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SPECIAL FEATURES 26 BUG OFF!
Prepare to do battle with the winged pests of summer.
34 Composting Barn Waste
How to turn manure into black gold.
42 Sticking the Landing
A close look at the biomechanics of the jumping horse.
50 Understanding the Damage Caused by Poor Saddle Fit
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Looking back across the years since our first issue was published.
58 Jacqueline Brooks
Loving the sport of dressage.
64 Are You Still White Knuckling It?
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Proper fit is crucial to the well-being and comfort of horse and rider.
66 Celebrating Our 25 Year Journey
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5 ways to get your show ring nerves under control.
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26 Photo: Canstock/DeepGreen | 34 Photo: Jackie Connelly | 42 Photo: Robin Duncan Photography | 58 Photo: Mallory Haigh
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64 18 12 Photo: Burwash Equine | 18 Photo: Christina Weese | 64 Photo: shutterstock/Chris Van Lenne
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HOOF CARE & LAMENESS 12 An Inside Look at Joint Inflammation
The causes of osteoarthritis, how it is diagnosed, and various treatment options.
18 Common Hoof Problems
Diagnosis and treatment of the common hoof ailments including abscess, thrush, laminitis and navicular syndrome.
22 Laminitis Research a Big Step Forward
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New vaccine offers horse owners a preventive laminitis tool.
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DEPARTMENTS 2 Celebration of Horses Photo Contest
10 Editorial 81 To Subscribe 82 News from
Horse Council BC
84-85 Horse Industry Products
86 Canadian Therapeutic
Riding Association News
87-89 Country Homes
& Acreages
EQUINETWORK 90-91 Hitchin’ Post, Classifieds
91 Index to Advertisers 92 Roundup
HORSE HEALTH
AN INSIDE LOOK AT
JOINT Inflammation A healthy joint in the limb of a horse provides a frictionless system and facilitates movement with ease. Each joint depends on the function of each of its components to serve this purpose in an equine athlete. Bone, articular cartilage, synovial fluid, synovial membrane, fibrous joint capsule, and ligamentous structures make up these components. Subchondral bone provides contour and stability to the articular cartilage which constitutes the joint surface. In conjunction with the synovial fluid, it is the articular cartilage that allows for frictionless movement, and it is typically the state of the cartilage that is used to determine joint health. Articular cartilage does not have a blood supply, and as such it depends on the synovial fluid in the joint to provide its nutrition. About one to twelve percent of the cartilage is made up of chondrocyte cells, and the remainder is an extracellular matrix composed of collagens (which provide structure), proteoglycans (which provide resistance to compression), and water. Proteoglycans are a combination of protein and
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By Dr. Crystal Lee, dvm, dacvs
glycosaminoglycans such as chondroitin-4-sulfate. The synovial fluid in a joint is produced by the synovial membrane which lines the joint cavity. This synovial membrane also clears unwanted particles from the joint and secretes proteins that contribute to joint health such as hyaluronan and lubricin. The fibrous joint capsule surrounds the synovial membrane, and is supported by the periarticular ligaments. The volume of the space in the joint varies with the location, and because of the elastic nature of the joint capsule it can change depending on level of exercise and disease. Horses working at a higher level often will have synovial effusion (an increased amount of fluid in the joint) in certain joints such as the fetlock and hock without signs of disease being present. When a joint moves and pressure is applied to the surface of the cartilage, fluid is squeezed from the surface of the cartilage and creates a wedge of fluid that separates the surfaces. Osteoarthritis refers to a disorder of movable joints characterized by degeneration and loss of articular
PHOTO: ROBIN DUNCAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Osteoarthritis can affect horses of any age and accounts for approximately 60 percent of lameness in horses. It may result from exercise, repetitive trauma, overuse, or a single injury. In a young horse with normal, healthy cartilage, osteoarthritis is predominantly trauma related.
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PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK/CATWALK PHOTOS
cartilage. It may result from a response of the joint components to exercise, to repetitive trauma, or to a single injury. In a young horse with normal, healthy cartilage, osteoarthritis is predominantly trauma related. It can result from overuse (repeated cycles of athletic trauma), fractures that involve the joint, ligamentous injury and loss of stability of the joint, or remodelling and microfractures of the bone underlying the articular cartilage. In contrast, degeneration can occur from normal forces on abnormal cartilage. This occurs in joints with the normal wear of articular cartilage that comes with aging, in joints affected by osteochondrosis (which is the failure of the bone that underlies the articular cartilage to mineralize properly), or on cartilage that has been damaged by synovitis (inflammation of the synovial lining). Osteoarthritis can be defined as the point at which the repair processes of the joint are overwhelmed by the destructive processes. It can affect horses of any age, and is thought to account for about 60 percent of lameness problems in horses. There is a continuum of disease severity that occurs in osteoarthritis, and it is likely that most of the components of the joint are involved. There is generally no central inflammatory role in the osteoarthritis that occurs in horses; this is similar to many types of osteoarthritis in humans, but is very different from the human rheumatoid arthritis, which does have a central inflammatory role. As osteoarthritis takes hold in a joint, whether it be from a single incident of injury or chronic injury over time, inflammatory mediators are released from the synovial membrane. These inflammatory mediators may include prostaglandins, cytokines, and matrix metalloproteinases, and they contribute to the degradation of the cartilage. The synovial membrane becomes edematous and swollen and increases the amount of blood vessels present, which can increase the amount of joint fluid (referred to as effusion) and the amount of protein in the joint fluid. The inflammatory mediators contribute to the degeneration of the articular cartilage, making it less able to withstand normal loads. CHJ July & AugustThe Issue 2016.pdf 1 6/22/2016 2:54:20 PM membrane, tendons, joint capsule, synovial ligaments, and bone will all contribute to the pain the
horse feels in osteoarthritis. Injury to the joint capsule causes it to form a fibrous repair tissue which is not the same as the original tissue and can lead to a decreased range of motion for the joint. Sclerosis (an increase in bone density), osteolysis (bone destruction), new bone production, a narrowing of the joint space, and bone fragments can be seen on radiographs in many cases. However, the level of pain and the degree of radiographic change do not always correlate — a significant number of horses will show pain despite relatively normal radiographs. This makes sense when you consider the number of soft tissue structures (which are not imaged well with radiographs) that can be involved. Clinically, an increase in synovial fluid
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HORSE HEALTH
PHOTO: THINKSTOCK/PIPALANA
Common Hoof Problems Prevention key to avoiding hoof issues During her daily field visits to farms and acreages around the Saskatoon area, equine veterinary specialist Dr. Kate Robinson sees a wide range of hoof issues in horses – many of them preventable with a consistent daily hoof care regimen. Robinson stresses the importance of daily hoof checks. Besides picking out their feet, owners can visually assess their horses’ hoofs and learn what’s normal for each animal. That way they can recognize any changes and identify problems as early as possible. Horse owners also need to be aware that certain hoof problems show up more frequently at specific times of the year. “When we have wet conditions in the spring and fall, that’s when we see more abscesses,” says Robinson, a field service clinician and assistant professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine 18
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Although lameness may be the first clinical sign of laminitis, owners should be aware of subtle changes in the foot — such as founder rings or long toes — and consult with their veterinarian.
(WCVM). “We also see laminitis or founder more often in the spring and summer and sometimes into the fall when pastures have particularly rich grass.” She points out that diet is an important component of hoof health. By consulting with a nutritionist or a veterinarian and having their hay analyzed, owners can ensure their animals are getting the best diet possible. “Analyzing the hay helps us to know whether it’s an appropriate feed for horses that are prone to laminitis,” explains Robinson. “It also lets us know that horses are getting the proper levels of the
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PHOTO: CHRISTINA WEESE
By Lynne Gunville
Working with our Equine Partners from Coast-to-Coast
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Dr. Kate Robinson, WCVM equine veterinary specialist.
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vitamins, minerals and proteins they need to build their feet properly.” Robinson also emphasizes the value of good farrier care. In her view the most important measure owners can take is to provide farrier care for their horses every six to eight weeks from the time they are one month old. While a farrier is adept at treating common hoof problems, Robinson advises owners to consult a veterinarian when they see signs of lameness in their animals. “Lameness can be caused by a variety of issues other than foot problems. It’s often a sign of a more advanced disease process and should be checked out by a veterinarian.” She adds that only veterinarians are qualified to prescribe pain medications, so they need to be consulted in cases requiring pain control. JULY/AUGUST 2016
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b HORSE HEALTH
LAMINITIS RESEARCH
PHOTO: MICHAEL RAINE
Vaccine Offers Owners Preventive Laminitis Tool
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A
fter nearly four decades of watching the devastating impact of laminitis on horses, equine surgeon Dr. David Wilson has developed a vaccine that has the potential to save the performance careers — and lives — of horses around the world. Laminitis (or founder) is one of the leading causes of loss in horses, right alongside colic and musculoskeletal problems. “It’s a horror story if your horse has it [the disease], and very few horses that develop serious laminitis are ever able to recover enough to return to work,” says Wilson, a professor of large animal surgery at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM). Wilson and his research team at the regional veterinary college have created a vaccine that targets a common trigger for laminitis – a gastrointestinal upset caused by eating too much carbohydrateladen grain or rich grass. Their research was based on early studies that confirmed a grain
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WCVM equine surgeon
Dr. David Wilson uses overload leads to colitis and the presence hoof testers on an of streptococcal bacteria which, in turn, equine patient during produce proteins called exotoxins. a lameness exam. A later study verified that two of those exotoxins could trigger the dissolution or breaking down of the equine hoof’s basement membrane — the junction between the sensitive and insensitive tissues of the hoof. Once the membrane can no longer hold the hoof together, there’s no structural support for the coffin bone (distal phalanx) which then rotates or sinks within the hoof – a very painful process for the animal. “The hoof structure is a very complicated dovetail system,” Wilson explains. “If you put a piece of normal hoof into a testing machine and pull the bone away from the hoof tissue, it fractures randomly. But if the hoof is exposed to the exotoxins, the dovetail
PHOTO: MYRNA MACDONALD
By Lynne Gunville
Grass overload is a common cause of laminitis that occurs when horses graze on lush pasture grass with high sugar content.
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PERFORMANCE PADS Grazing muzzles are one of the few options available to owners whose horses have suffered from laminitis or are prone to overeating on lush grass.
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becomes disconnected, and it just lets go when you pull it apart.” Based on that information, Wilson and his team set out to build and then test a streptococcal exotoxin vaccine. After inducing a carbohydrate overload in a control group of horses as well as a vaccinated group, they confirmed that the vaccine provided protection from laminitis for 80 percent of the animals in the study. The researchers are optimistic the vaccine will also protect horses that ingest rich pasture grass causing a similar carbohydrate overload. Grass overload is another common cause of laminitis that occurs when horses graze on lush pasture grass with high sugar content. “The more lush the grass and the more rapidly it grows, the more likely it’s a problem,” says Wilson. “If a horse gets on that grass with a voracious appetite, it will
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G U B F! F O
Prepare to do battle with the winged pests of summer Everyone knows the seasonal annoyance of flies. For horses they can be a real tail swatting, foot stomping, head shaking, skin twitching aggravation. But flying insects such as midges, gnats, horse flies, deer flies, black flies, face flies, house flies, mosquitos, and others are more than a nuisance — they can cause serious skin irritations and can also carry diseases. Midges, black flies and horse flies can cause sweet itch (pruritus) along the mane, back and tail causing horses to rub furiously and inflame the sites further. Infected mosquitoes cause West Nile virus. The potentially fatal equine infectious anemia (EIA or swamp fever) virus is spread by horse flies, deer flies, stable flies, and mosquitoes when they take a blood meal from an infected horse and then settle on another. Equine encephalomyelitis, an infectious disease that affects the horse’s brain, is transmitted by mosquitoes (the vector) after it has picked up the virus from reservoir hosts such as
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PHOTO: CANSTOCK/DEEPGREEN
BY MARGARET EVANS
BARN WASTE
HOW TO TURN MANURE INTO BLACK GOLD
PHOTO: JACKIE CONNELLY
Composting
By Ava Shannon, Agriculture Program Coordinator, LEPS
you may be purchasing fertilizers for your pastures. If you’ve seen manure for sale at garden centres, you already know that well-composted manure is actually a valuable resource. So how do you turn barn waste into “black gold”? The answer is composting — and it can be simple to do.
What is Composting?
Composting is turning organic materials like manure into a nutrient-rich soil. Composted manure is high in available nitrogen, making it a valuable fertilizer for your pastures, or for farmers and gardeners in your area. By contrast, raw or non-composted manure is low in available nutrients and also poses an environmental hazard — if uncontained, or spread on fields during the wrong season, it can contaminate local streams and ponds with toxic run-off. There are two basic kinds of composting processes.
Windrows are long piles of compost where new material is added to the end of a row. It requires more land and still has to be turned regularly to produce a usable compost. 34
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PHOTO: LEPS
If you are paying to have your horse manure hauled away, or have a growing pile of manure in your back field, it may be time to consider how to turn your manure into a valuable resource while also improving the environmental impact of your horse facilities. The average horse produces about 23 kg or 50 lbs of manure every day — not including bedding materials — or about nine tons of manure per year. Intimidated by the prospect of managing this volume, especially from five or ten or more horses, many horse owners or landowners opt to pay to have the manure hauled away. If you are having your manure removed, be aware that some services, especially those that don’t specialize in manure removal, may not be sending it to be composted; instead, it may be going to general facilities and treated as a hazardous waste. And while your horses’ manure is being hauled away, at the same time
TRAINING
Sticking the Landing By Sidonia McIntyre, RMT, CEMT, CCF Canadian National Equine Massage and VR Instructor
PHOTOS: ROBIN DUNCAN PHOTOGRAPHY
With the upcoming Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, we will be looking for athletes competing in gymnastics to “stick the landing” before the eagle-eyed judges who will discount marks for even the slightest waiver in form. While this phrase is rather commonplace in our understanding of these athletic events, it is not so in our equine world… at least not until you have read this article. While I was searching through thousands of pictures of horses jumping, it was exceedingly difficult to locate pictures of the landing with correct form. Everyone loves the dynamic photos of the power, grace, and beauty of the horse during the bascule phase of the jump where the horse is suspended midair (figure 1); however, that is not what I was searching for and not what will be discussed in this article. But before we move into the dynamics of motion, let’s begin with a bit of history…
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In 1868, Dublin, Ireland was host to the first “horse jumping” competition. It was the same year that Federico Caprilli was born in Livorno, Italy. He would go on to enroll in the Military College in Florence, Italy where he eventually graduated with a riding rating of “poor.” He continued working with horses at the Cavalry Regiment at Royal Piemont. There he also continued to observe horses in what was the accepted method of jumping, which was for the rider to sit back during the bascule phase, then pull on the horse’s mouth to pull the head upwards. (figure 2) It was believed this would save the “fragile forehand” of the horse. This would force the horse to land on all four limbs at the same time, or to land on the hind. After observing many refusals under saddle, and few refusals when asked to jump without a rider, Caprilli soon determined that the mechanics were drastically different. When horses jumped with no rider, they landed on the forehand with no ill effects. After sharing this newfound information, he was punished by being transferred to the south of Italy. After several years, a Military Chief attempted this new method and was so impressed with the results that Caprilli was brought back as the chief riding instructor at the Calvary School of Pinerolo and Tor di Quinto.
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FIGURE 1 In the bascule phase of the jump, the horse’s body rotates through the air in the shape of an arc to ensure that while the forehand clears the fence the shoulders are at the highest point of the body, and while the hind end clears the fence the hips are at the highest point of the body. A horse with a good bascule makes a rounded jump, which helps the horse jump higher.
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PHOTO: ISTOCK/SOMOGYVARI
Most riders would be distressed to learn that their saddle is causing their horse pain.
Understanding the Damage Caused by Poor Saddle Fit CASE HISTORY: I have a client’s horse that spent ten months in training with a poorly fitting saddle. Since she bought him, the horse has had chiropractic, massage work, and also a new properly fitting saddle. Although his back is better now he still seems to have a bit of a “hangover” from nearly a year in a poorly fitting saddle. He actually bucked me off just last week! 50
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By Jochen Schleese, CMS, CSFT, CSE
DIAGNOSIS: This is unfortunately a rather common occurrence. The truth is, had this horse’s former owner invested in a properly fitted, fully adjustable saddle, much of the effort, expense, and ongoing issues could absolutely have been avoided. This is the basis of my book Suffering in Silence: The Saddle Fit Link to Physical and Psychological Trauma in Horses (Trafalgar Books, 2014). The horse’s “hangover” is just like the recurring pain that we can experience after an injury that takes some time to heal, such as shin splints; the aftereffects come back to haunt you even after you have “healed.” The fact that this horse has bucked you off makes me wonder whether the saddle is still too long for his saddle support area (past the 18th thoracic vertebra) and if it’s actually hitting the “bucking reflex.” Many saddle fitters do not really take saddle length into consideration when fitting the saddle. A recent ad for an innovative girth that is supposed to allow freedom of movement at the shoulder illustrates the saddle actually placed too far back and out of the saddle support area.
PHOTO: CEALY TETLEY, WWW.TETLEYPHOTO.COM
JACQUELINE BROOKS
LOVING THE SPORT OF DRESSAGE BY MARGARET EVANS
Sometimes, life has a way of redirecting even the best of intentions. After graduating from the University of Western Ontario in 1990, Jacqueline Brooks went to the Pan Am Games in Havana, Cuba, as a groom for Canadian dressage rider Ashley Holzer. The experience set her on a path from which she has never looked back. She chose an equestrian career in dressage with the full expectation of needing a job to support it. But as it turned out, Olympic dressage rider Brooks has enjoyed a full-time career teaching, training, and excelling at competing. In 1991, Brooks purchased Finnegan, a two-year-old Oldenburg gelding that she and her family imported from Germany. Brooks and Finnegan went on to compete in the Swarovski Canadian League World Cup in 2002 and 2003. 58
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In 2002, Brooks won individual gold in the Prix St. Georges Derby at the CDI3* in Sydney, Australia, and with her teammate won a silver medal in that CDI Invitational. Along came more talented young horses including Gran Gesto and Balmoral, both of which Brooks trained to Grand Prix success, with Brooks and Gran Gesto being named to the 2008 Olympic Games Canadian Dressage Team in Beijing. In 2011, another talented horse entered her barn – 12-year-old Swedish Warmblood D Niro, affectionately known as “Goose.” Just a year later, Brooks and Goose were named to the 2012 Olympic Games Canadian Dressage Team in London.
PHOTO: SANDRA SYMONDS
Jaqueline Brooks with the 1995 Oldenburg gelding, Gran Gesto. Together they represented Canada at the 2003 Pan American Games where they won a team silver medal; on the World Equestrian Games team in 2006, at the World Cup in 2007, and on the Olympic Games Team in 2008.
> Jacqueline Brooks, riding the 1999 Swedish
Warmblood gelding, D Niro, at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where they finished 41st overall. Brooks was the first rider in Olympic dressage history to wear a helmet rather than the traditional top hat.
PHOTO: ALI BUCHANAN
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“I have non-stop clinics,” says Brooks. “I go to many small areas where the sport is thriving such as in Nova Scotia or northern Ontario. They are putting together very professional clinics now and that’s very encouraging and great for all of us.”
Brooks, incidentally, made history at the 2012 Olympics by being the first dressage competitor to wear a helmet instead of the familiar top hat, choosing safety over tradition. Now four years on, Brooks looks in the rearview mirror at an extraordinary life. “Right now, in this time in my career, I find it very satisfying,” says Brooks. “I teach a lot of the high performance event riders at Rolex. I go to a lot of their competitions. I have helped lots of people in the Pan Am Games and they are going on into the Olympics. So I teach at a very high level of the sport which is very satisfying. These guys can ride. Most of them I would put on my Grand Prix horses. They are very talented at what they are doing. It’s a real pleasure to teach that group of people.” Brooks teaches and trains regularly at her facility, Brookhaven Dressage, just outside Newmarket, Ontario, which she owns and operates with her parents, Mary and Eric Brooks. Clients come in for full or partial
training. Some arrive for single lessons and others arrive for short term stays. In addition, Brooks offers her expertise as a clinician across North America. “I have non-stop clinics,” she says. “I go to many small areas where the sport is thriving such as in Nova Scotia or northern Ontario. They are putting together very professional clinics now and that’s very encouraging and great for all of us. It’s really unbelievable. Every clinic I do, it’s not teaching people how to ride. It’s the subtle things about dressage and what makes it different from the other equestrian disciplines and what we are actually trying to achieve. I have yet to run into someone who is not at the stage where they can understand or feel that.” Helping clients progress through the levels is highly rewarding for Brooks. She coaches eventers once a month and offers a third clinic for grassroots riders and their coaches. “The trainer will sit with me through all the lessons with the student,” says Brooks. “You are working with JULY/AUGUST 2016
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5
WAYS
to Get Your Nerves Under Control
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK/CHRIS VAN LENNE
Are You Still White Knuckling It?
By April Clay, M.Ed., Registered Psychologist
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stress, instead of thinking about how nervous you are, view these sensations as your body preparing for action. Reframe your thoughts to something like: Good, I am getting ready to give my best; or, Bring it on – it’s time to super-power my ride. When you take the positive aspect of performance stress and embrace it, your mind will be
JULY/AUGUST 2016
far less likely to travel down a negative spiral. #2 — FIND A DIFFERENT FOCUS Typically, when we’re nervous or stressed, our attention goes inward, so we can look at all those scary thoughts and images and freak ourselves out. Before we know it, we find ourselves in this horrible bubble of uncomfortable sensations and nasty predictions.
Show ring butterflies are normal, they’re the body’s way of preparing for action. When pre-competition butterflies begin to flutter and thoughts turn inward, anchor your focus outside of yourself. Think about what your horse needs to perform well, and focus on helping him feel calm and confident.
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#1 — REFRAME YOUR THOUGHTS Butterflies are normal. Your body needs to activate itself in order to perform. Although these changes can feel unpleasant and distracting, the uncomfortable physical sensations have a purpose. They are sending blood flow to your muscles, sharpening your vision, and focusing your mind. So when you first become aware of your body’s reaction to
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK/OSKAR SCHULER
There you are, standing at the in-gate, trying to present a picture of poise and confidence. But the reality is that there are butterflies slam-dancing against the walls of your stomach. Right now you want nothing more than to just get this over with so you don’t have to feel this way ever again. Then some well-meaning bystander offers you a granule of wisdom. “Just relax!” she chirps. Don’t you just hate those two little words? Of course you would relax if only you knew how. And commanding yourself to do so doesn’t work… but there are other ways. There are things you can do to tame your show ring butterflies and they have nothing to do with deep breathing or Zen postures.
Next thing you know, your head is screening a new horror movie about showing horses and you’re the star. Oh no! Find an anchor for your focus outside of yourself. Lead yourself out of your head by anchoring onto something or someone else. Your best bet is to think of your horse’s needs. What does Jelly Bean need from you today to feel confident? Zone in on helping your teammate navigate the show environment with cool ease. #3 — DO A PERSPECTIVE CHECK How you choose to perceive the act of competing and how much weight you give it are entirely up to you. You can make it huge and overwhelming by telling yourself that you must ride well or you’ll disappoint other people, or you must get a ribbon or you’re not a good rider. Don’t compete for such high stakes. Make sure you create a perspective that leaves you free to compete and use your skills. Try telling yourself it’s just another competition among many. Or that you ride to please yourself, not others. Remember, the task remains the same as it was in training, this is what you have trained for and hence it follows that you are prepared. #4 — WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE I’m not referring to profanity. If your language is scary, you will be scared. So take the time before the show to make sure you have some statements ready to rely on. Think some guiding thoughts about your ride that will leave you feeling in control. Try a mantra that links back to your training, such as: Do your best and forget the rest; or, Keep calm and
ride on. Instead of being mean to yourself, try activating that nice inner coach and using encouragement. Replace that scary thought with thinking that says: I’ve got this, I’ve done this before. Finally, don’t talk to yourself in “don’ts.” Your brain will go to the thing you are saying not to do and focus on it. Don’t be nervous. Don’t screw up. These thoughts will leave you stressed and focused on making mistakes. Talk to yourself in terms of what you want to do, for example: Breathe and maintain pace; or, Sit up and support my horse. You will be surprised how much better you feel when you give yourself clear, positive instructions. #5 — CONSIDER MODIFYING YOUR TARGET Riders often create their own stress by falling into the expectation trap. Unrealistic expectations make for ongoing anxiety. Instead of an expectation, turn your target into a process goal that focuses on the elements of your ride that you can control. Change your expectation of placing in the top three to focusing on maintaining a consistent pace. Focusing on a prize will do nothing but drive your pressure up. You can want it, but let it go when you’re in the tack and make sure your focus is targeted on the process, on a goal like pace control or riding the corners. Your brain will be locked into tasks and how to accomplish them, similar to the way you think and ride in training. This will help you stay calm and focused, and no one will tell you to relax because you will already be the picture of poise. b
April Clay is a Registered Psychologist with an independent practice focused in counselling, consulting, and sport psychology. She draws from a wide variety of experiences working with couples, individuals, adolescents, and children, and with many types of athletes and performers. April is a member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), and also works as a service provider for the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary. As an adjunct to her practice, April writes for several local and national magazines, and offers workshops on a variety of topics. As a sports consultant, she draws on some 15 years of experience as a competitive horse show jumper.
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b Celebrating our 25 Year Journey By Margaret Evans
“When I started school, all my school stories and essays were about horses, so much so that my teacher once asked me to please write about something besides horses for one particular assignment. I remember struggling with that assignment; it wasn’t much fun, but I got through it and went right back to writing about horses.”
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Kathy Smith, editor, publisher and owner of Canadian Horse Journal, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, must have sensed very early in life where her path would lead. She was your typical horse-crazy kid Kathy who drew pictures of ponies, Smith begged her mom to have a pony of her own even though she knew there wasn’t enough money to buy and maintain one, and wrote about horses in her own self-styled “newspaper.” P
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“I grew up on a turkey farm in southern Ontario, near Pefferlaw, not far from Lake Simcoe,” she recalls. “As long as I can remember, I was obsessed with horses although there were none on our farm or in the local area except for a couple of draft horses about three miles down the road. “There was an old manual typewriter in the room we used as a hatchery, just off the farmhouse kitchen. I would sit beside the incubators full of turkey eggs in the humid air fragrant with warm hatching eggs, and type up my horse stories as ‘newspaper pages’ complete with columns and headlines and glued-on horse pictures, and my mom would read them appreciatively.” Her mom, though, had other ideas for her daughter. She wanted Kathy to play the piano and pass
her Grade 8 Royal Conservatory of Music exam. At age 7, she began lessons. She practiced her scales every morning before school, struggled through “stumbling renditions of Bach and Beethoven” — and kept up the pleading question for a pony. At age nine, Kathy’s mom surprised her with a different answer. Instead of the usual “When you’re older,” she challenged Kathy to save her money and buy one. Every week, she put away her 50 cent allowance, sat at the keyboard, gazed at the front field and visualized her future pony. She maintained her savings habit faithfully for two years, never buying so much as a bottle of pop on the weekly trip to town. “I remember shoving my hand in my pocket and feeling the JULY/AUGUST 2016
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