2015 - My Herd: Updates & Goals

Yeah, I really am the world's worst blogger.  This year I'm going to try to be a little bit better at keeping riding logs and keeping up with my progress, as I've got a LOT going on.

Last show season finished up okay.  Acorn and I had our best ride yet in the first test of our Championship pair, and in the second test (despite a stellar warmup) we were excused less than halfway through.  He was spooking at every. single. letter.  Now I'm not exaggerating when I say that prior to that day, Corn had never spooked with me.  I think, ONE time he dashed sideways a few steps at a child running out of the woods screaming in his general direction, but that's it.  Deer, trucks. golf carts, flower boxes... literally, nothing had ever spooked him before our Championship test.  It was a HUGE bummer and a crappy way to end the season.

Gali, who had a very mellow season due to shows cancelling, a poorly timed leg cut and shows filling up early, finished the season on our highest note.  We went to the ECRDA Championship show, which was held in an indoor that is 3' bigger on each side than the arena.  Gali was a superstar despite the absolutely "terrifying" trot around the ring, and we ended up putting in two great tests to come out as Reserve Champion for the Training Level Sr. division.  Super proud!

However, since the fall, he's been really lame.  His ringbone has progressed pretty drastically, and he's had a very, very rough winter.  I've been trying lots of different therapies, and was considering taking him up to New Bolton for an alcohol arthrodesis, but we're trying something called OsPhos first.  It's a recently approved treatment for Navicular and so far, so good.  He's only just over 2 weeks into his first round of treatment, and already his walk has drastically improved.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I really hope that this helps him like I think it will.

Acorn has been in steady work, and he continues to improve.  I get very frustrated with him because he's SUCH a naturally talented horse, he's got great gaits and very good conformation, but his brain gets in his way, and he stresses out about working hard.  Sofia is (hopefully) going to start jumping him a little more, and he's always way happier when he's in a mixed program, so maybe he'll become a little easier to work with.  We had some really nice canter work in our last few lessons, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can get out of this horse this year.  I would *love* to take him first level at some schooling shows, but I need to tap into his brain and get him to chill out about some stressful situations (ie: work). He's still for sale, but no real interest yet.

Oh, last November we got Katie back to our farm.  She's Nicole's horse now, and the plan is for me to show her at the USDF shows this year and get my scores for my Training & First level rider's achievement certificates.  I'm thrilled to have my 'first' horse back, and she has been an absolute joy to ride.  She came up lame about a week ago - thinking it's the ground and that she needs shoes, but our vet is coming out tomorrow to take a look.

Rowdy has continued to be adorable and bratty.  He's great for the kids but occasionally decides he's gonna be a bucking bronco with me when I start making him work.  He's getting way better and I absolutely love riding him.  Unfortunately, he's *also* lame right now :(  He got kicked a little while ago, and while he's probably just a grade 1 lame, his leg hasn't really improved in terms of swelling.  Vet thinks it's a bone chip, and when he's out tomorrow he's going to take a few xrays and see what's up.  Goals for him this year just include some training level work, some showing, and getting him to be a lot better at basic things like being bathed, standing on crossties while the barn's busy, standing still for mounting and trailering.

So... that's the state of the herd!  All of the other lesson ponies are doing great, and teaching has been a blast.

Book/Blog Recommendations?

I "rode" Gali on Monday and lunged him yesterday - somehow, he didn't get the memo he was supposed to be not feeling great, because all he wanted to do was canter and buck under saddle, and my lunging session was, uh, interesting...

Gali: OHMYGOD ARE WE RIDING AGAIN?
Me: No.  Walk on.
Gali: WHEEEEE
Me: Gali, that's a canter.  Stop that.
Gali: WHEEEEEEEEEEE!
Me: Ho?
Gali: K.  I can do ho.
Me: Trot... trot?
Gali: WHEEEEEEEE!

Our riding sessions are supposed to be more physical therapy than actual work, and I've been able to keep them to a working walk, stretchy walk, and short bits of stretchy trot and canter in both directions just to evaluate his soundness, but I think I might step it up a bit tomorrow and see how he reacts.  He is much more sound on the stone-dust outdoor footing, and his lameness only shows when he's counter-bending to look at something that's caught his attention.  I've been doing some research about ringbone and the best treatments seem to be shockwave and Pentosan - I think I'll give my vet a call tomorrow and see if he thinks it would be a good idea.  I feel like I just need something to get him over this last jump of off-and-on lameness.

Anyway, since I don't have much going on right now and can't really do much under saddle, I'm looking for some book recommendations!  I picked up an equine massage book and Equine Fitness with an Amazon gift card, but would love to hear your suggestions for equine health/fitness or training books.  I'm also looking to expand my blogroll, so blog suggestions would be fantastic.

Back in Tack

As per Dr. P's suggestions, I've been getting Gali back to light work under tack.  My first ride was completely uneventful, and I found myself in awe at how lucky I am to have a horse like Gali.  Really, what other horse would be completely level headed in a relatively new indoor after almost two months off?  I was able to check his soundness at three gaits in both directions, work on my two point, a few double-ups, and do some no stirrup work - all on the buckle!  Gali was enthusiastic about being back in work.

I then went away for the weekend, and returned to ride on Monday night.  I got to the farm later than I expected, and didn't have my tack room key with me.  I wanted to get some walking in, because I felt bad for leaving Gali to sit for two days.  After hand-walking him around the fog-filled and rather dark indoor, I threw a rope halter on him, rigged up some reins, took a deep breath, and hopped on.

Who is this horse?!

Mr. Galabad was... well, Galagreat.  He didn't look at anything scary towards the far end of the arena, he didn't try to jig or pop his shoulder and drag me anywhere, and he had pretty good brakes.  I did spend 95% of the ride walking, but in the short bits of trot (to check his soundness), he was just as well behaved as in the walk. Needless to say, I was confused - who is this horse?!  Last time I rode him bareback in his bridle, he tried to take off with me, and bucked!

I was happy he decided to behave, and even happier to see that he seems to be improving at the trot.  I suspect with another week of MSM, DMSO, and walking, he'll be sound again... just in time to have a few weeks off when I'm home for the holidays!

I went out today, excited to be able to throw tack on my well mannered horse and go for a stroll.  I was hoping that the ground had dried up enough to ride outside, but it was still too muddy for me to be comfortable working at all.  I'm glad I had to ride inside, though, because the Gali of the past week has disappeared, and the usual Galahad was back in full force.  Before I had even gotten my feet in the stirrups, he was spooking away from a jump standard that must have been hissing at him.  He was jumping at the sound of a horse pawing, and sidestepping to move away from standards and jumps that he's seen several times already.  I tried to get him to walk up to the one particular standard he was afraid of, but he tensed up and spun away three or four times.  Since my goal is to work him gently under saddle, I felt bad for getting into an argument with him.  We met somewhere in the middle, and I continued my ride.  He was strong, and tense for most of the ride, and was looking for any excuse to misbehave.  I'm assuming that his tension is what led to his lameness being more pronounced than it was on Monday.

Afterwards, I did some ground work in the scary part of the arena, and he seemed to settle down.  I'm certainly hoping that today was a fluke, and the calm and levelheaded Gali is what I will begin to see more of as I bring him back into work slowly.

Gali Meets Dr. P

Gali and I were both big fans of my previous vet, but when I moved him an hour north, I decided to switch to the barn's vet.  I've heard good things about him from many people in the area, and I was excited to meet him and hear his opinion of Gali's ringbone and condition.

Gali might not be the smartest horse in the barn, but when he saw the new guy looking at him and writing notes on a clipboard, he tensed up.  "THAT'S WHAT THOSE POKEY GUYS DO!! HE'S A POKEY GUY!".  The two shots were relatively uneventful, but the vet did comment on how tall Gali could get.

Despite Gali's Saturday soundness, he came up lame on Monday.  I expected the vet to want to take a few XRays, but he decided my films from last year were okay for now.  He believed the flare up was a result of being stalled during the hurricane, and that the best thing to do would be to manage pain and inflammation until he gets past this, and then re-evaluate him.  That means putting him on MSM (easy), continuing to ice him (easy), walking him under tack as frequently as I can (easy) and applying a DMSO/Absorbine gel to his pastern whenever I'm at the farm (FML).

In other news, Bekka is looking to lease Katie out, so if anyone is looking for a lovely all-around horse suitable for beginners or advanced riders alike, please get in touch with me!

Boring Update Time.

I hope everybody had a lovely Thanksgiving!  My weekend was spent alternating between eating everything in sight, and having an emotional breakdown about the last two concerts before my favorite band goes on hiatus.  Being home (and then in Philly, and then in NYC) meant that Gali had a few days of just sitting in the field, eating hay, and probably crying about the Sixers' hiatus as well Right?

He's really going to miss Boots, Kit, and SK.

Understandably, when I went out to see him on Monday afternoon, he was stiffer and more lame than he had been when I was icing him every day last week.  I dropped a gram of bute into his breakfast, went through the whole ice/poultice/groom routine, and threw an extra blanket on him in anticipation of the snow storm we got on Tuesday.  I didn't make it out to see him on Tuesday, but on Wednesday I came out in the early afternoon.  I jogged him in the indoor before icing him, and found that he was down a little bit more sound than he was on Monday.  While I was waiting, I took some time and went through all of our carrot stretches.  I dug out my clicker, and even spent some time refreshing him on the "tricks" we learned last time we went lame.  I'm happy to report that he still remembers "ask nicely!" for treats, and to stop mugging my pockets when I put my hands behind my back.  He shakes hoof, but I'm running out of things to teach him... I guess we could work on targeting again.  Any ideas?

After icing, he was even better.  I'm sure by then the bute from Tuesday morning was mostly out of his system, so I'm hoping that he's on the upswing, and that the icing really helps.

Still, Gali's meeting his new vet on Monday, to get some follow up XRays and two shots (botulism and rabies).  I'm going to ice him again tonight and through the weekend, and hope he's on the better side of this flare up.

EZ Ice - no, really!

One of the biggest challenges I've dealt with when treating a ringbone flare up has been icing Gali's legs.  In the summer, it isn't awful, because cold-hosing is easy enough.  Still, standing there for twenty minutes gets boring for both Gali and I, and ends up with both of us being cranky.  In the winter, however, it's been a nightmare.  Gali refuses stand in a rubber tub for more than a minute, he knocks buckets over, and even if I do manage to get his foot in cold water, I don't like having to soak his entire foot just to attempt to chill his pastern.

So, when his ringbone flared up against last week, I decided to go up to Dover and pick up the same chilled gel bandage that Alexis used to use on Adam.  When I got there, I saw they had something even better - a velcro "boot" that is meant for icing laminitic hooves. 

For once, my horse's lumpy pasterns have come in handy.  I knew from trying to fit him with bell boots in the past that his ringbone and sidebone make it very difficult for anything to actually fit around his hoof at the coronet band, so it looked like this hoof boot would rest perfectly on his calcification.  A photo from the Jeffers website shows how it's supposed to rest:

... and this is how it ended up sitting on Gali. 

Completely, unintentionally, replicated the Jeffers picture...

Just as I thought, it was perfectly sized to sit right on the area I wanted to ice! (Please ignore the strange way he's standing...)

The wrap stayed cold for a long time, while I groomed and grazed Gali, and he didn't mind it at all.  Afterwards, I walked him out and he seemed to be moving less stiffly than he was when I brought him in.  It's too early to tell if this is helping, but I'll keep you all updated!

Ringbone, again :(

After today's ride, I'm convinced Gali's "lameness" is indeed a flare-up of his ringbone, and no longer attribute it to time spent indoors, or a break from supplements.  He's been out for a week, and back on his supplements for longer than that - so if that's what it was, he should be sound again.  Pony's sound at the canter and walk, but grade 2/3 lame at the trot.  It's more prominent going towards the right, and nearly gone traveling towards the left, as well as when he sits down and uses his hind end to carry himself.  I do believe that getting on him and helping him stretch out is helping, so I will continue to ride (at a walk with some stretchy trot) and see if he continues to improve. I'm having his (new!) vet out to give him a botulism vacc sometime in the next week or two, so I'll speak to him then about my options.

Lame horse!

I went out to ride Gali today, and of *course* I got there fifteen minutes after he'd been turned out to his new field.  After being in for several days due to the storm and damage to the farm, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with me catching him.  I did feel bad, and was going to just bring him in, groom him, and turn him back out.  However, he was incredibly disrespectful and would not allow me to even come close to him, and when a second person had to help me corner him to catch him, I decided to saddle up.

He ended up being fairly lame in the leg that has the more severe ringbone.  I'm hoping that it's just a result of a combination of unfortunate timing - being in for almost a week, being out of supplements due to some shipping problems at the old barn, and being due for a trim.  He had a good attitude about it, which is how I'm certain it's his ringbone - if he's sore anywhere else he's pissy and bucks, but with ringbone he just shuffles along like he accepts his own arthritic fate.

I am glad that Mr. Alpha is getting along, for the most part, with his field mates.  He had it out with a small pony (ironically, named Sir Lancelot, and whom the owners say deserves a good whomping) and had a mild disagreement with one other horse, but it's really just down to him and the standing head-of-herd, who I'm certain will back down in a day or two.

Finally settling in... and coming up lame.

Gali has been behaving himself lately, but when I hopped on him Thursday night he seemed a little off in his right front shoulder.  I wrote it off to him either sucking back and faking lame or being stiff, though, because he seemed to only take an off step when he wasn't paying attention.  I took it easy and let him stretch out, and spritzed him with liniment before putting him away for the night.

On Friday morning, I got to the barn early for a lesson, hoping that the previous night's lameness was just an odd tweak.  Unfortunately, no such luck, and I was less than five circles into my trot work when Nicole asked me if he felt off.  He didn't seem to be working out of it, so I hopped off and put him away.  I was going to be at my sister's all weekend, so he got bute Saturday morning and afternoon, and was left with no bute on Sunday so I could get an honest reading of him when I got back.

Last night I didn't do much - just threw him in the round pen and checked him in both directions - but he did seem sound.  I gave him today off, and will go out to ride him tomorrow.

His attitude and anxiety has been getting a lot better, and he's stopped calling to Katie whenever she isn't in sight, so if he IS sound tomorrow, I hope to get the best ride at Skip Ahead yet.

Still Lame?

I think Gali's still lame.  I'm sort of in denial and hope that Bekka can get on him this weekend and see if it's just an "I'm going to suck back, screw going forward!" attitude.  I went out and rode after class tonight, but by the time I got down there, it was dark.  I turned on the lights in the ring, and put Gali on the lunge and walked and trotted him in both directions.  He was very well behaved on the lunge and looked mostly sound, but when I hopped on he immediately felt off again.  I trotted him in both directions, on contact and on a loose rein, and he felt better on a loose rein but still not 100%.

I hope hope hope he's just faking lame.  I probably should have gotten on his case a little more tonight, but he was spooking at the shadows and there was a young kid on an OTTB in the ring getting led around, and he kept trying to follow the other OTTB who was cantering laps around the ring and I didn't have time to push the issue.  He felt off, I felt bad pushing him when I think he was obviously telling me "No, it hurts."

We did have a mounting manners lesson.  It was... interesting.  You'd think for as much as I drilled the game into his head when I first got him, he'd get that the point was to stand still by now.  It took 5 tries before he stood still on a loose rein getting on from the left, and after half a dozen times he still didn't get it completely on the right side.  I was running late to meet my parents for dinner, though, so I just backed him up the step that he had moved, and made him stand still on the buckle for a few minutes before I called it a day.

Not gonna see him til Wednesday morning... maybe, maybe Tuesday night.  Blah.

Ringbone, You Suck.

I'm not as crushed as I was last May when this whole thing started.  So far, I've been kind of numb to it.  Today, his attitude kind of upset me, because I know he's not feeling right.  That definitely hurts more than the thought of having to retire him early.  I just want him to be happy.

I did just send an e-mail to my vet asking about getting radiographs to keep tabs on Gali's ringbone.  He's so inconsistantly lame right now that I'd say he's a Grade .5 - but his attitude tells me it feels worse than it looks.  Or maybe I'm being paranoid.  Either way, x-rays will show me how he's progressing (technically, regressing).  While I'm thinking about it, I thought I'd share his photos from last May.

Left front.  The sound foot.  Nice sidebone, buddy.

Left front.

Oh!  There ya go.  The unsound right front.

Right front.  Pretty, huh?

Hand Walking Day

I recently discovered Google's MyTracks application and used it for the first time today via my Android phone.  I'm hoping Gali will soon be sound enough to go explore under saddle, but until then, I'll use it for our hand walks.  My vet said that light riding work was okay for now, but this morning I just handwalked Gali around the track in each direction.  We stopped a few times to graze, poke scary things, and say hi to friends.  I was pretty much just testing the app, and I must say I am so impressed with its accuracy!

Gali began his bute regimen today.  He'll have off tomorrow, and on Friday I think we'll go exploring in the woods with Lynn.

Recap (via MyTracks):
Total distance: 1.1 mi
Total time: 24:10
Moving time: 20:47
Average moving speed: 3.3 mi/h)
Max speed: 4.3 mi/h

These storms, they gather forces, unbeknownst to fools like me.

10 days of bute (1g/2x a day) and very light riding.

So it goes.  Heading out tomorrow morning to walk a lap in each direction around the track.

I was just kidding about that "Let's do Intro on 3/3" thing anyway.