The Owls Approve: 2017

Whiskey's No Good, Very Bad Day

11:25 AM
By Beka Burke
9 Comments

I had another lesson with Katy ~~last night~~ Sunday. These are so informative and beneficial that I'm going to try to be a better blogger and/or rider and do something to retain the information (aka.... empty promises).

I got to the lesson about ten minutes late because someone was a total grumpy shit about getting into my trailer. The same trailer he's ridden in once a week for a few months now. I blame it on last week, when the mats were wet and he slid a little bit.

(Which poses the question - is that one of the reasons that people put shavings in their trailers?)

Anyways, after mounting, we went to her play pasture and started working on a large (40m?) circle. The name of the game is immediately getting him off my leg and into the contact. I can't stress enough how badly I need new video of this guy undersaddle, because he is not the same horse. After warming up at the walk and trot, Katy had me doing some trot pole exercises.

Initially, it was just a clover through a flat box:

Except after one time through, she would yell the direction and I would reroute him from the center of the box. Having a trainer with a bit of ADD actually helps.

After going through the box a few times, she raised one end of every pole, so if you were trotting on a straight line, the first pole would up on the right and the second pole would be up on the left, etc. And then she added two poles at a diagonal from one end, like so:

With dark blue indicating which edge was raised.

Then she added a new pattern - top to bottom, track left, loop around top to diagonal on right, roll back to diagonal on left. It was a hot mess, but it got better every time we did it. She actually told me to stop worrying about bending (!) so much and just focus on keeping his neck between the reins.

All in all, it was super informative. I'm just smitten with this horse and super impressed with his progress. She told me that I couldn't back him until we got to second level*, and then joked that it would be like next month.

*western horses are backed a lot, I guess? so when I halt him, his inclination is to give me a few steps back.

Archie

Deets on the Feets.

4:14 PM
By Beka Burke
4 Comments

When I asked the vet to come out and take rads of Archie's crippled appendages, he asked if I was noticing any changes. I said he was moving so well on the Equioxx that I pulled him off everything else. So no, the Kid's good. Which just raised the question - then why was the vet here?

I told him that my farrier had mentioned possible coffin bone changes in the cripplest right front, as the growth pattern had changed and the dip in Archie's hoof wall had returned. Vet quickly assured me that this did not indicate coffin bone changes, but rather that Archie's toe had gotten away from my farrier. We still continued with the rads to make sure there weren't any other beneficial changes we could make. I had thought keeping up with maintenance of that right front's ringbone progression was a practical decision, but the vet thinks, at this point, it is what it is and the only reason to shoot rads from here on out would be for shoeing changes or gait changes.

Crippled right front - Archie pulled the silicone pad.

Crippled right front - Vet said that he needed to lose an inch of toe.

Less crippled left front. Vet explained that this image indicated a slight medio-lateral imbalance, as you can't see straight across the joints.

Less crippled left front - with pad still in. He said that Archie was 2-3 mm high on the lateral side.
Lateral being further from the midline, so the hoof is higher on the outside wall.

Farrier came the next day and was grumpy about taking off an inch, but I'm pretty sure he accomplished it. He was half an hour late for the visit, so I didn't get to stay and watch, as I had to take Whiskey to a lesson. Vet also recommended Natural Balance shoes (maybe the only thing I haven't tried on this horse...?), so the farrier is going to get me an estimate on those.

Not the best angle (he was eating and this hoof was placed back), but I think that's about an inch, given the location of the old nail holes.

It seems like a lot for a horse that primarily walks on the trail, right? But it goes back to comfort and quality of life. I'd love to have Archie with me for another decade, so whatever it takes to get him there.

Achilles

auribus teneo lupum

3:49 PM
By Beka Burke
5 Comments

Archie

Grandpa's doing pretty damn well. I took him off the SmartFlex Senior that he's been on for about a decade when my vet recommended that he start Equioxx. He's been pulling me around on trail rides and marching around the dirt box. We had drama at the barn this summer/fall, but I'm great at covert fisticuffs and the issues have been mostly resolved, which means he's putting weight back on. It's the great catch-22 of senior horses with arthritis - I don't want to see your ribs because you're a senior, but I still want the thought of them because of your shitty joints.

My farrier recently noted some changes in his hoof structure on that shitty right front. While he didn't seem overly concerned about additional possible lameness issues in my already crippled semi-retired geriatric, I still set up an appointment with my beloved vet to get maintenance rads of that hoof. It's been two years since the shit hit the fan, so it feels like time. That'll be Friday.

Whiskey

We've had a ~~couple~~ few more lessons since last I wrote. Two were with friends who outshine my inverted one-lead pony. One time, I got to use a driving rein (a la Mary-Kate) and then worked on a "bow-tie" exercise, but not at the same time. Trainer is at the point where I'm no longer allowed to hold his face or have more than the barest of contact. He's solely responsible for his balance, but I am supposed to invite him to come over his back. This takes a level of finesse that neither of us were really sure I had. Surprise, I do!

My third lesson was solo and it was devoted to building topline - or, rather, teaching me the tools and contact I needed to keep him using the right muscles while also not enabling him to brace against me. It was a lot of "Supple! Hands forward! Supple! Hands forward!"

The time change has really fucked me over, though. We moved barns back in the spring and this new barn just doesn't have adequate light for me to ride after work. There are a few flood lights, so I'm thinking Whisk is going to be introduced to side-reins in the semi-dark. I'm not killing myself about it because we aren't working towards anything big any time soon - mostly just getting his muscles to reform in the correct places.

Zoom zoom.

Best Bitches

The big girls are good - though Savannah has recently had a cystocentesis for a urinary analysis and culture, as well as abdominal radiographs. Poor old lady has been battling chronic UTIs for the past seven years or so. Between the culture and the UA, we've determined that she has proteus bacteria, but fortunately no stones. Just sludge. Twenty days of simplicef and a temporary diet change.

Tiny terrorist, Hedwig, on far left, looking way too big.

The tiny terrorist is doing well, too. She started obedience classes recently and has caught on quickly. I trained Scarlette and Savannah all by myself and they were well-trained and obedient dogs, but it's much harder when I'm not the only one doing it. Which is to say, D needs dog-training, too.

Okay, so I'm good at spoiling.

Shittens

Speaking of assholes and urine, D's cat blocked again. For those unfamiliar with the horrible construction of a male cat's urethra, that shit gets blocked by the thought of blocking and then the cat can't pee. Good-bye kidney function and hello sepsis and rupturing. Fortunately, we caught it quickly and they were able to unblock him with relative ease. D and I had already talked about the PU surgery (he becomes a she, as we used to call it) and, also fortunately, he's completely on board to slice up that member in order to lessen the likelihood of this ever happening again.