“In riding a horse, we borrow freedom”

"Officially" in adult capacity a full time RVN at an animal hospital in Brighton. "Unofficially" a massive nerd, artist and lover of all things creative. 

[babyanimalgifs]

I’m a sucker for boys in flannels

[anditssunday-deactivated2018072]

*___*

[weloveshortvideos]

[pikaichi-lion]

SOUND ON

[earthstory]

Temperature anomalies by country and continent This video was prepared and shared by Antti Lipponen (https://twitter.com/anttilip) using the compiled temperature measurements across the Earth’s countries and regions in the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies database, which extends back to the 19th century. Each bar shows the temperature for a given country compared to the baseline used by NASA Goddard – the average global temperature from 1951-1980. Using this projection you get both the global impression of everything getting warmer, particularly over the last 40 years, as well as a view of local and regional heat waves. How big a heat wave was the one that hit your country in some year? How does that compare to the global changes that have hit since? Scroll through this clip and find out. -JBB Video credit (CC licensed): https://flic.kr/p/W3wPeE

[transperceneige]

an action-packed day today at Burghley as a horse jumps over a flower pot

[nicomorgan]

I loved how the photographers scattered!

[santosbecks]

Duck being special! 

I painted this horse a few yeas back because he caught my eye... Always seem to be attracted to the ones with character :D

[santosbecks]

My happy place! With a cheeky Wocket Woy thrown in for good measure. Thanks to our guide Katie for filming a canter and giving us such a fun weekend.

[santosbecks]

A little slice of heaven! Amazing weekend away in wales with Freerein riding holidays. So nice to get away and feel human for a while.

[vanish]

[santosbecks]

My big doofy idiot of a labrador horse is coming home. Hopefully in a couple of weeks but still waiting to hear from her owner. I’m trying to be patient but so so excited to even see her again after 2 years.

[fae-sidhe]

Less than 24 hours before polling stations open. I implore you, especially if you are under 25, GET OUT THERE AND VOTE. Even if you don’t care about politics, even if you don’t care about your own future, please be selfless enough to care about everyone else’s. This vote is going to affect all of us, and yours is vital.

Our only chance to get the Tories out of government is by voting Labour in. None of the other parties stand a chance. Even if you hate Labour, Jeremy Corbyn, or Dianne Abbot, they are a better option than another five years of Tory rule, especially when your alternatives are Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Amber Rudd.

It’s high time the persecuted foxes turned and bit the hounds. It’s time to show our teeth. It’s time to show that we are stronger than those who seek to oppress us and remove our liberties.

Please get out there and vote LABOUR.

[santosbecks]

Unless like me, Labour haven’t got a chance in hell of winning your constituency! Labour would be a wasted vote here. I’m voting Lib Dem simply because they are the only party with any chance of getting a seat that has been Tory for a couple of years now.

DON’T JUST VOTE LABOUR, VOTE TACTICALLY

[santosbecks]

Big Happy News

So I moved back to Sussex in March (for a number of reasons I’d rather not get into).

I’ve missed Jilly and having yard time, A LOT. I’ve been looking at a new loan but everyone seems to want monthly financial contributions that I just can’t afford.

And then last week happened. Remember Y? She owned Palo my big spotty love of a lifetime, and primrose her little roan sidekick. Palo went on permanent loan when I stayed on in Bristol after Uni and Prim was sold. Y had a baby and has been pretty busy with family life. We’ve been having coffee and meeting up regularly since I got back and she’s said a lot how much she misses the horses.  Last week I got a text from her out of the blue saying she had a horse in her partner’s paddock on LWVTB... So I went and met him and he’s lovely. Nobby is a 15.2hh Ex Polo pony. 0 ground manners but an absolute gentleman to ride. If you know me, you know groundwork is my thing so he’ll have some new boundaries and hopefully learn to be a bit more relaxed soon. This new paddock has direct access to the south downs and he’s been solid as a rock cantering for Y up there. Last weekend she agreed to buy him and exchanges money/passport etc later this week. I can’t wait to try him out as he has a bit more ‘go’ in him than Palo did and I’ve got used to Jilly’s slightly more energetic and scatty ways. But that’s not even the best news.

Y doesn’t want Nobby to be alone, and her mum is well enough to start riding again, and I’m back permenantly... so, PALO IS COMING BACK HOME :D

I get my big hairy baby back. I genuinely thought this wasn’t a possibility when I moved home, at least not for a few years, if ever. Her loan family have given her an incredible amount of time and got her fitter than Y and I ever could (university holidays and on road hacking were never going to cut it). She’s even been competing in hunter trials recently. She’s a fitter happier horse, I’m a more experienced and confident rider and I can’t wait to see what this new combination, with our old bond, can do. Absolutely thrilled!

It also means I might be more active on here again too x

[eiraisnthere]

ok so let’s talk a bit about jobs vs passion. my last fulltime job was at a big game development studio; the kind of job you’re (supposedly) passionate about. most of my colleagues adored the games we made, and so they didn’t care that the company had a major diversity problem, that our salaries were below average, that we didn’t get overtime compensation yet stayed ‘til 11PM more often than what’s healthy, and that the company promoted an unhealthy alcohol culture. because we were passionate. this was the kind of job you grow up dreaming about; don’t go throwing it away because some colleagues are harrassing you or because you get no recognition for your efforts!

for more than a year I was tired. stressed. in constant pain. my anxiety was through the roof. I worked on these “dream projects” and I felt dead inside.

when I quit that job I started freelancing as a writer. I got some really good jobs. I also got a bunch of small-time, low-paid, “hey at least your name is on it so isn’t it enough to pay 10$ for this text?” kind of jobs.

with the typical millenial housing situation of an apartment that I could barely afford on a fulltime pay and a constant stream of job offers that were underpaid I spent four months doing what I love, while constantly overwhelmed by stress. my insomnia got really bad, and when I managed to fall asleep I would dream about my bank balance. I would dream of losing whatever stability I had left in my life, simply because I couldn’t afford a “normal adult life”.

and so, today I got a job. it’s a fairly standard QA job at a medium sized game development studio. unlike any other game companies I’ve been at they offer humane working conditions. they don’t expect me to show up too early and stay too late because I’m passionate. the hours are nine to five, and they disapprove of overtime. the pay is slightly above average, and I get health benefits. I’ve been through several interviews, and at no point has someone tried to belittle my career or tried to convince me to work for less than I’m worth.

for the first time in many years of my career, I’m happy. I’m at ease. I applied for this job because I wanted to get away from the passionate part of the industry. I wanted a job where I could go home at five and dedicate my freetime to my own writing projects. I wanted to work at a place that didn’t eat my heart and soul and energy as I contributed to projects that wouldn’t even bear my name in the end credits.

so what I’m trying to say is that there’s nothing wrong with having a “normal” job. you’re not giving up on your dreams if you take a job outside your main interests. if it offers stability in your life, it’s enough.

[johanirae]

This really resonates with me because I left the architectural industry last year. The hours were unreasonable, work stressful and devolved into the new projects filling me with dread. My boss kept hinting I wasn’t doing enough, I wasn’t passionate enough… I finally left, and after a difficult half year, I finally found a job outside the industry. It is not a dream job, and it is not where my passion lies, but the work lets breathe. And I tell you, I now value “breathing” over “making my dream come true” any day.

[kleenexwoman]

if you have a job that you can do reasonably well without intense stress and leave at the office when you leave, you can actually spend as much free time as you like Making Your Dream Happen like, yeah, you can settle down in a cafe on sundays and write your novel, because you have that time carved out and you can afford it. you can put extra money towards materials for your sculpting project. save up for a kiln or fancy paints or whatever. get a gopro and convince your friends to act in your arthouse zombie movie on the weekend because it’ll be fun. dreams can be dreamed on many levels. jobs only have to be successful on one level, and that is the level where you make enough money to live your goddamn life.

[drcalvin]

Work to live, don’t live to work.

[ryukodragon]

To all my followers who want to write, animate, and create - this is very real and true!  Please take note!!

[porcupine-girl]

Academia is really bad about this. “Passionate” is conflated with “willing to work 60-70 hours/week, move anywhere in the country for a new job once a year, live apart from your significant other for years at a time, put your family life on hold, etc etc.” If you’re not willing to do all that, you just don’t want it badly enough. Fuck that. Fuck any employer who thinks that way.

[santosbecks]

So much love for this discussion. I just left a job I loved to move across the country to be closer to my family. The new job has left me frustrated with the Veterinary industry. It’s always been one that expects more of you, and when I’m at work I give 110% but I don’t want work to be my life. For that reason I chose, and thought I was lucky to find a job where overtime (past 1h/wk) is compensated and extra/OOH shifts are optional.

Now technically that is true BUT I’m getting weekly emails and in person buggings to take on a night shift here and there or an extra saturday morning or an extra sunday to ‘help out’ with short staffing. I’m getting told if I don’t work christmas this year then they will come chasing me next year. I don’t HAVE to, but I’m expected to contribute because everyone else does (also because I’m a low paid VN i’m bound to need the extra money. Not the point and another rant for another day)... I already work 10h shifts and 1 in 4 10h Sundays, often with no break. NO I do not want to give them any more of my time. The time I give already often leaves me too tired to enjoy my spare time, especially as I’m trying to settle in to a new job, county and friendship group.

Oh and when I mentioned my mental health was suffering for it, they ‘joked’ that they weren’t the practice for me... Maybe they have a point!

**Work to live not live to work**

[amorporleitura]

[drferox]

I love when you do case studies. I am neither a vet nor a vet student, and don't know what I'm looking at, but it is completely fascinating to watch you all at work.

Well since you enjoy them, here is a mini case study, and a look at death.

This is a quick reading from an i-Stat machine, a tiny portable thing that spits out these results in 2 minutes on three drops of blood. There’s not a huge plethora of information here, but it tells me everything I needed to know.

Many vetblrs on here will jump to tell you one of the ways this patient is dying, but let me cut to the chase.

The <> symbols mean the results were too far away from the reference range to read. Given that they’re all for components of the acid-base buffer system, that’s seriously bad

The pH at 6.823 is acidic. Only just (neutral pH is 7), but it’s enough to kill. Normal pH for a dog on this machine is 7.35 to 7.45, or very slightly alkaline. Acidity means death.

PCO2 is the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood. It is too high to read. That’s seriously bad, and probably part of the reason that the pH is so low.

Potassium (K+) is 8.2. That’s basically twice normal. Anything over about 6 is considered unlikely to be compatible with life, so this patient was doing well to still have a heartbeat when I took this sample.

This is what it looks like when all your homeostasis mechanisms give up at once, and the patient is actively trying to die. Clinically all you see early on is a high temperature and puffing, in this case it was probably combined metabolic and respiratory acidosis compounded with malignant hyperthermia, but despite efforts patient was non responsive, and looking at these results I was not surprised.

[gettingvetted]

@drferox Could you explain the metabolic and respiratory acidosis a little more? I actually have a test over the subject on Friday so I was really excited to see this case study! This is a physiology class so it’s not meant to be about diagnosis or anything, they just tend to throw in common dysfunctions of the systems we’re learning about.

So, from my understanding, metabolic acidosis comes largely from exercise and/or hyperthermia, or diarrhea, which alter the acid/base balance of the blood in favor of the acids, and in order to combat that, the patient is going to hyperventilate to help blow off CO2 and raise the pH again (puffing?)

But they gave us the impression that respiratory acidosis comes from being unable to breathe properly such as in cases of emphysema/obstructive pulmonary disease or fibrosis, so the patient is unable to get rid of enough CO2 to maintan the acid/base balance. 

Isn’t it pretty hard to have both hyperventilation and obstructive pulmonary disease at the same time?

[drferox]

So, I cheated a little and skimmed over some details because I don’t want anybody to be able to identify the case. I know this was probably a mixed acidosis case because it was a racing dog, had run recently, and was under anaesthetic.

Prolonged anaesthesia is another common way to develop a mild, but persistent respiratory compromise. The longer the anaesthetic, the longer the risk.

I know he has respiratory acidosis because of the massively high PCO2, which is the pressure of CO2 in the blood.

I suspect if I had run a lactate on this dog, it would have been high too, confirming metabolic acidosis too.

If you are interested, I repeated the blood test after ten minutes while attempting to resuscitate the dog. After running two intravenous fluid lines at maximin, the PCV (percentage of blood that is cells, not fluid) actually increased, when it should have diluted. The dog was given multiple glucose boluses, and frusemide, but this was ineffective and cardiac arrest occurred.

This dog definitely had multiple things going on, and multiple homeostatic mechanisms being overloaded. In other words, “crashing”.

But for the vetblrs playing along, why were frusemide and glucose used?

[gettingvetted]

So if frusemide is the same thing as furosemide/Lasix here in the US, it’s a loop diuretic that helps with a) edema/congestion relief (probably not for this case) and b) inhibits sodium/potassium uptake in the kidney. Under conditions of acidosis, potassium secretion in the kidney is inhibited and uptake is enhanced, so hopefully this drug would interrupt that process and decrease potassium levels.

Glucose would be used because its presence in the blood causes insulin release, which also happens to cause potassium excretion in the kidneys (trying to lower potassium here).

[drferox]

Right on the Frusemide. Also this dog was having 2000ml per hour of isotonic sodium chloride being pumped into it, so if it had survived long enough for that to be a problem, the frusemide would have helped clear the lungs.

The glucose spike does cause insulin release, and the insulin causes cells to uptake glucose, but when a glucose molecule moves into the cell, it drags a potassium ion with it. You can do a similar thing with calcium, but it has a high risk of bradycardia, and this dog was already bradycardic.

[tastefullyoffensive]

What a good boy. (via gallowboob)

[waffleperks]

i’ve never related to a dog more

[wannabewerewolf]

I think I finally found Dave’s sire!

Brae-Ville Celtic Colours (Sully) He won the maxi cob class at Dublin horse show on Friday!

[wannabewerewolf]

Confirmation from the owners cousin says this is indeed Dave’s sire 😍

[santosbecks]

He’s stunning :D What a hunk

[aguila-7-deactivated20190807]

[equikage]

I found something to analyze! New Warwick Schiller vid showing the very first time backing this horse up. Warwick is the king of rewarding the smallest try and shaping behaviors with very light -r. Here he’s making his cues extremely obvious to the horse by dropping the reins entirely. First he picks them up, rewards the horse for a shortening of the neck and weight shift backwards by dropping them again. Picks them up without even making contact, drops them to reward another weight shift backwards. Continue until he gets his first actual steps backwards, big give.

He makes everything transparent for the horse. Picking up the reins = I’m about to give a cue, pay attention, already be thinking about what I might ask. Applying light pressure = the horse has already been taught lateral flexions and give to the reins, so automatically he offers the baby steps towards backing up (that weight shift and the shortened neck). Drop the reins = you did exactly right. Pick up the reins = I’m about to ask again. The same light pressure = I’m asking the same thing, horse offers the same/similar behavior. Drop the reins = yep good.

He doesn’t just pull on the reins until he gets the full behavior, he rewards the horse for every tiny shift towards the full behavior. And he doesn’t release once the behavior is finished (watch that last gif). He releases as soon as the behavior starts. Horse picks up its foot to step backwards and he is releasing/rewarding before that foot even hits the ground.

That’s how you do -r.

[milessperhourr]

I like this guy

[theclassicalhorse]

I love these gif.  THIS is how you use negative reinforcement.  Use the slightest bit of pressure and release as soon as you see/feel the horse even think about the response.  Just like with +R, gradually, you up the criteria and release for bigger, stronger versions of the behavior when the horse understands the beginnings of what you want.

This is how you DONT use negative reinforcement: ask for the full behavior all at once with light pressure, and if the horse fails to respond, use FULL FORCE to get the horse to do what you wanted it to do (kicking, wiping, yanking on the reins, etc).

The difference between these two approaches are like night and day.  Warwick’s demonstration shows patience, understanding, thoughtfulness, skill, clarity, and respect for the horse.  Clinton Anderson’s (and other like trainers) method shows aggressiveness, brutality, lack of respect for the horse, and just overall laziness on the trainers part.  If you don’t want to take the time it takes to teach your horse how to respond to you cues gradually with polite language, you have no business working with horses.

[clickerhorse]

All of the above. The more I see of him, the more I like Warwick Schiller. If you really think +R isn’t for you, I’d strongly refer you to him, or to Buck Brannaman (and the tradition/line of trainers he comes from). 

That reminds me, I really need to go read that book by Tom Dorrance..

[switching-reins]

Warwick is probably my favorite big name “Internet” trainer. He had a great video on getting a horse to stand for mounting that was night and day from CA’S douche bad horse flipping video.

[sdequus2]

I love Warwick. He actually makes such a big effort to interact with people and explain why he does things the way he does along with correcting people politely and not with the same condescending attitude that CA seems to have.

[santosbecks]

I’ve been part of Warwick’s community online for a couple of years now. It’s very inclusive, lots of very open and frank behavioural discussion, people sharing experiences and tips. AND its not all about him. If there’s a method or trainer that uses his basic principle of right thing easy wrong thing hard then he actively encourages using it if it works for you and your horse. 

I was lucky enough to meet him at his wales clinic in 2016 too and he’s a truly lovely guy and really great to watch work. So glad people are finding him!!

(and buck and the dorrances and Ian leighton!!)