A Swim in the Ocean

By now I'm sure almost everyone as heard about the horse William that went for an extended swim in the ocean.  The horse in question was an Arabian and he was being prepped to be used as part of a photo shoot on the beach in Summerland, California.  Before the photo shoot began something spooked William and he ended up swimming over a mile out to sea.  It was quite the recovery effort to get him safely back to shore after swimming in the ocean for a a few hours.  

photo copyright Joel Desmarteau

photo copyright April Visel

photo copyright April Visel

The trainer made this public statement via the farm's facebook page.  Text is copied below, or click here to go to the statement on Facebook:

To dispel rumors, gossip and to detail the facts, Lowe Show Horse Centre is issuing an official statement regarding the ocean rescue on May 15, 2012.

Since 2006, renowned professional photographer April Visel, has hosted seven photography workshops called Artistry In Motion. The workshop involves both classroom and location education where April teaches other photographers techniques on how to photograph horses in action. Capturing images of equines in motion is a highly difficult skill requiring impeccable timing, a masterful eye and is an artistry that often takes years to perfect. The workshop has several location shoots — one of which is a beautiful, horse-friendly beach in Summerland, California, just south of Santa Barbara. Thousands of people ride on this particular beach every year as it’s one of the few beaches left in California that allows horses. When Jim Lowe, professional Arabian and Half-Arabian horse trainer for 35 years and owner of Lowe Show Horse Centre, was asked to participate and volunteer a few of his show horses for the workshop, Jim agreed as he had seen the artistic images captured by the photographers from previous workshops. “I have been a part of many beach photo shoots in years past,” says Jim. “They have always been very memorable experiences and the photographs are breathtaking. When you live close to the ocean in California, you want to make images using the beautiful landscape. Not everyone gets the opportunity to photograph their horses on the beach. In fact, many horse owners will never get that opportunity.”

Jim volunteered a few of his best show horses — 12 time National Champion Papa Rhazi (15-year-old Half-Arabian), 15 time National Champion Mamage (23-year-old purebred Arabian stallion), National Champion Victim Of Love (6-year-old Half-Arabian), and Air of Temptation (known as William who turned 7-years-old on May 14, the day before the photo shoot). William was one of the newest members in the barn having been purchased by Jon Peters in February 2012 for his 14-year-old daughter Kendyl to ride and compete with. “While it’s very fun and exciting to be a part of a photo shoot on the beach, the horse’s safety was my number one priority,” says Jim. “These are show horses that compete all year with their adult and youth amateur riders. Their health and well-being had to be preserved in order for them to continue to compete. My job, in addition to training them for competition, is to protect them and keep them healthy. Much like how I care for my own four children.”

The horses were trailered north to the beach location from their home farm in Somis. At 5:00 pm, the horses were groomed up, tacked and taken down to the beach where they spent time getting acclimated with the ocean. “Some of the horses had never been in the ocean before so it was important to spend as much time as needed to get them to feel safe in the new environment,” says Jim. “I had done this more than 30 times before so I knew that in order to get the best shots, I had to build their confidence and trust, and get them to relax and feel secure. There was no pressuring them or forcing them to dive in. I slowly and quietly allow them to see, hear and feel the water and the sand and encourage them to not be afraid. Generally a horse will trust my direction and the surroundings within 20 minutes. And then they start to enjoy and play in the water.”

On the beach, there were 10 student photographers in attendance (all of whom are horsemen and women themselves and one of whom was a practicing veterinarian), 7 total horses (three of which came from another training barn), 2 professional horse trainers, a skilled handler for each horse and models who were experienced riders. First up on the shoot list was William and Jim. They spent more than 15 minutes just walking up and down the shore. William was nervous at first but was getting more comfortable with each wave. Jim decided to dismount and walk him (by hand) into the water. “We were about knee deep in the water when a wave broke right under us,” says Jim. “I think what scared him was both the wave breaking and the sound that it made. There was a strong echo in the cove so the sounds of the waves crashing were magnified.” At that moment, William jumped forward, pulling the reins out of Jim’s hands and William began swimming about 20 feet out parallel to the shore. “We all were thinking that he would see his herd and his people and swim to land. The tide was coming in so we thought that would also help to push him in.” But after about 5 minutes of swimming south, Jim and 2 other people tore off their clothes and dove into the ocean in an attempt to direct him to the shore. One of the model/riders (a skilled roper), attempted to lasso him with no success. As the three swimmers got closer to William, he made a 90 degree turn and swam directly out to the horizon. At this moment, all emergency and rescue services available were called.

William swam 2.5 miles west and over an hour passed before he was located by an oil rig crew chief. He used one of the boats to search for William and get a visual so that the fire department and harbor patrol could bring him back to land. “He was so far out from land that we couldn’t see him anymore,” says Jim. “It was the most helpless feeling I’d ever experienced. We just didn’t know where we was, if he was still swimming or if something tragic had happened. A million things were going through all of our minds. We were relying solely on the help of the boaters to find him and bring him back. And since it was starting to get dark, finding him quickly was critical.”

“When we were all standing on the beach watching him swim further and further out to sea, we just kept asking ourselves, why? Why did he swim out instead of heading towards his herd and his people? He was swimming against the current and we just didn’t know why. A vet later explained to me that when horses are swimming, their vision is much different than humans’. With the placement of their eyes and with their noses lifted upward out of the water, they have less visibility than a human does. They see the horizon differently — their perspective is skewed. So it’s likely that he couldn’t see us — especially in rough ocean water. He might have panicked, but contrary to what some people have been saying, he’s not a stupid horse. He’s actually very smart and trains exceptionally well. It’s one of the reasons why I train Arabians and Half-Arabians. I’m a tall man and would be better suited physically to a bigger breed, but I chose this one because of their unparalleled qualities of beauty, resilience, stamina and intelligence.”

Once William was located, members of the fire department and harbor patrol secured buoys to his saddle (he was still wearing both his saddle and bridle), put a life preserver around his neck, and slowly swam him along the side of the boat, back to the shore. Two paddle boarders assisted in escorting him and the big boat that located him, provided lights to help guide them to land.

At 8:45 pm, William walked onto the shore and was greeted by cheers and applause and a crowd of people with blankets to warm him up. His tack was removed and he was led up the hill and put in the horse trailer to be taken to the veterinary hospital Alamo Pintado in Santa Ynez. He was given a full physical, fluids and checked out to be in really good shape, all things considered. “The rescue team was truly extraordinary and highly applaudable. They were in a situation that they had never been in before and they rose to the challenge and handled William with kid gloves. We can’t thank them enough for their attention to detail, their professionalism and their bravery.”

“Some people have questioned the precautionary measures taken for the beach shoot. I’ve done this many times before (as well as Ms. Visel) without incident and I would have never, ever guessed something like this would happen. I think all future beach shoots will now have another line of protection — perhaps a boat or jet ski. And I hope others will learn from this as well. Were there risks involved with a beach shoot? Of course. Every day we are faced with risks. Getting into your car is a risk. But imagine all of the amazing things you would miss if you spent your life not taking chances.”

“As life goes around, people can be very quick to judge, criticize and point fingers. Too often, people want to spin a story and find someone to blame and pinpoint the negatives in a situation. If it makes people feel better, I have big shoulders and will accept the blame. No one was negligent. No one was singularly responsible. But at the end of the day, I am ultimately accountable for the safety and well-being of my clients’ horses. And I will unfailingly do whatever it takes to serve them because that’s the professional and honorable thing to do. There are many should haves, could haves, would haves but the story has a happy ending and I hope that people will make that the focus of this incident. It was a fluke accident with long moments of uncertainty, but at the end of the day, everyone came out of this safe and sound, a 14-year-old girl still has her horse and we learned something from the experience. It’s a miraculous survival story of a horse that never gave up and who beat the odds. That should be the real storyline.”

“While it was one of the most stressful experiences of my life, it was also one of the most amazing. William swam for almost 3 hours and 5 miles round trip. It’s incredible and a true testament to the Arabian breed. I’m not sure a horse of another breed would have fared as well. His age and physical condition were also big contributors to his survival. The horses in training with me are treated like Olympic athletes. They are in impeccable physical condition because there is a lot asked of them when they compete.”

“Arabians are also endurance horses and have a courage and a spirit in them that most other breeds lack. They are mechanically built with a greater lung capacity than other breeds which allows them to go longer distances. Originally desert and war horses, Arabians were trusted by great warriors to carry them into battle because they knew this breed had the heart and the stamina. William is an incredible example of our breed. And I’m looking forward to getting him back to the barn for a hero’s welcome home. He’s got a long show career ahead of him and he’s got the love of a young girl. I suspect after this, he will have a very big fan club. While this could have had a devastating ending, it didn’t and it will be a story we will all tell for the rest of our lives. And a survival story with a happily-ever-after is the best story to perpetuate.”

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Certainly not a situation I would ever hope to find myself in, and amazingly William made it through the ordeal completely unscathed!  From what I've seen of the on-line chatter about this incident people seem to be divided into two camps.  One camp blame the trainer for the incident.  The other camp thinks it falls into the category of horses can and will do really crazy things unexpectedly, such is life with a flight animal, even one that is typically very quiet.  I have to say I don't know if I can really agree with placing the blame on the trainer.  Sometimes you just have to accept that you are dealing with flight animals and you never know when it is going to turn a situation into a disaster.  I've been hurt twice on the farm in some very freak accidents that no one could have ever seen coming, especially not with the particular horses involved.  Plus, at some point the horse has to have a first visit to the beach.  If we did not do firsts with our horses we would never be able to take them anywhere or do anything with them.  Given that it wasn't the photo shoot itself that spooked the horse, for me this whole incident gets chalked up into the crazy things that can and will happen with horses category. Plus I do think William probably got disoriented and wasn't really sure in what direction he was heading after he spooked.  


Maybe the horse had major holes in its training, maybe he had a terrible personality for this, I don't know.  If either of these are/were true that would definitely change my view on things.  However, given that the trainer has extensive experience taking horses to the beach I am giving the benefit of the doubt to him.


So what do you think, terrible decision making on the trainer's part or another example of the crazy things that can happen with a large animal with a flight response?

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Kennedy very relaxed in the woods with a droopy lip

With his ears at half mast and his drooping lower lip I don't think Clayton could be any more relaxed

Rocky and Toledo grooming

Titan and Silver

Chance and Leo

Moe and Levendi grooming

Thomas, Homer, Levendi and Hemi hanging out in the shade

Largo going after a big bite of leaves

Sebastian

   

Dental Day

Raise your hand if you eagerly anticipate going to the dentist. 

I don't see any hands.  The horses aren't raising their hooves either.

I will admit some of my least favorite days on the farm are teeth floating days.  Most of the horses are really good for the dentist.  They are sedated, we wait a few minutes for the sedation to kick in, the horses drop their heads and the dentist gets to work.  For good measure we also throw in a sheath cleaning for the geldings since the horses are already sedated.  Then they get to stand in a stall for awhile while they wake up from their sedation.  It just makes for extra long days for us and some grumpy horses.  They don't like standing around in the barn and having their regularly scheduled program of doing whatever they want whenever they want interrupted.

Horse people tend to have very strong opinions about how dentistry should be practiced in horses.  The hand tools vs. power tools debate will never be resolved.  It kind of reminds me of the barefoot vs. shod debates.  I tend to fall in the middle on both arguments.  I guess that makes me a registered independent voter?

My opinion on the hand tools vs. power tools debate is that it isn't about which tools are used but about the skill and knowledge of the practitioner using the tools.  Every now and then when we are having a resident's teeth floated for the first time we're all (we being Jason, myself and the dentist) a bit horrified when the speculum goes in and we get our first look at things.

One resident has been so badly over floated that two years after his arrival his mouth is still a mess.  Another resident looked like his mouth belonged to two different horses.   The front of his mouth had been maintained beautifully.  The back of his mouth looked like it had not been touched in years.  The dentist cut off points on hind molars on both sides of his mouth that were almost an inch tall.  The poor horse had terrible sores in his mouth from them, and we also knew why he took forever to eat and dropped food everywhere.  Oh, and you did read that right, the dentist had to cut them out.  To file them down with hand tools or the power float would have taken forever, not to mention heated up the teeth in question too much and potentially caused nerve damage.  So they were cut off and then touched up with the float. 

The tools that were used on the horse with the badly over floated mouth? That horse had been done for years by a dentist that used hand tools only.

The tools that were used on the horse with the giant points on the back molars?  That horse had been done for years by a dentist that used power tools only. 

Kind of the opposite of what you would expect.

My only point being your horse can have a terrible float done regardless of the tools used.  So find a good practitioner and then let them use their tools of choice.  My personal preference is someone that uses both hand and power tools.  Some horses that might fight the hand tools are fine with the power float and vice versa.  I also think some things are done better with hand tools and others with the power float. 

This picture of Sparky the donkey having his teeth floated is actually from last year.  I was so busy shuffling horses around I forgot to take pictures of dental work in action.  



That is my personal opinion on dentistry.  Actually I have a lot more opinions that go beyond power tools vs. hand tools but I won't bore you with all of them.  Since that seems to be the number one point of contention when it comes to dentistry in horses I thought I would put my opinion out on the internet.  But, as the saying goes, opinions are worth what you paid for them and handing mine out for free!

We are officially one day of dentistry down and a few more to go.  Instead of having a marathon of dental days we decided to spread them out a bit this year.  We decided to try peeling the bandaid off slowly rather than ripping it off all at once this year!

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Romeo and Lotus

Faune

Gus and Lotus grooming

Tony, Baby and Trigger

Homer and Moe

Snappy, Silky, Lucky and O'Reilly

Thor and Fabrizzio

Cuffie and  Norman

Off to the Races

Yesterday morning I was feeding the Big Boys.  It was a really gorgeous morning and I had gotten an extra early start.  For me there is something incredibly peaceful and soul refreshing about being outside with the horses early in the morning as the sun is rising. 

The Big Boys were my last group for breakfast.  They were nowhere near the gate when I arrived so I fed other groups while they slowly filtered in from various points far off in their (very large) pasture. 

When I was ready to feed them the last couple of stragglers were meandering up to the gate.  As I distributed feedbags I realized I still had Moe's feedbag in my hand. I looked around and didn't see him which is pretty unusual.  Moe is highly food motivated and does not miss meals. 

I started calling him assuming he would show up any moment.  He didn't come.  The boys were finishing up so I removed all of their feedbags and started hiking over hill and dale in search of Moe with his feedbag in tow.  I finally found him way out in the pasture.  He was facing away from me.  I called and called his name and he never even lifted his head and just kept his face stuffed in the grass. 

I kept thinking surely he would hear me and realize he was missing breakfast but he never turned around or otherwise acknowledged that he was aware of my presence.  Finally when I was maybe 20 feet away I said "hey Moe, do you want to eat breakfast or not?"  He finally lifted his head and looked behind him to see who was talking. 

At that moment he realized he was alone.  I guess he was so intent on his grazing he never realized the others had left, but he realized it then.  He was off like a racehorse out of the gate, galloping and frantically screaming to the others.  He whipped past me without giving me a second glance.  And there I stood in the same situation I had been in before, Moe's feedbag and no Moe, except now I was at the opposite end of the (very large) pasture. 

I hiked back to the gate where Moe was with the others.  He had reached the gate in about 5 seconds but it took me a bit longer than that.  I walked up to Moe and he shoved his head in his feedbag with an expression of "where have you been? I'm here at the gate and everyone else has already eaten." 

I sighed in exasperation and rolled my eyes at him but I think all of that was lost on Moe.  He was too busy eating, probably wondering what a horse had to do to get service at this place.

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Clayton and Rampal grooming each other with Johnny grazing

George, Silver and Titan

a wild turkey showing off

starting to fold up

and back to his usual very unattractive self

Lightening was less than thrilled to be body clipped but he was mostly cooperative

Cuffie wasn't a whole lot happier; "maybe I can escape this way"


"or maybe this way"

Cuffie with his mane flying as he took off to rejoin his friends; I did a terrible job on him as I made the mistake of trying to clip two horses with one set of sharp blades.  I needed two.  Unfortunately for Cuffie it means he will have to endure more clipping so I can clean him up after I get all of my clipper blades sharpened.  I'm sure he will be thrilled.

Gus and George grooming each other

Lightening, Lucky, Fabrizzio, Walden and Thor

Noble

Rain

(post by Jason) Spring around here is not normally a dry time of year. Most of the time, errant cold fronts and Gulf of Mexico low pressure systems interact and interplay frequently enough over our area that we get lots and lots of rain. Sometimes if a low pressure system gets stuck over the area for long enough we get way too much rain and after a point ceases to do any good.

Too much rain hasn't been a problem this year. We've mostly been stuck on warm and dry since early March and our pastures and hay ground were worryingly dry and beginning to burn up. This is a foreboding sign at the beginning of the hot season because once summer comes cold fronts effectively cease to arrive with moisture this far south. We haven't had a good rain in more than a month. So when the weather forecasters predicted a 40 % chance of rain this weekend we really didn't pay it much mind. Many of my neighbours kept right on cutting hay.

I was all set to say I told you so yesterday afternoon. They predicted rain through the day yesterday and it never came. I mowed pastures all day and the few spits of rain we got weren't even enough to wet the hood of the tractor much less make me duck for cover. But about suppertime last night while I was loading a truck with junk for the dump the sky got dark and something changed. It began to rain, lightly at first and then a bit harder but steady in a way that told me it meant to stay. It rained like that all night and it's been raining all day today. It's still raining as I write this and we've added nearly three inches to the rain gauge outside and every drop of it went in the dry ground where it'll do some good. Farmers up where I come from would call this a million dollar rain. I don't know about that but I do know it was very, very welcome here in Middle Tennessee.

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Too bad I wasn't at a better angle for this picture; Faune, Lotus, Winston, Romeo and Titan enjoying a run through the pasture

Fuzzy

B-Rad, Dutch, Wiz, Darby, Sam and Lighty

Johnny and Alex

Noble and Walden

Romeo and Asterik

Gus

Maisie and Lily

Fabulous Interview

If  you missed their story on NBC last night here is the link to the video of eventer Boyd Martin talking about his horse Neville Bardos:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/47364509#47364509.  Neville was bound for slaughter, Boyd bought him, and they became one of the best eventing teams in the world.  Last year Boyd's barn burned in a fire and most of the horses died.  Neville was one of the survivors.  The vets did not think he would live as he had suffered such severe damage from smoke inhalation.  Now they are aiming for the London Olympics. Their story is so good that the movie rights have actually been sold! 

It was a really wonderful interview even for the non horse lover.  As a bonus there are some more interviews on the NBC website that were not included in the TV interview:

Captain Mark Philips, coach of the U.S. eventing team:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/47295185#47295185

Boyd showing his interviewer the basics of riding:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/47295185#47295160

Boyd riding one of his young horses:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/47295209#47295209

I am really enjoying the fact that equestrian sports are actually getting some attention as we approach the London Olympics.  Enjoy watching the interviews and have a great weekend!

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Romeo and Lotus; this is one my favorite pictures I've taken recently.  They were acting very happy and carefree and the picture almost captures that.

Wiz and Dutch

Sebastian

Grand, Elfin, Apollo, Hemi and Thomas. "If we stand here and stare long enough maybe she'll finally feed us breakfast."

Johnny and Lighty

Tony, Baby and Trigger

Homer, Levendi, Thomas and Moe

More Body Clipping, De-worming

Spring is always a busy time around the farm.  Our most favorite day of the year (not) is spring vaccination day.  Thankfully that day is already done and crossed off the list.  We also have our first cutting of hay done and in one of the hay barns.  Another big job checked off.  I kicked off spring body clipping with Lily a few weeks ago.  We've been on a roll lately with spring projects. 

This week we've already crossed a few more things off the to-do list.  I body clipped Chili and I have to say he turned out well.  That is kind of a miracle given that the entire time I was clipping him he was fidgeting, twitching his skin, stomping his legs at flies that I never actually saw myself, and generally made it hard.  He does this to me every year.  Lily stands like a rock for me and Cuffie does as well, but Chili is sneaky.  He never does anything blatantly rude, and he intersperses the twitching and stomping with periods of standing still.  I think what makes Chili something of a challenge to clip is that he gets wrinkly skin.  When I am running the clippers on him his skin tends to want to form a wrinkle instead of just staying tight. So I'm constantly trying to use one hand to stretch out his skin while clipping with the other hand.  

I was so happy to be finished with Chili's clip job and to be done wrestling with his wrinkly skin and fidgeting I forgot to take an after picture.  This is the before picture of Chili post-bath and ready for clipping.  I prefer to clip wet horses.  I find it easier and there is a lot less hair flying around in the air.

We also de-wormed all of the horses a few days ago.  I have posted before about my de-worming method. Instead of chasing everyone down and getting paste wormer all over me I simply put the wormer in their feed.  It works really well for us.  All of the horses eat soaked feed in a feedbag at every meal and this makes it really easy to hide stuff in their food.  The soaked feed part is key because the feed is mush, if the feed were dry I don't know that this approach would work as well.  They can't push the unwanted parts of their food around, they can't walk away from it since it is in a feedbag, nor can they fling the unwanted parts out like they can with a bucket.  I get everyone's feed ready, then squirt the paste into the feed, mix well, and serve.  No chasing the runners, no getting covered in horse slobber and paste wormer, no wondering if everyone swallowed all of it.  

I always have a couple of extra tubes of wormer on hand in case someone does object to their wormer laced feed.  Occasionally it happens but I consider a couple of tubes of wasted de-wormer as a high value tradeoff compared to having to chase everyone down individually and get covered in a lovely mix of horse slobber and dewormer.  Plus you know that every bit of the wormer went down the hatch and was not spit out.

I have a couple more body clipping sessions that need to be done and we will be starting on dentals and having everyone's teeth floated in the next couple of weeks.  No rest for the weary around here!

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Traveller and a very relaxed Calimba

Lily and Maisie

happy grazers; Lightening, Walden, Fabrizzio, O'Reilly, Lucky and Thor

B-Rad, Alex and Darby

Silver and Titan

Largo

Norman and Cuffie hanging out