Monday, October 26, 2009

Breathing

So this may not interest a lot of people, but I was reading an article in the november issue of Equus that just came out about breathing, for the rider. This article grabbed my attention because I have been working hard on my seat recently and strenghtening my abdominals and lenghtening my seat.

The article started talking about how most of our breathing is done by the diaphragm, and if we are hunched over, or whatever, then we can't properly use those muscles. The author was saying how a rider can literally "breathe" herself into a tall and better position by using your diaphgram.

A horse can feel when we are tense or relaxed just by how we are breathing. This is also how horses alert others to danger. If they are tense or snort, etc., there is danger, but if they relax their head, and lengthen their neck downwards and sigh, they are saying that danger is past.

They're were 7 key breathing things which the article talked about...

1. "Breath down" to deepen your seat
When your breathe downwards it helps lower your center of gravity and makes you feel safe and secure.

2. Breath for relaxationa and calming

3. Breathe for rhythm

4. Take a "power breath"
This helps to deepen your seat, engage your core muscles, and puts power into your seat, legs and attitude. It can help protect your lower back, also useful when lifting heavy objects.
They say to first say "hiss" as you exhale, and eventually you'll be able to do it without that noise. You should feel your spine lengthen, your seat deepen, your shoulders drop, and your legs drop down around your horse.

5. Breathe over jumps and poles. (something I forget to do : ) )

6. Breathe to engage your core muscles and protect your back.

7. Breathe your horse to a halt.


This article was extremely interesting and motivating. This can also be applied to every day things. The more relaxed your breathing is the more relaxed you'll be, and people around you will be, and the more worried and quick your breathing gets, the more other people's will be too.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Nothing new.

So nothing much new that I have found in my reading that would be worth noting...I'm waiting for next month's magazines to come in the mail : ) haha.

Let's see...what else is new..I went to the mountains this past weekend with my boyfriend and then his parents came up too..that was fun. Saturday it rained..but I got to skin and gut out a doe that my boyfriend's dad killed with muzzleloader..that was fun..I haven't gotten a dear before so he taught me how..I'm hoping this year I'll get one. I always hunt on gamelands so it's hard when you don't have your own land..so this year I actually get to hunt on my boyfriend's family farm in the mountains..and I havent hunted for two years now so I'm super excited!!

Then we went out to eat with his parents at a new bar and restaurant saturday night..that was fun...it was an old rustic inn and bar that was restored..very pretty. Oh yeah..might I mention my boyfriend bought a new gun..I think he has almost 20 now..way tooo many..it was a, oh i forget, lol, it was a 50 cal muzzleloader..that can be converted...it was pretty cool...

Then sunday we hung out and then went to a festvile in town, but it got rained out so then we left..we looked at the tractors some, since my boyfriend's into pulling. Then I headed back to school and he headed back home to drop my dog off at his house and then there went another weekend.

Oh..show this weekend..super excited since I didn't do well at my last one. It's an Alumni show, that the Alumni team is putting on...

weekends..thats what i live for.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Shortages of Large Animal Veterinarians

So I was wondering what to write about this week until I stumbled upon an article (In the October 2009 issue of Equus) right up my ally. I going to be applying to vet school in the next couple of years, and this was really interesting.

A quote at the top of article said, "The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates that only 15 percent of U.S. veterinarians in private practice specialize in large animals."

That is SAD! That means that there needs to be a major increase before we don't have any more vets! On the other hand, on the food animal side, the USDA has recognized this as an issue. I guess it is a complete problem in the whole LARGE ANIMAL SIDE.

This one article talks about Cornell University, a school in Ithaca, New York. This school is encouraging students to pursue a career in large-animal veterinary practice. Currently they accept about 75 to 85 people each year, but by the year 2016 they are thinking of raising this acceptance number by 35%. Half of those new slots will be for students interested in large animals.

Judy Appleton, PhD, the college's associate dean for academic affairs, said about New York (and this is also true about the United States) that "in 2008, of the 62 counties in the state, 32 had just one large-animal vet caring for everyone in the area, and five tounties had zero vets, forcing residents to seek care elsewhere."

These kind of articles always encourage me, and make me even more motivated to becoming a vet because I know large animal vets are needed, and someone has to care for these animals ...

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Night Time

So in a recent article from Equus, I learned some very interesting things about Equine Night Vision. Did you know that horses can see better than humans at night? Well I guess that's not suprising, especially since most animals can see better than us. Some of the terms might not make sense to you, but it was an interesting article.

The article talked about how new physiological studies show that horses are equipped for functional scoptic (dim light) vision. The equine retina, where the rods and cones are kept, whats responsible for seeing colors basically, to sum it up, has MORE RODS AND CONES, and the horse has a reflective structure called the TAPETUM LUCIDUM, which increases light-gathering properties...and I'm almost positive that we don't have that structure. Though evidence suggests that they can see better in the dark than we can, BUT they have a harder time distinguishing objects apart in the dark.

So....The Equine Research Foundation, in Aptos, California, designed a study to test the ability of horses to discriminate between onjects at various light levels. Then in a windowless building....horses were trained with two images...a black circle on a while background, and a black triangle on a white blackhoard. They trained some horses to go to the circle, and some to the triangle.

THEN>> once the horses were choosing the right one every time, they slowly started diminishing the light. THEN...only when it was almost pitch black could horses not distinguish between the shapes..BUT they could walk and maneuever fine..and knew where the walls, etc. were.

Very interesting article I thought...I wish we could see that good at night : ) I'll leave the navigating to my horse when I have to ride at night. haha.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Just didn't feel like it...

Haha..so do you ever just don't feel like doing something? haha...I guess that's a stupid question. I just didn't feel like writing about something with the horse industry this week...I thought I'd write a little bit about myself since I never did.

My name is Jess...and I live in Strasburg, PA, but currently I'm going to Delaware Valley College...cute campus..it SUCKS being a transfer student though...I hate it. I am almost 21, and I transfered here from a school in Nebraska. I got my vet tech degree, and recently got my scores back, and I am now LICENSED!! That made my day! I'm trying to get a job...I'm waiting back to hear from one vet clinic around here, but I can't seem to find a job..frustrating!

I am currently in the Dairy Science major, and trying to get a Bachelor's degree, and take my required classes I need to get into vet school, but I might change my major..dunno yet. I love animals..they are my life. I have a Quarter Horse mare, named Misty, and a black lab/red heeler named Myth..my two favoritest animals! I also have kinda of adopted my boyfriend's dog, Jamie, she's a German Shorthair Pointer..she thinks I'm her mother. My boyfriend took her to nationals last year in Colorado, where he lived when I was out at school in Nebraska..then he followed me back here. We've been together three years now..he's also my best friend..along with my animals!

Um..I'm on the Equestrian Team at school here..it's a lot different than the one I was on out west...but I guess sometimes people need to get used to new people..ANOTHER REASON WHY I HATE BEING A TRANSFER.. : )

Well that's about it...Just a constant struggle trying to do the best I can in all my classes so I can get into vet school, and balancing school, home, friends, boyfriend, and animals.

Bed time.