A magical day

 Dan and I headed out to Ashland today to enjoy this gorgeous weather and the woods. It was a glorious day. Deliciously chilly enough that I had on long sleeves and a thin fleece pullover. But it was sunny and the sun warmed my soul (instead of scorching me!). And we were only walking, so no sweating. Well, Dan sweated a tiny bit. 

   

We tacked up and just headed out. I let him choose mostly. We ended up going across the small dam and then down into Down Under. It's so pretty there. Except he almost lost it before we hit down under. He was snacking on some grass just before we hit Down Under and they have the big stack of wood ready to replace the bridge in the corner of the pasture. I guess he didn't notice it and when I finally got his head out of the grass to move along, he saw it and spun and almost bolted. Whoa dude!!! Ha ha. Luckily he stopped and turned and stared and let me talk him down. And then he felt silly for being so spooky. ;) 

   

Then we headed up to the cowpens. Sadly, they chopped down or moved the awesome jump. Not that Dan and I would have jumped it, but... it made me glad that I had done it on Funny already! Then we went past the hay fields and into the fire swamp. Then from there we headed across the dam. And we scared up the pterydactyl. Twice. But Dan didn't mind. He didn't want to swim or splash today. Which wasn't a bad thing. Especially because pawing in the water probably isn't good for his shoulder at the moment. We headed back up alongside cross country and headed in. 

 

He felt pretty good. At the end he maybe got a little fatigued and just felt... a little neuro almost. Maybe a little weak in the right hind.. maybe a combination of all the things. But it makes sense if his left front is sore and his right hind is sore.. that he'd feel a little wonky. And it was only briefly at the end but then he worked out of it again. I was tempted to trot and see how he felt, but I didn't. 

  

When we untacked I did feel like his saddle was smooshing down on his traps. I wonder if I should switch to riding in the big felt pad for a bit and see if that makes a difference. I did also put in a text to Nancy to have her come check Funny's saddles and was hoping she could check Dan's too. I think I remember her saying she did western saddles too. His neck just looks so awful sometimes. And his topline is definitely getting worse again. 

   

But we had a good ride and enjoyed each others company and the lovely weather and lovely views. 

Tonight at dinner I got mad at him though because he was just slamming his teeth on the bars again. I think I hurt his feelings because later when I went to blankets on the girls, I didn't bring any treats because I was tired of getting mobbed. And it's kind of dangerous when I'm trying to blanket them and he keeps coming over and butting in thinking I have treats and trying to chase them off. He kept his distance but then once they were blanketed and I was snuggling with Funny and taking full moon photos, he came up and started "smiling" for me in an attempt to get a cookie! Awwww... smart boy. And you're super cute. But I don't have any cookies. But we snuggled a little bit. He's still Dan though and grumped a little bit. But enjoyed his ear rub. 

PHEW!! Crisis averted

 I was a bit terrified what our vet appointment would hold today. I was half convinced that Dan had torn his meniscus. Or just... totally destroyed his stifle. But I also didn't want to assume that it was the problem when it was something else aggravating him. Because, while I know his stifle is awful.. it's been awful and he copes. So the fact that he was acutely lame.... 

Anyways... we got to the clinic right on time and I unloaded him. He came off the trailer READY TO BOLT!! He was shaking, heart pounding, and neck straight up like a giraffe. What on earth dude? It was a barking dog, but... so what?! Well.. there was something that was spooking him that he couldn't find, but then he was also spooking at the horse skeleton. Mind you, he saw it last year too. He was all bowed up and I almost lost him one time as he tried to go the other way and drug me a bit. Luckily I had the rope halter on and was able to reel him back in. I then bribed him with a cookie and sweet talk and we walked up to "skelly". Oh... it's just a fake horse... Dan sniffed noses with him and then decided he was harmless and then he was fine. good gravy!

Dr Barrow watched him go and watched my short video and said it was left front. But then on a circle she also saw the right hind. She said that the right hind didn't look any worse than usual but the left front was dramatic. He didn't want to bring it forward and had a shortened cranial phase. On palpation he was quite cranky over the point of his shoulder, at the bursa, and also at his neck base. And when she palpated his tendon, he was flinchy midway down his cannon bone at the flexors. She tried to flex him but he was a very unhappy pony for his fetlock and jogged off VERY lame. He was a bit lame for the shoulder flexion but not as bad. 

So we ultrasounded his shoulder. No tears or lesions but a big bruised muscle over the point of the shoulder and a teeny little lesion in the insertion tendon of the biceps brachii. Then we ultrasounded his tendons. His deep and superficial flexors looked good. His suspensory looked good. But his check ligament was a bit angry. No lesion. Just angry. And right where he was palpating sore. Then we x-rayed his fetlock. Just one lateral but it was rather beautiful. Phew! 

So... the diagnosis is that it was likely that was the limb that got hung in the fence and was essentially the pivot point creating the twist and flip, so he likely tweaked the tar out of that whole leg! The plan is to rest him and shockwave the shoulder and he should heal up fine. I did ask if I could do some rides, and she said walk trail rides would be fine but avoid trotting. So yay! We'll get to do our walk trail rides until my surgery and then he can rest even more and then we'll revisit and see if we need to inject the stifle again or anything else and hopefully he'll make another comeback. :) Phew!

I'm so glad that's all it was! Now if I can just keep him from doing anything else dumb!!

ughhh... lame

 went to ashland with sharon and baylor. beautiful weather! had a lovely hack. 

finished up with a test in the anena... so freakin' lame I didn't even get sharon to video more than 20 seconds. super lame. flat tire behind lame. sadness. 

hopefully he didn't do any damage to his stifle.. and more so just aggravated it. 

photos: 10-26 perfect weather, one short video of lameness

Repercussions

 Well darn. When I pulled Dan in to ride today I noticed a scrape of missing hair on his left forearm, that wasn't there the other day. I'm not sure if he just finally lost the hair from the gate or if it's a new wound. And then I noticed that his right forearm seems a little puffy... and feels a little edematous. Fluidy... more than edema I guess. Darn... did you hurt yourself flipping bud??

I decided to go ahead and groom and tack him up and feel him out. Worst case scenario, I'd just get off. So I groomed him and then I tried to find the rib he needed adjusting (per Liz) and then I found a big ol' knot and some heat in his nuchal ligament on both sides, but in different spots. So I worked on that. And once he realized I was working on him, he got into it. So... I'm not sure if that's a sore muscle or just actual muscle in a non-muscled area.. ha ha. But it was tight. And we got releases. I also did some work on his scapula area and... kind of feel like I was feeling some of the "yuckies" come out of him. He releases a few times, so hopefully at the very least, he felt nice. 

We tacked up and headed to the arena. I walked around a good bit and we did a turn on the forehand and a turn on the haunches both ways. It was quite nice! Good boy. Then I picked up the trot. And ugh.. he feels lame. Although he felt lame behind. It sort of felt like his "usual" lameness just a little worse. Like.. he worked out of it, and it was super subtle, but.. it was there. I tried to do a little bit of trotting to see if he'd really work out of it, but... while it got better, it didn't resolve. 

 

I figured I'd just try a quick canter to see and.. he said no. I mean... bless him, he said yes and tried, but he was clearly struggling hard. I tried both ways and interestingly, the left lead canter was harder today. He kept starting off with the right lead but we finally got it and it was awful and he wanted out of it, so I let him. The right lead wasn't as much of a struggle but he wasn't happy or soft in it, so I pulled him up. It's okay bud... we'll just give you another day or two off. 

 

Either he's just super sore from the gate incident, or he's sore from the combination of that and the long haul and the showing and finally he's just had enough. Or maybe I'm willing to hear that he's had enough since there's no show. (Although to be fair.. he definitely was happier cantering before today!). Or maybe he's just due for injections again?  I don't know. I'm going to hope and pray that it's just combined soreness from the show and hauling and then the bad life choice he made. I hate if he's more uncomfortable again, but... since I'll be out for mid Dec to mid February, I don't want to inject anything now. I guess I could shockwave, but... I'll probably give him another few days off and then reassess. Or just take him for a long walk Tuesday and then see how he feels Friday or Saturday and then decide what to do. He'll either be better or worse. Or I suppose he could be the same. Unless he gets worse, he's fine to do walking trail rides, so.. we can always just do that until February and then I'll do another lameness exam and work up. And I'll probably adjust, acupuncture, bemer, etc, all the things, plus shockwave him before then. I was contemplating doing a western dressage test or two at Ashland. Mostly because it's the Halloween show and that's HIS JAM! But, I'm pretty sure Kelly Eaton is the judge, which means it won't count for Western Dressage scores anyways, and... if he's sore.. that's not fair. But he is fun to dress up. Oh well. I'll see how he feels. Maybe he'll bounce back quick and I can reassess. 

Poor life choice son....

For the love Dan... FOR... THE.... LOVE!!!!

I have no idea what goes on in his head somedays. I got up early because the farrier was coming at 7:30. I timed it so that I could feed them at 7:20 so they would be done eating but not sitting in their stalls forever. Because... Dan. So I accomplished that and they were eating. I was a few minutes early so I decided to go grab a bowl of cereal. While eating it I heard some commotion but figured Dan was just banging on the door, like usual. I ate super quick and went back out and noticed that Dan's door was open to his stall. Fine... I closed the patio gates since I can't shut Funny's door, so.. no big deal. I was going to let him loose anyways once Funny was done eating. But I was impressed that he was able to slide the latch on his door and open it.

I was walking out there to check to make sure that they hadn't beat each other up when Dan started walking towards the gate. I saw the wheels turning and as I was saying "Don't Do it DAN!!!!!" he looked at the gate... took two trot steps and then launched himself over it! NO SIR!!! It's a decent sized gate and it's also on an uphill slant, so the poor guy really didn't stand a chance. He mostly cleared it but he's not super tidy up front, so a front foot snagged it and pulled him down and then he sort of slid and somersalted the rest of the way. Somehow his front foot got hung in the gate as one of the wires slid under his shoe. And he landed on the gate. 

WHY!??! WHY are you like this??? At least... he laid there without flailing.... just..."Mooooommmmm... a little help here". Lyric was still in her stall but Funny was loose, so I immediately ran up and tried to pull his shoe loose. Thank you God that it came loose easily and then I was able to push his front legs over and then pulled the gate out from underneath his hind legs. And then he jumped right up and took off! I slid the gate out of the way and then freed Lyric before she freaked out and then both girls took off too. What on earth is going on?? Why are y'all so spazzy!!!? I have no idea if Dan was just big mad and got pissed and then the girls got jazzed because of him or if something spooked him and made him decide to jump out. He didn't seem frantic though when I saw him look at the gate and make the decision to jump it. It was calm and cool. So... who knows? Of course they all ran around like idiots. I'm guessing that me trying to pull the gate off the hinge and get the chain unhooked didn't help as it made a bunch of noise. And then I had to flip it over the fence into Fleck's patio, which is closed off because his stall is now full of hay. Good gravy. I decided at that point that Patrick was coming at 8, instead of 7:30 so I just let them run around a bit. Finally they settled and then I heard Patrick's truck so I went out to catch them.

Thank you God because Dan didn't have any wounds. He had a tiny little bit of missing hair on his forearm. And even managed to keep all his shoes on. And he was certainly sound looking as he was galloping around like a fool. Somehow Funny had a knick on a hind foot. I don't know if she clipped herself or what, but... it was only a flesh wound. 

We did Dan first because... I wasn't going to try to lock him in again immediately. He had settled down but he was still in a weird mood because he bit me. Like the little pinch between the teeth kind of bite. Oooooh... I"m so over you!! We managed to get him shod without any other issues. And then I stuck him back in his stall, with the door closed. But he was okay to sit there and eat hay. Weirdo. Grateful that it was the case, but still... weirdo!

After they were all done he got to go back out for a bit. And then I rode Lyric first because I needed to coordinate with Jean using the arena. But then I took him to Ashland. I was waiting for him to be a twit going to the trailer but he wasn't. We got to Ashland and saw a friend, who was laughing at me and Dan cause she had seen my post. She was telling me about her young horse who was the same as Dan. Yay... I'm not alone in the world. ha ha. I told her that I would love to ride with her but I felt like Dan and I needed a solo ride because I didn't know if I was going to have a sore horse... or a rowdy feral one who needed to long trot the whole time. He's only had 4 days off after his show, but apparently... 

 

So we went out by ourselves and we had a lovely ride. He was quite good. He felt a little bit sore/stiff but... it's hard to tell because he often feels a bit wonky in the walk. I did a bit of trotting to feel him out. The first couple of steps he felt pretty lame behind. Go figure! Your stifle is not happy jumping anymore, especially not 4' gates from a downhill and then flipping over them! And of course he landed on his right side too. But then I picked up the trot again after a bit longer and he felt good. We ended up doing a bunch of little trots here and there and he felt better. So yay! I'm sure he's a little bit stiff and sore, but... not my fault! I really don't feel bad for you! Except I kind of did by the end of the ride. He was a good boy. Although he had ONE moment of temptation. He thought about sticking his head down and bucking, but I pulled him up and told him no and he didn't fight me on it. Good boy.

 

I kept is slightly short as I didn't want to make him super sore and I was already later than I had meant to be and still wanted to ride Funny. And maybe drag my arena before Hurricane Isaias hit. So we headed back in.

 

And at dinner he was back to his normal self. Pissed about the stall but not frantic or attempting to escape. Granted he did open his door again. So I guess I'm going to have to switch stalls and put him in the open one or find a way to lock his. Or just accept the fact that he can't be contained anymore. Sigh...