She's All Legs

I've been doing my best to come up with a Master Plan for Gogo's current stage of rehab/desperate weight loss need. I have a basic idea of what I want to do, but of course, Gogo's incredibly awkward legs have other ideas, and have decided they are just going to do whatever they want to do, rehab be damned!

Gogo is the queen of Random Mystery Leg Swellings With No Lameness. For YEARS she has been getting mystery swellings, which were mostly due to cuts and scrapes; however, they have been known to arise from anything under the sun, all the way from generalized bangings (getting cast in her stall, getting tangled in a roundpen panel, etc) to wild reactions to new batches of shavings (balloon legs on her, but nobody else!). Generally, when it comes to Gogo, if there is a cut or scrape on one of her legs, I can bank on it swelling dramatically no matter what. Not a single one of these Mystery Leg Swellings was lameness-inducing. And this time, it's no different: Gogo's right front is lumpy and fat, and in the past two days has switched from the inside of the leg to the outside. All four legs have a little fill to them too. Why? Oh, I dunno. Might be....




MYSTERY TEXAS DEATH FUNGUS.
Or something like that.

Seriously, what the heck is going on? A mystery fungus that pops up on all four legs in the middle of the hottest, driest summer Gogo has ever experienced in her life? I might understand it if I was bathing her a million times a week in the middle of a soggy Connecticut spring, but here? It popped up as a bunch of scabs on the backside of all four legs, right where you'd expect scratches to be (save for the right front, which has scabs on the front of the pastern as well). When you pick them, they come off, and bleed - a lot. They only showed up in the last week or so - coinciding pretty well with the move to the new facility. Texas is desperately dry right now, so it's not like she's standing in mud. And is it even a fungus? Her field has some bull nettle in it, as well as several other types of completely terrifying pokey plants in it (they're not cacti, but I wouldn't want to run into them either way), so it's possible she's reacting to getting poked and stabbed by plants she's never been exposed to either. But I think if that were the case, it wouldn't be localized so much... hmm.

I always tend to associate scratches with having an autoimmune issue. But in this case, it does coincide pretty spot-on with her move to the new place. I wonder what is actually going on... fungus, or scabs due to many little cuts and scrapes from nettles?

Either way, washing with Micro-Tek and Desitin aren't going to hurt anything, so we'll give that a try. As for the fat right front, I dunno... the fill doesn't go away with movement (the case in her other 3 days), isn't sore, is warm but not hot, and is not lameness-inducing. It is also partly localized as a lump on the outside of her leg.


The other VERY INTERESTING thing that is happening? Gogo is growing a COMPLETELY different foot. I mean SERIOUSLY different. Rememeber four months ago when I pulled her off Gro N' Win? I mentioned then that Gogo has always, always has a small bit of white line separation, always - for years! It never caused her a problem but it never went away. I had always chalked it up to the horrible, soggy New England climate. Gro N' Win has a soy base, and when I removed it from her diet, I mused that while I didn't think she had a soy sensitivity, it would be interesting to see what would happen.

Gogo's feet at the start of April:






With the same danged-ol' toe cracks that she has had for five years. She has noticable indentations in her coronet bands on both fronts, which is where the problem originates. They've never been a problem, and so far nothing has ever made them change or go away. They've always looked pretty much like that - you might not notice they were there unless you looked for them.

Until April happened, and the grass grew in. Suddenly, Gogo's feet were dramatically changing right before my very eyes. Her beautiful feet deteriorated with such rapidity that I didn't hardly know what to do with myself. They were different EVERY day. Aside from the underside of her foot warping, the most alarming thing that happened was that both toe cracks split open pretty wide all the way to the top of the hoof. That had NEVER happened before. It didn't cause her any problems, thankfully, but it was still startling to see. All because of the beautiful pasture she was on.

Beautiful grass pastures are my sworn mortal enemy. At this point, after seeing what the grass did to her, I think I'd rather have her in a stall/minimal turnout situation than out on unlimited pasture ever again. She was never sore or lame, but she could have been. If you eat too many sugary candy bars, you are probably going to end up as a diabetic someday. Horses are NO exception.



Thankfully, we have fast-forwarded three months, and are onto a new chapter in Gogo's feet. Gogo has been off the Gro N' Win now since the beginning of April, and her vitamins and minerals are coming from a supplement instead. The new non-soy foot Gogo is growing in is beautiful and quite a LOT tighter than the one she had before. Look where the big crack stops - RIGHT at the event line. How about that. The grass caused the cracks, but taking her off the Gro N' Win seems to have prevented them from staying. Interesting... very interesting.




Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. Excuse the recently-bathed coronet/periople wetness. Oh yeah, and there's the fat leg too!

If you notice, that foot in comparison to the hoof picture above it has a LOT of length to it. Gogo was trimmed barely two weeks ago, but after she was pulled off the grass for good, she completely exfoliated her sole on all four feet.... AGAIN. This is the fourth or fifth time in the past few months that she has done this. It just finished its full exfoliation, and of course this now has left about half an inch of hoofwall that is standing above the sole. It's trim time - immediately!





Oh Gogo. You are my greatest teacher.


PS: she has a fan club of little girls at the new barn already... and guess what their favorite pastime is with her?





She loves all her little minions.


More soon on the rehab process and what actual, concrete plans I have in store for her - and how her first time back under saddle went!

Oh woman, what did you do NOW?

Oh Gogo, you never cease to amaze me!

I've had a great week with the Mamcita, despite Mother Nature's absolutely bizarre behavior - 75 degrees one day, 45 the next! Monday was our usual 45 minute bareback hack around the property, complete with indian bosal and beautiful fall weather. I have to say, she definitely is liking it now that she's figured it out, and she happily responds to the lightest of cues, much to my delight. (She also does this in a bit.... she just wasn't really getting it last time I rode her in the hackamore.) It was 70 degrees on Monday, and I had half hoped to trailer her out to the beach after work and play in the water, but I had the chiropractor to go to at 6pm... not enough time in the day sadly.

Tuesday, we worked on dressage-y things, and despite being turned out in a huge field with some fresh ladies for several hours beforehand, Gogo still had major energy to burn when I got on her. Unfortunately, I didn't get on until nearly 5:30, which meant that halfway through our ride, the sun had set fully. It was pitch black when we were finishing, which would have been fine if I had ridden in the indoor... nope, silly me had to choose the outdoor. Oh well, the 75-degree weather made it worth it! I even rode in a tank top. Despite her HIGH energy, Gogo managed to channel nearly all of it into correct, forward movement. (Emphasis on the FORWAD.) I attempted to let her burn a bit of it off in a few semi-controlled lengthenings, but unfortunately this had the opposite effect, and made my half-halt about half as effective. Still, the quality of her movement and her connection with me was otherwise so good that I decided not to pick at her about it. Instead, we just went forward. She still gave me a nasty head toss or two when we picked up the canter for the first time, which is obnoxious. Once she settled into it, she stopped, and didn't do it again in the next few transitions, so I can only chalk it up to major freshness, but still. I think I will be outfitting her in a running martingale the next time we do serious flatwork, just to give her the hint. (We always use one when we are jumping real courses or at shows for this reason!) I am quite certain a standing would make her go over backwards, so I'm not about to give that one a try. Other than her WHEEE factor, she was great.

Since she worked so well on Tuesday, and I imagined she would be fairly muscle tired on Wednesday (boy was I wrong), I decided to hack up the road after work. I need to be careful about doing that at this point, though... it gets dark so soon! I definitely did not want to be out later than I was, and made the executive decision that I will now just have to get my butt up earlier and ride BEFORE work instead of after... it's just too DARK too EARLY! I threw on her western tack for our little jaunt, and spent the vast majority of it at a walk. As usual, I trotted her for a minute to see how she feels on pavement - she felt great, as usual! Hooray! No sooner had we dropped back to a walk than the sky completely OPENED on us. Total downpour... totally soaked everything. It did not stop pouring until several hours later in the evening, which meant that my entire ride back to the farm was nasty and very wet. Ah well... it happened. At least the rain gave Gogo a semi-bath, which was nice since she had rolled about twenty times in the wet dirt shortly before I got on. This entire property is on a hill, so we never get actual mud, but the dirt near the pasture gates gets just moist enough to leave a nice crusty coating over any horse that rolls in it. Mmmmm... tasty.

Yesterday, I tossed on my jup tack, and Gogo and I spent some time cruising around doing basic fitness work for us both. It still amazes me that before her injuries, when asked for a change she would almost always crossfire going from left lead to right. She always did her auto changes with no prompting from me, but asking for one? It was difficult. Now, post-injury? Perfect, quiet, smooth changes in both directions, no problem. Sweet! I do have to be careful and judicious with these, seeing as a) I still need to be able to school counter-canter when she's strong enough and I do NOT want her to become a change-machine, and b) the more she does them, the more she speeds up. Slow and steady my friend! We also managed to pop over two tiny crossrails IN A ROW! That is a first! It was set as a really really long three stride, but we got three, four, 3.5, awkard. Neither of us is particularly graceful about it at the moment, and she is getting REALLY hot to the fences which I don't want. I still think I'm going to hold off on any serious jumping for another couple of months, until she gets some of her real dressage strength back. There's no sense in pushing it now, especially with how enthusiastic she gets.



And then today? I walked in as usual, and did my usual rounds checking buckets, eyes, legs. Good morning, New Barn ponies! Good morning, Red Barn ponies! Good morning, Gogo! Um.... wow that is a huge leg! I had left her unwrapped yesterday, seeing as her legs looked freaking fabulous after she came in from turnout, and the left hind was tight and beautiful. The right? Huge and hot! I was very alarmed until I circled around to her other side and bent down to get a better look at it. The swelling was on the front of her leg, near an old white scar she has which now was sporting a fresh cut and a big goose egg. There was also localized swelling on the outside of her fetlock. The lump on the front of her leg was definitely painful to the touch - she jerked away pretty hard when I palpated it. Oh Gogo, what did you do?




Well... the tendon sure looks good, at least!

We jogged her out and thankfully she's sound. I didn't expect her to be lame, but you never know. It wasn't alarming enough to stop her treadmilling or turnout, so I coldhosed, iced, gave her some bute, and let her go out. Actually, moving around for four hours in the chilly air did the most for her, and when she came in all four legs were icy cold and tight - save for the one particular lumpy spot, which was warm and still a little swollen. I coldtubbed her (so much more effective!) for a half-hour, and gave her a good grooming while I waited. A fresh pair of wraps and her medium blanket later, and she was ready for night-night. I hate that it's going to be cold enough tonight for her medium!!

Oh Gogo. She's fine, and she'll be fine, but still. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow!


I at least got some other things done instead of riding, like cleaning my locker...




... cleaning out my trailer...




... and giving her stall a little bit of fall charm.




I hate that the change in seasons means the sun is setting before I leave the barn at the end of the day...




... but at least you can tell the ladies apart from each other when they're in the field now that it's cold!

Tarsus... I don't even know-arsus

So we all know Gogo likes to keep me on my toes, right? Well last night she upped the ante... AGAIN. She came out of her stall fine, went on the treadmill fine, wore her ice booties fine, peed all over her neighbor's face because she's in flaming heat, and then when I pulled her out of her stall to groom her in the afternoon..... HUGE ENORMOUS BALLOON HOCK. It was only on the outside part of her LH, and it was hard. It wasn't hot. It wasn't painful. She wasn't lame. She had no temperature. It wasn't sore. It didn't go down with coldhosing. It didn't go down after a night of poultice. It didn't really go down after a 500lb. dose of banamine in the morning. It sort of went down with treadmilling today, but not really. It was totally localized to the hock yesterday, but today it went creeping down her leg and now the upper part of the outside of her LH is filling slowly but surely. I wanted to sweat it tonight but knew she wouldn't keep that on, so I poulticed it and the rest of the leg tonight again, along with more banamine and coldhosing. Wtf, what is going ON? We'll see what it looks like tomorrow but geez. I thought maybe she kicked the wall but she's in flaming heat, I wouldn't think she would have? I dunno what the crap she did to herself. I could find no indication of a wound anywhere either.

Seriously, Gogo. You are KILLING me here! If it's still big tomorrow I'll get some pictures. I'm stumped here.




In other news, for the first time in a year I actually let someone else work on my horse's feet for a change. And that person also shoes... so that was a BIG DEAL to get his particular opinion. This guy has a very interesting history - he very nearly hung up his anvil and nails to do totally barefoot stuff, but couldn't figure out how to make it work in New England. Verrrrry interesting, as this is the question I always get as a barefoot person in this particular area. Because really, let's face it, wild horses are not frequently found in the wet, rocky forests of New England. A natural trim is universal, but so much of it is environment, and this environment is just that - wet and extremely rocky. Feet have a hard time drying out and toughening up here, and soft feet don't play well with big jagged rocks. Hell, shod feet don't play well with some of our rocks either! So every time he comes to do horses, we always get into these really animated discussions about what is out there that works better than shoes. He keeps everything in the barn bare that he can, and he does a very nice natural trim. So, the last time he was out (Tuesday) I asked if he would look at Gogo, who was due for a trim (only 3 weeks out too... she is spitting out foot now that she's not wearing it off). She has a very odd crack in her foot that looks like trauma but I, again, have NO IDEA as to how or where she could have done this. I wanted him to check it out. As it turns out, he had quite a lot of pointers for me, and so I at one point just said well, do you want to just go ahead and trim her and show me what you mean? Of course, at that exact moment in time my boss came in and asked where her next horse was, so I had to go start tacking. And then I got a ring from one of the employees saying he couldn't catch a horse, so I had to go help him. By the time I got back up to the barn, the trim was already complete... damn. He did some things I wasn't sure I liked - for example, he rasped off all her remaining raggedy-hangy-down periople, something I've never done because why do it? To his credit he was working down some flare so I guess that's how that worked. He also took the heels way down on her clubby foot, maybe a little more than I ever felt comfortable doing, but her feet do look very nice. I was thinking for the first few days she *might* have been landing a little flatter versus more heel-first but I could be imagining that because I want to find faults here. Other than being more invasive than I would have been, I think he did a very good job - left that tasty sole and frog totally alone and just worked exclusively with the wall that needed to come off. We'll see what kind of growth she puts out in response to this trim - but who knows, maybe that heel really was ready to just come off for good and I was not skilled enough or comfortable enough to take it off myself. Time will tell. That being said, in general I can NOT believe how much those heels have come down over the past two years, all of them. They look fabulous.

Top picture was from the other day, and the bottom picture was from December of 2007:



Good picture of the removal of the raggedy periople. Don't really think that was necessary but there is still plenty of it left so there you are. RF looks a little weird in this picture because of the Tuff Stuff on it and for some reason the stain on it makes it look like her heel is running under... I can assure you that isn't the case!






Quite interesting to see just what is going on with those cracks. They were hard to see before. The one on the LF is pretty much totally closed almost, and the one on the RF is tighter than it ever was and looking way less threatening than ever before. Score!


And how do we battle the wet stall? With some super fun soaking and a layer of Desitin slathered on her already cleaned and treated frogs every couple of days... sounds totally odd but it does help keep the urine and ammonia out.







And of course, her tail is still gorgeous even though all the rest of her seems to want to fall apart on me every second of the day!





Gogo is great at this sort of thing though.... random mystery swellings that don't cause lameness or pain, which all seem to resolve themselves within a few days. So let's hope this is more of the same.

Official AEC Countdown: 10 (Nearly 9) Days!!!!!

Okay. First of all I thought you all should know that Gogo has a secret ambition to be a show hunter. Why? Oh I dunno. I have to say, I think that's as correct as I've ever seen her form be. She is always very tidy with her legs, but doesn't often have that kind of bascule, nor are her front legs so evenly matched usually. Lovely. And as for me? Let's just say I need to get it together because I am the STAIN in that otherwise GORGEOUS photo! As you can tell I was on DEFENSIVE OVERKILL. I guess you can't blame me given the entire month of July. Well, at least it's better than it was earlier in the summer, that's for sure. But I have not regained my former poise over fences that I was almost achieving last year. But just look at her go. That was a nice lopey canter for her, really. Can you just imagine when she's actually galloping?

Gogo is back to serious work as of yesterday and has been a right snot about it, followed by a dash of fabulous. Generally, after a bit of downtime I start back up with a hack, but I wanted to get on her and test the gears, and get down to a bit of work given our dwindling time before the AECs! She was understandably a bit body-stiff when we first started out, but some w/t/c on the buckle sorted her out and loosened her up. It took awhile, but she eventually unkinked her body and became quite supple. We didn't do much beyond w/t/c, transitions, leg yields, and a few very minor lengthenings, but that was enough. She didn't have a lot of adjustability within gaits, but she was starting to tire a little by the end, so I called it a day on a perfectly square halt. Today, we went back out for another dressage session and she, for whatever reason, was NOT in the mood to play at first. Given the fact that she's, well, Gogo, I gave her some room to be herself, and she fussed, fussed, fussed, fussed. After about 45 minutes of mediocre fussy work, I finally halted and had her stand there on contact for a few minutes. Sometimes, this is all she needs to really let go and relax for whatever reason, and it worked today. She then gave me about 15 minutes of absolutely LOVELY work - incredibly supple both directions and very adjustable within gaits. We schooled some very nice leg yields, played with shoulder-in, did rapid-fire transitions (which completely blow her mind when she's not relaxed, but really engage her when she IS relaxed), and played with shallow loops in canter. To my great delight, she swelled like a sail and filled both reins during these, and gave me some very good ones going left. Now, given our previous difficulties going right, and our previous difficulties with counter-canter to begin with, I haven't done a successful shallow loop in canter going to the right on her.... well, maybe ever. Today, with minor trepidation and curiosity, I attempted one going right after a few going left, and lo and behold, she gave me an absolutely magnificent one, better than the ones going left, and as we rounded the corner I asked for a canter-halt, and BAM! Perfectly balanced, perfectly square. I ended on that, how could I ask for better? It was like she was gearing up over the past two rides to be perfect at the end of this one. We're dressage-ing for the next two days as well, and then HOPEFULLY getting an XC school in as well as some conditioning work. Valinor is holding open schooling on their course this week and weekend, but - alas - it is three hours away. That sounds like GREAT fun, but three hours....? That's a bit far. I've tried to get in contact with Mistover, but haven't heard back via e-mail, so I will try to call tomorrow instead. Maybe back to Red Rock? I dunno. I need WATER! Real up-down, in-out WATER!

I am happy to say that the weird mystery swellings in Gogo's front legs finally have an actual cause - NASTY SCURF! She had a rather extended bit of time off last week, long than I wanted, because I was so paranoid about the S word and the residual puffiness. It didn't seem to make sense though, her weird puffiness in relation to the S word, because she's been sound this whole time, and literally within 10 seconds of walking out of her stall, all the puffiness vanished. No heat, no residual swelling... just excess fluid, so it seemed. As it turns out, she had scurf forming under her hair, and linimenting and wrapping only served to make it explode. GROSS. I ended up clipping all hour lower legs today (which I didn't really want to do but I HAD to get it under control!), and scrubbing them with anti-gross shampoo. Most of the scurf went away - yay! - but you could tell when I was clipping her that it was REALLY bothering her. She spent most of her time jerking her legs away from me when I went to clip the scurfier spots, which was just tons of fun for me, let me tell you. So PHEW to that. We'll see tomorrow morning if it made any difference in the puffiness. I also managed to pull her mane in a way that thinned it without shortening it at all. Mad skills. Her buttons require a slightly longer mane than typical hunter braids would call for, but it needs to be fairly thin at the same time to really look good. Her mane would really love to be THICK and all over the place, so it's a constant uphill battle of epic proportions. It's actually been laying down all on the right side this week all by itself, so I must be doing something right.


Saturday I managed to get ALL THIS STUFF DONE!:
Take everything out of trailer tack room and vacuum the floor
Go through all boxes in trailer
Remove dirty blankets from trailer
Go through all buckets in trailer – clean everything in them!!
Call IL Ag Dept
Put health papers in CAR!
Organize show clothes
Don’t forget show BELT
Put show pads in trailer
FIND STOCK PIN! (Which was a fail... I seem to have lost it.)
Put show clothes in trailer
Pick up coats from drycleaners and put in trailer
Go through all stuff in trailer, figure out what I need to replace
Get SAFETY PIN for my dressage coat (I need a new one... this one fits horribly!)
Clean safety vest

Sunday I was much less productive:
Get new boot shine for tall boots
Wash/clean Gogo’s boots

And today I managed to get these few things done:
Wash sheets
Put boots (inc. new bells) in trailer
Order needed supplies (Showsheen, poultice, hoof polish)
Clip legs
Pull mane



On our merry way, we are. Once the clock rolls over to midnight, 9 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!




(2008 AEC Picture of the Day: Gogo and I getting ready for one booty-kickin' XC run!!)

Exhaustion

I. Am Exhausted. I've just worked two 16-hour days in a row... with pretty much no breaks. And tomorrow is going to be just as horrible! And then Thursday.... is my birthday! And Friday is show prep, and Saturday is SHOW!

This is going to be a pretty short update I think, because I'm going to crash pretty soon, but I at least wanted to say that Gogo's chest looks a MILLION AND ONE times better, and that I got on her today for the first time since last Wednesday. Since she had such major chiro work, I wanted to just take it easy, and started the ride with a 20-minute walk hack outside with Anne and her horse Salute. Back in the ring, we did mostly walk - which was good, because she was wiiiiiiired for sound at first - and then moved up into a tiny bit of trot, then back down to walk, then back up to trot, then back to walk, doing circles of varying sizes and changes of direction, feeling her slowly relax beneath me. I tried a KK Ultra on her today (I have a knock-off KK Ultra which she's been going in since last February or so) which was a 16mm instead of her regular 14mm, and I dunno if it was the Aurigan or the fact that the chiro majorly unlocked her jaw, but she was foaming like crazy, in a very good way! She normally doesn't do that! She definitely felt very different in her neck and withers, that's for sure. Behind the saddle, it took a little longer for her to stop feeling so defensive still. But finally, she stretched down into the contact at the trot and off we went, just getting in some consistant, relaxed, quiet work in a longer and lower frame, and Vicki said she could really see her hips swinging (remember how locked up they were). At the end, I quietly halted, and she was PERFECTLY balanced and square. I mean textbook, amazing, wonderful, flawless. And I dropped the reins, gave her a huge hug and was done with that! It feels to me like tomorrow she's going to start at this place where we left off. I certainly hope that's the case. So good news, good news! Goobers, relaxation, swinging back, cheerful attitude. That's the way we like it!

In other news, my Mudbeast continues to be muddy and beasty. She must have rolled like 85 times out in the mud today, and came in crusted in it, as usual. I love spring everywhere in the entire world EXCEPT AT THE BARN. Everywhere else, there are blooming flowers, bright sunshine, freshly melting snow and crisp new growth. At the barn, there's mud, hair, filth, sweatiness, and did I mention the mud? XD And now of course, it's pouring. Which is going to make the turnouts WAY more exciting and muddy tomorrow!

We'll be dressage-ing from today until Friday, and then jumping our guts out on Saturday, if all goes well. Sweet!!!

Boobalicious!

Good news on the Gogo boobie front! Yes, the swelling is WAY down, and we don't have to call her Dolly Parton anymore! There is still minor swelling, to be sure, but the majority of the edema is waaaaaaaaaay gone. Woohoo! I'm done icing it - there's nothing left to ice really - and we're up to handwalking twice a day for 1/2 hour each time. We're back to work on Tuesday, which cannot come soon enough because she is starting to jump out of her SKIN from having these past few days off.

T-minus six days until our first show of the season! Mount Holyoke is having their Afternoon Saturday Sizzler jumper show this coming weekend. It's not a count-for-anything show, just a little schooling show, but it's our first outing in front of a judge, so it qualifies as a show show! We'll be getting a spring overhaul on Friday - bath, mane pulling, clipping, trimming, tail banging, tack scrubbing, trailer tack room organizing, you name it, it's getting done! She actually just had a bath yesterday, but of course today went out first thing and rolling in the nasty gooey mud... like I didn't see that coming. So she got hosed off AGAIN when she came in. It was 60 degrees today, amazing! And now, it's POURING rain like you've never seen and it's not supposed to stop. Bleugh.
Also, t-minus 16 days until the opening date of our FIRST EVENT, OMG. The vet was out to pull a Coggins and give her a Rabies (apparently in CT it's law that you have a Rabies certificate at CT shows... I think I already mentioned that about five times), and I copied a bunch of entry forms and my Rabies certificate. Now I just need to copy the Coggins when it gets here and VOILA! Ready to go. NERVOUS! The actual event isn't until May, of course, but STILL.


I had this moment of realization the other day that made me swell a little with pride. As compltely, totally, and utterly alpha as Gogo is, I'm still always HER alpha, and she concedes to me and looks to me, and LISTENS to me when I ask her to move her body or treat another herd member appropriately. First of all, Gogo would pretty much like to kill every grey horse in the world. I don't know what it is about them, but she HATES them. Just one example of how much she thinks grey horses should all be killed happened just the other day - two of the paddocks are separated by a huge alleyway that a truck could easily pass through, so no horses can even remotely get near each other when turned out in these two, and Gogo was in one, and a grey mare named Duet was in the other. Gogo made it a point to go over to the corner that was closest to that field, where Duet was lingering so she could be close to another horse, and she stood there pinning her ears and repeatedly tapping the fence with one hind foot, as if to say GO AWAY, you aren't welcome ANYWHERE REMOTELY NEAR me! They were literally at least 35-40 feet apart, separated by more than two fences! She's not done that with ANY other horse that gets turned out there! Anyway, back to the story about respect. I made the mistake of bringing in another grey, Ashley, and hanging her in the crossties right in front of Gogo's stall. This was fine until I walked away for two second, and then the Fire-Breathing Monster came galloping over and attacked Ashley full-on over her stall gate. Ashley, having iceballs in her feet, freaked and was slipping and sliding all over the place, and Gogo was pretty much attached to her neck by her teeth. I turned around from all the way down the barn aisle where I was hanging Ashley's turnout, cried out "Gogo!", and that was all it took. It wasn't said in a scolding way - more like surprise! - but she instantly released Ashley, retreated back into her stall, and went back to calmly munching hay and ignoring her. That was it. My body language must have been enough to say, "Not your place to discipline that one. My place. Get out of our collective space," and she did. Good mare. On her own, I know she'd probably KILL a grey horse. But when I'm nearby? She's a perfect angel.

I wonder what would happen in a turnout situation, if I was out there while she was turned out with another horse that she didn't like. I feel like she'd do as I asked, but would still, as second-in-command, probably kill the thing unless I really told her not to. And of course, the second I leave she's alpha again.


Those crazy, crazy mares. Oh yeah, AND she's in violent, flaming, pee-spurting, non-stop screaming heat again. Spring is here!

MAJOR Chiropractic Work A Go-Go

WOW. So I knew my horse needed to be worked on by the chiropractor, but I never imagined that it could be quite this much. Yesterday, Gogo was lucky enough to get to go out for almost 6 hours (a big deal in a barn with 16 horses on almost totally individual turnout and only four paddocks), and that helped a little with her chest edema - I figure her moving around on her own, choosing how to move in the way that is least uncomfortable for her for as long as humanly possible is way more productive than forced handwalking exercise, which could potentially continue to make the area raw and sore, for now. Dr. A showed up at around 1pm or so, and my horse was the second to go. He ran his pen down her spine and her eyes bugged out of her head and she scooted pretty far underneath herself. Uh oh. I knew she needed chiro work. I figured she probably needed it pretty badly. But that was NOT the reaction I expected out of her. "Oh boy," Dr. A said. Oh boy indeed.

Basically, her entire body was torqued a little out of whack. She needed moderate adjustments in her poll, which was a spot I thought would be huge, but it was less than I expected. Her jaw was totally locked in place, so he adjusted that too - no big surprise there. He took a peek into her mouth, even though she did NOT like that and pretty much tried to lift him off the ground several times, and noted that she's starting to get some small hooks on the inside of her lower jaw - ugh, she just had her teeth done in November! Small adjustments were made on both sides of her neck, and he also worked on her withers - all areas that were worked on last time she was seen by the chiro in Ohio, last July. Interestingly, he also adjusted her right knee, with an enormous 'pop' I might add - the exact same knee was adjusted last time too. That is also her flatter front foot (as opposed to the left, which is more upright), so I wonder what that has to do with it. And then, there was her mid-back region, specifically the area where her lumbar and thoracic vertebrae meet. You can see where that is here, right where the ribcage ends. (I'm completely fascinated with the equine skeleton, btw, and spend a lot of time drawing and painting and studying it. Yes, I did those by hand!). The saddle fitter had come out some weeks ago because of some concerns that the cantle of my dressage saddle has been rocking a little, and had basically said my Prestige was designed to move a little bit in back, simply because Italian saddles apparently do that. I blogged about that awhile ago, but for whatever reason, I can't figure out which post it was, so when I find it I'll link back to that. Anyway, so in that area, there's some loss of the integrity of her hair where the saddle sits, which was worrying me, so Dr. A had me bring my saddle out, girth her up, and walk her around, just so he could see what the saddle does. He's a bit concerned that it might be twisting a little to the left, which makes some sense because I feel like I'm usually a little bit twisted to the left - but I thought that was just me. He injected the area with vitamin B12 and lidocane, which will help to keep that area relaxed and determine if this is a saddle problem, an it's-just-Gogo problem, or something more severe, like kissing spines (which he said was quite unlikely, thankfully). On top of alllll that, her entire pelvis was rotated left, and both her SIs were locked down. This he likened to standing with your butt pushed way out - try it, and notice how it hollows out your lower back and locks up your knees. Because of this, he also had to adjust both her stifles. Some more stuff about pelvis adjustments can be found here. It was very obvious that she felt MUCH better after her adjustment - he moved down her body with his pen in the same way he did before after the adjustment, and there was a markedly improved response. Today, she was standing MUCH more square and comfortably in the aisle - she had been starting to stand with her right hind out behind her, and she was comfortable and square all this morning too.

Her funky chest edema is just too weird to be true still. She's going to have at least four or five days off, given the rubbing and her discomfort... and did I mention that we had a few minor chiropractic adjustments done, lol. This morning we had a 500lb dose of banamine and a half-hour of icing, which looked a bit like this:



Silly mare. She's so good about all this crap. The edema looked like this this morning:



Gravity pulled it even closer to the girth area. Oye, Gogo....

So we'll be doing handwalking, icing, and pain meds for the next four or possibly five days, until the swelling goes down enough for her to be comfortable again. Hopefully we'll be better soon, because our first little schooling jumper show is on the 14th, which is one week away. Obviously if we're not ready, we're not going, but I HOPE we're okay to go! At least her having a few days off gives me time to go get my tall boots repaired (zipper broke AGAIN, ugh!) and also gives me a chance to blog about some of the topics I promised I'd talk about but haven't had the time to yet - modern eventing was Daun's request, someone else (who was it?) wanted me to talk about stretching your horse, and I wanted to talk about BCS too.

Poor little mare...

Rescue Remedy

Today's ride was chock full of the good, the bad, and the ugly, and had several eye-opening mini-lessons all wrapped into one hour and a half session of torture, doom and joy. It was a very unfortunate level of intense, and I feel a very odd mixture of very good and very awful about it.

It started off all right. As I was tacking up, I examined and cleaned up Gogo's chest swelling, which yesterday had gone down a fair amount with work. It was less swollen today, but it again had moved a little bit, and was bunching in smaller pooches, if you will, instead of one big swelling. Remember this... it will come into play later. So, the ride itself started off well. Getting on, I felt that she was slightly hesitent about moving forward - as if her pooches were uncomortable between her front legs. She seemed to stride out of it all right, so we moved up into trot and canter on a loose rein, like we always do. But then I tried something different - instead of going down into the walk and picking her up there, I picked her up in the trot, and what do you know? She stretched right down and gave me the most wonderful warmup-stretchy trot I could have ever asked for. In Vicki's words, "She's perfect, get off!" Of course she didn't mean that, but I half wanted to at that point, three minutes into my trotwork! As our workout progressed, her resistance going left because more and more obvious, and I worked harder and harder to try and get her to release the right side. No avail... she became increasingly tense, and I became increasingly tense right along with her. This began to escalate further and further and further, until we were in an all-out war. It was just a disaster. She was locked in her entire body, and so was I. We were both tense and fighting against each other, and neither of us were winning. An entire hour had passed, and I finally just halted, frustrated with myself and my inability to just let go of my tension and get over it. Vicki walked over, and patted Gogo, who was at that point standing completely immobile and square with her eyes bugging out of her head and champing at the bit. I could feel my entire body rigid with tension. Vicki looked up at me and said, "I think you need some Rescue Remedy!" And I just cracked up. I don't know what was so funny about that, but I just laughed my head off. Suddenly, with that laughter, all my tension melted away, and I felt Gogo relax underneath me. "Want to go do something good now Gogo?" I asked her. "I'll let go of your face, I promise." And I did, and she moved right out perfectly, in a completely relaxed, wonderful way. We did about 10 minutes of completely loose and free w/t/c, and we halted perfectly square at the end. I dropped my reins, gave her a huge pat, and we finished.
The entire time we were doing relaxed work at the end, however, it was very interesting because she was completely and utterly crooked, especially in her front end - her body, head and neck were bent to the right the whole way around the ring, but that was where she was steady and even in both reins, so I let it stay that way for now - that was where we got into our big fight in the first place, me pushing the crooked issue. Tomorrow the chiropractor is coming to adjust her, so I chalked it up to her really, really needing an adjustment, let her be temporarily comfortable in her crookedness, and called it a day. I left her to hang in the crossties for a little while while I rushed off to pick my stalls, and Shannon happened to walk by her with the hay cart. She stopped and looked at her bump, and then exclaimed, "Oh my god!" I came running over, and found that the hesitation I had felt when I first got on had not been my imagintion at all - after 1.5 hours of work, she had completely rubbed the area raw on itself. I was absolutely horrified and felt like I just wanted to drop dead. That was why she was tense, that was why she was crooked, that was why the fight had started in the first place - she was in pain and she just physically couldn't bend left because that was where the rawness was occuring. It was tender and painful, and I feel seriously horrible. I slathered a ton of diaper rash/A&D ointment all over the area, and am making sure to give her at least tomorrow and the day after off, also because the chiropractor is coming.

Lessons learned.... first, listen to your horse. If she's THAT crooked, it's probably not her being ornery, she's probably uncomfortable somewhere. Second, RELAX, and laugh when you feel tense... you'll instantly feel better and so will your horse. Third, sometimes you just need to compromise and really just work together with your partner instead of going along and thinking your horse is going to conform to whatever you want to do. Sometimes, you need to conform to them and work it out that way.

Poor Gogo... I feel really horrible. I mean REALLY, REALLY horrible. She was hurting, and she was trying to tell me, but she did the very best she could for me and I just wasn't listening. Much doctoring will happen over the next week, I am sure. I'm hoping everything gets sorted out in her body with the chiropractor, and that this swelling goes away soon. We have our first jumper show on the 14th, but we'll only be going if our bodies have decided to heal themselves. I think we'll be okay by then, but you never know.

Oye...

Baby Steps

Hello freak blizzard! We've been assaulted all night and day by a sudden snowstorm (after all that 50-60 degree weather..!) and we now have at least a foot of snow out there, maybe more like 14". This one was definitely the worst I've seen since I've been in CT, and understandably, the horses did not leave the barn today. The wind was howling at a sustained 30 or so miles per hour, and you couldn't walk out the door without being bowled over by a wall of snow. Gogo got two nice handwalks, and instead of jumping her (which had been the original plan before the snowstorm and the episode yesterday), I decided to revisit yesterday's issue. I have a neck stretcher, and I disassembled the rope chambon and created my own new version - it had the nylon crownpiece and the neck stretcher elastic instead of the rope. Then, armed with cookies, I brought her out into the arena and led her around for a few minutes. Once she was quietly walking, I rigged up the chambon very loosely, gave many cookies and much praise, and continued to walk. At some point I tightened the chambon to where it would normally be, gave many more cookies, and continued to walk - I even let her out on the line a little ways and let her continue to walk. She stayed very quiet the entire time, listening very politely to my voice commands. I attempted at some point to quietly lead her from the other side - the right, which is the scary side - and she had a few moments of hesitation, but changed her mind before any serious blowup happened. Baby steps, baby steps! If we have to keep quietly at it like this for however long, then so be it. She was very good about it today, and I think, with lots of cookies and pats, that she'll get over it once again and have her head back on straight.

Now here's the bad news - after yesterday's antics, this shocking lump appeared on her chest:




YIKES! Sorry about the crap pictures - taken in a dark stall under a blankie at nightcheck time. That area is right where the chambon runs between her legs, so it HAD to be from that when she was freaking out. It is very hard and painful to touch, and a little bit warm. Some more drugs and lots of coldhosing and HPQR gel later, and it seems to be smaller but still very obvious. I hope she didn't do any real muscle damage. She's not lame (surprise) but it definitely hurts her when you touch it. I have got to get her over this. I don't want her to hurt herself any more than she already has.

Coming soon: End of February analysis and March goals!