Selected Massachusetts Horse Magazine articles

7/04
Driving Dobbin Down the Road…where to begin?

I. On a beautiful fall day, my husband and I drive my appaloosa mare up through the wandering roads leading to the uppermost pasture on a Berkshire Mountain horse farm. Behind us, the fog slowly lifts, and the view to the east is nothing short of breathtaking. A gorgeous landscape, Ray at my side, and Meha in front of us with her ears perked as if she too was enjoying the view. Magic!

II. Meha is trotting full out as my navigator and I round a corner on the Marathon, (cross country,) course at a combined driving event. The wheels slide, skidding out to the left as we make the right, narrowly missing a tree, and enter the obstacle, cantering toward the first entrance into what looks like a small maze built of tree trunks and highway cones. “Right to A!” says my ‘gator, “then hard left to B; watch the rocks!” We twist and turn through the lettered “gates” as fast as we can, then run for the exit gate, bring Meha back to a trot, and move toward the next obstacle. My job is to drive; my navigator’s is to keep track of our time using two stopwatches, tell me where I should be heading, and to help balance the cart as we go. We’re both focused and grinning, and at the end of the 6 km course we hoot and laugh as Meha crosses the finish line right on time, and slows to a walk to cool out.

“Driving is safer than riding, isn’t it?”
“Does it take special training for a horse to drive?”

Meha and I have been driving together for over six years, and although we trail ride and have begun tackling the arcane concepts of ridden dressage, I think we both love driving best. One thing I’ve learned over our years of driving is that non-driving horse people are fascinated by the idea, so I’ve become used to answering questions:

“I have an old harness somewhere in the barn; do you think I could use it on Dobbin?”
“Dobbin used to drive, so maybe I should give it a try. Can you tell me how?”
Now, I’m not here to discourage your interest in driving should you have one, in fact I really encourage you to drive; it’s fun! But, I do wince at some of the well intended but scary questions, and would like to offer some equally well-intended advice.

The first and most important piece of advice for starting to drive: get professional/knowledgeable help. There are a number of excellent amateur, and well-known professional drivers in western MA, and I would encourage you to locate and consult one.


Driving is probably neither safer nor more dangerous than riding over-all, but it does pose a few unique challenges. After all, as a friend of mine likes to point out, a driver is six to ten feet behind her horse, seated in a large piece of furniture, with only two long strips of leather or nylon for control. Personally, I try not to think about that when I’m driving.
Harness maker and longtime Norwegian Fjord Horse driver, Dave McWethy (who drove a three horse hitch of Fjords across the country in 1983) says that there are four points of challenge, (which I think is his polite phrase for ‘red flags,’) in driving: a green horse, a green driver, dangerous harness, and dangerous vehicles.
Taking them one at a time and incorporating some solutions, I offer the following:

1.A young or green horse can learn to drive, just as he can learn to jump, run barrels, or perform a half pass. But, he has to learn. Just like you don’t saddle up your young horse and take him out on the cross-country course, or try to ride a fourth level test, you don’t pop Dobbin in between the shafts and say “git.” An experienced driver can teach you many of the starting steps in driving before you even think about attaching the furniture part, and then assist you when it’s time to take the, “hooking-him-to-the-cart” step.

2.As a rider, now think: did you hop up on the first horse you rode and run 15 second barrels or clear four foot fences? Of course you didn’t, (I hope you didn’t!) and driving is no different. It is very easy to learn the basics in a few lessons, and like everything we do with our horses, more difficult and time consuming to learn to do well. The advice is the same as above: drive with someone who can teach you properly, and just like you have in the saddle, you’ll learn and improve with practice.

3. About the tack. A harness is a whole lot of leather or nylon, wrapped six ways from Sunday around a horse and parts of a cart, and none of it is unimportant; it allows the horse to move forward bearing weight, and it keeps the carriage from running into his butt when you go down hills. It keeps the cart behind the horse, in line with him, and both the horse’s and the driver’s safety is dependent upon its integrity. Let me assure you that until you’ve seen it happen, you can barely imagine how fast the entire arrangement comes undone when one of those straps breaks or otherwise fails to do its job. What you have then is a frightened horse being pursued by mindless furniture, and a person trying to figure out whether, (and how,) to stay or bail. Not a pretty picture. The solution to that challenge is the simplest of all: buy good harness. The leather in Grandpop’s old buggy harness is probably dry and weak, and that $20 harness you picked up at a tag sale may or may not be any better. Start with something safely constructed, fit it properly, and you’ve greatly increased your odds of surviving and enjoying the sport!

4. As to the vehicle, there are a lot of types available, from old racing sulkies to fancy marathon carriages, but allow me to go on record suggesting that a well-made cart is at least as important as the harness. A spoke or shaft or floorboard breaking has pretty much the same effect as above, maybe worse. Old wood becomes rotten and brittle, so it’s important to make sure that your vehicle is sound. The cart should fit the horse, fit your needs for entry and exit and what you plan to do with it, and ideally, have non-inflatable tires if you plan to drive anywhere out of range of air compressors. Bicycle tire carts are best saved for their original purpose, which is ring-driving. A blow-out will scare the most bombproof pony, and it can be a long walk out, leading him home from the middle of nowhere.

Dave McWethy says, “It’s possible to learn despite the presence of these challenges, but better not to. If you only have one of the four, that’s better. Four of four, you need the help of angels.” I believe in angels, but generally prefer not to need their help!

So, if I haven’t discouraged you, and I certainly hope I haven’t, let’s consider a few of the “need to knows” of driving:
*The horse should be a reasonably steady fellow. The blinkers on the bridle, and the presence of the shafts has some benefit in keeping him facing and moving in a forward direction, but a flighty horse, especially one who rears or bolts is not a good candidate for a beginning driver. And, while it is true that driving can be an option for a horse whose back or legs are unable to carry a rider, a carriage horse should be sound and comfortable at a walk and trot. He may not be carrying a rider’s weight on his back, but he may be responsible for moving up to 600 lbs. or more of combined carriage, driver and passenger.
*The usual driver, (there are advanced level, physically disabled drivers competing in Scotland as I write this, but for now we will assume that we’re talking about those without need for modifications in their carriages,) should be able to climb up into and out of a carriage, and of course be horse-savvy and capable of learning how to fit harness, and handle the lines and whip. The whip! How could I forget that question?
“Do you have to hit her with that whip?” The whip to a driver, takes the place of the rider’s leg aids. It isn’t a punishment, it is used to touch a side, give a “squeeze,” and a “kick” when necessary.
*Harness fit, like saddle fit is important to the horse’s comfort and ability to perform. It should ride at the correct places on the horse’s body so that the weight of the carriage will be properly distributed and controlled without chafing or pinching. Learning how to harness is an important aspect of driving, and seems dauntingly complicated at first. It is also one area where safety is paramount. Harnessing and hitching have to be done in a safety-driven order, and there is one rule that is so important that to break it means immediate expulsion from any recognized competition: never remove the bridle from an animal still attached to a vehicle. Recently, a west coast competitor’s failure to remember this rule led to a runaway that destroyed numerous vehicles, and ultimately led to the death of another competitor’s dog.
*The horse should be comfortable with the bit, (most riding bits are fine, by the way,) and the whole “turnout” should fit well and comfortably together.

When I began driving, the two most difficult things for me to learn were where all those (seemingly) miles of harness went and how to attach it properly, and how to hold and use the whip while holding and using the reins. Some of my passengers who get smacked or tickled by the lash aren’t convinced that I’ve ever learned the latter. Others have told me that maintaining the correct contact was their greatest challenge, or over-steering, learning to relax, judging the width of their vehicle; as with any new activity, there are always things that come easily or hard in learning to drive. A good teacher will make the difference between success and frustration for both the driver and the horse.
In short, driving is outrageous fun, and like riding, requires training of both the human and equine parties to the process. Because most vehicles seat one or more additional people, it can be a way to share a family horse, or take a non-riding friend along on an afternoon picnic. Also like riding, driving can be dangerous; safe equipment, (including helmets!) and safe behavior is vitally important. To that end, I’d like to recommend a book and a website: The Essential Guide to Carriage Driving by Robyn Cuffey and Jaye-Allison Winkle, is a recently published, and excellent introduction to the sport of carriage driving. Robyn and Jaye-Allison have spent years driving, learning, training and studying, and the result is a clear, helpful guide to the basics of horse, harness, and vehicle selection and the art of putting it all together. If you plan to start driving, recently have, or if you’re just interested in the subject, you can find information and ordering instructions at http://www.carriagedriving.net, an online magazine maintained by
Jaye-Allison. In the archives section there, you’ll find articles on many topics related to being a beginner-driver. And, even though I know that I just said that I wince at some questions, I really do enjoy answering them; feel free to send yours to me and I’ll do my best to answer them and/or steer you to someone who can do so better than I.

7/04
Jeff Morse: A Driving Force in Horses


Green Meads Farm sprawls over a steeply rolling landscape at the border of Massachusetts and New York. The pastures and woods are wound with trails that open onto spectacular views, or skirt the edges of fragrant hayfields, punctuated with odd constructions of logs and trees, blaze orange traffic cones, and at times, kilometer markings on multi-colored paper plates. Green Meads is a driving barn; the trails throughout the mountainside train horses and drivers for marathon competition. In a field at the foot of the hill lies a driven-dressage arena, and next to it, a course of orange cones decorated with among other things, an almost-life-sized, plywood cutout of a Belted Galloway cow. The owner of Green Meads Farm is a quiet man with a wry sense of humor who has spent much of his life there, riding and driving the trails with his and his customers’ horses, most though not all of them Morgans. Jeff Morse has become one of the best known carriage driving trainers, and teachers in New England, and his intense curiosity and interest in learning almost everything, paired with his calm, experienced horsemanship has made him one of the most sought after clinicians in the country. Jeff maintains a madcap schedule of training, teaching, showing, coaching and traveling during the summer months, so I was fortunate to find a time to sit with him on a bench in front of the barn, and talk with him about his work, while Orlando, his pet Rhode Island Red rooster wandered around at our feet in search of handouts.

Green Meads was Jeff’s grandfather’s farm. Darwin Morse purchased the property in the 1924 to raise dairy cattle and Morgan horses. Jeff says that his earliest childhood memory of Green Meads includes cows, but that they were sold off almost immediately, and it is the horses he remembers best. Over the 12 summers he spent at Green Meads from the age of six, Jeff rode his horse daily, and “did all the dumb death defying things you do as an immortal, when you are a kid.” The horse on whom he learned to ride was the 1949 National Champion Morgan mare, Abington of Shady Lawn. Jeff tells me that his favorite horse, (and he is quick to add that he has worked with so many good horses that it’s hard to choose a favorite,) was his grandfather’s first stallion, Windcrest Ben Davis. “He was the kindest horse,” he says, “you could take a class of 13 school age kids into his stall and he would be as gentle as can be, but he was fancy too. He’s the horse by which I measure all other stallions.” Looking toward Ransomevale Gabriel, his jet-black Morgan stud, he says, “that guy is a lot like him.” Gabriel, apparently understanding that he is supposed to demonstrate his gentle nature, lies down with a thud and sighs deeply.

Jeff returned to Green Meads in 1972 as his grandfather’s farm manager, to “perfect his stall cleaning skills.” By 1980, he’d begun training horses, and went in search of a business that would be compatible with that effort. He settled on selling farrier supplies, but soon found that there was a lot more education than money to be had there. He met a lot of shoers he says, and learned a great deal about horses’ feet and care, something he would integrate later into his training and teaching. That, by the way, is typical of Jeff Morse who learns something from every experience, and finds a place for the knowledge in his work as a horseman.

When Jeff went to manage and teach at Undermountain Farm in Lenox, he found a new perspective to consider. Prior to that, he had worked only with Morgans, and only with a herd of horses he had known throughout their lives. Managing 40 horses with different owners and different, often unknown backgrounds he says, was more like “managing 40 herds of one horse each.” The experience broadened his awareness of the difference between the more insulated breed, and open horse show-worlds, and prepared him for a wider training clientele later. While he was at Undermountain Farm, Jeff worked some with driving horses, and not long afterward met the Morgan Carriage Horse that would re-direct his career: Maine Event Minstrel, aka “Amos.” Amos arrived at Green Meads in sad shape; he was lame and in need of a lot of care. Analyzing the problems and issues that the horse presented, Jeff worked with him, and in time sent him on to a successful competition career, first with Ed Barker from Massachusetts, and then with his current owner, Ed Kueppers who lives over the mountain from Green Meads, in New York State.

Driving, Jeff found, suited him well. He liked the way carriage horses live: with lots of time outdoors, and the absence of mechanical training and the stress of the show ring. Over all he says, he found it comfortable, but most of all, it seemed to him to be a “mind game; a thinking man’s game.” The competitive aspect of it he notes, “has a built in requirement that you be a good horseman.” This is best expressed by the rule in competitive carriage driving, banning “all outside assistance.” While in many other disciplines, a trainer is permitted to coach from the rail, and can work and prepare the horse until the rider mounts, goes into the show ring, and then leaves and dismounts, “carriage driving,” says Jeff, “forces you to be prepared and do your homework. It makes you a better horseman.” Then too, he says, “something about the sport forces you to work on the things you need to work on. You’re tense; it makes you relax. You’re scattered; it makes you focus.” Driving to Jeff, is a therapeutic sport that has an affect on a person’s life-skills, as well as on his or her horsemanship.

Morgans have always been Jeff’s horse of choice; he’s the past President, and current Treasurer of the Massachusetts Morgan Horse Association, and when I wonder what is it about the breed that particularly speaks to him, it comes as no surprise when he says that it is their minds, and their willingness to please, to “do something.” Morgans he notes, were bred for 200 years to be carriage horses; they’re good at it, as evidenced by the fact that three of the competitors at the 2004 World Single Horse Championships in Sweden, were Morgans.
One, Collectors Right Stuff, is a son of Gabriel, driven by Scott Padget. Driving, Jeff tells me is the only open sport in which Morgans compete internationally

When I ask what makes a great competitive carriage driving horse, Jeff laughs and says “anything with Morgan papers.” Then he expands and says that the key is that the horse has to have a brain. A carriage horse has to think well, no matter how athletic, but shouldn’t have, “an agenda of its own.” I remind him that cowboys say that you want a horse to be smart, but not too smart, and he agrees. Athleticism of course is necessary for a competitive horse, particularly the ability to use his hind end well. When asked what makes a great driver he quickly answers, “an A-student. They always think they’re failing and try harder and harder to learn.” Driving he says, requires the ability to organize and control your mind, and absolutely demands a sense of humor.

Jeff Morse is fascinated by the mind of the horse. He seems to approach them as puzzles to be understood and solved. Part of that puzzle he notes, is understanding that almost all behavior problems have a physical cause, and that asking the horse to work without addressing those issues is not only unfair, but counterproductive. Pushing an uncomfortable horse will create problems that are far more difficult to resolve. The fact is, Jeff has become known for his ability to work with problem horses, and wryly equates his position to that of a car mechanic. “ People bring me wrecks to fix, “ he says, “oh, once in a while I get a Maserati, but most of the time I need to find out what sort of help the horse needs in order to perform well.” His approach is an integrative one, working with a vet who employs “alternative” methods like acupuncture, chiropractic and massage, as well as traditional medicine, and a good farrier. “The Northeast has the greatest number of well trained farriers, “ he says shaking his head, “but it seems like so many horses come in with terrible feet.”

To illustrate his approach Jeff tells me about a horse that came to him with issues “layered like an onion.” The horse was spooky, and off on the right hind leg, and obviously sore although the cause was eluding both vet and farrier. Ultimately, they found a retained cap on an upper, rear tooth. The cap had grown down and forced the tooth below it sideways into the jaw, causing the horse considerable pain from TMJ, which in turn made him carry himself off balance in an attempt to protect his right side. His right hind leg became underdeveloped, which caused the lameness with which they had initially been concerned. After dental work, chiropractic and slow, steady training, the horse became sound. Finding out what kind of help a horse needs, and conveying that to the owner, is according to Jeff, part of his job as a trainer.

As I’m getting ready to leave Green Meads, I ask Jeff something I’ve always wondered: why he seems to have personally focused his competitive time on single horses, at the Preliminary and Intermediate level. I’m expecting a more complex answer and am surprised when he answers, “attrition.” It turns out that most of the talented horses that he’s had have come to him later in their careers, being re-trained as carriage horses after excelling in park, or western pleasure, or other Morgan show-ring disciplines. Now, he says, he has a young horse, SBS Risky Business, better known as Buzz, with whom he garnered the Novice Championships at both the Vermont Morgan Horse Show held in West Springfield, MA, and Morgan Heritage days in Tunbridge, Vermont. “Who knows where we’ll go?” he says. As to why he likes single horse competition, he says it is in the details. Jeff loves the demands of driven dressage, which he believes is the foundation for all good driving. “A single horse is a challenge, because if it isn’t right, it shows immediately,” he says, “mistakes can hide in a pair or more, but a single horse has to be perfect.” Perfection, and striving to attain it, are hallmarks of Jeff Morse’s training style, but always with a smile, an encouraging word, and a sense of humor. The perfect trainer? Jeff Morse would never say so, but when it comes to training carriage horses, many others do.

1/05
Windcrest Highlander 05/03/73-11/18/04

It isn’t possible to have been a rider, Animal Science student or visitor to the University of Massachusetts Amherst barns over the past 18 years, without having seen and known Windcrest Highlander. Highlander was the stud, and the star of the UMass Amherst teaching and breeding program, from the day he arrived at the old Tilson Farm in 1986. Sadly, Highlander passed away this past November at the age of 31. He leaves behind though, an incredible family of equine sons and daughters, and many people who knew and loved him during his long and active 31year life.

Highlander’s records read like a history of influential people and bloodlines in the Morgan Horse world. An Orcland Leader and Upway Ben Don grandson, he was bred by Patty Ferguson, sold as a yearling to Meg and Dick Preston (who called him “Willy”) and trained by Dr. Bob Orcutt. His stablemates at the Preston’s Rum Brook Farm included Immortal Command, Serenity March Time and Green Meads Galaxy. Highlander established his own name early on, winning classes and championships as a colt, and as a three-year old won junior pleasure saddle or driving classes at every major New England show. Before he came to UMass Amherst where both Jill Nicolai and Vickie Kahn rode him successfully in Training and First Level Dressage, Highlander had been World Pleasure Driving three-year-old Champion, Reserve World Champion Pleasure Saddle Horse, and then New England Western Pleasure Champion with Judy Nason. He was, as Meg Preston says, a model of “ true Morgan versatility at its best.” She adds that Highlander’s driving career was in part a testament to his dependability. When Dick, Meg’s husband lost both his legs in an accident, Highlander became his amateur driving horse. “We would all station ourselves around the ring in case of problems,” she says, “but Willy took care of Dick. In their career together Highlander and Dick won amateur driving stakes at nearly every all-Morgan show in New England and the Mid-Atlantic. The last time Dick drove Highlander, or any horse, was at Maine Morgan and they won the Amateur Driving Championship. Willy was the perfect horse for Dick.”

In 1986-87 Highlander was leased to UMass Amherst as a breeding stallion, and sired five foals that year. From 1988 through 1990 he returned to the show circuit and then back to Amherst in time for the move to the Hadley Farm and the rest of his career as a teacher as well as a breeding stallion. Tony Borton, retired Chair of the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences described Highlander’s tenure as “an important addition to our teaching and a big boost to the breeding program. In the absence of funding for anything above or beyond the maintenance of the horses at the time,” he says, “the fees a stallion of Highlander’s quality attracted were a great benefit.” Like so many others, Borton remembers Highlander as “a real gentleman.” That proved invaluable as generations of UMass Amherst students learned stallion management with Highlander in the breeding shed. In the late 80s, UMass Amherst had begun an AI (artificial insemination) teaching program, and Highlander’s tractability made him a safe stallion with which students could learn and practice the necessary techniques for collection.

The many sons and daughters he sired on and off the UMass Amherst farm inherited his size and bone, his impulsion and floating extension, and his personality. They, along with his grand-get and later generations have performed well in riding and driving disciplines in shows, on trails, and as family horses throughout New England. Suzanne Mente, Assistant Director of Riding at UMass Amherst tells Massachusetts Horse that her most lasting memory of Highlander comes from the day he died:

“I taught a lesson just after he died, “ Suzanne says, “It was an unusually warm day for the late fall so I had a jumping lesson outside. The students were riding really well, very focused on the exercise. In response the horses were going well and really succeeding at the jumps. Every rider and horse combination made changes and improved over the course of the lesson (no small feat in a lesson of 8!). At the end of lesson I realized that seven of the eight horses were Highlander progeny. It almost took my breath away to realize the legacy he left. Good school horses are hard to find, and here we are with 15 plus school horses (and more in training!) all with Highlander's intelligence and build. What a wonderful tribute on such a sad day, to see Highlander's offspring all being such good teachers!”

Rest in peace, Windcrest Highlander; you will live in memory and in the history of the Morgan Horse for many years and foals yet to come.


10/05
Helmet safety: proper use and attitude make the difference


A young girl I know was competing in a breed show recently, all dressed up in her saddle suit and derby, when her normally solid-citizen horse spooked at something in the strange, noisy arena. She came out of her saddle and flew with a thump into the wall and down to the arena floor. Her mother’s heart stopped for an instant until it was clear that the girl was just shaken; fortunately, this time nothing more than a little pride and her coat was injured; she got back up and rode her remaining classes beautifully. As is usual in saddle seat and western classes at breed shows, she wasn't wearing a helmet.

Why not?
Why don’t all riders of any age and any discipline wear helmets? Tradition, fashion, misplaced pride and machismo, none seem like very good reasons to risk head injury, but they’re the main reasons helmets don’t get used…even though we know that helmets work; their use is credited with reductions in all reported head injuries of 35%, and severe head injuries of 50%… a fact that the USEF, 4-H, Pony Club, ISHA and a number of other organizations have already verified. More will follow soon.This year the ADS (American Driving Society) has mandated the use of ASTM/SEI helmets in the “marathon” (cross-country) phase of combined driving events. Still, every year people are injured riding without helmets because they think it will ruin their hairstyle, it isn’t a cowboy hat, or they think of themselves as too good a rider to get injured. Interestingly, there is no evidence showing that green riders get hurt more than experienced ones, that competition is more dangerous than backyard riding, or that only children are at risk. In one study, adults over the age of 25 made up over 50% of hospital-treated rider injuries, and 60% occurred at home or on a farm in a non-competitive setting. Simple fact: heads are heavy. No matter how much we may think we won’t land on our heads, we often do, and head injuries account for over 17% of all equestrian injuries, and 60% of equestrian-related deaths. Good reasons to wear an ASTM/SEI F-1163 rated helmet every time you ride.
I can personally attest to the fact that you don’t have to be galloping over fences to risk injury. The laws of physics, caught up with me a few years ago when, rather gracefully I like to think, I came off my mare at a walk in a sand arena. The resulting mild concussion was annoying, but the cracks, splits and “impact stars” on my helmet made me shudder. It would have been far worse without the helmet, and very embarrassing to have ended my riding career (or my life!) by sliding off my almost motionless horse.


So, what is the ASTM/SEI and what do they do?

The American Society for Testing and Materials is a volunteer organization that develops standards for industries ranging from safety in recreational aviation, to fiber optic cable installations in underground utilities, to the helmets used on jobsites, in motor sports and, beginning in 1990, in response to a 12-year study by the USPC (Pony Club,) equestrian helmets. Standards are reviewed every five years and updated as needed…one reason for the recommendation that you replace your helmet every five years. The Safety Equipment Institute tests and certifies the standards that the ASTM develops. To do this, they put helmets through a battery of nasty insults: dropping them onto a flat, hard surface and against a sharp angle made to simulate a rock or a hoof-blow. Sophisticated instruments measure how much impact in G’s (units of gravitational force) makes it through the helmet material to the “rider’s” head. The current standard says that has to be less than 300 Gs, basically enough to cause a mild concussion but no more. Depending upon the height and angle of a fall from a horse, as well as what you land on, your unprotected head can be subject to as much as 1000 Gs on impact: enough to cause instantaneous death.
Helmet harnesses are put through a series of tests as well, making sure that they will keep the helmet in place to do their job.


How does a helmet actually work?

The first thing to know is that when your skull impacts another surface it stops moving. Your brain however, doesn’t. Because it is floating around, it continues to move until it crashes against the inside of your head. A helmet’s job is to absorb the impact before that occurs. OK; approved helmets have often been called “bubbleheads.” They’re made with a layer of thick polystyrene, and sit out further from a rider’s head than the totally unsafe “apparel” helmets of my youth. Beautiful? Maybe not, but that layer of little closed cells is what protects you by taking the brunt of the impact and collapsing in place of your skull. Of course once they’ve saved your life they’re done-for and can’t repeat it, so after any sort of impact you should replace your helmet. Contrary to popular belief this isn’t just a helmet-company’s way of selling more helmets. There’s really no way to see the internal damage, which is why most of the manufacturers have replacement policies. Their good names and continued business depends upon the safety of those wearing their brands.

There is another very important and often overlooked element to how a helmet works: how it fits. Because approved helmets may be less than lovely, many riders try to compensate for that fact by wearing them incorrectly. Helmets can’t do their job if they don’t fit right against your head, straight on, and with the harness buckled snugly so that the helmet doesn’t wiggle. A loose harness, with the helmet tipped back up off your forehead and long hair tucked loosely up underneath it, isn’t a proper fit. What you want in proper helmet fit is as little space as possible between the helmet liner and your head, the helmet parallel to the floor with the visor about 3/4 inch above your eyebrows, and the harness snug enough to keep it exactly there. “The most common mistake in fitting helmets,” says Troxel’s CEO Richard Timms, “is that people don’t realize the importance of the chinstrap. The most vital safety concern is that the helmet is buckled snugly.”


Children and helmets…

It is interesting to me that while we strap babies into high-tech car seats, insist that they use seat belts when they're older, buy toys and pajamas with safety ratings, and worry about the air they breathe and the food they eat, we sometimes sit them 4 or more feet up on an unpredictable–because all horses are unpredictable–animal weighing close to half a ton, and send them off around the ring with no protective headgear. While I was selling tack and riding gear I was frequently asked about used helmets, bicycle helmets, (different, lesser ASTM/SEI standard) and whether children could grow into an oversized helmet so 2 or more could share it. As a mom and grandmother, I believe that there’s little else in our world as important as our children, so I would answer saying that nothing short of a new, properly fitted riding helmet was appropriate. Many helmets cost as little as $30, a small investment in a safe child. On more than one occasion I gave helmets away.
It’s important to know that a lower cost helmet isn’t a less safe one. Dr. Jessica Jahiel, clinician and author of The Parent’s Guide to Horseback Riding, says that “ Some parents believe that cost equals value, and that a helmet with a more impressive price tag is somehow more protective than an inexpensive schooling helmet. That’s not the case. All helmets approved by the ASTM/SEI have met precisely the same safety standards. If parents want to make a $350 investment to promote their child’s safety, it would make more sense for them to spend $30 on an approved schooling helmet and use the remaining money for a safety vest-or better yet- for additional lessons with a good instructor.”
The same of course, holds true for adults.

Yeah, but what about…

Whenever the topic of helmet use comes up in conversation or online, someone is bound to bring up a person they knew who was injured wearing a helmet, or the late Christopher Reeve, or someone who knew someone who knew someone.
In an exchange of e-mails with western Massachusetts driving trainer, Jeff Morse earlier this year, Dru Malavase, a current member of the ASTM’s F8.53 Committee on Protective Helmets for Sports, and the convener and chair of the original ASTM Equestrian Protective Headgear Committee, said “Unfortunately we haven’t been able to get products which can protect every individual from every kind of impact; people with past head injury or those wearing a helmet which has been impacted in the past and not replaced are at added risk. And there will always be the catastrophic blow when a head hits a car or a fixed object which exceeds anything a helmet can offer in protection, but fortunately these are rare.” The point of course, is to reduce the likelihood of injury, not to offer an ironclad guarantee against it.


Finally, an editorial comment…

I believe that it's time for the breed associations and all show organizers to require children under 18 to wear approved helmets so that their use becomes as ordinary as wearing boots. If everyone in the western pleasure or park horse class is wearing a helmet, no one will object. Past attempts at manufacturing cowboy-hat style approved helmets did nothing to encourage their use; they made riders look like better-dressed versions of Yosemite Sam.
A derby-style helmet for saddleseat riders has also been introduced recently; a good step, but we’ll see how it is accepted. The simplest answer to safety in the show ring would be the adoption of a classic, approved riding helmet for all young riders.

At the end of the day we all know two things about helmets: they protect heads and they look funny. Only making the first thing important enough to justify the second will protect our kids' heads, and our own.

3/06
NAIS: The National Animal Identification System… MA Horse owners should educate themselves on the facts.


You've probably heard about it: the bad intrusive government wants to know every move you make with your horse—OR— the good protective government wants to prevent the spread of agricultural disease. From either perspective the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is raising questions and eyebrows throughout the horse industry. Depending on who’s describing it, it's an Orwellian nightmare, a benign set of regulations, or something found at any point along that continuum.

What IS NAIS?
According to the USDA, "The NAIS is a national program intended to identify all agricultural animals and track them as they come into contact with, or are inter-mixed with, animals other than herdmates from their premises of origin." (http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/newsroom/factsheets/nais_qa_factsheet.shtml#1) When released, this language immediately raised concerns among equestrians wondering if they would have to report every trail ride they set out on, and indeed, the same document states "When people show or commingle their animals with animals from multiple premises, the possibility of spreading disease becomes a factor. Those animals will need to be identified." But how?

Registration
Conversations about animal identification began in government years ago. Outbreaks of "mad-cow disease" accelerated them in the early 2000s, and by 2004 the USDA began laying the groundwork for NAIS by issuing a series of rules and holding hearings. The basic elements of the proposal included:

1) giving each "premises" (breeding farms, boarding and training facilities, public and private stables, fairgrounds, competition sites, etc.) a registered identification number,
2) "branding" by microchip or other means, all horses with a registered ID number by which one could then,
3) track their movements by time, date and location in order to trace the sources and spread of “major disease outbreaks.”

The registration proposal took shape quickly, and one year ago in May, 2005 the Equine Species Working Group of the American Horse Council released the following recommendations in support of the NAIS:

1) all horses should be identified and registered.
2) the program should be voluntary until 2010 unless "events necessitate earlier compliance."
3. The USDA should take into account the "unique characteristics of the equine industry," and 13 more recommendations covering transportation, importing, and the reporting which would be required of owners and facility managers. The complete AHC recommendations appear on the their website at http://www.horsecouncil.org. Some have particularly worried equestrian professionals, such as recommendation #9 which says, "The premises manager...is responsible for recording and reporting the identification of horses moved onto or off of the premises; and must submit the necessary information (premises identification, horse identification numbers, time and date of entry and exit, and event code) to the national database in a timely basis as designated by USDA NAIS. The premises manager must submit the information to the national database within 24 hours of being notified of a disease outbreak that threatens horses." It sounds like a lot of paperwork.
So, what do most horsepeople think about NAIS? Not much.

The reaction
Animal owners including equestrians, trainers and breeders are up in arms about NAIS. Whether they see it as a government conspiracy or just a bureaucratic bother, they don't like it. A Vermont farmer, Walter Jeffries, established a website, http://www.nonais.org/ where he posts information and opinion in opposition to NAIS, and agricultural and equine publications, as well as the myriad online equestrian bulletin boards and mailing lists have been flooded with comments over the past few months. The concerns expressed range from the lack of definition of "major disease" to the extraordinary amount of paperwork that some see as inevitable. Fortunately, many have maintained a sense of humor in their opposition, as did the Livestock Weekly when they commented that the "USDA's proposed program could be compared to a finely crafted blueprint for a concrete blimp, " and another writer who said "after reading everything I could find about the proposed NAIS program, both pro and con, the only conclusion I can come up with is that it will make the Medicare Drug program look like a cake walk."
There are however, real questions that the USDA will need to address before most people in the equestrian world will be even close to satisfied. While some may scoff at "conspiracy theorists," there are issues of government control and intervention in NAIS that concern many farmers who see the plan as a violation of American ideals. The idea that the state and federal governments would collect and store data in mandated, federally managed databases strikes fear into the hearts of some. A more mundane and frequently cited concern is that NAIS would be impossibly hard to manage in a day to day world. In reference to the lack of well defined “diseases that might threaten horses” Jeff Morse, a carriage driving trainer in Richmond, MA worries that “the American Horse Council identifies some diseases, among them ringworm. Given the scope of NAIS,” he says. “ it is conceivable that if you discover ringworm on a horse at home, you will be required to call a vet and that horse can not move from your farm— and possibly no other horse at your farm can be shipped—until certified clear of ringworm.” Further, he notes that “If the horse that stabled next to you at a competition is found to have one of the diseases after it arrives back at its home, YOUR horses may be quarantined until certified clean by a vet. It might be anthrax… but it could be something as innocuous as ringworm. The problem is we are being asked to go along with this program without knowing these kinds of details.”

Other owners are concerned about the cost of micro-chipping horses and maintaining the proposed reporting requirements. And say some, in the absence of exact reporting as a horse moves interstate from home to trainer to shows, with stops along the way, the proposal will in many cases, prove worthless.

It is possible that some version of the NAIS proposal may offer benefits to horse owners. Controlling biohazards and maintaining healthy stock is something we can all agree is worthwhile. It would be a valuable use of all of our time to learn as much as possible about the proposal, discuss it in our clubs and groups of friends, and contact the organizations and government representatives who will ultimately make the decisions.

Of course, in the end, it remains to see how well such a tracking system could be implemented. As one writer noted, (tongue-firmly-in-cheek,) “the government can handle these things. They’re doing great with the tracking they already do: re-payments of student loans, whereabouts of criminals, illegal aliens, you name it. So what's a few gazillion animal entries with their daily movements into a data- base? Piece of cake for any bureaucracy. Think of all the jobs it will create!”

And quite possibly, the headaches.




9/06
Sir Lancelot or Fairmont Hanover; Oh, the Stories He Could Tell!

A Standardbred, Sir Lancelot is dark and sleek, his seal brown coat illuminated with lighter dapples, his black tail cascading almost to the floor. He is the picture of health, and one might even think youth before noticing the gray hairs spread out across his nose and brow. His attitude too, suggests a younger horse as he fusses in the cross-ties, makes faces at the woman grooming him and offers an annoyed, but harmless kick after a half dozen people have inspected him, curled back his upper lip to view the tattoo printed there, and generally kept him from the morning nap he’d like to be having. One has to admit he has a right to his annoyance; Lancelot is 36.

Those who know and have known Lancelot for the past 15 years are 99.99% certain that he was born Fairmont Hanover in 1970 at Hanover Shoe Farm in Pennsylvania, son of top money-earner, Stars Pride. The thin, nagging question that gives rise to that fraction of a percent of doubt, is due to one unclear digit in his upper lip, and what was in all likelihood, an error in trans-atlantic communication. So, let us agree that this is Fairmont Hanover—tattoo number 6142J—and tell his story and how he came to live in Montague.

Fairmont /Lancelot had a promising early career as a trotter. Driven by famous harness racing trainers and drivers John Simpson Jr., Harold Dancer, (he was mentioned in Dancer’s New York Times obituary) and Delvin Miller, Fairmont Hanover had garnered purses of over $50, 000 in his maiden and three year old races before an unspecified event, presumably an injury, took him off the track and into the breeding sheds in Europe in 1973. He was purchased by a Dutch breeder with an interest in the bloodline, and put to stud in Germany for seven years. Because he’d set a track record in Lexington, placed midfield in the Hambletonian, and done well in some races on the Grand Circuit before his retirement, and had excellent bloodlines, he was put to work right away and soon began throwing other—eventually more than 200—colts and fillies to carry on the tradition to which he’d been born. Then, in 1981 it appears he was brought back to the US and gelded, though by whom is unknown, and his history becomes uncertain until he was purchased at auction by a western Massachusetts resident who later sold him to a Deerfield woman, and his new life began to take shape.

Lari Jo Hendrickson had no horses and wasn’t a rider when she began stopping every day on her way to work to visit with the dark brown horse in a roadside field in 1996. She liked horses, and soon found out that this one liked treats including Doritos, and seemed to love the attention he got when she’d stop to talk to him. Their visits became a ritual that extended for eight years, with Lari Jo never knowing anything more about the horse until in one of those almost mystical events, her son became friends with the farm owner’s son. Not long afterwards in 2003, she was offered the opportunity to barn-sit. Lari Jo had a wonderful time looking after Lancelot, grooming him and fussing over him that week, and then to her delight, the following week his owner called to say that it appeared that he missed her! Sure enough, when she drove over to see him, Lancelot ran to the fence in greeting. “It would be nice if we could find a way for you to adopt him,” his owner said, and Lari Jo said “give me five minutes!” She called a friend with horses and a barn, and ten days later Lancelot moved to Montague. In the three years he’s been there he has acquired quite a circle of friends, including lots of people and dogs and six horses of whom four are senior citizens in their own right. Two of the three Thoroughbreds are aged 32 and 23, and there’s a 28 year old Morab and a 27 year old Percheron—as well as the ll year old youngsters in the barn: a Thoroughbred and a Quarterhorse. Lari Jo says “They are all a great bunch of horses…and he is still the fastest!”

Lancelot is pretty patient about the first few times we roll his upper lip back to see his tattoo. Given that racing Standardbreds receive their tattoos at a very young age, it is remarkably clear. The first digit curves gracefully into a legible 6, followed by a very clear 1,4 and 2. The final digit is mostly obscured, but has a distinct curve to its bottom edge. The United States Trotting Association (USTA) maintains records on every registration number, and is capable of tracking them and providing extensive information on any horse that bears one. For most of the decades before the 1990s, tattoos were four digits and a letter. Because they do tend to become obscured with age, the letters O, U and Q were not used, and numbers weren’t used as a final digit until much more recently. With the 6 nearly clear and the 142 absolutely so, Lari Jo began to research Sir Lancelot. The result of her research is an enormous folder of USTA reports, e-mails, photos and notes. Her effort was been exhaustive. Eliminating every other permutation of the numbers, the mares, the deceased horses, and those too old or young to be Lancelot, (the vet has aged him to be “over 30 for sure,”) she found 6142J: Fairmont Hanover. A conversation with his original western MA owner confirmed that, when Lari Jo mentioned she was unsure of the last digit. “It’s a J,” the other woman said unprompted. Then with a name in hand, Lari Jo began to research Fairmont Hanover. She got his ID and race reports, his stud reports from Germany, photos of him racing at Lexington and Indianapolis, and the histories of his parents and some of his get. She matched his markings with his USTA records, and all the while grew amazed that this horse, her friend and companion ridden daily on trails in the woods, was a hotshot trotter over thirty years earlier. He seems like such a “regular guy.” Like many Standardbreds, Lancelot is sensitive and not fond of vigorous grooming and tells you so. Like any that have been raced, it took time to convince him to canter, which he does now with a hop and a buck into the upward transition just so you know he’s doing so under protest. But at 36 years, Fairmont/Lancelot is healthy, sound and goes happily under saddle in the ring and on the trails, more willing and forward than some horses half his age. Oh, he has an ache here and there and a little Cushings syndrome to deal with, and sometimes he’s a crotchety old man, but why not? He’s raced, lived on two continents, fathered hundreds of babies, and now, as we circle around him, looking and poking, flipping his lip, what he really wants is a nap.

As to that “thin, nagging question that gives rise to that fraction of a percent of doubt,” the man in the Netherlands told someone who told someone, who told Lari Jo that he’d heard that Fairmont Hanover had died of colic in ’81. But, because of the uncertainty of that communication, coupled with language issues and the fact that there were a number of horses with the Fairmont name at that farm, it seems that all the other evidence outweighs that possibility. Then too, in her research Lari Jo found only one other possible tattoo number that could be Lancelot’s: 6142S. There is however, no current record of that horse, a gelding named Bombay Bill, so, Fairmont Hanover he is unless someone offers definitive proof to the contrary. In any case, Lancelot knows who he is, and whatever stories he tells the other horses (about the mares in Germany?) and whatever secrets he keeps as he grazes on Montague grass, are just part of a long, rich history that finally brought him to this place and to Lari Jo, the woman who so dearly loves him. And really, that’s enough to know.

3/07
From Patrol to Pasture; Sonny, An Old Police Horse

Life is full of surprises. Surprises like falling in love, and “oh, by the way dear, I bought a horse…” and discovering that the horse you own has already had a career in police work. Then too, it is always a surprise and a wonderful one, to meet a really old horse still thriving and getting around with the youngsters with whom he shares his home.

One day almost nine years ago, Sue Crutch of South Amherst went along with a friend who wanted to look at a horse. Sue had ridden horses as a kid, but not in recent years, and she certainly wasn’t thinking about acquiring one. They went to see a horse who was being retired from the Amherst Police Department; he was a tall, lanky sorrel with a wide white blaze and soft eye, but her friend—the one who was looking for a horse— decided that this one—his name was Sonny, was too old and not really what she was looking for after all. Surprise number one: Sue found herself saying she would take him. She was in love. Surprise number two came later when she went home and told her husband “we need to build a barn because I just got a horse.”

Sue knew that Sonny was being retired from the Amherst Mounted Police, and that he had come to western Mass on loan from the Boston Parks Mounted Patrol when he was retired there. A well-trained, older police horse she reasoned, would be an easy ride for an adult beginner. Not exactly. Brian Johnson, who came from the Boston Park Service to the Amherst Mounted Police and arranged for Amherst to use some of the Boston horses, says that back-in-the-day Sonny was the fastest horse he ever rode, even at the age of 20. Now a detective with the Amherst PD, Brian says “I’d run him up a long hill in the Arnold Arboretum so he wouldn’t take off on me. He loved to go.” Brian came to Amherst in 1997 when the mounted patrol program was a couple of years old, and expanding. The officers with their horses provided a combination of community relations and serious police work. They rode patrol in the conservation areas, could maneuver between the buildings in apartment complexes, visited schools and provided crowd control if needed. They were a popular sight with many Amherst residents, especially children while the program lasted. Sadly, after 9/11 many of the Amherst officers who were military reservists or National Guard were activated and that, combined with budget constraints ended the Amherst Mounted Police program.

Before his time in Amherst though, Sonny had already had a long police career. Originally he came from a New Jersey sales stable to the Boston Police Department in 1978. He was reckoned to be at least nine years old then, and a quarter horse/saddlebred cross. Like many horses moving through sales barns, that was about all they knew. He was good-looking and tall enough for an officer to ride, and soon he was patrolling the Boston Common and city streets, controlling unruly crowds and working as all police horses do, as part of the department. In 1983, the Boston Park Rangers were created along with a Mounted Unit and began borrowing horses from the PD for patrol. In 1987 they became independent from the Boston Police and were given 14 horses, along with tack, to continue their mounted park patrols. Sonny was one of the fourteen. That same year, Susan Murphy joined the Park Rangers and while not strictly assigned to her (Brian Johnson sometimes rode him as well, and in fact was trained on him) Sonny became “her patrol horse” because they just got along well on the job. “He was known as my favorite” Susan says, and she rode Sonny on duty for most of the next 10 years. In the later years of his Boston service he was aging and not used as often, though Susan says “he never had a medical ailment. He developed a calcium build up on his left front fetlock, and when we worked on cantering or collection work I would put splint boots on him, and towards the end I fed him alfalfa cubes and senior feed to keep weight on him.” But he was in good enough shape to retire out to western Mass and a less strenuous job in Amherst.

Finally, retired and looking for a home, he and Sue Crutch found each other. He was at least 30 then, but not about to stop. “I learned so much from him,” she says. Despite the fact that he has never had a sick-day in his time with her, she stopped riding Sonny about two years ago, but can still put a child up on him from time-to-time. His back, which Brian Johnson says was always swayed even if sound-as-a-dollar, is now a deep hollow with the inevitable sway of old age. His old teeth make hay a challenge, and “his eyesight and hearing isn't great, unless you are taking the cellophane wrapper off a peppermint or opening the fridge in the tack room to get a carrot. Then he amazes me with his hearing!” says Sue. Sonny’s barn is located at a greenhouse business that her brother, Andy Cowles owns. It's a large business with lots of customers, many of whom have become Sonny’s friends, and they often bring treats for him to share with his stablemates, when they visit Sonny.

The final surprise—at least that we know of— in this story occurred last Christmas. Sue didn’t know about Susan Murphy or much of Sonny’s history until she opened her gift from her friend Kristen. In it she found Sonny’s history. “Kristen found a number for the Park Service in Boston, and after being switched around many times, was put in touch with the mayors office” Sue says. “Someone there had a pager number for someone in the mounted Park Service, and it just happened to be Susan's! Kristen left a message and Susan called right back. She couldn’t believe Sonny was still living and that Kristen had just happened to be given her number, because she had been the one to ride him the most. Susan was very excited and gave Kristen some of the information she had and sent pictures that she had at the office.” It may have been the most unusual Christmas present Sue will ever receive; “We didn't open gifts at home until late that night” she says, “and I had opened all mine and all that was left was a package that I thought was a picture album or cookbook and couldn't figure out what she was so excited about. When I opened it —it didn't even hit me right away what it was, then I realized it was pictures of Sonny when he was much younger and still on the mounted unit. I just couldn't believe it. There could not have been a better gift she could have given me, or a bigger surprise.” Sue and Susan have been in touch since, and Susan, though she is no longer on the mounted patrol, plans to come out and visit with Sue and Sonny soon.

Actually, there was one other surprise. When I contacted him in the process of writing this story, Brian Johnson’s first words were an amazed “Sonny? He’s still alive?” And the answer is yes, he is, and hopefully will be for some time yet. The old ones are such gifts, with their experience and stories. Live on old man and enjoy your retirement of peppermints and hugs; you’ve earned it, “Officer” Sonny.