Hip Bursitis, Rain Rides, and Oops Canter

Well. It's been an interesting past few days, and I finally have a little time to catch up on my blogging. Why? Some years ago (2005, to be exact), I was handwalking an increasingly fresh Metro during his failed rehab at college, and we were all the way down the back driveway by the all-weather paddocks when an interesting thing happened. All of the horses in the field started to buck and play when they saw us, and his head and tail went straight up into the air. We made it to the end of the driveway safely, but when we turned around, he started to prance and act like he was going to do something very silly. The driveway wasn't totally cleared of snow (think partially scraped off down to the icy remnants underneath the soft pack, a common theme at school for plowing), so I moved him over to my left side, pushing him away from me into the snowbank that came up to nearly his elbows. That way, he'd get stuck and couldn't leap around (we did this often). Unfortunately for me, this time it didn't work, and as soon as he hit the snow he leaped and bucked. It was not his intention to kick me, I am sure of that. But when 1400lbs of shod exeuberance kicks out in mid-air, and you don't get out of the way in time, you pay the price. He NAILED me directly over my left hip socket, and I heard an ominous crack. I thought for sure something was broken, as I couldn't move, walk or put weight on the leg, not to mention the tears of pain streaming down my face. Bless his heart, Metro completely tuned out the running and bucking horses and let me cling helplessly to his mane and withers, taking the tiniest baby steps back to the barn with my poor broken self in tow.

As an idiot college student, I never had it looked at. Stupid, stupid me. I regret that now, a lot.

I never did find out what was wrong with it. I compensated for the injured leg for so long that it for sure never properly healed, whatever it was. I've had on and off problems with it over the years, where it seems to partially dislocated and I can't put any weight on it at all until it decides to go back in place. Ouch. I had particular struggle with it while in New Zealand, and even had it looked at while I was there - radiographs showed nothing and the guy had no advice for me. Eventually, with enough hiking and yoga, it seemed to resolve and go away. I figured I had strengthened the muscles around it well enough that it wouldn't bother me much anymore.

Fast forward to this past May. I hadn't really thought about the injury for very a long time, in at least a year and a half, until one day when I was in the City and walking all day long (for those of you not out east, the City = NYC, not to be confused with the other City, San Francisco, which is the superior of the two but unfortunately a bit too far for a day trip from CT). Halfway through the day, I suddenly felt the familiar sharp stab of a hip about to give out, and thought that it couldn't be a good sign. Ever since, it has been threatening to come back. I've ignored it for the most part, going about my business day to day, and so far it hasn't been anywhere near the trouble it used to give me back when I first got it. This past week, as evidenced by my lack of blog posts, I've been an insane level of busy and stressed out, and spent most evenings outside playing hours of catch instead of sitting inside and brooding over my misery. This was amazingly helpful, and I am sitting here right now telling you that all I really want to do right now besides ride is to go outside and play more catch, but alas, instead I can only say that I was exceptionally sore in both hips after my round on Wednesday night. I had Thursday off by default, and spent most of it relaxing and getting errands done. I felt much better by the end of the day, so I went for my customary run. Wouldn't you know it, three quarters of the way through I found myself limping pathetically back to the house, unable to put weight on the limb. I thought maybe I'd be all right, but the following morning, I just couldn't walk without serious pain. Not only did I have to take Friday off, but my boss insisted I take Saturday and Sunday too (although I think she might have regretted that after the fact).

I was not able to get in to see an ortho before the weekend rolled around. I did get in to see my chiropractor, however, and she told me she suspectes hip bursitis. I don't think this tells the whole story, and I am suspicious that there is bony involvement at this point. I am feeling worse than ever, honestly. I've never had pain upon palpation before, but now it HURTS LIKE HELL to touch the injury site. Also new is the fact that it now hurts to sit. I don't know what to make of this, honestly. I have no choice but to go to work tomorrow, and I really need to ride the Wild Woman. She's had three days off now, and we missed starting canterwork. Gahhh why does my body have to fail me at obnoxious times!



Well. Either way, I've had a little bit of down time to get caught up on some of the things I've needed to, and have been able to even play a little bit (pre-injury, that is). I did get up last weekend to Fitch's Corner to spectate a little, and had great fun - what a nice venue! I REALLY want to go up to spectate at Millbrook, but my boss will be in Vermont showing, so I may not get to. You never know though, I might luck out!

And even though I didn't get to 'officially' canter this month as planned, I did kind of sort of get to canter, albeit unintentionally. On Thursday, I got up early to ride on my day off, and got to the barn just in time for a large black cloud to pull up over the barn and start raining. Oh well, too bad for us! I enjoy riding in a warm, humid rain, as it cools me off and makes me feel clean and refreshed. Gogo was feeling fresh as daisies that particular morning, likely for the same reason, and while walking on the buckle, she spooked at something. She scooted off into a beautiful, well-balanced canter, going for a couple of strides before I managed to pull her up. Oops canter! Hey, we sort of did it though! The plan is to get back on tomorrow despite my dumb hip, and bump back up to 15 minutes of trot for two days (since we didn't get to on Friday and Saturday). Depending on how she feels, I plan on adding in one long-side canter on each lead for those two days, then start to build to five minutes of canter on straight lines only over the remainder of the week. We will slowly start to increase the canter over the course of August, although I'm undecided as to how I want to proceed with that. Bulding to 20 minutes of nonstop trot? Easy, no problem. Build to 20 minutes of nonstop canter? I will have a mare who is Seabiscuit fit on my hands going into the colder seasons. Not exactly what I had in mind! We'll see, we'll see.

Other than that, there's not too much to report. I've been playing around with tack a little, and tried a Stubben Golden Wings bit the other day, but Gogo promptly rejected it, showing her displeasure by gnashing her teeth and sucking away from it. Creep. I also bought her a new leather halter, but I hate it, so I intend on sending it back and getting her a nice rolled nose one. I know, I know, I have a weird thing with halters but.... I gotta spoil my mare, what can I say? She's deserving of fancy, flashy halters, so I do my part to deliver. Plus they look soo fabulous on her!


Sunday Success Stories up next!




((EDIT: One final thing to add: Eventing-A-Gogo was recently recognized as one of OnlineSchools.com and Awarding The Web's Top 40 Horse Blogs of 2010! As I didn't even know this award existed, this means it was all readers voting on their own, with no nominating on my part. So a big THANK YOU to my readers!! You guys are THE best!!))


Online Schools


This is for next year, because now I know about it!:

Brought to you by: Online Schools

Poster Child A Go-Go

I was contacted a short while ago by Emily Daily from the USEA reguarding one of the awesome pictures my mother took of Gogo and I at the AECs and whether or not they could use it for the Awards section of the USEA website. I said yes - who wouldn't! - and lo and behold look! There's my mare looking gorgeous, as always! A big THANK YOU to Emily and to the USEA for honoring us on their website, and another huge THANK YOU to Daun, the one who originally prompted me to send in my qualifications. How awesome is that!


Gogo continues to look better and better. I would say she's even sounder today than she was on Thursday, which is marvelous. Today she got turnout for the first time since Sunday, so I gave her a cc of Ace just in case she did something stupid. She was in happy la-la land, and was more than delighted to go outside and munch hay for an hour and a half with her buddies around her. Tomorrow I plan on getting on her again to see how she feels - the true test of how she's actually doing - and hopefully will be able to outline a better plan from there. Talking to Dr. C today, it sounds as though she likely just stretched out a very small adhesion to the point of rupture, and since there was nothing out of the ordinary in terms of heat or swelling in the leg, that it was probably pretty insignificant (I hope). A few fibers break up and get reabsorbed, and then off you go on your merry way, if all goes according to plan. If everything checks out OK, we might be able to try cantering again in about a week or so, just a little bit. We shall see how it goes tomorrow.


It's getting lighter out earlier, staying lighter out layer, and not dipping into the teens at night anymore - could it be that spring might be on the horizon? Let's hope so, I am itching to get out and try my barefoot shoes more! I am sick of the indoors!

(Gogo looking lovely at the 2008 Prix de Villes... I think all shows should have such fabulous ribbons!)

End of January Analysis, Ultrasound Updates, and Awards

It's February! I am happy that January is over, but I have to say, I am NOT a February kind of kid. January isn't so bad because I usually am still riding out the excitement of a new year and all the new hopes that come with it, but February is just bleak and cold and dark with nothing interesting to break up the wintery crappiness. (Don't even say Valentine's Day cause that doesn't count.) I am quite convinced that this February won't be the same though. I am in a much better place now than I've been compared to the last couple of years career-wise, future-wise, and money-wise, so I have plenty to buffer me against the crappiness of the month. Hey, it's already the 3rd, we've already got a good start!

Onto our January goals...



January Goals:

1) Continue sound trotwork and build to 20 minutes of trotwork - 50 minutes of riding total a day (we are at 40 now with 10 minutes of trot a day)
Success! Except for the fact that she had a voluntary week off this past week, due mostly to the fact that my boss was coming back for a few days and I get paranoid before ultrasounds, we did in fact build all the way up to a 50 minute ride with 20 minutes of trot, and she feels fantastic.

2) Talk to the vets about when to schedule her next ultrasound (I'm thinking instead of mid-January, we want to shoot for mid-February before we start to canter)
Success! I actually just went to the vet yesterday for another ultrasound but that will be for later in the post ;)

3) Take our first little hack outside (flat ground, around the barn)
Success! This one was my favorite! She's taking tiny little hacks around the property on flat ground and she LOVES it. I went on four - count them, FOUR! - little hacks, two of which were with company, which was very nice. I like having boarders to ride around with.

4) Set up show budget and breeding budget - how much do I need to save, how much each month, etc?
Success! I tend to do this on a lot of these cold wintery nights when it's far too miserable to actually go out and do anything interesting, or I'm too tired to bother doing anything interesting beyond hanging around under blankets on the couch with a cup of our apartment-famous spiked cocoa ;). It's good for me though because instead of sitting around unhappy because it's too cold and dark to be outside, I get to dream about the coming warmer months when it's awesome and warm outside and I don't have to be stuck indoors! My budget this year is quite larger than it was last year because I can actually afford it this year, hooray! It's all down on paper - how much I need for each show, how much I have already saved, how much I need to actually put away a month to meet my end financial goal - so now it's just a matter of execution. I have a baseline total budget for breeding too, based on the information everyone has given me concerning how much money they ended up plunking into baby from pre-conception to year two, but I will still need to do local research for how much individual procedures cost here in CT. Because you know, EVERYTHING costs more in CT.
But it's quite helpful to know things like that the breeder already told me she'd knock $1000 off the stud fee for my chosen baby daddy because of the special consideration that they give to performance mares. That $1000 will definitely be helpful going towards all those OTHER things you need to pay for in breeding.

5) Add incline work on the treadmill
I actually opted not to do this one just yet. I was cleared by Dr. Chope over the phone to do it but I ended up wanting another ultrasound before we put this one into the mix. But I am happy to report.... well wait, I can't tell you just yet, I have to finish the goals first!



February Goals:
1) Start canterwork, building from 5 minutes for the first two weeks to 10 for an additional two weeks, then resume regular flatwork sessions in the beginning of March
2) Map out a hacking plan - where to start with little hills, how to gradually increase... building over the course of a couple months to our regular 2-hour hacks
3) Add incline work on the treadmill
4) Wean gradually off the nighttime wraps to just every other night
5) MAYBE if everything goes according to plan and we are back to regular work at the end of the month, a trip to the beach!? (Just to walk around in the water and smell the salty air!)




So this all leads me now into our vet visit yesterday. I trailed Gogo in the morning up to see Dr. C instead of going alllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way to Tufts, which is much farther and literally about 10x more expensive (seriously, my ultrasound yesterday was only $85 and my last only ultrasound without anything added on trip to Tufts was $800!). Dr. C was the one who referred me to Tufts in the first place so she knows the case and knows the mare.


We jogged her out first and I got a terrible video of it. From this angle, you can't tell a thing, but she jogged out really well, whether or not you can actually tell in the video ;)





Back inside the clinic, we got down to ultrasounding, and one again found the RH to be totally clean. We obviously didn't expect to find anything, but we wanted to check the margins of the tendons from the residual tenosynovitis and found them to be all normal and looking great. Sweet! We also looked at the left and found the leftovers of the lesion, now completely filled in. I got to look at the ultrasound from yesterday and the ultrasound from the first time Dr. C looked at her, and WOW what a difference. And the original lesion wasn't anything shocking in the first place! The biggest difference was the size of the tendon from then til now. Back in October, the tendon at that area was quite enlarged. Now, it's back to normal size and I am happy to see that!! The area on ultrasound may never look perfect again. In fact, it probably won't. What is important at this point is her soundness. If she is sound on that leg and improving, that is what matters. We'll look at it again in two months on ultrasound and see what we have but all in all we're all thrilled with this progress. We're not quite 5 months out from the original injury and she's expected to make a full recovery and continue on as a competitive event horse. Not many tendon injuries have an outcome like this, especially in this amount of time. (Knocking on wood right now as I type.)

I am seriously overjoyed at the news. This is fantastic! Clearly there is still a ways to go but there is light now at the end of the tunnel. The tendon is strong enough now that I have been cleared to begin canter work and small hills, and can start incline work on the treadmill. I'm going to take the days that I "hack" her and start building them into real hacks, gradually increasing over the next couple of months to our full two-hour conditioning hacks with included trotwork. Excited! I outlined my season and what I'd like to be doing month by month, and Dr. C agreed that it sounds spot on. Yay!



Not only did I get that good news, but I stopped by my old barn yesterday on way home to say hi, and they gave me all the mail that had been accumulating there. Included in the pile was a Year-End award and yet another USEA award, this time an extension of the Rider Achievement award I'd already received. It appears they'd changed the Rider Achievement awards at some point last year to the Blue Ribbon Award program, so I'd actually earned BOTH without knowing it! AND I got my 4th place Year-End award




Although when I hang it up next to all the Year-End awards I won last year.... it looks a bit silly. What is it with Area I ribbons being so tiny compared to Area 8's? I love it just the same, of course, but I adore looking at my ribbons I won in 2008 every night before bed because they're just so big and fancy!





Shine on, my mare, shine on!

A Good Karma EXPLOSION!

Today was one big giant WIN! It was as if karma went, well all right, you've done alllllll the things you needed to do to get yourselves back on track, here's all your good luck back now!


First, I want to know who exactly swapped Gogo out for a Ferrari overnight? I did expect her to feel better after her hock injections, but WOW, it's a WORLD of difference. It was noticeable from the get go - she was standing way more comfortably in the aisle while I was grooming and tacking, hardly resting that right hind (or the left) at all... she just stood there, four square, looking cheerful. She hasn't done that since she was 5 or 6. I got on her with the plan to lightly hack, but at the same time test the machinery and see exactly what we had. Right away, she marched off with a purpose, and we headed out to the orchard. After a nice walk, I picked up a trot, and WHOA! I didn't even realize how much she's been pulling herself along with her forehand as opposed to really pushing with her hindend, and today, she was PUSHING. It felt fabulous. I asked her to canter, and she sprang lightly into it, no moments of inversion or hesitations. She moved and turned with the slightest move on my part. She accelerated and decelerated smoothly. I moved to the driveway, most curious about that part - she has always felt different when posting on the left diagonal versus the right while traveling in a straight line on pavement, not lame per se, but different from when you post on the right diagonal. Now? Uniform, straight, and comfortable. I kept hacking up through the neighborhood, and asked her for a final test: walking down a hill. One of the things that led me to believe she did need her hocks done was her increasing aversion to traveling down hills. She was starting to shuffle, insist that we switchback instead of go straight, and slow dramatically. Today? She marched down that hill at top walking speed, in a perfectly straight line, marching with utmost comfort and confidence in herself. Wow.
So it is very clear to me that I did do the right thing. I can't remember her ever feeling this good. She must have as a 5 year old, but wow. Seriously. She was all hot and looky today, probably because she had just had three days off and magic juice squirted into her hocks, and she also spent a good part of her day trying to push the envelope with me. When Gogo isn't feeling her best, she easily relinquishes her alpha role to me and lets me run the show without her input. When she is feeling good, however, she starts trying to reassert herself in little ways, like taking a step forward into my space after I've asked her on no uncertain terms to cease movement, or moving away from her non-negotiable spot at my shoulder while I'm leading her. She wants to run the show, and she would take over in an instant if I let her. Not in a mean way, certainly, but she is the alpha mare, after all. So I have to keep on my toes with her and make sure she minds her manners. I do enjoy when she gets punky like this though, because it DOES mean she is feeling really good.

Second, USEA put out their summer edition of the Eventing 2.0 online magazine today. All thanks to Daun, Leslie contacted me about a month ago and asked if I would write for USEA's blog, which I was very excited to do. However, when I sent in my first blog piece, they liked it to much that they decided to make a whole article about us in Eventing 2.0! If you flip through the online magazine to page 28, you'll see our article and get to read a bit more about Gogo's history. I've already had a flood of e-mails about it. They even went so far as to add in additional pictures of her and I at last year's AEC that I didn't even know existed! The article looks fabulous - the bolded captions are even in baby blue! The only thing I would like to add to it was the final line of the original piece, which was removed from final copy of the article: "And nobody can stop us, any of us, if we really believe in ourselves." Add that on mentally ;) THANK YOU Leslie, and THANK YOU Daun, because I would never have made the contact if you hadn't suggested me to her. Awesome!!

Third, my awards all came in the mail today! I earned a Rider Achievement Award at the Novice level, and qualified myself for the Medallion Club level of this due to having placed in the top 5 placings at three horse trials this calendar year. Gogo and I also each earned a Gold Medal at the Novice level in the new Medal Program, due to having finished three times with a score below 35 at Novice. You can read more about the Medal Program here.





Sweet!!

Fourth, look what else came in the mail today! My custom helmet cover! It's black with light blue stars, although it's hard to tell in this picture. I got this (and Gogo's BoT hock wraps) using a gift certificate from Bit of Britain that I won last year at the AECs. Can I even say how much I LOVE Bit of Britain? I had to use the paper order form you find in the catalogue so I could send in my gift certificate, and I couldn't have sent that out more than two weeks ago. My BoT wraps? On my horse in about three days. My custom helmet cover that I doubted would even get here before the AEC? THE fastest turnaround time ever, here in about two or possibly two and a half weeks at most. I expected at least four to six, minus shipping time. You go, Bit of Britain! Eventers all over the nation LOVE YOU, and THANK YOU for sponsoring the AECs this year!



And fifth, and most exciting of all, my entry for the AEC went out today. YES. I had been stalling on this just because I wanted to make sure she was feeling back in tip top form before I sent off all that money, but everything has just seemed to fall into place so beautifully this past week. It was time. Our official countdown to Huntington Farm is 5 days, and our official countdown to the AECs is 23 days. Guys, that is a little over three weeks away. THREE WEEKS. I AM SO EXCITED YOU HAVE NO IDEA.



Tomorrow, we start back with our dressage, and will be dressage-ing through Thursday. Friday, I will hopefully have another XC lesson with Ann to really see where she is now that she's feeling so much better. And then on Saturday, we leave for Huntington Farm in Vermont, and show on Sunday. I can't help but feel positive and excited about this show. I just feel like it's going to go well.

Life is good.




Gogo and I schooling XC last year at Bath Pony Club, looking like happy clams.

Lyme Titer Results, the Honest Scrap Award, and the AECs

Three cheers to just having fun with your horse. Gogo and I are getting ready to ramp up our work schedule in preparation for one final redemption at Huntington Farm H.T. near the end of August, and then the long-awaited AEC in September, but for right now? We're just playing around for a couple of days, mixed in with real work. We had our 2-hour conditioning hack yesterday, and after our 25 minutes of trot, we walk hacked to see Adrian at Dunkin Donuts (and she of course got her Plain Old Fashioned Donut when she got there), and today I had originally planned to jump school as I normally do on Mondays, but you know what? She jumped her little guts out for an hour and a half at 3'6" last Thursday, so I felt no need to pound on her legs any more. A better idea, I felt, was just to grab her bridle and hop on her bareback, and go for a cruise around the orchard. And that's exactly what we did :) She was so quiet and so happy and so chilled out, and at one point I found myself with both my legs off her sides and holding my arms up over my head yelling "NO ARMS!" It was just silly, and so much fun. I really have the best mare in the entire world. We can go one weekend and win an event by a landslide, and the next day go swimming in the pond. That to me is what makes her an amazing horse.

I also got a call today with the Lyme titer and Western blot results. I am struggling to make sense of the numbers (Lyme is a brand-new phenomenon to lil' ol' Midwestern me), but basically the titer was 1;1280, and the Western blot showed a mildly positive response. Meaning basically, she's on the borderline of treatable and we could go either way. Is there an active infection? No way to say really. Are the titer results this way just because she's had previous exposure? No idea. What we are going to do, just for the poops and the giggles, is put her on a 10-day course of Doxycycline, just to see if there's any change. If there is, then awesome! If there's not, then we need to address this as a confidence issue. I wish the results had been more difinitive, but, well, there you are.



And also, I was twice awarded with the Honest Scrap award! Thank you to wolfandterriers and Cathryn!




"When you receive The Honest Scrap award you must stick to some rules:
Recognize your award presenter and link back to their blog in your post.
List 10 honest things about yourself that others might not now.
Present this award to 10 admirable bloggers and link to their blogs.
Leave a comment on your recipients' blogs to let them know to visit your post to retrieve their award."


10 honest scraps about me that you may not know:

1. I have secret fantasies about life suddenly becoming a musical, and being able to step outside into a huge dance number where everybody I meet falls into line behind me. I also want life to be like a movie where everybody’s shopping bag has a huge loaf of frenh bread sticking out of it.

2. I LOVE Turkish delight. And RJ’s Natural Soft Eating Black Licorice. And Watties. And baked beans on toast, the good kind. And Cadbury, the real Cadbury, the Triple Decker especially.

3. If there is a fountain anywhere near me and it is of a relatively agreeable temperature out, I WILL get into it. I even had sex in a fountain once. IN it. Beat that.

3. The fight scenes between Cato and Inspector Clousea in the original Pink Panther movies CRACK ME UP every single time I see them. The slow-mo NEVER gets old!

4. It’s a life goal of mine to see every national park in the US, and I’m well on my way. I also want to see every national park in every country I ever visit, but that would mean a lot of starting over because places like Canada have an awful lot of them.

5. II am deathly, deathly, deathly, deathly, deathly afraid of needles coming anywhere near me. I can give injections to horses all the live long day though. But needles near ME? Dear god, I’d rather go to jail for killing the doctor coming at me with a needle than actually get the shot. I’d rather gouge out my own eyes with my own fingernails than get a shot. I’d rather die painfully from whatever horrible disease I had than get the shot that would save my life from said horrible disease. It’s that bad.

6. I’ve had a LOT of interesting haircolors. Bleach blonde with red highlights, black with red highlights, black with purple highlights, regular purple, black and bleach blonde, black blonde and red, bright red… and once upon a time I had the sweetest faux hawk ever. I WANT IT BACK.

7. In a 12-hour period, I decapitated a deer AND t-boned a school bus right off the road with my old Jeep, which was bright orange and named Taco, although it also earned the nickname the Murder Machine after this. In honor of the deer, I chained antlers to the front of it. I also rocketed off a cliff, rear-ended another Jeep the same make, model, and color of mine, and did an over rotated 180 on the freeway into an overpass with my sister in the car.

8. I always want to make wishes when the clock turns to 11:11, but sometimes I can’t make myself because of my love/hate relationship with it. I was actually born at 11:11AM; my dad thought they were announcing my weight and length and reportedly said, “Holy crap that’s a big baby!” The day Quincy colicked, I saw that the clock in my car said 11:11 on my way to the barn, and I wished he would be all right. Less than three hours later he was dead. When Metro was lame, every time I saw 11:11 I would wish that he would get better. He did not.

9. I'm disgustingly morbid. I love dead, rotty things, and I like cutting them up and looking inside even more. I love anatomy and the study of how things work, and I like to see it in action even better. Bonus points if there’s lots of blood. At the same time, I can NOT see blood or guts in movies. Only in real life.

10. Life is all right by me.



And, well, since I love ALL your blogs I am going to award this to EVERYBODY. So just take it and run with it! :D



Today is the opening date for the AECs! Unfortunately for me, I will not be sending my entry in on opening day, mostly because I need to secure my entry fee in full before I actually can. It's over $500, and, well, that's a whole butt ton of money. I have plans though, many plans. More on this later!