Reflections: May 2020 Quarantine

Frosty the pony. Pretty sure I was 8

Loving: That I got to see my parents and that my mom is spending a week with me

Smelling: Spearmint and eucalyptus lotion that I'm slathering on my hands to combat the dry skin all the washing and hand sanitizer is causing.
Learning: Working on the HQC course material (still!)
Writing: Jeopardy questions
Reading: The Ballard of Songbird and Snakes

Watching: Avatar: The Last Airbender (so happy this is on Nextflix)

Craving: Not much at the moment

Obsessing: Obsessively checking horse trailer dealerships to see if there's any COVID-19 sales

Wishing: Campus would stay quiet forever

Needing: A new mattress. I've known I've needed one for a while, but after spending a night in a hotel it's become VERY apparent that I need to move a new mattress to the top of my list of things to be bought.

Wanting: To ride Peebs

Trying:  To practice patience and go with the flow

Eating: My mom's matzo ball soup

Still the cutest

Drinking:  Water

Feeling: Fairly ok. Still a bit anxious, but not as worried as last month.

Hoping: To get good news tomorrow for Peebs' leg check up. The stitches should be coming out and I'm hoping we can graduate to turn out and/or riding. He's been great about stall rest and his 10mins of hand walking, but he's obviously bored.

Listening: Lots of happy/upbeat songs on Spotify. Samsies from last month

Clicking: Restaurant websites to see when/if my favorites are opening up again. I'm still very much in the take-out only mode, even if my county has allowed people to eat in restaurants again.

Thirsty Thursday: My Horse is a Ho

Since Cinder turned 3 last week she's started to blossom into a woman. She's in flaming heat right now, and it's the most intense heat she's had. The couple of little heats she had last summer and earlier this year weren't bad and I figured I'd maybe lucked out in a less mareish mare.

I don't know why, but this pic of her and Blue cracks me up. The 23yr old paint vs the 3yr warmblood

But nope. Overnight she's turned into a friendship destroying ho. She's turned out with two geldings right now, and yesterday I watched them fight over her while she stood around and peed.

Blue trying to bite her while she tries to pee on him

Blue was ultimately the winner. He is herd boss (when Peebs isn't around, then the two of them vie for that spot) and Scottie is a wimp who gives up pretty easily. Scottie and Cin are usually BFFs so I think Scottie was more upset that Cinder was spending time with Blue more than anything else.

Cinder: Come and get it boys

To top it all off, A offered to let me ride Scottie last night and when I pulled him out of the pasture instead of Cinder she pinned her ears and gave me the mare glare of death. And when I started riding she was galloping back and forth along the fence having a meltdown. She never does that when A takes Scottie out to ride. She did get over herself and when I brought her in for dinner she only glared a me a little.

It might not be chestnut ears but it was great to see this view again!

Happy Birthday Cinder

Cinder turned 3 on Saturday. She's really looking like an adult now, not such a baby anymore.

Birth, one, two, and three

She got a matching saddle pad and bonnet set for her birthday. I was worried the bonnet would be too big, but nope, first perfect. I now want to get a green brow band to match

Mad that I wouldn't let her graze.

Her feet have gone through another rough patch, and she's a little tender footed. She was fine during the couple week dry spell we had, but it's been raining off and on for the past couple of weeks and the back and forth has been hard on her. She gets her feet done on Thursday and I'm going to grill my farrier on what he thinks will be best for her. I have a feeling she's going to be in shoes sooner rather than later, but that's ok.  We' haven't done any "work" other than playing dress up while she's been tender footed.

I just can't with how adult she is

The Leg

My vet was able to come out Sunday evening (and bless him, didn't charge me an after hours fee) and change Peebs' bandage and check the leg. It didn't look nearly as bad as I had thought. I'll post the pic at the bottom of the post so if anyone's squeamish they can skip it.

Vet poked and prodded the leg a little bit and showed me what parts of skin were dying off and will need to be trimmed. He also thinks one of the stitches will blow but left it for now. He said since Peebs is sound and since there's no swelling he doesn't need to be on the bute, which is nice. Peebs is still on the antibiotic till Thursday, when I do the next bandage change. I'm to take pics and text them to my vet and he'll decide if we should continue antibiotics or not then.

List of bandaging supplies from vet.

Peebs got cleared to have access to the paddock attached to his stall, and can get 10mins of hand grazing a day. It's supposed to rain on and off all week and if it downpours Peebs need to be shut inside. Peebs generally doesn't like being out in a downpour, so I'm 99% certain he'll be inside the stall anyways.

The stitches will come out in 3 weeks. Peebs is due to get his teeth done and sheath cleaned in June so I'm going to call and schedule an appointment for everything all at once. Cinder's teeth will also be due, so it's going to be a fun day for my poor wallet. Scottie is also due for teeth so at least A and I can split the farm call fee.


Without further ado, the leg:

The laceration at the bottom was the one I was really worried about. The skin was flapping and it looked deeper before they cleaned it up.

Peebs vs The Fence

Peebs is normally pretty respectful of pasture fences. He hates hitting the hot wire and is generally too lazy to try and run through a fence or jump over one. So our theory for what he did Saturday is that he tried to kick at another horse on the other side of the fence, in the other pasture. Because Peebs is an asshole sometimes and would try to do something like that.

Peebs was in the pasture on the left while the others have moved to the pasture on the right.

As I drove up to ride around 11:30 on Saturday I saw the fence was down from the driveway. A had snapped me a pic at 7 when she fed of the ponies taking naps so sometime in the 4.5 hours between, this had happened. All four ponies were up by their respective gates when I went to assess the damage and at first I wasn’t too worried. But then I saw the blood against Peebs’ hind stocking and started getting worried. His left hind was pretty badly torn up and he had the leg cocked. I called A and left her a message then called the vet and left another one. I did a quick check on the other three but thankfully they were all fine.

I grabbed Peebs and prayed he could make it into the barn. Thankfully he took one lame step then walked perfectly fine into a stall. My vet returned my call and said he was en route to another emergency and I should call the vet school. A came down as I was talking to the on call vet who advised me to bring him into the hospital. Peebs had one laceration/puncture on his fetlock and I was worried about joint involvement.

(Side note: my former mare McKenna was put down last fall due to a severe laceration on her fetlock involving the joint. She would have required surgery and a long recovery with a poor prognosis so her owners decided to put her down. I was having visions of this in my head all day.)

On the right side of his barrel while everything else is on the left

I ran home and grabbed the truck then ran back to the barn and hooked up the trailer. Never have I been more thankful that I live 9 minutes away from the barn. Peebs jumped right in the trailer and we set off for the clinic. When I got there they told me due to Covid I wasn’t allowed in the clinic and that I had to unload Peebs and tie him to the trailer and then they would come and get him. Watching them walk him into the clinic killed me and I lost it in the front seat of the truck.

I then spent the next two hours waiting, alternating between telling myself he was going to be fine (he was sound, if he was dying/permanently injured he would be at least a little lame right?!) and trying to figure out what I would do if he was dying/needed to be retired. I mean technically Cinder is capable of being ridden, but this would definitely not be the best circumstances in which to start her. A, her mom, my mom, and my trainer were all texting me so I didn’t have too much time to spiral and look at sales ads.

Back home and wrapped up tight

When the vet finally called me it was mostly good news. Most of the lacerations were fairly superficial and the one on the fetlock didn’t seem to have any joint involvement. They had done a joint tap and flushed it  and everything looked fine. He got a couple of stitches but she did warn me that some of the skin is going to die off and she couldn’t reattach it. They were bandaging him up and wanted to send him home with instructions to have my vet check him Sunday or Monday and then have him decide how to handle things from there. They also gave Peebs some Bute and sent me home with antibiotics and instructions to keep him on the Bute until my vet looked at him.

 And that was the extent of the instructions. No “keep him on stall rest”, no “you can hand walk for 10mins”, nothing except have your vet look at him and go from there. So on the way home I called my vet and left another message asking for an appointment either day. When we got back to the barn Peebs unloaded fine and immediately tried to eat the weeds at the edge of the driveway. I put him back in a stall and threw him hay then went and grabbed a beer from the tack room fridge.

Matchy matchy with the vet school’s vet wrap

After I decompressed a bit I did pull Peebs back out to put a standing wrap on the other hind leg. He has a few scrapes on it and he went from being out 24/7 to stall rest and I knew he’d stock up. Also it makes me feel better to have both hinds wrapped instead of just one. I also put a fly sheet on him to help protect the cut on his barrel. I did slather it with cream and will get my vet’s take on what to protect it with. Peebs seemed totally fine if a bit confused as to why he was stalled and not going outside. He happily ate his Bute and antibiotic laced grain, mixed with copious cookies, and when A did night check she said he was perfectly fine.

My vet’s coming out tonight to change the bandage and give me more instructions. Fingers crossed everything looks ok and we can get a better idea of what his recovery will look like. I’m hoping we can do some hand walking and he gets the ok to have one of the stalls with an attached paddock.

Got it From Her Momma

Last week Cinder was going through a growth spurt and looked super skinny and awkward. I was going to take conformation pics of her for the HQC study group but since she looked like an emaciated wiener dog that wasn't happening. Yesterday when I pulled her out she looked more normal, so I figured we'd take some pics during our ground work session.

I think her growth spurt went into her head and her back length

A friend who used to own Cinder's mom and half sister commented on the pic that Cin's looking a lot like her mom. So I did some FB snooping and found a pic of both Abby (mom) and Izy (half sis) to compare and contrast.

Abby on top (pic is flipped so they'd be the same direction) Cinder on bottom left and Izy on bottom right

Holy cow is there a family resemblance!! I admit that I'm not the best with conformation, but Abby sure does pass along her genetics. To me, the three of them have the same hind end. I also think Cin got Abby's neck.  It's hard to tell in the pics, but Abby was around 16.3, Cinder currently clocks in at just over 16.1 and Izy is 15.3.  I want to take an updated pic of Cin later in the summer when she's shed out and has a shinier coat to match the other two.  I did see Izy go at a show a couple of years ago and was able to watch her hang our before her rounds. You can't tell from this pic, but she has a big blaze so while her head doesn't look that much like Cinder's her expressions where spot on with Cin's. It was super weird to see my horse in another horse like that.

She was super cuddly yesterday and when I was grooming her she wanted to groom me back. While she has her "chestnut mare" moments, she's one of the sweetest and cuddliest horses I've known. Also, if you curry her you'll be her friend for life. She'd rather have curries that cookies. She is not one of those delicate flower chestnuts that need the softest of brushes, bring on the hard stiff curries and body brushes!