Sweetie Colicked - again...

What was I saying about these episodes happening maybe once a year? Again, yesterday morning, approximately 1hr after breakfast I found Sweetie in a sweat in her stall, pawing, anxious. So I took her out to the yard again to let her walk around and see how she was doing. This time it was clear the colic was a little more serious than Sunday's, so I did give her 6cc of Banamine (I know the full dose is 10cc, but I only have 6cc syringes on hand right now, and if it didn't help, we would be looking at more serious stuff anyways). I even gave her the IV shot while she was laying down, in the shade, thankfully. And also, thankfully, about 20 minutes later, she was back to her normal self, grazing as if nothing had happened.

So - I started to go through what might be causing this. Someone recently suggested ulcers - and although it is possible, I doubt it due to the way the horses are managed. They are out on pasture 24/7, always with something in front of them, and they are only in the barn for about an hour, twice a day, for feeding times. What bothered me about it was that the colic both days was exactly 1 hr after feeding. So, it made me look to the feed. Sweetie has been on Aussie Logic's "Kool & Kalm" for about a year now. This was her first colic since being on that grain - she gets one 3lb coffee can at each meal, which is the approximate volume she has been receiving for the last 19 years in my care. Kool & Kalm is an extruded feed, primarily made from alfalfa, but low in starches, and it actually looks like dog food. It is however, what the local holistic vet highly recommends, and up until this point, I would have too. My horses have looked great on this feed, but they have also looked great on others.

Recently, dealing with Arthur's facial paralysis, I have begun to wonder more about the feed. When it gets moist, it becomes a gritty mash - and when Arthur is done, the dribbles and drools on his bucket turn into a very hard, rough surface. It does come off pretty easily in water, but I've never had a grain that was quite that consistency - kindof reminded me of cement (yikes!) So for dinner last night and breakfast this morning, Sweetie ate a handful of Manna Pro apple treats for her meals, followed by a flake of hay, and both times she was completely fine. I can't say for sure that it was the grain, or possibly the last bag I opened, but either of those is NOT okay by me - and Sweetie, my precious 1st horse, is also my most sensitive digestive system, so if she says something is wrong, I will go by that.

I used the end of my Kool & Kalm this morning, (timing is everything!) and this afternoon purchased Purina Equine Senior for Sweetie, (and Arthur will probably get a tiny bit) and then Nutrena's SafeChoice for everybody else. Man, the horses were delighted! Arthur kept licking his bowl long after his tiny 1/2 lb was gone - everyone else was happy, too. I know to start switching everyone over slowly, of course, but for 3 or 4 of them, the 1/2 lb is all they are getting anyways (the piggies :) ) And we will slowly get up to where we should be for Sweetie and Arwen.

I also dosed Sweetie with half a tube of Probios and started her week of Sand Clear. So hopefully, we won't have any more of the episodes any time soon. Fingers crossed!

Lesson, Colic, and Lunging

(And yes, I do believe the correct spelling is "longing" but I just can't get past the phonetics there and will stick with "lunging" until a professional corrects me :) )

Today I had a great lesson with Simon. We had a nice warm-up (and I didn't feel so out of shape!) We started over a small 18' vertical and it always makes me laugh when Simon barely exerts any energy getting over it. You hardly notice him going over the fence at all as he maintains his slow and steady cadence over the tiny fence. So Kim had us move up to a different fence that was a little higher to warm up over. He seemed awake, and so we went down a bending line in 9 strides the first time (should have been 8, of course!) He just didn't have enough energy into the first fence to get it (and I thought I counted 10 strides, but Kim said it was 9 and I'd rather believe her! :) ) The next time over no trouble at all - easy 8 strides, nice spots, and then around the corner to a wall on the diagonal. We did that a couple of times to perfection, then trotted in and cantered out a 5 line on a different diagonal. The first fence was about 2'3" and the second looked almost 2'9", so I get excited about those. (The closer I get to 3' the more excited/nervous I get). We did it easily, and around the corner to the left over another outside line that was an easy 5. We got it right the first time, and then the second we added - my fault. I didn't keep my leg on him the whole time. Although, theoretically, he probably could have taken off extra far away, but I'm so glad Simon picks the safe route more than not. We put it all together and had a beautiful ride and quit on that. It really felt so good to be riding so well! :)

Of course, then I took Simon on our normal after-lesson stroll and poop (he poops, not me, and I can almost plant a bullseye on the ground to tell you right where he'll stop and lift his tail). He wanted to turn around quicker than usual, and when I dismounted he still seemed out of breath - which seemed abnormal to me. He normally cools out easily. Watching him, his ears looked like he was uncomfortable, and then I knew for sure something was wrong when I was grooming him and he had no interest in the treats. Simon had a mild colic going on. We didn't over work him at all - everything else about the ride was normal. But he just suddenly wasn't quite right. His respiration stayed up, and he seemed not as bright, so I went back to the ring and got Kim. We put him in his stall/run to see what he would do, and he started pawing and wanted to lay down, so Simon got a shot of banamine (IV) which worked its miracle - he relaxed almost immediately after the shot and I watched him for at least 30 minutes and he just relaxed in his run, snoozing, in no discomfort anymore. They have people there all day to keep their eyes on him, so I'm sure he'll be fine.

Something I realized this morning is that I am a little frustrated that I am riding Simon more often than Rocky it seems.... ooops! I absolutely love riding Simon, but he is not my horse - and my long term goal is to get Rocky to a horse show. It is all pleasure riding Simon, but I really want to get Rocky going! If I am going to spend money to go to a horse show, I want it to be for one of my horses. Of course, I'm sure you'll see me riding Simon in another show this year, but I'm not going to go to the expensive shows to do that.

My lack of riding Rocky has been due to doing more family stuff on the weekends, and the weather has been bad, and I don't feel comfortable riding while I'm alone with the kids. So I'm going to make it my goal to trailer Rocky to Kim's for my lesson next time, and hopefully regularly.

Today, I decided that I wouldn't feel comfortable riding Rocky while alone with the kids, but I could lunge him and not risk falling, and that only takes a few minutes in comparison. So tonight, I lunged Rocky for about 10-15 minutes - we walked and trotted both directions and then cantered a few times. I'm definitely agreeing with Kim that Rocky should be quiet at the canter transitions on the lunge line before I try it in the saddle. He has quite the buck/kick on him. But it is not every time he canters. I'm beginning to wonder if it is frustration to being out of shape (regular lunging will fix that) or a little in coordination on a circle (regular lunging will fix that) or getting the wrong lead and not liking changing (regular lunging will fix that). Hmmmm... there seems to be a theme here. :) As I was watching him tonight, I know that he really needs to be going into the canter without bucking before I take him over to Kim's. You go over there and he's going to be "up" just because we're in a new place. Add that to what he's already doing, and, well, I might as well plan on landing on my butt. But the experience of going to a new place and just being there and working at the walk and trot is a great one - but I don't need someone giving me a lesson to do that. I want help with starting him over fences, and any ideas Kim might have about the canter, but I still think regular lunging is the answer - get him to where he doesn't care about going into the canter transition and then move from there. We ended tonight with two quiet canter transitions, one each direction on the correct lead, and I think that's a good place to start.

Somewhere along the line, someone taught me to make a horse work harder if they misbehaved and bucked at the canter - but I think that line of thinking has backfired a bit with Rocky (I have done that in the past - made him go faster/work harder after bucking). I want him to be calm, and he definitely gets excited about cantering. I probably have something to do with that.

After caring for several timid foster horses, I've learned to stay calm no matter what happens. I've finally reached a point where it's much more natural for me to stay calm when working with horses - and I can thank my foster horses for that. Calmness endears trust. I look back and think of so many times where I got frustrated with a horse and reacted without calmness - and am so glad I have finally learned that getting frustrated with a horse solves absolutely nothing. Even with daily chores - and turning a horse out. Say one of them (aka Charlie) decides to come back into the barn after letting everyone out before I've managed to close the barn doors. If I get frustrated - she gets scared and is likely to bowl me over getting away from me. If I stay calm and lackadaisically walk up to her and put a lead over her neck - she stays calm, and we quietly walk out of the barn, no harm done.

So, my goal going forward is to stay calm and quiet no matter what Rocky does, and quit when we're going into the canter without bucking (which he definitely can do!). Rocky is a smart boy - he'll figure it out!