How Much Do Horses Cost? Everything.

Since the show, I've been trying to figure out what's going on with Huck.  Is it attitude?  training?  physical issues?  We've taken days off, done tons of stretching and flexing.  We trail rode.  We rode inside. We rode outside. We massaged. We ground worked. We researched. We've employed the help/opinions of the farrier, trainer, chiropractor, and vet.

Today we injected both of Huck's Sacroiliac (SI) joints.

Both chiro and vet agree this is the way to go so I am hoping they're both right.  I had my lower back/sacrum injected a few years ago so I can somewhat understand what's going on.  I also have crappy SI joints. Pretty tired of my horses mirroring my issues.

Obviously this puts a hold on show season, but clearly the showing wasn't working anyway.  Perhaps this will give us a chance at some success in the future.

This also puts yet another strain on my very thinly stretched horse budget.  In 9 months we've had a facial laceration, forearm laceration with infection, and injections.  We also had proud flesh, scratches,  and he has a swollen lymph node in his right forearm (vet says it's probably fine and that the steroids will likely take care of it.) Seriously though. WTF. This "affordably priced" horse has turned into a money pit.  I sure hope there is a light at the end of this tunnel.  This is supposed to be fun, right?

Seriously though, I have some things for sale:  https://www.facebook.com/rebeccacherylwhite/media_set?set=a.10151796771101741.1073741831.526321740&type=3  or if you've ever thought about my decals, now's a great time to support small business and Huck's vet bills. https://www.etsy.com/shop/BuckstitchBeckys

He's in a stall with muscle relaxers, bute, and hand-walking for two more days.  On Saturday he can go back out to turnout and be ridden lightly at the walk and loose-rein jog for 10 days.  Then we can start loping and stopping and see where we are.  Fingers crossed.

One Last Try

I'm gonna try this fly mask thing again, BUT if I end up with a shredded mask in a week or a month I'm NOT doing it again.

This horse of mine has gone through at least 4 masks in the past 4 years.  And by "gone through" I mean SHREDDED.  Plus I know he rarely comes back in from turnout with it still on. When we had the big pastures I spent many a morning fetching fly masks from the far corners of the field.

Here's the last two... and one of them had been repaired several times before it was no longer reparable.  Not sure why either of them are still in my possession... I think I had some stupid idea that I would try to salvage parts of them but they'll be in the dumpster tomorrow.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

So why do I even try?  Four reasons.  1. Because this princess of a horse has a cyst in his right eye that should be shielded from UV rays in hopes that it doesn't get any bigger. 2. I'm a horrible person who shaves the inside of his ears for show season. 3. His pink nose can use the UV protection, too.  4. Flies, of course.

This time I'm going to try the regular nose instead of the extended since the barn staff are actually willing to sunscreen his widdle nose before he goes out. Perhaps he'll find the shorter nose less annoying and less of a handle for his Brofiend to yank on. I've heard he's been leaving his Brofriend's mask on, so maybe this'll be the year I keep a mask a whole season.

We took advantage of Smartpak's free Barn Saver shipping as well as the complimentary personalization.

So here it is.  The final try.

Oh I see how it is.... well then :P right back atcha ,Bug.

Art

With the temps being in the low 20's today and for the next few days, I decided to take advantage of it by laundering our mid-weight blanket.  It's filthy and probably smelly and I probably won't get another chance to do this before he needs to wear it.

Here is the tale....

Girl takes blanket to laundromat.  Girl uses archaic commercial front-load washer instead of cheating and using the fancy new super-capacity machines, even though the attendant isn't around to tell her that horse blankets are only allowed in the crappy archaic ones, even though the fancy ones spin WAY better and therefore cut drying time WAYYY down.  But since Girl knows she can use the nifty archaic Super Spinner Wonder Machine to finish the spin job, Girl feels good about following rules.

Girl washes the blanket a 2nd time without soap in order to ensure removal of all soap since washer isn't really big enough to rinse properly.  After 2nd wash, girl removes very wet blanket only to find that Super Spinner Wonder Machine is out of order...... oh, F&D*ING H*$LL.

Girl grumbles and hauls wet and very heavy blanket home.  Girl wonders what exactly to do, but thinks the bright sunshine and breeziness out on the deck is a good place to put said wet blanket for an hour or so before hanging it over the shower bar for heaven knows how long.  Girl goes to retrieve said blanket a mere two hours later and finds the blanket is frozen solid into an interesting dual patio chair hugging shape.  Girl wrestles blanket off of chairs and into apartment.... and by wrestles, I mean takes far too long to figure out how to pry chairs out from their heavy blanket's frozen death embrace and wonders what the new downstairs neighbor will think of the noises and the grunts, then tries to sqeeze the object through the single patio door. I suppose Girl should have not failed chemistry class... water WILL freeze when it's only 18 degrees... duh.

Blanket is now sculpture.

An ICE sculpture. She shall call it... "F&D*ING H*$LL" .... oddly reminiscent of The Supplicant Barberini , no?

Sculpture is now bungeed onto the shower bar. Facepalm.

He Doesn't Make This Any Easier.

Apparently I can't even lunge my horse or practice showmanship without hurting my back.  There are certain movements I do that are causing compression in my disks and/or moving my pelvis out of alignment enough to create more pressure on the affected nerves.  And I can do this without noticing/feeling it at the time, only later do I feel the effects and there's nothing to be done but take the pain meds and start over.  This is not helping my progress and it's very frustrating.  I have not been physically normal since May 7th.  But in addition to the fact that I simply want to spend time with my horse even if I can't ride, it's also out of guilt that I lunge my horse and work on showmanship.  It's winter and turnout isn't as extended as it is in the warmer months and I feel bad that he has fallen out of shape as much as I have. He doesn't seem to care, he's rather lazy, but he does like to be messed with.

So I am going to get more aggressive with my treatment and try really hard not to screw it up any more.  

In the mean time I went just to check on him yesterday.  I brought him in from the paddock, just to groom him.  And then I noticed his Left Stifle was banged up.  Not severely, but maybe like he ran into something and scraped off some patches of hair and maybe a slight abrasion.  Then, working down the leg noticed the lower leg and fetlock were swollen and there was a scrape/puncture on the cannon bone. He trotted off fine (I had the BO do the trotting... see, I'm TRYING not to hurt myself) but I gave him some bute and cold hosed the leg.  He didn't appreciate me poking the stifle but he never really does.  I'll go out today but then I'm benched for the weekend after I'm going to have a needle inserted into my spine.  Ugh.

So I recruited the BM to keep a closer eye on him over the weekend.  I might be able to go out, but I really need to be careful.  

Of course he mildly injures himself when I can't monitor it.  Sometimes I think he plans things like this.  

I'll keep you posted.  In the meantime, imagine me lounging on the sofa with ice packs, pain meds, and Netflix.  Then maybe sooner rather than later you will be able to imagine me actually riding my stinkin' pony and having something interesting to blog about.  Fingers crossed. 

Bar-Bar's Blanket

I wouldn't call myself any sort of expert in the blanket repair area, but considering how rough Junior is on his jammies I've done my share of repairs.  And I've learned some things.

Old Man Cinnabar (Junior's former turnout baby-sitter) tore the leg strap connection off and lost some of the blanket fabric in the process.

The blanket has two layers at the edges; the pretty green outside, and a smooth nylon lining.  Both are sandwiched together inside the folded-over binding, and of course they were not torn evenly.  I chose to "patch" both pieces individually and then sandwich it all.  I have a stock of black super-heavy backed nylon I found at a fabric warehouse.  I've no idea what the denier is, but it's REALLY tough and REALLY heavy, heavier, in fact than what any of my blankets are made out of.  I also have a stock of black rip-stop nylon I used for the lining.  One nice thing about having chosen black as my signature color for all things horse is that this repair fabric matches EVERYTHING from his blankets to my tack bags and his hay net which is still in the repair pile. :)

Once I patched both sides I needed to decipher the actual shape of the blanket edge, which required some good-faith guess work in the end. Then I sandwiched the binding back on and gave it a few lines of super-stitching.  I needed to replace the dee-ring and used seat-belt webbing to do it.  Pretty much the strongest stuff you can find.  It's actually stronger than the dee ring.   The finished repair doesn't match, of course, but I don't think he'll mind.  Hopefully that'll last him a while.

Inside view of repair and new Dee-ring.

Outside view of non-matching patch, and you can see how much of the dirt transferred itself to the black patch.

Some things I've learned about horse blankets in the last few years combined with my knowledge of fabric/sewing:

1. Blankets are often more cheaply made than their prices reflect. This shows itself usually in popped seams.  If the lining in the blanket is not made with some extra "give" it tends to take stress poorly.  For example: take a look at the inside of a lined jacket/ blazer.  You will notice the lining is roomier than the coat itself.  You'll see this especially in the sleeves, and usually in a center-back pleat.  This makes it easier to move in.  The lining is there so you can slide yourself in and out and not much more.  Since lining is thin and inherently weaker that the wool of a jacket, the extra room means you can bend your elbow without being squeezed.  I wonder if one of those $400 Rambo blankets would be strong enough to withstand my pony, but that's a pretty big investment to have to keep doing repairs.

2. Blankets can cost nearly as much to repair as to purchase.  It took me about an hour to do the repair and I refuse to charge a friend with an elderly horse, even though she offered, but this repair would probably cost $40-$60 depending on how much they'd charge for materials.  Same with cleaning.  I made the mistake of having my first blanket laundered for me.  I was in a time crunch.  It was a $65 blanket and I spent $28 having it laundered.  Ouch.

3.  Some repair shops won't repair dirty blankets.  This can be a hassle for you, but please think of it from the shop's perspective: All that fine horse dirt and horse hair can do some serious damage to a sewing machine. I don't do a ton of this work so it's not going to kill my own machine to do it, but if my livelihood depended on the investment of my machinery working and not requiring costly and time consuming repairs I'd have made her wash it.  On the other hand, sometimes the agitation of the washing process can make a damaged area more difficult to repair, especially if the poly-fil is sticking out.  So having a consultation might be a good idea.  Ask the shop if they'll repair it dirty, or ask what you can do to minimize the potential further damage.

4.  Laundromats HATE horse blankets.  They hate them for 3 reasons (actually the same reasons you don't want to wash them in your own machine) and I've got a fix for each: 1. They are FILTHY. They leave muddy furry residue inside the machines.  The filthier they are the harder they are to get clean anyway - you end up washing them in mud, so hose them off and let them dry, or better yet, take your stiffest horse brush and brush as much of the dried dirt/poo/hair off the blankets, or throw them over a clothes line and beat the crap out of them.  2. TOO BIG.  Find a laundromat that has the 50lb or 75lb capacity front load machines.  They are awesome and actually have enough room for the blankets to move around and get clean.  3. BUCKLES can cause some damage banging around.  Worse yet the T buckles can get themselves caught in the drum holes which is also bad for the blanket.  My ingenious plan for this: Infant socks and a tagging gun.  Cover those little buckles with silencing padding.  I'm pretty proud of this one, actually.

Shenanigans.

Shenanigans. They just never stop when you own a horse like Junior.

This morning was my first Monday morning as feeder at the barn. I've been doing Sundays for a few weeks and it just so happened my schedule allowed me to do Mondays, too. Yay for board discount and more pony time!

It was pouring down rain so instead of turning the horses out to the fields, I rotated them through 20 minute sessions in small groups in the indoor arena. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the fact that my horse will get out of his stall and socialize EVERY SINGLE DAY no matter what?!?!

Junior goes out with his mini-friend Apples and Max, who does everything by the book. He is one of the most polite and well behaved horses I've ever met. He does not break rules. As you know, MY horse is not that kid. I am aware that Junior and Apples often go under the rope gate and hang out on the other side, just for fun. I blame Apples since he's small enough to walk under both the rope gate and the board, and since Junior loooooves his widdle Applywapply soooo much he figured out a way to follow. We put up chairs along the gate in a (clearly worthless) attempt to convince them it's a solid wall. The wash rack is over there, but there isn't anything obviously dangerous over there, and come on, what sort of mischief can a horse get into in 20 minutes.... oh wait... this is MY horse...

It seems today there was a random bale of shavings over there...

Those are not Apples sized hoofprints. Of course when I came to retrieve them to take them back to their stalls they were both on the correct side of the gate as if they heard me coming. As if I wouldn't think they were responsible. Max was waiting by the door to the barn with a look of "You KNOW I didn't do it." But Junior's nose was all muddy from nosing around the wash rack floor.

"See, Mohm, I canot fit unner dis bord so der is no way I was rerspunsable! It mustabeen Apples! See how small he is back there? Yah. Onlee Apples kin fit. I dinindo it."

See, he KNOWS he's not supposed to be over there...

Dude, You're Like, so Totally Lame

Today was to be my first barn time in a whole week since I worked 8-12 hour days every day since Saturday when he refused to be caught and it was too muddy for me to chase him and all I did was clean stalls with a baby migraine - that day doesn't count as the kind of rejuvenating/recharging barn time I am in desperate need of.

So when I got out to the arena to ride, what do I find? I find a head-bobbing-lame-at-the-trot pony. Ugh. Thankfully my BO was there and helped me determine it was his left front. He was fine at the walk and didn't seem in any pain and was perfectly willing to trot even before I really asked him to. It was warm but not super warm, and since I was wearing gloves while grooming I didn't notice. It doesn't seem super serious so I hosed it and will check him in the morning. Dr. J. will be out at noon to check two other horses so I gave him a heads up that we'd like to be on the list, too. Unfortunately I have to be at work when he's there, of course.

Oh and this morning I got a text from the BM of THIS:

And for your entertainment the text thread the followed:

And no he wasn't sweating when I got to the barn, the BO wouldn't have actually let that happen, I was just being dramatic. Sadly it was no where near warm enough to make him sweat. It's a pretty easy fix, thankfully. He can wear his big coat for a day or two. That's the edge binding you're seeing around his neck. It's a closed-front blanket and he somehow ripped the front seam open and ripped the side out of the edge binding. And the "u" in the text was supposed to be an "I." I can type, really.

Sigh... I'll keep you posted.

Weight and Balance

In some ways I hesitate to post what I'm about to post. Though I know that you, my loyal readers, will only have constructive comments and suggestions, but being the "Overanxious" person that I am, I dream up all sorts of horrible things in my head like someone telling me that I'm doing something so obviously cruel that I should be ashamed to call myself a horse owner or that I've ruined my horse beyond repair.

So please be kind and be assured that as we speak I'm already soliciting answers from professionals. I'm just sharing the case study with you. For those of you who have not followed this blog from the beginning I have some history re-caps:

First a little history re-cap about "Balance": In the beginning I used to call him "The Eight Legged Moose" or say that he had "four left feet." I also said he had ADD because several of the incidents included him looking off to the side quickly when he saw another horse. For a long while he was stumbling in the front end at the canter. Often. We actually dropped to his knees on at least two occasions. There was a time early on that I worried about cantering him at all, convinced we were going to go ass over tea kettle like I did once with Banee. These are the only two I have on film: the first in a lesson during our first few months (Nov. '08), and the second at the last show we were in (June '10).

THESE seemed to be front-end related, only at the canter, and the one in June was the last time he's done it... knock on wood. I had him checked by Chiro #1 shortly after that and his only response was that he was "stiffer in the neck than I expected" which doesn't make me feel like I got my money's worth. Then he was tight in the right shoulder and I started doing the Alpha-Stim and stretches, which I've not done much of since he shoulder got better. Possibly related or unrelated is this other issue: every so often and with increasing regularity in the last few weeks an issue seems to be expressing itself in his left hind. I know this has happened on and off for a long time. If I can describe what it feels like during the ride, it feels like he forgets the foot behind himself. It hesitates to come forward. This is mostly happening at the trot, more so the more I ask him to extend and hardy at all when we are jogging. He happily exhibited it to Monet who gave me some homework to do to help it, which I promptly forgot and therefore didn't really follow through with. When I had my jumping lesson on Nov. 21, she told me the bumps on his neck were evidence of vertebra out and she adjusted him. Fast forward to now: he's still got the bumps and that left hind is very frequently "catching". This is from today. You can see it if you stare at his left hind. I slowed it down a few clicks so that it's easier to see. It feels bigger than it looks:

History re-cap on Weight: Bought him in early September '08 and he was underweight. Not dangerously so, but thin. This is him that first month:

I'd say he was a 3-4 on the BCS scale. He proceeded to gain WAY too much weight and he yo-yo'd for a good while. In the fall of '09 my friend TJ used Junior as her project horse in her college Equine Nutrition class and in January of 2010 I changed his grain and started measuring and bagging his meals since I couldn't rely on the barn feeders to get it right. Further history in the Topics tab under "Equine Nutrition." When TJ did the project we palpated him at an 8.5 on the BCS scale and looked like this:

Now he looks like this and I think he's at a 4 (BTW you really have to FEEL a horse to estimate accurately, pictures are far less accurate):

If you compare the rear shots, he not only is more triangular, on the topline, the top of the hips is narrower than the bottom, which looks disproportional.

And ribs, even visible through the fuzz. :( Only positive thing is that his tail is much fuller and longer than it was even a year ago. But that's just cosmetic of course. :( Nobody cares about the paint job if the engine is broken.

You can look at his full profile in the Christmas pictures, but we'd been outside for a bit and his hair had fluffed up. He's just been unblanketed in the three that are here.

What was most upsetting to me today as I compared these images, is that even though his side view from 9/08 is similar to now, the rear profile is much flatter in todays images. This leads me to think that he's lost more than fat: he's lost muscle and that's not a good thing.

Is the muscle loss the cause or the effect? Or are we looking at two different things?

I wish I knew the answer. I know the possibilities: sore back? sore hip? hock? caused by what? bad tack? does he have a mild injury somewhere? Does he need more chiro? Certainly not from Chiro#1, but we're trying to get Chiro#2 scheduled. More massage? A supplement? More Alpha-Stim? Where do I do the Stim? Stim is difficult in the winter because the horse has to be wet. Though well insulated, the barn is not heated. Should I lunge him instead of ride him? But I can't get him to extend a trot on the lunge line so that won't work him very deeply.

I did some sensitivity tests, running my comb down his back from withers to spine but didn't get much reaction so maybe his back/loins are fine and the issue is in his hip? He was doing this before Chiro #1 saw him, but like I said, I didn't get much information out of that guy.

I know I NEED to get that muscle back, but I need to ask for some professional opinions on how that should be accomplished. I want a better diagnosis that what I have so far and I don't want to do any more damage. He seems perfectly willing to work, just not as willing to extend as he should be because clearly that's difficult/painful. He's not fighting me, I just need to keep pushing him and if I let up at all he drops right down to a slower jog.

All of the preceding questions were rhetorical, of course. I'm afraid no one can really answer those from watching a video or looking at pictures. If that were the case Vet's wouldn't need to make farm calls. So we've got some work to do.... just not sure what it is just yet.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Stitches Removed and Pull-Turn Added

Weird little day we had today. I arrived at the barn to find my awesome farrier ready 30 minutes early. We got his feet trimmed and scheduled his next appointment.

Since we were done very early, I had some time to kill before Dr. Johnson came to remove the stitches. I didn't want to ride incase he came early so I decided to practice showmanship. While working, I decided to try the pull-turn. The "pull-turn" is essentially a counter-clockwise pivot where instead of pushing the head away from you, you are pulling the head around towards you. I'd attempted to do this before but had no luck. This time, however, I was able to keep his attention enough to get him to go one front foot at a time (with a lot of "goooood boy" with each correct step) and as soon as I saw weight removed from the pivot foot I'd say "No" and stop, then rock his weight back and ask him to move the front feet again. Once he figured out what I was asking for he would do the whole 90 degrees! KAT told me the judges are not "allowed" to ask for more than a 90 degree pull-turn but I don't know whose rule that is so we only worked on 90. We're slow at it, but he's doing it correctly and the speed will come after the accuracy.

Dr. Johnson came and very quickly removed the stitches. Junior was an excellent patient and didn't need any sedation. He just stood and let him do the work. He got a little annoyed about half way through but after a little break he was fine for the rest. There's some scabbing under where the stitches were and it's not looking promising for hair re-growth since those follicles will not grow back. There's still some pink under where the scabs were so maybe we'll be lucky. I'm just glad he didn't re-injure it before it healed. Things could be so much worse. If it looks really bad when show-season comes I'll just have to use my touch-up spray. :) Dr. J. said we can act like it never happened. Yay!

As a hopeful preventative measure I installed a rubber floor mat around the post at the front of his stall. Forgot to take a picture of the finished product. I found a small rug at Target for only $10. I had to cut the edges off to make it fit then attached it with 3/4" staples that I flattened with a nail punch and a hammer. He didn't seem to notice or care what I was doing.... made me wish there was a horsey version of cat nip. :) Hopefully he finds it, finds it pleasurable and STOPS RUBBING HIS FACE ON METAL!!! *Sigh* I won't hold my breath.

Healin' Up.

Photo courtesy of Chloe.


Junior seems to be healing up just fine. He was put back into regular turnout on Thursday and by Sunday was acting like his sweet old self. He let me touch the wound and gently brush most of the rest of the blood/saline/betadine off the rest of his face so he just has the big silver spot now.

I had a houseful of guests for a long weekend so there wasn't anything to post about. I took they family (same group that visited 18 months ago) to the barn and we walked the trails and said Hi to all the horses.

On Sunday my Mom and I were abandoned by the other three so we dried our tears with a visit to the QH Congress. Mom had never been so it was great fun. We only went to a few of the trade show booths: Rod's, Chicks, and Schneiders and then walked through a few aisles to see Berry Fit, and Connie's Customs. I got some new grooming tools for his lesson-horse bucket, and a (finally) a black rope halter. We shared a huge wonderful burger and a heaping plate of "ribbon fries" and watched most of the very last class of the Congress, Amateur Hunt Seat Equitation, including the finals. I still don't understand why making them walk so slow they look like they're falling asleep is such a trend. For English? Pointless. POINTLESS. If I don't actually want to GO anywhere we'll just STOP, thank you.

Owie Update

Thank you, everyone for your well wishes for Junior. Other than being mad as hell at being kept in his stall the last three days he seems to be doing fine so far. I keep waiting for my phone to ring with someone telling me he tore his stitches out, but so far I don't think he's rubbed it at all. At least I couldn't find any silver rub marks in his stall. Seems to be a teensy bit of puffiness in the middle of the flap and when he let me put my hand there it felt just the slightest bit warmer than the rest of his face, but only slightly. If it gets bigger/hotter I'll call Dr. Johnson but it's just ever so slight. I thought about sending him a photo but I couldn't find an angle that would actually show it, that's how slight it is.

The BM is keeping a baby sitter in for him so he's not so lonely. Yesterday it was Little Red Apples the mini who lives right next to him and today it was Ranger the QH/Arab. As soon as I walked into his line of sight he whinnied at me. SAAAAAAAVE MEEEEEE! I took him out right away and let him trot a few feet up to the wonderful grassy spot near the turnouts. He acted like he'd not eaten in months. The BM is keeping him with hay but he has been mostly trampling it instead of eating it. His stall was a MESS and it had already been cleaned once! I haven't seen his stall like that since we moved out of the old barn!

After our walk/grazing I brought him in to eat his dinner, cleaned his stall, and brought him out for some grooming. He let me brush some of the dried blood out of his face pretty close to the stitches so that was an improvement over yesterday when he wouldn't let me touch his face at all. He even rubbed his forehead on the mitt a little.

Since these face scratching injuries seem to be a trend with him, I'm looking into ways to provide him with the horsey equivalent of a scratching post. Hopefully this will prevent him from using sharp objects! I found THIS mountable scratching pad, but at $15 for only 5"x6" I'm not excited. I hate that everything with "horse" in the description is so much more expensive than it's equivalent MINUS the "horse" on the label?!?! Besides, I like creative solutions so I started brainstorming and thought of something like THESE. 16" x 24" for $18. I'm going to try to find them locally and look for some the consistency of a rubber curry comb. At least now I have a place to start. Maybe I'll find something perfect!

BIG Owie.

Squeamish people, you should consider yourself warned.... DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINKS if you'd rather not see a lot of blood. There is a little blood in the post photos too, but I linked to the worst of it.

Just after the morning feeder grained all the horses he heard a loud bang and came to find my poor pony with a bloody face. Junior managed to wound himself pretty severely this time. I believe this is face injury number 3 or even 4 within 4 months. This is the worst by far. I got a text just before 10:00 from the BO that he cut his face and that photos had been sent to the vet and the vet was coming out. I called her and asked how bad it was and she informed me she wasn't there but the feeder had sent photos to the vet and the vet's opinion was that faces heal well but a stitch would make it heal prettier. "A stitch" huh? I left work and headed to the barn. I go there to find my poor pony like this:


It may be hard to tell what's really there, but it's a big inverted triangle flap of skin. And blood. And it had already been hosed off. Yack. Dr. Johnson came out about 30 minutes after I got there. He seemed surprised at the severity and said he wasn't able to see that much from the photo. He thought for a bit and then we brought him out to the sunlight for the work. Junior was sedated and the whole area was washed with betadine and saline. THAT part was gross. I had to look away right after I took a picture. There was some splatter on my shoes. Hurl. Then Dr. J injected a bunch of blocker and stitched him up with 14 stitches. He looked just awful when we were done. His whole face was covered with betadine, saline, blood, and this silver spray that looked like RustOLeum.


The BO had arrived right before we were finished and she immediately went to work removing the board/bolt that we determined to be the culprit. It's left over from a long gone corner feeder. It's just 2" boards attached to the stall walls and there is a small bolt and washer on the top of one of the boards. Totally unassuming looking and though I knew it was there I was not concerned about it. She felt absolutely awful, but it wasn't her fault. The stall is safe, my pony is just accident prone. He has a scar on his face from long ago, which you may have noticed in some pictures so this habit did not start with US and I can't be entirely to blame. She removed the board with the bolts and installed a mat over the wall so he can't scratch on the metal corner plate either. I think he needs a padded stall.

I left him calm but alert in another stall while she was working so I could get back to work for a meeting and to apologize to my class for abandoning them to watch a movie without me this morning.

I ran to Target and picked up some peroxide and laundry detergent (to get the blood off my jacket sleeve...) and headed back to the barn. The BO had already gone out for peroxide and had cleaned most of his face so the face that met me was much nicer to look at than the face I left.

He's to stay in the stall or be hand-walked for 3-4 days to give the healing a good start. Then he can go back to normal turnout routine. If it starts to swell or starts draining puss I am supposed to call Dr. Johnson back. If not, then the stitches come out in 2 weeks. I'm hoping free-choice hay and a few walks a day will help him stay sane in the stall.

PLEASE say a prayer or cross your fingers, squeeze your rabbits's foot, wish upon a star or whatever you do to hope that he lets this heal without pulling stitches out or rubbing it. I'll keep you posted.

Here is a link to the more icky pictures. If it asks for a password, the password is "Junebug".

A Wolf in Horse's Clothing

This is Gunner. He looks innocent, doesn't he. He looks like a nice guy, doesn't he?


But HE is responsible for THIS!

And probably all of the other wounds Junior has had in the past two months. Nice, huh? And this is AFTER I hosed it and the swelling went DOWN. Vampire pony.

They've been turned out together along with Max and a hundred year old ex-grand prix jumper since the beginning of July. The first few wounds were BIG and if you remember what he looked like when I got back on August 2nd, those were nice too. He has a new one nearly every day, but he hasn't had a "big" one since August 2nd until this one. But still, they are somewhat constant.

I'm used to grooming around them and putting ointment on them, noting which ones are healing and which ones are newer. Today I found this and did my normal freak out. I called the BM who said that she noticed a bite on his neck when they came in this morning, but it was not at all this swollen. She of course came and looked at it and we talked about what to do. I hosed it for a while which brought the swelling down and then I gave him the last dose of Banamine I had leftover from his eye.

Would you leave your horse in this situation? I know perfectly well he instigates part (if not all) of it but he is MUCH worse for wear than Gunner. If a horse ignores Junior's pestering or makes it clear that playtime is not on the agenda Junior will back off and be content to just hang out. But if he has a playmate that is game he is ALL IN. Both the BO and the BM have told me they can be separated and I will only feel a little bad if I decide to ask for that. But should I? I know it takes a while to establish herd positions and all of that, but how long do I let this go on? It's all superficial so far, but I cannot help think of how bad this one could have been. How long would you leave your horse in this situation? Is two months a decent litmus test of how horses are going to behave together? Longer?

What would you do?

Oh, Mighty Captain Destructo, Why Dost Thou Vex Me?

Here is what I was greeted with at the barn today:

*Sigh*


Good thing I know how to sew so I can just shorten the nose area, but I'm still thinking about what to do with the other part. It's hard to know if the damage was all him or all a friend, but Max's mask has both ears ripped off, and Gunner is on his 3rd fly mask in three weeks. Those rowdy boys! Gunner isn't as chewed up as Junior, but as I was sitting on Junior in the arena and Gunner was led out of his stall and I had to hold Junior back because he wanted to go see Gunner so badly. I guess he likes the abuse! I put a fly sheet on Junior last night and it is very dirty but survived the first night at least. We'll see how long it lasts.... I didn't see ANY new wounds on him so maybe the sheet will be a tooth guard, too, at least for a while.

The saddle and girth didn't seem to bother his wounds so I think we're all good to go back into a riding routine. My plan is to ride English only for a while so I've left the western saddles at home. I'm going to work on my seat and strength. I've lost most of the little I had by not riding for a whole month. I was riding well in my western saddle without stirrups but I know perfectly well that's WAY easier than in an English saddle Once I feel like I'm back in business (today was NOT that day) I will take off my stirrups for a month and see how that goes.... might want to invest in some full-seat breeches before that starts.....

Home Again, Home Again!

Disclaimer: Those of you who have missed the kind of posts that make "overanxious" look like "bat-shit crazy" may enjoy this post.....

I headed out to the barn on Monday afternoon to see how Junebug was doing. I found him sleepily hanging his head over his door and drooling from the clover he gets to eat for 12 hours each night. Other times I've left him for weeks at a time he's seemed sulky and pouty. This time he was calm and sweet, nuzzled me all over slowly. Though it would be nice if he actually noticed I was gone, I was overjoyed that his attitude has turned around and I could easily see how happy he is at the new place.

I was not as happy when I saw how beat up he's become (this is the overanxious part). It's all superficial hair loss scrapes, some may have had a little blood when they were fresh, but he looks like he was in a bar fight. I was told right away that he and another horse, Gunner, were playing rough and that they both showed big bite marks. I was NOT prepared for what I saw though. He is absolutely covered on his left side with marks! From his withers to his hips and down his barrel. He was also filthy with poo all over and his stockings were brownish yellow so I kind of went into a protective-mom panic. Luckily nobody was there so I was able to suffer needlessly in silence until I got over it. I went right to work giving him a full bath. It's nice to have a wash area with cross ties, but he moves around so much it was still a rodeo. The dirt was just pouring off of him with the first rinse. I even went so far as to use the Show Clean whitener on his socks, even though we have no plans for any more shows this year. Though he did not appreciate the bathing I felt much better being able to see all of the wounds clearly and I was mollified. Only one big one on his side does not show hair growth yet, which freaks me out a bit. The rest are all in various stages of healing and hair re-growth. After the bath I put Tri-Care on everything I could find and combed his mane back to one side. While he was quickly drying in the 91 degree heat, I took him into the trail just outside the barn. He was VERY snorty about it which amuses me greatly. He spent a lot of time just staring off down the trail. I was so worried that he was going to bolt, though, that I limited our first adventure. Plus the biggest horsefly I have EVER SEEN started trying to land on his back so I got us out of the woods quickly. The thing was the size of a small hummingbird! I knew it'd be bad news if that bit him... how would I ever convince him the woods DON'T bite!?!

Though I freaked out about the wounds he seems SOOOO happy there. I'd rather have a happy horse with scars than an unhappy one without, so I'll have to get over it. So far he's never had a wound that didn't grow back roan so I'm crossing my fingers. My least favorite part about roans is how they tend to grow back solid hair when they get hurt. Unique battle scars, but I just don't like them. I don't think I could take him to a show like this though, and I'm not convinced it's okay to saddle him like this, so I'll look at that today.

The other fun thing I discovered was THIS:

Yummy yummy mildew! I know it's a sign of "healthy" leather (though how can dead tissue be healthy?) to have mildew so I guess my reins are not as healthy as my headstall.

I took all the mildewed pieces home and cleaned and oiled them. My english bridle was fine so I'm not sure if that's unhealthy, or just didn't get mildewed because Max's girls used it while I was gone. The mildewed pieces were in less ventilated areas of the box while the bridle was exposed to more air. Ventilation is good for horses AND tack!

It's in the mail!

Work has been all-consuming lately. I've been working 8-14 hour days all week and this weekend and will do the same Monday and Tuesday. Ugh. But it pays the pony bills so I am done complaining.

I did run out to the barn for an hour or so this morning. I got a text the other day that he'd broken a bucket strap. I think he may have gotten himself caught on the bucket. I can't say for sure because he's also been known to chew on the straps which weakens them, but it looks like one of the handle loops (where it attaches to the top edge of the bucket) is bent and he has a new-ish owie on his nostril. Not anything major but it's possible that those three things (nostril, bent metal, broken strap) fit together. I'm going to spray them with McNasty once they're fixed.

We practiced showmanship for a bit. We seem to go back and forth with the pivoting. What I tried to work on today was keeping him standing still until I give an actual signal to do something. Because of his tendency to try too hard he will move if I turn towards him and start to back before I give him the signal, or pivot before I give him the signal. Though that would be a good thing, he doesn't wait to find out what I want him to do so I sort of walked around him a bunch today turning towards him and away from him and then giving clear signals for "back" and "pivot" and "jog off", etc. It worked okay. He got annoyed after a while and started waving a foot around but I think he started to figure me out.

I am sore from riding bareback on Wednesday. Last time I rode bareback I was sore for a few days, too. Not sure if it's something I'm doing wrong, or if my back just can't take it. The thought of that makes me feel old. I have never been "athletic" or anything, but the idea that by body has hit an age where some things just aren't possible is quite depressing! I have been dealing with lower back problems for years but when I'm riding consistently I don't have nearly as many painful days as I had while I wasn't riding so I'm a bit confused. I've spent the whole month (yes it was a short month) riding without stirrups and I haven't had any pain so I didn't expect it to be so different without a saddle. I did notice I felt more comfortable this ride than I did the last time I did bareback, so that was good, but four days later I'm still not 100%. I spent Thursday-Saturday with therma-care wraps on and lots of ibuprofen. Chiropractor tomorrow, then work work work until Wednesday.

On a much more exciting note, I got an email that my show halter is on it's way! Thank goodness! Now I can stop hunting for that and move on to a new pad and getting started on the jacket pattern when it comes.

Halters and other broken things.

I gave JR the day off yesterday (Saturday) so I could try to get caught up with work stuff since classes start tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but the first day of school still sucks, for students AND the teachers, but the teachers have to be upbeat and give the impression that the term is going to be enlightening, stimulating, and a barrel of fun, lest the students tune out the ENTIRE quarter. Students get to sit there mopey eyed and stare at the clock hoping the prof. will let them out early and not give them homework on the first day. I WILL let them out early, but I will also give them their first homework assignment. But I digress...

Today it was a whopping 14 degrees outside, and that is without the windchill. It was 20 degrees in the barn so I needed to let my buckets thaw in the heated bathroom while I did my stuff. He still had some flowing water, but there was about an inch of ice all around the bucket and a horse nose sized hole in the top, and the other bucket was empty with just a coating of ice. I didn't feel like riding and I didn't want to spend much time in the freezer so I took him to the arena, took his blanket off, lunged him, put his blanket back on and took him back to his stall with fresh water. He took a drink right away.

I was surprised that I was not cold but I was wearing a stocking cap, Champion Baselayer top (like Underarmour but 1/3 the price), turtleneck, fleece, down vest, long underwear bottoms, fleece lined jeans, my Mountain Horse Inferno jacket, my Mountain Horse Thinsulate paddock boots, and my Thinsulate leather gloves and I was there for less than an hour. There was noone around to hang out with so I did my thing and left. His halter still looks good, but I don't think he's been turned out since he got it so time will tell. I've only had adjustable nosebands with him and I like the non-adjustable better for lunging. It didn't get all twisted around with the chain. I cut the rest of the noseband off his green halter that he broke (after investigating he broke a little piece off the chin buckle detaching it from it's nylon) and replaced it with the leather noseband of his leather halter that he broke last summer. So now it's his emergency Frankenhalter which will be in his bridle bag in case he breaks this new one. I can see he's been chewing on one of his nylon bucket straps so I'm just waiting to have to Franken-something while I take it home to fix. I also had to replace one of the clips on his legstraps that broke while I was away. It's a good thing I can sew! I had to put a plastic clip on since that was all I could find at JoAnns, so i know it won't last, but it was a $2 stop-gap until I place an order to Schneiders in the spring when he earns enough lesson credits to buy himself a new blanket, :) or I find a metal one at Rods on Friday.

I'm going to open a checking account just for horse stuff. I am terrible at budgeting and keeping track of purchases in my head. I think if I have a second checking account that I put my horse budget in each month, I will know exactly what he's costing me, and then when show season comes there will be $ in there for shows. I'm putting in there my same budget as before he was in the lesson program, so his lesson credits sort of "earn" him money. I can always transfer funds if I need to. We'll see when I find the time to get to the bank!

TJ is back from Christmas Break so we can get back to our feeding project, and she's leasing a horse at the barn so we'll get to ride together way more than once a week. Stay tuned for the details on that. What am I talking about? Go Here.

With classes starting I will be back down to Monday-Wednesday-Friday rides and one or two weekend days per week. Sometimes I'll have to skip one or more of the weekdays. At the end of the summer I was riding almost every day. Junior wasn't any skinnier but I was. I actually had lost 1/2" from my calves and 1" from my thighs since the spring. And now? Now I feel like the stay-puff marshmallow man. I never measured my waist but I can tell the definition I had in August is GONE. As soon as classes started in the fall and I cut back to 3-5 days a week instead of 5-7 days/week I lost muscle and metabolism and started gaining weight. I can still wear all my clothes and everything, but this has got to stop. So we're going to try to eat better. It sucks though because I've used food as a reward for myself for YEARS and I've yet to find something to replace it with. I tried buying things as a reward but that just makes me broke. I lost 30 lbs once, but I was living with someone who had just lost 60lbs on Weight Watchers and she was an incredibly effective tool. I simply started eating like her. If she didn't go back for seconds, I didn't. If she said no to ice cream, I said no. It worked. Hopefully this time I can do it by myself. Any ideas? Just don't tell me to exercise. That's just not going to happen. Trust me.

Captain Destructo and the evil villain: McNasty!

We had a pretty good lesson tonight. He seemed really relaxed in the stall and was really good through the lesson. KAT was highly complimentary on his jog and he was really good about the lope. We worked on slowing him down but maintaining the impulsion from behind. There were only two of us in the lesson so it was a short one, but we ended by doing a pattern (jog, halt, pivot, lope R lead, halt pivot, lope L lead, halt, back) and KAT was surprised at how much he's improved on his pattern work. During my rides this past week I've been working on halting, pivoting, and then trotting or loping off, trying to keep his weight off his front end by showing him it's easier to halt if he does so. I've already really seen an improvement in his frame and his quick halts. His pivots are much improved, too. He still wants to move his back feet too much when pivoting to the right but still showing improvement. He still dances around, anticipating the next move, so I wait until he's still before I ask. Luckily the last show we're going to this season has only rail work for Equitation and Horsemanship but his halts on the rail will still be improved. KAT also said we might want to do the "balanced rider" class which is with a saddle but no stirrups. I was kind of excited that she thought I could do that! I do work without stirrups occasionally and feel pretty confident that way.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but sometimes I catch him cribbing on his feed tub. KAT said she's heard it a few times too. He puts his teeth on the back corner of his feed tub when he does it. Last week he finally got his old feed tub off the wall. He'd been working on that for a while, both pulling on it with his teeth and banging up underneath it with his knees. The barn replaced it with a new tub this week but they used the same beat-up holes in the concrete block so it's already coming loose. He broke his Stall Snack a few weeks ago, too. I think he pulled on it hard enough to break the hole in the top of the little green stick so the rest of his Himalayan salt probably got scooped up with the manure. He'll get a new one this weekend. I really don't want him cribbing, obviously. First I'm trying a good coating of McNasty on the sides and back corner of his feed tub. I doubt it will prevent him from eating his grain, but that stuff really is nasty! I caught a bit of it when I was spraying it and my eyes watered and I can STILL feel it in my throat a little! I guess I should've stood further back! He put his mouth on the tub after I sprayed it and he didn't crib, but lifted his head up and curled his lip back a few times then went to get a drink. I didn't hear him do it again before I left the barn. I know there are other options, Quitt, Miracle Collar, etc., but I'd like to start with simple solutions and see if they work...

I think I'm going to put him on SmartCalm which has Magnesium, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine), Inositol (a relative of the B vitamins) and Taurine. There are a few horses in the barn who are on it and KAT said she has noticed results in them. I was reading the testimonials and people respond that it works well for "ADD" horses and I definitely have one of those! Any thoughts?

"You're the reason we can't have nice things!"

You know how everything you own breaks at once like when BOTH my laptop battery AND power cord needed to be replaced at the same time? I've had that week, but I'll get to that in a second.

Somehow my 1/2 hour private English lesson yesterday was an hour long. KAT kicked my ass and I'm glad for it. It rained all day yesterday (and is still raining today) so he wasn't turned out yesterday. I rode without lunging anyway and he was still fine. I wanted to warm up before my lesson so I rode for about 20 minutes at the walk and jog/trot before KAT came in. For some reason I spent the first 20 minutes fighting to get his frame better and as soon as I told KAT of the struggle and started off again he dropped his head. Show off. We trotted forever and cantered even longer. He was SO sweaty and I was exhausted but we seemed to improve as the hour went on. He doesn't really respect the slow-twist snaffle I'm using and I had to use a LOT of upper body strength to keep him listening to my aids. Not that I want to use a bit that's too severe, but even KAT mentioned how he was not really listening to it. Though when I first sat in the saddle I felt again like I was perched on top of a mountain I felt much better quicker. KAT worked him at English gaits with an English bridle but used her western training saddle so he still took a while to stop reacting to every little jiggle of my leg. At the end of the lesson I felt much better than I did the last time I got off, wondering if I should just NOT ride English at all.

I wanted to see if she approved of my 7 year old cheap field boots to show in so that I could avoid the replacement expense until next year. I've shown in them before and the only thing I recalled being wrong with them is that they are too big in the calf but since they are a little tall for me you can't really tell when I'm mounted. As soon as I put them on (at home) it shocked me how un-godly uncomfortable they are! They pinched, they rubbed and were overall NOT comfy. I told myself to suck it up and went to the barn. After riding about 30 minutes my toes went numb, I assume from the lack of ANY sort of cushion in the footbed, and when I got off and walked him to cool him out I started feeling the development of a blister and something else unpleasant in the left ankle area. By the time I got home and took them off I had a deep blister starting on the pointy bone on my left heel and above that a trench where my breech elastic was forced into my flesh which turned into a swollen area. Of course she told me they look fine so I'm caught between sucking it up for this summer, or buying new. I'm relatively unmarred from their wearing and I could probably add some molefoam to the heels and a thin footpad, but this all makes the $200 Ariat Heriage boots Dover has on sale look REALLY worth it. I just found that price in the sale catalog yesterday and am considering. I'm going to cheat and go to Equus and try some of their Ariats on to find my size. Two of my pairs of western boots are Ariats and I've had one of them for about 15 years and they've been my primary riding boot the whole time. Seriously. The only thing wrong with them is they are only a size 7 (I was 15 when I bought them!) so I can only wear them with very thin socks. Equus only carries the Heritage in children's sizes.

Speaking of Equus I realized (after spending an hour and a half oiling and softening it) my new bridle is an EXTRA full size and is too big. It sort of fits on the smallest holes but I asked for a full, looked at the tag with the clerk, and my receipt says FULL. The bridle, however has a little stamp that says XF on one of the tips. I saw it while I was oiling and wondered (stupidly) what the X was for since I thought the F was for the Flex Rider brand. I still have the tags and I didn't ride in it and I'm sure whoever buys it next will appreciate the oiling and working, I REALLY hope they let me exchange it, since it seems it was labeled wrong. Of course I THOUGHT I checked it's fit when I first got it but it fit differently when I actually put a bit on it it was more evident. I still have the tag (and access to a tagging gun) and the plastic loop that held the reins on so I'm going to put it back together and take it back.... wish me luck that they don't see the oiling/softening as being "used."

And to top off all of my malfunctioning equipment I realized on Tuesday that the halter plate was gone from his halter. I figured it was in the field somewhere and one of the kids said she thought she saw something shiny over the weekend in the middle field. I went and found it easily but the screws have, of course, gone the way of the dodo and I'm not sure how to fix that. Do I just get him a new engraved halter since this one is too big anyway? Luckily he's the most unique looking horse on the property so he's not likely to get mixed up...unlike Zippy and Max who despite their different genders and markings are still being confused by the TOG (turn out guy). I cannot find an embroidered turn-out safety halter anywhere. THAT would be ideal. Know of any? Right now we have his too-big single-ply formerly plated leather halter as every day and I have the brand new sage green nylon/graphite halter and rope for "good."

And I still need leathers, breeches, shirt, belt, (boots?), hairnet, western chaps, pants, shirt, reins..... Yay for ME stimulating the economy all by myself!!!