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.

Equine Ownership Rite of Passage: The Lameness Exam

I've now added "Lameness Exam" to our ever growing list of "Things Horse Owners Will Inevitably Have to Deal With" right along side "Fall off" and "Emergency Vet Call."

In true Junior fashion he presented himself 100% sound this morning, purely as a ruse since his friends were outside and he wasn't going to let anything stand in the way of his outdoor enjoyment. He wasn't warm and wasn't lame either direction. BO watched him too and we all agreed he looked totally fine. So out he went. Then Max's Mom came to the barn and says "I saw your boy limping around out there, how's he doing?" so my heart stopped and I walked briskly out to the field to see him. He walked easily over to me I felt his legs again. Nothing. I was about to be late for work. So guiltily I left him out with instructions for EVERYONE I could find to bring him in if they saw anything odd because Dr. J. would be there at noon to check another horse. So I worried about him the whole time I was at work. After work at about 2pm I couldn't help going to check on him and found that Dr. J. was running late and hadn't been there yet.

So we lunged. Dr. J. was busy with another horse and HIS lameness issues so I just worked him. Still no sign of anything at any gait in either direction. Eventually I took him back into the barn and groomed him until Dr. J. was ready to take a real look. Agreeing that he looked fine whenever he glanced over at him, but wanting to have an actual look, he did the flex tests and the hoof tester tests. I've never actually been part of this before so it was somewhat freaky to watch your horse suddenly be SUPER lame for a few steps. Nothing was remarkable. The only thing that gave Dr. J. any information was that he was sensitive if he squeezed his heel side to side and he jogged the lamest after that one. He thinks it's in the hoof, but that it probably isn't a serious issue, more likely another puzzle piece of how he ripped open the front of his blanket and has a wound on his left upper gums: Shenanigans.

So 6 days of Bute and Conquer and keep his routine the same so no riding and normal turnout. If he gets worse or if after 6 days he's not out of it, then I should call. How convenient that tomorrow will be my last day at the barn until next Friday. So now I have a week withOUT the guilty feeling from not riding.

We also discussed the possible stifle issue and he palpated the stifle, but since there is a recognizable lameness in the LF and not one in the LH, we're going to let that be fixed before moving on. Of course, reading in my new book about how important and often overlooked stifles are I'm only a teeeeeeeeeeensy bit freaked out.... in true Overanxious Horse Owner fashion....

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.

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".

Vet Re-Check

The vets came out and looked him over again today. Plural vets because we use Ohio State Vets and they always have students with them, which I think is great. Being a teacher myself I am happy to help them get experience. They've got to get it somehow, right?

Anyway they were thrilled with how well he was behaving - they squirted stain and then saline in his eye and he didn't even step away. They were also thrilled with how healed he is already. I couldn't see the scratch yesterday and today they could just barely see where it was with the dye and the light-up-eye-viewing-thingy. I'm 100% sure that's the technical term for it. So no more Banamine, but still keep gooing it a few times a day and fly mask on if possible. Since he tends to tear it off I'm not thinking it's worth it to put it on him each day, but I'll try tomorrow and see how it goes. Luckily we're on Spring Break so I CAN drive out there twice a day!

I lunged him this morning since he hasn't been worked/turned out since Monday and he's having his feet trimmed today and I'm going to go ahead and do my showmanship lesson tonight. After lunging I let him hand graze near the mud lot where his buddies were turned out. They all came over and told secrets. This is Zippy saying "Dude, why aren't you in here and WTF is on your head?!?!"

The Unappreciated Irony of The Day

So do you know the play Equus? (You may have heard about it as the play Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) was naked in... but that's not the point of the story.) The play revolves around a boy who blinds 6 horses with a metal spike in the middle of the night.

The irony?

I got to have my very first vet call today.... for an eye problem. Duh Duh Dun! He's fine, but eyeballs are not anything I want to take a gamble on so I called the vet. He has a small superficial scratch on his cornea and will need to have some goop in his eye for 5 days and banamine for two days, or at least until he's looked at again on Wednesday. I'm pulling him out of lessons for now and keeping him in from turnout. The vet said he could go in turnout, but Charlie has been climbing all over him and it is SOOOO muddy that I would feel better if he stayed inside. He'll be cranky but it's only temporary. KAT will be put some goop in him in the morning and I'll be out tomorrow evening for more goop and banamine.

In true Overanxious Horse Owner fashion I was completely freaking out when I called KAT over to look at it, but I survived and it seems he's going to be fine, as long as it heals with no complications. They sedated him to get a good look at the eye and I have never seen a sedated horse before. He was so cute and a very good patient. I'm sorry there are no pictures, but I didn't have the camera with me and there really wasn't an opportune moment.

I'll update when there's something interesting.... and hopefully the bill doesn't make me throw up. :)