the healing process

Lucy took her 5 day sentence of stall rest relatively well; at least I had thought she did until another boarder told me today that she caught Lucy body-slamming herself against her stall door. I am not sure if that's an exaggeration or not but I am disappointed that I wasn't told before today, because I could have given her some slow-release sedatives to make the confinement easier on her. I didn't want to drug her and she seemed to be doing so well but obviously body-slamming is not conducive to "taking it easy" and I am just glad she didn't do herself more harm.

Her wounds continue to heal well. I changed her bandages on Thursday night, and again this morning. Her fetlock surprises me each time I see it; the tissue is filling in nicely and everything looks clean and healthy. The wound on her stifle looks ok and is staying clean, but it looks ugly compared to everything else because there is no way to cover that area so it is already developing a pretty good scab. I have been gently cleaning it with betadine scrub and then treating it with Derma Gel to assure proper healing.

I took some photos of her progress each time I redressed her legs.

Thursday night, before scrubbing with Betadine:

Right front, looking much less swollen than on Monday!

left hind fetlock

left hind stifle

After disinfecting/scrubbing:

wrapped up and ready for bed!

Today after cleaning:

bandaged up again, and sporting her new cooler that I won at Equine Affaire!

Today she started turnout again. I held her on a leadrope for the first ten minutes or so in a grass paddock. When she settled down and started grazing, I unclipped the leadrope but still stayed next to her. After another ten minutes, I took a few steps away and gradually as time passed, I made my way to the fence line. This way it wasn't like, SURPRISE! YOU'RE FREE!, which probably would have resulted in a  bit of craziness. She was a really good girl and stayed quiet for the most part. Two horses returned from a trail ride and walked past her, and at that point she took a few trot steps and got a little excited, but she settled back down quickly. She looked very sound, too!!

I also picked up my saddle today, something I was procrastinating on big time. I was honestly scared to pick it up because I didn't have the courage to see what it was going to look like. To my great surprise, it actually looks wonderful. The man who worked on it, Steve Briggs from Allie's Tack and Feed, is an incredibly talented and gifted tack repair specialist. He must have worked some magic on that saddle!! Though it will always have blemishes from this accident, it looks much better than I could have hoped for.

The Equine Affaire report is coming...I have lots of video to go through still so it may take me a couple days :)

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.

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!

Reflections on yesterday

My saddle was my main concern last night. It was soaked with salt water and covered in sand. When I took a good look at it once I was at home, I kind of wanted to cry. My lovely Stubben looked like crap.

Last night was like a spa night for the saddle to make up for almost sinking it in a watery grave. I first loaded up a soft sponge with a lot of Tattersall soap and went to town on every square inch of the saddle, including under the flaps, the panels, the billets, and of course the seat. I wiped the soap off and repeated that process to make sure I got all the salt off. While the leather was still a bit damp, I coated it in Stubben's magical Hamanol. I had surveyed all of my various leather care products to plan my attack, and I decided that was probably the best bet. I let the saddle sit and soak in the Hamanol all night and this morning when I got up for work, I breathed a sigh of relief because it looked like new. Not only that, but it got a bit darker from the whole ordeal, which is an unexpected but welcome result!

This morning, I checked on Lucy before work. She was covered from ears to tail in mud, she had a smug look on her little face and overall she seemed just fine. I made sure she had enough bug spray on and put her fly mask on so she'd be protected from the bugs, which are already horrible this year, probably no thanks to all of the rain that we had this spring.

I am quite sore today but then again my horse did basically sit on my head.

My camera is still in the bag of rice. If that ever works again it will be a miracle, but I am not going to lose hope ;)

This week is going to fly by because on Friday at 5am we are leaving for Rolex! I am very much looking forward to a little vacation.

Working on suppleness

Lucy has been consistently really hard to ride to the left. She doesn't really turn, she kind of moves sideways. At first I thought she was being resistant but after last night's ride it was clear that something is way off with her (I'd suspect a few ribs are out on the left side and maybe some SI issues are present, too) and turning to the left is physically uncomfortable for her, poor girl. This explains her tendency to rush going to the left, and that whole nose-to-the-outside thing that she does. The chiro is coming out on Monday so until then we will take it easy. During our ride last night, we did a ton of circles at the trot (I don't think I stayed on the rail for more than half the length of the indoor). Everything was circles, serpentines, "snowmans" as a girl at the barn called them (start with a big circle, go across the diagonal into a medium sized circle, go across the diagonal again into a small circle, and then weave backwards through the pattern until you have traced a snowman shape), and spirals. She seemed to do really well.

My new (used) saddle is arriving today and I am pretty excited!

Also, check out what arrived in the mail today! It's the win photo from Lucy's one and only victory in December of 2008 at Philadelphia Park: