Green Makes Me Scream

OK, I admit it.
If I hear one more activity, product, service, company, hobby or process say it is "green", I am going to SCREAM.

Love green. Love things that care for the environment. Love the creation of products and services that save the earth from further destruction.

BUT being green has become a "ME TOO" concept. Somehow the thought is if you say your idea/product/service is "green" -- You have risen above the crowd and joined the angels.

How does this relate to horses?
Horses have ALWAYS been green to some extent. Manure composts into soil. When they eat hay and grass, it is converting energy into energy with no chemicals added. They don't need air conditioning and heating in their barns and sheds. They transport US without putting carbon in the air.

We still have a problem - when we transport THEM. To take our horses to shows, trails, races and auctions, we need these great big carbon spewing trucks, which quite frankly don't make the grade in gas mileage and DO put carbon into the air.

I'm waiting for the "green" truck. Electric? (experts say no, can't get enough power out of electric). But technology charges ahead and I still hope that someday, our trucks and trailers can be "green".

UGH, there is that word again.

Who buys the horse license plate?

You may know that much of the Horse Council's income comes from the horse license plate. That little, thin, bendable rectangle... good for cars AND farm trucks.

Sure would like to know who is buying them. I know people who don't own horses who get it. I know horse people who don't get the horse plate. [The 4-H/FFA plate is too tempting..]

We are trying to find out who and where those horse plate owners are. We've petitioned the state transportation to give us a one-time use of the 2010-2011 purchasers so we can send them a survey to find out why they get it..

Is it because they own horses and that's part of their identity? Is it because they live in KY and are proud to be in 'the horse capital of the world'? Do they just think it's a pretty picture?

And do they know who gets the proceeds and what is done with them?

All good questions, and we'd sure like to know.

Why do you have the plate on your car/truck? Or why not?

Secretariat versus the Woman

I got caught in the middle of a Secretariat the movie argument yesterday. In one corner of the ring, a 60-something woman, smart, works in the office of a horse farm. In the other corner of the ring, a 70-something, vibrant UK faculty member in the arts who bets on horse races in every state of the union, knows more about jockeys, specific horses and tracks than I ever will.

The woman (let's call her Lil) loved the Secretariat movie for how it portrayed Penny Chenery and her courage to stand up in the man's world of racing and do what needed to be done for Secretariat to have a chance.

The man (let's call him Stan) refuses to go see the movie because he says that Secretariat was the greatest horse that ever was, and this movie (from what he's read) is more about Penny C. than about the horse. And furthermore, it got some facts wrong. And if that wasn't enough, it was made by Disney for god's sake and you know what Disney will do to animal movies.

Lil and Stan sparred back and forth. Lil held her ground, saying it sounded like Stan was chauvinist and just didn't like the fact that the story had a strong woman in it. Stan shot back that Penny didn't really make all those decisions - like about the syndication of Secretariat - that it was Seth Hancock and other major horse farm owners (men), and she just went along. And furthermore that she was the daughter of one of the richest farm family in Virginia, so enough of this "poor little Penny" stuff.

Lil kept going, not willing to give an inch, especially to a man who had not even seen the movie. Stan said, that's right and I WON'T see any horse movie made by Disney.

To which Lil replied, well I won't go to the races and bet because these horse owners have an addiction to breeding horses and they turn out all these animals that don't make it big on the track, then discard them.

It occurred to me that Lil represents as close as we get to what the general public perceives of the racing industry. Even though she works on a horse farm, she is not "into" the business, does not have hands on experience in the barns or tracks, and is perfectly happy to watch a movie by Disney about a great horse, because she loves the story that surrounds that horse as much as the story of the horse itself.

The big question out of this argument between the "general public" and someone who is immersed in the betting part of racing, and therefore knows his facts and cares mostly about how THE HORSE was portrayed, that they got the facts right -- Is: "Are movies like Secretariat good for racing?"

What if Secretariat the movie DID get the facts wrong on who did what? What if there is more screen time focusing on the people and not much on the horse? What if the main player is from the well-heeled Virginia horse crowd which reinforces the public's image that all horse owners are rich? What if the movie is produced by Disney, which is famous for the personification of animals, which has contributed to the public's unrealistic view of how livestock is treated, how much time and effort goes into caring for them, and the false impression that animals have the same type of feelings as humans do?

My opinion is YES, let's support these types of movies. The success of the movie shows once again that the public has a love affair with horses, even though they may contain a somewhat unrealistic view about how the animals think and act. Is it important to the industry whether or not Penny Chenery did a particular thing, or had a particular idea? These are movies, not documentaries. If you want facts true down to the detail, go watch the History Channel.

We need the images of horses, of all shapes and sizes, and all jobs and sports, in front of the public. And we don't need just the famous stars, we need the backyard horse stories too. This is good for ALL of the horse owners in this country. American is beginning to forget how horses have impacted our history and our lives. We need it all, and if it has to be Disney that does it successfully, we just do our best to make the story show the realism of horses, good and bad.

What's In My Coffee

There was piece of straw in my coffee up last week. I really didn't notice it, floating gently like a thin yellow raft on the small brown pond of coffee. Then, as I raised the cup to sip,it bumped gently against my lips. Surprised, I lowered the cup to see peer inside and there it was, innocent and quivering on the surface.

Drinking coffee in the morning is a secondary career; first on the list in my consciousness is putting on make-up, reading of morning headlines, getting my briefcase ready. The cup is just barely within my peripheral vision; my hand instinctively finds it and raises it to just the right position for a sip. This happens over and over every morning, a routine that sets the rhythm of the morning.

Until last week, when the piece of straw appears. I stop abruptly, lower the cup and peer inside. There it is, a remnant of my earlier trip to the barn. It perhaps lodged in my hair,traveled the short trip back to the house, and then let go to float into the cup, waiting for the next assignment.

I grin at the sight of the piece of straw, dip into the cup to pick it out, walk to the trash can to flip it off my finger, lick my finger and take another sip. This is not what my sister would have done; the coffee would be down the drain, the cup rinsed - or perhaps deposited in the dishwasher and replaced with a clean cup out of the cabinet - but my sister is not a horse person.

To a horse person,a mere piece of straw in your drink is really low on your list of concerns. Your hands spend many hours on a manure fork, lifting the residue of a horse off the floor of the stall and into a muck bucket. When you brush a mud-encrusted horse in the early spring, the dirt flies in clouds around you, coming to rest in your hair and clothing. When you lift a hoof to clean it out after the horse has been playing in a spring rain, you get mud smeared on your hands, which then are conveniently wiped on your jeans. Your washing machine has small brown hairs in every crevice from the saddlepads that are washed there. The back seat of your truck is covered in muddy pawprints from the dogs who jump in for a ride after having run around the pasture. At horse shows or trail rides, you'd really like to wash your hands before eating that sandwich, but who's got time and where is the water anyway?

These are in fact, points of pride particularly for women who own horses. We brag about how dirty our houses are but how clean our barns are. We are NOT the target market for Chlorox or any of the anti-bacterial proselytizers seen on TV. Our kids eat plenty of healthy germs and are rarely sick. Our teenage daughters are not at the mall in make-up and designer clothes, they are on the back of a horse (often bareback) getting dirty and sweaty. A sisterhood: We are dirty and proud of it.

The piece of straw in my cup.. well, why waste a good cup of caffeine, which will keep me going all day through my full time job and then afterwards to do barn work? Just dip out the invader, take a sip, and ..

Horses Make a Mess Out of a Trail?

I was talking to a friend yesterday who is an avid hiker. As part of that general 'update for friends you haven't seen for a while', I mentioned I had been doing a lot of trail riding this fall (exclude WEG timeframe!) and also working on trail issues in my job. She said "Most hikers don't want to walk on horse trails because they are so muddy and messy."

And therein lies the problem.

So we have to ask ourselves, are hikers oversensitive? Are they right about the muddiness? Do horseback riders have the reputation of coming in and just messing up the trails and not caring or not fixing them? Is the situation really as the hikers portray it?

First we need to admit that the laws of physics are at work. The heavier the load, the more the soil will respond. Horses are the heaviest non-motorized trail user based on both our total weight and the weight per square inch of footprint.

Secondly we need to look at the trail itself. Most trails of any type being used today fall into one of three categories, in terms of how and why they were built. 1. Built for just hikers, 2. Built as a roadbed for mining, timbering, oil & gas, fire access, etc. and 3. an existing wildlife trail.

These trails were never designed to take horses. In fact, most of them were not DESIGNED at all!

When these trails were created, people just didn't know what we know now in terms of engineering a trail to shed water, locating trails along contours, trail surfaces, stream crossings, etc. People did not realize how complex it is to properly locate a trail, pre-identify problem areas, and work to protect the trail against future problems (usually caused by water in some form.)

It's not that horseback riders are doing anything wrong as they ride. It is the trail that is not ready for anything but the lightest, most infrequent user.. or for trucks which use the trail for a year and then abandon it.

Failure of the trail surface is not at all surprising, at least in the sensitive areas where water is collecting or soils are such that they cannot hold the surface together.

And - and this is important that ALL users understand - it's really not just horses either. Footprints can cause the same damage. I wonder if hikers know this.

A footprint will not leave as DEEP an impression as a hoofprint, but it will leave a depression nevertheless, into which water will collect rather than disperse and run off the trail. In fact, here is a verbatim sentence from a Sierra Club announcement of a planned winter hike (on a hikers-only trail): "Hike is easy-to-moderate, with up to five miles of trails climbing and descending many hills, sometimes in muddy conditions." (Emphasis mine) Those hikers will go through the mud and disturb the trail, making footprints that will make it more difficult for the obviously existing water to drain. Or they will go around the muddy condition, widening the trail and having a bigger impact on the resource.

And mountain biking also causes problems on these un-engineered trails. A hydrologist can tell you that if you leave a wheeled footprint, it creates a natural gully into which which rain will rush down or fill, rather than that same rain dispersing over the trail and being absorbed by both the trail surface and the surrounding vegetation.

So everyone is at fault here, and no one is at fault. The ying-yang of trails.

What to do?

The first thing that horsemen need to do is be aware of the FACTS about the condition of all trails, whether hiker, biker or horse, and understand HOW and WHY they got that way. The details of the story will change depending on the trail type, topology of the land, shade v. sun, vegetation, soil type, etc. etc.

We should also note where GOOD horse trails are, ones which are in good shape regardless of use. Those trails have accidentally been placed such that water is running off the edge, soil types are conducive to the local conditions, and land contours have been followed.

And then, the next thing horsemen need to do is start working to change both the image and reality of horse trails. The image is that we ruin trails REGARDLESS OF THEIR LEVEL OF DESIGN and that WE DON'T CARE ABOUT OUR IMPACT. The reality is that we DO CARE because we want these trails to be there for a long time. The reality is that properly designed trails can easily take horse traffic without degradation. The reality is that ALL USERS have impact and to some degree the hikers are in a state of denial if they think that only horses cause damage. The reality is that horses DO have a greater impact because of weight and so we become the lightening rod for complaints.

But as that lightening rod, perhaps we can turn the situation around into one in which not only do horseback riders improve their reputations, but they also improve the trails which ALL USERS will benefit from.

I imagine a day when that Sierra Club hiker is on a trail, sees the spot that used to be muddy and is now fixed so it is dry and natural looking, with no walk-arounds and no mud puddles, and they say to themselves, "Looks like the horsemen have been here, fixing the trail. We need to be working on trails like the horsemen are."

Gratitude

Thanksgiving comes and goes, and we offer up our annual prayers of gratitude. Without much thought we throw in the expected things to be grateful for: family and friends, health (although not quite as grateful as we get older!), a home to live in, food to eat.(Ok, not quite so grateful when we need to lose a few.)

I found myself this year expressing gratitude for a job where there is always too much to do. I never thought I'd say that. And at times I could kick myself for even thinking that! But really..how exhilarating it is to always be contemplating "what's next"? What else can I do? Hey, this is a cool idea! Let's try that.

And occasionally, WOW, that was a complete screw-up.

We all need to slow down, I know. Me too. But to have a list of things a mile long that you want to do, and there just isn't enough time or money... now that's real life.

[Note to self: Add to your to-do list the following items: take a bubble bath, sit in a hot tub, get a massage, have a beer with a friend you haven't seen for a long time, scratch the cat, pet the dog...]

Ok, now it's heaven.

The $2.5 Million Dollar Mare

Last week I watched a thoroughbred mare sell for $2.5 million. She was beautiful.. and I'm sure she had great lines (a Giant's Causeway daughter). But REALLY.

I just can't relate. $2.5M for an animal with four legs who can only have one foal per year in a time when sales prices are low. Business investment is what they say. I guess you depreciate her over time (one tax deduction), then you use the cost of care as a business expense, and the stud fee (but more outlays of money...)..

It is all beyond me. Not that it works out on paper - I sure the numbers do.
But to know there are people who in this economy can pay $2.5M for anything, let alone a risky investment like a horse. That is beyond my comprehension.

Could have been the sheiks, I suppose. Ah, to live in a country where there is oil and most of the oil money goes to the Royal Family.

So here the rest of us are in the "land of milk and honey" - the good old USA - and we are lucky if we can sell our horses for a few thousand. Or even 10's of thousands if it's a good hunter-jumper.

The problem really is that with one or two million dollar horses, the TB industry once again reinforces the public's perception that they are all rich guys. We know they are not, that the average income of KY thoroughbred farms is $50,000 -- not exactly a royal salary. But the average person will not hear about them.. they will just hear about the million dollar mare.

How are we going to get gaming passed in this state (if in fact that is what will save the industry, at least in the short term), if most of the electorate sees million dollar sales coming out of the Bluegrass? While meanwhile they are struggling to keep their family farm afloat, or to work the night shift in a blue collar job?