Friday, May 27, 2011

If you ever wondered what the rules of arena etiquette were...Here's a good article.

Arena Etiquiette and Safety
Riding Safely in an Arena or Ring
By Katherine Blocksdorf , About.com
Riding in an arena may be your only option during bad weather, or it's a convenient place to school your horse with a minimum of distractions. In any case, do your part to make riding with others fun and safe.

Etiquette
•Left shoulder to Left Shoulder: Riders should try to ride in the same direction. If this isn't possible then the left shoulder to left shoulder rule should apply. (Some European countries ride right shoulder to right shoulder.)
•Slow on the Inside, Fast on the Outside: Slower riders should ride on the inside track including those doing schooling such as lateral work etc… Riders working at a faster pace such as a lope or canter should stay on the outside track.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

A Truly Heartfelt THANK YOU to a horse show Management company putting horse and horse owner's concerns first before a schedule.

The Golden State Horse Show-Cancelled
The Golden State Horse Show
May 25 – 29, 2011
Leone Equestrians

It is with great regret that Pickwick Equestrians, Inc. and Leone Equestrians, Inc. announce the cancellation of the 2011 Golden State Horse Show, May 25-29. With the recent news of the EHV-1 cases resulting from the cutting event in Ogden, Utah, we recognize our exhibitor’s concern and further recognize that many barns are not being permitted to leave the facilities where their horses are housed. With this in mind we have decided it is in the best interest of all concerned that the show not be held this year.

The Pickwick Summer Classic, June 1-5, will go on as scheduled. Knowing the health and safety of all horses is paramount in our mind, we look forward to seeing our exhibitors at the Summer Classic

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

EHV-1 – What Do I Need To Know RIGHT NOW?

16 May
For the purposes of this post right this moment, I am not going to get into a lot of scientific details about Equine Herpes Virus 1 (EHV-1) – you can find the science with a Google search. What I am going to give you the down-and-dirty version of how it works and what you need to know RIGHT NOW to prevent this in your barn.

First, the EHV-1 virus has been around for a long time. This disease is nothing new. However, it is the kind of virus that mutates frequently. This makes it hard to target long-lasting vaccines toward the virus.
EHV-1 can cause 4 kinds of disease in a horse – but we are going to focus on the respiratory version and the neurologic version. In many horses that contract EHV-1 viruses, they spike high fevers, become lethargic, have clear runny noses and generally feel like crap. Many horses only get the respiratory version and clear the virus after a few days and have no further problems with it.

In some horses, and no one understands why they do this, the respiratory form can become the neurologic form. Literally, the virus gets into the spinal fluid and causes a myeloencephalopathy – a severe viral brain and spinal fluid infection. This infection is what causes the horses to become suddenly neurologic.
The EHV-1 virus is RIDICULOUSLY contagious. It spreads via nasal secretions, and horses can contract it by touching the nose of another horse, through the air or from simply being in a barn that was previously occupied by a horse that was shedding the EHV-1 virus.

The current outbreak has been linked to a cutting horse show in UT and linked cases are now popping up in several other states. As such, several vet school hospitals are closed or not seeing emergency patients, many horse shows are being cancelled, etc.
STEP 1 – STAY HOME!