All Checked Out

 I wanted to get a few things about Cinder checked out once she was back home again. Mainly have my farrier look at the shoeing set up training farrier gave her (my farrier isn’t familiar with this type of shoe), have the chiro vet check her out, and have a knowledgeable eye check my saddle fit on her. 

Monday was farrier day for Peebs, and while Cinder was at 3 weeks and not ready to be done, I did have my farrier look at her. He had talked to training farrier a few weeks ago at a seminar, so he had a little more background info on her set up. He still wasn’t 100% sold on the special shoes but we have a plan moving forward. And if we run into trouble I told him I’ll have him and my vet out together to see what we need to do. 

Chiro vet came out on Wednesday and was able to check both Cin and my saddle. I was worried that my medium wide treed saddle wasn’t going to fit, but it’s actually not bad. Maybe a tich wide, but it makes pretty good contact along her back and has plenty of wither and shoulder clearance. With my half pad, it should be good. 

As far as chiropracticly, Cinder felt great as well. Chiro said her back felt strong and she had a nice top line for a lightly worked 3yr old. I had been thinking that Cin was a little under weight, but chiro said she didn’t think so. It’s more that she’s still gawky and gangly, and that she’d rather see her in this shape than overweight especially since she’s still growing. Cin is also just going to a bit of a leaner built horse than I was expecting.  To completely dash my hopes, chiro thinks Cinder is going to top out closer to 17.1 hands, than the 17 I was wishing for. 

Back from Boarding School

 I brought Cinder back home to TCF on Saturday. I was so done with having my ponies at two different barns and was beyond ready to have them be back together again.

 In all honesty, Cinder is not where I was hoping she’d be after being in full training for 4.5 months. A good part of that was due to waiting for the farrier to put shoes on her and for the three weeks lost due to the wildfires and smoke. But in that 4.5 months I only saw her worked once, and never got any pics or videos of her under saddle. Trainer S agrees that Cin isn’t as far along as she should be and has offered to come to TCF in December to work her for free. I have some thoughts and feelings about this and am not ready to decide either way yet. 

The kids were very happy to see each other again 

When I hauled Cinder over to S in July, it took maybe a minute to load her in the trailer. She stopped before stepping up, but then happily jumped in after a quick pause. She was nervous and sweaty when we got to the training barn but I chalked it up to not hauling anywhere for a year and being hauled alone. S hauled her to GS and said it took over two hours to get her to load in the trailer. And at one point she laid down in the trailer. I was a little worried about bringing her home, and I had a reason to be. It took almost two hours again to load her and we were only able to because S showed up and helped. I was beyond frustrated and so upset that the horse I dropped off at training had better manners than the horse I picked up. 

This makes it worth it 

But Cinder unloaded great at TCF and immediately settled in. Peebs and Scottie were more worked up about her coming home than she was. When I went out to the barn Sunday morning and took Cinder out to groom her, Peebs started screaming for her. We were all of 20ft away from him. I free lunged Cin in the arena and Peebs would periodically scream for her. Thankfully Cinder didn’t seem to give two shits about her stupid brother. When I went to lunge Peebs he kept looking back at the barn and was obviously distracted. I’m honestly surprised at how worked up Peebs was. I know in a week or so he’ll get over it and will be back to trying to bite her over the fence. 

Cinder Progress Report: Changes

 First and foremost, I've lodged a complaint with Trainer S on the fact that whatever she's feeding to Cinder, or doing to her, has caused Cin to have a massive growth spurt this summer. She's grown about 1.5 inches, clocks in at 16.3, and last week was butt high again. I told both Cin and S that I want her to grow out, not up. 

At least she's more level this week

And while I realize I haven't taken many pics of Trainer S's barn, some eagle eyed readers might recognize where these pics were taken. Trainer S has started working with friend and former barn owner MG at GS barn. Aka the barn I was at before TCF. Starting December 1st, S is moving her whole business into GS, but due to footing concerns at her current barn, S asked if I was ok with moving Cinder earlier. I was, since I would still be boarding at GS if stalls hadn't opened up at TCF. 

Cinder handled the move pretty well and settled in quickly at GS. The two boarders there who were there when I was both commented to me on just how giant Cin is.  One commented on how she looks like a fresh off the track TB. She's lean, muscled, and awkward limbs. She's definitely one of those horses who doesn't finish filling out till she's like 6.

 

The current plan is to leave her at GS for about 3 week, then bring her home around Thanksgiving. S and I are trying to set up times so I can watch her work Cin and hopefully I can get a lesson or two in on her before moving her back home. I'm off the whole Thanksgiving week so I plan on working her at TCF a little, then letting her have her winter break. S is also thinking she might be able to come to TCF and ride/give lessons so maybe next spring I'll have her restart Cin and we'll go from there.

Oy vey

I don't know how else to say it, but fuck 2020. The last month has been one thing after another, if not on top of each other. 

 

So three weeks ago, after getting home from work one night, I noticed my 14yr old cat Eddie was weak and wobbly, losing control of his hind end. He was very painful when you tried to pick him up, or touch his hips/tail.  He was also reluctant to eat, which for Ed was a big red flag. He was always up for some wet food. I took him into the emergency vet and his xrays showed no acute injury. He had some arthritis, but nothing out of the ordinary for an older, active cat. His blood work was normal. I was supposed to leave the next day to help my parents drive up from San Diego, and because Ed was so painful, I decided to keep him at the clinic while I was gone. 

I got good reports while I was gone, and picked him up on a Sunday afternoon. He came home with some strong pain meds and was doing ok till the last dose of meds wore off. Then he was worse than he originally was. He was crouched on his front legs, with his hind legs collapsed under him. He could barley move. I called the clinic for his final appointment. KP, Cinder's breeder, is a vet at this clinic and did the euthanasia for me. We sat and talked for a while about Eddie and Cinder and it was nice having a friendly face there. 

Six days later I got a text from the barn that Peebs was colicky. Again. A month after his first colic of 2020. I left work, called my mom, called the vet, and immediately dosed Peebs with banamine once I got to the barn. By the time the vet got there, Peebs was much more normal and was eating the small amount of hay I gave him. Dr. W checked him out and declared this was a gas colic, as opposed to the impaction he had last month. We pulled blood as precaution, and talked a lot about some feeding changes for Peebs. 

The hay TCF feeds is a local grass mix, mostly orchard and fescue. Vet thought the orchard grass might be irritating Peebs since it's a physically rough hay.  I went out and bought Peebs half a ton of timothy hay. Peebs also started getting Purina Outlast. He's not normally what I would think of as an ulcer prone horse, but it couldn't hurt. Finally, he started Assure Guard Gold on my vet's recommendation. I had to order it, so he started on it yesterday. 

We did have the conversation that Pebs could potentially have a lipoma causing issues, but nothing serious enough yet to warrant surgery.  But it's something we need to think about. I was convinced for about a week that Peebs would be on the operating table by the end of 2020, but that's lessened somewhat. 

She's 16.3 at the withers and is currently butt high and dropped weight

And to top it all off, Peebs has been NQR under saddle. We've had some good work to the right, but tracking left he's very stiff and unwilling to bend. I had my trainer out for a lesson/to get eyes on him and she agreed it's nothing I'm doing, or not doing, but he's very stiff. I had the chiropractic vet out last night and she said he feels great and is in good muscle condition following our rehab from the wildfire smoke. I think his issue is that he needs his stifles injected again, as his left stifle is worse and that's the leg he's unwilling to bring under himself. So I'll have our regular vet out again for a lameness exam/injections. 

And in case I haven't had enough vet bills in the last 6wks, my other cat Luna goes in next week to have two teeth extracted. Cinder is my only animal to not have any vet bills and I told her she needs to keep it that way. Despite continuing to grow when I told her not too, she's the current favorite animal in my household.

Reflections September 2020

 

 

This makes me happy, and I need all the happy I can get

 

Loving: Peebs' unicorn blankie

Smelling: Coffee
Learning: About the guinea pig reproductive cycle.
Writing: Sadly, not much. Again.

Reading: Rereading the Green Creek series by TJ Klune in prep for the final book's release in two weeks.

Watching: I tried watching The Boys season 2 but wasn't in the right head space. Enola Homes was good.

Craving: Sleep.

Obsessing: My new One K helmet and that I can swap out colors on it. But they don't have the rose gold, boo.

Needing: A new charging cord for my headphones. Mine is on its last legs and I keep forgetting to get a new one. Can't survive work without my headphones!

Wanting: Time off from work.

Trying:  To keep my cool at work and not go postal on my coworker. Again.

Drinking:  Coffee and cider

Feeling: Excited. I have pony plans this weekend and then next weekend I'm flying down to SD to help move my parents up here.

Hoping: My parents don't kill each other in the next 9 days before the move and that things go smoothly.

Listening: Spotify

Clicking: Blogs to read

 

Just a Little Retial Therapy

Between the fires, hazardous air quality, Peebs colicking, and general anxiety I might have done a little retail therapy. I mean, why not buy stuff you only use when riding when you can't ride for a couple of weeks? Gotta get that serotonin hit from something. 

The barn I bought Peebs from is closing and was selling off pretty much everything not nailed down. They had jumps for sale, and while we don't need more standards or poles, we could use fill. Unfortunately they wanted to sell the jumps as a set, but had some extra flower boxes I snagged. The brown ones each need a board replaced, while the yellow and white ones just need some cleaning and a new coat of paint. 

In need of a little TLC

 

 I took advantage of the International Helmet Awareness weekend and bought a One K MIPS. I'm super happy that One K's now come in long oval and with the MIPS. While I don't need a new helmet, I'm sure Cinder is going to turn me into a lawn dart at some point and my Trauma Void is a smidge loose on my head. Much rather be out $$ for a new helmet than a brain injury. 

I was going through my blankets and sheets and realized the only sheet I have for Peebs is his Back on Track one. I love it, but he doesn't always need it. Cinder thankfully still fits into last years blankets but will most likely need to size up next year. Peebs and Cinder currently wear the same size, and Peebs can also wear the size up depending on the blanket, so I decided to get a rain sheet in 78. It's a little big on Peebs, but will fit Cinder next year. 

Because he's a unicorn

 So when I saw a unicorn sheet at the feed store, I had to get it. Peebs has the matching unicorn fly sheet in white, but I really like the blue rain sheet. I'm slightly upset of the thought of him going outside and rolling in the mud in it. It's almost too cute to use.

Not Even Surprised Anymore

 What would 2020 be without a colic scare? Because at this point I've accepted that anything can and will happen.

 

From my vet's office on bringing back horses from wildfire smoke

 So last Thursday we got thunderstorms. We desperately needed the rain, and it helped clear out the wildfire smoke so we can start rehabbing, but we also got a shit ton of thunder and lightning. Like almost nonstop for close to an hour around 1am on Friday morning. It also rained off and on for most of Friday. At TCF the ponies were still turned out and we brought them in Friday night around 5. Peebs was tucked into his stall with freshly cleaned and filled water buckets, hay, and his hay pellet grain.

A's mom called me around 9:30 Saturday morning saying she had turned Peebs back out at 8 with his hay and grain in his paddock but he hadn't eaten anything and was down. Peebs is a vacuum and him not eating is a big sign. I ran out to the barn, gave him banamine, called my vet, and brought him back inside so we could monitor him a little better.  When I brought him in, I noticed his water buckets were still full. He hadn't had anything to drink from 5pm Friday night to 8am Saturday morning when he drank from the paddock trough. We were obviously dealing with some dehydration and impaction. 

Vet gave me the ok to hand walk/graze him and offer small amounts of soaked hay. Peebs did eat and around 2:30 passed some normal looking poop. But around 6:30 he went down again. At first I wasn't too worried since it looked like he took a 20min power nap, but then he sat up, started biting at his stomach and rolled twice. Called vet again and was told to take him into the hospital. As I was hooking up the trailer, he did pass a little more manure but I had already called and told the hospital we were coming, so off we went. 

Once again, I had to hand him off to a tech and sit in my truck waiting to hear from the vet. About an hour and a half later the vet walked out to talk to me. Back in May the vet called me from inside the hospital to talk about Peebs, so this time I was sure he had died and she didn't want to deliver the news over the phone. But it turns out this vet has much better bedside truckside manners than the one we saw in May. Peebs wasn't showing any symptoms, his vitals and blood work were all normal, and she couldn't feel anything other than some soft manure on the rectal exam. Most likely, the poop he passed right before heading off to the hospital was the impaction. They did tube him with some water and Epsom salts and they did want to keep him overnight to observe him. I was more than fine with that, since I probably would have been sleeping in the tack room if I took him back to barn.

Getting sprung from the joint

They called me at 10 on Sunday  morning to report that Peebs had passed a bunch of manure during the night, and was happily eating hay. Their protocol is to keep them for 24hrs for observation so I could pick him up between 6-7 that night. Peebs was very happy when they walked him out of the hospital and jumped right into the trailer to go home. I turned him back out in his paddock since I didn't want to chance him not drinking if he was inside. He ate dinner Sunday night and both meals yesterday completely normally so *knock wood* he's in the clear. We do have an appointment Friday for his fall shots and I'm going to ask my vet to do a quick basic exam on him just for my sanity.