Spring Cleaning, Spring Cracking, and Swamps

I really had a chuckle reading my Facebook newsfeed today. A few of my friends are in Florida, and I follow some equine publishing companies that are down in Wellington right now, covering the horse shows and events. All of them posted statuses complaining of how "freezing" it is down there. I checked the weather for that area and saw that it was 60 degrees. Oh my, what a bunch of comedians. Today it was about 45 here, but nice and sunny, and we were all talking about how lovely and warm it was!!

The feeling of "warmth", no matter how subjective, means that Spring Cleaning Fever kicked in and all of a sudden, I could not stand to look at the clutter of grooming stuff on my shelf at the barn. Lucy's first aid kit was scattered about from needing the various goops, gauzes, and powders almost on a daily basis after her accident, and though I've looked at that stuff for months now, today I simply could not leave it there any longer. Her brush box, which had collected about an inch of dirt and hair in the bottom of it, HAD to be bleached and scrubbed out. I accomplished all of that, along with the normal daily chores, and felt so much better. My house, though? STILL A MESS :)

Lucy saw the chiropractor today. This is the second time this particular chiro has come out and I am even more impressed than I was last time. She spent an entire hour working on Lucy, and split her time between watching Lucy move on a lunge line, doing stretches, manipulating her joints and muscles, and doing some massage. Lucy tried to like it, she really did. There were a few moments where she relaxed and let Mariya do her thing but she was mostly skeptical about being poked and prodded.

Mariya said her hind end was a lot better than last time she was out, but she still had a lot of soreness and stiffness. She listened closely to my accounts of Lucy's behaviour and said that the saddle fit issue could fix all of that, but if it doesn't, and if she doesn't get better after today's adjustment, to have the vet out to flex her and watch her go on the lunge line. So, that is what I will do. My vet is coming out in early April to do Spring shots and I hope he can also look at Lucy to avoid having them out twice.

In the mean time, on Tuesday I have trainer #1 coming out to have a look at Lucy. Trainer #2 won't be able to come down for a while, but I don't mind waiting for her as she is a very accomplished eventer and dressage rider, and she has a super reputation, especially with hot TB's. Trainer #1 is a lovely dressage rider and I am looking forward to meeting with her.

The rest of the afternoon was spent all on Cairo. Kenny and I took her for a 2.5 hour hike and she was in Heaven! We got lost in the woods, ended up tromping through a swamp, and I had to pull out my phone and bring up Google Maps to figure out where we were!

I wasn't kidding about the swamp!

checkboxes

On Friday after work I decided to handwalk Lucy down to the trail head behind the barn. I miss trail riding terribly and though I know it wouldn't be smart to dive right back into it before doing more work in the ring first, I don't see the harm in at least walking her around back there so she can get used to the sights and sounds of the woods again.

Well, she was a complete and utter fruit bat, spooking and snorting at things that did not exist, looking freaked out and bug-eyed half the time:

So I imagine we will need to do that a few more times before I can even think of riding her out there, and then for the first few rides I am going to ask Kenny to walk with us, then probably ask a friend to ride out with us.

hanging out with her hay net that is almost the size of her!

 The last thing I wanted to do for Lucy before getting too far under saddle with her after her accident was to have a chiropractor look at her. I was concerned about her hind end from her fall on the road when she got loose. While she hasn't shown any additional warning signs of being uncomfortable, I would rather be overcautious than not cautious enough so I had her adjusted this morning. As I expected, she is still body sore but the chiro said not to keep her out of work. Her turnout area is so small that she doesn't move around much during the day, and standing around in the cold air won't help her muscles at all. I was told to do lots of lateral work with her (haunches in, bending circles, serpentines, asking her to step sideways under herself with her hind end, etc). I also am supposed to back her up to get her to stretch her hind end under herself, and walk/trot over poles to get her to pick her hind legs up and stretch out her SI area.

She also got her feet done this weekend. Her hind feet look atrocious from not having shoes on. We already found out over the summer that she just cannot handle being barefoot, but after her accident she could not hold her hind leg up to be shod because of all of her painful road rash, so I was forced to keep her barefoot. Her feet held up well for the first few weeks but then we got snow, and standing around in all the moisture really did a number on those hind hooves. It's nothing we haven't come back from before, though! I am just glad she healed up so well and had no problems standing to be shod.

On Saturday, I went and visited Lauren and her horse Charlie. Charlie has turned into a bit of a brute since moving up to New England and Lauren has her hands full. Maddy and I are going to visit again next weekend and help her work through some of his naughtiness. You can read more about the visit on Lauren's blog, but here's a little teaser of what went down:

 

Tonight I had a pretty good ride on Lucy, who had two days off and was feeling fresh. I rode in the western saddle and a rope halter bridle again, and Maddy helped me work with her a bit. We tried a new tactic to work on her little outbursts in hopes of making her into a self-sustaining horse. When she threw a tantrum, sped up, broke her gait, etc, I was supposed to sit on my butt in the saddle, reach down and pull the outside rein so that she turned into the wall of the indoor, push her over with my inside leg, push her around with my outside leg, switch direction, and walk off like nothing ever happened. It worked pretty well because she was never able to get any momentum. The idea is for the horse to be able to go around the ring on a loose rein, and both self-regulate their speed without changing anything, and also not take advantage of the "freedom". The changing of directions works like a reset button. Ideally if we were cantering along and she was bad, then we would change directions and canter off immediately, but to start we are just keeping it simple and walking off from the spin.

Hurricane Prep / Lameness Update

Oh joy, a hurricane is on the way. It seems like Rhode Island is going to be right on the edge of the affected area and we will be much better off than New Jersey and New York, but we are still preparing for the worst. I stocked up on grain yesterday, filled the outside water tubs, soaked pelleted bedding in case I need more. I also stacked some hay in the barn. I am trying to minimize the time I'll need to spend outside in sustained winds of 50mph ;) and all of our hay and bedding is stored in a garage that isn't connected to the barn, so bringing the hay and bedding into the barn will be helpful.

I have been really struggling with Lucy's lameness, partially because she's uncomfortable but mostly because I am really so irritated that I am in this situation. I really have to question if her wellbeing was taken into account during this clinic. We have jumped big jumps, galloped across fields, done clinics, events, and hunter paces back-to-back, and I have NEVER seen her lame like this. Before she went to the clinic, she would occasionally take some funky steps and I would kind of watch her for a second, wondering what was going on, but within a second she looked fine. I watched her move on Saturday and she was so incredibly sore in her right hind that when asked for a left lead canter, she immediately swapped her lead behind, unable to canter properly to the left. I asked her to trot and then pick up the canter again so that she could fix her leads but it was the same thing each time. Yesterday I rode her in the indoor and she felt much better, so I really hope we have turned a corner.

I wouldn't be as frustrated if anyone who was associated with the clinic had checked up on her, since the organizers and the person who used her knew she was lame by the end of it, but I haven't heard anything. If I had borrowed a horse and returned it lame, you can bet I would be calling, emailing, and probably sending a horsey care package! I would feel terrible.

UPDATE: The lady who borrowed her called me this afternoon and we had a nice long chat. I feel much better.

She has a chiropractor appointment this week, and another massage appointment next week. I tallied up the costs I have had to try and get her sound before EA and I am at over $200. If I am unable to do EA, I will be out another $200 between entry fees and the hotel reservation that I cannot cancel. Absolutely ridiculous, but I just really hope she feels better.

Thank you to everyone who voted for Cairo in the photo contest. We are still in first place! Voting continues until the 31st so if you haven't voted and wouldn't mind, please check out the contest :) The link is here.

Here are a few photos from this week - we had some beautiful warm weather so I took Cairo to the beach.

an exceptionally beautiful jelly fish that washed up on the beach

Cairo telling a young black lab who's boss

She met a little hound friend and they were instantly in love

taking a wave to the face! what a beast.

Lucy rearranges her paddock

Lucy's chiro appt was yesterday. He texted me a few times during the exam, since I was stuck at work, to ask me questions like when her teeth were done and what saddle pad(s) I have been using. I like this chiropractor because he doesn't just make the horse go pop and then call it a day. He takes everything into account, right down to the horse's tootsies. He reported that she only tried to kick him once (sigh), her neck was sore, her SI area was very tight, Lauren's saddle doesn't fit at all, and my saddle is going to have to be replaced in the future.

Uhhhhhhhhhh...

Ok, well this was a lot to digest on a Monday after a very long meeting at work. Poor Lauren, but at least my saddle fits well with the help of the fleece 1/2 pad I usually ride in. As for the kicking, this is nothing new and she doesn't try to kick the person, but she does tend to kick out slightly when her hind end is being messed with (I suspect she's just uncomfortable). I hope this was the case with the chiro because I really hate when she's naughty around professionals who are trying to help her. As for the neck soreness, that was confusing until I got to the barn after work to find Lucy down on one knee, butt up in the air, head twisted to the side with her left cheek on the ground wedged under the fence to get at the grass on the other side. "Well, this explains a lot," I thought.

I think I will get a second opinion on my saddle before do anything drastic. I cannot afford a saddle change right now and while the chiro assured me it was perfectly fine to ride in with the half pad, I want to plan for a change if that's what has to happen so that I'm not caught broadsided like I was last time (similar to what just happened to Lauren, except I had no saddle to ride in). I have a fabulously talented saddle fitter and if there's a way to fit this saddle to Lucy, even if I need to adjust the tree, that would be preferable over getting a different saddle.

Then I got a really fun phone call today at work to let me know that Lucy had gotten tangled in her hay net and in her effort to free herself, she pulled down a bunch of fencing in her paddock. Luckily this is not the fencing that keeps her in her paddock; rather it surrounds a tree and some vegetation that the barn owner doesn't want the horse to get into. It's steel panel fencing and I bet she really scared herself pulling all of that down. I am so grateful that Maddy got to the barn not long after it probably happened, fixed the fencing, doctored Lucy's scratches (her LF has a nice long scrape on the outside of the cannon bone), and rigged up a better system for her hay net.

I am not really a big hay net fan but she wastes hay like it's $0.50 a bale (um, try $7/bale) and the hay net really helps to keep hay off the ground and in her belly, instead. This causes a few problems, though, because I don't want her twisting her head to get at the hay, so I leave the hay net as low as I can without risking her getting tangled in it. Clearly this backfired today because she DID get tangled in it, so it's going to have to get rigged up a bit higher.

I just can't win!

Good news is that after work, I went to bring the horses in and feed them, and I let Lucy have a quick free lunge in the indoor before I gave her dinner. She rolled in her favourite spot, had a nice trot, then took off in a bucking and leaping fit up and down the arena that lasted a solid two minutes as I stood there with one eyebrow raised and an amused smile across my face.

Thank god I didn't decide to ride that beast today.

cash makes the horse world go round

Back from the brink of insanity/poverty thanks to my new job, I am now able to afford some extra bonuses for Lucy the Princess. The chiropractor is coming out tomorrow to give her an adjustment and also check the fit of both saddles (Lauren's and mine), and I have gone and signed myself up for a rather pricey lesson with Niall Quirke. I think we learned so much from the Eric Smiley clinic, and it completely changed the way I ride (for the better!) and I hope to gain as much knowledge from this lesson with Niall.

We've been going on lots of hacks, doing some ring work, and finishing every ride with a nice hop over one of the smaller XC jumps. She has been going so well, and she seems very content.

out exploring, bug free

Today we had a really nice, really long trail ride with Maddy and Pretty (an Arabian mare). We walked through the trails to a nice park that we visit sometimes. This particular park has some softball/baseball fields and today they were having a game. No problem for Lucy, but Pretty went into insta-Arab mode, tail flagged, eyes bugged out of her head, ears on high alert. We didn't have any problems until we were past the softball field, because three little girls apparently really wanted to pet the ponies, but instead of asking us, they stalked us through one of the fields, trailing about 50' behind us. It was like a game of red light/green light because when I'd turn around and look at them, they'd be walking, but when I would return to looking forward, they started running toward us. Understandably, Pretty could not handle that nonsense. I turned around quickly and caught them running toward the horses, and I ended up taking Lucy over to them and giving them a gentle lecture on safety around horses (i.e. DON'T RUN UP FROM BEHIND THEM!) and then let them all pet Lucy's shoulder.

After the three girls went back to their parents and left us alone, Pretty relaxed considerably and the rest of the ride went smoothly. When we got back to the barn, I pulled Lucy's mane. It was right on the edge of out-of-control but I pulled it really short, so I hopefully will not have to pull it for another few months.

almost done, giving my hands and her neck a break!

In other horse-related news, Kenny's dad got us these awesome aftermarket mirrors for the truck that are specially designed for trailering. They come standard on most of the bigger trucks but Kenny's Silverado 1500 had regular mirrors on it that made seeing around the trailer very difficult. The new mirrors are much bigger in size, have a fish-eye mirror on the bottom, and telescope outward to allow the driver to see as much as possible even while towing a trailer.

Cairo likes them, too.

Now we just need a trailer...ahhh.

Lucy gets treated to a spa week

Lu has been working very hard, and she's been an excellent sport about everything. I decided it was time to treat her to a bit of primping. :)

Kenny and Lucy earlier in the week. She is so awesome.

What a good horse.

She got her feet done yesterday, which is a normal part of horse ownership, as it happens every six weeks. But today, she was adjusted by Dr. Steven Katz, a local chiropractor who is great with the horses, even sensitive flowers like Lucy. He also did a bit of muscle release/massage with her, and checked the fit of my saddle and Lauren's saddle. I haven't had my saddle's fit checked since I bought it last November, so it was waaaay overdue. The sorest points he found on her were her SI/hip area and her neck. Her SI joint has always been a bad spot for her, which probably stems from her time as a racehorse. Going from zero to forty miles per hour in a few strides puts a lot of stress on a horses hind end and after doing it for two years while still so young, the damage doesn't just disappear magically.

Dr. Katz doesn't need any fancy gizmos to do his magic. He comes equipped
with a couple milk crates to stand on, a clipboard, and a pen. Here is Lucy
waiting patiently with Cairo next to her waiting not-so-patiently for Dr. Katz
to come back inside after adjusting the flocking of my saddle.

Luckily for Lucy, Dr. Katz knows his stuff and he isn't put off by sensitive mares (ahem) and in a short amount of time, he had her feeling much better. He got some great adjustments in her neck and was able to release a lot of tension in her hind end. I always love watching him work with his patients because of the way he gets the horse to use their own weight to adjust themselves.

After Lu was all done, Dr. Katz posed for a photo with her. "She has a BLOG?"
he asked with a smile. Why yes, yes she does. Is that weird?

Next Monday, she has an appointment to get her teeth done. She is still young enough to need to be done every six months. Last time she was seen by the dentist, she had some sharp points and he had to remove some caps. We'll see what he says about her this time around!

Between the pedicure, body work, and dentist visit, she should be feeling quite wonderful! She deserves it, though :)

Lauren also had a great ride on Sunday. She and I went out on a trail ride together. It was supposed to be a "snow" ride but by the time we actually got out on the trails, the snow was almost all gone! We had a good time anyway, and after we got back to the barn I put the horse I rode (my little project Appy -- I really need to update about him, too) away and she had a bit of fun with Lu out in the field. It turned into somewhat of a Rambo commercial:

see? SNOW!

I also need to say a HUGE thank you to anyone who voted for me in the Tredstep Facebook contest. I won! Thank you for your support!

Make way for hormones!

One of the boarders at the barn was feeding his horse Poulin MVP and had to stop because it made his horse nuts. He had a bit left over and asked if I wanted to see if Lucy liked it. I decided it couldn't hurt (it's just vitamins and minerals) so I have been giving her a handful with each meal starting this past Saturday. Last night was the first day I've ridden her since I started giving it to her and she was like a bottled up rocket. I expected to get on and do at least WT, and hopefully some canter, but she was so UP that she could hardly concentrate enough to trot without bouncing around. So we spent almost 40 minutes walking, doing leg yields and shoulder in/out to get her attention, and then at the very end I got a few nice circles at the trot and we called it a day. It has to be the new grain that's doing it; nothing else has changed and she has been getting turned out full days in one of the bigger paddocks, too, so you'd think she'd be calmer. Needless to say, no more MVP for that horse!

I think she is also in heat. She is my first mare so this whole hormone thing is new to me, but she did not like me around her hind end last night, and seemed very sensitive.

One of the horses at the barn was having a bad colic last night when I got there, and the vet had to come out. Things were not looking good for a while, but luckily a dose of banamine and some fluids from the vet had him looking and feeling much better. He is one of my favourite horses at the barn and everyone at the barn was rooting for him. So, yay banamine!! He was looking much better this morning, too.

I also was able to buy a new tube of banamine to have on hand for future emergencies since the vet was there treating the other horse. The one I had bought when I first got Lucy was used on another horse at the barn a few weeks ago. I have felt uneasy about not having it on hand ever since, so I am really glad I had a chance to get a fresh tube last night.

This morning, Dr. Katz the chiropractor was at the barn bright and early to do an adjustment. As soon as he stepped towards her back end, she pinned her ears, tried to BITE me as I was standing there holding her, and swished her tail. Hello, hormones!

Despite her wanting to eat the poor guy, he was able to do a great adjustment on her, and said he was really happy with her progress so far. He said that she is 50% less sore than the last time he was here, and he's happy with her muscle development. Her pelvis was not nearly as out-of-whack, and she reacted much less to his palpations down her spine.

At the end we did some stretching exercises with her and her neck got a nice adjustment. She got some treats and then she was happy again. Silly mare!