Lucy jumps!

Lauren had a fabulous schooling session with Lucy this morning. I just love watching her ride! Here are some photos:

I put Cairo in the car while Lauren rode and Cairo was not impressed. It was
quite cool out today and it wasn't raining so she was fine in the car, albeit
sad.

 

having the ground pole one stride out really helped her to think about the jump
and not just rocket off toward it.

 

she got really excited going toward the jump and was doing fancy dressage
moves all the way down the long side ;)

a bareback ride: the perfect cure for a hangover

Photos by my barn owner, Valerie :)

That's right, I've been nursing that classic "I had way too much fun and one too many martinis last night" hangover headache today. I rarely drink and by the time I was halfway through the first martini, I was feeling giddy. By the end of martini #2, I was DONE.

I didn't even know if I was going to ride today. I rode yesterday out in the fields and trails and Lucy was awesome, especially considering she had Tuesday through Thursday off because of her lameness and I wanted to also give the cut on her RH a good solid chance to heal. Yesterday it was looking really good, almost normal even, and I saddled up and off we went. She was really confident on the trails and on the way back to the barn, we made a pit-stop in one of the outer fields and had a nice brisk canter around. Going to the right, she picked up the left lead accidentally but one stride out she did the most lovely balanced flying lead change on her own initiative. What a smart girl.

So today rolled around and I didn't even get out of bed until 10:30. Then I moped around the house until 4pm. Finally I got myself in gear and went to the barn, where I then debated for two hours if I was actually going to ride. I didn't even decide until I was bringing Lucy in, and instead of just putting her in her stall, I put her on the crossties.

I was too lazy to get the saddle out of the tack room so I rode bareback :) She was great!

What is up with me staring at the ground in ALL of these photos?!

wound wars

Sheesh, isn't it crazy how a teenie tiny little cut can go bananas on a horse? Give it the right environment, the right amount of oxygen, and the right bacteria and it's like a monster has been unleashed. At least that's how I felt when I discovered that her cut had developed its own agenda the other day, and I am just glad I caught it fairly early.

After showing off the planet forming on my forehead at work all day yesterday, I went to the barn armed with lots of new creams, bandages, vet wrap, gauze, and duct tape. I was ready for war. I was at least kind enough to let Lu eat her dinner before going to town on her leg, but I bet she thought she had gotten off with no work that day. Oh, no, girly, we were about to do battle. I let her eat and then brought her into the aisle to get a good look at the cut. I scrubbed off the dirt that had accumulated that day, and here's what it looked like:

Not that terrible, and certainly better than the
night before, but I was still ready to do battle.

First I scrubbed it with the surgical scrub.
I rinsed it off with clean water and then scrubbed
some more. The scrub foamed inside of the wound
and I felt a distinct sense of satisfaction at all
the germs meeting their sudsy deaths
at that second.

After all that germ killing, the inflamed area was
bleeding quite nicely.

I slathered on a magical concoction of cortisone
cream (OTC at WalMart for $2/tube), which
serves as a steroid to fight the inflammation,
and Furazone, which helps heal the infection.

I applied a sheet of gauze padding directly
to the injury and then wrapped with sterile gauze
roll. She conveniently rested that back leg so I was
able to then wrap with with vet wrap (bright pink,
of course).

I secured everything with a piece of duct tape.
Sadly this was not pink.

And this is what it looked like today! Much
less puffy/inflamed.

Then I de-wormed her :) I am such a meanie.

I am also very happy because I trotted her out and she was totally sound. Yahoo! I am debating a nice hack today but it might be better to just give her another day off and wait til her cut has healed more. Still, it's supposed to be soooo nice today, low humidity and everything.

never a dull moment, but there's a very dull achy pain...

Lucy is quite lame. I took her out for a trail ride yesterday, which lasted only 5 minutes because it started to rain and she was like, oh hell no. That will have to be a battle for another day, I think.

We didn't even go faster than a walk on this five minute trail ride. When we returned to the barn, I took her in the indoor and trotted her around and she was very clearly ouchy on her right side. I am terrible at figuring out if it's hind end or front end lameness but maybe after work I can get some video for you all to pick apart. I gave her some bute and applied liniment to all four legs. This morning she seemed a lot better but not sound. Hopefully she tweaked something or stepped on a rock on the trails and it will blow over quickly.

She has also got a cut on her RH coronet band and it was looking ok until last night, when it looked very much like it was developing proud flesh. Umm, so not cool, Lucy. What happened was that she was being led out to her paddock late last week when she spooked at something dumb and nicked her RH with her LH hoof. It was a small cut and I cleaned it out when I got to the barn and didn't think anything of it. It seemed to be healing well and then on Sunday she re-opened it and it got a bit uglier (but nothing that required veterinary attention, still all very superficial). On Monday it looked like it was starting to scab over again and I cleaned it out well. Then yesterday it looked very puffy and granular:

I scrubbed the crap out of it and went home and posted that photo on FB and got about 15 different opinions on how to treat it (including but not limited to: Furazone is good! Furazone is bad! Corona is good! Corona is bad! Wonder Dust is good! Wonder Dust is bad!). I ended up emailing the photo to my vet because I was more confused than ever, and while he hasn't gotten back to me yet, a vet that I have on my FB friends list commented on the photo and gave me his advice.

SO.

This morning I went out to the barn before work to check on her and discovered that she is still lame but not as bad as she was yesterday. I was trying to be quick at the barn to get to work at a reasonable time, so I walked out to her paddock with a bunch of carrots, surgical scrub, betadine, and a clean sponge. I put her halter on and held her leadrope in my left hand (since she doesn't tie) and crouched down by her injured leg to have a good look. Seeing that it looked much better, I steadied myself with one knee down on the ground and poured the scrubbing solution on her leg and went to town. About three seconds later, she got me right in the forehead with her LH fetlock. I didn't have any time to react or get out of the way before she got me. I heard the impact echo in my head. OUCH!

I fell over and cried like a baby in the middle of her paddock while she stood there and gave me weird looks like, "what the hell is your problem?". Truthfully I do not think she was trying to kick me in the head. It was really more of a "you're annoying me and I want to brush you out of the way" as if I were a fly. I am pretty sure that if she really wanted to kick me, she would have used her RH and she would have aimed better and gotten me with her actual foot.

So kids, here's what we learned today:

1. do not attempt to hold the horses head while you're tending to its back end
2. do not kneel down EVER - it is almost impossible to get up and out of the way in time
3. if the horse is sensitive, have a helper pick up a front foot so that it cannot easily kick out with a back foot
4. keep a good distance away from the hind legs
5. wear a helmet to protect your head
6. do not attempt to play vet out in the paddock...this is what the cleaner barn is for.

Durrrrrr.

crazy weekend

Rhode Island celebrates "Victory Day", which commemorates the victory over Japan in 1945. Word has it that we are the only state still celebrating this day. It used to be called Victory over Japan Day but that was quite offensive to residents of Japanese descent, so it was shortened to regular old Victory Day.

Anyway, the point is that I had today off of work for Victory Day, which made this weekend one of the three-day variety.

Let's just say I made the most of my extended weekend. On Friday I stayed true to my word and took Lu out on a trail ride...by ourselves! The trails at this barn are incredible. They are flat, wide, and so welcoming. They flow around the 60 acre property in easy-to-follow loops and pass by neighbourhoods, a hidden second outdoor ring about 1/4 mile back, and a few grassy open areas. I only had half an hour to ride on Friday but I made the most of it and even let Lucy canter down one of the paths. She was a perfect lady! I was very pleased with her.

On Saturday I had another crazy jam-packed day but I squeezed in another trail ride. We explored a different loop and I can't wait to have a solid few hours to go out there and really look around.

On Sunday my friend C came to visit. Sadly it poured from dawn to dusk on Sunday so we were stuck in the indoor, but C did a fabulous job with Lucy. None of the horses got turned out because it was raining so hard, so Lucy was feeling a bit full of herself, and I think she was also a tad upset that she was being asked to actually work. She has become accustomed to her life of hunter hacks around the outdoor and cruising around the trails. Work? Pshh, who needs that nonsense?

She came around quickly and once she settled down and used her energy in a positive way, she started looking like a real dressage horse.

Today the awesomeness continued with a ride in the outdoor, as the sun had returned. I tried to take advantage of the schooling session yesterday and work on some of the techniques C had told me about. I asked a lot out of her and wanted her to be forward but not out in front of me, if that makes any sense. My barn manager took some photos for me (thanks M!!):

I am really happy with this shot because I was asking her for a simple change
at X, and this was about 1 stride out from her picking up the right lead and
it was like buttah. BUTTAH, I tell you.

Then we went for a hack in the front field and I rode her in a looser, more stretchy frame and she was awesome.

Right after I untacked her and hosed her off, the skies opened up and it rained for a solid 20 minutes. It was so nice and so refreshing. I turned Lucy out in the outdoor and she nibbled on grass, and the barn manager and I sat at the picnic table by the ring and had lunch together as the rain came down. The rain and lovely cool cross breeze felt so refreshing and I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. Did I mention I LOVE my barn?!?!?!!?

I also found time to work on some new saddle pads. One was a custom design for Karen, who had an unusual (but very original!) request:

Hampton is going to look super handsome in this pad. I hope you can totally "rock" the XC course with it!

I did a few others but don't have photos of them yet. I also picked up some new pads at Dover today, including some fun colours like lilac, royal blue, and royal purple.

In non-Lucy news, I picked up a life jacket for Cairo a few weeks ago at the pet store, and today we got to try it out for the first time. Here she is looking ready for her scene in Baywatch:

She did a pretty good job but still wasn't crazy about the idea of swimming. We are going to give it another try soon, hopefully with a water-loving canine friend to encourage her to go in.

saddle pads galore

I worked on two more saddle pads last night. One sold almost instantly when I put them on Facebook, which was really cool! It is going to "live" with Dom so I am sure it will have many adventures.

I took some photos of the pads last night with my camera to get some better shots than the ones I took with my cell phone.

The purple swirl one was the dressage pad I painted a few days ago, but
I wanted to get some nicer photos of it!

I am so in love with the Koi fish. Someone needs to buy that before I decide to
keep it.

This is the pad that Dom claimed.

I will hopefully have time this weekend to paint some more. I have so much fun doing this!

the week so far

Lu got Monday off to bask in the glory of her show success, and then on Tuesday morning she got new shoes. I think it's a miracle that left front didn't fall off before my farrier could make it out, but I am glad it held on, because losing a shoe is very traumatic for the hoof itself, especially when it's in such crappy condition like that particular foot is. He was able to trim a lot of the damaged stuff away because while the foot was crumbling at the edges, she had a good amount of growth even just in the four weeks since her last shoeing. Normally I wait 6 weeks between appointments in the summer, as as many as ten weeks in the winter, but this is the first shoeing cycle where she's been on grass and apparently that makes the feet grow very quickly.

I also asked my farrier if that left front was a club foot. He said no, because a club foot has to be greater than 60 degrees and her feet are very "normal", at about 45 degrees. So it seems that her left front just doesn't want to play nice like all the other feet.

My BM gave me a bottle of Tuff Stuff, which she said works like magic to harden feet up and make them more resilient. I guess we'll see if it helps! I am game to try anything.

On Tuesday evening, I had an incredible ride in the outdoor. We warmed up at the walk and trot normally, and then when I picked up the canter I let her stretch out a bit at a hand gallop. After cruising around the ring a few times, I asked her to come back to me and we did some lovely canter work in both directions. She was going so nicely!! I had set up a crossrail down the long side so we hopped over that at the trot about four times, and then I picked up the canter. Normally she gets a bit of rocket-syndrome when cantering over a jump and I get nervous and clingy, and that's when everything falls apart. On Tuesday, I gave her several firm half halts right as she was "locking and loading" and then supported her, but didn't cling. She was absolutely perfect and even waited for me to tell her to jump instead of try to take a flying leap from two strides out. I was so, so pleased with her. What a good mare.

Lauren had a great ride yesterday and then she's riding again today, and then on Friday I think I'm going to put my big girl pants on and attempt a trail ride. On Saturday a good friend is visiting and since she's such a lovely rider, she's going to hop on Lucy. The last time she came to ride was in October of last year, and Lucy has changed so much since then. I am excited to hear what she thinks!