What the Vet Said About My Ponies

I mentioned the other day that the vet was coming down from Buffalo to check out my herd.   I could have gone to a closer vet, but since he has been working with Sassy for a 9 months, I figured it was best to have him look at her. Also, since he was already going to be here, I'd have Killian's check up, and have him determine if Danny was swollen or just hairy on the string halt foot.

Because I was a last minute addition to his trip down, I got the "after 3:30" time slot.  It didn't leave us a whole lot of time, so I was there waiting when he got there, and had Killian all ready to go first.
I gave him as much of K's story as I knew, and he started by just rubbing him all over, checking for soreness in his back and legs.  Within 60 seconds he asked, "What happened to his shoulder?"  I thought he was talking about the old saddle sore scars, but he said no.  He showed me where his right shoulder sticks up higher than the left, quite a bit higher. He dug in with his fingers, found the shoulder blade, poked and prodded, but never got any reaction indicating pain.  (that's a good thing)  He said that he suspects that he had a broken shoulder blade as a very young horse.  It is possible that it was just a deformity, but not likely. Regardless of what it is, we do know that it is not painful for him.  Then he put the hoof tester on him.  Oddly enough he tested positive for some minor heel pain, but not on the right as one would expect, but on the left.  There was also a little tenderness in his tendon area.  Bruce attributes it to the early stages of navicular- on a guess of course- which being a 17 year old QH did not surprise him. He offered to do nerve blocks to isolate it further, but I opted not to as I knew we did not have much day light to work in.  He is not limping so I knew I have time to revisit that issue at a later date.

After the physical exam we took him to the round pen and moved him.   As expected he has an obviously more limited range of movement in that right shoulder.  With his left he has a nice reach but with the right it is about half of what the other side is.  When I asked him to canter he would do it, but as usual I had to really work to get it out of him.  Bruce showed me how he has a hard time with a canter due to that shoulder.  It is hard to say if there is pain involved or just awkwardness from the limited range of motion.  He asked what my plans are for him.  I had considered also training him for ranch horse competitions, but I can see now why he struggles with it.  He said light riding will be good for him. Consistent easy exercise, perhaps some padded shoes, a little less weight, will keep him in good shape.  So now I know what is going on with him.   I also am glad that he did not end up staying in Riverton to be a mountain horse.  He would not have fared well I do not think.  So for me he is perfect for what I use him for....my "go to guy" for kids or inexperienced riders.

 I had to laugh when Bruce said, "This is a very interesting case."  He has said that every time he has been to my house.  I reminded him of that, and he said, "Well you do come up with some of the most interesting cases I have ever seen."

Next was Sassy.  It was obvious that she is still limping some.  He out the hoof tester on her right foot (the bad one) but got very little reaction out of her. Some reaction but not what he expected.  So we took her to the round pen and moved her.  His exact words were, "I do not like what I am seeing."
Next step was a nerve block on the medial side.

While we waited for it to take effect, he looked at Danny.  No swelling at all.  He showed me how white hair on horses tends to be longer and coarser which gives his bad foot with a white sock the appearance of being thicker.

Back to Sassy, we moved her, she showed signs of improvement, but he still said one more time, "I do not like what I am seeing."  After some argument from a bad mare, we were able to block the lateral side, again more improvement, but he still was not happy.  Then he said, "I am willing to bet money that when we do one more block she will be sound on the right, but I think she is also limping on the left."  We did the final block, again with a fight from that really bad mare, and sure enough it was just as he said.  She was sound on the right and obviously lame on the left.  Now we are both perplexed as to what the problem is.  He mentioned founder, but said although she is slightly overweight, not obese, and there are no other indicators of founder.  We discussed rotated coffin bones, which he says is possible, but we won't know without further examination.  We do know that the pain on the right is isolated below the fetlock so at least we know where to look.

So now what?  Well the sun was pretty much gone, so we were done for the day.  He asked how far I am willing to go with her.  I am not going to give up until I know exactly what the problem is.  Then depending on what it is, we will either fix it or sell her as a brood mare.  Of course even that depends on if she will be pasture sound when you ad on full term pregnancy weight.  Option 3 is to donate her to the CSU vet program, where they can try to fix her. If she goes there, they will do what they can for her. If she can be fixed then she goes into their horse program, if she can't then they will put her down. I don't care for option 3, but as a last resort, it is better than on a truck to a slaughter house.  I will put her down myself, before I will let that happen.   Still that decision is a long ways away.

Our next step comes in a couple of weeks, when Bruce comes to Casper again.  We will start with more xrays, more nerve blocks, and possibly a second set of trained eyes. We will probably do the next exam at the clinic in Glenrock, so we have a better facility to work in.

All in all, it was a pretty depressing night, compounded by the onset of the flu for me.  I am better now, but only because I slept for almost 24 hours straight.  I know I am going to have some big decisions to make pretty soon, but first I will get better information. I suspect that much of this is going to require a really good farrier, which is hard to find in this state.  If need be, I will go out of state. I know there are some good ones in CO.  In fact I know that the very best in the country lives in CO. I don't know if I can afford him. But I will sure try.

UPDATE:

Through the Gene Ovenick website I have found a fantastic list of farriers, even some in Wyoming that I had never heard of.  It seems as though there is a Certified Lameness Expert in Torrington, which is not too far from me.   So with that in mind, perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Although trust me, I am prepared to haul my horse to Penrose if that is what it takes to help her.

EC Day 16

Your most recent fall.

My most recent fall was not a fall at all.  I was bucked off by a crazy paint mare.  Her name was Miss Revlon.  In some ways she was the most wonderful horse, easy to catch, easy to trim, loved to be groomed.  In other ways she was just awful; impossible to load, hard to saddle, harder to ride.
Revlon was bad enough, that my trainer worked with her two times.  Both times it went very badly, and I did not ask him again.  I worked with her on my own, just baby steps, until I felt safe enough to ride her in my neighbors round pen.  Even then I still worked her very hard before I got on her.

Over a year or so she did come quite a ways and even Jay was impressed with the work that I had done with her.

 One day I decided to ride her.  I saddled her up and ground worked her just a little.  She seemed soft and compliant so I just got on her.  She face planted me in about 2 seconds.  I got back on her, she face planted me again.  I ground worked her a lot harder and then got on again, she face planted me one more time.  The last time I got on her, I worked her until the sweat was pouring off of her. She tried to buck me off one more time, but it was a half-assed attempt.  I ran her around one of the pastures for an hour, until she finally acted like something other than a jerk.  Then we walked until she was cooled off.  It was the last time I rode her.   The welts on my legs were awful from hitting the saddle horn so many times.  I knew then that this was a horse that needed more work than I could give.

This is Revlon right before she went to her new home

 

Miss Revlon now lives in Nebraska with "her person" Nicole.  Nicole is a barrel racer and Revlon has race blood in her.  She is very fast.  She loves Revlon and has done wonders with her.  Giving her away to Nicole was the best thing that could have ever happened with her.  They are perfect together.  It was also the best thing for me, because getting rid of her opened the door for me to get Trax.

 

 

On a completely different subject, the vet is coming down from Buffalo today to see my ponies.  He is going to see how Sassy is healing, he is going to check Danny's bad leg, and I am going to go ahead and get Killian his full check up.  Trax is the only one who doesn't need attention. The weather is nice today, which I am grateful for, I hate trying to doctor horses in 40 mph wind or freezing cold.  I am very anxious to see what he has to say about Killian, and I am hoping that he says Sassy is healing about as he expected.  If he says she needs the corrective shoes again, I don't know what I will do. 

 

 

Old Dog Owies

This morning I went down to the basement to wake up Simon for School, and let old Butchy out to go potty.  He (Butch) did not want to get up.  When he finally did he whimpered as he walked across the floor.  I stopped, reached down to touch him and he yelped and went back to his bed.  I called him back to the living room and felt him all  over, not hoping that he would yelp again, but hoping he would give me some indication as to where he hurt.  He didn't. 

Then he went to the door to go out.  I let him out but watched him the whole time.  He moved slow as he did his morning routine.  I know he has an enlarged prostate, so he has to work at it some when it comes to potty time.  But he got all his business done without incident and trotted back to the door where I was waiting. 

Usually at this point he comes up stairs with me, but this time he went back to his bed. The the other two (bad dogs) came down and jumped all over Simons bed. They sit right in the middle of Simon's chest to say good morning.  When they went back up the stairs to collect the morning treats, Butch still did not go.  I was finally able to coax him to come along, and after that he acted completely normal.

I took some time to just rub him all over hoping for some sort of reaction, but got nothing. I massaged his bad elbow, made sure he got a Rimadyl, and just watched him very closely.  He ate good, asked for his treats like he always does. He was wagging his tail, and had happy feet when he got his butt scratched. 

I can only assume that he was just a little stoved up from laying in one position too long. It seemed that once he got moving he was ok again. Still it worries me.  He was obviously in quite a bit of pain if it made him whimper to walk.  We will watch him and see how he does tomorrow.  If it happens again, it may be time to try something a little more effective than the Rimadyl.  Although I am not sure what that would be.

I know that the day will come, and it is not that far off, where he will be in too much pain.  I know that eventually I am going to have to make that hard decision.  I'm glad I don't have to make the decision today...truthfully I am just not ready.

EC Day 15

If you could speak to any horse dead or alive, what would you say?


I think I have two for this one. 

First is "Jackie"



Jackie is the horse which belonged to my friend Sharon, but I usually rode him.  Jackie was lame.  I do not remember the name of what he had, but there was nothing that could be done for it, it was something in the bones in his front leg.  He wasn't always lame, but if he ran alot, he would limp home.  He ran alot. He always limped home.  I know there was nothing to be done, because his owners had enough money that if a surgery would have fixed him, he would have had it.  I also know now that we probably should have taken it easier on him.   If I could talk to jackie I would tell him I am sorry for letting him run till he limped.   I also just found out a few days ago about what happened to Jackie after I moved away.  Sharon started breeding and showing horses and of course they ended up with many horses.  They kept Jackie for years, but when she finally got out of horses and they all got sold to breeders,  there was one that wouldn't sell.  Poor old Jackie. Another breeder convinced Sharons dad that the best place to sell Jackie was at an auction. It makes me ill to think of where he probably ended up after that. I would also tell him I am sorry for that.   (yes I am crying right now)


The second horse I would speak to is Trax.

I would Trax that he is safe with me.  I would tell him that he can let down his fears and his worries of being hurt again.  I would tell him that I will keep him forever.

I try to tell him everyday.  I hope that he understands.

Unanswered Questions

This morning as I was out doing my morning chores (hmmm that was a little redundant- lets start over)

Okay, so this morning I was out doing my chores before work.  I had skipped the pen cleaning yesterday so figured I'd better get out there a little early to catch up.  6:30 am I had on all three layers and was out the door.  While I was out there, several questions came to mind.  I do not have the answers to these questions.

1. Why does Killian's pen freeze more solid than the other 3?

2. Why do the two red horses (Sassy and Killian) each poop (on their own) as much as Danny and Trax combined? (Mind you I 'm not complaining, at least I know their systems are working good)

3. Why doesn't "Daylight Savings time" save me even one minute of daylight for doing chores?
(don't tell me it is designed to save electricity- saving electricity went out the window the minute teenagers were invented)

4.Why does 24 degrees feel colder than 11 degrees?

5. Why do birds suddenly appeeeaarrrr, every time, you are near?  (oh wait that was Karen Carpenters question)

6. Why is silk warmer than cotton?

7. Why is it, that no matter what time I get up, no matter how fast I try to move, no matter how quickly I try to get everything done...why am I always leaving for work when I should have been there already?

8. Why am I cleaning these pens by hand, trying to chip out frozen piles of poop with my aluminum rake (without much success) when I have a perfectly good tractor (yes it fits in the pens) sitting right up outside the gate??????!!!!!!?????

The world may never know.

First ride of the year

My first ride was cold cold cold!  Even inside it was very cold.  I also did not get ride long as the arena was very crowded with some girls doing jumping lessons.  I decided to go ahead and cut out early so they could have the room they needed to practice properly.

I took Killian and Trax.  Killian acted like he hadn't been in a trailer before.  Well not quite that bad, but when I took Trax out first Killian started pawing and kicking at the sides. When I went in with him to see what he was doing, he had his butt wedged against the side pretending like he was stuck.  (trust me he wasn't)  I went a head and pulled him out too then he calmed right down.  When I was saddling him he moved so far into Trax the saddle ended up going on both of them.  I wish I had got a picture of the look on Trax's face.  He was clearly saying, "Hey, what the heck bro, it's not like you haven't done this before!!!"  I have no doubt it was all an act hoping to con me out of riding him.

Here is Killian after I got him all tacked up. 

When we went in to ride there was a girl on a pony doing lessons, so I decided to start with Killian.  Even though he hasn't been ridden in 6 months at least, he is the least likely to have a melt down or a blow up, or even a reaction to much of anything.  Although now that I say that, his antics at the trailer suggest otherwise.  Trust me, he was bluffing.  Killian is a rock. He moves about as fast as one too. The only time I have ever seen this horse move faster than the speed of grass growing, is if he is after Danny, or there is food involved...wait...let me back up...nope not even for food.  He will move a little faster is food is involved, but truthfully he knows that he can push the rest of them away once he gets there, so being there first isn't really an issue in his mind.

But I digress.

We started with some ground work, no issues at all.  He was soft and easy in his transitions from a walk to a trot and back to a walk again.   I had such a small area to work in (because two more riders had just come in and were ground working their horses too) I really did not ask for a canter.  I asked for a flex left and right, no issue.  I asked him to back up with a jiggle of the lead rope, he balked for a minute but then when I "encouraged" he did wonderfully.  I lead him over to the bridge, he refused to go over it.  I had no help so I knew I would not win that battle, so I left it for another day.  Got up on him he stood quietly, did not move, did not even pick up his head.  We walked, we trotted, we did not canter.  Not because I am afraid too, well maybe I am but not for the usual reasons.  Killian is a rough gaited horse.  He has a slow trot which is nice, but once you start trying to get any speed out of him, he seems to get stuck between a canter and a trot.  You can prod him on to go faster, but you really have to peddle him.  Jay says he is just lazy.  Jay might be right, but until I get him a full physical to make sure he doesn't have something going on which is causing him pain, I'm not going to push him.  I don't have too.   I got the big ball and he pushed that thing around like a pro! I was actually quite impressed by how well he focused on it.  We did a couple of leg yeilds, which he does nicely.  then I got off and loosened his cinch and called it a day for him. 

Then it was Trax's turn.  Talk about night and day.  With Trax ground work is a must.  He starts his circles at a fast trot and stays there for a long time.  I have to audibly exhale out several times in order to get him to let his air out. Them I have to really think "walk" before he will.  The minute he does I disengage the hind end and we rest together on that side.  Then we go the other way, and it is the same.  Getting him to canter is nothing.  I think canter, pick up the pace of my own feet and he goes.  Getting him to a trot is easy enough, just a breath out and slowing my own pace and he is back to his favorite "million mile trot".  Then it is several more exhales, and really slowing my pace to get him to walk.  Disengage and rest.  Next I ask him to step sideways away from me.  He is so good at that. Lateral flex each direction...pretty soft, so decided to mount up.   Now, this is where I am always just a tad apprehensive. I know Trax, and believe it or not I trust him, but I also know that one of his previous owners did not like him because he had a bad habit of taking off when you mounted and jumping out from underneath you when you dismount.  I have been working on this and for me his about perfect 99% of the time.  But then there is always that 1% that I am unsure about.  Today he was solid.  Of course I know the things that will cause him to jump.  A boot toe in the ribs will do it every time, so I am always careful about that. 

So we started with a simple walk, trot, canter, trot, walk, then over the bridge.  He practically runs over that bridge!  We did the serpentine drill, some leg yields at a stand still, some backing up.  The usual stuff.  Since I didn't have an instructor there today I am just having to figure things out on my own.  So I had him at a walk, asked for a leg yield and he did pretty darn good to the left.  To the right we still had some trouble. But to the left he did a perfect diagonal walk with his legs crossing. I was pretty pleased with it.  I could only get it that once though.  The next few times the best I could get was forward, tap tap tap with my leg and pick up on the rein and he would just go straight sideways, then forward again afterwards.  I figure it is a step in the right direction.   By this time the other riders had jumps set up and were really needing the whole arena so I called it a day with a nice back up.  After I got off and had him tied I picked up one of the training sticks to just rub him with it.  He saw me coming with that and serious tried to bolt.  I talked to him while I rubbed him all over, but I swear he shook the whole time.  I couldn't believe it.  I have never hit him with a stick.  Not once not ever.  I have tapped him on the side when teaching him to "step away" but never hard and only a couple of times.

The last time I was down there with Kim, she had her horse Schnizzle, who is a young horse she is working with. She does really well with her horses except in one area.  She is afraid of a canter.  She cannot get a good canter transition in a round pen from the ground, so she does not a get one when she is riding.  She tried it with him and he ran her into a wall and she almost went over his shoulder.  She hurt her back in the process and got angry.  So she got her stick and started asking for it on the ground. When ever he "fell:" out of the circle she would hit him with that stick....hard. Her actions were "big" and it was ugly and she had asked Trax and I to stand in the area where he kept falling out to push him back in.  So naturally every time she wailed on him with that stick it was right in front of Trax.  Now keep in mind that this was the same day I came up with the brilliant idea of using a stick to get him to leg yield and he freaked out.   Of course I do not know if watching her wail on that horse affected Trax, but I think it might have, because he has never shook from me rubbing him down with a stick before.  Anyway, it made me so sad to see my guy stand there and tremble at the simple touch of a stick rubbing against him. I talked to him while I rubbed and promised him I would never let anyone hit him like he has been in the past. (barrel racers)  Of all my horses, he is the one I will do anything to keep. I will never sell him.  He will stay with me for the rest of his life. He needs me. I am his person.

Of course I have no pics of the ride but here are a couple of after pics.

 Look how nicely he ground ties.  What a good boy!

Big Killian, my rock!  

So although it was a short ride I was happy to have the day off and get to ride at all.  It was nice to have "Big K" out and about again.   When I put Trax in the trailer Killian was still in the arena.  Trax was calling and calling for him, and he was calling back.  When I put Killian in with him they touched noses, and you could see them say to each other, "You good?  Ya I'm good, you good?  Yup."  Then they both turned and looked at me as if to say, "Lets roll lady!"  So we rolled on out of there and down the road to home. 

What a great way to start the year!

First Pictures of the New Year.

Well let me start with wishing everyone a wonderful and prosperous New Year!  Most of all I wish you all plenty of riding time this year!

I took a few pictures today, with Simon's help as we cleaned pens and fed this morning.

BRRRRRRRR!

 

 

Da boys enjoying the sun and their breakfast.

Just the pasture 

Miss Sassy

This is Me, doing what I do best!

Proof that Simon is capable of helping.

Last night Simon was threatened with his horse going up for sale if I didn't start getting a little bit of help.  Of course he complained all morning, but he did work very hard while complaining...so I guess what ever motivates him is ok with me.  It was 16 degrees out this morning.  I am finding that frozen horse poop can really be a pain.

My plan is to go ride for a little bit today.  I will take Trax and Killian this time.  I am hoping to get another lesson from Jay, but he may be busy.  If so I will just have to try to figure out what to do next on my own.