirely sure what my point is, if there is one, except that maybe tall athletic horses like OTTBs make it look easier even when they maybe aren't doing a very good job yet). 

But still, I'm curious about what everyone else thinks. 

My thoughts? I suspect that, given different circumstances (as in, I wasn't already leasing Isabel and totally crazy about her) I'd give young Wick a try. I showed primarily OTTBs in college and absolutely love them. Their size and sheer power bolstered my confidence, saying nothing about their brains, work ethic, etc - topics already covered in other posts. 

Isabel is plenty athletic and has abilities well beyond what I've tapped into, but my first hand experience is that jumping 2'6" on her looks and feels a LOT different from the leggy OTTB I showed at that height in Rochester. 

'i'm flying jack!' - isabel (11/2014)

'speed bumps ahoy' - lad (9/2014)

equine influenza

So there ya have it folks: our horses have equine influenza. NOT strangles, and not EHV. I didn't even know horses got the flu, but yep, they do - and it happens to be highly contagious and spreads quite rapidly. (To recap: 9 sick out of 30 horses in six days; 3/4 herds affected)

This viral infection is characterized by fevers from 103-106*F, a dry harsh-sounding cough, clear nasal and eye discharge, swollen lymph nodes, lethargy and loss of appetite. Blood tests and nasal swabs can confirm the diagnosis.

It has a relatively short incubation period - tho reports vary on this. My research found sources claiming the incubation is only 1-5 days, but our vet says it can take as long as 2 weeks. Thus the 2 week quarantine.

The virus itself isn't particularly alarming - except that it damages the respiratory tract, including lung tissue and the windpipe. This makes the horse susceptible to secondary bacterial infections, which explains why antibiotics helped the horses in recovery even tho the primary infection was viral.

These secondary infections ARE worrisome, as the risk for developing pneumonia is high without proper precautions.

Treatment is rest and support. The rule of thumb is one week of rest for every day of fever, with a three week minimum. This period of rest allows for the respiratory tissue to repair itself - a process that can take up to 30 days. 

The return to work should be gradual - tho hand walking the sick horse is recommended to improve circulation. 

Isabel's fever broke on the second day and her cough is almost gone - good signs, I think. She'll stay on stall rest through this week on vet's orders, then back out to the field 24/7. She's generally not one for a lot of play, so I'm not worried about her over doing it out there. 

Quarantine lasts one more week following that, and then we'll start back under saddle - giving her exactly three weeks of rest. The rides will start with light arena work to assess how she's doing, then short and sweet trails - gradually building up to include more hills. I will probably aim for frequent rides - maybe 5-6 days a week - but very low intensity. 

We will see how she does - and what the vet thinks of her condition when she's cleared for turnout. I'm hoping her general fitness (even tho she wasn't exactly in peak condition) will make getting back to full work fairly straight forward - so long as we don't stress her lungs. 

She IS an arab after all, tho - and they're fairly famous for their massive and powerful lungs. Fingers crossed this serves us well in her recovery!

Have you ever worked with a horse with a compromised respiratory system? Any insights on getting them going again? 

kinda want to rant, but not sure if it's appropriate....

Kicking things off with my friend below - the drama llama - just so we all know exactly where things stand. 

'bitch said wat now?' - The DL

I've never owned a horse before, so decisions about veterinary care and medical treatment etc have never been mine to make. 

My understanding is that some types of treatment/medication are at the discretion of the owner. Other things tho might be considered as the barn mgmt's decision to make (for instance, what vaccinations are required to board, etc). 

Let's consider our current unhappy quarantine situation. Barn mgmt called the vet about a horse who spiked a fever after being unable to reach the owner. (Two other horses were already in isolation at this point)

This owner has, in the past, pitched a fit when the horse was given bute for a swollen and infected eyelid. She made it clear that under no circumstances should her horse be given medication without her express permission. 

Well... when the whole barn is shut down and freaking out about a highly contagious infectious disease, barn mgmt wasn't really too interested in this owner's opinions about the merits of bute or medical intervention. Mgmt was more interested in controlling a potential outbreak. 

But no matter, the owner is furious. She thinks it's unacceptable that barn management called the vet without her consent when the horse jumped from a temp of 97.7 to 103.8 in 24 hours. She told her leaser (a close friend of mine) not to bother with this month's check, and said she'd be "getting rid" of the horse once he's out of quarantine. 

And frankly I'm angry about it. 

i'd really like to tell her to chill the F out

But, again, as a non-owner maybe I'm missing something? So maybe you all can chime in - have you been in a situation where your horse was dosed or treated without your permission? Are there scenarios when this is appropriate? Or should barn mgmt always secure the owner's consent before any medical intervention? 

Should we shrug it off as a simple case of emotions running high in a stressful situation?

Or is this owner throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

Any and all thoughts are welcome... obvi I have no control over any outcomes so I'm mostly just curious... 

quickie q update

It's looking like we'll be closed for another 2 weeks. And that's not even an official mandate - it's just our vet and barn management exercising extreme caution. I can respect that. 

So, definitely not the worst thing in the world. 

I'll have a post soon enough on what, exactly, is going on - and what the implications are for bringing Isabel back in to work. Just need to do a little more research first to make sure I understand what's what and have a plan. 

But suffice it to say that everything is probably gonna be ok. 

In the meantime, we'll continue to work double duty at the barn to mitigate the risk of cross contamination between sick and healthy horses. 

There are 9 total sick and on stall rest as of last night. The other 21 received the vaccine booster and are enjoying an extended spring break in their pastures (since riding is not permitted). So hopefully we've finally managed to get in front of the illness and won't see any more new cases. 

10 photos you'll see on equestrian blogs

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts yesterday. As of this writing there are two new cases... but more importantly, we have a diagnosis!! It is NOT the worst case scenario bacterial infection that would necessitate at least 3 months quarantine. halle-fucking-lujah!

It still remains unclear how long we'll be quarantined... but at least horses not yet sick can get a vaccine booster to help protect them - which in theory should limit the spread and therefore the duration of the outbreak.

SO. I am cautiously optimistic. In the meantime, on to happier thoughts!

*******

The other day I read this article wherein artist Joanna Zhou illustrated the "12 Most Common Photos You Will See on Instagram." I thought it was pretty clever - both in concept and execution, and thought something similar could be done for equestrian blogs. 

I considered recurring pictures seen on many of our blogs and made the following list. Continuing the idea of creating original art from unoriginal themes, I used craft paper and clippings from Dover and Smartpak catalogs to make the collages. 

Without further ado, The 10 most common photos you will see on the equestrienne's blog:

pasture play

the look of eagles

pony all dressed up

bad azzz action shot

funny face

rootd (rider outfit of the day)

saddle spam

selfie!

satin collection

the photogenic pet

Did I miss anything?? What about you - do you have these pics on your blog too? Care to share your favorites? 

pony prison (a sick joke)

Precious princess Isabel is currently locked in pony prison. I took her temperature Saturday afternoon following her coughing and blah demeanor during our lesson, and all was normal. But by dinner time one thermometer got a normal reading and another was high... 

I was scheduled to ride with our bio-mechanics trainer for the first time this year (finally!) on Sunday, and kept my fingers crossed through the morning chores that the high read was nothing more than a calibration issue with cheap digital thermometers. But alas, when I pulled her in from the field, both thermometers read 103+.... Cue calls to the vet.

so true... just replace 'watch' with 'thermometer'...

Vet took a throat culture and pumped the horse up with long-acting antibiotics via injection, plus some banamine to bring down the fever. The plan was for Izzy to get her temp taken each morning and evening, and get a gram of bute whenever she's 102+.

still coughing :(

Essentially she's presenting with a fever, cough, and runny nose (lungs are fine). Could be nothing, but the vet prefers playing it safe and had concerns about a fairly terrifying bacterial respiratory infection. Therefore the whole barn is shut down by the "Q" word {ughhh don't say it out loud}... And Isabel's in a no-contact zone, complete with bleach foot baths...

Wick got pulled into it too, since he shared close quarters with Isabel on the trailer and spiked a fever on day 2. Adding to our impromptu 'sick bay' is a pony from the field next to Isabel's who also came in feverish and lethargic... All were treated with the long-acting antibiotics.

Le sigh. 

The next day a 4th horse came down with a fever (also from the field next to Isabel's). None of the 4 horses were displaying the characteristic signs of the scary bacterial infection, so the vets moved on to diagnosis #2 - a fairly scary viral respiratory infection. Therefore horse #4 was not treated with antibiotics, and fresh cultures and blood samples were taken from all sick horses.

Tuesday night two more horses developed a fever, one from Wick's field and another from the field next to Isabel's (so she's still the only sick pony from her herd). The cultures testing for the viral infection came in negative at about the same time. 

Meanwhile the three horses who received antibiotics (including Isabel) no longer had fevers, whereas the 4th - who triggered the change in diagnosis from bacterial to viral, and therefore did not get antibiotics - was still feverish and lethargic. 

So the diagnosis changed back to bacterial - with more antibiotics administered and more cultures taken... 

The good news is they are hopeful it isn't the big scary bacterial infection (which would mean a 3-month "Q" {ughhhhh whyyyyyy} starting after the last horse recovered), and it is NOT the viral infection (which calls for a 28-day "Q" {fml....} following the last horse's diagnosis). 

In fact, it's still entirely possible that whatever they have doesn't even warrant an official "Q" {srsly kill me}... but it's obviously a little too late for that now. 

The vet is coming back today for another set of antibiotics, and hopefully will have results from the culture & DNA tests... or at least *something* to tell us.

Please keep your fingers and toes crossed for us  :'(

lessoning thru the blahs

It was windy and snowy on Saturday (ughhhhh) so we ended up still in the indoor for our lesson at OF. Hopefully it was the last time for a while!! It was a good ride tho. 

Trainer P recently shuffled around the students in each group, moving some of the younger kids to an earlier lesson, with more advanced teenagers joining our group. The outcome is that things moved along more quickly - the six of us could canter simultaneously and everyone was prompt in taking their turns jumping. I like it! 

Except, our flat work was interrupted by some persistent coughing from Ms Iz. She'll kick off every ride with a few coughs followed by some snorts when we first start trotting. But this was a little different - it started pretty much when she stepped off the trailer and never quite stopped. We got some *very* nice trot work accomplished, but practically no cantering... 

*cough cough* - isabel

So when we moved on to jumping I rode Isabel pretty delicately, and she was more than happy to just kinda shuffle along to the deep spot. 

A few courses were interrupted by circles for Izzy to cough a bit - and maybe work out whatever was bothering her (we were thinking maybe she just had some hay caught somewhere in there). Mostly tho we kinda just blahhed around over the fences. 

happy ears engaged

P encouraged me to push for a little more tho - to pick a spot and really ride to it, and that Isabel would perk up if I did that. And of course she wasn't wrong (this is why she's a pro, I suppose haha). 

So once I put my leg on and started riding Isabel to the fences we got some nicer jumps (shocking, I know), and our last course was as close to an even and consistent rhythm as I thought we'd get for the day. So I hopped off immediately and loosened Izzy's girth, in case maybe she was feeling a little constricted through her chest. 

video here

P suggested that I take the mare's temperature when we got home, and monitor her for the next couple of days... Isabel's temps that afternoon were normal, but she spiked a fever that evening. Poor pony! Details tomorrow...