Nov-Dec 2016 Volume 86

Supporting the needs of equestrians and building

Harmonious horse/rider partnerships.

Dancing Horse News

Finding My Dream by DHF President Jen Truett

Continued on page 3

There are so many topics I could write about from the past two months, but I’m sure the one that most peo-ple want to know about is my amazing trip overseas to horse shop!! The reason for the trip is that this summer I sold my Little Man, Sunset, to his new mommy, Melissa Neill, leaving me with only one com-petition horse. I’ve always had two show horses to try to stack the odds in my favor that I’ll have at least one sound, sane, rideable horse at all times. ;-) Since all of our money went to building our amazing home on our farm this year, I didn’t have any extra cash lying around. Thankfully and amazingly, long-time supporters of mine stepped in to make it possi-ble for me to get my next dream horse. I decided I wanted a 3 coming 4 year old (but would consider a 2.5 year old if it was phenomenal), so I spent a couple months scouring the internet and con-tacting breeder friends for my next partner. I found a handful that were intriguing in the US, but I found that the horses who impressed me most were in Ger-many and Holland. I started this search set on buying American, but learned that since the recession, most of our highly respected breeders are only producing 2-4 foals per year, making the selection very thin. Since I was looking for a horse with quality enough to be a potential future team horse, I was shopping for the top 1% of 1%. When there aren’t many candidates from which to choose, it’s hard to find that caliber. I was certain that a European shopping trip was not in my future given my crazy clinic and show schedule, but I knew that my coach and friend, David de Wispe-laere, was headed to Germany for a week to teach clinics. So, David and I started identifying prospective horses and found there were many that looked worth

meeting in person. Simultaneously, I contacted an agent, Lotty Chamberlain of Suspension Dressage Sales (www.SuspensionDressageSales.com), about a jaw-dropping Vitalis son (who I learned had just sold the day before Lotty and I made contact). It turns out, Lotty’s business partners are some of the most re-spected and sought-after breeders and young horse trainers in the industry, Eugene and Annabeth Reesink. An example of their influence on the inter-national dressage scene is that three of the Rio Olym-pics dressage team horses, two of which were on our US squad, came out of their program: Laura Graves’ Verdades and Ally Brock’s Roosevelt. I was very ex-cited about the new contacts I’d made, to say the least! I was set to have David shop for me when Taffy wound up getting shipping fever upon arrival at the Regional Championships (more on that experience later in this issue). Because of his illness, competing at US Finals was no longer an option. Once Taffy sta-bilized, it became apparent that I could manage to sneak a trip in to see horses myself when I would have otherwise been preparing for Finals. As I began working out the details, I asked Jeanne Brose, my friend and student, if she’d like to join me, because who wouldn’t want to travel Europe horse shopping for the top 1% of 1%? Of course, she jumped at the chance! So, with Lenny’s encourage-ment and blessing (best husband ever!) we booked our flights for this whirlwind 10 day trip that I man-aged to cram between clinics and during Lenny’s and my big move into our new house…ugh, good thing I run on Energizer batteries! When we planned it, we didn’t realize that we were

All Horses deserve, at least once in their lives, to be loved by a little girl. ~ Anonymous

www.thesculptedhorse.com Equine Art by Lynda Sappington

Silver Sponsor

www.bornesaddlery.com Platinum Sponsor

DHF SPONSORSDHF SPONSORS

lmiller93@live.com 513.623.4089 Platinum Sponsor

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 2

You will see vehicles with “DHF Sponsor” stickers on them at DHF from time to time. Be sure to thank their owners for what they do to support Dancing Horse Farm!

Dr. Amy Gill http://www.equiforce.com/ Silver Sponsor

VISIT THEM TODAY!

Best Dad Ever, John Sappington Silver Sponsor

www.agedefyingscience.com/tamarashivers www.jusuru.com/dancinghorsefarm

Gold Sponsor

www.LebanonEquineClinic.com Silver Sponsor

www.circularwellness.com Angela Cornes

Silver Sponsor

www.TributeHorseFeeds.com Silver Sponsor

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 3

about to experience the best pastries, tea, coffee, lovely people, amazing experiences and awesome horses we could imagine! Lotty was fabulous to work with. She planned out several days of shopping from sunrise to well-past sunset for us, made our hotel reservations and ar-ranged transportation for us with Annabeth Reesink. What a blast we had with her! Most days we saw 10-14 horses. Included on my shopping list was the elu-sive Adult Amateur unicorn for a student of mine. I met my dream horse, who at that time was un-named, on our first full day of shopping. In Europe, breeders wait to name young stallions because the most important information is the parentage, so they refer to youngsters by the sire’s name/dam’s sire’s name. We started our day at the Reesink’s farm since our hotel was around the corner. I was instantly awed by the quality of the youngsters I saw. They were slick, healthy, strong, and all were awe-inspiring like the Vitalis son that caused me to contact Lotty in the first place.

The 3rd or 4th youngster pre-sented was a 2.5 year old liver chestnut Westphalian gelding with a perfect blaze called All At Once/Fürst Pic-colo (just gelded 5 days ear-lier with the gaping hole to prove it!). I was instantly drawn to him. He exuded a calm, sweet energy just hang-ing out in the cross ties while getting his legs bandaged and the final brush strokes ap-plied. He also had the most incredible eye lashes I’ve ever seen on a horse - they looked like an eye lash curler was

used to lift them up and out of his eyes! He’d gone to a stallion show 3 weeks prior and proved that he couldn’t handle the testosterone coursing through his body which resulted in the “brain surgery” he’d had the previous week. ;-) Once

in the paddock, he totally transformed from a calm, sweet, loving boy into the most elastic, supple, back swinging, rhythmic, balanced, strong, gorgeous youngster I’ve ever seen (including the Vitalis gelding that brought me to the other side of the planet in the first place). This horse could do an extended trot or canter with his nose dragging the ground and still move in an uphill balance! He never slammed the brakes on in an abrupt way. Instead, he bounced off his supple joints into balanced halts, roll-backs and half-rears. Whether he was standing still or running, this horse constantly played with the length and height of his perfectly sculptured neck. He also very much enjoyed dropping his croup, lifting his sternum and pushing with power like nothing I’ve seen in a youngster. I could see piaffe in the quickness of his hind legs and *wowsa* extensions that made his entire body ripple from the fluid swing and elasticity. His body moves with grace and power with every step, his conforma-tion is as close to ideal as I’ve seen in person, his head is chiseled and masculine and he exudes confi-dence, bravery and intelligence. I loved watching him play with his body and experi-ment with all the ways it could move. I’ve always be-lieved that training horses needs to be playful and Taffy has taught me that horses with the brightest futures are those who experiment with their bodies with a strong play drive. This horse had it all in a package like I’ve never seen before. I knew I’d found a special horse, but this was only our first day and we had many more horses to see. I couldn’t stop thinking about him as we went from place to place. Every horse was impressive in its own way, but nothing came close to the chestnut. At the end of the day, I asked to visit him (and a black stud colt at the same farm) again the next morning. I think I was even more awed by him the second day! I was trying to abide by my coach, Dr. Gerd Heusch-mann’s advice to not make any decisions while there, but instead go home and think about everything be-fore making a commitment, but I just couldn’t get him out of my head. So, to check my sanity, I asked

Finding My Dream continued

Dream and his eyelashes

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 4

I asked David to drive all the way up there (2.5 hours) from Warendorf the 3rd day to meet him in person. As soon as David saw him take his first steps of trot, he turned to me and said, “And why haven’t you bought him yet??” I also got thumbs up from Gerd, Sue Man-das (my 20+ years long coach), Lenny and my inves-tors.

Luckily, the Reesinks have a great relationship their vet, so we were able to get the prepurchase exam done on Saturday afternoon so I could be there for it. Thankfully he passed everything with flying col-ors but then we had to wait for over a week (it felt like a month!) for the blood test results. In the end, of course, the blood work results were perfect and he was mine! The day before the vetting, we were able to fit in a visit with the painter, Catharina Driessen (www.CathDriessen.nl), I hired to paint the picture of Taffy and me in piaffe that my dad took this past win-ter in Florida. I had her painting printed on ceramic tiles to make the kitchen backsplash in our new house. We had such an amazing experience with Cath and her husband Piet in Holland. They welcomed us into their lovely home as if we were family! I was in awe of Cath’s studio filled with her dramatic paintings of color and light. Cath shocked me by giving me her original painting of Taffy and me in piaffe as I’d only paid for high quality digital images of it for the tile transfer. They treated us to a traditional homemade Dutch dinner and breakfast. It was fun to learn about Cath’s family’s generations of breeding dressage horses and the successes they’ve had. Our visit was a perfect interlude during intense horse shopping. We spent the rest of our trip focused on finding the AA unicorn and a possible second horse for me. David took us on a tour of the Westphalian state stud in Aachen and I rode several horses in their famous in-door school - what a thrill! Once David headed back home, his friend Michael Ripploh took over as our tour guide of German horses. We spent two lovely days traveling around with Michael with Warendorf as our home base. We saw many fabulous horses and, as part of my search

for the unicorn, I got to ride two large ponies at the German pony center who’d both just competed inter-nationally at the junior championships. Wow, what a thrill ride they were! Little rockets of power that I had to be coached through how to ride! Michael also took us through the Warendorf state stud where we were fortunate to meet in person many of the famous stallions I know only by their ac-complishments and legacies. Our last day in Germany had to be our most stressful as we unsuccessfully attempted to make our way to the Amsterdam airport from Warendorf by train. We got to our switchover station in Münster and appar-ently boarded the wrong train! We followed all the signs and boarded the train that arrived at the plat-form and time as the train we needed. The electronic signage in the trains only showed the next stop, not the entire route (we did eventually find a small printed diagram hanging on the wall depicting the entire route). So, we were unaware of our mistake until the hour and 20 minutes passed that it was sup-posed to take for us to get to our next station and we weren’t there yet. Instead, we’d traveled way out into the middle of Germany, 276 km from the airport! I know this to be the exact distance because we even-tually hired a cab to drive us the entire way to the airport! This had to be the most amazing experience of our journey, despite the sheer panic we both felt. There was little to no chance that we’d make our flight home which would cost us each over a thousand dol-lars to book new tickets and it wasn’t clear when an-other flight home would be available. We’d already been impressed by the friendliness of the people in both Germany and Holland, and during our time of need, perfect strangers stepped up to help us, de-spite the language barrier, in more ways that we can count. From helping us figure out where we were on the train and what the next best step would be, to carrying our huge bags when there were only stairs, to pointing us to the right people to discuss our op-tions, to the fabulous cabbie who drove us not only to the Dutch border, but all the way to the airport and entertained us the entire trip, to the people back

Finding My Dream continued

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 5

at the train station who sent my forgotten backpack in another cab to chase us down to return it to me, to the other cabbie who then drove my bag back to Warendorf to Michael’s house so he could mail it back to me, to the kind people in the airport who graciously let us jump ahead in line and stepped out of the way as we ran, and airport officials who guided us so that no time was wasted getting from place to place. Incredi-bly, despite the odds, we made our flight and my bag was returned with all its contents! In the end, I found my dream horse, who is now aptly named Absolute Dream (his perfect name was sug-gested by my student, Amy Erickson), and not one, but TWO AA unicorns for two students! Both unicorns have passed their prepurchase exams, but at the time of this writing, we are still waiting for the blood test results for both. I did also find a second fabulous horse for me, but we decided it was just too expensive to buy and import two. I decided to have Dream stay in Holland until January when I can ship him to Miami, pick him up and take him to the quarantine center in Wellington myself. Otherwise, he would have flown to NY, been driven to me in Ohio, and then 6 weeks later, have to travel the 1,000 miles to Florida. After what I just went through with Taffy, I’m not putting any of my horses under undue shipping stress. During the remainder of his time in Hol-land, the Reesinks’ incredibly talented young horse trainer, Pablo, is backing Dream. I am thrilled with the work he is doing from what I see on the videos. Dream is handling the training beautifully and Pablo is doing a superb job getting him used to all sorts of experiences. I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many people who love and support me and my dreams. I can’t begin to thank my incredible husband who makes it all possible and keeps the home fires burning while I’m off galli-vanting wherever airplanes take me. I believe I am surrounded by the best family, friends, and clients I could ever imagine and I consider myself incredibly lucky because of that. I hope everyone has a blessed holiday season spent surrounded by those who love and support them and their dreams. With love, Jen, Lenny, Taffy, Dream, Prixie Pants, and Loki Poki

Finding My Dream continued

All At Once/Füerst Piccolo, now named Absolute Dream

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 6

Jen planned all year to go to the Region 3 finals in Georgia because they were near Atlanta, where Lenny’s family lives. They wanted to watch her show, and this was their chance. When the time came, she loaded up along with some clients and their horses, and they all trooped down to the Georgia Horse Park where the 1996 Olympic Equestrian Games were held.

When they arrived, Jen could tell something wasn’t right with Taffy. He was lethargic and coughing, and had a temperature. The show organizers house a vet on the grounds when they have big shows, so the vet got there quickly. She was a wonderful vet and realized Taffy was ill enough to send him to the University of Georgia (UGA) vet hospital. The initial diagnosis was bacterial pneumonia. Coughing isn’t abnormal for Taffy after a long trip (his allergies act up when he’s hauled long distances). His temperature climbed steadily to 104.6o. Taffy’s initial blood work showed nothing abnormal, so he hadn’t been brewing something before the trip. His lungs sounded clear but he wasn’t eating or drinking. His temp finally broke two days into his medical treatment and stayed nor-mal, so the antibiotics were working. The vets did a trans-tracheal wash

and got a small amount of gross, thick, yellow gunk out of his lungs. The internist said Taffy shouldn’t make a long trip for, at minimum, one week after his symptoms resolved, so he had to stay at UGA. Lenny and Jen would bring him home when he was ready. Jen’s been shipping horses for many years. She always puts Taffy on an immune booster, ulcer meds, soaked hay and only uses non-dusty sawdust. She’ll have to make more preparations before he travels from now on. One of those accommodations she will make is to haul Taffy in the front stall of her slant-load trailer where there’s no manger so he can put his head down and clear his lungs. She’ll feed his hay off the floor to encourage him to stretch down. A week later, Taffy was moved out of isolation and into the ICU. The vets had to wait until the last infectious disease (influenza) culture came back negative, even though they knew he didn’t have anything infectious. Finally, Taffy could see friends and go out to graze a bit. The only pneumonia symptoms left at this time were a cough and slightly elevated respiration. His chest x-rays showed more proliferation of the pneumonia than the vets expected, given his symptoms. The good thing was, it was staying in the same place, not spreading. They recommended one more week of IV antibiotics and antimicrobials. Jen and Lenny were very glad they have good insurance on Taffy. After a few more days, Jen got opinions from several vets and most agreed it should be safe to bring Taffy closer to home, either to Rood and Riddle in Lexington KY or to Lebanon Equine Clinic here at home. The problem was, Taffy needed to see Jen. He’d stopped eating and drinking. Taffy and Jen have never been apart except for when Jen traveled, but then, Taffy was always at home. Jen was worried that he lack of eat-ing was because of his fragile mental/emotional state. He had gotten a bit of cellulitis in one leg while in the hospital, something he’d never had before. In the seven years they’ve been together, Taffy’s never been sick, nor had he ever had cellulitis. Bringing him closer to home was risky, but Jen felt strongly that he

Not the Regionals We Expected by Lynda Sappington and Jen Truett

Taffy being treated at UGA

Continued next page

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 7

needed to be closer to home so she could visit him and be more involved in decisions about his care. This was a terrifyingly scary decision to make. On Oct. 23, Jen flew from Minnesota, where she’d been co-teaching a clinic with Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, to Atlanta to meet Lenny there and haul Taffy to Lexington. Taffy was still depressed in UGA, not eat-ing well at all. He brightened right up when he saw her.

Lenny stopped every 2 hours on the way to Rood and Riddle so Jen could check on Taffy in their two-horse straight-load trailer, from which they’d re-moved the partitions. Taffy was a happy boy, enjoying the ride and the open-ness of the trailer. In the picture at the right, the black thing at the top right is a video camera which is used for every trip in each trailer they own. A very important job of the co-pilot (whoever’s not driving) is to keep an eye on the horse(s) via the video camera receiver to make sure they’re all right. While in Kentucky, Taffy was happy, eating, drinking, pooping and peeing! No coughing! His blood work showed normal fibrinogens and white blood cell counts. Only a marker for infection was mildly elevated. Chest x-rays were done October 25, at which time Taffy was changed to oral medications. Taffy got home October 28. Jen is very thankful to find out how to control Taffy’s inflammatory airway dis-ease (which is not heaves; it’s more similar to asthma) two months before the long trip to Florida. The cara-van will have to stop more frequently, every two hours instead of every four, to make sure Taffy stays well. This practice may prevent illness in some other horse, who knows? It’s something to learn from, that’s for sure. Jen hauled Taffy to Rood and Riddle again after he’d been home for a couple of weeks, so they could do a follow-up x-ray and exam. They put a tube in his nose and all the way down to the bottom of his lungs and squirted some fluid in there that brought cells back to the syringe when they pulled the fluid back out moments after they’d inserted it. Taffy surprised all of us by only coughing a little bit while he had that thing in his lungs. The fluid from his lungs was clear and foamy, which is what they wanted. His chest x-rays were clear too. Taffy rested a while longer at home, and then, November 28, was finally given the go-ahead to bring him back into work. He’s gotten a little “fluffy” during his break, but he still knows his stuff and still enjoys working and doing his best for Jen. What a relief, to have the big guy healthy and back at work again!

Not the Regionals We Expected continued

Jen and Taffy, together again in DHF’s indoor.

“Dancing Horse News” is a production of Dancing Horse Farm, 4080 Weisenberger Rd., Lebanon OH 45036, www.myDHF.com and is copyrighted by DHF. To reprint our articles in your publication, first contact us for permission, then if permission is given, please add this wording, “Reprinted from Dancing Horse News, www.myDHF.com. Used with Permission.”

Video Lessons with Jen! by Lynda Sappington Have you ever wished you could take lessons with Jen Truett, but you live so far away, it just isn’t feasible? Now it is! Here’s how it works: Upload a video of you riding your horse, contact Jen and send her the link. She will set up a time to talk with you on the phone and the two of you will watch it together, with her giving you tips and pointers along the way, exercises and homework, as well. Then you send her another video showing how your homework has worked out for you and you do another video lesson, getting more home-work. She will work on your biomechanics and that of your horse, and whatever other issues she believes need to be addressed.

The lessons cost $85 each, payable to Dancing Horse Farm. We take credit cards as well as checks (and cash!). If you ride with her in clinics, or have wished you could, this is your lucky day!

Jen is a member of http://clinicinthecloudsolutions.com/ which means you can take live lessons with her “in the cloud” if you have their setup. The price per lesson with Jen will be the same, $85. Check their website for details.

Contact Jen Truett at Jen@myDHF.com for more information.

Jen Truett’s 2016 Confirmed Clinic Calendar

Please see Jen’s Clinics Page for information on these locations and how to sign up for the clinics. Please note, there are some changes to the list. Always check the website to get the most up-to-date information.

Dec. 16-18: Kelly Vallandingham in St. Paul, MN: U of MN Equine Center Jen is working on her 2017 clinic schedule. Nothing is con-firmed yet, so I won’t tease you with potential dates. Please check her clinic page for updates. She will have them set up soon.

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 8

Jen teaching Margaret Bass in Minnesota

Congrats to Jen Truett’s Medal-Winning Clients! In case I’ve missed any earlier, I’ll list all who’ve won Bronze Medals this season: Ashley Holden on Ripkin and Alissa Frye on Kailua. Congratulations to you both for winning this reward for years of hard work!

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 9

DHF Logo Wear It’s in the 70s as I write this just before Thanksgiving (what an Indian summer we’ve had!), but win-ter is coming! With the hot summer we’ve had, I’ll betcha we have a c.o.l.d. winter! To survive and to ride comfortably, you may want to buy one of our Moxie jackets! We have women’s and men’s sizes. These jackets feel like suede on the outside and have a fleece lining that does NOT al-low sawdust to stick! Better yet, they are breathable and wick sweat wonderfully. (Being breath-able means you may want to wear a DHF fleece underneath it on windy days.) We also have some DHF gray fleece beanies and scarves to keep your warm! Come shop with us! Jackets are $60 +tax and will fit people with either long or short arms—just roll the cuff up to fit! The bottom of the jacket unsnaps at the sides to make it more comfortable to ride in. Come try one on today!

Jen (left) and Lori modeling Moxie Jackets Limited sizes and colors available, first come, first served!

You can see these things and more in the DHF Observation Room. If you need ac-cess to the logowear cabinet, ask Lori Aman, or give Lynda a call at 513-933-0343 and she’ll come to the farm and open it for you (Lynda only lives a few driveways away—it isn’t a big deal to come over).

Don’t miss our DHF custom jewelry featuring the DHF Logo! We have pendants, zipper pulls, ball earrings (shown), French wire earrings and bracelets.

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page

Mary Wanless Clinic by Dressage Trainer Sheila Wilson

Early in November, Dancing Horse Farm was once again host to world famous Mary Wanless for a three day “Ride With Your Mind” clinic. There were many past clinic participants who capitalized on this unique opportunity as well as several first-time clinic riders. Riding participants included several professional trainers and riding instructors as well as several amateur riders. Every rider worked equally hard to make ad-vancement in their skills. It is always amazing to see the im-provements in the riders and the horses over the three days. As an instructor myself, I enjoy watching “new to the method” riders. It

refreshes my memory and gives me new tools to assist my students. A few things were different about the clinic this time; for starters, Jen Truett wasn’t there. I don’t think Jen has ever been absent a clinic she was hosting in the history of DHF…. We had a few minor hiccups in her absence: the new sound system had an annoying echo… Luckily one of the clinic participants, Stacy Denton, had speakers and head sets that worked great. After we determined which breaker switches turned on the right amount of lights and we had sound, everything else was smooth. Instead of going out for lunch we had pot-luck in the arena; it saved time and gave auditors and riders and chance to visit. We did miss having Jen there, but I believe everyone learned something new and had an enjoyable time.

Happy Holidays!

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 11

Equine Anhidrosis by Dressage Trainer Sophie Bayer

Equine Anhidrosis is defined as the inability of a horse to sweat normally. These types of horses are called “non-sweaters.” If a horse does not sweat adequately for the temperature and level of exercise being per-formed, the horse’s body is not cooling itself appropriately and can be at risk of hyperthermia or heat stroke.

There can be various degrees on anhidrosis. A horse may have a minor lack of sweat which results in subtle clinical signs or complete lack of sweat and have severe signs of hyperthermia. Anhidrosis is usually de-tected in performance horses, but non-performance horses can be affected as well. Horses with dark color seem to suffer more frequently than horses with a lighter color.

Partial anhidrosis is most common and usually begins to be symptomatic when the temperature gets hot and starts with a decline of performance. Other signs are an elevated respiration rate at rest and/or an ele-vated respiration rate after exercise that takes an abnormally long time to return to normal. Another symp-tom is body temperature. A horse’s normal temperature is between 99.5 to 101 degrees. During exercise, the temperature may become elevated but should return to normal within 30 minutes after the exercise is completed.

The cause of anhidrosis is not clearly understood. Originally, it was believed that acclimatization to hot weather was the cause, but a survey in Florida found that more native horses had anhidrosis than imported horses. Some theories believe that an overstimulation of the sweat glands may lead to the condition.

If one suspects that their horse may have this condition, there are a couple tests that a veterinarian can con-duct to confirm the condition. The first is a series of injections of dilutions of terbutaline. This stimulates the horse’s sweat glands and will identify those that have problems sweating, and determine the severity of the condition. In addition, blood work, including an electrolyte analysis, may useful in gathering informa-tion.

There are many treatment options available to help alleviate the symptoms of anhidrosis: providing the horse with plenty of shade and access to water; working the horse during the cooler hours of the day; sponging the horse before, during, and after exercise with cool water. Depending upon abnormalities found in blood work, a supplement of electrolytes might stimulate the sweat glands to begin working again. An-other remedy that has been suggested is to give a horse with mild anhidrosis a can of beer a day! There are also commercially available supplements available. In the most severe cases, it might be necessary to move the horse to area of the country with lower overall temperatures. As always, work with a knowledgeable veterinarian to find the best solution for you equine partner.

“Hands-on Sculpting” Workshop with Lynda Sappington I am very pleased to announce that I am teaching a sculpting workshop under the auspices of the American Academy of Equine Art next June 12-16! The workshop will be held in my studio, 7 driveways from DHF, and we will make several trips to DHF to study various horses. If you would like to take the workshop (which is for beginners as well as ex-perienced sculptors), go to this page to sign up: http://aaea.net/workshops/ There is an application there and payment information, as well as information about the workshop. I have room for 10 people in my class. If stairs are a problem, please take Shelley Hunter’s sculpting workshop at the Kentucky Horse Park, because my studio is in my base-ment. Questions? Contact me: Lynda@aaea.net

This is a sculpture I did of my boy Jack a few years ago. USDF uses one of these as a trophy.

Jen Truett’s 2017 Proposed USDF Recognized Show Calendar: NOTE: days listed are when Jen plans to show , always arriving the day before unless it’s a local show.

Florida: NOTE: Jen plans to do only 2-4 of these Florida shows.

Global Dressage Festival (GDF) 3 (CDIW) Jan 25-29

GDF 5 (CDI5*) Feb. 8-12

GDI 7 (CDIW) Feb. 22-26

GDI 8 (PB Derby CDIW) March 1-5

GDF 10 (CDI 4* & Youth Championships) Mar 15-19

GDF 11 (CDIO3*) Nation’s Cup Mar.22-26

Home:

Festival of Champions, Gladstone NJ May 18-21 (Jen adds: hopefully we manage to qualify)

KDA May 26-27 and 28

Majestic June 9-10,11

KDA July 7-8, 9

Regionals at Majestic Sep. 14-17

Devon PA CDI Sep. 26-Oct 1

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 12

Do you need help with some aspect of your riding or training? Come to DHF for a couple of days or a month, whatever works, with your horse(s) or ride one of ours. You’ll be amazed at your progress!

Upcoming Events

Check our Clinics page for clinic info, and our Showing with DHF page for show information.

Barn Banter by Barn Manager Lori Aman October Welcome to new staff member Kayla Cowdery! Welcome to Sophie’s new client Elaine Lou! Farewell to staff member Lauryn Barnett! Farewell to Jen’s groom, Jackie Luden!

November Welcome to new live-in staff member Stephanie Boettcher! Welcome back to Emily Bermes and Zen! Welcome back over Thanksgiving weekend to Gabby Bissell!

Thank you to Todd Snider for working on repairs around the farm!

December Congrats to Scott and Melissa Fritsch, and daughter Kierstin on their purchase of DHF school horse, Buddy! Congrats to Jenny Sedlatschek on her purchase of Caitlin Andersen’s lovely mare, Sabrina!

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 13

Introducing Myself by Working Student Jakkie Fraser I would like to give an official introduction of myself! My name is Jakki and I am 23 years old. I am the oldest of seven girls! I grew up in Monroe, Ohio. While growing up, I was involved in different extracurricular activities. I participated in sports like volleyball, track, and I also did dance and cheerleading. I also did a lot of traveling while growing up. I’ve been to places like Puerto Rico, Scotland, Italy, Germany and several other places. I would like to introduce my best friend. My best friend’s registered name is Dani but for some odd reason she only responds to Booger. Booger is a Quarter Horse with a beautiful buckskin coat. Booger is a very sweet mare and she is very goofy at times. She is also a rescue; I have been working on her for the past month since she arrived at DHF. She has made an amazing turn around with her just being here. When she first got here she was in pretty bad shape but now she is looking

so much better. Booger is so happy now and she has even made a friend! I am truly grateful for those who have been there and helped me with her.

DHF’s Trainers’ Show Seasons From Sheila Wilson: Lone Star Q and I qualified for Regionals this year in 3rd level. I chose to spend my time working on relaxation to improve our scores rather than compete at Regionals. I have already qualified for next year's Regionals in 3rd level and hope to be competitive in 4th level. I am also training and competing Dott Calm (owned by Peggy Starr). She has earned one qualifying score toward next year's Regionals in train-ing level. I am very proud of my student, Kara Mastern who has earned her training level score's for 2017 Re-gionals and will be competing in first level next show season.

From Sophie Bayer: Rohan and I qualified for Regional Championships at Fourth Level. Our last couple scores at Fourth Level Test 3 were almost 71%! We also competed at Rohan's first time at Prix St. George earning good scores of 67% and 64%.

Due to the long drive to Regionals which was in Atlanta, we decided not to go but instead focus on preparing for next year. We plan to qualify for Regional Championships at Prix St. George and Intermediare I in 2017 which will be held locally at Majestic Farm in Milford, Ohio.

Introducing Myself by Working Student Stephanie Boettcher Hi! I’ve just recently started working at Dancing Horse Farm. I’m originally from Vir-ginia, but for the past ten years I’ve lived in the Dayton, Ohio, area. Horses are my passion, and I’m so happy to have found the opportunity to work with them every day. I graduated just a few weeks ago with my associates in Photography, which is my other passion. Horses are my favorite thing to photograph, which isn’t much of a surprise. Even though I want to focus on my photography, I still want to get as much knowledge and experience as I can in the horse industry, and I eventually want to go to school to become a vet. My horse, Creek Crossing (Creek), will be com-ing to DHF this week. I’m very excited to be able to have him here with me and to see what we both can learn while we’re here. I’ve owned Creek for almost five years, and

we’ve been through a lot together in that time. My hope is to get as much out of this job as possible, become a better rider, and learn as much as I can. I’m so thankful for this opportunity, and I can’t wait to see what this next chapter of my life holds!

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 14

Insulin Resistance by Working Student Steph Hepler

What is insulin resistance? Insulin resistance is when normal insulin concentrations have an inability to stimulate tissues in the body to intake the glucose. When horses eat foods with sugar and/or starch, the glucose enters the blood and sends signals to the pan-creas to release the insulin. The insulin will attach to insulin receptors found in many parts of the body, and glucose can leave the blood and enter the cells. When cells become insulin resistant, the normal amounts of insulin can no longer get the job done properly. The pancreas must work harder and release larger amounts insulin, to help move glucose into the cells. This helps the blood glucose levels, from getting too high and causing hyperglycemia.

What causes insulin resistance? Many things can cause a horse to become insulin resistant including genetic and environmental factors. Breeds of horses and ponies that are known to be “easy keepers” such as miniature horses, Haflingers, Mor-gans, Iberian types, donkeys, Arabians and Mustangs, have a genetic disposition to insulin resistance a gene referred to as the “thrifty gene.” They adapted to survive harsh winters and or draughts which has caused their metabolism to be more efficient than breeds that have access to better nutrition. Overfeeding can be a big factor in causing horses and ponies to develop insulin resistance. We often forget horses didn’t choose to be in captivity. A lot of things we feed our horses have high amounts of sugar and carbohydrates (treats and many grains), which are contributing factors to insulin resistance. Some hays and grasses also have high levels of sugar and carbohydrates. A lack of exercise and maintaining healthy weight will also contribute to insulin resistance.

Feeding and managing insulin resistant horses or ponies. Maintaining a regular exercise schedule is very important. Exercise will lower insulin output, increase muscle and more insulin receptors, increases blood flow, reducing risk of laminitis and food moves through the di-gestive tract faster, causing less sugar to be absorbed and keeping insulin levels low. Turnout is also benefi-cial exercise, but if grass is lush, a grazing muzzle will be necessary. Feeding is where management gets complicated with all the different grains, hay and ways to feed hay. When feeding hay in the stall it’s a good idea to soak hay and feed with a slow feeding hay net or bag. In the winter or when the horse is in a dry lot, spread the hay out into small piles so the horse must move and exer-cise to eat. Timothy grass, alfalfa, orchard grass, teff grass and Bermuda, also known as coastal hays are all good hays to feed. They are within the ranges of sugar and starch okay for insulin-resistant horses. Avoid these hays completely: Wheat hay, Oat hay, Barley hay due to the high starch levels in them. Do not feed fat and oil supplements. High insulin levels are already causing weight gain. Adding a fat or oil supplement will only cause more problems and potentially put the horse at a higher risk for laminitis. Abso-lutely do not feed corn oil and especially do not feed rice bran. Rice bran fat and starch levels are even greater than and hay and bad for insulin-resistant horses and ponies. Do not feed supplements made with soybean meal or that have high sugar content.

Continued next page

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 15

Insulin Resistance, continued

When deciding on a grain, you want to have one with low Non-Structural Carbohydrate sugar and starch (NSC) percentage. Some well-known brands have grains safe for insulin-resistant horses. The brands are Tribute (Essential K*), Purina (Enrich Plus), Progressive (ProAdd Ultimate, ProAdvantage Adult Supplement, ProAdvantage Grass Formula), Tri-ple Crown (Triple Crown 30), and Nutrena (Empower Balance Grass Formula). Each of these on average cost $30 per 50-pound bag. Treats, now we are all guilty on this one. Everyone gives their horse a treat at some point. Some give more treats than others. With insulin-resistant horses, we need to be more aware of what we are giving to our equine friends. Avoid commercial horse treats—they are loaded with sugar, corn and molasses. Also, avoid feeding candy, whole fruits and certain veggies (small pieces or peels are ok). Safe treats are strawberries, cherries without pits, roasted peanuts in shell,

whole sunflower seeds, whole pumpkin seeds and celery sticks. Sugar free candy is also acceptable.

_____________________

Photos by Steph Hepler

Sources:

http://www.equinemedsurg.com/articles/insulin-resistance/pasture-turnout-for-the-insulin-resistant-horse-2/

http://www.equinemedsurg.com/articles/insulin-resistance/diet-for-the-insulin-resistant-horse/

http://www.thelaminitissite.org/irems.html

http://www.myhorseuniversity.com/resources/eTips/October_2010/Didyouknow

Tribute Essential K

Note to those in the Lebanon, Ohio, area:

The Bridle Path Tack Shop’s hours have changed.

They are now opening at noon-6 Tues-Fri, Sat 10-4;

Sunday noon-4. They are located at 748 Columbus

Ave., Lebanon OH 45036.

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 16

When deciding on a grain you want to have one with low Non Structural Carbohydrate sugar and starch (NSC) percentage. Some well-known brands have grains safe for insulin resistant horses. The brands are Tribute (Essential K*), Purina (Enrich Plus), Progressive (ProAdd Ultimate, ProAdvantage Adult Supple-ment, ProAdvantage Grass Formula), Triple Crown (Triple Crown 30), and Nutrena (Empower Balance Grass Formula). Each of these on average cost $30 per 50-pound bag. Treats now we are all guilty on this one. Everyone gives their horse a treat at some point. Some give more treats than others. With insulin, resistant horses we need to be more aware of what we are giving to our equine friends. Avoid commercial horse treats they are loaded with sugar, corn and molasses. Also, avoid feeding candy, whole fruits and certain veggies (small pieces or peels are ok). Safe treats are strawberries, cherries without pits, roasted peanuts in shell, whole sunflower seeds, whole pumpkin seeds and celery sticks. Sugar free candy is also acceptable.

Ads for DHF Clients are FREE!!

DHF Staff and clients are invited to submit classified ads for horse or farm-related items at no charge. Please be sure your contact information is correct. DHF takes no responsibility for errors in ads that aren’t for DHF equipment.

Nov-Dec 2016 Dancing Horse News Page 17

Mom’s Helpful Hints by Lynda Sappington By now, I imagine you’ve already taken your fans down for the winter. Did you clean them? Use the air hose from a compressor to clean them, or a leaf blower if you don’t have a compressor. Wear a protective mask while you do this so you won’t breathe in all the barn dust on the fan. Cover them so they’ll stay clean until you need them again. Don’t hose them off! Unless the motor is sealed like the new fans we have at DHF, wa-ter will get in the motor and ruin it.

If you live in an area that gets heavy snow, talk to your farrier about snow pad shoes for your horses. They are rubber things that go under the horse’s shoe to flip snowballs out of the horse’s feet when they’re starting to form. If you’re in an area that’s usually ice-covered and your horse has to go out in that icy atmosphere to work, talk to your farrier and trainer about putting borium on the horse’s shoes to help him have more grip. Borium would be counter-productive for some disciplines (reining, for instance), but if you mostly just trail ride in the winter or your rides include blacktop in places, it might be helpful.

Horses won’t drink enough if their water is too cold or frozen over. To avoid impaction colic and other prob-lems, make sure your horse has access to clean water at a comfortable temperature at all times. You can get heated buckets for indoor use. These are the safest buckets because all of the heating elements and electrical components are inside a plastic chamber the horse can’t get to. You can also get a bucket heater that drops into the bucket, but that can be difficult to deal with and the horse might get into mischief with the electrical cord, since it isn’t hidden away from him as it is with the heated buckets. If you do use a bucket heater, install a piece of vertical PVC pipe along the wall that slides up and down in brackets and reaches the top of the stall wall when the PVC is down in the bucket. When the bucket heater is in use, the pipe is down into the bucket protecting the heater’s wires. When you need to take down the bucket to clean it, unplug the heater (the plug is outside the stall, right? Good!), then slide the PVC pipe up through its brackets to get the bucket out, hang the heater somewhere and clean out the bucket. To reinstall, put the bucket in place, put the heater in the bucket, slide the PVC pipe down to protect the wires, fill the bucket with water and THEN plug the heater in. Easy-peasy! John and I did this with white 5 gallon buckets set into steel bucket holders for over 15 years without any problems at all. It’s easy to put the heaters away in the Spring, and you can either remove the PVC or leave it in place, depending on your horse’s behavior. None of ours ever bothered it, so we left it in the stalls.

For outdoors, we prefer heated automatic waterers. We use Nelson waterers at DHF (shown at left) which are heated and fill themselves easily. These waterers are easy to keep clean and easy to heat since the water bowl is small. The amount of labor they save by being heated and easy to take care of, and the fact that horses will drink the water more frequently because it’s warm, makes automatic waterers well worth the cost. At DHF, they’re installed in vertical con-crete pipes that go below the frost line for the water lines to come in safely. When you take the

bowl out to clean it, you see all the way to the bottom, so don’t drop your keys down there! If you have a big trough that isn’t heated, you can get a trough heater, install it as above with PVC to protect the wires if the horse can get to them, and then float a piece of thick blue insulation Styrofoam on the water to help keep it warmer. Cut out a hole bigger than a horse’s muzzle on one side so they can drink easily. They will line up to drink out of this setup, as they do to drink out of the automatic waterers. You can also wrap the trough in insulating material if your horses won’t mess with it. If you have barn cats, always have a board leaning against the side inside your trough so if kittens fall in, they can crawl out.

Remember to keep your barn doors open at least a little even in cold weather (unless it’s a windy day) for good ventilation so horses don’t develop respiratory ailments.