Grooming

Well I think Im going to give Lucas until the end of the month (January that is) It will give us time to really work on our showmanship/halter (during our hand walking) as well as getting me walking on a good consistent surface, which should help with my weight as well (so far so good, no extra joint pain over the past month). His leg is good, to me its just not the same as his other leg yet and Im more than willing to spend more time on the ground to get him feeling better. If Im working on my own fitness on the ground, really Lucas doesn't need to go back to work until March. I would be the only one holding us back at that point. The farrier will also be back out around the 20th so he can have a look at his feet as well then.


So on with the brushes!

I usually start with a proper rubber curry with 'sharp' teeth. The teeth wear down fairly quickly so in the spring/summer I usually get a new curry each month. And these are the little curry's, if you have a large hand like I do I need to stretch out the hand strap before its comfortable! In the winter or when the horse is extremely dirty I just use the regular circular motion to bring the dirt up off the skin to the end of the hair. However the trick is that whenever the horse is shedding (anytime other than Oct-mid Feb) you want to use the curry in the SAME direction in the hair in short hard strokes. This will pick up any loose hair and get it off the horse. Other than the few months of the winter you should be able to get several hand fulls of hair off the horse. Do this everywhere. Face, body, legs everything if you are gentle it won't hurt the horse.

Next is the hard bristled brush, which I use the same way as written in all of the horse books. I love natural bristled brushes but they are very expensive and hard to keep really clean so I use the cheap ones. I do have natural brushes that I use at the shows, which really bring out the shine!

Then I use the soft brush all over the horse, followed by a cloth (just a regular one) or a stable mitt. I usually oil Lucas feet 3-4 times a week with fiskes (http://fiskes.ca/index.html) I had slacked off during the fall, and it came back to haunt me.

I brush out his mane every couple of days, although it needs to be pulled now! And I take his tail out of the tail bag every weekend and brush it out. His tail has thickened up a whole bunch, but he doesn't have much of a tail at the tail bone as it is.

I always use nylon sheets and winter blankets with a nylon lining in them, I do have a polar fleece liner but I only use it when its very cold or we need another layer without steaping up a blanket weight.

Sick

Hi, just got my IV finished and got my moms new computer set up (shes going back to do her Masters in Education on Jan 15!) And now Im going back to bed. Im going to talk to the barn owners about what to do with Lucas... Im reading that circles are bad for horses rehabbing from suspensory, but Im not sure that were ready to go back to riding yet... any ideas? Still doing showmanship, and walking but should we ride?

Ongoing topic about boots below, general daily stuff here

Same old day here, back to work after my vacation. Some days after getting back to work I truly wonder how the world functions without me answering my email for 5 days! Lucas is good, did some showmanship with him tonight to start getting him tuned up to me and my body language (which wasn't so crisp tonight on my part). Getting him to wait for me to step off before he begins, stopping smoothly when I do etc. I also use something that watching reiners taught me, fencing a horse. Essentialy trotting right up until we hit the wall so that he doesn't anticipate the stop it really works with Lucas.

I get my IV tomorrow so I'm going to try and put down my grooming regime on 'paper' then.

Lucas is foolish, boots for back to work?

He was absolutely foolish today! He got turnout in the morning for several hours when the owners were doing stalls, and got brought in shortly before I got there. I got there and turned him out without his blanket on (so he could have a good roll) and he still ran around like a silly colt! Oh and no off movement of any sort, I even went in and trotted him after his antics to make sure. So were going to start walking/trotting him on the lungeline next weekend for 5 min or so to start working up his strength again.

The local tack store had a sale so I got Lucas more multi-vitamin and joint supplement, as well as a new saddle pad and new polo wraps. :)

Does anyone have any input towards boots or Polo's for when I put Lucas back into work? He has interfered with himself before so I always work him in bell boots, and either polo's or hard shelled open front jumping boots. So what do you guys think of these options

1) SMB boots (I usually only use these for trailering, would he start relying on the support too much?)

2) Polo wraps

3) Hard shelled, open front jumper boots

4) Exercise wraps (not my personal favorite but was suggested on one website)

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Pre HUS diva....

So due to the foot of snow we recived today I spent alot of time online! So please see the attached:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpP6QA_1shQ

That is Executive Privilege 3E, owned by Kingridge stables in Ont, and ridden by Hugh Graham. It is a gp jumping class at Halton Place just outside of Georgetown Ont.

Now the reason I included Hugh and this gelding is for a couple of reasons...

1) I actually worked and groomed for Hugh for one exciting (and hard working!) summer. I groomed this geldings sire and dam at several differnt shows over that summer. Hugh taught me alot, some good, some bad. If you look at my photos you'll quickly catch on to where I get my flapping elbows from! I learned about high stress barn management, and how no matter how many times you have seen someone on tv, they are still just a person. Up untill this point my verson of equation kinda fell apart when the horse did somthing wrong. I would be able to fix it but would panic in the show ring because I "lost my position" I got out of that working for Hugh!

2) This is filmed at Halton Place about 4 years after I left. Yup I worked there for about a year. I loved that place, and the opertunity it gave me to improve my riding and high level horse management skills. I was only given one horse to ride when I got there but progressed to 4 by the time I left, one of which was leased out to an amature that I helped during the week. It also ment that I was trying to keep 7 horses in jumping form, when some of them were only ridden once or twice a week. (the owner rode the young stuff on the weekend). It really taught me to learn from the horse, and to learn when to push and when not too. All 4 of mine were capable of jumping 5 foot, and could preform up to PSG. Talk about a learning experence!

One more week!

We did the trot test today. And between all 4 of us (me the two barn owners and Lucas) we think hes on the final leg of his recovery. Hes been playing a bunch in the indoor, the swelling is gone in his leg and its only because we know what he is capeable of that we think he is still not quite fully done.

Hes having a ball in the indoor now, and canters on his own for fun. That first step is still whe worst (and only at a trot) but he gets better the longer he trots. So when we get the snow that we are promised to get tomorrow we will start turning him out for a couple of hours outside. The snow will give him some cusion, and be high enough to keep coldness on that fetlock for a couple of hours.

Im extreamly happy that hes' feeling better already, and that hes so broke that having the past couple of months off wont hurt him a bit.

Getting ready for turkey

Went to the barn at 9:30 this morning to clean Lucas' stall, and give him some turnout time. He had fun out in the indoor, and even more fun when I went out to play with him :) Maybe too much fun but its nice to see that hes not feeling so bad any more. Hes also manged to kick some boads in his stall and leave a few marks, he hasnt done that since November so thats a good thing!

Merry Christmas!

I spent the morning at the barn cleaning stalls for the BO's. It was nice to do some physical work for a bit instead of making my brain sweat like I normaly do at work! I think that Lucas is figuring out the ball, I turned him out in the indoor while I cleaned stalls, and evertime I went by the gate the ball had moved about 10 feet.

Were off to my Aunt and Uncles in a couple of hours for chistmas dinner, most of that side of the family is close enough we will all be there tonight for supper. I think my grandmother from my moms side will go over with us, and then tomorrow night we'll have my mom's brother and his son, the sons wife and there 3 kids (who are so cute!) over for supper.

I hope everyone is spending quality time with your family, friends and horses over the weekend!

Does anyone know how to teach a horse to play with a yoga ball?

Lucas still hasnt figured it out. Or atleast he hasnt figured out how to work it on his own! He thinks that the plan is for him to watch me kick it around the indoor, and both of us can walk after it. Its a good tool for getting him used to weird stuff though! Ive bounced it like a basket ball and hes ok with it being kicked all around him so hes really come a long way in a year!

Hes also feeling much better. The barn owners said that he spent most of yesterday in the indoor and troted around some and looked great :) The slight cold swelling that he has while standing in his stall is now gone after once around the indoor (about 3/4 of the size of a decent dressage ring) His first step out of a stand still is still hesitant, but hes fine after that one... oh well were going to have a look in a couple of days and evaulate him... nothing to do in the meantime but wait and continue the treatment.

The Yoga Ball

Well I did it, I gave Lucas his Christmas present. He kinda knew it was coming, he kept nickering at me while I got it blown up. Hes so funny though. He wont kick it or push it, he stands there looking at it untill I kick it then he walks after it and waits again for me! Somedays I think he's training me!!!

Legs and feet feel good! All the heat is out of the right foot and the slight cool swelling on the right leg was gone after his "exercise". His left front where the thrush/abcess is is starting to firm up and is no longer soggy, and smells much better. Fingers crossed that were on the upswing! Me and the BO are going to trot him again on Sunday to see how he feels, and evaulate his healing/progress.

Staying home tonight

Well if any one has been following the weather situation everyone knows that no matter where you live, its been crazy.

The east coast (of Canada) is dealing with record rainfall, huricane force winds, and to top it all off higher than normal high tides. When just about every town is near the water, this becomes a problem. In one town about 2 hours from home, snow plows were sent in between high tides to clear off the roads from the rocks and seaweed that came in on the tide. Alot different from the job they normaly do at this time of year.

Thanks to the incoming storm my joints have been really bothering me the past couple of days (not to mention a lack of sleep due to wind and power outages). So today Im taking a 'me' day and staying home from the barn tonight. Lucas really seems to be on the upswing of the injury/abcess, so the BO was going to put him out in the indoor for a walk tonight.

Another good day

Lucas is feeling much better. Took him out for a walk and a stretch tonight and practiced some showmanship basics, for about 15 minutes then turned him loose and made him trot a few steps in each direction. This is when our groundwork and body positioning comes into play. I got him to trot one long side each direction, with his right side to the middle he was fairly sound, only slight head bobbing, no noticeable short striding on either leg. Going to the left he was bobbing his head more but only a slight shorting of stride on the left front. I also found a decent hole in his left front frog. I noticed that there was a flap of skin there yesterday but today there was a hole. I was able to clean it our and flush it with iodine. It might not be the exact issue but it wasn't helping him. The right hoof is still slightly warmer as well.

Our 'showmanship' work consisted of setting up about 10 cones around the ring and walking around them, by them, sometimes stopping next to them. Not nessacarly doing 'something' at every cone, but often enough that he was tuning into me in anticipation that we just might do something at the next cone. I like to have him in a 'ready' state of mind, so that hes not zoning out and going thought the motions, which he does if he thinks he knows the pattern. I'm trying to keep his mind active so that we wont have a repeat of Friday night!

Hes feeling better.

Well I was so disgusted with Lucas last night I couldnt even blog about it. It took three of us with 2 buckets of hot water and about 1/2 an hour of fighting to soak each foot for 5 minutes. He was so foolish, even snorting and the steam coming out of the bucket. (and it wasnt hot, it was just cold in the barn) He reared several times while we were trying to get him to stand in the bucket. Once we got a foot in he was fine but it was getting the foot in, and taking the foot out that was aparently horrible! I ened up having to put a lip chain on him so he didnt hurt us or himself. Once we got that done I still needed to scrub his frog out wich wasnt fun either. He stood in the cross ties but he was dancing around. Again more corrections so that he would stand so I could work on his foot. By this point any strength I had in my hands and arms was gone! Normaly Lucas doesnt push my hands/arms because he knows that it is a very bad thing but he was doing it last night.

Then as im trying to hold the poltice in place and vet wrap his hoof he half rears and pulls his foot out of my hand. Well I lost it. There was no excuse for his bad behavour, ive wraped his feet many times and his feet are not bad enough that he cant stand on one or the other for as long as it would take for me to pick them out. So I yelled at him and hit him in the side with my elbow and jerked on his face a bit (I still had the stud chain over his nose) And then he stoped and was just fine for me to finish up with. I tied him up for 15 min while I finished up then let him go and eat.

Its times like these that I wonder where his brain goes sometimes. There was nothing bad or painfull with what we were doing but he got it stuck in his head that it was. And untill i corrected him severly he was stuck in that mindframe. I hate to say it but its like you have to beat him out of it. If your nice to him he just stays 'stuck'.


I took off the poltice this morning and turned him out in the indoor, where he squelled like a little pony before trotting off a couple of steps, he then stoped to roll. So he was getting to stay out in the indoor for the rest of the afternoon, with lots of pylons and balls for him to push around with his nose. I think that he was feeling better today. And maybe he was so bad yesterday just because hes board out of his tree...

Grounded

Well me and Lucas are restriced to hand walking only for a couple of weeks. Farrier came in today and spent an hour with the BO working on his feet. He put him back in the angled alum shoes that he wore all summer (well new shoes but same type) Cleaned out his frog that was thrushy.

Good news is that he thinks he has a couple of bruses that have turned into abcesses due to the change in shoeing (that 8 weeks between trims is still kicking us) The thrush in his frog is not helping either. He also thinks that he may have a slight strain to his sespensory lig. in his right foot due to the bad angles.

So a week of soaking both his front feet and scrubbing the foot with thrush with a suger and iodine scrub to get out the thrush.

Im so mad a the farrier I could kick him, but hes spending alot of time trying to fix him at no cost to me... So Im thinking that he'll be off untill atleast the end of January. He can still go out in the indoor (as long as he doesnt play) and we can still do a bit of walking every day, but the real chalange will be keeping him from getting to board while he heals. Thankfully hes in a stall with lots of traffic (next to the tack room and the closest cross ties) and the 'in training horses' will all start coming in soon as well, which will keep alot of activy in the barn in front of him.

No Change

No Change in the boy. Farrier is coming out early am tomorrow to put differnt shoes on and re trim his feet. Cross your fingers that it will work. :( Good news is that its happening now and not in May right before show season. The BO offered me the stud to ride if Lucas ends up being off for a couple of weeks. They want to put some more rides on him before then but said that there would be somthing for me to ride while he heals.

Well there is no heat left in Lucas' leg. He still isnt happy though. The farrier is comming again on Thursday to pull of his snow pads and corks and put him back in 'summer' shoes.

Carpool started today which will get rid of most of my short term money problems :) Im driving with really nice people so it should work out fine.

On the mend

So Lucas is much better today! I packed his foot last night and the BO took what was left of it off this morning. Although his hoof is still slightly warmer than the other there is a big improvement. And the general heat in his leg and gone down significantly and reduced to just a bit around his fetlock. Hes also sound at the walk now and at the trot in straight lines (just during our walk in the indoor) Hes still a bit hesitant about that first step, but is no longer bobbing his head at the trot.

We had a good 15 min walk which he seemed to enjoy, and talked to the barn owners as they picked rocks out of the new footing, and got rid of an old hornets nest. (it was -10 today so a good day to do it!) I gave him a few minutes to roll if he wanted to, and he came over and snugged with me and nuzzled my entire face. Its been a rough couple of weeks. My parents are helping me get rid of my student loan and credit card debit, so its been tough trying to work out a budget that will work while still keeping Lucas. I've only ever owned 2 horses, Lucas and Bart. I had to sell Bart when I went to university for the first time so having to think about selling Lucas to pay for the second round is killing me. Bart ended up in a good forever home but its still something that I want to avoid at all cost of doing to Lucas.

So it was nice for him to give me some 'kisses' while I contemplated our future. Its the next two months that will be hard.

Farrier came

And reset Lucas' front shoe. He didn't think that there was an abscess but it could still be possible. He does think that the shoe was pinching a bit (hes in bar shoes at the moment) So we are going to continue with the bute for the rest of the weekend, and poltic it as well, hes also on hand walking only for a bit (or supervised turnout in the indoor) just until we make sure that it isn't anything more serious. He was much better on it in the alley way so cross your fingers.

Were having the christmass party at the barn tonight so Ill pack his foot tonight so we'll see how that goes.

Farrier tomorrow, cookies tonight!

I went to the barn for a bit to visit with Lucas. He's still kinda sore and grumpy but less heat in the bad leg and no additional swelling. The BO have been giving him a very small dose of Bute over the past couple of days to keep him comfortable (one small scoop once a day). Its not alot but I hate feeding bute long term so... its enough that it keeps his legs solid, and cool and that hes ok to walk around but not so good that he wants to play and might hurt himself.

Although there was a new kick mark in his stall, and he hasnt kicked since he got shod last time so he might be felling a bit better.

And another day..

So the farrier hasnt come yet, so Im at home. The BO were going to give Lucas his low dose bute tonight while I stay home to try and finish christmas presents. I have to explain that there are no lameness experts localy. The local vet often can't tell if its a hind leg or a front leg. Shes good for stiches ect but not serious problems.

To get to a 'horse' vet we either would drive 2 hours to another province to a special vet clinic set up by a vet who 'came home' after working in the US for several years. Or we can go to yet another province to the vet college and see if they can help us. To go to the guy just back I would need to bring the ferrier to take his shoes on and off. If I went to the college I dont trust the vet they use there. (he just about crippled my best friends horse) *sigh*

Somtimes I hate living in a small area.

Im Back

Im back. The computer picked up a virus of some sort that completly re-routed my deask top. And I cant type fast enough on my smart phone.

Anyways Lucas got new shoes last wensday and is still not better. Its not unusual for him to be off for a day or two but this has been a week now. We've put him on low level bute for the past couple of days, and baby ambosal into the nail holes but nothing seems to be working. So I called the farrier this morning and he'll be coming out in the next couple of days to have a look at him.

Im doing ok, just wishing that Lucas would feel better soon :(

computer died

Hey guys my computer got a virus and is out of commission for a bit... hopefully it wont be long

Pony rides

Well Lucas is feeling much better today. He got his back fixed last night and now all the heat is out of his front right as well. I took him for a couple of walks today in the indoor and his was much sounder today. We'll give him another day before starting some low level work done again on Tuesday. He was much happer today and walked around the indoor on his own (and had a good roll).

We had a young family in today at the barn. They were purchasing one of the weanlings and the little girl was 'in love' with Lucas. Since he was feeling so much better, we thought that he could handle her. So she got lifted on and the BO held onto her while I lead Lucas around. Once he got over his "OMG you are putting someone on me without a saddle??", and "A little person, on ME??" he was great. Then she and her mother fed him some apple, which he really liked! Next weekend is the barn christmas party so we did some decorating to get ready for it as well.

June 26, 2010 8:42 PM

Another video that i finaly downloaded off my phone. Just some trot work of the same session last summer. I just got back from the barn, Lucas got his back fixed so he should be ready to go next week. He had a bunch of stuff wrong but the chyropractor thought that it would be from my saddle mis-fitting, and him having a lack of good quality work.

New Shoes for Lucas, IV for me

Well I missed a couple of days due to my IV on Thursday night. It wasn't too bad this time. The IV itself is fine. The nurse is extremely nice, and its over and done in about an hour. Its what happens after that sucks. This time however I managed not to run a temp all night, and managed to go to work the next day. I was FROZEN about an hour after it got done though! I had to crank the heat and get layered in blankets to stop shaking. my poor parents were sitting in shorts and t-shirts to stay cool but I just couldn't get warm for hours. (the meds come right out of the fridge and go into me)

Lucas got new shoes late Wednesday night and he was still not happy on Friday night when I went out. He is extremely toed in on his front legs and gets corrective shoeing so that his legs/tendons stay correct. He was very good all summer on a 5 1/2 week schedule but since show season is over the farrier has slacked off and hes been friging around with the shoes Lucas wears to fix a few minor things that he didn't want to touch over the summer. So Lucas now has bar shoes (to support his heals) with 4 little studs for the snow. I ended up giving him a touch of bute last night because his right leg was still warm, but he should be fine by Sunday.

Meanwhile my mom is bitching about the gas bill, but then found out that my dad bought her the Christmas gift on it :) LOL

Video

Ok so Im going to try to post this video, it was taken at our first QH show this summer. Hes not pushing off from behind as much as I would like and he gets a bit to high in his head a couple of times. We like but dont like this bit at the same time. Hes hard to ride in it, but it makes our rides in our show bit and snaffle so much better. I have a trot video too, but its not uploading as well as I would like. Please ignore the fact that my shirt looks almost see though!

We did it!!!

I finaly managed to clean Lucas' sheath!!! And he only lifted his hind foot once! A year ago I wouldn't have even attempted. It finaly got to the point that it needed to be done, and thankfully he cooperated. I didnt use any soap just plain old baby oil gel. Sometime over the next couple of weeks when we turn on the hot water tank Ill get some soap and do a really good job but this should hold him for now.