What's Up Wednesday

 

Lots to talk about this week! Though not much media... sorry. Winter is tough for media. The vet was out Friday and he saw three of the four (because of course they all needed seeing). So let's chat about all the horses and I'll include their visits as we go through.

Note her swollen face... 

We will start with Shiny since she had the most dramatic week. Things have been okay with her, but not amazing. After she had gotten all of her injections several weeks back, she felt amazing. Right up until she didn't. So the vet saw her again, and we decided on a course of Equioxx and continued work. She improved to some extent, but that improvement kind of went stagnant. She just feels kind of stuck and canter transitions have gotten incredible difficult for her. We've seen this on and off throughout our time together, but I'd really like to figure it out and get it resolved. Of course, Shiny heard the vet was coming so she decided to make things more interesting. Thursday, she had a little incident. She was in her stall and kind of made a mare face at a horse walking past on his way to turnout. She picked the wrong horse to make faces at though, and he kicked out at her. We thought he may have actually gotten her as she wound up with a cut on her face and bloody nose. Upon careful review of the security camera (which happens to be placed in the perfect spot for a good view of this nonsense) we discovered that the horse was no where near her. What actually happened was that she swung her head up so quickly she actually hit it herself on the top of the door. Her nosebleed continued into the afternoon very lightly, but still bleeding nonetheless. I wasn't too freaked out about it as I've seen that happen before, but the barn manager was worried so she put a call in to the vet just for a quick opinion. He agreed with me, that it was nothing too concerning, but that she needed a few days off work so the bleeding wouldn't get worse (or start again once it stopped). This made our actual Friday appointment a little less productive since she couldn't be evaluated under saddle. But doc has seen her enough recently to get a handle on what I was experiencing. After some palpating and stretching, we decided to go ahead and try a little shockwave. She would get the rest of the weekend off anyway. (Saturday the barn closed due to a big snowstorm, and I figured I'd give her Sunday for the nose still.) I started her back to work Tuesday. She was pretty wild since she had nearly a full week off but I wasn't sure I saw much improvement. Riding her today confirmed it. So I don't think the shockwave was useful for her. I have her back on the vet list for his next visit. Sigh. Horses.

Pammon had the most interesting visit with the vet. He was due for a scan to see how the leg is healing, but doc also wanted to see him trot a little and do some flexions. It was mostly all great news. The leg is healing really well, and interestingly enough, now that he's done more healing, it is obvious that there a lot more bony involvement than we first thought. So all that time off was definitely good for him. Things are continuing to heal well, especially the bony part, so that's great news. He trotted sound both before and after his flexions. So all things are moving in a positive direction. BUT (there's always a but) doc made an interesting discovery while watching Pammon trot this visit. One that likely explains ALL of the problems we've been having from the soft tissue injuries to the back soreness, even that time he fell down with me a couple springs ago. It turns out, Pammon has no idea how to trot correctly. He doesn't engage his core at all when he's trotting. Like, not even a little. He has so much movement through his back, which I always thought was a good thing. But apparently, it is not. Doc said the movement I feel is excessive. Like he's just throwing himself forward, not actually engaging his muscles. Very interesting! Imagine being nearly 15 years old only to be told you don't know how to function properly? Long story somewhat shorter, we have to retrain his body. So while I had hoped we could start trotting soon, that's been put off for now. Instead, he needs to go in the Equicore bands three days a week for awhile still at the walk. We had our first session today. I made them pretty loose today to start, but despite that, I could feel him carrying himself differently immediately. So I'm hopeful they will really help him. It would be wonderful if we could get him working properly so maybe he will actually be a useful riding horse again. Fingers crossed!

Eros had a fun week! I figured I should get him good and lame for the vet appointment. So I finally let him have the free lunge that he's been begging for. He's been really shy about horses passing him, and has just felt kind of electric for awhile now. So I finally allowed him to have a romp in the indoor by himself. He was very grateful and had tons of fun. Of course he was kind of unsound when I got on him later in the day... Part of me questioned if I'd done the right thing letting him play, but honestly, his mental health is just as important as his physical. And that playtime had really made him happy. He has been completely relaxed and quiet ever since. Anyway, after I rode that day, I put the magnets on his front ankles and then put the back on track quick wraps over them. Put his BOT sheet with neck cover on him too, and left him like that for a few hours while I finished riding the others. When I took him out the following day for our lesson, he felt pretty great! Not perfect. Winter Eros is never perfect. But much better than he's felt in awhile. (Figures, since the vet was coming...) Since he felt great, and I still wanted to make sure he wasn't too sound for the vet, I went ahead with my lesson on him. He was fantastic, actually staying pretty quiet and only half heartedly dragging me to anything. I again wrapped him up in all the therapies after our ride and left him that way for awhile. Can't hurt anyway! He was his usual "winter Eros" sound for the vet which is what I wanted him to see. He said we could inject the coffin joint again, but after we talked for a bit we decided to hold off on that until closer to spring. You can't do that joint over and over and over forever so I'd rather spread them out as much as possible if we can, as long as he's comfortable. Doc thought that would be just fine. We also decided to try him on some meloxicam in the meantime. I'm not super sure that's making a big difference for him, but he did feel pretty good today. So maybe it is? I'll keep him on it a bit longer and see what we think. 

Thankfully, this guy didn't need to visit the vet this time! (Good boy Al!) We've been having so much fun together! With our new bit, things are going much better with our flat work. I still lose the contact here and there, but I'm able to get it back pretty quickly. He's still ridiculous about the far end of the ring (monsters live there, clearly) but as long as I'm strong in my convictions that he must use the whole ring, he usually obliges. And some mornings I get lucky and they're rigging a horse at that end, so we can have a lovely spook free ride. No shame in that game friends! Ha! I had a lesson with a couple of fellow ammys on Friday. It was a good group for me. One lady has a new (super cool) mare that she's just trying to figure out right now and the other has just started riding again after having a baby. What's fun, is we're all pretty capable riders so the flatwork is advanced and fun, as are the courses, but we're all in a kind of starting over phase, so the jumps don't get too big yet. I think we jumped around 2'6"-2'9". I'm looking forward to trying Al over some bigger fences, but right now, I want to make sure all the aids work and we're both confident before we try that. Anyway, what's exactly what we got from this lesson. I made some mistakes, and Al made some too, but overall, it went really well! He never gets upset even when things go a little bad. He doesn't get offended if I find the deepest chocolately chip nor when I think the flyer is GREAT idea! He's just like, sure, let's go! He's just the most honesty dude around. I stupid excited for this journey with him. 

In doggo news, the kids are getting along much better. I even caught them spooning during our snow day:

The house training is still pretty bumpy, but the weather hasn't really been the best for working on that. Saturday we got dumped on with over a foot of snow. It's also been really cold for the last many weeks, pretty much never getting above 25 and usually staying much below. The last couple of days we've had a reprieve (actually got over 40 today!) before the next round of precipitation heads this way Friday. I'm doing my best to fully enjoy the warmer days before they're gone!

How P is getting through winter.

Pia had her annual check up on Monday. I kind of dread these as she gets older... She's been having some troubles lately. She walks with a limp, and there have been a few times where she just starts crying. I run to her every time to see what's wrong, but nothing palpates sore anywhere at all. And after I give her a snack, it's like it never happened. So we had some things to talk about with the vet obviously. She found that P has some pretty good arthritis in her elbows, but overall she was in pretty good shape. We did senior bloodwork which showed some elevated liver levels and her urine test showed some calcium crystals. So we're treating her with an antibiotic for now and we'll see if those two issues improve. We're going back in two weeks for a recheck and they'll x-ray her bladder then too to make sure she doesn't have a stone. She also went on some Gabbapentin (sp?) for her arthritis, and that made a HUGE difference for her. She's only been on it a couple days, and she's already getting around much better. So things are going pretty okay for her! At 15, we celebrate all her good days!

As for me, I took full advantage of my snow day on Saturday. It was nice that the barn actually closed so I didn't feel obligated or guilty about having to get out there. Instead, I let the snow fall outside and spent the day baking things and playing with art apps on my ipad. 

Said baking. Brownies (pre-baked in the photo) and Chex Mix

Said art. I keep seeing people selling custom horse faces 
that are super easy to do. Maybe I should try and sell something like these?
Gotta fund the Eskadron purchase I'm dying to make afterall... 

What's new with you guys? Have you been riding? Funding the vet's retirement? Do any baking?