Nothing’s Ever Easy

"Can someone please rescue me, I'm tired of babysitting this big lug..."(sigh)

It’s been nothing short of hectic around here for the past week.  My daughter who is the main medical caretaker of our herd has been on vacation and will be back next week.  So, of course, the first day after she leaves, her horse Nate, comes in from turnout and can barely walk.  He wasn’t just lame he was crippled and could barely hobble to the barn. Great.  If anything happens to this horse I’m responsible. 

I did what I could for him but he wasn’t any better in the morning so a call to the vet was in order. The vet diagnosed an abscess in his left front.  She pulled his shoe and we set up a regimen of soaking his hoof in Betadine, Epsom Salt and some warm water, followed by Animalintex in a Davis boot. Nate is impossible to work with: each time I put his hoof in the bucket to soak he’d pull it out and stomp the bucket so it spilled all over the aisle. Okay, so being the genius I am I figured out quickly this wasn’t going to work.  For my next trick I made up the medicinal concoction plus cotton and put it in a heavy plastic bag and secured it to his leg with elastic tape. That worked well until I put him in his stall and he realized the herd had left for greener pastures. He started banging the walls and rearing and broke it open. Yes, he is quite the charmer.  I might add that getting that pie plate of a hoof in the bag was an intricate piece of work also. The same goes for getting him into his Davis boot. He has a tendency to keep stomping his foot down each time I tried to pick it up to put it in the boot.  Eventually, we both got with the routine or I got lucky and he started to cooperate a bit more.

In fairness to Nate, I’ve never really worked with this horse except to bring him in or out of turnout and feed him, he’s my daughter’s baby.  Nate is a 17-3 hand Dutch Warmblood who has been plagued with breathing issues and other medical mishaps his whole life. It’s fair to say he’s been somewhat spoiled.  Although I shouldn’t say this, I’ll say it anyway; Nate isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer so to speak.  To give you an idea of his mental awareness: everything we do regarding construction or improvements around the farm starts with the question “how could Nate hurt himself with this?”

I turned him out with Dusty the next day thinking all would be fine. It wasn’t. Nate is also a colossal weenie so when the rest of the herd left for the back pastures he had a major meltdown and thought that rearing, bucking and galloping around the small paddock was a brilliant idea.  Dusty followed along in his tirade up and down the hill at a full gallop. I wasn’t thrilled to see her racing around after her recent injury either.  Oh, and that was the end of the boot for that day.

We’ve been treating this abscess since last Friday and today is Thursday.  It’s been a fun week to say the least. The abscess finally drained or I thought it did and the farrier reattached his shoe yesterday.  He and Dusty got to join the herd much to their delight and the herd refused to come in last night.  Which I’m sure was Dusty’s idea. Today as I rode past I saw him pointing his toe and not putting weight on the hoof so when I got back from the store I hiked out to the pasture.  I checked him out and took him for a walk. He was absolutely fine and trotted off beautifully. I swear they are going to kill me with stress.

The only good thing that happened this week is that I managed to ride Blue and worked on some things with him.  I can’t wait until my daughter gets back next week. Hopefully, no one else will require a vet call.

Until next time

Quote for Today

If a horse stands on you it’s because you’re in the way.

I thought this was very interesting and thought you might too.  I hope the video works. Sorry I don't know how to delete the advertisement in the beginning.



TODAY
TODAY   |  May 06, 2013

Med students taught bedside manner using horses

For America’s next generation of doctors, bedside manner can fall by the wayside in the first few years of medical school. But one doctor in Arizona is hoping to change that by offering a first-of-its-kind class using horses to instill compassion. NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman reports. 

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Nosy Horses

As I was heading out Sunday afternoon I pulled into the driveway that leads to the backfield to see 

what the herd was up to.  Our horses never cease to amaze me in that they can find the most 

mundane things to amuse themselves.  I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures.  The gate 

leading to the field was locked and I didn’t have the key with me so the pictures are taken from far 

away. Even with the telescopic adjustment it seems they aren’t up close and personal enough.  If I 

was more agile I might have climbed the fence and walked in but my fence – hopping days are 

over.

Sami - The first one to investigate the newly dragged arena

Seems he just needed a fresh palette to show off his artistic talents

"Hi Mellon, want to play with me and Grady"

Nate checking out the interesting new playpen

Sami sampling the all-you-can-eat-grass-buffet. I guess it's true, the  grass is always greener  on the other side of the fence.

Blue never gets involved with their silly antics

 Until next time

Quote for Today

There on the tips of fair fresh flowers feedeth he
How joyous is his neigh
There in the midst of sacred pollen hidden all hidden he
How joyous is his neigh
    - Navajo Song

Dusty’s Lameness Diagnosis

Dusty is not speaking to me right now so I had to use this older photo of her

Yesterday Dusty walked out lame again in the morning.  Lucky for her, our vet was scheduled for a visit to administer the remaining vaccinations. She came out of the catch pen sound and jogged ok.  That figures.  But standing on the crossties while getting the x-ray equipment set up, she developed a slight pulse in her right front. It seems walking in the paddock reduced her lameness and the pulse in her foot, but standing exacerbated it again. Hmm...  

Dusty has had laminitis in both front hooves and has foundered also.  I’m always apprehensive each Spring waiting to see if she’ll have a reoccurrence of either condition. Our vet took an x-ray of her hoof/foot and found some astounding results. Originally, her coffin bone rotation was 6 degrees for one foot and 9 degrees for the other.  Well, her x-rays showed that she is almost totally back to normal.  Apparently, our farrier is a genius/miracle worker.  Thank you Tyler!

I’ve read a lot about coffin bones and my understanding has been that once you have a rotation of the coffin bone it may not get worse but it's usually difficult to get much improvement afterward.  I’m not educated in many things concerning the hoof just the basics of anatomy.  So I may have interpreted things incorrectly.  I didn’t have much hope that her coffin bone would ever return to its original position.  Glad I was wrong.

The vet thought that, along with the potential for a slight flare-up of laminitis due to the spring grass coming up, perhaps since her toe was a little overgrown it could be contributing to her lameness.  Our farrier is due today to shoe her and a few of the others.  Just to be safe, she's back on a bit of bute for a few days, some isoxsuprine for a month, and a grazing muzzle (sorry Dusty!) for the rest of the year. So hopefully by the weekend her lameness will be a thing of the past.  She’s not very happy with us right now about the muzzle, but better safe than sorry.  So she can be as annoyed at me as she likes but as my mother used to say “it’s for your own good!”  (I always hated when she said that, by the way, even if she was right.)

Until next time

Quote for Today

Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.

Nothing Much Here

 

"Dusty"

 

 

 

There’s nothing much going on here.  I rode Dusty last Friday for a few minutes.  Unfortunately, she was head-bobbing lame so I got off quickly.  The thing that boggles my mind was that she stood like a statue at the mounting block, I got on and she didn’t move until I asked her to go.  Now, in my book, if I was hurting--and she definitely was--I certainly would have put up some sort of commotion to keep someone from getting on my back.  This is just one of the reasons she always has me baffled.  I asked her for a trot and she would have kept going if I wanted her to.  But once I saw how off she was we ended and I dismounted. 

The soreness seemed to be higher up in her stifle maybe, so she had the week off.  Which was just as well because I picked up a wicked cold somewhere and was down for the count, too.  Dusty doesn’t seem to be lame anymore which I’m happy about.  I’m starting to feel better but don’t think I’ll be riding this weekend until my chest clears up.  The thing that annoys me the most is being sick when the weather was so beautiful last week.  But then, it’s only a week and there will be more time to ride soon enough!  

Hope you all had a good week and got in lots of riding or time working with your horses.

Until next time

Quote for Today

The magic of your horse you are sure of... your maladies a cure of... doctors should prescribe horses, I guess they just don't fit in those pesky little bottles.

American Ingenuity At Its Best

 

THIS is why this country is so great...the wonderful, creative, 
THINKING people of this nation...gotta love 'em! 



For all of us who think that there are too many rules...or just like a 
chuckle. The 

farmer was denied a permit to build a horse shelter. So he builds a giant ‘
Table and Chairs’, which don't need a permit.

I LOVE THIS!

Until next time

Quote for Today
"Any problem can be solved with a little ingenuity."
MacGyver

 

.

 

And So It Begins…

 

Mr. Blue

"Sorry no work today can't you see I'm trying to take a nap!"

Spring is officially in the air and it’s time I started riding consistently again.  This past weekend I decided that Blue and Dusty should start getting back in shape after being virtually on vacation for the winter.  

  
Blue, who hasn’t been ridden all winter and has been an eating machine at the hay nets, is very out of shape and dare I say a little on the pudgy side. Much to his dismay that’s all about to change.  As soon as the grass comes up, Mr. Blue will be sporting a grazing muzzle.

As for riding, Blue’s definitely not a push-button pony. He knows his aids well enough.  Whether he chooses to listen is another thing entirely.  Blue is never dangerous or malicious, but he can be lazy.  And if you let him get bored he will use that excuse to amuse himself at your expense.  He also has an extensive bag of tricks in his arsenal.

As for riding this weekend, we’ve starting back slow because he is overweight and out of shape.  I didn’t want to put him on the longe because circles might be too hard on his joints right now.  Instead, we walked, working on basic steering and bending.  Blue has a tendency to become stiff and tense when the aids are applied (they mean work!) so we've decided to start from the very beginning and working on just getting him to relax and stretch rather than ball up and get ready to resist the non-work we were planning to do. 

When we first started out Blue began by counter-bending and popping his shoulder to the inside. This is his way of letting you know before you even begin that he doesn't feel like doing all of that bending and collecting hard work you probably have in mind. Little did he know I had no intention of doing any of that stuff. My plan was to beat him at his own game. He’s a very strong horse and there is no sense fighting with him. Instead, all I worked on was getting a soft, gentle bend in his neck to the inside with an opening/leading rein. I didn’t care where he went as long as he kept the bend. To avoid the temptation of neck-reining or leading him out to the rail with my outside rein, I just dropped it completely. I actually put my hand on my outside knee so I wouldn’t inadvertently use it.  There was no seat direction from me--only a relaxed following seat; no leg cues either. Just the pressure and release of the opening inside rein to guide him.
  

He corkscrewed a few times but I just led him across the arena, changed direction, etc., and eventually he caught on. He softened his entire body, stretched his head and neck down and sighed. We made a few impressive 20-meter circles with just the inside rein to steer by in either direction and ended with that for the day. I was surprised by how much riding I was able to finesse out of him with just the pressure and release of a single inside opening rein--no neck rein, no indirect rein, no special leg aids other than riding him forward, etc. By the end he was soft, relaxed through his topline, stretching down long and low, tracking up with no resistance anywhere. It was a totally new Blue.  It was surprisingly EASY!

As I said Blue knows his basic cues and if he’s being difficult I know I can make him do what I want. This year, however, I want to try a different type of riding with him.  I would rather he be light and willing, enjoy his job and look forward to our rides.  So we’re starting with the basics as if he’s a green horse and sort of re-training him to a different mindset.  It will take time and patience and I’m hoping he will enjoy his riding time more than he has in the past.  Not that he’s ever done any heavy lifting. I haven’t ridden him much at all through the years so it will be a learning experience for both of us. Who knows, he might even look forward to seeing me when I show up to ride in the future.

Until next time

Quote for Today

A horse is an animal not a machine and is only as good as it's rider.