Rethinking My Blog

I've been thinking about this blog lately, and have decided to pin it down, so to speak, to the following aims. I'll publish good news about people who help horses survive. I'll talk about health problems for horses as well as abuse issues. I'll tell readers about the two mystery novels I've written, each one depicting a type of abuse, and the unraveling of the mystery by my character Connie Holt, who cherishes horses and wishes to save them, no matter what it takes. Sometimes I may write about the writer's life and the problems and joys therein.

My Heroes: NYS Racing and Wagering Board

On October 12, the New York State Racing and Wagering Board acted like heroes for all of us worried about the drugging of racehorses. Richard Dutrow Jr. was finally barred from New York's racetracks for 10 years. His name is well known in racing circles for almost 70 violations at 15 racetracks in 9 states. Consider this: Dutrow hid illegal workouts of his horses, used strong painkillers including butorphanol found in winnning horse Fastus Cactus, kept 3 syringes in his desk loaded with xyzaline, a muscle-relaxant. John Sabini, chairman of the Board, said: "His [Dutrow] repeated violations and disregard of the rules of racing has eroded confidence in the betting pubic and caused an embarrassment throughout the industry." It is hoped that Dutrow will not be licensed in other states to race. Those who drug horses to win are not only guilty of greed. Veterinarians believe that using both legal and illegal drugs on race horses is account partly for the fact that the United States has the world's highest rate of thoroughbred mortality.
But Dutrow has the right to counsel, and they managed a win when at a hearing, Judge Richard Giardino upheld the stay. If he hadn't, Dutrow would have been refused entrance to all New York tracks right away. One wonders how much the judge knows about the years on end of drugging horses and how many people have tried to get rid of this widespread horse abuse. With this stay, Dutrow can go on training horses until his appeal is heard; lawyers can delay this process easily. Dutrow said of Giardino's ruling, "I'm glad I still get to go to the barn. I got a very positive attitude here, no negativism at all. It's easy for me to get up in the morning and go to the barn. Everything else comes so naturally for me there." Unfortunately we all know what comes naturally. We congratulate the Board, and wish that Dutrow had been barred for life.

The Artist Jane Walentas

Over twenty years ago, Jane Walentas saw a battered old carousel from the 1920s. It had 48 horses and two chariots. The horses' bodies were covered with multiple layers of varnish that defaced their original bright colors. Jane was determined to restore it and then put it in Brooklyn Bridge Park on the East River. Twelve years ago, Jane and a team scraped away all that varnish and found the real horses underneath: their superb carving, their colors. The horses are resplendent, now, with gold leaf, their saddles and reins newly decorated. On September 16, Jane's Carousel opened to the public. The now-glorious carousel will be maintained and operated by a non-profit charitable organization, named, what else, but Jane's Carousel. I am indebted to its web page for the image of the horses. Why not visit the site yourself at http://janescarousel.com where you'll see more of the carousel?

Keats and The Pleasure of Teaching in Libraries

John Keats

For quite a few years, I've been teaching at one library or another. One of the best things modern libraries do is offer rewarding classes of many different kinds for its patrons. There you can find people learning about certain medical issues; using a computer; the writing problems that face novelists; and the work of published authors. The last two categories include me, although last year I taught a class on the Shakers to a receptive audience. (Needless to say, everything I teach I have a lot of experience with, even the Shakers, a personal obsession, which has led to my visiting as many of their former settlements as I can find and researching their theology.) For a former college professor and ongoing novelist, conducting these classes has been a pleasure.

Lately I've been teaching at Brentwood City Library, about nine miles from my home. Recently, I started five new classes at one of the most attractive and carefully-planned libraries I've ever seen. In September, I taught three introductory classes on "How is Poetry Written?" I've always loved analyzing poetry, ripping it apart, so to speak, and putting it back together again, finding its ideas and meaning. Just think. I had the opportunity to talk about figures of speech, rhythm and meter, imagery: all that good stuff I went to graduate school for years to learn. And lastly, I could revisit some of the my favorite poems by British and American authors like Browning, Tennyson, Keats, Frost. Now two October classes are starting, "The Formal Essay: How Do You Write One?" and "Using the Most Effective Point of View in Fiction." I chose the first because of years and years as a college writing teacher. I had many students who told me they never had any formal instruction on how to write an essay. "What the heck is a thesis statement?" they used to complain. When I was a new college teacher, I used to think that maybe the students were making this up. But years of experience told me they weren't. What better class could I teach at the library than an introduction to this genre?

My description of the essay class goes like this: "Writing a formal expository essay clearly and coherently is often a required skill, both in the academic and professional worlds. The class will discuss the following topics. What is an essay? What are the most common writing patterns used by essayists? How is an essay developed? What is the role of Internet research?" I'll have the joy of reading and selecting essays by modern writers which both fulfill the aims of the essay and which DON'T!

The second class is "Using the Most Effective Point of View in Fiction." Here my experience springs from writing two novels and coping with this thorny problem. I had always taught point of view in my writing and literature courses, and understood intellectually what this entails, but when it came to choosing one for my first novel, I had written 100 pages before I thought, "This just isn't working, I'll have to start over." With the second novel, point of view wasn't a problem. Here's a little of what we'll talk about: role of the narrator in the novel, major types of points of view and their characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of each, what is stream of consciousness. We'll get to read in this course too, looking at various excerpts from literature with differing points of view.

Come and join our classes if you can. The essay course is Wednesday, October 5, 2011, and the point of view class is Wednesday, October 12, 2011. They start at 6:00 PM and end at 8:00 PM. And if you come, be prepared to have fun!

Wisdom from President Reagan

"There's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse."

The only change I would make in this little gem of wisdom is "for the inside of a man or woman."

Can Breezes Hurt Two-Year Olds?

Horse people are taking another look at breezes and the danger they pose to two-year-olds who are forced to run them. Breezes, according to a new article in The Wall Street Journal by Dionne Searcy, are exercises that these young horses are put through at sales events to show off their ability. These sprints are 1/8 of a mile and "are typically run in less than 11 seconds." Sometimes, the running horses have undeveloped bones and muscles, which can't withstand the intense stress of a breeze, and thus cause injuries. And if you think these horses automatically turn out to be Derby winners, you're wrong. Sometimes they don't even win a race. Among other other concerned activists, PETA has taken up the cause, pursuing animal cruelty charges against two auction houses where two horses died in breezes; urging auction companies to let young horses just gallop or accelerate gradually, which is done at some European companies; requesting auction houses to bar horses younger than two-years-old from the exercise; and last, to postpone breezes if the the track is in bad condition or the temperature is too high.What do you think? My facebook page has the whole story.

Killer Nasville Here

Tonight Killer Nashville kicks off at the Hutton Hotel in downtown Nashville with a wine tasting followed by a mystery-themed team trivia game, hosted by Mysteries and More Booksellers. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, there will be a wealth of panels, talks and other activities. Tomorrow, I'm going to be part of a panel at 12:30: "Putting the Thrill in Your Fiction: How to Create Fear and Danger on the Page." On Saturday at 10, I'll be talking about the Gothic Novel and what led to its appearance in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Hope to see you there!

He Trots the Air Travels

Fun to read Google and see He Trots the Air advertised in Portugal, Canada, UK, Japan, Australia, Denmark, and Italy.

Killer Nashville Almost Here

Killer Nashville will be held in only eight days at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville from August 25 through August 28. It offers five tracks of varying interest and experience levels, so you'll always find an intriguing panel or talk to attend. There will also be the dead body (hee, hee) to investigate and solve the puzzle of its death. And of course there will be much more offered by your delight. The fan track is my niche there. I'll be speaking on Saturday, August 27, from 10:00-11:00. My talk will be on the Gothic Novel in England and America. Come and hear about this type of novel that has lasted to the present day. Did you ever read Twilight or see the film? Jane Eyre? Frankenstein? Come and learn about the history of this strange kind of fiction, which has been said to be the forerunner of the mystery story!

I'll be on panels at KN as well.

Go to http://www.killernashville.com/ for lots more information.

Hope I'll see you there!

Thank you, readers!

Kind readers have already responded to He Trots the Air. To read, go to http://www.mmfisher.com/, and click on the book cover.

Equine Herpes May be Spread by Stressed Show Horses

When horses like those beauties above leave their peaceful pasture and are taken to the show ring to compete, the equine herpes virus most adult horses carry can spread due to the stress of competition. In an article by Jennifer Viegas of Discovery News, we read that Dr. Philip Johnson, who teaches equine internal medicine at the University of Missouri points out that "most adult horses are infected with the virus....[That] infection leads to a life-long association between the virus and its host. In most healthy horses most of the time, the host's immune system prevents the virus from going active and being especially contagious." But, he goes on, there are times when the virus overcomes the immune system and becomes active. An example is the April/May National Cutting Horse Association's Western National Championships in Ogden, Utah: 32 cases of infectious equine herpes resulted, with those infected spreading the disease to other horses. Dr. Johnson says, "Congregated horses coming together to compete are stressed, adversely affecting the immune system's function." Dr. Johnson adds that it may be that show horses, that are commonly exposed to intense confinement and a lot of transport between shows, neither of which they may be used to, may become carriers of an activated virus. And the grouping of show horses closely together in temporary, strange stabling, is another factor. Once the virus is active, formerly unaffected horses can breathe in the virus, and are infected by horse workers' hands, equipment, tack, and food.

The virus appears in two strains. One is more likely to cause neurological problems. The symptoms of the latter are fever of 102 degrees F or even higher; nasal discharge; fatigue; weakness; urine dribbling; leaning; tail loss of tone; and problems with standing. Dr. Bruce King, state veterinarian of Utah, says that an infected horse should be isolated, his temperature taken and recorded twice a day. Dr. John Hunt, Acting Arizona State Veterinarian, says further that this procedure should continue for 28 days after the initial symptoms are seen. If the sick horse has secondary infections, doctors may use anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, and anti-viral drugs. If the horse can't stand up, body padding and slings may be used; intravenous feeding and a catheter may also prove useful.

Viegas concludes that "some vaccines provide protection against the less debilitating form of the virus, but they do not appear to protect against the neurological syndrome."

Swamp Fever: No Vaccine, No Cure

Maybe you've read about the fatal horse disease currently raging in the west called equine infectious anemia. Many horse people know it as swamp fever. There is neither a vaccine nor a cure. The sick horses suffer from intermittent fever, they are depressed, they grow progressively weaker, they lose weight, and they have anemia and edema. For a more technical description, go to http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/horse/v1195w.htm. Let's think of those horses and their desperate owners today, and hope that veterinarians find a solution soon for this terrible scourge.