Friday, February 20, 2015

Wraps and Whips

McKenna got to make the acquaintance of both a dressage whip and standing wraps yesterday.  I'm pretty certain she's had exposure to both (maybe not a dressage whip, but some type of whip) at the track.  She's got an old splint on her left front so I'm 99% certain she's at least had front wraps on.

Bad mom for not noticing before tunout
When I pulled her out of her stall I did just a quick glance at her before turning her out in the indoor to get her yayas out while I did her stall.  I watched her move around at both the trot and canter and she looked fine.  When I put her in the crossties to tack up I noticed her right hind was slightly swollen and there was a cut and scab on the inside of it.
Not super big, but big enough
 She was fine about me messing it with it, and it wasn't hot so I decided that because she looked sound in turnout I'd still ride.  If I'm being super picky, she was maybe a touch hitchy when we first started our warmup, but by the end of the ride she felt more than fine.  We had some really nice trot work and our first few steps of an actual leg yield. Left lead canter wasn't a problem but the right lead was where we went off the rails.

McKenna's started this fun new habit of getting twisted and sucked back in our right lead canter transitions.  I almost have to crank her head around to the right because it's like asking a brick wall to turn right.  She also completely ignores my leg and a couple of times I had to thump her pretty had while growling at her to get any forward movement. I finally gave up today and had my friend hand a me a whip.  A few light taps behind my leg worked and suddenly she remembered she could go forward.  The actual canter itself was pretty nice, so we just focused on the transitions. We are supposed to have a lesson from our chiro/dressage instructor on Sunday and this issue is #1 on my list of things to talk about.

Once we were done I cold hosed the leg and put some antibiotic cream on it.  I was waffling back and forth over to wrap it because I was worried she'd get mouthy and pull or eat the wrap off overnight.  I decided I'd go for it and wrapped her.  She wasn't very happy about it but oh well mare.  For extra insurance I sprayed the wrap with some no chew spray my BO has for the horses that like to eat the wood.
Buddy's wraps are a touch too small, and Phoenix's were a touch too big

I ran out this morning before work (the perks of living 8mins from the barn) to check on her.  She was super good girl and the wrap was in perfect condition.  I pulled it off and while there's still a little swelling the cut looked good. 

6 comments:

  1. Ahh yeah glad it was all pretty much resolved and she was good.

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  2. Hope she's feeling better!! Getting her out probably helped get the blood flowing :) keeping the swelling down.

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  3. Happy that it looked better the next day! :-)

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  4. Racehorses are wrapped every single day on the track, but that doesn't mean they don't still try to eat them off their own legs occasionally (not that I know of a large, ugly gelding in my possession that would do anything like that...). Glad she was a good girl for them and that she's on the mend.

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  5. Hope all goes well with the lesson and that she heals up 100%

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  6. it's great that the whip made such a difference! good luck in the lesson too - hopefully the instructor will have some insights for getting her more balanced from side to side

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