Improvement!

I was pretty dismayed yesterday after visiting Penny at the vet's and seeing how much pain she was in. However, today when we went, Penny felt much better! She wasn't quite as "dazed" with pain - her ears moved to watch Sammie and I as we groomed her, and she was putting more weight on her LF - even put it down to shift her RF around. The difference was the addition of "Previcox" - a drug prescribed for canine arthritis, but has recently been put in a paste form for horses called "Equioxx". Interestingly, the total dose that would treat a small dog would also treat a 1000 pound horse with the same efficacy, so the small dog pills are often used instead as they are 1/10th the cost (yay!) (<$1 a day vs. $12/day)

Here is Penny yesterday:


You can see her pointing the LF - owwie! She shifted it around a lot and seemed overall very uncomfortable. The nerve block from Sat. had worn off, and the banamine was obviously not doing a good job with the pain.

Here is Penny today:


She is holding her weight more evenly between her front feet, and much more relaxed. You can also see that she is not clenching her stomach muscles like she was yesterday. Her heart rate was down to 36, but I could feel the pulses in her RF had increased. Hopefully, the Soft Ride boot will support her and keep her comfortable to prevent any laminitis issues.

Other things that helped me relax a bit is to hear that the procedure to drill into the hoof to remove any dead bone is relatively simple, and cheap (considering! $1-200 instead of the $1-2K I thought it could be) They do it while the horse is standing, but sedated, so it would not involve major anesthesia to do it. The senior vets do believe it is probable that it will happen, and we will see it on the followup radiographs in 4-6 weeks. Or maybe after that. Because the fracture is completely across and already appears separated, it is likely, but she could yet surprise us.

It was nice to hear that the prognosis was better than I was feeling yesterday, and that this certainly should be something we can make it through with proper care (my specialty!). The key will be managing her pain so that she does not get laminitis in her good foot. If we can do that, then I think we're going to be okay!

120 bales happier...

Saturday we loaded up 120 bales of beautiful coastal hay into my 24' stock trailer to start filling my winter stash. I've bought hay from the same guy the past two years - clean, fertilized, irrigated - and I am lucky he had as much for me as he did this year. He had 2 other customers to fill before me, but he ended up with more than he expected, thank goodness! The drought in my area of Texas is "exceptional" - it has been 100+ most of the last 2 months, and we have had hardly any rain.

And yes, it was over 100 while we were loading. No way around that. But we got 'er done, and Sunday night we stacked it all in the barn. Arthur will be in heaven as he can reach it through the panels that make up his stall. Best news - I saved $360. Hay is selling for $9/bale at the feed store, and I got this for $6 out of the field. (Isn't that what the feed store was selling it for a few years ago??! ) The price of hay came down briefly to $8.50 for a few weeks in June then went back up to $9. If that's where it is right now - I can't imagine where it will be in winter! I hope to get another 100-150 bales from the same guy mid-September, if the grass recovers well. It has been so dang hot!

Praying for rain...

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!

New Horses - "Arwen" and the gelding

I wanted to give everyone an update on these two since we've all been worried about this group. Compared to the rest, I have the two "fatties" so to speak - if you can call them that. Neither was as bad as those that Nan, Carolee, and Sarah have been caring for, but they are both plenty ribby still.

Everyone has calmed down around here and no longer panics during turnout/feeding time, and the fence that keeps the two new ones in the paddock is getting torn up a bit, so I figured yesterday was a good time to let them out into the main field for a few hours to begin eating grass a few hours a day (there is some in the ring, but not a lot at all). (I would not do that with the thinner ones yet, but these two seem to be fine so far). So I let them out for about two hours yesterday.

Here is a link to Arwen's Webpage

Arwen was so excited to be out in the pasture with the grass and galloped around with her tail up. She also strutted her stuff at the trot and I have some great pics of her movement - she is a gorgeous mover!



The gelding trotted a few times, but basically just walked casually around. He did not feel the need to get involved in the excitement at all - which really only lasted a few minutes before everyone was back to grazing. The gelding seemed a bit of a "loner" and I had to always go find him because he was away from the herd - not in distress, not upset at all, just calmly not paying them any attention.

I got the barn ready for dinner, called them all up to the barn, and my herd came up fine - that is, everyone but Penny and the new guys. She was glued to Arwen's side and saw no reason to convince her to come eat. I looked around and found the gelding just standing, relaxing, and brought him in first. Penny & Arwen saw that I had put him in but did not budge from their grazing spot. They made me walk almost halfway across the property to get them! But once I got there, both girls were happy for me to put a halter on, and I walked them in together.

The new guys went back in the paddock for the night since they need their hay, and then I kept them in a few hours this morning to eat more hay before I turned them out in the field again. Arwen was excited to be out and about and she and Penny buddied up immediately again. The gelding found a nice spot on the other side of the ring to just chill - he did not follow the herd around, just needed a nice snooze. But I kept checking on him - and more than an hour later, he was still in the same general spot, just standing there. My grass is short right now, and I remembered hearing his teeth sounding weird once, and realized that maybe this poor old guy had trouble biting the grass off - he has all his incisors - I've looked, but maybe they don't meet quite right or he has something bothering him. He has not been quidding or anything, so I hadn't yet realized there might be an issue. So I put some hay in the ring/paddock, and put him in there until dinner (will get the mare in a bit). Within a few minutes, he had rolled and started eating the hay. I have put the hay in a giant manure-type bucket for them so it doesn't get mixed up with the sand there - a neat trick I learned from the trainer working with some of our fosters!

I also worked with both horses this morning with the help of my 3yo daughter, Samantha. She always comes with me to the barn! We started with the gelding and he stood quietly on the crossties and let both of us groom him together, but tossed his head about - maybe just to hear the crossties jingle, I wasn't sure. :) If I was riding him, I'd want to check his teeth. Sammie was so cute, she said, "Look, he has a cutie mark!" (Cutie marks are what the My Little Ponies have on their butts) :) I explained that it was actually a number 10, but it was still adorable. She also commented on Arwen's "cutie mark" and that it was a number 9. But what blew me away this morning was how good Arwen was. She stood quietly on the crossties and let me groom her - I am always anxious about Sammie grooming a new horse - especially TB's since I have one that has trouble standing still. But since Arwen seemed calm and was standing quiety, I let Sammie come up - she loves to pet the horses on their foreheads, as she has watched me do so many times. And Arwen saw her, and slowly lowered her nose all the way to the ground so that Sammie could pet her forehead, and kept it there quietly while Sammie rubbed, and Arwen even closed her eyes in relaxation.



Sammie also groomed her a little, and Arwen gently turned her nose to look at her - in a very gentle manner, not at all worried. It just touched my heart how gentle she was being with my daughter - and how thankful she must be to be here.



While grooming, I noticed her tail was not yet grown all the way down - like she might be younger than 15, and after looking at her teeth, I am certain she is less than 10, maybe as young as 5 - I'll mess with that again later after I check my charts. I also found that she has a tattoo in her lip - so I'll also have to give that a look to see if we can actually identify her and her breeding, etc.

I've always loved horses, but every once in a while, one of them really touches my heart with something that they do, and Arwen's gentleness did that for me today. And yes, I named her after the beautiful, dark-maned, gentle elf princess in Lord of the Rings. :)

Hugs to all of you and your horses,
Elizabeth

My Box of Chocolates for the day...

Well, you never know what you're going to get when you volunteer for a horse rescue. :) Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society was awarded 7 horses yesterday from a neglectful owner, and I volunteered to help organize travel arrangements for them to their new foster homes since I live close to the area they were seized. Today was a Wednesday, and we needed to have all the horses moved by Sunday. I went today with the intention of picking up 2 horses - my future foster horse, and another for a member that lives locally.

Upon arrival, I found 7 poor souls - 5 of which that were absolutely emaciated (a Body Condition score of 1 on a scale from 1-9) The other two were slightly better in the BC 2 category. (We had been told that 2-3 were really bad, but upon arrival, it was clear that 5 of them were awful, and the other two were headed that way). I looked around and noticed that none of the group had access to any kind of shelter - they had a few run ins in other pens, but I asked and they were not available. Although I'm sure that the horses were fed at some point by animal control, there was no sign anywhere of any kind of hay.

Our weather has predicted the next 3-4 days will be cold (in the 40's) and rainy - which would make any horse without shelter chilled and shivering. These horses had absolutely no body fat on them, and no hay in front of them to create any kind of warmth. I recalled the two emergency calls I handled for the rescue over the last year (I am third on a list and rarely ever get calls). One of them was for a young horse that was very thin, and got too cold and then laid down, went into shock, and never got back up). I was not about to let that happen to these poor souls - if I left them there for just a few cold rainy days, my guess is that 3-5 of them would not have survived.

So, I made a few calls, and between myself and the other member that I was originally taking one horse, I figured I could take one extra, and the other member had room for the other four! So I loaded up all 7 in my 24' stock trailer and off I went. I have occasionally grumbled about the size of my trailer when I use it so rarely and usually for just one or two horses, but today I'd never been so happy to have it!

Here are some photos of the horses:



A 13yo bay mare - bottom of the pecking order it seemed.



A 9yo bay mare - whose baby was taken from her this morning. Her baby was awarded to someone other than the defendant that claimed to own it.



A 5yo bay mare



A 2yo filly



A 5yo bay gelding.



20yo sorrel gelding I'm holding for a local member



My new foster horse - a 15yo bay mare - and you tell me if that belly looks suspicious to you... oh, geepers. We'll have a vet out to check for sure, and depending on the results and how good I get at my feminine wiles with my husband... we'll see if she gets to stay. I have foaling experience, but I really do have a limit here on the number of horses we have. We'll see what happens. I'll be sure to keep you updated!

It really upsets me when people do this to innocent animals... I have lots of thoughts about that. But right now, I am focused on the fact that they are all safe, warm, dry, and fed. I am so glad that I was able to make arrangements for all of them to stay dry while they wait for their new foster homes. Yay!

Lesson 9 - Riding between the raindrops

We had our 9th lesson yesterday! I wasn't sure if we would or not due to the weather - it had rained hard between my house and the barn, and I couldn't say for sure which way the rain would go. But I chanced it, and tacked up Simon. I have to say his greeting nicker was more gleeful than it has been before when he first heard my voice. I think we both look forward to working together. And the rain stopped, just in time for my lesson, and it stayed dry until my lesson was over!

After working out our "girthy" issues, we had a really wonderful ride. We did a course of 4 fences (two single lines, and then a line with two fences) several times. I remembered last week and asked Simon to move forward towards the jump and let him take me the perfect spot, and we had such a much better ride than last week! And the other trainer in the ring started raising the fences for her student, and we ended up jumping a fence that was 2'9"! I was a little nervous and moved him up to it and he ended up taking a huge, long jump over the fence! It was insane! Kim called me on it and we did it again, she reminded me that he's done the 3' courses, and he could get me out of a close spot, and to keep the cadence instead of speeding up to the fence. We re-did that one fence and it was perfect - and I was gleeful! It feels so good to be jumping - and all the riding I'm doing at home is really helping me be a better rider overall.

Kim commented that Simon's mom was fine with me showing him on Sept. 6 - and it looks like we will do the Adult Equitation and Open Hunter Divisions at 2'6". Wow! I am so excited and looking forward to my first show!

"My Alibi" aka "Aurora" 1986-2008

I said goodbye to Aurora yesterday. She's been with us since 1995. When I first met her, I swore I would never buy a horse with her conformation - she was so straight in the hind end. And then I rode her... I had to prepare her to be shown for sale. She was so powerful, and would jump the moon! I think I jumped a few 3'6" fences within the first few days of meeting her, and within the year jumped one or two fences that were at least 4' high! It was terrifying and exhilarating, and obviously I bought her. She was supposed to be a project while Sweetie was pregnant - and I was supposed to sell her later that year after showing her. But you know how things go - she gave me so much confidence over fences, and we did several hunter shows, and even won our first 3' jumper class.

After an amazing year, she started to go lame. The vets couldn't really identify it - but years later I learned it was the onset of DSLD - http://dsldequine.info/ . It is a progressive disease that systemically attacks connective tissue throughout the body - often shown in the rear legs with dropped fetlocks.

Aurora taught my husband to ride, and we went on many memorable trail rides together, most notably to the beach on the Oregon coastline. She was always the babysitter that guests could ride, and when Christopher was born, we (perhaps not very smartly) let him ride with us - in a backpack once, in a frontpack, and just in my husband's lap. Thankfully no harm done. :)

I first recognized that I might need to put her down about 8 years ago when I had the horses in a small 1 acre paddock - the lack of movement made her so stiff and the lameness seem worse. Thankfully, we moved to 23 acres within a few months, and that gave her 8 more years of happiness with us. I firmly believe that turnout is the best thing you can do for these guys to keep them comfortable.

Last week, Aurora started hanging back from the herd - waiting until they were out of sight before trying to catch up with them. And her LH seemed to be bothering her more significantly - she was always resting it. I wanted to make sure she went with dignity, before something catastrophic happened out in the field.

Yesterday afternoon she crossed over peacefully, eating all the treats she wanted, with me at her head, thanking her for all she has done for me and my family. I will miss her dearly, but am so thankful she is no longer in pain.

I know she will say hi to Kelsey for me, and maybe even pin her ears at her like she always did. (Aurora would make the nastiest faces and then suddenly perk her ears and look at you attentively like, "who, me?") Gosh, I learned so much from her. Rest in peace.

She trusts me!

Yesterday was a fantastic adoptathon for BEHS. I trailered my foster horse, Kiley, to the event, as well as another foster horse "Nike." (My personal horse, Goose, nka Goliath, also came for the ride to his new home).

The experience was great for everyone - but mostly I am struck by how much Kiley has grown to trust me over the last 8 months. When I first met her at the Expo last year, she was very nervous, and wouldn't even look at me. She never turned her head to see me with both eyes - even when I sat outside her stall with the door open for 30 minutes, she never approached me or turned to look at me. When I handled her for our parade of foster horses, she was nervous, would constantly circle around me, and would only turn left.

At the adoptathon, when we came out of the trailer to a new place she had never been, she was a little slow, but she completely trusted me and followed me in to the barn and into her stall with little hesitation. When I walked her for the parade of horses into the ring, you could tell she was nervous, but she stood perfectly in line and waited for all of my cues. She walked somewhat nervously but stayed at my side the entire time - no circles at all. She was very well behaved and kept turning to me to get her cues, and you could sense she trusted me to keep her safe.

It was a very rewarding experience. I knew that she trusted me more, but I didn't realize quite how much until this experience. She's so funny - she has her limits of how much stress she can handle. When we got home and I opened the trailer, she jumped out into the field and galloped away. She deserved it!

How to get a 1400lb draft horse in a trailer...

So how do you force a 1400 lb draft horse in a trailer? You can't. He outweighs you by, oh, say, at least 1200 lbs and he will go wherever he chooses. There is no forcing that big an animal. No whips, or butt ropes, or scary sheets will work (especially when he's not scared of anything). (If he doesn't like the way you are treating him, he will simply rear - straight up - to get away.) Nothing like looking up in the sky and seeing two plate-sized hooves near your head.

You simply have to make him want to. It's a good thing that draft horses always have a hungry stomach. You can coax him in with sweet feed or treats. But always be gentle! And then he will learn to trust you and will follow you anywhere for a treat!

Lesson 1

I was so excited to go to my first lesson. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, whether I would even get to jump on the first lesson, but I was prepared to practice over a few crossrails. My farrier was going to arrive (for my personal horses) right before I had to leave home for the barn with the kids, (only way our schedule would work - it's the first time he did them without me there), and he was a few minutes late. But we had planned ahead and still managed to get out of the driveway almost on time. Once I dropped the kids off at my MIL's, I suddenly felt the excitement of getting to ride - on my own. No kids to worry about, no rushing back in to the house as soon as I was done. I had about 2.5 hours coming up to myself and I intended to enjoy every minute.

I arrived at the barn and Kim was still finishing up her last lesson. She waved to me and soon came up to show me the horse I would be riding, a 16+hh chestnut TB gelding named "Simon." She pulled him out of his stall, and handed him to me in the aisleway, and showed me the wash stall where to tack him up, and pulled out tack for me to use, and pointed to the brushes, and walked off to finish her lesson. It seems my first lesson would also test my grooming talents, as it had clearly been a few days since Simon had seen a brush. But it didn't bother me at all - I have learned to really enjoy grooming, and got busy currying. I intended for Simon to be gleaming in my lesson, one way or another.

My first impressions of Simon were that he clearly knew his job - he had spent many hours in the wash stall getting ready for lessons before, and stood quietly while I brushed everywhere head to hoof. Kim mentioned Simon didn't like his girth too tight - so I was careful to make the girth just tight enough to keep the saddle on safely.

I lead him out towards the arena looking for a mounting block in the arena. I looked around for at least 2 minutes, in fact, standing near the gate. They didn't really expect me to mount this giant from the ground, did they? I saw a couple of hay bales in the ring, but that didn't look right. Finally, I realized I had already walked past the mounting block about 20 yards behind me - a large hand built wooden block with plenty of room to maneuver. Embarassed, I turned Simon away from the ring and went back to mount up. Thankfully, he stood very still as I mounted, and we turned back to the ring. Kim was there and I thought to myself - the last time she saw me ride I was a mess. Oh, geez. And then a little excitement - because although I told Kim I had been going to the gym, I was the only one that knew I was in much better shape, and she didn't. :)

"When you're ready, pick up a posting trot." And before I had made a large circle she added, "I know you're probably out of shape, so walk when you need to." I wasn't about to take the easy road here. Simon had a slow, steady trot, and needed quite a bit of leg to keep him going (I began to remember a school horse I once knew...) I pushed as hard as I could and when I felt I had gotten around as much as another student would, I came back to a walk. We trotted the other way, and cantered both directions. While I was cantering - at 2 point - Kim commented, "Have you been riding a lot? You look great!" I replied that I had been going to the gym since January, but not riding as much as I'd like. I was so proud, though, to hear that the workouts were finally paying off. Another time around the ring at 2 point and I began to realize there were muscles in my legs that I had not been using in my workouts. But I was determined to push through until I heard Kim say, "When you're ready, come back to a trot." I tried not to do it immediately, and when we transitioned to trot, I confess it was only a few seconds before I asked Simon to walk so I could relax.

There was another woman and her daughter taking a lesson from the other instructor at the same time as I was, and we started chatting while we were walking around. Turns out they are my neighbors and live right down the road from me! Small world!

Kim then asked the ultimate question, "So, do you think you want to jump today?" I nodded in cautious excitement, "Mhmm."

I watched anxiously when I saw Kim moving standards around and set up a crossrail. My neighbors took their turn first. It looked easy enough. Kim said, "Let's try trotting over this crossrail - and don't worry, it will all come back to you." I wondered to myself - was jumping really like riding a bike? What if Simon knew I wasn't convinced we would get over the fence? He had his slow steady trot - but was it really enough to get him over those little crossrails? And before I knew it, we were at the base of the fence, and I automatically gave a squeeze, went into jumping position and prayed, and over the fence we went! No trouble at all! Kim asked, "tell me again how long it has been since you jumped a fence?" I replied, "Oh, about 10 years. Since 1999 for sure." Neither Kim nor my neighbors believed that was possible. :)

We went back and forth over the crossrail several times, getting better and relaxing more each time. And Simon finally started to pick up his trot now that we were jumping - he had more energy! Forward impulsion always makes me more comfortable when heading towards a fence.

Then the other instructor asked her students to trot over the rolltop. I thought to myself - is Kim really going to ask me to go over the rolltop? That might be a whole 2 feet high! Yikes! Would Simon really go over it? And of course, Kim asked me to follow along. I'm thinking to myself how I would feel so much more secure cantering over any rolltop. What if Simon stops? He must have felt my anxiousness, or maybe I purposely asked him for more stride, but he picked up more energy and over we went! We did it!

My final test for the lesson was to canter the rolltop (on a diagonal) and turn to the right to do an outside line. I looked at the second fence in the line, and surely that was up to 2'3". But no time to worry. We chipped in a little at the second fence in the line (I was still learning my distances). But the next time we did it, it was perfect! Kim said, "That was awesome! You can either stop with that or we can chance doing it one more time." I decided it was safer to end on a great note than push it. Or at least that's what I told Kim. My legs were like jelly and I wasn't taking any chances. :)

After my lesson, I hosed Simon down, gave him carrots, and hand grazed him while he dried off. He seemed delighted. I noticed that was not the normal practice around here - most students kept their horses in the grooming/wash stalls to dry. But part of what I loved about my lessons so long ago was the ability to bond with a horse after the lesson - take them out to graze and relax, and that's what we did. One of my first instructors once told me, "You know, the horses remember you when you let them graze like that." And I knew that Simon would remember me.

The non-lesson I had 2 years ago...

Okay, okay, so actually, it wasn't my first lesson in 10 years, but close enough. I had asked Kim (my instructor) to come out to my place about 2 years ago to watch/help me ride Rocky. I can't really call it a lesson, as it was more about Kim watching me attempt to ride Rocky - as I was completely out of shape, only a few months after delivering my daughter, and I could hardly keep him at the trot for more than a few minutes before I thought I would die from exhaustion.

She did give me some suggestions about working through the canter, getting him to do it on the lunge line so that if he did buck at the transition, I wasn't on him. And to work through the issue on the lunge line before attempting to do it on his back.

Overall, it was an embarassing experience. I was SO out of shape, absolutely exhausted after about a 20 minute ride, and I was just thankful for how kind Kim was for letting me pay her to watch me struggle in the saddle. I decided then there was no way I would take another lesson until I was really ready - no matter how badly I just wanted to be riding again.