What's Up Wednesday

 

Okay let's see... What all happened last week... Al was flatting lightly and awaiting a visit with the vet when we last left off. Of course, earlier on the day the vet was coming this happened:

And then a little bit later THIS happened:

Fortunately, the very kind man that put the fence up for me a couple of years ago was available the same day this happened to fix it back up for me. But boy am I flush out of money this month now! Sheesh. Of course, despite the good luck of being able to get it fixed right away, the timing was as you would imagine. My fence fixer arrived only moments before the vet pulled in. So needless today, we did the ridden part of the exam with a little chemical assistance. 

The bonus to that is whatever unsoundness I've been feeling would be exaggerated and speed up the exam. So that actually worked out pretty well. While I was convinced what I was feeling was up high and probably some kind of muscle strain, turns out, I was wrong. (I'll admit when I'm wrong! And buckle up because this issue will prove me wrong on more than one occasion.) 

Cute photo of Al to break up the text...

So despite my hypothesis on what I was feeling, turns out, he blocked sound right at the foot. What's interesting about this is that this has happened once before when he was feeling NQR. At that time, we were fighting with that dermatitis on that leg and I was 100% convinced that's what was hurting him. He's been known to go full on three legged lame for a tiny skin abrasion, so it wasn't ridiculous of me to assume this. However, at this point, we have the dermatitis cleared up (though there is a pesky line of scar tissue that I can't quite seem to get ride of entirely). So that's not longer a reasonable explanation. 
After blocking, the next step was to investigate. Now, we already know that Al has a very upright heel on the inside of this leg. When I got him, both legs had inside heels that were kind of squished upward. This is pretty common with stallions. Often once they're gelded their stance changes and their heels drop down to match their counterparts. Which did happen on the right side for the most part. But did not on this left leg. This is something my farrier and vet have been working on together, but we're going to have to get more aggressive in our collective efforts. Likely he'll be getting shoes back on. (He's been barefoot since last fall because of the quarter crack up front. Jury is out on if we'll shoe all the way around or maybe just behind, weird as that may seem.) So that was the starting point, he blocked sound to the foot and has the heel issue. But what else might we find? So next we did x-rays. The normal shots for balance all looked good, nothing extraordinary of note. But when doc x-rayed the coffin bone, we found a bit of an anomaly. Not likely the cause of his soreness or anything, but might explain a little of why the heel is the way it is. So, the coffin bone as viewed from above is sort of crescent shaped. The two ends should be more or less the same length and width. But on Al's foot, the side where his heel is compressed has a stubby end. It's shorter and wider. I'm calling it his Nemo fin. Other than it's odd shape, there's no issues though. It's not jagged or broken or anything terrible like that. So we moved on to ultrasound. This was also mostly unremarkable. There was a bit of fluid that is slightly irregular, but matches on the other side, so we're not worried about that. Overall, it's good news in that there's nothing major going on in there other. We are hopeful that getting the heel situation worked out should fix our issues. He's on some meds to help him get to feeling better and my vet and farrier are going to conference about next steps for our next farrier appointment. That should happen soon as he's coming due anyway. He had the weekend mostly off, we tack walked and hand walked. I hopped on Tuesday to see where we were at, and he felt about the same. So after a few laps each direction at the trot, we went back to walking. Today though, he actually did feel a lot better. Again, I just did a few laps each way. We'll ease back into things. But hopefully we're moving in the right direction. 

Shiny got to have a shockwave while the vet was out, which she really seems to benefit from. She's feeling good for the most part, but doc still thinks she's too fat. Not sure exactly what else to do, short of actually starving her... But I did chat with my morning helper about how much hay he's giving her in the morning. Hopefully that will have an impact? I dunno. You always hear about horses that are hard keepers, but no one prepares you for horses that are too easy to keep. They're just as difficult! 

Eros is perfect though! Okay well, yes, Eros is also fat. Apparently all my horses are fat. EVERYONE is on a diet. Should help with the hay bill though I guess? But otherwise he's doing just fine. He still comes out pretty stiff but once he's cantered he feels much better. He's also still very concerned about the woods, but he's not quite as jumpy as he was last week. I can't say I blame him really what with the bear sighting and all. But it would be nice if I could get some true inside bend once in awhile... Ha. Despite his inattention to me, he's been wonderful to jump. No torpedos and he's jumping pretty well. 

I haven't jumped anyone yet this week. I'm thinking maybe tomorrow, but we'll have to see how the timing works out. I finally have the guy coming to rebuild my fridge. I've been without a working refrigerator for almost a month now. I'm getting so tired of canned soup and gas station sandwiches... Very much looking forward to modern living again! (What a summer huh? First the truck, then the fridge, and the fence, and the Al foot...)

Thankfully, I had some braiding jobs last week, and I have many this weekend so I have some money coming in to help pay for all of these inconveniences. 

Wednesday night

Thursday Night

Friday Night

Last weekend was our state associations big medal finals. So that's what the above were done for. This coming weekend is a smaller associations finals which focuses on lower levels. It's super cute, and very well attended. Last year I nearly died having eleven horses to do each night. Thankfully I have a few less this year. But Friday will be a challenge because I have seven to do at FOUR separate locations. It's cool though. I've got all the good snacks and bought high octane soda to keep me going all night long. Plus you know... all the $$$. That's generally a good motivator. I'm toying with the idea of offering myself as tribute to the other braiders for New England Finals. Never hurts to pad the bank account, and it's only about an hour from me. We'll see. 

That's about it from here. I shall leave you with the cutest photo of Rita every taken: