Womp Womp

 Well, we didn't make it to the show this past weekend. Or at least Cinder didn't make it to the show, I went and helped out on Saturday. Which really wasn't the worst thing ever, considering it was 92 on Saturday and 95 on Sunday. 

When she cast herself a few months ago she ended up with that lovely split

Cinder got into something, or scraped the shit out of herself, and it blew up. She had scrapes, skin sloughing off, and swelling all down her left front. 

It kinda looked like when she had the reaction to the Voltaren back in February, and a couple nights before the leg blew up she was dewormed. I'm thinking she might have rubbed some of the dewormer on her leg, and had a reaction to it. Neither I nor Trainer A have heard of something like this happening, but both of us believe that if it could happen, it would happen to Cinder. The vet's coming out today for a few other horses and A's going to ask her about it. 

The good thing is that Cinder was sound on the leg, it just looked horrible. She got cold hosed, I scrubbed it with chlorohex, slathered it in the antibiotic and steroid cream the vet gave us, and wrapped her. I did make the mistake of giving her the molasses flavored bute in her grain instead of her preferred citrus flavor and she declined eating both dinner grain on Saturday and breakfast grain on Sunday. So Sunday morning when I went to check on her I had to remake her breakfast and hand feed her like the diva she is. 

Nope, not spoiled at all 

Trainer A said other than some scabbing, the leg looked normal yesterday and she's going to ride her today to see how she does. Today is Cinder's 6th birthday, so apparently she wanted her birthday weekend off, complete with spa treatments. 

Can You Not?

 Following the show, Cinder got a couple of easy days. A took her out on the trails Tuesday and did a stretchy arena ride on Thursday. Apparently Cinder had more energy than we thought she would. When A was turning her out Thursday night (she was on night turnout till this week) Cinder decided to choose violence. 

 

The horses are usually led double with a pasture mate and A was taking Cin's current BFF Violet out with her. Cinder objected, tried to kick Violet and almost got A who was in the middle. A let go of Cinder, who then proceeded to take a jaunt around the parking lot till she somehow got her lead rope caught in her hind shoe. She yanked the crap out of her head and destroyed the rope, but then stood quietly till A could come rescue her. 

Then Saturday when I went up to ride I found the above on Cinder's right shoulder. She had been inside for a couple of hours and it looked fresh, so who knows what she did in her stall. I washed it and since she didn't seem bothered by it, decided to ride. She was having a total baby brain day, spooking at the new quads parked at the end of the arena (fair enough), spooking at a gate jump that was on the ground next to a cross rail (not fair as she's jumped that gate multiple times), forgetting she knows how to pick up the right lead, and being super distracted by two other horses who joined us half way through our ride. It was one of those rides that I was just happy we managed to w/t/c each way without dying.

Finally, when I went up on Monday to ride I was greeted with this. Super swollen left eyelid and weepy eye. My first thought was that her allergies were acting up, as it's been super smoggy/hazy/dusty and we've had poor air quality alerts all week. I put a compress on her eye, which she loved, and smeared some ophthalmic ointment on it before shoving some banamine in her mouth. I also put her on Platinum's Skin and Allergy supplement, which I used last year for some hives. She also has two fly masks she'll wear 24/7 and we can rotate and wash them every couple of days. A has been putting the ointment on for me and said it's looking back to normal, which is great.

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.

Self Destruct Mode Activated

Cinder has been on a self destructive streak lately. First she got a minor eye infection. It wasn't too bad, and she let me rinse it out, but I did end up calling my vet for some ophthalmic ointment. He did stain her eye and didn't see anything and agreed with me that it wasn't that a big deal. A few days of ointment and it cleared up fine.

Then she ate one of the new fake flowers I got as jump fill. I had turned her out in the arena before doing some ground work and she walked right up to the jump and shoved her face in the flowers. She came up with a mouth full of yellow flowers and fake grass and then proceeded to canter around the ring with them hanging out of her mouth. I went after her yelling at her to drop it, but that command works better on my parents dog than Cinder. She did eventually drop the fake grass, but there's a yellow flower that was missing from it and I'm 99% certain she had swallowed it. It was a Sunday, of course, and I called my vet because I was sure she was going to colic. He laughed at me and said to just watch her and since it's been two weeks now, I'm sure she's fine.

Zero shits given

Thursday she apparently felt it was time to scare me again and got a couple nice scrapes above the same eye she had the infection in. I think they're from teeth, and knowing how much of a pest Cinder can be sometimes, she probably deserved it. I called my vet yet again and texted him a pic asking if it needed stitches. I was going back and forth on it needing them, but thankfully he thought it should be fine without them. I washed it out, treated with antibiotic ointment, and put her in a fly mask. There was also some swelling so she got a little banamine. She was more upset about the banamine than anything else and has been good for her daily cleaning and treatment.

I swear she's close to getting bubble wrapped  24/7.  No more tying to kill and/or maim yourself mare!

WW: Wound Wednesday

Cinder got her first set of stitches yesterday.  We're not exactly sure how it happened, but she got  a small cut on the inside of her right front, a scrape on her face, and a large gash on her left stifle. Based on part of the wire fence being down and cap off the top of a t-post, we're assuming she either got caught in the wire or she and Peebs had a altercation through the wire and Peebs nailed her. Peebs is fine.

I got the call from A's mom around 10 on Tuesday morning and immediately left work. My supervisor is a horse girl so all I said was "Cinder probably needs stitches" and she told me to go. It's super nice not having to explain horsey related things to my boss.

 My regular vet was out for a few days working on his new clinic (which will be like 2 minutes from the barn, yay!) so I had to call the vet school.  Thankfully they could make it out or else I would have had to haul Cinder in. Once they were out the doc agreed with me that the stifle wound needed stitches and they went to work.

He had two vet students with him and one seemed reluctant to actually touch Cin. She was much more comfortable holding the ipad and inputting all the info.  The other one jumped right in and started clipping and cleaning the wound. Cin was due for her fall vaccines in a few weeks so I had them do those while the sedation kicked in. Why just do a tetanus now and poke her again in a few weeks when I could do it all at once?

Drunk pony is a light weight

While the one student started suturing the Dr. asked the two what else they needed to consider. Both girls gave him a blank stare and he prodded them about aftercare. Still more blank staring. He mentioned a barn being full of dirt and poop and flies, horses being turned out in the elements.  Still nothing from the students.  I couldn't stand it and blurted out "Antibiotics". He said yes and that there was still other parts of aftercare to consider.  After more nothing from the students I said "pain management".  And then after the Dr. said he'd want Cinder on banamine, one of the girls kept trying to give me bute. I know they're still students, and just starting their clinical rotations, but it was killing me that these girls didn't have any answers.

Cinder ended up with 5 stitches. Thankfully it wasn't a deep laceration and there doesn't seem to be any joint involvement.  I will have to have my vet out in 2-3 weeks to remove the sutures. Cin's on twice daily banamine for three days, and twice daily liquid sulfa for five days. Both are syringed into her mouth and she is not a fan. Part of her banamine this morning ended up on me and the floor of her stall but she did take the sulfa fine. I kept her stalled yesterday since we had thunderstorms, and she's in today but if everything looks good when I go out tonight I'll probably turn her back out. Fingers crossed for a quick and easy recovery!

Triple Whammy

Poor Peebs and I got a 1-2-3 punch this weekend. We had a jump lesson Friday night and while we kept it together it was far from our best.

My trainer's been out of town for vacation and work so we haven't seen her in a few weeks. I've been feeling somewhat directionless and in need of guidance. Unfortunately Peebs was up and spooked pretty hard a couple of times at goblins in the bushes. We mostly just tried to keep him calm and relaxed, trotting fences and lines. The one time we attempted to canter a fence he bolted out of the scary corner then went sideways. We did manage to trot out of the corner and over the jump, but didn't attempt cantering a fence again. Another horse bolted in that some corner later that night, so there really must have been something there.

The whip and the neigh neigh

Saturday there was a western dressage clinic in the barn that we rode in, except in jump tack, that completely fried the pony's brain. I told the clinician that Peebs likes his face to be left alone and she said that her style is a lot of seat and leg and to ride them front to back. Sounded good to me. She had me really focus on his head in our transitions, keeping him deep and round. While she did want me focusing on keeping my seat active and bumping him with my legs, she did want a lot of contact with his mouth.

Clinician and another rider

Going left was pretty good but going right, his hard side, we hit a brick wall. He got very pissy, started sucking back and not going forward. She had me shorten my reins and lift my hand to follow his head, but my reins ended up being about a foot long. My hands were at the end of the braided section of rein, with my arms fully extended. I was supposed to be channeling him forward but he decided that going up was a better option. He popped up with his front end, not a full out rear but definitely a warning. She kept telling me to turn him and send him forward but by the third time he did it I mentally said f**k this and turned him left and let him walk on a long rein. 

We were able to trot left, do a half circle and trot right, then go back left before we called it quits. She told me I need to ride with my reins that short for a few weeks for him to get it. Umm, no. How bout not. I'm really not doing a good job of clinics this year.

Before the carnage

Sunday my BO was doing some fence and pasture work and we turned a few of the horses out together. Peebs went out with my BO's young gelding, who he's been turned out with before, and one of her mares. Peebs and Charlie were fine but once Liza was out it all went to hell. Liza kicked Peebs in the shoulder and they separated and seemed ok for almost an hour till he got too close to her grazing and she went after him again. A scrape on the right front, a kick to inside of his left hind gaskin and cannon bone later I pulled him out. He was a bit gimpy at first, but seemed fine by the time we were back in the barn. I hosed and washed everything, liberally applied vetericyn, buted him up, and left him in his stall. Hopefully he won't be too sore tomorrow. So much for a relaxing end to a killer weekend. Sorry bubba!!

Hi There!

Not much as has happened in the month or more that I haven't been blogging.  Some really good rides on the mare, some not so good rides.  We were sticking with our once a week jumping lesson for a solid month but have gotten off the rails for the past couple weeks.  First it was super hot, like 108* hot, then the mare was sore, then she got better and I took dressage lesson, and now she's sore again.  But it looks like she blew an abscess in her right front and the farrier will be out tomorrow to take a look at her.

New fav pic of McKenna

I have had two teen girls out to look at her.  One really liked her, but I was worried that she was too inexperienced of a rider for McKenna, but I haven't heard from her in a couple weeks so..... I have really lowered her price because I'm at the point where I want her gone now.  I don't want to have to keep pouring money into her, I'm going on vacation and I feel guilty having her sit and asking a friend to take care of her, and most importantly I'm starting a new job on the 14th (the day after getting back from NY) with increased hours so I'm not sure what my new schedule will be.  It feels like this will be a good time for a whole new start.

The plus side is that I'm super, super, super happy about the new job and can.not.wait! to leave my current one.  I know a lot of my lack of riding/blogging/general unhappiness is due to stress from my job.  I fully expect stress and issues at the new one but it can't be as bad as where I am now.  And it's going to shave 30mins of my commute each way so that almost equals out the extra hours.

A good 95% of our field rides look like this.  Whoa crazy mare!

I was starting to do some ride on Tia, including three or four really nice and relaxing field rides with friends, until she came up lame and wouldn't work out of it.  We had the vet out and she was very reactive on her suspensory.  Our vet doesn't have a mobile ultrasound so we didn't see what was going on but he felt like it wasn't something major, probably a strain.  She never had any heat or swelling in the leg and was only slightly more lame then she normally is when she first starts out.  She's on 15mins of walking with twice daily Surpass for another week and then we'll recheck.  If she's not better we'll take her in for the ultrasound.  The plan was after I sell McKenna to lease Tia thru the winter but we all know how the best laid plans with horses usually turn out.

Slip and Slide

Unfortunately over the past few months the footing in our indoor has gotten pretty crummy.  The base has really packed down, and after the footing gets watered it turns into a slip and slide.  When the footing is dry it's not too bad, just a bit dusty.

McKenna had both Wednesday and Thursday off and got turned out in the indoor.  Thursday morning our BO watered the arena but I really didn't pay any attention to it when I chucked the mare out.  She got to hang out for over an hour while I rode Tia.

Ring side seats

Friday when I turned McKenna out in the indoor while I did her stall and almost

immediately she took off and slipped a little in the footing.  I heard her play around while I cleaned but wasn't too worried.  But when I tacked her up and put on the lunge line and she slipped half a dozen times I got concerned.  I moved around the whole ring, trying to find a dry spot, but the mare's hind end kept tripping.  A few times she left skid marks, and got down the arena base.  After one pretty bad slip she came up lame.  Nothing major, just a little short behind, and it looked like she was hesitant to put her weight on her heel.  I walked her out, put her away, and gave her some bute.

Saturday was a gorgeous day so I put her and Tia in the outdoor paddocks early in the morning.  McKenna's normally pretty excited to go out, but she seemed subdued.  I watched her walk and while she wasn't as bad as Friday, she still looked a bit off.  I've got a call into the chiropractor to see.  Later in the afternoon when I came back to feed I put her on the lunge line in the outdoor and she still seemed a bit blah.  She didn't want to move out, would barley trot, and just wasn't her normally happy perky self.

Thankfully when I went out this morning she was acting normally.  Was way up as I took her out to the paddocks and happily bucked and played around outside. She didn't look sore anymore, but I figured a few days off won't hurt anything.  I'm planning to lunge her tomorrow and possibly get on to see how she feels.  I'm having a lesson with Tia on Tuesday and if McKenna's still wonky I'll have my trainer take a look. 

As for the footing, my BO had the big tractor out today working it up.  She did say it had compacted more than she liked and she's got a call in to see about getting more sand.  So hopefully we can get that fixed ASAP!

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. 

Sleazy of Shame

I tend to turn McKenna and Phoenix out together, either in our indoor when it's cold and wet or in the all weather paddocks.  For the most part they get along really well.  Phoenix tends to be fairly submissive and while McKenna's not an alpha mare by any stretch, she does push him around.

I had them outside for a few hours on Saturday while I was doing chores and didn't hear a peep.  Sometimes McKenna will squeal, usually when she's in heat, if Phoenix gets too close for comfort. Obviously I wasn't watching them the whole time, but I do glance out there from time to time to check on them.  When I brought them in McKenna had a long, thin scratch on the right side of her neck.  I did have that "Do I need to call the vet" moment, but it wasn't super deep.  I washed it out with some Betadine and to me it looked like a bite.  Naughty Phoenix! I put some antibiotic ointment on it and then had a decent ride on the mare.

24hrs later

Sunday afternoon I had a lesson scheduled and I headed out early to do chores and give myself time to lunge the mare. First thing I went to check on the cut.  It wasn't hot, but there was some swelling around it (you can barley see it in the pic).  I cleaned it again and put more of the antibiotic ointment on it, as well as the EPF 5 which works wonders for swelling.  McKenna was great about it, didn't care at all.  We ended up having a really good productive lesson, one of our first such rides in a while.  My trainer and I joked that the key to getting McKenna to focus was to dose her on the EPF 5.

I wanted to cover the cut that night, but couldn't think of a way to easily wrap her neck.  So out came the full head and neck sleazy.  I hadn't put it on her yet, but I've used a shoulder guard on her before.  She was surprisingly good about having it put on, even when I covered her eyes.  I don't think she liked wearing it, or that fact that it clashed with her blanket. 

Really mom?!

The cut continues to look better each day.  I had ordered some stuff from The Herbal Horse and she was delayed sending it to me and included a free sample of the Heal Quick.  I got it last night and am excited to try it and the Be Calm on McKenna today.

Ass Meet Dirt

It was bound to happen with a baby at some point.  McKenna dumped me on Saturday.  She reared and spun and I didn't.  Not too much worse for wear, landed on my butt, but my lower back is not super happy.  Luckily she was easy to catch and after quite a bit of lunging I got back on.

We had been trotting around for 10 mins or so and she was high as a kite.  I had already lunged her, and I was going back and forth in my head about getting off and lunging some more.  She was getting bold down the long side so I went to circle. She protested, I got stronger with my aids, and she went up and sideways.  While I was super pissed at the time, I can't really be mad at her.  Between the change in weather (getting into the 30s-40s at night), lack of turnout, not being ridden in the outdoor in more than a week, and general baby OTTBness, I should have seen it coming. She might have a trainer ride on Wednesday and we have a lesson on Sunday so hopefully we can get some help. 

Slow Progress

I managed to not only make it out to the barn but also ride last night. I was worried that getting out would be a problem, since lifting my right leg high was painful and Tia's 16.3h.  It turned out to be a non issue and we proceeded to do a long walk warm up.  When I felt secure enough, I bumped her up to the trot.

Trotting and posting were not painful in the least. We did a few walk-trot transitions trying to get her to focus.  She was distracted, was sure that there was something in the bushes along the far side of the arena that was going to get her. I wasn't wearing spurs and that didn't help matters at all. At one point Tia actually spooked.  She did the legs splayed out thing, but tripped and ruined the whole thing.  I think that's first time I've know her to spook.

We took a walk break and tried to canter.  Going to right, I automatically wanted to put my inside right leg on the hold her shoulder up and support her.  Bad decision.  Hurt like a mother and I could only do about 5 strides before taking my leg off and she would break to the trot. We tried a couple times before I gave up.  We walked a bit more then I decided to go left to see if it was any better.  It didn't hurt nearly as much and we were able to do a full lap before I gave in.  I decided to quit with that and not push my luck.

To get off I had to walk Tia up to the 3-step mounting block and dismount onto that.  I didn't want to try getting off onto the ground with a bad leg from that high up.

Today I had to go back to work, so I opted not to ride. My tailbone was pretty sore after work but I plan to ride tomorrow and Friday.  Instead tonight I cleaned my leather open fronts and tall boots.

Before

Three Years in the Making

Buddy dumped me for the first time in the 3yrs that I've owned him today.  I was riding him bareback and decided to jump a bit.  I jumped him for the first time in 6wks on Tuesday and he was good.  The first few jumps he was a bit forward too, and didn't want to balance on the offside but settled down well.  I ended our ride by dropping my stirrups and trotting x's and he was great.

Today we was lazy in warm up and was pretty laid back to the first few x's we did.  He was much more balanced and together on the landings and even gave me a nice lead change.  I decided to take him over an 18in vertical and apparently it looked a lot bigger to Buddy.  He launched over it from a stride out and I got sent flying over his shoulder.  I landed on my tailbone and rolled to my left side.  It did take me a minute to get up, my right leg was hurting more than the left. 

To add insult to injury, the other farrier at our barn and his wife (who were Buddy's former owners who didn't treat him well) were there working on horses.  They saw what happened and came over to help.  Buddy had stopped and wasn't moving but they lead him into the barn for me.  I untacked him and put him back outside.  By then my thigh was screaming so I crawled into my truck and went home.

I barely made it into bed and took a few Aleve.  I rested for a few hours, trying to move as little as possible, and iced my leg.  I was supposed to go out with barn friends tonight because its my barn owner's aunt (who actually owns the property and acts as an aunt to all of us boarders) 90th birthday. I had gotten up trying to see if I could go and it had taken me 10mins to walk from my bedroom to the kitchen to feed my cats.  I was crying and sweating and texted Connie that I wasn't going.  She asked if I wanted someone to take me to the ER and I said yes please.

I could barely move but managed to hobble out to the car and then into the ER on my own.  Two hours, and one pelvic x-ray later, I'm back home with vicodin and directions to ice my thigh for a couple days.  They said it's a deep bruise and to stay off my feet and not ride for a while.  I won't be making my lesson tomorrow, but come hell or high water I'm showing next weekend!  I have a ton of sick hours at work and already left a message for my manager telling her I won't be in on Monday and will let her know about the rest of the week. I have no problems taking the week off to recover.

Like She Never Left

Zoe's eye looked fine yesterday; you  almost couldn't tell she had stitches. 

Still slightly swollen above the eye.  She gets another day of bute for that.

I lunged her a bit before getting on as it was really windy and I figured she'd be a little high after no work for 6 weeks. She felt great!  She was a little forward and didn't want to pay attention to me but settled to work once I made her.  I took her over a cross rail and it was like she had jumped it yesterday.  No problems!  I decided to be brave and took her over an 18" vertical with new, bright flowers in the flower box.  She did give it a little look, and jumped it big but there was no hesitation and she was good on the off side.  I quit with that since she was so good and she's out of shape.

We did just the vertical, not the oxer.

Today the two new girls on the college team came out and tried her.  Both loved her and rode her well, so I think they'll each half lease her and ride 2-3 days a week.  I know Zoe's owner will be happy about that.

 

Not to be out done, Buddy somehow scraped up his face in his stall.  I washed it off and put some ointment on it.  Amy flatted him today and said he felt fine so hopefully the shoes did the trick.  We are also trying to figure out what classes each of us will do in a show on the 18th.  Amy really wants to do the jumpers, but she hasn't been schooling him 2'6" which is the lowest jumper class they offer.  Right now she's entered in the 2' hunters and Jen told her if she can prove herself in lessons this week she'll let her switch.  I'm for sure going to do the 2'6" eq and mini medal and depending on what Amy does maybe a 2'6" jumper class.  Each of us will do 2 or 3 classes so poor pony won't be too exhausted by the end of the day.

 

Silly boy

Aren't Days Off Supposed to be Relaxing?!

Friday was my day off from work, and the plan was to have a relaxing day at the barn with a lesson and then going up to get Zoe.  I did go and get Zoe but neither the relaxing nor the lesson happened. 

I had done a light hack with Buddy Thursday afternoon and he felt fine but when I got on to warm up on Friday, he felt stiff and just so slightly off. I double checked his feet and no rocks so we continued with our warm up.  When Jen got there I had her watch us and she confirmed what I thought; that he wasn't quite right.

 It's been hot and dry here, which is great since we can get the horses out on pasture almost 6 weeks earlier than normal.  But the downside is that the ground/arena is harder and dryer than normal and it's making Buddy foot sore.  Normally he's barefoot Oct-June, and gets front shoes in the summer.  Unfortunately he got his feet done two weeks ago and our farrier lives in central Oregon, 3 hours away.  I called as soon as I got off, hoping Steve would be in our area within a week and as luck would have it he was 10 minutes away and had time to do Bud.  Jen had me get him drilled and tapped for studs this year, since we're jumping higher and plan to do a show or two on grass this summer.  Now Bud will get a couple days rest and we'll see how the new kicks work.

I was too lazy to clean out his hoof, but you get the idea

After Bud was done getting shod, I went up to get Zoe.  She nicked at me when I went to her paddock at her owner's house and jumped right in the trailer.  I felt her moving around a bunch as we were on the way back and thought that I probably should have given her a hay bag in the trailer.  Both Phoenix and Buddy haul great, with or without food or another horse and I forget that not all ponies are so good.  When we got back to the barn, Zoe had managed to untie herself and whacked her head in the trailer. She had a half inch cut right below her eye that was pretty deep.  Connie, Jen and I debated about calling the vet, but we worried about keeping it clean, so we did.  Our regular vet was over an hour away but his associate was 5 minutes down the road.  She said the cut wasn't as bad as it looked, and with a little happy drugs and 1 stitch Zoe should be good as new. I have some antibiotic ointment to put on it and Zoe will get some bute thru the weekend. 

After all the excitement yesterday I'm hoping the rest of the weekend goes a lot smoother!

Go kiss your pony!

Tonight at the barn one of the horses got himself stuck in a feed window in his stall door.  Red is a 16.2hand 24 year old QH gelding.  He's been abused in the past, and can be nervous and flighty but is generally very well mannered and level headed.  No one saw how he did it, but somehow he got his front end thru a 1ftx2ft (ish) window and got stuck at his hips.

Thankfully Rick and Connie were home, as well as Red's former owner Jake. We called the vet and she came out within 20 minutes and sedated him. Luckily Red didn't struggle too much in the 20 minutes. I ran to the boarding barn next door and got the owner Carl to help. They were trying to take the door off the hinges when Red's current owner Sharon and her boyfriend showed up.  I took Sharon away because I knew she wouldn't be able to handle seeing it.  Between everyone else they managed to push Red back thru the window with some ropes and pulleys.

The only obvious injury was a scrape on Red's right hip that the vet wasn't too concerned about.  She checked him out thoroughly and while he was still sedated he seemed fine.  She gave him some banamine and said just a bran/senior grain mash tonight for dinner after the sedation wears off.  Obviously there's a chance of internal injures as his pelvis was constricted for about an hour.  We'll all be keeping an eye on him over the next couple of days. 

Horses never fail to amaze me at how inventive they are.  After everything settled down I made sure to go kiss each of my ponies (including miss Zoe) and just spent a couple minutes loving on each of them.  It was hard enough watching Red struggle tonight, I couldn't imagine if it had been one of my own.




Phoenix in his old stall.  This is the size of the window Red got stuck in.

 

 

 

 



 

Boys, boys, boys

The boys have been tying my stomach in knots this past week!  Last Friday Phoenix was kicked by his pasture mate, a little 14.2hand QH/Arab mare.  She nailed him just below his shoulder and in the middle of his cannon bone on his left front.

I saw it happen, so I was able to pull Phoenix out right away and clean and wrap his leg.  I kept him in for a few days, with the leg wrapped, then turned him back out (in a different pasture!) to see how he would do.  He's sound at the walk, but off on both fronts, at the trot.  He still has a large lump on his cannon bone.  One of the other boarders at the barn, who graduated from vet school last year and has spent the last year in an internship at an equine surgical clinic, look at his leg and told me to get x-rays  since it's highly likely his splint bone is fractured.  So we have an appointment next Thursday with Dr. Ben. 

I had a lesson last night with Buddy and he was super lazy.  Jen had me get my spurs.  He was more awake, but a lot more pissy once I had them on.  We were having a pretty good ride, working on having enough pace and rhythm, when we went up a 2'6" vertical landing and turning right to a rollback when  Buddy slipped on the clover and went down to his knees.   All I could see was the ground coming at me and thinking "Oh this is going to hurt". I don't know how I stayed on, or how he righted himself, but he did.

Both of us were pretty shaken, but once my adrenaline was under control, we tried again but instead of landing and turning, we landed and stopped.  Buddy seemed sound, but he was very cranky so after a couple nice fences we called it quits.  Jen suggested getting him drilled and tapped for studs, so I'm going to call the farrier on Monday to see when he's available.