A different place, another lesson
I think I may be on a roll here with the lessons. After my last lesson, I chatted with Trainer G about a few other places I might go. It’s a bit of a far drive for me to get to Trainer G, so I was asking her thoughts on some places closer to me. One such place was only a 10 minute drive from me. I’d heard about it some years back, but I’d never met anyone or gone to check it out. I did know that they had a good lesson program, with quite a few lesson horses. This meant more horses for me to try as well, so I gave them a call, set up an appointment to tour the place, and had my first lesson Wednesday.
I got to ride Georgio, a Warmblood gelding (not sure what kind; I didn’t ask further lol) who used to jump 1.40 meters (4’5″ in case anyone is like me and has no idea how to convert this stuff; thank you Google). Don’t think I’ve ever ridden a horse who could jump that high, and he certainly had a different feeling than other horses I’ve ridden – which that’s exactly why I’m doing this! He’s about 14-ish, and certainly a big lug of a lesson horse. My lesson was an hour, with the first 20 or so minutes making sure I knew my way around horses. When I’d first seen Georgio, he was munching on hay and I was outside of his stall so I hadn’t thought of him as super big. Well, I hadn’t been standing next to him, and his withers are over my head even in a helmet. Been a LONG time since I’ve ridden a horse that tall! He had to be around 16.3 ish – maybe taller (I’m also not good with estimating horse height lol).
Again, the stupid crazy thing? For how big he was, all of my tack fit him. And it was on higher holes than Amber and she’s only at best 15.1. WTF how in the world….. You know what? I should really stop being so surprised by how wide she is. Girlfriend is STOUT.
Once I hopped on we had about a half hour left of our ride, so most of that was spent me getting to know him as well as Trainer M and I getting to know each other. I started out spur-less, and thank god that within about 5-10 minutes she was letting me put some on. My poor noodle legs couldn’t get him really going without them and his trot felt like he was going to launch me out of the saddle. I certainly felt like a flailing mess haha. We even tried a bit of sitting trot. Haha haha ha. HA. That was atrocious. Replacing me with a sack of potatoes would’ve worked better. But I was able to get him going okay, though even posting my elbows were flailing and my left hand had gone rogue again and my lower leg was sliding all over the place. Thank god I was wearing my full seat sticky breeches because I’m sure I would have come off otherwise lol.
To canter, I took Trainer G’s words to heart and attempted that with Georgio. He didn’t do it the first time, so I brought him to a walk and tried again – this time doing a bit of guesswork but trying to set him up anyway. It was behind the leg but we got it. Once we got cantering it felt like we were communicating a bit better. I felt very stable once cantering – his stride is huge, but very rocking, so I could better get my feel and position. I’m sure he felt the difference too since he was better after that, but what can you do haha. Trainer M considered ending the ride there, but I told her I could still do more. (I was actually dead but I wanted to jump a bit since I knew I could, trusted Georgio, and figured it would set a better starting point for my next lesson)
So Trainer M lowered a jump to a crossrail, and had me pop over it a few times. The first one I was a bit behind, which I’m actually okay with since I tend to throw myself forward, so uh….progress? lol These were easy enough for him to step over, and the second time I felt I was a bit too forward, but looking at the video it actually looks okay. The third felt good too albeit we landed on the wrong lead. I tried doing what I had with Sox, transitioning to get the correct lead before the turn but his trot had me so discombobulated that I just walked. I decided I’d save that for another day, when he and I had a few more rides and I wasn’t dying lol. For the fourth attempt, Trainer M had me canter the little crossrail, and that was our best one. He’d been drifting a bit left so just like Sox I tightened my left arm and tried to think of my left leg as solid, and we landed on the same lead as we took off. Georgio was certainly happy jumping had come into the equation, but I think by then we’d also gotten used to each other, so when I asked him to canter for that last jump I got a prompt transition and he was forward from the get-go. We hopped over it successfully, and were done.
Georgio was certainly a good boy, and definitely a different feel. While tall he wasn’t gangly – his neck was much longer than I’m used to tho – but he didn’t feel differently than most horses I rode because he wasn’t super long. He didn’t really feel too tall either while I was riding him which I suppose is good. He made the jumps look REALLY tiny haha. But he is certainly a nice horse. I just have to be a lot more disciplined next time riding him – a lot of beginners ride him so he wants to get away with things, and once my brain got working and was all “hey remember your outside leg and your outside hand to keep the shoulder from bulging instead of using your inside hand like your riding a 2 yr old that doesn’t steer? Yeah. You should do that”, we worked better. I just really need to be disciplined in getting back to the gym too. But I did notice that Georgio had a left drift and Sox had a left drift. Amber can have a left drift too. Hmm. Coincidence? Nah, it’s all the horses (heavy sarcasm lol). It’s all me, so how about I remember that next lesson and don’t flail my elbows and forget about my left leg lol.
I have another lesson scheduled the same time in 2 weeks, and in between that I’m planning on another lesson with Trainer G. Hopefully I’ll have 4 lessons a month, so I’m going to give that a try and see if I can keep it at that or if I have to go down to 3 a month. It was certainly nostalgic being there that’s for sure. It was similar to the barn in Virginia where I first started riding at 6 years old. Talk about flashback lol. My muscles certainly sore after all that kicking, but I’m determined to keep up with my PT exercises, the gym and lots of sore-no-more lol. Hopefully what I’ll be able to do at the gym will be enough to help me be relatively better at riding these horses haha!
FINALLY some good news
Yes you read that right! We’ve got some good news! Or at least better news, but I’m going to take it.
It’s been very hard for me to watch Amber being unhappy, and simply for her sanity as well as how much that RH seemed to really bother her, I was very prepared to hear not-so-good-news upon her appointment on Tuesday. But the new farrier came (early even!) to meet with the vet, and we walked Amber just a teensy bit to see how she was doing. The vet asked for a few trot steps, so when they did Amber went into a full on dolphin leap (thankfully no kicking back tho haha!) and shook her head like the wild thang she was before walking again 2 seconds later lol. She was extremely lame – pretty much three legged at the jog – but I wasn’t really expecting much else. It still wasn’t what we were hoping to see, but it seemed like the little fun leap was just enough to help her feel better. Her ears were forward and her eye was happier.
She got some happy juice to make sure she stood on the wood for the x-rays and we took one of her RH and LH. I certainly breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the x-ray for her RH to find that it looked just fine. I’d been seeing her foot change over the past few weeks, but I haven’t ever kept so close of an eye on growing bare feet before, so what I was seeing was just normal growth and a too-long toe. Thank god. Pretty simple for that foot – knock the toe back a bit, take of a teensy bit of foot, and good to go.
When the x-ray came in of her LH I couldn’t believe my eyes. SO MUCH BETTER. I just about deflated onto the ground lol. She’d grown a little more than a centimeter of sole, and while the rotation looked worse, it actually wasn’t. It was just how things were growing that made it look that way. So just a bit more shaving of the toe to help that angle. The new hoof growth is making the foot look a bit weird, but you can see that it’s starting to grow straighter – parallel to the coffin bone rotation. So, Doc tasked us with another check up about 4 months from now. He was encouraged by the amount of sole growth in the last 8 weeks, so it’s now a matter of letting the hoof grow out and seeing if perhaps the foot may be okay depending on new hoof growth and all of the variables around it. But, that 1.1 centimeters of growth also made sense as to why she was actually able to put so much weight on that foot despite it still being laminitic.
The only immediate worry that remains is her right stifle. She was dead lame on it, and I had considered that maybe a steroid injection would help. Doc answered before I could ask, but he didn’t want to do a steroid injection to help that inflammation since there was a small possibility that it may negatively affect the laminitic foot. Which I’m totally okay with. It’s still saddening to watch her be so uncomfortable with her leg, but I’m relieved that her foot is looking a bit promising. I’m going to be honest that while I think we’re out of the immediate woods, I’m not letting my hopes get up too high. She’s more comfortable now for sure, but that stifle is still a point of a lot of pain for her and we can’t do much about it right now. So I’m relieved, but I’ll be keeping my eyes open and watching to make sure it doesn’t get to be too much for her.
With some last instructions from the vet, the new farrier proceeded to work on her feet. He did her fronts first, and I was pointing out to him what I wanted done. Not sure if I’ve mentioned this yet but I’ve been thinking for the past few months (since about April) that Amber’s RF problems with that tendon and her tripping were due to improper shoeing of that foot. About 2 months ago I noticed her LF beginning to show the exact same signs, so I tried being proactive about it but I was brushed off. So yay for farrier woes (and of course me feeling terrible since the inflammation and tripping started November of last year and I didn’t notice it/put it all together). Right away the new farrier agreed with me on Amber’s front feet, and I love how her feet look!
He was super kind with Amber, letting her nuzzle him as she likes to do to poor farriers, and he’d pet her nose and her face and pat her. She was extremely relaxed with him, and I’m very glad! When my curiosity got the best of me and I just started asking all sorts of questions, he very happily answered every single one. And so many of the answers were things I’d never heard before or even thought of, and it was really cool. Like why he uses copper nails instead of the nails most other farriers use, or why he was putting the nail holes in different places, or the type of shoe he was going to use so that Amber would have an easier time breaking over where she needed to. He loved her feet tho, and said she had some of the best, hardest feet he’d ever done and that I could keep doing what I’m already doing for them – which is nothing haha. I was definitely super happy when he said Amber was one of the best-mannered horses he’d ever done. Phew! We may have to split her trim times – 8 wks per vet instructions for the hind feet and whenever her fronts are starting to look long or need a trim which is generally around 6 weeks, but I think it’ll work out.
Along with that, now that we’re on a slightly positive trajectory, I can step back and assess some things a little more objectively. Namely, I honestly can’t keep pouring money into Amber like the stifle injection. It makes me sad, but I know at this point that it just wouldn’t really make that much sense. It feels a bit like I’m giving up on her, but logically I know I’m not. I know she isn’t going to be a riding horse anymore, and while I want her as comfortable as she can be, she’s going to have as spoiled a retirement as I can give her for as long as she’s with me and I think that’s fair. I also honestly don’t think that stifle will ever stay good enough no matter what I do. There were just so many issues surrounding it at the time of surgery that I don’t think it got the best shot at healing 100% and it’s okay for a little but even the slightest bit puts it out of whack. So, it would be better to start pouring that money into other things, namely lessons and a future horse whenever that may be. She of course will still get the royal treatment – she would never accept anything less lol – but you know, no supplements or that sort of thing. Just the bare minimum, since let’s be honest she still looks like a tank and she’s not even remotely fit haha! A difficult keeper she is not lol.
I’m just….really relieved to finally hear something positive. I feel that ever since her surgery we haven’t had one positive vet visit, but things are a little better now. A good farrier, finally some good news, and a happier horse. I can’t ask for anything else at the moment.
Weekend Recap: Lesson #2!
I had TWO lessons in one month. Whaaaaaaat even is this haha. But there’s quite a few reasons why I am still really really thinking about my lesson, and why I can’t wait to get back to it (especially if I get to ride the same horse again). But I’ll go over those a little later, and focus on what I did during the lesson because I had an absolute blast. Also, I have practically no media of course since go figure I forgot my helmet cam lol.
So my last lesson, immediately after me was another lady who had her lesson, and in the crossties was this absolutely gorgeous horse that caught my eye immediately. Yes, she was my favorite color chestnut and had 4 socks and a cute stripe and a tail dragging on the floor, but what really made me look at her was the way she was chilling, absolutely bored with a leg cocked, and her super sweet eyes. I mean, granted she was a mare, and well, I AM a mare person, but for some reason just everything about her caught my eye. I told the lady how gorgeous she was, and looked so sweet. Inner child me desperately wanted to go and OMG PET THE PRETTY PONY but adulting me held back lol, and I left and talked my mom’s ear off on how much I adored her.
Trainer G told me to bring all my girths to the lesson since she might have me ride a different horse, so I loaded up my stuff. Low and behold, she was having me ride the chestnut mare – aptly named Sox. Cue a whole ton of inner happy squealing haha. Turns out Sox is Trainer G’s horse, for sale, and the lady was leasing her. Sox is probably 16 hands, maybe up to 16.2. I’m not a good judge of height. But I haven’t ridden a horse that tall since I was about 15 probably, but she immediately put me at ease and really didn’t feel too big when I hopped on her. Her temperament was just wonderful. She’s a Canadian Warmblood with Hanoverian on her sire’s side and German Warmblood on her dam’s side (at least I’m pretty sure it was German Warmblood – I was still cheering loudly on the inside as Trainer G was telling me this haha).
I actually didn’t realize that there was a small track on the farm – it looped around 2 pastures but was absolutely great for warm up. Most of our ride was spent out there unintentionally but I thought it was great. Sox warmed up a bit tight and lazy as Trainer G said she would (I would say slow tho because Sox is NOT lazy haha), and just gave me a heads up on Sox’s way of going and her tendency to giraffe with too much hand. Perfect since I prefer a lot more of a seat and leg ride anyway, So I just held on to the end of the laces as we walked around. And man, I LOVED her walk. So fluid and easy. As we went into the trot and I started to get used to her, I was pretty much in horsey heaven. Her trot was so lovely, and I was really able to focus on my position. My ankles have a tendency to over-flex, so Trainer G was instructing me to relax the ankles, sit up just a bit, round the shoulders back. Small things that I can’t see or feel, but it helped so much. I worked very hard on keeping my hands still per Sox’s preference, and she rewarded me by blowing out a few times and reaching into the contact. English contact is still new to me since I’m used to “western contact” if you will, so as she trusted me and pushed into the contact, I closed my fingers and firmed up my arms just enough to match her push. And it felt really really good.
(Also apologies for the suuuuuper pixilated video. Trainer G actually took these for me on her phone and of course quality doesn’t transfer lol But it was the only video I did get so here you go haha)
I completely biffed our first canter transition – I had a complete sudden mental blank of how to ask for the canter for English. Like, which leg is it that I ask with? haha. These are the things my brain decides to get stuck on lol. But to elaborate on my brain’s confusion – as I learned when riding western, the outside leg cues for the canter and the inside leg is only there to keep the shoulders from falling in. As Trainer G explained to me for Sox, the outside leg is there to keep the haunches from going out, and the inside leg is technically cueing for the canter. Granted, every person/trainer is different for sure, and really, the two ways to cue are pretty interchangeable I think, as Trainer G also mentioned (which like seriously is why I love Trainer G because pretty much down to these small details we’re both on the same page). So once we got that out of the way, I was able to think a little more clearly and also tell Sox more succinctly of no hip drift, inside leg to outside rein, left hand NOT being out of control and holding steady, and we were able to nail the canter transitions both directions every time.
As Sox opened through her back and pushed into the contact at the canter, she had a very honest spook. There’s a solid cement block wall at one curve of the track with an open gate there, and there were horses riding past. I didn’t see them, but Sox caught a glimpse and had a quick squirt forward. The ever-instinctual pull reflex took over, but after a quick moment my brain kicked in again and I just let the reins go, and she immediately put her head back into the contact and breathed. She was still too fast, but I gave her a second before we came back to the walk. Back in the trot she was very choppy and a bit giraffe-necked. I’m not versed really at all in half-halts, so I’m sure part of it was me, but Trainer G and I worked on that for a few minutes. Going past that curve after that she was very responsive and even at the canter, when I’d sit just a touch closer to her back and firm my arms just a little more than usual, Sox would half halt wonderfully, come back to me and relax back into the contact. Success! It also made me feel very good that Trainer G said Sox really liked my hands, since she pretty much never went full giraffe on me the entire lesson.
After that we moved to the outside arena full of jumps. We actually only ended up trotting one jump twice, but both times were really good. Sox has been jumping up to about 1.20 meters, but we only went over probably a 2′ flower box haha. But as we trotted to it the first time, her left shoulder spilled out a bit, so we landed on the left lead, but a simple lead change and we were good. I made a mental note of that for the next time, and since Sox had been responsive to my leg the whole ride, as we approached again I closed my left leg, made sure my left rein was firm and my fingers tight without being restrictive or moving all over the place and we popped over and landed on the right lead. Yay! Small victories right? haha. But we decided to keep it at that – we’d been riding a good 45 minutes and I was super pleased with the whole ride and 2 successful trot jumps considering I’ve had such issues with trot jumps in the past. Sox was such a great ride, and if you couldn’t tell, I was totally taken with her even more by the end of the ride. Had she been up for a lease I wouldn’t have cared what I said before, I would’ve signed my life away haha. I can’t wait to ride her again, and I sincerely hope I do get to hop on her some more.
Even a few days later, I’m STILL thinking of how awesome that lesson was, and we hardly even did much. But I’ve been realizing that it isn’t just the fact that Sox was a different horse and breed from my other 2 lesson horses and had been trained exclusively by Trainer G while the other 2 hadn’t. It was for the exact reasons that I wanted to lesson on as many horses as possible in the first place, so I can test ride all sorts of gaits and types of horses and what I like.
And just as I was sure it would be, attitude is 90% of everything. I do prefer mares, and I’ve ridden some wonderful geldings and stallions, but Sox really wanted to jump the jump. Trainer G told me this, but even still, I could actually feel it as well. Everything was “okay sure”, even if Sox had a bit of sass to add. On the flat Rocky was so looky and has probably been the most difficult horse for me to ride. I’m still sore from riding Sox, but not like Rocky. After riding Rocky, I was a bit down. It’d been so hard for me to do anything with him that I felt discouraged – like I couldn’t ride. And he knew I was out of breath and it certainly felt like he wanted to take advantage of that. I had thought it was just me – I’m not in shape, I’m a new ride for him, and I don’t know what kind of leg he needed for me to be successful. It’s what I wrote in my last lesson recap. But with Sox, every time I’d put my leg on she’d try. If I didn’t get enough I’d push a little harder, and boom she responded. It wasn’t easy mind you, and I am still out of shape. But Sox wanted to respond. It was all small things – when I’d talk to her and ear would flick back and she’d listen. When I’d try hard to meet her, she’d meet me. She was just such an honest, sweet mare.
It makes sense to me. Amber is that way and so is Whisper. All my favorite horses have been that way. It’s still just really nice to feel that on a very forward thinking horse, one I was riding for the first time, and a size/breed/feel of horse that I am absolutely not used to. And since I could tell Sox wanted to jump, and was responsive to my desire to correct the drift, I was able to focus on pushing my knuckles into her neck, keeping my body soft. She had one canter stride and jumped wonderfully, and I finally felt I could just lift myself out of the saddle only as much as I needed and I felt it’s the best jump I’ve ever had since starting to venture back into English. So, maybe I’m not as horrible at this as I was worrying haha. I’m just super over compensating and not confident the horse will carry me over the jump so I try to jump for them. It’s given me a lot to think about, and a lot of knowledge to carry forward no matter if I ride Rocky next or Sox again. However, it also reaffirms my decision to stick with lessoning for a while and really flesh out the type of horse I want to feel when I ride for the future.
While this ride, like my last one was mostly flat, I felt like I was able to get a lot more out of this lesson than the last time. Which the back and forth will always happen I know! haha But I’m looking forward to scheduling another lesson with Trainer G soon!
The best things come from unlikely places
Lately, it feels that everything has just been….difficult. Piling on. Now that I’m not riding consistently, I’m REALLY trying to get any doctor visits I need out of the way so I can keep staying healthy and fix as well as I can any previous injuries that need it while I’m still young enough. And it sucks because I usually get the “come back when you’re more broken/can’t walk/move” or “this requires this first that you must schedule but there’s no openings for 2 weeks and then don’t bother making a follow-up appointment with us early because no one bothered to tell you that this requires 3 appointments” and basically me trying to get things moving but you know, it takes months to actually get something done so that’s doubly frustrating. So with all this that I’m trying to do, possibly considering more school next year, and worry for Amber and just adulting in general, I needed a bit of a lift-up. And it came in the most unlikely way.
When my parents bought this property, it was discovered that around the same time that someone bought the lot behind ours. Over the past year we’ve gotten to be good friends with them, especially when they came out (their house isn’t built yet) and the son and daughter absolutely fell in love with the horses. The son in particular absolutely adored Amber, and the horses could tell that the kids were head over heels for them. My mom had ended up telling them about Amber’s diagnosis and that she may not be with us for as long as we had thought before we’d found the laminitis. And while we are not the best of friends with them, their kindness, generosity and thoughtfulness was so welcome and appreciated and really lifted my spirits.
Not only did they stop by a store to grab a GINORMOUS bag of carrots and apples, but they did this after the daughter had been in the hospital on Tuesday (I won’t go into detail on account I’d like to keep that private for them, but she healed very quickly and was running around just fine). Apparently, not a day went by that the kids didn’t talk about our horses, so they came by on Saturday armed with their treats, and proceeded to dote on Amber to the fullest. She was in absolute heaven. She had 2 and 1/2 apples and goodness knows how many carrots haha. But we stood there talking the son and I, petting and scratching Amber. He’s only 9, but that kid is so smart. He pet her and pet her, laughed and had a blast. And as we stood there, he said, “I don’t want her to go. I wish she would last forever.”
And I choked up, just managed to keep it together, and said, “You and me both buddy. You and me both.” Kids understand way more than we give them credit for, and since his dad had already told them that Amber’s time was limited, I wasn’t going to treat him like he didn’t know and didn’t understand. Because this kid really really understood.
I’ve been worried about Amber, a lot more than I’ve let on. Her RH hasn’t shown any signs of improvement and she’s resting it more than looks good. I’m also starting to worry about how the underside of that RH hoof looks. I’ve wrapped her hind legs to hopefully give her some extra support, but I’m not sure it’s helping. She’s hurting, uncomfortable, and it’s seriously the hardest and most painful thing in the world to see this little mare so unhappy. But as he and I shoved carrots her way, and I showed him how to get her to follow him and he proceeded to have a blast with that for the next 10 minutes, Amber looked happier than she had in a while. It isn’t like I haven’t been hanging out with her or loving on her, but perhaps I have been loving on her with a bit of a cloud over us, and this was experiencing the pure happiness of kids who just adore horses. But she followed him around like a little puppy, and it was absolutely the cutest thing to see.
The family also knew someone who painted portraits, and told me to grab on of my favorite pictures of me and Amber and he would gift it to me so I had something of her. His son also gave me a little model horse, one that his dad had bought for him on one of his trips but the son thought it looked just like Amber so even though it was his only model horse, he wanted me to have it. This little boy is just so sweet and has such a big big, kind heart, as does his whole family. The daughter drew a picture for me and grabbed me a few flowers and hell I’m keeping these things forever. The kindness of this family for us and me and Amber was just so uplifting, so precious. I don’t ever want to forget it. The feels, you guys.
I don’t care what people say – kindness and thoughtfulness are everything.
So, since we still have that giant bag of carrots that hardly had a dent in it even from 2 horses, I have brought carrots out every night with me when I go to feed. I hop in Amber’s stall and love on her and stuff her with carrots – since she’s hungry, hugs and kisses are not on her priority list haha. But stuff her with carrots and she’s been looking like she’s feeling at least a little better. So I’ve continued to stuff her face. Whisper of course gets carrots as well – that’d be totally unfair lol – and has really been coming leaps and bounds in the “trusting us to help her out when she’s scared in her stall” department. Plus, I think she knows. She’s one of the most sensitive horses I know, and I think she knows Amber doesn’t feel well. And I think she knows I’ve been sad as well, because for the past few weeks she’s been gently moving her head towards me to love on her face, something she usually doesn’t do. She lets me smooch her nose and hold her head like she’s offering support. Such a sweet mare.
So while I feel like I’m muddling through a lot and continuously hitting roadblocks with appointments and such (which most will hopefully be resolved within 2 weeks), our future neighbor’s kindness was just the lift that I needed.
Blog Hop: The horse you bought
This blog hop originated from Cathryn at Two and a Half Horses. It’s been a lot of fun seeing flashbacks of people’s horses where they first started and where they are now. Before and after stories are some of favorites. I’m a little late to the party, but it’s never too late to hop on the train!
Amber was actually a really good looking 2yr old by the time I bought her:
But when I first saw her, and was assigned to her as my young horse to train from the ground up she looked like this:
Definitely the awkward long yearling. But it certainly wasn’t love at first sight. She didn’t want anything to do with me, and I in turn was very frustrated by her not wanting to work with me so I didn’t want anything to do with her either lol. Considering neither one of us knew what we were doing, there was a pretty big learning curve for the both of us. But she was a really sensible baby, and pretty chill with a lot of things I threw at her.
A year later and she was mine, and she decided after 2 months of ownership that the grass was greener on the other side of the fence and got out at night. After suffering what vets thought was a career-ending injury, and even after discovering over a dozen bone chips in the back of her knee and subsequent surgery to remove as many as were possible, she came back amazingly sound. And we’ve been on tons of adventures ever since. She’s been a constant in my life when a lot of other things were unknown, and she’s one of the most forgiving horses I’ve ever known. She’s such a sweetheart, and would rather spend hours and hours with people than other horses. She’s certainly fond of attention!
Now, 6 years after ownership I have been able to ride reining, western pleasure, ranch riding, western dressage, trail, horsemanship, dressage, hunter under saddle and start getting into jumping again with her. I’ve been able to do more with her than any other horse. I didn’t know it at first, but this little mare that can do just about a little bit of everything was exactly what I needed. She’s been the best first horse, and even though she’s been recently forced into retirement, we’re still enjoying spending lots of time together.
For Whisper, she came into our lives in 2006 at 4 years old. My mom and I had no idea how to ride such a well-trained pleasure horse (thank god we’re a bit better now – sorry Whisper!) but she was just the horse my mom needed after her previous horse bolted a lot. Whisper was the epitome of “whoa” and would stop pretty much dead in her tracks. She was instrumental in helping me develop my love for training horses, and for my mom to conquer her fears. I showed Whisper for a while in high school, and we learned so much together.
Now Whisper is looking better than ever, and at 16 years old, she’s living a pretty cushy life with us on our property. After a lot of trial and error with various trainers we’ve finally been able to get Whisper reacquainted with her previous training, and she’s looking really fit and fabulous. I still have all of my ribbons, plaques and saddle bags and portable tables and everything else that Whisper helped me win. Her sweet nature and giving soul have caused all who meet her to fall in love with her (seriously tho lol she has just about one of the kindest eyes I’ve ever seen on a horse) and she even started a buying spree at one of our old barns when we got her. After meeting her, no less than 3 other people bought new horses haha.
Both horses are a huge part of our lives. We’ve been lucky to have 2 chestnut mares who are pretty much perfect in every way as far as mares go. Both are so sweet and loving and willing and I’ve been very lucky to have two such wonderful horses.
Lesson Recap
Saturday was my first lesson in a long time!
Good news: I didn’t fall off!
Bad news: I somehow managed to minorly sprain my left ankle while in two point.
Yeah I don’t know how. One second I was in two point and went to canter a circle, and the next it felt like my ankle rolled in the stirrup. It was pretty weird. It was sore for the rest of the day, along with some blisters on my heels so that was a very interesting day lol. Thankfully, it’s feeling okay now after a lot of icing. So not a bad sprain just super weird. Anyone else have this happen to them?
Trainer G moved to a new place, a lovely barn that is full of gorgeous Morgan horses. Among those lovely Morgans is the only QH – Rocky, the horse that I rode. He’s shorter than Amber, and narrower (then again most horses are narrower LOL) but he still had quite a bit of get up and go. He used to be a reiner too, which I found nicely familiar. He’d slow down if I sat too far back or too far forward, and had very abrupt downward transitions. Just like Amber and all other reiners I’ve ridden lol.
It actually worked out really well that I haven’t ridden in a while because Trainer G has been starting to teach Rocky how to jump. We worked a lot on flatwork, and oh man my legs were dying from being so out of shape haha. Rocky doesn’t need spurs because he does have a good amount of go, but he still needs quite a bit more leg than I’m used to. I managed to feel it just once, but I still haven’t figured out how exactly to get the amount of leg and in what position it needs to be for the horses that Trainer G has ridden. Rocky isn’t spooky, he’s just very looky and gets distracted easily. He’s a bit older and creaky, but a good boy and he does like to jump. Once I got more comfortable I was able to get his attention a little better. We worked on 20 meter circles and controlling the shoulder while still getting him to bend around my inside legs. It was tough and not very successful with me being out of shape, but thankfully Trainer G was super encouraging and I was able to get our circles at least moderately even haha.
We started off with some poles and small crossrails, and only jumped a little bit. We’d only managed to go over the crossrail twice before my ill-timed sprain, and only got one more shot at it. It was actually the only time I managed to get my Cambox recording correctly unfortunately, so I only have one good video. Still, Rocky was fun to jump. He’s still figuring it out for sure, but while he’s unsure, he’s certainly a different ride than Liam.
So, it wasn’t a groundbreaking lesson, although everything along with my 4th and pinky fingers is sore! I’m certainly planning to try fitting in working out more with my schedule, but it’ll take some time. Either way, I’m hoping I can schedule another lesson soon!
Blog Hop: Millionaire Me
Even though Olivia probably never meant for this to be a blog hop, this is too good not to. I’m also going to go with the premise that even though it says “millionaire” that I have an unlimited amount of funds. Because this is fantasy land so why not?!
First, I’d buy a wonderful horse property. I haven’t looked overmuch for a horse property so unfortunately I have no dream farm link, but I know it would be much closer to the east coast. A bit inland, but NC or SC since it’s further south and I happen to have a lot of family in that area so that’d be cool. I’d want it to be a bit out in the country, already have barns, arenas, a bit of cross country courses built and over 100 acres with a few fenced pastures. Perfect for eventing.
Amber’s life wouldn’t change too much but with this, I would get Amber a buddy – an aged gelding in need of a good retirement home. Amber gets along well with older geldings, so she could live out in a pasture with him and they’d have a blast out there. With a grazing muzzle and only Bermuda grass because girl is special haha. There would also be a few other pastures to rotate other horses.
I’d grab myself a Prelim packer to begin showing me the ropes of eventing. I may go for a 1* or 2* packer, but hey, if money is no option then I can always get one later, right?! haha I’d also like to buy around 4-5 ammy friendly 1*, 2* or below horses to keep as “extras”. Why? Well, because what I would ultimately LOVE is to have adult summer camps from spring to fall. Yup! For 1-2 weeks Adult Ammies would bring their horses (if they had one) to my place for an adult summer camp. If they didn’t have horses, that’s where my 4-5 packers would come in handy. It’d be a week or two of wine and other drinks, camping, and hanging out for fun days with horses. However, since money isn’t an issue here, there’d also be clinics during that time – dressage, SJ and XC specific clinics with 4* riders as well as pure SJ and Dressage trainers. It’d be lots of things packed into only a few days, but I personally think would be awesome.
I’d make sure it was AA friendly in terms of price too, so that probably would make me absolutely no money and really drain me dry, but we’re talking a zillion dollars in fantasy land so I can dream haha. In the off time of summer camps I’d probably let a few trainers/people winter down there. The packers would probably have leases or something, who knows haha. But of course I’d have custom tack for all of my animals, and perhaps some fanceh stuff for me. Probably just custom boots really since I’m pretty okay with everything else. Okay maybe some custom pants since most pants don’t fit me. Okay, fine. I’ll have fanceh schmancy stuff too! lol
I would of course go to as many shows as I could, even though I get a little burned out with a lot of showing, but then I’d try to volunteer as much as I could as well since I’ll have a zillion dollars and won’t need to work. That’s about it for me because after that I’d be waaaaay past a zillion dollars in just a year LOL.
What about you? What would you do with a zillion, unlimited dollars?
So…how has she been?
Amber seems to be doing okay. I think she’s finally settling a bit. It could be a number of things, but she’s seemed more content these days than before. Perhaps she’s realizing that it’s “the life” to just eat all day and get loved on and get tons of scratches? Probably lol. Her big nickers for scratches have increased in volume and intensity lol, and she’s gotten very smart about it. She gives me 2-3 minutes to finish scooping poop before she leaves her alfalfa to beg for scratches. Silly girl haha. We’ve gotten into a bit of a routine now, though it’s a small routine and we’ve changed a few things for her.
First off, I’ve switched her from bute to Equioxx. I think she’s doing better on that – she just looks a little happier in general, so I’m going to say that it’s helping her feel better and isn’t as harsh on her stomach even though I’m totally not 100% sure lol. The sore on her left side has been slowly but steadily healing, so that tells me that she isn’t laying down as much and the soft rides are really helping her be more comfortable standing.
Diet. Ahh, poor girl lolol. She is NOT a fan of her new diet and the fact that her human bought a fish scale to precisely measure her hay has her pretty upset. Okay, so some days she get a half pound extra haha. But most days her diet is strict. It’s almost easy actually, because she’s a lot more comfortable if I put her hay in a net so it makes for a perfect opportunity to weigh it. She’s on 18 lbs now to start so she can get used to it before I take her down to the vet’s desired amount of 16lbs. She does not like this haha. She gets quite hangry and I don’t blame her. I usually try to at least eat less and get fitter and then what happens? It’s international doughnut day, or my friend buys pizza and wine and coconut dream cookies for an impromptu tv show binge night, or I get offered tacos and say yes because of course I want tacos. So, I feel Amber for wanting more food and not being able to eat any lol.
I have trimmed her mane shorter, and leave her tail out of its bag. I brush both every other day, and she loves the attention. I took about 2 inches off of her mane to not only even it up but she gets so hot in this weather that I’m still debating whether or not to really trim it short. I can’t bring myself to do that yet, since I just love her longer mane, so that gets brushed whenever her tail does. They get washed every week, and she’s been less itchy with that. And every weekend, she gets a break from her annoying socks and boots. She’s gotten pretty good at leaving that left hind foot where I place it so the towel can help it dry before it goes back into the boot. She tries to tell me otherwise but I think she secretly LOVES it when I bathe her and pamper her haha. And she deserves it too!
Once I’ve used them up I’m going to take her off of her supplements. She really doesn’t need them anymore, but she still gets ulcerguard pellets – the only thing I’ll probably keep her on. She’ll probably still get a few of her other things – flax and salt, but the other stuff is just money that I don’t need to spend anymore. I’ve been thinking of switching grain too, just to something perhaps more formulated to a laminitic horse. She really doesn’t need the ultium competition grain anymore even though both she and I love it haha.
Otherwise, it’s been quiet around here. We’re just plodding along day by day, waiting for Amber’s next appointment at the end of September. Since Amber will be due for a trim at the time of the appointment, I’ve got the vet and farrier scheduled so that they can chat about where to go from there and have a plan for her feet. Good to knock out 2 birds with one stone.
I’m super excited for my lesson Saturday; I’m just really hoping I’m not absolutely horrid since I honestly haven’t ridden in like…4-5 weeks or longer and am so out of shape lol. It feels shorter since time has really flown by recently, but I’m hoping I’ll have a little more opportunity to lesson in the following months. Also, I’m super excited because I FINALLY get to try my Cambox helmet camera for a lesson! Let’s just hope it doesn’t record me falling off haha!
So many thoughts
I’m certainly one of those people that if presented with a problem that requires waiting (not patience because I have none lol), I have to have a gazillion different plans of action should the problem begin to resolve itself in a certain way. Then, I proceed to go back and forth between all gazillion options, and I change my mind every day – sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. I know it’s hard for the people around me to keep up with me sometimes when I do things like that – hell it’s hard for me to keep up with me haha. For Amber, should her stifle have gone wrong, I came up with so many things I could do should it not work out. As it turns out, her stifle ended up not being the problem. Looking at things a little more closely, it looks like her stifle healed phenomenally – it’s just the laminitis that got to her. So now, I’m back to all of my previous options and oscillating back and forth. This is mostly just for me since it’s a good way to sort through my thoughts and actually get them down on paper. Or virtual paper as it will. It will also keep me a little steadier in the months to come I think – even if I want to change my mind it’ll help me stay settled on my ultimate decision.
First off, I’ll take you through the (most plausible) options I had settled on:
I could breed Amber. This of course, is a definite “no” now. There’s much to think about with this one, not only because Amber is laminitic – although now of course that’s a huge part of it. Because I’m breeding this horse, I also completely understand that I may not be able to keep it forever and always because sometimes life happens. So I have to make sure the horse is also marketable should I have to sell it. Vet bills for pregnancies are no joke either, plus knowing Amber and her injury-prone self, she’ll find some way to cause me grief her whole pregnancy. Pretty sure I can’t handle 11 months of that LOL. Knowing her she’ll also pass on her injury-prone-ness to her foal LOL. There’s also just a LOT of potential for things to go wrong just in pregnancy and birth. Plus, I’m not delusional enough to think I’ll “get another Amber” should I breed her. There of course will never be another Amber, and truthfully, I don’t want another one. She is one of a kind. It may be vain, but I do also worry about people talking about the foal as being “backyard bred” even if I did breed Amber to a nice TB since appendix QHs are marketable. As for care, there are really no good areas for me to put Amber, and should she even be able to have a foal, I would want her in a big pasture with other foaling mares so the foal can grow up and be social. I think that’s an integral part of a foal’s growth and I want to give it as best a start in life as I can. A foal is a lot of responsibility, one I don’t take lightly, so there’s much about this option that isn’t feasible for me at the present. But, the laminitis really shuts this decision down, though to be honest I really don’t think I would have ever gone this route no matter what happened.
So. What next? Well, I could lease a horse. This one is still in the air. It’s certainly an option and I’m still tossing it around in my head. I’m still a bit hesitant on this one tho, mostly because I won’t own the horse. Based on my past experiences this hasn’t always been the best thing, but there are just as many (and many more!) good leases too, so it all depends on what I find or happens down the road. Of course knowing my luck I’ll end up with a lease and the lease horse will teach me a whole bunch and we’ll be absolutely great together lol. At the moment though, I’m just probably still hesitant to go this route because I’m sad that Amber and I can no longer go on adventures, and I’m mourning the loss of our riding connection. It’s really hard to be open to something else – especially when it’s not mine – when Amber and I have such a good relationship. This for sure isn’t an option I’m discarding for those reasons, but because I need to sort a lot out with Amber, but I just don’t know if it is completely feasible for me to lease at the moment.
Which leads to I could buy a horse. This is the one that’s the 2nd most solid of my options. I know eventually, even if I lease, I will want another horse. I actually preferably would like to find one before I have to let Amber go. Whisper really helped my mom with her grief when she had to put down her previous horse, and I’m thinking I’ll be the same way. Plus needing to care for the horse will get me out to the barn even if I don’t want to, because time spent with horses is the best time. I won’t lie but I am really dreading the whole “let’s find a horse” process since my mom did most of the looking before we bought Whisper and Amber just kinda fell into my lap haha. So I’m….very very green at this lol. I’m not in a rush to buy a horse though because it’s also not quite feasible for me to purchase a horse right now. It’s even harder because there really aren’t any eventing prospect horses around the Vegas area. I considered buying another horse from the same program Amber came from (you know, school support and all that plus I know what care/training they get and know the types of horses), but I’ve since realized that if I’m buying a horse that I want to event on, I have to be able to ride them to try them (you can’t at LOR). I also have to know they like jumping and they enjoyed even the smallest of cross country schools. It’d be a project horse, not requiring a lot of jumping experience since I’m confident in myself and especially the pros around me to help me muddle through haha. Plus, after all the hard work I’ve done with Amber and bringing her up myself, I know that teaching a horse myself really helps to build a connection and relationship with the animal, and I really want another partnership.
My last option, which is the option I have decided right now to do, is to catch ride and lesson on as many different horses as I can. With Amber, I knew her inside and out, and I didn’t have any fears jumping her or taking her cross country or doing whatever it was with her. But now that a new horse is in my future, I need to start developing a feel for what type of ride I’d like. I’ve been excited about jumping and I’ve been excited about dressage – now I need to see if I can get out there on cross country and see if I’m excited about that (I really don’t doubt I will be, but I’m nothing if not a pretty practical person haha). I need to see if I really, truly want to event. Amber was easy – we’d done so many things in the past that if we evented for a bit and it wasn’t hers or my thing, then we’d pop over to something else. But I may be looking for a horse specifically for eventing, so I have to make sure that this is a discipline I really want to do. Again, pretty sure I do, because even though I have yet to do some of the things, I am still as hungrily following it now as I was when I first discovered it in 2016. But who the hell knows I may be frozen come cross country haha! But by riding so many different horses, I can hopefully start feeling what kind of ride I’d like and what type of horse and how their gaits feel. I cannot ride bouncy horses AT ALL, so I’d like to know the bounce limit I can ride. Jumping and cross country is the best and, well, most important part about eventing, so I need to make sure what personality and traits and aspects about a horse I like that I’d be confident to go cross country.
Lesson pony Liam actually helped me with this. Since I was a very timid rider growing up, I always thought I wanted a “push” horse instead of a “whoa” horse, but he made me really miss Amber when I’d ride him. He only stopped on me once, and even then he still crawled over the fence, but he never quite gave me the feeling of taking me to the jumps. Despite Amber’s and my greenness and the fact that I didn’t start her right, she felt like she was taking me to the crossrails. Perhaps it wasn’t exactly how it’s supposed to feel, but it was enough of a difference that I noticed. Because when I’d tell her to go, she’d always ask me “how fast?” and stay there until I told her otherwise. Liam would go for a few strides, then slow back down. I’ve just started to realize that riding reiners has made me much less of a “push” horse person, and more of “whoa” person. So now to figure out how much go for the horse haha. While they’ve all been QHs, I’ve worked with a fair number of “go” horses (every single Gunnatrashya offspring has their bolting phase), but all of these traits may mean I end up with a TB. Which, TBs are WAY different from QHs, sooooo it’s a toss-up haha. But I don’t know! It’s a lot of information, but I’m happy with trying to figure out all the angles. It also helps that many horse sale ads I’ve found have been in WA, and I have a great eventer friend who knows TBs (and just horses in general) inside and out and is willing to help me out should I head on up there to look. So I want to lesson on TBs and more athletic QHs (meaning less fat LOL) and maybe even a warmblood because why the hell not?! Let’s do it! I do admit that I sorta miss having 6-8 horses to ride a day. They were all so different in their own right, but all such nice horses and I learned SO MUCH from all of them. That is one of the reasons I do want to catch ride. I learn best when challenged with a few things at once, and riding different horses I feel will really help me out. Who knows? I may even be lessoning for a year or two before I find my next partner, and I feel right now that I’m not in a rush for that like I usually would be (this may change tomorrow. I may want to just get it over with NOW haha!)
Coincidentally, I was able to (finally!!) schedule another lesson with Trainer G. I feel bad – I went dark for so long she lost my number LOL! She’s coincidentally at a new place with a new lesson horse – QH Rocky – and I know nothing about him but I’m excited for another lesson. She’s still close to an old cross country field I believe, so I’m going to try getting in my very first cross country outing with her with Rocky here in the future. There’s also a dressage trainer I really like who I will hopefully start lessoning with soon (just gotta make sure timing and everything works out) and there’s an h/j barn really close to me – like 15 minutes away. They have some lesson horses too, and since I am hoping to ride a variety of horses, I’ve been looking into lessoning with them as well. Plus, this will give me more jumping/dressage experience that I can carry forward to my next ride – be it a lease horse or I buy one.
As sad as I am that the chapter of Amber and I riding and competing together has ended, I’m pretty excited for this next chapter. Even though I can’t ride her anymore, I am so relieved that I FINALLY know what’s wrong with Amber and why she’s been upset. I can now move forward with a treatment plan for her to keep her comfortable, and start forming a plan for me to move forward as well. I feel as if I’ve been a bit stuck in a stasis, as I was from fall of 2015 to 2016, and the waiting has certainly taken it’s toll on me. But I am excited to get back into it.
Yay vet visit (not)
Not that the vet visit was bad mind you. Just that we’re seeing the vet A LOT lol.
Doc was headed out to take a look at Whisper, and did a 2 week check up on Amber as well. I had grabbed a few things for Amber before the visit – mostly a weight measure and some Equioxx. With her being laminitic, she can’t have too much alfalfa, but I don’t know exactly how much food a day we give her, and I wanted to weigh it, tell the doc, and form a plan. So, we’re good on the amount of alfalfa she’s getting ( ~3.5 lbs 2x a day), but overall she was getting too much especially with her being out of work. So, our aim is to cut back to 16 lbs ideally, so I’ll be cutting her back slowly. Now that her metabolism has slowed and she’s finally lost all the muscle she tenaciously hung on to, she’s not voraciously eating everything in sight. She’s leaving some, which is a good sign to us. So, I’ll be cutting down her food, but everything else I’m feeding her is okay.
Even though she’s in soft rides, I’m liking how the barefoot is helping her hind feet. Her sole is getting harder, and the spot is less spongy, which I take as a good thing. He wants to see her in 8 weeks tho – I’m thinking to see if her sole has thickened a bit more or how it’s growing in those 8 weeks. I questioned him about her being barefoot in the front, but he didn’t seem to think that was a good idea. Which I’m completely fine with, I was just putting it out there for curiosity’s sake. I’m just asking tons of questions since this is all new to me, but my vet has been taking this all in stride and has been more than willing to tell me the whys and his reasons for suggesting/doing certain things. So she stays in front shoes and we have some more waiting before figuring out her hind feet. The good news is that there’s no more bad news right now, soooooo….??? Ha I’ll take it.
Unfortunately our little ride we did was a big no-no. Poor Amber can’t get out of her stall at all (I mean, aside from going to the crossties for baths or grooming) in the next 8 weeks. Poor thing is going to go crazy. I could feel how happy she was even for the 5 minutes we walked. Her ears were pricked, and she was back to her “let’s go do stuff ma!” attitude. She keeps nosing her gate, wanting to be out and pestering me when I don’t get her out. She doesn’t understand why we can’t go out, especially since she’s now feeling better with the soft rides. That’s certainly been difficult.
It does feel a bit like “injury central” here tho haha. Whisper is doing very well since her hock injections but now has soreness in her LF so we have a couple things going on that’ll help weed out whether it’s not enough support for shoeing or something else in her leg. We’re hoping that she’ll be back in contention to start the next 3-show series come September, but it’s getting a bit close. So if she can’t show then we’ll probably still trailer her there just to get her off property, see the sights and promptly go home. Choco too has been pretty limpy lately. Her left shoulder is bothering her (what is it with our animals and their left sides at the moment? lol), so we have her on some anti-inflammatories which have seemed to help a lot. We’re also looking into canine adequan. Our biggest worry is that she’s still so full of life even at 14 that if we don’t help her feel better as best we can she may not really recover from it. We’d like to keep her as happy and active as we possibly can for as long as we can. Since Amber AND Whisper have been a bit out of commission, I really haven’t ridden at all (and yes I’m dying haha). But I’ve supplemented that with finally starting PT, this time with a doctor and physical therapist that actually care about my health concerns and are really trying to help me with preventative measures instead of “come back when you’re more broken and can’t walk”. Thanks. Real helpful guys. Right now I’m working on my right leg where I got kicked, and it’s pretty hard, but I’m keeping up with it. It needs to get stronger and function as best as it can, and I want to break up that scar tissue. Hopefully soon, I’ll get back to lessons. I also just….really need to work out since I have no fitness left at all since I haven’t ridden in a while lol. I have been pretty much a lump, so there’s that haha.
I do want to start up lessons again soon, dressage and jumping if it all works out, so hopefully I can get my butt in gear and work out some more!
X-Rays of Amber’s foot
I didn’t realize my mom had actually gotten pictures of the x-rays, so I am able to share them with you guys. Just so everyone can see, last week I posted this video of her on Insta, which was taken on July 25, only 1 week prior to her vet visit.
You can certainly see some shortness in her RH, but there’s practically nothing to see in her LH, which is why we were all pretty shocked to see that this was what her foot actually looked like.
That is…..not minor. I am pretty sure most horses would be 3-legged at this point. Thankfully, her right hind foot (and front feet) all looked good.
Bute hasn’t seemed to help as much anymore, and I worry about her since she’s been on it for a while. She’s on an ulcerguard at the same time, but bute long term isn’t the best which is why I want to switch her to Equioxx. She hasn’t been pigging out as much as she usually has either, so my mom and I were worried for a bit. It seems like all the food on the ground was just pretty painful for her, even with the boots and how much she loves to eat. Putting her hay in a net and getting it up off the floor has helped – she’s back to eating her usual amount.
She is certainly not the biggest fan of her boots lol. Every now and then she kind of kicks out hoping to get them off but they’re staying on. I was able to grab some old socks to prevent rubbing, but the boots have certainly helped her feel better. The few times she got excited about something over the weekend and trotted I could see a sliver of how well her stifle has actually been healing. She DID love her shavings and laid down immediately. Then proceeded to try to scratch the boot off.
So I figured I’d help her out. And she loved it. Such an itchy girl haha.
A new diagnosis
It has been a whirlwind week. Over the last week or two, Whisper has been odd. I was REALLY having to remind her to get back on her hindquarters, she was a lot more unwilling to work, and she’d start biting at the air whenever my mom would saddle her or I would put my spurs on her – even if they were the small little English nubby spurs I use on Amber. This was absolutely not like her. At first I thought perhaps she’d lost fitness or was giving us a few of her very rare “no” moments. But after a bit of a tough ride, and still a not-too-productive next ride, she still wasn’t better after a week and I rode her again. That ride, to the right she felt a bit wiggly, and it felt harder than usual. To the left though, if felt as if she’d lost all of her rhythm and cadence and that’s her good side. That piqued my interest, and I started a deep tissue massage on her a few nights later after I’d gotten to thinking. I really worked over her SI and Psoas around 3 nights in a row, and she was certainly improved by the weekend. No biting the air when I’d use spurs or when she’d be saddled. She still was just NQR though, so my mom made a Monday appointment for the vet to look at her. Since the vet was coming out, we figured he could check Amber over as well since it was time for her 1 month post-first-vet-visit visit.
He did a flex test on Whisper, and noted that she flexed a bit positively on her hocks. While her SI could certainly be the culprit, Whisper IS 16. We don’t believe she had any injections when she was younger before we got her when she was 4, and she’s been in consistent 4-6 day works (although those may not have been extremely HARD rides haha) for a good 12 years. Over the past 2-3 years, we’ve really worked on rocking her back and utilizing her hind end. This year alone we’ve upped her fitness since the Feb show, and have had increasingly intense – though short – rides so we can prepare for the Sept-Nov show series. I’m honestly not too surprised that it was probably time for a hock injection. Since she’s a sensitive horse, I think the injections will last her a long while – hopefully longer than a year, but I’m not too worried. Compared to Amber at the moment, Whisper is EASY-PEASY.
After Whisper’s flex test I grabbed Amber for him, and his immediate answer was “I still really don’t like this.” Well, damn. I thought she’d been doing pretty well actually. Over the month I’d actually taken down her walk time to 15 minutes, but increased to a bit of trotting for 10 seconds 2-3 times in one ride. The second walk of the day would be outside on pavement for 20 minutes. She did pretty well with this – ahhh or so I thought. So far, it seems the stifle is actually fine and all well and good pretty much, but he’s puzzled about why she doesn’t want to bring that RH forward. She walks really well on the street and stumbles a lot more in the arena with that RH. So we decided to inject her stifle with a steroid to help in case there was some build up of arthritis or tenacious inflammation that’s hindering her from wanting to bring that leg forward.
His words were “You’re (Amber) going to drag this out all the way to the end, aren’t you?” and “You’re lucky your mom loves you so much.” Truer words have never been spoken. If that doesn’t describe the both of us to a T I don’t know what does haha.
After walking her Tuesday she looked more comfortable. The steroid helped with the inflammation I think, and she was actually quite willing to bring the leg forward and only had a few bobbles in the arena. I was ready to just go ahead and start the IRAP process if that’d help her feel a lot better. However, the farrier came out Wednesday, and after he pulled her shoes told me to come look at her LH asap.
Amber has a new diagnosis – she has laminitis in her left hind foot. And pretty progressive laminitis at that.
Looking at that foot on Wednesday, and after hearing the farrier say that it looked a lot like a laminitic foot, I knew they were right. I knew it wasn’t anything good. So I scrambled my schedule around and got her in to the clinic on Thursday. I wish I had the x-rays to show you guys (they will hopefully be emailed to me and I’ll post them) but I don’t think she really has more than 5 or so millimeters of sole between the coffin bone and outer sole. At first, after just watching her walk the vet wasn’t convinced. He seemed quite surprised and shocked after seeing the x-rays. (After finding that, all 4 feet were radiographed to make sure they were okay and to get a baseline) I don’t blame him. We both discussed how she doesn’t walk AT ALL like a laminitic horse and unfortunately, her symptoms were believed to be and clouded by the recent surgery to the RH stifle. Because honestly out of most of the symptoms, she really only noticeably did the “reluctant to walk forward” one, and we both just figured it was due to the stifle.
But she wasn’t bringing the RH forward because that would cause her to put weight on her LH toe, and that hurt. For it to be so progressed though means that it’s been building for a while – not just post-surgery. I’m thinking it’s back to when she really injured it – during the show in November. Over the past 8-9 months she’s just been consistently weight bearing on that LH. Either way, as all of you know, this isn’t a good development at all.
So Amber has been taken off of everything – no stretches, no walks, no riding. Just stall rest. She is now wearing some soft ride boots, and by evening, it actually looked like she felt better. She was walking quite a lot more than she has for a while, so I think she’s more comfortable. I sure hope so. I suppose it’s pretty obvious to say that Amber is officially retired. Nothing more for her. The only silver lining I can find at the moment is that it’s a hind foot and not a front foot. Ironically, both the vet and I mentioned how it looks a bit like Barbaro. I only hope it doesn’t develop in any other foot and that we caught it at an okay time.
I’m still going to be following everyone and commenting, but unless there’s an update I’ll probably not blog more than once a week. I still want to get my reviews out and am planning to go back to lessoning hopefully within a few weeks, but it’ll just take time for me to fully process everything and really get a solid outlook on where I want to go from here – be it buying a horse, leasing, or continuing to lesson for a while. Buying is certainly not in the cards yet, but leasing or lessoning are certainly options that I’ll fully decide in the future. Mostly though, I’m just focused on getting Amber as comfortable as we can get her, and hopefully manage this now that we know what it is.
8 week vet update
Since I got off work early yesterday, it completely worked out since the vet showed up around 1 pm. Unfortunately, it’s not the verdict we were hoping for. Not the end of the world, but certainly not where she could be. As sad as I was that she still seemed to retain her soreness from the previous late afternoon, I thought it was good because Dr W could see her on a bad day. Personally, my mom and I think she tweaked something getting up from a nap or maybe something startled her (it is 4th of July and people do set off fireworks before that but she’s usually fine with them so….? Basically we have no idea LOL)
But it seems that there was more soft tissue damage than we originally thought. Which is not the end of the world by any means, but we were all hoping she’d look better at almost 8 weeks post surgery. It was heartening to know that other horses looked as bad as she did at this time, but progressed very well by 6-9 months. So that’s our new recovery time.
Thankfully, he also likes that I’ve been riding her outside, going up and down small inclines and increasing her time to 25 minutes. But, we’re going to keep it at 25 minutes and perhaps ease up just a tiny bit. In this she may be a slow healer, or just needs more time initially than others. We have options to inject her stifle to get some more fluid in there, consider IRAP some more, but as of right now we’re sticking to what we’ve been doing and another check up will be in a month to see where we are with that.
Not the answers we were hoping for, but I’m not too disheartened. She’d been doing so well previously that we do think she strained something somehow, so I only walked her once yesterday. She was pretty sore after the vet visited and showed me some more stretches for her, so I decided to take it easy. She was certainly not herself and meandered VERY slowly outside with a few bobbles. But she still had her ears up and was happy to be out.
So, another month and we’ll see. Thank you so much everyone for all the good thoughts you’ve sent our way! We appreciate them!
Happy 4th everyone!
Moving Forward
Alright. Now that I’ve had a bit of a breather with Amber being home from surgery, it’s time to move forward. She’s doing just fine; I take her out of her stall to groom her and love on her, and unfortunately that’s all we can do for right now. She’s pretty bored but what can we do, right? lol I’m at least trying to give her plenty of attention. Plus, the Lick It that I put in her stall for her to start playing with has some score marks in it so I’m hugely crossing my fingers that now she’s actually starting to play with it because she’s bored. She’s not really a stall-toy or always-keep-my-brain-busy horse, but I also don’t want her to get destructive. So if this helps, we do it lol.
As for moving forward, we obvi have to wait for everything to heal, but I have a few options. To recap on her knee, the bone chip wasn’t able to be removed because it was enclosed in the joint capsule, and Doc would’ve had to go through her old scar tissue as well as through the synovial fluid to reach it, and it would’ve caused a lot more damage than if he’d just left it. And from what he could see, where it is isn’t bothering her movement any, so he thought it best to leave it. I’m in agreement with him – her knee definitely isn’t the healthiest joint, but as of right now I’d prefer a horse that’s 80% sound versus 40% sound if he’d had to tear up all that soft tissue. So he backed out of the knee. Interestingly enough though, the swelling around her knee has actually gone down (that spot in the tendon just above her knee) and even the usual puffiness around her knee has gone down, too. So whatever he did I think her knee is feeling better as well which I’m of course pleased with.
Her stifle is more positive, but also a little more muddled. She had some bad cartilage in the joint and some rough points of bone, so he cleaned that up. Her cartilage was a little soft for a horse that had so much time off not doing a lot, but I’m wondering if that’s because she’s had the issue for 6 months (so inflammation could have been more damaging) instead of 2 since we weren’t able to schedule surgery until her abscess was completely healed. He feels that it’s got a pretty good chance of good recovery, but what exactly caused it…? We’re not really sure. There’s just some general degeneration of the joint, so while it’s positive, it’s also a bit of a toss-up. Still, not bad news lol.
But I do have a few options. I’ve heard some pretty good things about the laser therapy, and liked it when I’d had the other vet come by and do acupuncture as well as laser therapy for Amber. At that time the problem was chronic, so I don’t think it helped as much as it could have. But I can do laser treatments on her stifle and knee and see if that helps any more. I still want to inject her knee; she responded really well to that the first time we did so, so I think that’s another good step for helping her knee feel better. We could also do IRAP, which is what the Doc recommended.
Which, I do want to try IRAP but it’s also….expensive. And it’s a recommended treatment every other week for 4-5 weeks so my eyes already feel overrun with dollar bill signs lol. The IRAP could also potentially really help her knee as well so I just have to figure out what I want to do and how it’ll all come out. But I have a few weeks to decide whether or not to pursue the 2 options. I want to see how she’s doing after a week or so of hand walking which will be in about 3 to 4 weeks. So it’ll take some time, but poor thing has been stuck with needles so much recently lol.
She’s been laying down and sleeping even though she has mats in her stall, so I’ve hurried to really bed down the stall nicely so she has a soft spot to be. As much as I worry that laying down might hurt her, I’m glad she’s comfortable enough to lay down and sleep! I’m sure that bit of sleep helps her heal even better. I took her left hind leg wrap off Tuesday, and thankfully the swelling had gone down a lot. It was still slightly puffy in places, and the spot on her hock I think she hit the worst was still a little swollen, but at least the lower leg looks better. She was super itchy on that leg, so after some good scratches and medicine, I bandaged it up again – this time with the combi wrap and a polo and not with too much pressure. I didn’t want the leg to balloon again, but I also didn’t think she needed it very tight anymore. Thankfully when I checked her Wednesday the hock swelling was down even more, and I felt comfortable putting that left hock boot on for sleeping. I still wrapped her hind leg (though lightly) with a polo since that leg is so cut up that I don’t want her to reopen those cuts or cut it more because of the mats.
Since her sutures are relatively easy to get to (at least they look like it; let’s hope so lol), I’m going to try taking them out. I wasn’t able to get an appointment soon enough with the Doc to take them out until next week, and she’s a really fast healer. Unfortunately, because she heals really quickly, she also scars very easily. While having a few more scars won’t be bad, I know from past experience with her and sutures (her knee, the back of her elbow, and above her right eye) she starts getting annoyed at them and trying to scratch them or pick at them herself so I’m going to take them out either today or over the weekend.
As much as she’s being a funny girl and pushing her door open to get out of the stall, she seems content to rest. The surgery was stressful, and she’s definitely been calmer here than at the clinic. While she finally seems content to rest, I think she is starting to feel better. Not only has she been less destructive, but she’s just seemed a little happier as well. I’ve noticed that she’s still careful bringing forward that right hind leg after standing for a while, but I’ve been really trying to be observant of her facial expressions and I think that stifle is feeling better. It’s difficult to explain, but her expressions when she’s doing just the little bit of walking around her stall look happier. She’s even started to “reach” a little more! (as in she doesn’t short that leg walking over the bar out of her stall which granted she’s only done once lol small victories right?) I’ve added some U-Guard pellets to her grain as well, thinking why not because my mom had them, and I think that’s been making a big difference in her feeling better as well. Thanks everyone for crossing their crossables and keeping us in your thoughts! She’s been much happier I think, and I’m hopeful that we’ll come back well from this.
I finally got to put another ride on Whisper, and she was her usual stellar self lol. I was excited to use the Equilab for this ride since it was going to be crazy, but was a wee bit disappointed.
We actually probably cantered for at least 7 of those 11 minutes spent walking. Perhaps Whisper’s canter is just too slow? lol Either way, she was a good girl and really started to get the hang of what I was doing (which was a cloverleaf pattern around 4 poles lol).
But I’d like your guys’ input as well on this! I’d like to see what I can do to make her strict stall-rest time happy, so I’d love to know what you guys have done for your injured ponies. I’m also new to IRAP so if anyone has any experience I’d love to hear it! Have you had any experience with Laser therapy as well for things like this? How has your horse responded to it? Or have you gone the route of traditional injections? How has that worked for you? I’d love to know your thoughts!
Review: Lund Eventer Snaffle Bridle + Lace Reins
Time for another Review Wednesday! This particular product is one that I’ve been wanting to review for a while, but I’ve wanted to have it for a few months before giving it my 2 cents so I could, with relative accuracy, give everyone a thorough review. So today on the docket is the Lund Saddlery Eventer Series Snaffle Bridle and their Eventer Series Lace Grip Reins.
To give you a bit of background first, Lund Saddlery is a relatively new company. If I’m remembering correctly, they debuted on Facebook September 2016-ish. They make extremely affordable strap goods from quality Sedgwick leather – and you can’t beat the price! All of their pieces are within pretty much everyone’s budget, and I absolutely believe you’re getting really good quality for those prices. Two things about this company that so far I have very much appreciated and loved are 1) whenever you contact Lund on Facebook, you’re talking directly to the owner of the company and 2) Lund has monthly draws on facebook where you can win whichever tack piece is on the docket for that month. That means FREE tack! You can’t beat free tack, and I generally enter every month. Also, many other bloggers have tried out this brand’s strap goods, and Lund has all of those reviews on their page for you to check out, too.
On to the bridle! I was itching to get my hands on this leather considering I’d read so many bloggers’ posts about how lovely the products were. There was going to be a kickstarter in December, and originally I had planned to get my bridle and reins combo through the kickstarter; however, Lund was selling the eventer series snaffle bridle and lace grip reins they had used on their horse model for a discounted price on facebook. Me being generally impatient, I decided to snap it up. And then couldn’t wait until this came in the mail lol.
I’m not really an Austrailian nut fan – at least not on Amber. She’s already orange, and the orange-ish padding with the reddish leather I was just not the biggest fan of how it looked on her. I actually liked the natural look of it on Whisper better. She’s a liver chestnut, so the contrast of color looked good on her. But, after reading Karen’s post about darkening the bridle, I knew it would be no issue to get it a lovely Havana that I think looks very snazzy on Amber.
I’ll talk more on darkening the leather later and go to the quality of the leather. I’ve never really had really good Sedgwick leather, but now that I have, I am definitely hooked. Out of the box the bridle was a little stiff, but as most Sedgwick lovers know and as I came to find out, it’s usually a bit stiff at first and takes a while to break in – however the leather lasts FOREVER. And I can absolutely see why. While the leather was a bit stiff, it wasn’t a cheapo-stiff-leather feeling if that makes any sense. It merely felt new, and you could seriously see and feel the quality straight out of the box. The padding on the monocrown, browband and noseband is Italian leather, and absolutely luxurious feeling. I of course hurried out the next day after work to try it on Amber and make sure it fit. It was a full size, which Amber definitely needed – browbands can tend to be tight on her since she ranges from full to oversize for that forehead and those ears of hers. While the circumference of her nose requires a full-size noseband, she’s a cob in the length of her head. Even still, the Lund bridle fit her very well.
I immediately took it inside and applied a coat of Neatsfoot oil. Neatsfoot will be your friend in darkening the leather. Karen suggests Belvoir as well, which unfortunately I didn’t have. I tried the Passier lederbalsam on it but don’t like it as much as plain Neatsfoot. The Sedgwick absorbed the Neatsfoot like no other leather strap goods I own, and it was brand new! The Italian leather padding darkened immediately with the Neatsfoot. I applied one coat, and it looked very dark at first. Once it all soaked in, it lightened and required more coats of oil.
For the next few weeks, I did just as Karen suggested – I’d ride and coat in oil, ride and oil, ride and oil, etc but not clean it with glycerin soap. It darkened very nicely, soaked up the oil like crazy, and after a few times I stopped with the Passier lederbalsam since it seemed to make the leather a little tacky and would attract the Vegas dust like flies. The Neatsfoot left it feeling soft and smooth. It stopped darkening after the first month of plain Neatsfoot, but I also haven’t cleaned it in a while. Haha oops. On the plus side, it absolutely looks no worse for the wear. I’ve left it in the un-sealed tack room and it has gotten wind, dust (like literally there was a 1/2 inch of dust because the winds were so bad), humidity from the rain and still looks new. I know most east coast weather is absolutely worse than mine, but Vegas is also extremely dry, and that can very quickly damage leather. So far, it’s taken the weather like a champ. As I’ve used it over the past 6 months, it’s only gotten softer, but still remains very hardy.
The reins are the exact same quality as the bridle. The front portion of the reins, just like the noseband and browband, are plain raised. Yet after a lot of Neatsfoot, it’s just as soft as the bridle. The laced part of the reins is still a little stiff and a little hard on my fingers, but that does help provide extra grip -especially if you’re wearing gloves (alas I was not lol). Even though the stitching is the same color as the bridle and reins, it’s all flawlessly done and really speaks to the quality of these strap goods. Because I was even more impressed with the quality than I had been before, I funded their tack trunk kickstarter and decided I’d try the rubber reins. I have heard so many stories of rubber reins melting, and I never liked how sticky they are, but they’re on my list of things to try.
Even though I only have 2 items of theirs, I’m already wanting more. Part of me wants to get a black dressage saddle now just to have an excuse to buy their dressage bridle haha. But I plan to also try their calfskin leathers, the rubber reins, their 4 point breastplate….things that I probably don’t need but the leather is just so nice! Rob, the owner of the company, is very honest and forward with all of his information, and it’s such a relief to be able to actually talk to the owner of the company and get good answers in a timely manner. I’ll definitely be buying more of their products in the future.
While I got my bridle discounted, the Eventer Snaffle Bridle is $175 USD and the reins are $95 USD; however, those prices INCLUDE shipping. It’s a very affordable bridle, and definitely much more worth the purchase price than other bridles I’ve had. Five stars from me!
Home at last
It was certainly stressful having Amber away and at the vet’s, but once I saw her Thursday I was relieved and happy that she was doing well. I couldn’t get up there to see her on Friday since I worked all of their visiting hours, but I knew she would fine and did evening chores for Whisper. I went to visit Amber Saturday morning (no Whisper ride because long story lol) and she was definitely a lot perkier than when I’d seen her Thursday. She was begging me for scratches and occasionally nibbled on her grass.
I checked out her knee and stifle – they were both warm but that was to be expected. She didn’t seem sensitive to the touch and as I looked down I saw this:
Cue the heart sinking. It’s worth noting that this horse doesn’t get edema just because of a little cut. She’ll have a deep gash that’s bleeding and it still won’t swell. So for this leg to be so swollen like that – she had to have hurt it pretty badly. It was also pretty sensitive to the touch. My guess (from minimal evidence mind you) is that because she had a stain on her fly sheet around her stifle that wasn’t there when I saw her Thursday, she tried to lay down or was trying to get up from laying down, didn’t realize how much it hurt, got her leg caught in between on of the rails and pulled it out. UGH MARE. I would also think that perhaps she kicked but I surmise that’d have been more difficult to get both sides of her leg so badly. Thank you, Amber. I love all these mini heart attacks.
Dr. W came by to chat with me about her recovery, told me she could go home tomorrow, and then was surprised at Amber’s left hind leg. And proceeded to say she was trouble with a capital T. Why yes sir; yes she is. They wrapped her up and because the swelling is so bad she needs to have a bandage on it for 2-3 days. Seriously this horse needs a double-padded, bubble-wrapped stall.
She needs to be on strict stall rest for 2 weeks before I can start hand walking her, but she definitely wants to be out and moving. Thankfully, I’d asked Dr. W about stall size on Saturday because she’s essentially got a big 48×48 stall area, and it turns out she can only be in a 12×12 for those first 2 weeks. So my dad and I grabbed some old glider airplane rope and made Amber a makeshift stall guard. It’s lashed as tightly as we could get it, but whenever we leave the property or it’s night we’ll close her door to make sure she hasn’t managed to be destructive again. So far (knocking on wood that I don’t jinx myself) she seems to be happy with the setup as long as she can look outside and stare at things lol.
An unexpected but good outcome is that she has also lost weight. It seems that having her food off of the ground helps her not eat it ALL when she’s just bored lol. I’m hoping that having her grass in a net will help with that, and so far (granted it’s only been a day lol) it’s doing well.
We’re on a bit of a slow road to recovery, but I’m hoping she comes back better and more comfortable!
I am that person + Amber update
I discovered, when dropping Amber off at the vet Wednesday, that I have become THAT person.
Let me explain. For most of my horsey life until a few years ago, whenever the horses stayed at the vet or were having something done, we used a disposable halter and never really brought anything else. No boots, no special food, no nothing. Also, I thought it was a bit stupid. Okay, so the horse is staying at the vet’s for a few days. Big deal. Why do these horse owners have to bring EVERYTHING for their horses that will be very well cared for?
I had felt pretty good when I’d show up, hand the horse over and leave and be an “easy customer.”
Haha. Ha ha. Ha.
I say this all in good fun at myself by the way lol. But I have become that person that I thought was silly. Not only did I bring Amber for the stay, but I brought her grain – complete with her joint medicine because I hope it’ll help through the surgery – I brought her fly mask, fly boots, fly sheet and neck cover and a healthy dose of not wanting to let go lol. Of course, all the ladies at the vet were just great about everything and bearing with my overbearing-ness lol. Yes, maybe I brought too much stuff – my vet jokingly told me that I brought the kitchen sink – but they understand how much we love our animals.
I brought all of that tho because she will grind her teeth at the flies buzzing around her because they won’t leave her alone. If the sheet and boots help her to have an easier recovery, well then I wanted to help that. Necessary? Eh, probably not. Silly? Yeah probably. But as I said before, they all understand how much we love our horses, and it is totally great to be THAT person that cares about their animals and maybe brings a little bit too much rather than too little. Because we do care. These may not be 4* horses or Derby winners or futurity champions or the next WEG champions, but they’re the world to us small-time people who love our horses. So I fully embrace becoming THAT person lol.
Also, as a quick aside, where did spring go?! It went from rainy and 60 on Monday to freakin 103 on Wednesday. WTF Vegas. I’m not ready for it to be so hot yet.
As far as how Amber is doing? She’s just fine. The vet texted me (with a picture; they are awesome) that she was up and standing and doing well. Apparently she was also ridiculously hungry since she didn’t get fed in the morning lol. Even when I visited her she was all about that food. She was still a bit out of it when I came by, and sweetest of mares she walked up to me as I opened her stall door even though her legs were obviously hurting her. I just love this girl.
She wasn’t into scratches at first so she was really in some pain, but after a few minutes she finally started to get into it. She was definitely in pain tho, and leaned into me when I held her head. She then proceeded to (very slowly so it was kind of funny) try to keep me away from the other mares around her – even one with a foal lol. Apparently I’m hers lol. Because then when I left she was fine haha. She still adored the babies tho, and has gotten used to the donkey that she was next to before. She’ll have to stay until at least Sunday, and poor Whisper keeps staring off into the distance waiting for Amber to show up. She really misses her.
Unfortunately, the bone chip wasn’t removed from her knee. From what I can remember Dr W saying (and we’ll talk more on it this weekend) the chip was in the joint capsule or enclosed by the other bones of the joint or something and he would’ve torn up a lot more than if he just left it. Which, I kind of figured as much, but was still hoping it would come out. Oh well. Her stifle looked okay – some damaged cartilage in there, an old, very small meniscus tear (with no scar tissue thank goodness but I’m wondering if that’s what happened when she suddenly was lame March of last year), and just a bit of bone roughness. He cleaned it up, said other than that it looked pretty good, but still a bit concerned that the cartilage seemed soft. She seems to be a good candidate for IRAP (taking blood, spin down the plasma, insert plasma into joint and it helps inhibit inflammation), and I want to try that but we may wait a little bit before doing it.
While we don’t have solid news on future potential, I’m still relieved everything looked pretty good, we have a few steps forward now with more knowledge, and we’ll see how she responds to this surgery clean up. So glad that’s over!
Scheduled
Guys, it’s done. It’s been scheduled. I take Amber up to the vet May 9th for her arthroscopic surgery appointment on May 10.
I am a bundle of nerves lol. I wouldn’t be as nervous if she didn’t have to go under to have the procedure. She’s already had to have surgery once, and everything was totally fine of course. We just worry about our ponies don’t we? lol I am probably more worried about the news after surgery than the actual surgery lol. I spoke with Dr W last night, and we decided to look at her stifle, check the integrity of the cartilage and the fluid and the joint with the possibility that it could also be a meniscus tear. While she’s under, he’ll also go back into her knee and remove at least one bone chip. It’s in the front of her knee and shows up on x-rays, as does another one. One of the reasons those weren’t removed in initial surgery was they were not interfering with her movement and the biggest one that shows up was potentially too deep/invasive to get out. So perhaps one of those has been affecting her knee recently, and it’ll be another relief for me once it’s gone.
So now we’re getting somewhere again! I rode her yesterday a bit, and she was a super girl. She wasn’t pushing as much as she usually does, and seemed a little backed off than usual. I think she wasn’t quite feeling herself yesterday, but she also was in the English saddle. She made a protest when I girthed her up (which she never does – and hasn’t ever done in western tack) so I was checking my saddle on her. With her loss of muscle, I’m sure it’s a little wide for her now. But instead of posting I sat her trot, and that seemed to help her loosen a bit, but she still wasn’t quite herself.
After a bit of trotting and trying to get her to push juuuuust a little more (she was oddly curling behind the bit which she usually doesn’t do either, but no biggie) I decided to just walk around outside the arena in view of the barn a bit. She was upset and jigged at first, especially when Whisper was nickering and running around in her stall, but as we kept walking and I was petting her she calmed considerable and was back to her relaxed self. I definitely think the ride yesterday was indicative of her stifle really bothering her. She wasn’t “bad” and never is – even when opinionated – but she just seemed down. I think it’s definitely time for the surgery, and I won’t ride her too much in the next week. I’m just glad we can finally get this going, considering she was supposed to have this surgery by February!
As my vet and I laughed about last night – she sure is special in more ways than one lol.
The special one
Amber is special. In many ways. Cute, adorable ways. And not so adorable ways. Because her face just kept swelling until nearly the whole right side of her face looked like she’d been bitten by a poisonous snake. Okay, maybe not that bad, but before it did get so bad I’d called the vet and his soonest appointment was yesterday. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take time off of work to be there (right in the middle of the day), so my mom kindly took over the visit for me. (I have a few bloody pictures in here so if you can’t stand blood just don’t read or bypass the pics!) And what does the vet think? She abscessed underneath where her tooth was pulled. Even the vet said she’s special and weird – the only horse he’s known to do that. And what, per chance, caused this abscess?
After sedation and some poking around, he found an infected piece of bone that her body was obviously trying to push out, but was still attached to the jawbone. Thankfully, he was able to get it off so I won’t have to trailer her down there in a few days. And it’s a super rough, jagged piece of bone, too. That absolutely could not have been very comfortable. Then he made a small incision and drained and flushed the abscess. Poor baby was pretty drugged but she needed to be!
Interestingly enough, he asked about her scar on her jaw. She’s had one ever since I was first assigned to her – miraculously in the exact same spot that was her fractured tooth. Hmm. He theorizes that perhaps that bone fragment was from a previous injury – where her scar was, and that it may have started the process of her fractured tooth, and (where I’m theorizing) potentially when she smacked her leg and perhaps even just lightly hit her face, it caused everything else to snowball from there. I’m glad at least we got down to what it really was. I wonder if perhaps that piece was hiding all along, and only popped up because that tooth was gone and as the body was healing, it thought it was foreign whereas it hadn’t caused a problem before.
I’ll need to flush her abscess 1-2x a day, which I’m totally on board with, of course. I flushed it last night, and goodness if that girl wasn’t a saint – no halter, no moving, she just let me gently stick the syringe full of betadine solution into the incision and flush it out. I think it may have even felt good, because she just stood there and let me do it, then put her face against me afterwards as if to tell me thank you. I swear, this little horse, you guys. She absolutely looks so much better – her eyes were more alert, she was more perky, and she genuinely looked a lot more herself. I woke up early to do so again this morning, and she was again a trooper. I have to admit if I’m going to have a horse that needs vet care like this then I’d get a dozen like her. She makes meds and caring for things like this so easy.
The 3-day weekend was great – a good hang out with friends and my sister again watching some more comedic movies/shows with lots of wine, beer, popcorn and frozen foods. The best, right? Lots of dog snuggles, too.
It’s been in the high 60s, which is so awesome. I was wearing short sleeves or thin 3/4 shirts when I rode Whisper some as well, and hopped on Amber for a nice ride around the block. We stay to the asphalt or the not-too-rocky area right by the road since that’s easier for her to walk on. I know getting out and seeing the sights with Whisper is certainly better than aimless wanderings inside the arena.
Especially with Whisper around she gets very slow on the walkabout! She cares about a lot less, but is a good buffer when Whisper gets a little unsettled before relaxing again. It’s still pretty quiet here, though, not counting the lovely vet visit haha. At least on the asphalt or just next to the road I feel a lot less of a hitch in Amber’s step, and she stays happy through the whole thing. Many times it’s been a good 20-30 minute walk, which I know is good for her mind and muscles.
I’m also a little glad that because of all this time off, Amber will lose most of her built up muscle. As strange as that sounds, I have worried that her muscle mass was still a bit too heavy for her to really be able to do some of the things, and if we can get everything situated, then we’ll start off at square one building the lean muscles for eventing and not the heavy muscles she had from being ridden on inclines.
Hopefully, though, we have no more tooth problems and are in the clear with that!
2017 Goals….and update
Wow. So much has happened already this year. It feels like just yesterday it was the middle of March and I was dying for Rolex to come as fast as possible. This has been a really great year for me, despite Amber’s hip and her knee being injected and the other problems that have popped up.
Just this year:
- I got my first ever English/jump saddle
- I made the trek to Rolex (or not-Rolex)
- The barn got built so now the ponies are at home
- I started my very own blog!
- We showed! (Although that really wasn’t new and Amber was less than enthused lol)
I feel like while it’s been a challenging year in terms of taking up a new discipline (or 3), it’s also been challenging for me personally and getting over several humps for myself as well. However, it’s probably been one of my best years in a while. So, let’s see how I’ve done so far.
Fix my Fixed Elbow and Arm Syndrome. I’m going to cross this one off even though it’s not fully a habit yet. I still tend to chicken-arm it every now and then, but it’s a lot less (at least on the flat; noooooo promises for jumping lol). Progress!- Head over to a friend’s barn and have some super fun on their mini jump course there by late August perhaps September. Yeah, so…..that didn’t happen lol.
Get my position to where I can independently go into correct 2 point without leaning on her neck with my hands. I’ve gotten much stronger now. I’m still relearning jumping, but as far as 2 pt goes, I can do that.
- Get a dressage saddle. Haha. Ah ha ha. Ha ha. Ha. Yeah. Fail.
- Potentially enter a local club’s h/j show. Nope. That didn’t happen, either.
Really work on both of our fitness. We did! We both toned up. (and have since lost that LOL)School a dressage or western dressage show. Or both. We did them both! 2 & 3 times at that!- Get a dressage/
jumping lesson and sign up for the Master Dressage webinar series. Signed up for the Master Dressage series and it’s been very helpful. Loving it so far! Although the jump lesson wasn’t on Amber, I’ve had 2 so far, and am pretty sure that’s where I want be and go back to for a while.
For the first year making goals for myself, I’m glad I did more than half of them. It’s been nice to cross off goals and feel accomplished at the end of the year. We’ve ended 2017 differently than I was hoping or expecting, but that’s horses. Things happen. They aren’t machines and neither are we. It’ll be different coming up with goals for next year since things are a bit up in the air, but I’ll come up with something!
Meanwhile, Amber’s mouth seems to be doing fine. She ended her SMZs on Saturday, but is eating and being a regular chubs on the daily. She still has swelling, but she’s let me push on it a few times and it doesn’t seem to hurt her. Unlike before she doesn’t pull away, and I’m putting a fair amount of pressure on it. So yay! Her recovery seems to be going well so far.
I haven’t been blogging much since there’s just not really much for me to talk about, unfortunately. My plans to assess Amber and tack her up and feel like we’re riding even though we’re not haven’t happened. I’ve turned her out a lot and then hopped on without tack to just mosey – she’s unfortunately not up for much else. I did try one day, and not only was her trot atrocious, when she walked she was no doubt bobbing her head and neck to help pull that leg forward. She still wants to play, and I can tell she wants to ride, but the other day she gave me the first negative reaction I’ve ever gotten from her when I put on her saddle. She seemed a little irritated even after that, so I’ve been wondering if perhaps she was expecting the bridle after the saddle since she seemed a little confused when I just left her rope halter on. We’ll try again soon and see how that turns out.
So poor girl wants to be out and ride, she just is hurting. It’s difficult to wait, because I want her to feel better! But I want to make sure she’s nearly recovered from her tooth before she has to go back to the vet. The last thing we want is an infection! Right now though she sort of enjoys her turnout time, but only if there’s food down lol. Otherwise she’s an idiot and stands at the gate haha! I do wish we had grass pastures, but unfortunately not. So she gets grass hay scattered around the arena lol.
Otherwise Christmas was great! We went to my sister and her boyfriend’s house for Christmas lunch/dinner, and got to exchange more gifts which was fun. I got almost my whole family Hamer & Clay gifts for Christmas this year. I got my mom one of her and Whisper, and my sisters one of their dogs. They were a hit! Definitely using Kelsey again – especially for a few of my own! I got luggage, bakeware and a dachshund sweater – all things that were needed lol.
I hope everyone had a good Christmas!
Weekend Recap: the vet visit
So, I’m sorry, guys. I totally left you hanging for the weekend. Truth is since Thursday morning I’ve been going nonstop and there really has been no time for blogging, so I’m going to try to catch up with next week. As I mentioned before I had friends come to town, so they wanted the Vegas experience, and seeing as I’ve never actually done that, these were the friends that I’d count on to party with no matter what.
But first – Amber’s vet visit! My lesson was cancelled for Thursday morning since the infernal wind decided to come back, but luckily we were able to reschedule for Friday. Amber’s vet visit went well, and it also didn’t. Luckily, the weird bump on her chin was pretty easy to figure out – she had an abscess in the root of her tooth. It looked like there was some root degeneration that seemed to be the cause, and while there were other things we could do, it wouldn’t help the abscess stay away. So I concurred with the vet to have the tooth pulled.
He blocked her stifle to ensure that indeed it was the stifle giving her the problem, and it was definitely her stifle that was still bothering her. He gave me a few options, one being arthroscopy to actually go in live and see the joint and see if there’s anything else going on in there since she didn’t respond well to the initial injection. There could be fraying in the joint which is causing discomfort and they can clean that up in arthroscopy (which I’m secretly hoping is all that’s seriously wrong with it), and she and I have had success with arthroscopy, so I wanted to go with that option. That will be in January though.
He took a look at the swelling on her knee, and thankfully the actual tendon looked absolutely fine. It was only the sheath that filled with swelling. He suggested it seemed like some trauma had befallen it, but wasn’t too sure, but to just let it take care of itself. We made a plan to bring Amber back on Friday for her tooth extraction which coincided perfectly with my lesson. So poor thing got dragged up to the vet again. She wasn’t too happy with me. More so for the fact that mother left me there; how dare she lol. But they were able to get the tooth out successfully without too much trouble.
So, what caused the abscessing? Yeah, not normal tooth degeneration. Nope. No, she FRACTURED the root of her tooth. Enough so that the nerve was most likely exposed and causing her a lot of pain. I am legit amazed that she never once refused the bit or contact when I rode her and that lump was bigger. All she did was a slight ouchie when I put on her halter.
Coincidentally, my mom noticed that Amber no longer threw a fit when Whisper would leave her to go out on trail. Not so coincidentally (I know, I’m sorry; I keep saying that word lol) that happened on Monday when my mom heard the giant bang but hadn’t seen what happened, and then Tuesday is when I noticed the lump on her leg. The tooth bump popped up around the exact same time. Pretty sure that supports my theory of she did something traumatic to herself SOMEHOW. I never know how she manages to do this to herself. But for her to swell up and be hot it has to be something very ouchie.
Good to figure that out, but damn. Thank you mare. She was extremely upset at me when I came to get her. She even turned her head away from me! I’m so sorry, sweetie. But really, you’ll feel better. And I think she does. She’s on some meds for a good week, but this also gives her time to recover from this before I drag her back to the vet to go under anesthesia for her arthroscopy. She’s been sleeping A LOT and laying down which I am so happy about – I bet while she’s still sore, she’s absolutely not in as much pain as that exposed nerve, and she’s catching up on all the sleep she missed, which is probably why she was getting grumpy by the time her vet visit rolled around. She’s eating well, and thankfully lapping up all her grain – even with a gram of bute and 15 tabs of SMZs. Good girl!
But this obviously sets us back. First with about 5 weeks of tooth recovery, then about 4 weeks of recovery from the arthroscopy, and during those 4 weeks figuring out what to do depending on the prognosis. And Amber may not be up to the challenge of eventing when all is said and done. But I don’t want to give up yet. We’re looking at 2-3 months at least of time off, and then we don’t generally see joint change until 6-9 months away, so I plan to nab some pentosan and start doing that while she’s “off” – I’ll still be riding, we’ll just be walking again. Which we all know she just adores lol. Hopefully, while that may not improve her joint, it’ll stop the degeneration when we go to take a look again in a few months. So, good news and bad news, but as I said I’m still hopeful. I am hoping that a debridement of her joint will be all we’ll need.
I won’t stop taking lessons. Which I see this as a good chance for me to really get back in the swing of jumping and at least be more confident before going at it with her. But geez what a vet visit lol. Up next – the lesson!
Chillin out
Which means two things – Saturday and Sunday were super chill days, and I had to chill out after Saturday lol.
I think we all get there a lot – what is wrong with my horse and why won’t they tell me what’s wrong and hopefully this is the last of it and omg something is still not right!! be it with injuries or training. And I was no different – worried about my girl after Saturday’s ride.
But I’ve been giving Amber a lot of time, first with the stifle and then with that front leg and she seemed to be doing better. It was hard to tell, though, so Saturday with a plan of still taking it very easy and letting things heal up nicely because sometimes joint injections take longer to really kick in. And boy was she ready. She walking with a purpose, very ready to get the show on the road and get going. So this was a big improvement from the last week so well hey let’s do a teensy bit of trotting and see how you feel before quitting and going on a trail ride with Whisper.
So we trotted, and wow she felt nice. Very smooth. Very into the contact. Switched directions and I tried that left hand exercise G had me doing – holding the rein away from the neck and pushing the shoulder into the outside rein. Huh. Totally opposite western, and it didn’t work the best for lazy ol’ Liam, but holy crap Amber responded perfectly when I did it with her. And the trot felt so promising! And then she took a misstep. And the rhythm was gone. No head bobbing – almost no change of frame – but something absolutely wasn’t right. I walked her immediately, checked out the shadow and sure enough she wasn’t bringing that right hind forward at all. So I walked a little, and she started to feel better after a bit, but I hopped off.
It hadn’t even been 20 minutes, and it broke my heart because she kept nosing me and following every step I took like “but wait, how are we done yet? We shouldn’t be done yet, ma.” And it was very unlike her to stand in an arena and rest the right hind leg almost immediately after stopping. We still took a very easy, short trail ride, and she was so excited and happy for that – I think her brain needed it – but I was worrying the rest of the day.
Sunday I turned her out in the arena and let her wander while I picked up leaves (sometimes neighboring oleander dead leaves blow into the arena). She mostly followed me, but when she didn’t I could just observe her. Most of the time she walked okay if a slight hitch in her step occasionally. She had a few wee! moments and gave a few bucks. She was definitely off the first time she had a few trot steps after the buck, then seemed okay walking. Her second buck she seemed okay, but something is just still not quite right.
So after wracking my brain and trying to think of everything, I’ve been beginning to wonder if it wasn’t her stifle at all that was giving her the problem. After her SI injection, she was feeling marvelous. Leading up to English show day on the 11th she felt fantastic, absolutely superb. Her right lead even was feeling magical. And at that show was when she kicked out. Now we did find things in her stifle which was good to know. But I’m wondering if she pulled/tore/strained a ligament or muscle in that area when she kicked out. With rest, she gets better. A nice walk/trot ride Tuesday, a canter one Wednesday and she was still kind of flat and iffy, 2 days off and then feeling great before it goes bad again….I’m thinking it’s something like that. Also, considering how well she responded to her knee and SI injections, I find it puzzling that her stifle would still be this bad after almost 4 weeks if that were the true problem.
This poor vet lol. He got saddled with me when he did such a great job on her SI and his assistant ended up being awesome and is now my instructor lol. So I’m hoping I can schedule an appointment here soon and hopefully ultrasound the area (though that might be really difficult), and then check out that crazy lump on her foreleg that’s still there. The only silver lining I can see is that I’m REALLY getting to know my vets haha!
The vet verdict and day 17
So first, Day 17: Your equestrian idol
I’m not usually a “oh this person is my idol or inspiration” type of person – most professionals I’ve found in every field I see something I like and equally dislike about them. I think sometimes people get into trouble by idolizing professionals too much to where they can’t look at something objectively and decide if that person is in the right or not ( be it horse care, a questionable decision in a bad situation, or similar things).
But one of the professional riders who has not let me down so far to where I can say that I respect and admire the hell out of them is Michael Jung.
I got to see him in Kentucky this past April. And the atmosphere I got from him was an all around kind person. It’s a little weird to say, but sometimes you can just feel it from a person, you know? And while walking around the tents I kept looking over at the giant line to get his signature, and you know what? For every person he had a smile. He was soft spoken, took pictures with them, and it never looked like he was getting annoyed how I felt like a few others were. He always seemed ready and willing, a smile and kind words always present for those in line.
That to me is important, in all honesty, the way he treats people. And while I bet a lot of these are fans, and pros want to be good to their fans, he just felt like he genuinely enjoyed being there with those eager faces. The pros that I’ve met have generally been the opposite (which for sure could be different in eventing – I haven’t met many eventing pros).
But the most important to me is how he rides, how he handles challenges and disappointments, and a big one came when Sam had his first ever xc penalty. Michael’s response? He didn’t point the horse at the jump correctly, and Sam had nothing to prove. So he opted to retire. Then another big show and he pulled Sam because he felt off. Some people were using that to say the course was too hard so that’s why Michael pulled Sam. But for me, looking at the record Sam has and the way he goes xc, that horse would’ve eaten the course for breakfast. So whether or not that’s true that he pulled him for the course, I like that he pulled the horse, and is making sure he’s okay.
And don’t get me wrong – there are other pros I like, too – ones that make great decisions and do things very much like Michael. It’s not that I dislike a lot about them, it’s just that the one that automatically comes to mind first is Michael Jung lol.
The vet visit
It’s been cloudy recently more than sunny – which is slightly depressing because it means that here pretty soon the winter weather will hit. Which is really not THAT cold but I am a cold weather weenie. When I was in Texas I would no joke have on a ski mask, a beanie, my polyfill suede jacket with warm long sleeved shirt and vest on underneath, with under armour leggings under ski pants and then my normal leather western boots. I love being warm lol.
Well, the vet consult turned out to be a vet visit because the vet was going to be on that side of town anyway. So, why not? Come view the pony, sir. I got off of work early and met him at home for a windy assessment (WHY does it always have to be windy when something important is going on?).
And it was a good thing he did come to view the pony. Though she was definitely moving better Thursday than Sunday night or Monday, she was still off, and definitely not wanting to bring that leg forward. I agreed to have a couple radiographs done since we definitely wanted to make sure we weren’t missing something. Also, it has been about time she gets a new set of pictures. I have only had her checked a few times, and I really need an updated baseline of her joints. So he took a radiograph of both stifles.
Unfortunately, it looks like she has a bit of reconstruction and degeneration in her right stifle. He did say it’s been developing for a while, so she might have actually injured her stifle when she twisted her hip back in February, or she could have fallen on that stifle when she injured her knee, and when she twisted her hip in February further aggravated it. But, either way, it seems that kick really brought it to light.
In a way, I think that’s good. I’m glad I’m FINALLY able to get to the bottom of what this problem really is. And we’re keeping her healthy and sound, and it’s soon enough that we’re not past the point of no return. I asked him about Pentosan, and he thinks that’s a great additive to what we’re doing so I’ll be doing that. She got an injection to stop the inflammation to help slow the progression of the degeneration as quickly as possible. But, the big question:
What does this mean about Amber and I doing eventing?
Thankfully, he thinks it’ll be fine. He actually thinks the jumping will be less stressful on it than reining and certain aspects of ranch riding, and I agree. No big jumps, though. Which is totally fine with me because I don’t want to do anything big lol. But it’s a big sigh of relief that we can still do eventing. It’s just going to be a bit of a slower progression, which is okay. The biggest plus I think about all this though, is that the vet’s assistant is the lady that I want to take lessons from. So she’s seen the radiographs, she knows about Amber’s sore SI, she knows about Amber’s knee, and all the other things that might crop up, so I feel very comfortable that when we get to jumping and doing this that if Amber feels weird, she’ll believe me and understand our history.
It’s also great because she has this Connemara lesson pony that she said is very patient and forgiving, which I can lesson on and I think that’s a perfect idea. I definitely want to work on myself, get myself back in there and redevelop my jumping so that when Amber and I start she can have a better, more informed human on her back. So, while it’s definitely not the verdict I really wanted to hear, I think knowing is half the battle, and a lot of good has come out of this well.
Another good thing is that I’m not in a hurry with this. I was already planning on taking it a little easy after the show – lots of hacks and easy days to get her out since Amber doesn’t like days off. Not that she gets crazy. She wants to be out and doing something with her human lol. Her brain benefits but she’s always staring like “okay, can we go work now?” lol. But now we’ll really take it a bit slower, make sure she’s good and probably get some lessons mid to late December. We’ll see how it progresses.
Life happens
Well, it has been busy. October through February seems to be the busiest times of the year, then it dies down again until it begins to build steam around September. It’s been busy here, but more for the fact that I have work and then most of my free time is riding, buying more shavings/food/vet bills for the horse, blogging, and getting errands and phone calls and everything else done that I couldn’t while I was at work.
So, because it is busy, next week you may not hear from me much. It’ll be getting darker sooner, and people at the office will be gone, so I have the 10 hour shift for 4 days in a row. But, that means 3 day weekend so yay. It’ll also work out since Amber had injections yesterday.
But first – after the show. I was pleased with how she came back from the show and that she didn’t look as sore as I feared she’d be. I could tell from some of the videos where her hips were bothering her, and I’ve been keeping in mind a few videos my mom took for me where she looked extremely sharp in the way she’d lift her right hind. Kind of like snapping her hock up. It’s the only time I’ve seen her do that, and she felt weird that day, so I’m thinking it’s still her hip but I’m going to watch and see.
Tuesday we went for a nice 20 minute bareback hack around the arena, and she was good. Learning that even in a halter she needs to keep her walk consistent with clear 4 beats instead of fast and stabby. So Wednesday I pulled her out, saddled her up with the intention of working just a little and then trying to get in some 2pt times (spoiler alert – I was not very successful in those times lol).
Oddly enough, though I could tell she was a bit stiff when we started walking, her trot work was some of the best I’ve ever gotten from her. I’ve mostly left her head alone, letting her find the right place as I use leg to remind her to pick her shoulders up, but she reeeeaaalllly wants to be lazy and not go into the bridle like I know she can (and I know part of that is her hip). So I was a little more insistent that she place her head where I’d like it to be, and she did really well. At times it was too low, but I was also glad that she maintained really nice pace through it and didn’t seem to lose her forward. Her left canter was nice, her right one choppy but she really tried, and I left it at that and proceeded to attempt a really good 2pt time. Aaaaand only did slightly better, but we’re working at it though!
However, it was also so weird because before and after the ride, she tripped and went down on her knees – outside the arena. The first was because (I’m 99% certain) there was a hump in the ground, she hit it with her right leg and then her knee just couldn’t lock and she went down. I checked her out and walked her out a bit. She seemed to buckle slightly again, like she hit a rock or something. It was a bit strange, but she seemed okay, so we rode and no tripping in the arena. After the ride it looked like she stepped on some pretty sharp rocks by the gate and almost went down again.
Her knees have buckled before – both of them while riding (especially on trail if she hits a sharp rock) but only ever at a walk. Never when she’s trotting or cantering in all the years since her knee injury. And she’s never gone down like this before. I do know that sometimes she’s not the brightest about where she’s putting her feet. She’s just not paying attention, and that’s usually when the buckle happens; it also happens when the arena sand gives way a little too much. But it was just extremely strange, and it does worry me.
So, since Thursday I drove her to the vet for an appointment to get her SI injected, I talked to the vet about it. Thankfully, he didn’t seem worried about the stumbling. Said he couldn’t notice anything in her front end that would suggest a problem, but did agree with me that she was really sore in her hips. He actually saw a bit of “off-ness” in her left hind, but said that the SI for right now was a good place to start and we’d go from there.
For about 2 weeks now she’s got some very light work ahead of her, but like I said above it works out perfectly since all I’ll probably be able to do next week is walk anyway, so that’s a plus. Nothing stood out to him for me to really watch in the next few weeks, so we’re crossing our fingers that it’s just general soreness and this injection really helps!
It also turned out super productive because the vet’s assistant does training and lessons as well, and trains out of the same barn that the dressage trainer I’d like to see does. She was really nice, and really seemed to love Amber, so I’m thinking of starting lessons with her. She also knows another vet’s wife who loves eventing, and has a huge field full of xc jumps. That’s only, like, 40 minutes away. Um, YES!! So I grabbed her number, and hopefully after the show and a bit of rest, we’ll grab a few lessons! A very productive day indeed.
The 4th and things
July 4th was not as bad as I was anticipating. Since Amber was weird Monday I just hopped on her bareback for a nice hack with my mom. Her walk felt okay but I could hear and feel that her hind feet were short or a little off. I did jog a little, and she felt relatively okay to the right, but still not quite to the left. Thankfully, the vet had gotten back to me by that time, so we settled on an acupuncture/laser therapy session Friday evening. I’m really crossing my fingers that she’ll feel better. She’s hypersensitive in her hip area, but if her hip is finally not twisted I’m not surprised. I think acupuncture will absolutely help her muscles relax and reset.
Review: KO Trading Company Elite Cowhorse Saddle
So I think I will be renaming these Review Wednesdays. I’ve done a few reviews on English tack so far, so I figure it’s high time I review a Western product. And the first product on the docket? My saddle.
At the time I bought this saddle in 2015, it was called the Elite Cowhorse saddle. Now, it’s technically the KO Elite Reiner Saddle- KOE-1706 on their website. I stumbled across the company when a friend was looking for a saddle and she took me to their booth at the futurity. It has no “padded” seat, and I was expecting it to be hard as a rock. And surprisingly, it was extremely comfortable. It helped her sit well so she bought one and then left it with the trainer and I to use. And use it I did.
That saddle became my staple for every horse I rode. Since it is a cowhorse saddle, it’s meant to sit you back and be uphill over the withers so that it’s easier to keep your seat when your horse is cutting a cow. It was especially helpful on those downhill 2 yr olds that were still growing, and it really just sat you nice and straight in the saddle. Because it sits you back and was a smooth seat (no suede), it also made it very easy to sit those hard stoppers.
And the verdict is….
She was a champ for the trailer haul and walked around calmly until the vet saw us. He did various flex testing and a bit of lunging, and he confirmed that there really wasn’t anything obvious that he could see externally. We all laughed when I mentioned I might be that overprotective horse mother and nothing really is wrong. She had maybe one teensy ouchie step when he flexed her right hind, but took her in for some x-rays. She didn’t even need any happy juice to take the x-rays. Doc and I agreed on x-raying her knee – just in case. And it proved to be the problem child.
There was a bit of degeneration it seemed in her knee; a small area that was potentially losing cartilage. It would explain her tripping as well as her periodic, partial ouchie-ness the past few months. And it’s funky to look at the x-ray and know she didn’t even flex badly when he tested her knee. Again, maybe a slight strange step, but nothing that was screaming at us, you know?
If you'd like to follow me on Instagram, please scan the QR code!
The Horses and Hound(s)
Fav Photos
Fav Photos
Horses, Hounds, and Handmade Bounds 