Um...

So...

I didn't really feel like writing anything so I though I would just write about my life- which isn't that interesting either.

I really am ready for a break, I can't wait to get a little break from school!! AND deer season is coming up right after thanksgiving, I'm going to skip the first two days of classes after break to go hunting with my boyfriend's family, so that'll be fun!! I'm super excited!

I also just started a new job at Quakertown Vet Clinic. The first night was really stressful...I'm working in the small animal side, and haven't worked in a small animal clinic before, only the animals I learned on in school. I am so used to working with large animals, and I miss the horses! : ( The first night was stressful, and I work again tonight and I'm praying that it will go smoother than the first night. I'm really excited though for it because I'll get to learn lots of new things! It's just so weird because all the antibiotics and stuff are not what I'm used to working with horses, and the veins are so much smaller, and you have to restrain them so much more, and yeah, give me the hugest wildest horse anyday PLEASE. BUT I'm trying to have a positive attitude and hope it goes well.

I'm also excited for the semester to almost be over and get on with a new semester and new classes. Though it doesn't feel like almost christmas! I haven't even though about presents yet, and its too blasted warm outside! It'll be weird hunting in warm weather for deer season, hopefully it cools down some...maybe some snow?! : ]

Where to Roll?!?

So...back to writing about things related to horses since I have veered off from that recently. I thought this subject was interesting because I love how you really can find anything in horse magazines about studies they've done, and they've done one on where horses roll!

In a recent article from Equus, a University in Japan talks about protecting your pasture grass, and making a place for horses to roll. Horses benefit both mentally, and physically from rolling, BUT they can destroy a fair amount of grass when they roll. So...this University decided to see if they could make a place for horses to roll, instead of the nice green patches of grass.

In this study...they first kept four horses in an all-grass paddock and monitored for six hours daily for one week. They observed and wrote down how many times the horses rolled, and for how long. They were then moved to a smaller paddock that had three specially constructed rolling areas; one area was filled with loose local soil, one with sand and one with straw. They were kept there for three weeks, and then they started observing.

They found out that the horses rolled about the same amount, but they did use the designated rolling areas almost every time; they also rolled in the dirt more often than the straw or sand. It also showed that they rolled for shorter times, meaning that maybe the designated rolling areas got the job done better.

Sooo...in conclusion....by having designated rolling areas for horses, it can protect grasses from damage, which means less required supplemental feed and hay.

Interesting.

Oh this thing called life...

Well...I decided to break it up again, and write about life, instead of the usual horse stuff...I think my last post probably scared some people, talking to much about horses, haha.

Well this past weekend I went to the mountains with my boyfriend...I love going to the mountains : ) since I have been asked to go to the past couple of shows. I'm on the Equestrian Team at Delaware Valley, and it's really starting to bug me, but I'm trying not to get too upset about it, but at least it gives me more time with my boyfriend! We had a lot of fun this weekend...It started off though rough because my boyfriend hauls milk for a job, and we had to load a route before we left to go to the mountains, and I went with him to help him, and then we didnt leave until 12 30 am saturday, and then we got up there at 3ish, and then we didnt go to bed until 4ish, and then we woke up at 6 am, to go hunt turkeys!! It was fun though! His brother and finance were there, and his dad, and there was 7 of us who went hunting, and 3 of us got hens..I was a little dissapointed, I didn't even get a decent shot off of one this weekend, but oh well..We saw soo many though, it was fun!

And then we definitly had way to much fun saturday night with his brother and finance...my boyfriend has this mask that he got to scare people, and yeah lets just say a couple beers later...you get the point... : )

Then we had a good day saturday, even though I was dead, and sunday we hung out and stopped at Bass Pro Shop on the way back...and then that was the end of another weekend.

This week should be pretty easy..no major tests which will be nice! I didn't get asked to go to the show this weekend either, made me upset, but oh well, lifes like that...but Zach and I will probably go hunting again, take the dogs, it'll be fun.

Then I was trying to plan my schedule out, and I realized that since I'm applying next year to vet schools, I need to be done by spring 2011, so I am now going to have to take more classes each semester than I wanted to..anyways...its gonna suckk...

Good weekend. like my classes. life's good.

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.

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.

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 ...

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.