We Are Flying Solo

A New Name For A New Life

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 22:52:00 +0000

Snuggleupagus in action

Mouse's registered Jockey Club name (Stephanopoulos) is rather unwieldy & a bit odd, so I've been pondering a fitting new title for him as he steps out into his second career. Although, I did derive another fitting nickname from it, as I call him my Snuggleupagus. I don't have too many name rules, other than I don't generally like giving human names to animals & I try to pick something that most people can pronounce without butchering.

For Mouse, I also wanted to incorporate a tribute to his grandsire, the marvelous AP Indy, who passed away at the ripe age of 31 on my birthday last year (I, alas, passed 31 a looong time ago). AP Indy has been in the pedigree of all three TB's I have owned & I will always view him as a positive on any set of papers.

After a lengthy period of shuffling the letters A & P around & hunting for the right vibe, I finally arrived at a winner. Mouse is now enrolled in the JC's Thoroughbred Incentive Program (TIP) as A Point Beyond. I can only hope that we'll get to hear it announced somewhere, someday.

As a side note, I was pleasantly stunned to see how the popularity of the TIP has soared: I signed up Encore at the very beginning of that program & his number was something like 228. When I registered Mouse a couple weeks ago, his number is well over 34,000! I'm so glad people have re-discovered how wonderful these horses can be!

Getting On With Getting On

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 02:29:00 +0000

Y'all. This lil' Mousey...this is a Real Good Horse.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I can't quite believe it's already been two months since Mouse moved into my life & set about gently re-expanding the boundaries of existence with a much-needed shot of hope. The first order of business was to just relax & get to know each other while Mouse's body took a break.

Despite a clean PPE, any horse in hard work, whether that is racing or jumping or prancing, is most likely carrying micro-injuries. This is why we all need days off & why over-training & over-competing lead to disaster - you have to give tissues time to rest & recover periodically in order to stay healthy. According to the vet, soft tissues need 6-8 weeks to heal micro-tears, while bone needs more like 8-10 weeks. Mouse last raced in mid-September, so I wanted to be sure I gave his body space to re-solidify his base before we started to rebuild.

Many napzzzz needed

When I start out with a horse, it's really just a process of little things: learning that association with me is positive, that I bring good things, good feelings, good noms, & am generally a trustworthy human. I also cover the bases of Operation Farm Breaking, in which we cover all of the "life skills" that make a horse easy to handle & be around. In Mouse's case, this went far more quickly than anticipated.

Because Echo had been such a big project in that respect, as you can read about in the link, I strapped on my metaphorical toolbelt & prepared to do it all again with Mouse. Beginning with the most basic exercise of just hanging out with him in the pasture, scratching itchy spots for no reason, making no demands, not trying to catch him, just being a pal.

Except Mouse already wanted to be my pal. He politely arranged his body next to me, requesting scratches in various places, rotating to gently place his butt in my face because that is the best scratching of all (according to Mouse). He already knew how to wear a blanket & hadn't a care in the world when I threw the noisy things over his back. He already had excellent manners while leading, already waited politely while being fed, already stood patiently while tied or in a trailer. He already was fine with Human Carrying Weird Objects & Tripping Over Things.

Well, ok then. That was easy.

In November, we started ponying out on the trails, my favourite low-impact way to show a horse the world, get their body moving a little, start conditioning, get them used to nature things, all while making Solo very happy to be out & in charge. Mouse was...completely mellow & perfect & unfazed by all of it, even crunchy leaves that made us sound like elephants & splashy water crossings.

First water crossing

Well, ok then. That was easy. Which is becoming my theme for this horse & about which I am NOT complaining.

In late November, I got all toolbelt-ed up again & decided to teach him to stand at the mounting block while I got on & off. Except he already knew how to do that & stood like a rock while I got on, messed with stirrups, leaned around, made Weird Human Noises. Someone started this horse very thoroughly & very well & whoever you are -- THANK YOU!!!! Oh dear cod, thank you so very, very much. For anyone who is breeding & starting young horses, this is how you help ensure your horses find & keep good homes, because while I CAN teach all these skills, many people can't or don't want to, & a horse who is polite & easy to handle is a horse who is safe to do things with. That just makes horse & human lives so much easier. But I digress... (But it was still easy!)

The cutest straight-A student

After I got over my initial thrill of finally getting to ride my own project for the first time in two years -- just kidding, I am still not over that -- we got to work on the basics. Mouse has great balance & is regaining weight quickly, but the musculature to bolt down a racetrack is not the same as that used to trot in a rhythm in a grassy circle. So we are learning about leg cues, about finding a rhythm at walk & trot, about ground poles, & about steering. Unlike Echo at the same age, Mouse has a much better feel for his own body & better coordination of his leg-parts, so while I think he will be ready to do some canter work sooner, I am going to wait until he is stronger so it is easier for him. A cadenced canter is harder than a flat gallop.

I've successfully introduced him to some basic longeing skills & he is very smart, having figured out the voice commands quickly, but he is struggling a bit with the whole "circle on his own" concept. So recently, I introduced him to long-lining (which of course, he accepted completely uneventfully) so that I can actually control both sides of his body. While our "circle" still resembles more of a drunken stagger (hey, we've only done it twice), I am able to communicate with him more clearly, so I will stick with the long-lines for a while. He's just starting to figure out that he can stretch forward & down & it's exciting to see those discoveries, which will be the bridges to reshaping his body.

And perhaps most fun of all, if you missed it on our Insta-feed, I got to ride Mouse out on his first trail ride already! A friend piloted Solo for me, so I could let the Mouser try out nature under saddle. And it was the best kind of boring I could have asked for: he ambled along in the sun on a loose rein, as relaxed as if he'd done it a thousand times. Most of the time he led & in a couple of spots where he hesitated & glanced back, we let Solo pass by & Mouse happily fell in line. I think I had that big dumb grin on my face a lot of the time.

Yes, his front feet are kind of in the ditch

So I got to skip a lot of steps, thanks to the delightful discovery that Mouse had a solid foundation already. Right now, the hardest part, really, is not to try to do too much. He's still a baby, at four years old. I generally keep rides at 30 minutes or less for these young ones & I don't do high-impact work with still-growing bodies; he'll do some work maybe four days a week. He's already learned how to work hard on the track, now it's time to go at HIS pace.

I've pulled his shoes to let his feet strengthen & spread & he's had his first chiro adjustment to get out the starting gate kinks. The focus will be just finding some consistent rhythms, learning some big, loopy figures, doing hill work & ground poles & trails to slowly build strength, building cues to control different body parts, & just having fun.

But damn, it's tempting, sitting on this smart, balanced, quiet, capable, pleasant, willing horse who is always tuned in to me & who makes the most adorably earnest efforts to do anything I ask. It would be so easy to throw him at some jumps, to push him into a frame, to jump ahead to the "fun stuff." But I think I just may have found a little gem & with patience, I think he is going to be a really, really amazing partner. To get there, however, & to keep him happy & sound in the long term, it requires the patience & time to be slow & methodical at the beginning. Here is where we make the investments so that hopefully, if we can just catch some luck along the way, we get to enjoy the big payoffs in days to come.

Just close your eyes & take a deep, patient breath

An Introduction Is In Order

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Sat, 30 Oct 2021 16:51:00 +0000

Say hello to Mouse: a new addition to Team Flying Solo!

Mouse surveys his new home

I feel very lucky to have found this little guy. I'd been combing the listings for months, knowing I would need to find a new friend for Solo & a new project for me, & knowing that it was going to be even more difficult than usual to succeed within my financial constraints. As anyone who has attempted to horse-shop recently knows, the horse market is just as nuts as everything else at the moment.

My budget range means that I'm looking at the things that are thin or scruffy or very green or in need of training or outside of the box for some reason. Or a combination of all those things. But the turnover on sales is still happening so crazy fast these days that I got very, very discouraged after a few months of getting replies of "sorry, it sold yesterday" when sellers even bothered to reply at all (what usually happened).

I didn't care too much about breed this time around as long as it was a gelding with a kind, sane brain (I'm not into unnecessary nonsense), who was not-grey (I'm way too twitchy to add worries of hidden melanomas to the mix), had proven he could stay sound in work, had non-disaster feet that were appropriately sized to his body, was big enough that I didn't have to buy all new tack, was not metabolic (my very grassy farm would kill them) & had parts attached in mostly the right order in mostly the right places. It also had to be something close enough that I could go look at it, I wasn't up for the sight-unseen purchase again.

Meeting Solo

A few weeks ago, I finally just threw the door wide open & sent a message with a basic list of what I was looking for to a seller I had been watching on the Instagrams for a while. I had heard good things about Alice at Shenandoah Sporthorses from a friend's trainer & my Trainer Neighbour had also sold a horse to her circle for breeding & reported a positive experience. Alice seemed to get a steady stream of OTTBs & I liked the look of quite a few, so it was worth a shot.

She responded right away (delightful change of pace) & pointed me towards a young OTTB she'd just gotten in. I'd scrolled past his initial post because my brain incorrectly read "2017" as "17 hh" & that was bigger than I wanted. When I went back & re-read his ad correctly, he was only 16.1 (perfect), did indeed sound promising & I loved his breeding - AP Indy (of course I must have!) combined with Not For Love (that will be its own post). Lexington, VA isn't terribly far from me, so I went up to have a look.

Mouse immediately met the "Jimmy Wofford criterion" of horse purchasing: I liked him as soon as I saw his wide blaze stick over the stall door. I liked him even more when I got on him in a saddle that didn't really fit great, with a girth that we couldn't quite tighten all the way (don't try this at home, I had very carefully gauged his temperament & my own abilities), for only his second ride post-racing (his last race was mid-September) -- & his default when he didn't understand something was...stopping.

First day here - just a cute face

The PPE vet really liked him too, so I took a deep breath & handed Alice my quarters. If I had any doubts about my read on his big, kind eye, they were reassured when we transferred him to my trailer in a random city park by a chain link fence covered with banners & he didn't care a lick. Nor did he flinch when we got home in the dark & I led him across my yard into a strange shed. He's a Very Good Boy. And Alice was really fantastic, I would have no qualms about doing business with her again - so shout out & thanks to her!

The past week, I've just been letting him settle in & begin stuffing his face. Solo has accepted him, although he is working through some initial jealousy. As for his particulars:

He came with the name Mouse, but I rather like it. His JC name, however, I will not be using -- "Stephanopoulos" is just a mouthful, so we'll figure out something more suitable for the future. He didn't race as a two-yr-old, but had a steady two-year career racing once or twice a month in WV as a three- & four-yr-old. It doesn't appear he was particularly impressive on the track, he only won one race, but he brought home a few checks now & again. He originally raced off a farm, so he is excellent at trailers, but trainer scheduling forced him to move to the track, where he apparently did not like living full-time & lost a bunch of weight. Hence the decision to retire him.

Mouse has clean legs, his feet appear decent, he is extremely polite to work around, & he has NOT ONCE even offered to put his mouth on me, which I love. During my limited test-ride, where I only did a little walk & trot because I didn't think it was very fair to ask much due to the tack situation, he felt balanced & willing, with a hint of some power & lift in his future. So far, he's remained extremely level-headed, taking novel objects in stride & accepting human direction with equanimity.

First pony around neighbourhood today

He was initially a little (understandably) cautiously watchful while he decided what type of human I might be. But he has quickly warmed up as I readily dispense meals, massages, & itch-scratching, & he already walks over & follows me around in the pasture.

So we begin again. I'm still trying to untangle the mess in my head, trying to remember how to look forward to positive things again. It's going to be a slow process to unlearn the expectation of disaster at every turn, just like the slow process to rebuild & retrain Mouse to a new career. We'll both just take it one step at a time & help each other (hopefully) figure out a better, happier rhythm to our days.

We Hit A Dead End

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Sun, 10 Oct 2021 19:53:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, with a heavy heart, I took Echo to his new home.

His foot just wasn't getting better. When he first started having problems, I said I'd give him a year, trying to give myself some boundaries since I don't have unlimited resources. I gave him a year & then I gave him more time after that. The vet & farrier & I poked & prodded & tweaked & tried, but there didn't seem to be any real progress. I found myself, emotionally & financially exhausted, at a crossroads.

I'll miss this face

There wasn't much more we could see down in that foot without doing an MRI, which was well beyond what I was financially capable of & even if I did it anyway, there were no guarantees it would even offer any information we could do anything about. Echo wasn't comfortable doing work, but he didn't have any problems enjoying himself in the pasture. He'd take a wonky step or two on a hard spot, but otherwise was perfectly happy to play with his friend, canter in for meals, & be his bright-eyed, goofy self.

So after much agonizing over the spring & summer & finally admitting that denial wasn't going to magically become productive, I decided to try to find him a new place where he could just be himself & do what he was best at: making friends & looking decorative. He'd turned out to be a really good companion horse: he submitted to authority, he didn't have an aggressive bone in his body, he loved to play so would be good to keep a senior horse active, & he loved human attention & was pretty easy to handle on the ground.

I put my nose to the ground, in search of the right person, while making sure I was clear on what he needed & what his limitations were. If I was unsuccessful, I'd have to re-examine my options, but it was worth a shot. It took time, but we finally met a wonderful person who is exactly right for the Baby Monster. He is living his best life with another TB-lover who adores his ridiculous personality & her older mare, who was going to lose her aged companion, is enamored with this flashy new boy-toy.

I feel so grateful & fortunate to have found a place where I know he will be safe & loved. But this gratitude coexists with the inevitable sadness & my own frustration that my time with Echo ended this way. Apparently, sometimes these foot injuries just don't resolve cleanly no matter what you do & it's difficult to predict when that will be the case. I'm sure his physiology didn't necessarily do him a favor & I learned that I won't buy a small-footed horse again -- sometimes they do fine, but not this time. It's just a bit gutting after working so hard.

It is possible that eventually, Echo's body will find a new equilibrium & heal or compensate successfully. I hope that's the case for him, but even if it isn't, his new mom will still take great care of him. If he does come riding sound, she got the horse bargain of a lifetime. I had intended to sell him anyway once I'd realized he wasn't quite the right fit for me. I certainly learned that one should immediately sell a horse upon discovering this & not wait for them to hurt themselves & lose all value. Hindsight...

I do get some consolation in knowing that I improved Echo substantially. I taught him to be a good farm horse, so you can throw blankets on him, handle him easily, do weird human things around him. He definitely has a lot more skills under saddle. His body condition finally blossomed - he grew to be a lovely horse, filling out his body, with a shiny, dapple-y coat, & I was finally able to reduce his feed a bit from "infinite." I worked out the huge, deep knots in his hips & got his SI back where it belonged. His back feet looked pretty darn good & even his mismatched fronts were vastly better than where they started. All that took a very long time, but it's not nothing.

Looking damn good this past June

Now it's time to try & look forward. It's hard to do in my demographic of "fiscally challenged," but I'm keeping my ears open for a cheap, kind (sound, with proper feet!) gelding who is probably green but is looking for a good life. Solo has the temporary company of our borrowed neighbour gelding, Gabe, but I know he will be happy when he can be the boss again. I'm trying not to get too frustrated with the crazy horse market right now, telling my stir-crazy brain to try & be patient while I find the project it desperately needs.

Life would be easier if I could just care about something like knitting. Doesn't make nearly as interesting stories though...

A Different Perspective On Mouthy Horses

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 02:17:00 +0000

Since everything here is soup -- well, after 22F last night, it is chunky soup -- thanks to what I will generously call "excessive precipitation," I have taken to poking around for mental entertainment in places I don't usually look. In the context of this blog, that means YouTube videos about horse handling. In general, I don't personally find video to be an effective way for me to absorb information. I prefer to either read or talk to a human in person; I also often find videos tedious, as I get fidgety waiting for people to get to the point.

Yes, for those of you who know me, I recognize the irony, in that I myself am incapable of getting directly to a point, however, I have not yet discovered a way for me to escape from myself, so we'll just accept that dissonance & move on, shall we?

Farm soup

I have made a pleasant discovery though, an exception to the norm; namely, Warwick Schiller's channel. I know this is old news to many of you, but I like to stay true to my style of being either wayyyyy ahead of the curve or astonishingly far behind it. Someone has to keep that bell graph interesting. For the uninitiated, Schiller & his wife are both high-level reiners & have also created an enormous amount of educational material about handling & training horses.

I'm going to try to avoid too much background discussion for the sake of relative brevity, I will just say that I do approach any trainer (or really, human) with a healthy of dose of skepticism while I explore whether they pass the sniff test: are they ethical? Do they do their research? Are they compassionate? Are they willing to admit & learn from mistakes? Are they just another marketer who wants my imaginary money?

In that light, things I am liking about Schiller:

He doesn't try to sell me any special crap in his videos. He talks about his preferences, but treats a viewer like a responsible adult who can do whatever they want with that information. THANK YOU!
His default approach to both horses & humans appears to be kindness, listening, & empathy.
He openly discusses how his approaches have changed over time as he has learned & made mistakes. I have a huge amount of respect for people who are intellectually honest enough & brave enough to own that they are imperfect humans & are learning along the way like the rest of us. I think this is something that is a win in just about any situation in life.
He talks about the importance of looking within himself & working on his own issues as an integral part of improving his interactions with other creatures.

We all have issues...

These points show me a person who puts a lot of thought into what they do & who also remains open to learning new things, which are both important to me. And someone who embraces listening & empathy is exactly the type of person I want to hear more from.

Hot Topic

One topic in particular caught my eye like a flashing red light in the dark: dealing with the mouthy horse. As I have mentioned on here, Echo takes this role to a level I have never before encountered. He seems to process the entire world with his mouth, nosing, licking, chewing, eating, sucking, & snuffling his way through everything he encounters. I have successfully explained to him what the boundaries are (no teeth on the human) but he remains incredibly "mouth-curious."

I am intrigued by Schiller's unique approach. You can watch a video here (there are multiples on this topic). In essence, he states that this is generally just a horse who wants to engage with you, which I agree with. His response is what is completely new to me. He recommends that instead of discouraging, to go ahead & rub & handle the horse's muzzle whenever it reaches out to you. The videos explain what the parameters for safety are (keep an eye on space, watch your fingers, etc). This makes it a positive conversation:

Horse: "Hi, person, who are you? I am me. Would you like to be friends?"

Human: "Hi, horse. I am also me. I see you & reciprocate your recognition. I am friendly & a source of pleasant things."

Horse: "Yay! This makes me feel safe & relaxed."

Human: "Everybody wins."

Do you see how that conversation is different than if we respond to the horse's initial greeting by rebuffing their gesture, saying, "I am not interested in recognizing you." That's like when you go to shake someone's hand (in the Before Times) but they leave you hanging & then you awkwardly try to cover it up & spend the rest of the day worrying about it (No? Just me?). Not a great feeling for anyone.

How Echo meets the world...

What should happen with the muzzle rubbing is that, as the horse recognizes that you are listening to him & you offer a positive experience, he expresses signs of relaxation: licking lips, chewing motions, yawns, & sighs. As we know, these are metaphorical clinks of coins being deposited in your "relationship equity" bank, which is the place where you store the trust & connection you need to carry your partnership through challenges in the future.

Trying It Out

So I am going to experiment with this with Echo. According to Schiller, he has seen dramatic cessations of mouthy behaviour when he does this every day. Like anything else, it takes time, but it's easy to do & it doesn't cost me anything. It makes intellectual sense to me: I don't want to punish a horse just because he experiences the world differently than I do & has a different way of interacting with it. I get very angry when humans do that to other humans, why would I do that to my horse?

And it's also obvious to me that for Echo, he is looking for something that remains unsatisfied. I have handled him "normally" for several years now, so apparently that alone has not answered his need. I tried out the new approach this morning, after he finished his breakfast, during which he'd gotten a little high-headed & snorty, suspicious of a flake of hay blowing in the wind. He was, naturally, thrilled that I finally agreed to fully respond to the nose touching. And lo & behold, within a few minutes, he started licking & chewing. In a few more minutes, we got some big yawns & contented sighs. After about five minutes, he wandered off with his head down, completely relaxed, to eat his hay. Fascinating.

It's not that his mouthiness is causing any unsafe situations, nor am I trying to change who he is. I don't know for certain if it comes from tension or not. But if I entertain the hypothetical, like a good scientist must - what if he IS expressing some latent anxiety or other form of mental unrest by compulsively grabbing every lead rope, rein, fence wire, tree, or other object he can nab at every possible opportunity? Why WOULDN'T I take the chance to possibly release that tension & allow him to discover a little more mental peace?

Cuddles should never have a limit

If it doesn't work, I have lost nothing -- it won't make him worse, I will still be clear with him about the boundaries, & time spent interacting with your horse is never a bad thing. Echo lives in my yard & I have nowhere else to go, so rubbing my horse's nose for a few minutes every day is not going to unduly disrupt any schedules. I don't have to take off my nice warm gloves. I even get a little giggle, because I have the mental image of a horse laying on a therapy couch, being asked, "Awww, did your mommy not rub your nose enough when you were a foal?"

We shall see...

Yes, that mental image

Mortal Sin

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:10:00 +0000

What, you may wonder, constitutes a mortal sin on Flying Solo Farm?

Well, pretty much at the top of this list is: hurting The Solo.

And that is the sin that Echo committed on Saturday

What Happened

We were out on our usual weekend trail ride, ponying Echo alongside. Echo has gotten particularly feral the last couple times we have gone out & it seems like he just has more energy than he can contain. He spends the whole time trying to entice Solo to play with him, which consists of air-nipping (at least I can successfully enforce with the crop that the teeth are not to make contact), prancing, plunging, head-shaking, & firing out back feet like pistons, which he uses as a relief valve for Obnoxious Teenager Kinetic Force.

Echo likes to play the "look, I'm not biting" game

All at once, I simultaneously heard an impact & felt a reactive force through Solo's body. Echo, however unintentionally, had caught Solo's right hind leg with a flying hoof.

My first instinct was to leap off & beat Echo within an inch of his life.

I did actually leap off, but had to attend first to the higher priority: Solo.

He was holding up his leg, but remaining still with his trademark patient stoicism. I didn't know where exactly Echo had connected. I saw no broken skin or missing hair, so I felt around to see if I could detect anything obviously awry, my heart pounding with fears of fractures.

I couldn't elicit any fresh reaction from Solo after some fairly through exploration, which gave me a little hope, & everything felt solid, with no resistance to any plane of motion in any joints. He continued to hold his leg in the air, but that was to be expected after being nailed by The Monster. Naturally, we were at the farthest point from home (NATURALLY!).

We were going to have to walk back, after I gave Solo a few minutes to let the sting wear off. I was at least boundlessly grateful that Echo is barefoot behind, otherwise that may well have been the end of my best friend. And if you kill Solo, well, that is something I cannot forgive.

We slowly began to work our way home & I was even more relieved to see Solo quickly improve as he "walked it off." He was still limping, of course, but had pretty normal range of motion, no toe dragging, no other deviations in gait that might suggest some horrible mechanical failure. At the same time, I know he is The Most Stoic Horse Ever, so even limping means its hurts a whole damn lot.

Recovery

By the time we got home, I was cautiously optimistic that Solo was not in immediate danger & had lucked out of catastrophe. Nonetheless, I put him on a couple days of bute to ensure he would be comfortable enough to keep moving & get up/down. Since I know he is sensible with himself in the pasture, I was not worried about him doing anything stupid & left him loose to practice a horse's best healing therapy: motion.

Gratuitous Solo pic

I didn't hose or ice him only because he never developed any heat or swelling, so I didn't know where to direct it. And if there is no inflammation to cool, all you are doing is wasting a finite resource (i.e. water).

I am glad to report that as of today, he appears to be fine, just like the tough bugger he has always been (at least ONE of my horses is). I took him off the bute Monday to see how he felt & he cantered up for dinner that night. I haven't seen any wonky steps in a couple days & he is laying down for his lunchtime naps. My best guess is that Echo hit the front of his cannon bone, better at least than hitting a joint.

Echo is being prescribed some remedial groundwork. Once I get over the urge to commit enraged equicide. Yes, I intellectually know it was not intentional, that horse doesn't have a mean cell in his body, he is just a big, incredibly obnoxious child. He has at least taught me that I am not really a big fan of obnoxious horses.

I will then have to bridge that groundwork to the ponying work, which I'm still thinking on. Suggestions welcome. I will also no longer pony without putting my thickest polo wraps on Solo - this probably seems obvious in retrospect, it just never occurred to me. Encore was so easy to pony, but then, he had a 4 year racing career to get the hell over things & choose an easier path in life, whereas Echo had a 4 RACE career & "easier" generally loses out to "more entertaining."

I'm still keeping a close eye on Stoic Solo in case anything crops up, it's hard to let go of worry, but so far he has said he is my Timex horse: takes a licking & keeps on ticking*.

*If you are not old enough to understand that reference, you don't have to make me feel geriatric by telling me, heh.

Unbridled, Now With Less Drama

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 01:05:00 +0000

I think most of us have an idea of a horse who is pleasant to work with: he stands when tied, he picks up his feet when asked, he takes a bridle politely, he stands by the mounting block when we get on. By themselves, these are small things that you might not think about much...until one of them is a problem.

News-flash-that-is-hopefully-not-a-news-flash: horses are not born with manners. Someone has to install them & if they are to be successful, that installation needs to be done in a thoughtful way that makes sense to the horse. It's not rocket science though & there (usually) is not an age limit for the horse; if there is a habit or a skill you want to improve, it just takes doing.

When Echo came to me, he had some basic horse skills since he had successfully (although the word "success" is relative here, ha) made it to the finish line of a few races without killing anyone (that I know of) or himself. But he was still just a long 3 year old - a short life & a niche career hadn't yet given him a chance to develop much polish on that skillset.

One of the things I quickly discovered was a habit to jerk his head up & back when I took the bridle off. Being a sensitive creature, he was pre-emptively reactive to any bit-clanging on his teeth. Which, looking back now that I know him better, is rather amusing considering one of his favourite games is to clang or rub his teeth on metal because the noise entertains him. Goofball.

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Aside from the head-jerking being annoying, I also didn't want to get whacked in the face by horse, x-ties, or other bits flying about. And Echo was just creating a negative cycle for himself because even if the bit wasn't going to knock his teeth, he ensured it did by flinging his head around.

Since I didn't have prior experience with this issue, I had to ponder for a bit as to how to best convey to him that less drama would make everyone happier. It's physically impossible for a human to hold a horse's head in place, even if I didn't already know that force solves nothing in horse-world. Punishing or scolding him after or even during the head-fling also wouldn't work -- it would just pile on another reaction to the scold, escalating instead of quieting the situation.

I opted for a similar approach to the one I use under saddle: don't complete the task unless it is done correctly. Once it IS done correctly, BE DONE as that is the release & reward -- don't drill it, especially not with a smart horse who hates drilling.

Breaking It Down

I had previously taught Echo to lower his head in response to a finger or two pressure on his poll, as part of the basic yields & also to make bridling easier - he is tall with a long neck. Step one was already done.

Time to take off the bridle. I undo the straps & ask him to lower his head, which also taps into the natural equine relationship between head going down & relaxing. Standing on the left side of his head, I wrap my right arm under his throatlatch & put my right hand on his poll gently, as a reminder for where I want his head.

Keeping my own breathing easy & steady, when I have his attention, I give him a soft verbal command of "easy" (I'm creating a routine with a trigger here) & slowly ease the crownpiece off his ears with my left hand. If he starts to lift his head, I will stop the bridle where it is & with my right hand, ask his head to come back down & relax. I will try to let him drop the bit on his own & match that with the motion of the bridle to minimize any tooth-bit collisions.

At least putting on the bridle is easy

Echo being Echo, at first he would often get distracted or in a hurry & just pop his head up anyway, catching the bit on his teeth & flipping his nose to fling it out. No problem, I didn't react except I calmly said "nope" & IMMEDIATELY put the bridle back on to start over. No scolding, no rushing, just rinse, reboot.

This is yet another horse task that you have to give as much time as it takes & make sure you don't start it unless you have time to finish it. And it's important to be consistent EVERY TIME -- don't skip correcting the behaviour you don't want one day because you're in a hurry or else you'll just erase your own progress. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it or make it A Thing, I just wanted to clearly "explain" to Echo the correct way to exit a bridle, the way that does not involve injury to the Bringer Of Foods (which should be every horse's top priority!).

It didn't take him long. The first time, I had to put the bridle back on twice. The third removal wasn't perfect, but it was 90% improved & reading my horse told me that pushing him further during that session would cross his frustration line. On the other side of that line, there is very little learning or retention. Time to take progress & build on it later.

After that, I usually only had to put the bridle back on once before he would let me remove it without flinging his nose around. I could tell by watching him that he was starting to understand & within a month or so, I rarely had any do-overs. I still, to this day, put my right hand on his poll & say "easy" when I'm going to take the bridle off, to collect his busy brain cells & remind him of the routine. He notices the cue & we are now able to exit the bridle fling-free.

Did I mention...goofball

Belly-cosity: Dealing With Troubled Tummies

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Sun, 17 Jan 2021 19:40:00 +0000

About a week ago, I went out around 11 pm to give the guys their "midnight snack," a winter routine where I take them warm soaked alfalfa pellets to provide some comfort food when there isn't much grass to nibble on overnight. As per usual, Solo met me in the shed with a nicker, well-knowing what it means when I come out the back door in the dark, & I waited for Echo to wander in, as he is generally off amusing himself in a farther corner.

He was slower than usual & when he did step into the light of the shed, I noticed that his general attitude was a bit off. He didn't come all the way up to the front of his spot & he stood with his head down, pawing at the floor, which was also unusual - I watched him more closely. As Solo dug in to his mush with relish, Echo stated he had no interest in his treat. Then I noticed he was panting beneath his sheet & I was fairly certain of my answer at that point: he was feeling colicky.

Some random pics of when he's feeling better

My Colic Protocol

The first thing I do in response to any equine condition aberration is run through a quick timeline of (a) when things changed and (b) what the possible variables are. In this case:

Echo had cleaned up his entire dinner at a normal rate about six hours earlier, appearing bright-eyed & bushy-tailed at that time.
He had not yet finished his hay in his net from dinner. This isn't necessarily unusual by itself, but he had left a bit more than I would expect.
I had seen him take several good drinks with dinner & he is generally an enthusiastic drinker, so I didn't yet fear dehydration.
After putting him on x-ties, I walked his paddock with a flashlight & found some pretty fresh poo that looked normal. Returning to shed, I saw he had also pooped in x-ties & that looked normal, so I didn't have immediate impaction concerns.

I took his temperature to confirm it was normal. In a rare lapse, I didn't have my phone on me to time things (I like to keep it on me primarily for equine response needs), so I couldn't take a true pulse, but I was familiar enough with his baseline that I could tell it wasn't terrible, maybe just a tiny bit elevated.

Normally, at this point, I call the vet to have him on the radar. Here, I made an exceedingly rare exception, based on my past experience & knowing the horse. I have a very long-standing relationship with Dr. Bob, so I was 100% (another exceedingly rare thing for scientist me, heh) certain of what he would tell me to do. Presented with a horse showing obvious signs of intestinal discomfort -- poor Echo looked EXACTLY like I feel when I have eaten something that has gone horribly wrong -- with no other signs of infection, with poop functioning normally, not dehydrated, not sweating, not rolling around, he would tell me to give bute to ease the belly cramps & monitor.

So I had our phone call in my head as I made up a syringe of bute. I've learned you can't get a horse who doesn't want food to eat it, so I put the powdered bute in a dosing syringe, mix it with water, & squirt it in their mouth. You could also use applesauce to make the horse happier, I just didn't have any.

At that point, it was time to just wait, there was nothing else to be done. The least stressful thing I could do for him was leave him be in the quiet night, where he could hang out with Solo & let the painkillers do their thing.

Waiting

It's always a long stretch, staring at your bedroom ceiling, turning things over in your head while your brain imagines all kinds of nightmarish scenarios. All I could do was just repeat to brain that we covered all the bases & patience was the only option. I did send an email to vet, so they would see it first thing in the morning -- because of course this was a Thursday night before an ice storm, so if I did need any kind of service the next day, I wanted them to have the info.

As soon as it was light out, I went back out to check on Echo & found that logical brain was validated & emotional brain was once again vanquished -- Baby Monster was back to his normal, obnoxious self, clamoring for breakfast by chewing on anything that I didn't want him to chew on. To be safe, I gave him only a reduced ration, made into soup with lots of water. I kept an eye on him through the day, but he was fine, the passing cramps having thankfully gone away.

I'm not sure what triggered this incident; there was a big weather change, but both horses are generally pretty stable digestively with that sort of thing. I did use a different cut of hay, I'd gotten a few bales to fill a gap while waiting for a new delivery, & while it didn't bother Solo, it's certainly possible that something irritated the more sensitive Echo. But it's hard to say.

Being Ready

It's pretty inevitable for any horse to have some colicky episodes; even Solo, my Iron Horse, has had a crampy instance or two. Many of these will be relatively mild, but as we know, they can go unpredictably awry for innumerable reasons & this can happen with even the very best of care. While there are never any guarantees, because horses, you can try to stack the deck for yourself by:

Learn your horse's routine -- how does he approach his food, what is his energy level, what is his normal expression? This can help you catch things early, although I recognize that it's trickier if you are boarding, but you can still build a good staff relationship to help monitor these things.
Familiarize yourself with his baseline vitals: temp, pulse, respiration rate. Learn the normal colour of his gums, his normal capillary refill time, & his normal water intake.
Talk with your vet in a non-stressful time to outline an appropriate general response plan that's right for you. This is the time to ask questions about when your vet would like you to call them, data they would like you to have ready when you do call, supplies you should have on hand, & any other steps they would like to you to take.

Normal equine values from Horse Side Vet Guide

Hopefully, you won't have to use this plan, but if you do, I've found it improves my ability to mentally & emotionally manage the situation if I have a checklist & some sort of decision tree thought out beforehand. Are there any other tips you would add?

To Build A Fire

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 17:58:00 +0000

Since there seems to be a widespread desire for projects one can do at home, I thought I'd share a recent one of mine. Perhaps not directly horse-related, but I can enjoy it while looking at my horses so I say that counts.

I have some things on the farm that can use burning: fallen branches, old rotten pallets. A co-worker recently inspired me when she told me she'd built a fire pit in her backyard & I thought, "Well, that would make said burning much more enjoyable!" So here is my step-by-step guide to create your own safe, easy, cheap fire pit & enjoy the crackling warmth of a cozy-marshmallow roast at home.

My pit o' fire holding

SAFETY FIRST (duh, y'all know me): choose your spot carefully! Check your local rules for your property, which may have specific guidelines for outdoor fires. If there aren't any, you should be at least 25' from any structures & do not place your fire underneath trees. Get to know your prevailing wind patterns, if you don't already & think about where sparks may be carried (this also will inform where you want to sit). I used to be a wildland firefighter, so I spent a couple of weeks evaluating different spots on the farm & thinking about fire & wind behaviour.

Working a prescribed burn on a federal wildlife refuge

I perused the interwebz for design & materials ideas & decided to go with simple hardware store pavers, some of which I already had. I used 12" square flat blocks for the base & textured retaining wall blocks for the sides.

I very cleverly decided to employ tractor bucket to carry the blocks for me so I didn't have to make a bunch of trips (it's been raining a lot & I didn't really want to make ruts driving the truck all over).

Reason #457 longbed truck is awesome

And then once I got all the blocks unloaded in my desired spot, naturally, I promptly changed my mind about where I wanted it. But I didn't feel like getting tractor back out, so I just carried them all by hand anyway. Net effort saved = 0. Because this is how I roll. Apparently.

I weedeated the grass down as short as possible. I did not want the ground to be level, so it would drain, so I did minimal raking. Then I set the 12" pavers for the base in the center. I left a small gap between these pavers for sand, which will help prevent them from shifting & provide a barrier between fire & ground. I ended up changing the arrangement after the initial picture to make them fit inside the circle.

The most thrilling photo ever

Next, the retaining blocks went in a circle for the walls. Plan on plenty of fiddling in this step. My ring is approximately 36" wide. I just set the blocks on top of each other, with the 2nd layer set slightly to the inside because they have a lip on them. I did not use any mortar or anything because that would cost more money & take longer. It's not like concrete blocks are going to blow away. I filled in the gaps around the edges with rocks that I collect in my pastures & pile around fenceposts for later use.

Other people cut square pavers to fill the gaps, I felt that was too much work

Final step: add a bag of paver sand. I dumped the whole bag in there & started with my hands, rubbing it back & forth over the seams to push it into the gaps. I followed up with a broom, sweeping back & forth again to allow the fine silica sand to pack in & then pushed the rest to the edges.

All done!

And that's it! In another "of course, because it's a Me project" feature, I ran out of wall pavers, so I have a, uh, "handicap accessible" gap in case I have any visitors less than 8" tall. I originally was going to pick up another block at the store to fill this, but for now, I am finding this is kind of a useful spot to lean over & start/tend to fire, making it a little easier on my arthritic back.

So far, I have made two smokey fires, because everything is saturated & it's raining again today. But it worked REALLY well & provides nice peace of mind that everything is contained by blocks. After a fire, I do spread out the coals on the base before I go in the house so it will cool faster (doesn't take so long in Dec) & I go back & check them when I give the horses their late night snack.

Delicious & delightful

The whole thing took me maybe 2 hours and was less than $70. Since I have to burn some things anyway, having this safe spot to do it is definitely worth that & then some & now I also have a nice activity to enjoy, say, while I watch The Great Planetary Conjunction (which was pretty neat)!

Rehab With A "Porpoise"

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 01:13:00 +0000

In this case, the porpoise defeated the purpose.

I've been sticking to very light work with Echo as his feets continue to heal, alternating between longeing & walk rides; we're not working every day. Saturday morning was lovely & he was looking pretty comfy in his paddock, so I decided to ride & add a little trot to the mix. Thursday & Friday had been drizzly & overcast, so the ground was soft, making things easier.

It went like this:

Me: Ok, Echo, starting at walk, let's make sure we still remember how to go & turn & stop nicely & in balance.

Echo: Gots it, no problem!

Me: Good boy!! How about leg yields & bending & moving shoulders & HQ separately?

Echo: Simple basics, let me show you how easy they are!

Me: Excellent job!!! I don't really feel any limping either. Let's see how a little trot feels, it doesn't have to be anything big.

Echo: WHOOOOOO-YEAAAAAAH, I'M SO OVER WALKING, HOW 'BOUT LET'S GALLOP! OR LEAP AROUND!?? OR BOTH AT THE SAME TIME!! I'M HEALED, BRING THE NOISSSEE!!!

Me: A little less would be fine...

Oh look, I did get it on camera...

I tried to convince the Baby Monster that bucking like a porpoise was not what the vet had in mind & would no doubt be regretted by the end of the day, but kids never listen.

Lest you are wide-eyed at the thought of having to hang on to an exuberant 6 yr old bronco, I can assure you that Echo's own impression of his wildness far exceeds reality. One of the great things about this horse is that he doesn't have it in him to really be naughty, so while you sit on top of the smoothest mini-bucks I've ever felt, you just...giggle.

Then you say, ok, STOP. And he stops & goes back to walking on a loose rein. Reason #4,957 why a good, safe brain is my top priority in a horse!

Naturally, afterwards, he ripped off one of his front shoes (at least not the broken foot), because Echo...

He just couldn't wait THREE DAYS for farrier appt

The Meanwhile Rides: Part II - Finding My Seat

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 00:18:00 +0000

Next came Hunter -- in his late teens (I think?), this rangy 17 h TB sets a new bar for quirky. I don't have a picture of him right now, but just picture a tall dark bay with solid bone, no white, & a truly noble face. He ended up giving me something very valuable. First, some background...

Hunter is another of TN's personal horses. Most of her horses, Rocky being the exception, come to her because everyone else has given up on them. They have been labeled "unrideable" or are rife with physical issues. TN truly has a gift for these horses, no small part of which is her seemingly endless patience (seriously, I am in awe of this woman's capacity for calm).

I only know bits & pieces of Hunter's story: he did event, has done some dressage. He's a sensitive horse, particularly emotionally. He has definitely had some rough patches in his life. As a result, he had become volatile, which is understandable as I got to know how particular he is. So he carries baggage, which I certainly don't begrudge due to my own familiarity with the concept. You can't put the reins over his head from the front, you probably can't catch him if he doesn't know you, you can't carry a whip around him, & if another horse canters up behind him in the ring, he might tuck his butt & scoot. And as we recently learned, a brand-new, stiff saddle pad is akin to torture & he will be unable to trot & will carry his back somewhere around his navel.

Hunter is Special.

Despite this, he has a deeply kind & patient nature. He likes to be ridden a very specific way, but as long as you don't get aggressive, he will wait for you to figure your shit out. Even if you are a slow monkey like me. Thanks to TN's years of work with him, generally the worst he'll do is give a kick out if he thinks you have used too much spur or asked something unfairly, which I have no problem with. When you do finally sort it out though, he'll give you a nice, respectful contact & a delightful canter.

Some days I feel like this...

As I mentioned, I was looking forward to the opportunity to work on my seat. It's workmanlike, I think, but I know there's a lot of room for improvement. It's something that is difficult for me, in large part because I have facet joint arthritis from about L13-S1, so things stay a little stiff, lopsided, & creaky in my lower back/pelvis region. I never could convince the PT to take up residence in my spare room, sigh.

To get to the point of a story which is in danger of rambling out of control, Hunter showed me how to really sit the canter. Of course, I have long been able to sit ON a canter, but I never felt like I really mastered that supple, following seat which just flows with the saddle inseparably. It really frustrated me for years because I just couldn't put my finger on why I was failing at this. I knew it was one of those things that you have to feel to understand, but I didn't know how to stumble into that feel.

Enter the gift that Hunter held. TN was talking me through our initial ride as I learned what he liked & what he didn't. One of TN's other strengths is a fine-scale eye for body alignment & feel. She had me put Hunter on some 10-15 m canter circles, where he found his cadence & gave me a soft, receptive back to sit on so I could focus on following his motion with my inside hip. And "suddenly," there it was -- my hips were part of his back, with no intermittent gap between ass & saddle, with the two of us completely, finally, moving as one.

I put "suddenly" in quotes, because as I'm sure many of you know, that was actually really hard work. I've had to learn what I call "Hunter Time," which means "Super Slow & Patient" because Hunter does nothing in a hurry & gives nothing away for free. Of course, me being me, I yelled out, "OMG! THIS is what sitting the canter is supposed to feel like!! This is what I've been looking for for YEARS!!!" I figure TN can at least have some free entertainment while she's on crutches.

On that day, it felt like this

I've kept working on this in subsequent Hunter rides whenever he is cooperative (he doesn't always agree that anything which might outpace a snail is necessary nor should he indulge your tiresome human whim to continue at the canter). And I've found that I'm able to carry that feeling, that seat, to other horses now. It's not perfect, but a HUUUUGE leap forward for me & I'm really excited about it.

At present, I can't break it down into words & I don't have any magic analogies for you, I'm really sorry about that. I will keep thinking on it & if I come up with something, it's yours! But I can say this: when you have the opportunity, ride different horses. You never know what gifts they may give you.

To be continued...

The Meanwhile Rides: Part I

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 02:16:00 +0000

I think we can all agree that there is never a good time for your horse to hurt himself. However, throughout the course of Echo's travail, there have definitely been some aspects of timing serendipity.

Normally, spring/summer/fall means lots of work travel for me, chasing wildlife across 1/3 of the state. Which would have exponentially ratcheted up the stress of having to care for him off-property (yes, next-door, but still another place I needed to be). But the pandemic meant drastically less field work due to logistical difficulties & virtually no overnight travel.

It also turned out that Echo wasn't the only one who needed me around. In one of those in-a-flash mishaps that horses excel at, Trainer Neighbour (TN) broke her leg. Luckily, it didn't require a cast, just six weeks of crutches, but that really puts a kink in your ability to feed a boarding facility -- & ride your training & personal horses. I finally got a chance to feel like a Really Useful Neighbour: not only can I give a horse a schooling ride without constant supervision, I can schlep feed buckets around with the best of them & thanks to Echo, I was there every night anyway.

I actually started picking up the occasional ride before TN got hurt. She had a full schedule & needed some help keeping her lesson horse in shape & I needed to not lose all my riding muscles to sadness & atrophy. The bonus for me was that said lesson horse was Rocky: the kind of horse who makes it impossible not to smile.

Only Rocky pic I have - during which he took a nap

Rocky is a 26 yr. old Quarter Horse & reminds me in some ways of Solo

He has a long back & a big spring in his trot.
When you ask him to canter, you can feel him go "yippeee!"
He will attempt to convince you that his butt is only there to hold his tail on.
Nothing makes him happier than a jump (or something he can pretend is a jump...like a puddle)

And just like Solo, he is a kind chestnut with a big heart who will never stop trying for you. He has a sweet, pocket-pony personality & he makes the most adorable treat face you ever saw. Yes, he is a priceless gem.

You might have read "old QH who is the primary lesson horse" & thought, oh, that sounds like a dull ride. You would be completely wrong.

Rocky makes you smile just by being precious when you are near him, but once you start riding, that smile becomes a grin. Because he is wonderfully responsive to light aids & can give you as much forward as you may desire. And since he is 26 & honest, you have the option of letting him do his thing so you can work on yourself.

This allowed me to do things like spending an entire ride focusing on riding turns & bends off my outside aids. Or making tweaks to my position or balance without having to remind the horse to keep going. Or experiment with different corrections to see which gave a better result.

Bc riding Baby Monsters sometimes doesn't include perfect equitation, lol

It also allowed me try different exercises to tune up areas where Rocky tends to get sloppy, like falling out of the canter into a racing pile of forehand or snatching at the bit when asking for halt. Playing with my toolbox & finding new pieces to add.

And of course, this was all re-tuning me, rebuilding lost muscle, & with his trot suspension, kick-starting my core re-development. Which prepared me for the horse we added next -- a horse who actually cares what you do with your seat & just might buck you off if you don't listen, a prospect which both interested me & dismayed me, because seat finesse is what I have the LEAST of. Similar to Solo's belief about his butt, I feel that my HQ only exist to hold my legs on.

How it went comes next...

In Which We All Co-Habitate Once More

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 01:55:00 +0000

That's right, Echo is finally back home!

I decided to go ahead & bring him home this past weekend since we were supposed to get rain this week. He was doing well in his enlarged pen & I didn't want him to backslide if I had to pen him back up just to keep him out of mud. His own paddock here drains very well & doesn't get muddy.

So with the help of the always-fabulous Erica, we marched Gabe, Solo's substitute buddy, back home next door & returned with an (aced, just so I didn't get accidentally trampled in exuberance) Echo.

True to his good nature, he has transitioned back seamlessly to annoying us here instead of next door, ha. It took him about 14 seconds to pounce on Solo's head for some Face Tag (during which Solo looked at me going, oh yeah, now I remember how annoying this kid is...). After which, he returned to his normal pastime of meandering around his paddock & watching the world exist.

Echo in full meander

I'll wait a week before allowing him & Solo to be together again -- Echo has not been able to play with another horse for 4 months, so we didn't want to throw it all at him at once.

I did sit on him once last week, just walking around for a few minutes. It didn't feel great -- his feets are sore from not being on grass & his whole body felt tight. But he seemed to enjoy getting out & doing something, even if he did get bored in about three minutes. I at least know all the buttons I installed are still there. And he behaved completely, which was the most important part. He really tries so hard to be good.

No muscle, but shiny. I wore my vest just in case, but he was uber-chill

Moving forward, I will probably just stick to light work on the longe. It's not really necessary for me to sit on him at this point & it will allow me to watch him. I will just see what he tells me he's up for. Right now, that is essentially walking. But hey, it's walking AT HOME & it's walking WITH NO STALL CLEANING anywhere in the vicinity. Vast improvements...

The End Is Near!

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 00:55:00 +0000

By which I mean...the end of cleaning that bloody stall!

To my relief & no small amount of surprise, Dr. Bob actually got to give us GOOD news on Tuesday: Echo's fracture line is completely healed!!

*pause for strange feeling...is that...dare we...hope?*

We are not completely done. Echo still has some bruising in that area to heal & the lytic area around the toe is still filling in. But now he is a "bruise horse" instead of a "fracture horse," which is somewhat less terrifying for "owner of horse."

The schedule is to let him out on a little larger paddock area (already done with success!) for the next two weeks. If nothing untoward happens during that time, he can then come home & be in his paddock here for two more weeks & wean off the Equioxx, after which he can go back to regular turnout.

First grazing at liberty since July

I can also begin sitting on his sorry butt (well, technically, his sorry back) next week & tack walk him. I'll bring along my friend, Ace, for the first attempt, of course -- I know he will try to be good, but he is holding in four months of PLAY-PLAY-PLAY, even a Very Good Boy can only contain so much.

Dr. Bob had us go ahead & transition out of his "fracture shoe" that farrier had devised, consisting of an extra sturdy draft horse pad, into a medium-soft EquiPak pad (forgot to take a pic of that), to provide a softer cushion for the bruising.

Cut-down draft horse pad

I'm a long way from not holding my breath anymore, but it's a big step forward, so thanks for all the good vibes because they worked!!

The Hits Keep Coming

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 01:12:00 +0000

Poor Echo.

Baby Monster has been on small pen rest since July. His shoulder was making progress, but there was an element to his limp which persisted in a way that nagged at me. I scheduled radiographs with a secret hope that Dr. Bob would tell me I worry too much & everything looked fine.

That's not exactly what happened.

I did, however, get an answer. Echo, at some point (same time as shoulder? Hard to say), fractured his left front coffin bone. No horse owner wants to hear that particular f-word (it prompts even heavier use of the OTHER f-word). I did what I do - research.

Coffin bones are heinously slow to heal (of course), but, as long as the fracture doesn't extend into the joint, the prognosis for full recovery is very good. Echo's fracture does not extend into the joint & that whole joint is very clean. This is good as long as it doesn't change.

He needed to be restricted, though, & I didn't have the setup to do so for 4-6 months or more. Thanks to my very kind neighbor, he is staying next door instead while I once again borrow Gabe, who kept Solo company when I sold Encore.

At least he got a chance to learn about pigs...

This means that every day for the past 4 months, I work, then I walk next door & feed/muck out the Pig Boy, who loves nothing more than to walk in circles in his poop & mince it into a shavings jambalaya. I come home & have just enough energy to check out, which is why it's taken me so long to write this.

Dr. Bob comes tomorrow to do follow up rads & see where we are, if it is healing, if it has spread - given our luck, I give it about 50/50 at this point. Obviously, I am hoping for some good news. I keep giving this horse chances because he really is something else. This 6 y.o. TB has been in this stall/pen for 4 months, only coming out a few times a week for hand grazing. And I can take him out in his regular halter, no chains, no drugs, he is obedient & sensible & as adorable as ever.

One of many chill graze sessions

I had been originally hoping to try & sell him this year -- he is an exceptional horse to handle & ride, but he shows little to no talent or enthusiasm for jumping. He does have, however, an amazing potential for serious dressage, which I have neither the money, the inclination, nor the facility to pursue. But this will all have to wait for him to hopefully finish healing.

In case you are wondering what kind of crappy horse owner doesn't realize their horse has a fractured foot -- there was never any heat, no swelling, no digital pulse. He wasn't terribly lame; it could easily have been an abscess or bruise. So my advice to anyone who has a mild mystery lameness that doesn't sit right with you: do the radiographs sooner rather than later.

We could use some good vibes if you have any to spare.

Taking Action

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 04:10:00 +0000

I generally do not delve into too much social commentary on this horse blog, but we have reached new-yet-old levels of horrifying behaviour & I want to share a few things.

Some things shouldn't have to be said. I'm going to say them anyway.

Judging anyone based on their skin color is wrong.

Classifying someone based on any attributes they can't control is wrong. You are not better than someone else just because they have cells that grow with a different shade than yours. Human behaviour, choices, ethics, & intelligence are not dictated by the colour of the sack that holds their organs together.

Someone else is not less deserving or less worthy or in any way different from you just because they fell out of their mother on a different side of an imaginary line drawn by dead, greedy white men.

Racism, just like sexism, is wrong. Both should be named, called out, & shut down on sight.

White people, of which I am one, don't like to hear it, but the truth is that we are not that special. If you have found success in your life in this country & you are white, at least part of that success is because you didn't have to battle the colour you were born with. Part of your success is absolutely due to pure luck (hint: if you immediately thought 'no', that means the answer is 'yes'). Plenty of other people worked just as hard & harder than you did & wanted it more. What they lacked was the key ingredient of opportunity, aka luck. It's up to us as mature, thoughtful adults to realize that accepting this does not denigrate us, rather it's an important step to recognize both the humanity & the struggle of others.

I could dig into that in extensive detail, but what I want to do instead is talk about how we can move forward. Because it takes ACTION from all of us who did have that luck in the form of parents or other family/connections who could help us out, in the form of access to education, which creates choices, in the form of a job when we were looking for one, in the form of relative safety when we speak up -- change is possible, but to have meaning, it will require force from us to overwhelm the fear & resistance of those in power.

What that action looks like is going to vary based on our individual capabilities & strengths. I don't have money, so in this society, I have little power. Even my vote is crippled since I live in a gerrymandered district. However, I can still effect meaningful change.

When I started working in conservation, I quickly noticed that it is REALLY REALLY white (it's also really, really male, but I won't get into that for now). For much of my career, I've been banging away at that drum & trying to find ways bring more diversity into our conversations, our meetings, & our conferences. Because it's not just about what people look like -- it's about the diversity of life experiences, cultural backgrounds, values, interests-- these are what make our communities & our programs better & that was sorely missing in our agency.

It's been a puzzling problem to tackle, because I knew that at least in the hiring decisions that I had a say in over the last 15 yrs, it was definitely NOT due to discrimination against diverse applicants. We were simply not getting any qualified applicants who weren't white people. And for a long time, we barely even had any that weren't white guys with brown beards who hunted & fished (yeah, sadly, I was a major component of our division diversity for a while). So what were the barriers that prevented people from even getting to our entry level (you can be a technician with an associate's degree from a community college)?

We're a long way from a solution, but I can share some positive things. A few years ago, my statewide professional society started sponsoring bilingual outdoor family events which are geared towards our hispanic communities. This is a small-but-huge step that our agency is part of. I wish I could be more help with those, but alas, we don't seem to have many French-speaking groups in NC.

The big effort though, that I am very excited about, is a result of a grant we were recently awarded from a national program. I am part of a small sub-group of employees who are working on concrete steps to broaden the diversity of our partnerships both internally & externally. There is a solid workplan & momentum that I am thrilled to finally see.

This effort, called Partners For Inclusion, is a 3- pronged approach, recognizing that you need diversity within in order to successfully engage the diversity of constituents. It includes critical elements like creating opportunities all the way down to elementary levels for kids to see people they can relate to & for people to see that natural resources belong & are relevant to everyone & there are so many different ways to enjoy them. It's hard for people to fight for environmental justice if they don't feel included as stakeholders. It's about being better communicators, which includes both reaching out AND listening.

Many need to be coaxed out of their shells...

I mention this for two reasons: one, I wanted to share something positive in this cacophony of violence & soul-wrenching sadness. Two, I want to challenge each of you, if you haven't already, to look around you & identify a niche where you can contribute to opening doors & creating opportunities where they may be lacking. Where you can give a voice to someone unheard, or even better, create a safe space for that voice to flourish. It's easy to shower out words of support on the internet -- I do hope that some of them will cause detractors to at least stop & think, but words will never be enough.

If you can support protestors in any way, that's great, do so. But don't feel helpless if you can't, because there is a great deal of important work, some already in progress, much more that still needs to be done, that lies ahead of us. That work, to ensure people have access to their basic civil rights & an equal opportunity at choosing their own path through life, will take commitment for a long time, from all of us to see it through. Because make no mistake, if someone else's civil rights can be trampled on, that absolutely means yours can be too.

Every society is only as strong as its weakest members & helping someone else does not reduce you. Taking care of each other strengthens us all. Conversely, standing by & letting others fail merely dooms us all to an inevitable tumble into the same abyss.

It's up to us whether to choose to build a bridge instead.

Solo Steps In & Other Updates

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Sat, 23 May 2020 04:23:00 +0000

Thank you again to all who took the time to share compassion & kindness for the loss of our dear friend. I miss Richard very much. I miss bumping into him feeding his horses when I get home from work, when I would stop the truck for a chat. I miss his friendly greeting of, "Hey, girl," always accompanied by his infectious smile. Sometimes I talk to him as I walk around the farm now -- it's not the same without his quiet chuckle, though. There were still so many things I wanted to ask him & stories I wanted to hear.

In the meantime, Echo is working on shoulder healing. Being a horse, he of course does not proceed in a linear, or even understandable fashion. But there is slow progress. And I'm getting pretty good at equine massage.

Ridiculous creature

In between those meantimes, I've been doing short work sessions with Solo. Sometimes longeing, sometimes riding, at all times, a joy. I decided since I don't know how many rides he has left in him (although we never know that for any horse...or human), I didn't want to waste any opportunities. We both love working with each other -- although Solo has distinctly less love for longeing, given his long & complex history with it.

We don't do anything complex -- walking, a bit of trotting, some ground poles, depending on what he is feeling up to (he never fails to tell me). I sneak in a few steps of lateral work or transitions, then quickly look away in case he catches me trying to surprise him with his nemesis, Dressage. Occasionally, he gets excited & takes a few steps of canter. I let him have it because it puts a big, stupid grin on both of our faces, but I bring him back after a few strides so he doesn't make himself too sore.

His bad foot gets tired quickly, so I keep field sessions around 30 minutes or so, although he can walk longer on a trail once Echo can go out again. He's crooked, but I don't pick at him since he's 24 & carrying old injuries. Despite that, he still has his lovely suspension when he lifts into the trot. And I still get to spend a few minutes with my favourite view in the world.

A Different Kind Of Derby

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Fri, 01 May 2020 00:12:00 +0000

In an effort to give us all something to think about that is not tragic or terrifying, I present to you the following:

This weekend is the first Saturday in May, but due to COVID-19, for the first time since 1945, there will be no horses lining up at the post for the Kentucky Derby. There WILL however be a Derby...

...of turtles!

You can read the details here about the Kentucky Turtle Derby, which will even include an official race call by the Triple Crown announcer. It doesn't sound like he has ever called a race this long before. This isn't the first time racing reptiles have stepped in to give us something to cheer for: the Turtle Derby emerged the same year, 1945, of the last equine Derby cancellation.

I will definitely be tuning to see the athletic prowess of delightfully named animals including Seattle Slow & Sir Hides A Bunch. Thank you to whoever is organizing this, I, for one, sorely need a little levity.

It'd be even funnier if they actually ran like this...

Take Care Of The Caretakers

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 23:54:00 +0000

Thank you to all of you who took a moment to leave a comment or send a message - each means a great deal. Our community, our world, has indeed suffered a great loss & it feels just that much dimmer without Richard in it. While I am grateful that he didn't meet his end with this damn virus, in a hospital, attached to a ventilator, as I so worried, I would really rather he still be here to sit down & share a stale Oatmeal Creme Pie from his tack room stash.

I learned last week that Richard was only 70 -- which sounds old if you are 25, but not after you pass 40, as I have. Until about a year ago, I felt certain that he would be one of those sturdy farmers who keeps working until they hit triple digits. But then his wife became very ill (she still is) & Richard became a caretaker.

I don't think the situation of caretakers for the gravely ill gets talked about enough. As I learned from personal experience, in some ways, it's even harder to be the "helper" than it is to be the sick person. There are few to zero support services for caretakers & in many cases, people who are doing this work for someone they love are doing it in addition to their regular job/life duties. They dedicate all their own resources, financial, emotional, physical, to supporting their loved one every way they can think of. It is stressful, scary, & most of all, draining.

Because the caretaker is not doing this as a job, they don't get mandated breaks, there is no sick leave, there is no "signing off." Because the caretaker is often driven by the twin engines of love & fear, they will push on into territory they would never have previously entered. When this persists for a long time, as it so often does, the toll can be debilitating or even deadly.

I point all this out to say that if you know someone who is a caretaker, take note that they are at risk too. Stress absolutely exacts a price from our bodies & the caretakers very much require care just as much as their charges do. It's not anyone's fault, except for maybe the larger cultural system which doesn't do enough & that's a bigger problem than I can tackle. But there are things we can do on the individual level to support each other.

If you have the ability to give someone a break for a few hours or a day, do so. Whether that be by helping with tasks or a financial contribution to hire some help, say, a house cleaner. Maybe you can bring food or supplies or run errands if you are going to be out & about. Maybe you can do some chores or take care of some pets. Any of these things can help reduce some of that stress, even if just temporarily, it still counts. And remember to check back in a few days & next week & next month & the time after that.

If you ARE a caretaker, you are probably both tired & stubborn -- I hear you & I know that condition all too well. Please hear me -- let others help you. Ask for help. It's not an imposition, we will all need help at one time or another. It doesn't mean you are weak or incapable. It's ok to be helped.

None of us can fix everything or save everyone. We can, however, by doing things that seem small & every-day, make a big difference in tough parts of someone else's life. Maybe even save a life, but at the very least, add a bright spot where it is sorely needed. Taking care of our caretakers is a win for everyone -- the world needs all the generous, compassionate people it can get.

And because this a horse blog that is about horse things -- I found a photo of Big Boy & Richard, both doing what they loved most, & I hope his family won't mind that I borrowed it from his obituary:

Unexpected Loss

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 03:18:00 +0000

Saturday night, we unexpectedly lost a treasured human friend. I still can't wrap myself around the size of the hole he has left in our lives.

I don't know exactly how old he was. Maybe in his 70s, but up until a couple of years ago, he was strong, active, & capable of working harder than I was. The past couple years though, he has been taking care of his wife, who has terminal cancer, which has dragged on far longer than anyone expected. I can testify that the exhaustion & stress of watching cancer eat alive the person that you love is a deadly threat. And so it was - Richard collapsed of a massive heart attack & a relative found him in his home Sunday morning.

"Heartbroken" does even begin to describe how I feel.

The first time I met Richard was when I came out to look at this property in 2013. He was selling his back pastures, so he was also looking for a good neighbour. As he carried me back through his fields in his utility vehicle, his soft-spoken kindness & gentle humour immediately put me at ease. I fell in love with the parcel which became Flying Solo Farm, but part of that was due to added feature of having Richard next door. For two people from two very different generations, we had a whole lot in common.

We both loved horses; Richard with Buddy the Appy, last April

FSF sits on the foundation he created. He bought this parcel as cut-over timberland & transformed it to rolling pastures edged with mature oaks, pines, & sweetgums. He built the fences by hand, hung the gates, established the forage that my horses use today. He could have made more money selling this property to someone else but that was never what Richard was about.

I never could have built this place without him. He used his enormous tractor to bushhog over-grown fields for me. He moved & re-drove fenceposts so I could make new gates & he built the entrance road. He taught me how to repair & adjust the hi-tensile fence so it stayed safe for horses. He helped me improve my tractor bucket skills & pitched in to any project that was too big for my equipment.

2016: Fixing my driveway culvert

What defined Richard, though, was his generosity. He owned every tool known to man & offered any of them to me. It didn't matter how busy he was, if I needed a hand with something, he was there for however long it took. And it was the same for any other person he met -- he lived to help others, no matter who they were.

As is common with those of generous spirit, Richard also had a deep & open love for animals. His quiet, gentle way with them endeared him to dogs & horses with the same effect he had on people. Broken hearts with darkened pasts found a balm for all the sharp edges that life cut into them. He was a quiet port in which to rest, safe for a moment from battering seas. It was his gift to abused equines. It was also his gift to me.

Richard loved horses above all. An avid trail rider, he showed me the vast network of trails across neighbouring properties that he'd strung together over the years & kept maintained. Although he had a weakness for a flashy paint, his favourite horse, his Solo, was an old-school, plain bay TWH named Big Boy. A big-moving, big-headed mahogany gelding overflowing with energy, the two of them used to do 15-20 miles a day the first few years I lived here.

I can't find any Big Boy photos, so here is Nobody, another of Richard's TWH & this was Richard's contact photo in my phone

Big Boy died suddenly last fall -- he was found dead in his pasture, not a mark on him, no sign of a struggle. He was somewhere in his 20s & retired & we suspected his heart just gave out. Richard buried him where he found him, on top of a hill looking over the fields where he had lived out a good life. It's a little eerie looking back now, that they both went the same way.

There's so many more good things I could tell you about Richard. He was well-loved in this community & you'd be hard-pressed to find a person he hadn't helped. He & his wife both grew up here in this small-town county & were related to everyone by blood or marriage. He went far too soon & I know I'm not the only person missing him terribly.

2014: Driving anchor holes for my first hayshed w/ 100 HP behemoth

One of the things he was most looking forward to was eventually getting back to riding. He hadn't been able to do much of anything due to his wife's health needs & he always put her first. I worried so much that he wouldn't survive the stress, because I knew what a similar situation had done to me. My deepest sorrow for him was that he didn't make it to that goal. He missed riding so much & he never stopped cleaning his tack in hopes that he would get to use it again.

One day last summer, I did manage to coax him out on a brief ride in May, his first in two years. I didn't know then it would be his last ride, but it makes me doubly glad I did. It was a beautiful day, with summer sun dappling through the leaves & he kept telling me over & over how good it felt just to sit on a horse. I couldn't stop smiling watching him.

That ride: Richard & Smokey, me & Buddy

I've spent the last few days aimlessly wandering the farm & sitting on the porch, alternately weeping & cursing the unfair universe. I miss my dear friend, I miss his gentle teasing, I miss his unintelligable phone calls of southern-mumble-quiet-drawl where I had to guess at every other word. I miss his looking out for me: if we didn't cross paths in his yard (my driveway goes through his farm) & he hadn't heard from me in a while, he'd randomly come back to the house & knock on my door just to see if I was ok & have a chat.

Most of all, I miss one of the biggest hearts & kindest, most generous natures I have ever known. I owe him so much - I tried to repay him via barter whenever I could, grooming his horses when he couldn't get to it, fixing small things for him, mowing a fenceline while I was on the tractor -- but he was so dang capable, I felt like I could never keep up.

2015: Plowing my driveway with his skidsteer (part of this amusing story)

I will forever be grateful to him for this farm, which has become my quiet sanctuary, although it will never be the same without his ready smile. I will try to do what I know he would tell me to do: enjoy the land, enjoy the horses whenever & however I get a chance, & enjoy quiet walks on pretty days.

I would ask this of you, readers, in honor of Richard: look for opportunities for a small (or large) good deed, which can be as simple as checking in on someone who is on their own. Don't wait to be asked - kindness unbidden is always a welcome gift & it is one that I will try to give more often because I know what it meant when given to me.

For Richard: I don't think anything magical happens when we die & I don't think you did either. Nonetheless, I choose to think of you meeting Big Boy on the other side, where you calm his anxious energy with a touch just like you did in life. May the two of you step out together on the trail that never ends, free of the aches & worries that piled up behind you, with not a single fly in sight. There will always be a part of you here on Flying Solo Farm & I will try my best to do it justice, even though I can never do it as well as you. I will never forget all that you did for me & I will miss you always.

Farewell, my very dear friend. Ride free.

Echo's Vet Update

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 18:44:00 +0000

Before I dive into the latest installment of Echo's vet addiction, I do want to send out my best to all of you. I went back & forth, but decided that I wasn't going to write much, if anything, about The Virus -- it was already all the words on all the channels & I didn't think I had anything meaningful to add to all that noise. The best any of us can do at present is to follow reputable safety protocols to the best of our ability & for your own sanity, turn off the news & the facebook (if you even watch it, I do not anyway as I don't need to add to my sources of anger).

We are fine (at least as much as we ever are) here -- my job is secure & I can do much of my office work remotely to the extent that my limited rural internet access allows. Our field work is reduced, but we will still be working on mission-critical projects; there is plenty of room for social distancing in the river though. I generally don't go many places outside of work anyway; I hate grocery shopping so much I only go maybe once a month (basically when there is literally nothing left in the house), & as an introvert, I don't encounter other humans often. I remain grateful to have the horses at home, so not many changes for us. I definitely feel for all of you who can't see your horses right now & am hoping that ends as soon as possible!

If you are in a position to help others, but are not sure what to do, you can follow this link to a summary page from Charity Navigator of groups which are accepting donations to help with everything from medical supplies to food to financial assistance. Sending even a dollar from your living room is risk-free for you & can make a difference to someone else.

Click to find a reputable charity helping those in need

Turning back to my problem child...

Earlier this week, I took Echo back to the vet, as his shoulder was just...lingering. I had started doing stretches & massage about a week prior to that following a phone consultation with vet. That treatment did bring about some improvement & Echo was moving a bit more freely with a little less limping, but I wasn't comfortable proceeding without a better idea of what exactly we were dealing with.

Also..."Echo's Vet Update" should probably be the new name of this blog.

Turns out he did indeed partially tear his triceps muscle. Good news: that muscle is enormous, covering the entire scapula, so there is plenty of "extra" to do the job it needs to do. Also good news: it will heal without any functional limitations. Also good news: he is at the point in healing where he can start to go back to work as he needs to use it to continue making progress.

Equine shoulder; From horsesidevetguide.com

Less good news: muscles heal slowly & giant muscles heal even slower. It will probably 5-6 months until it is completely healed. He may have a permanent divot to add to his existing scar collection, but at least it won't affect anything.

In the balance, while it's not great, it could be so much worse. At least we can start doing things again, while is a huge relief to us both. I will, as always, be conservative -- I got on a couple days ago & we just did walk work & stepping over poles. Of course, Echo is already happily trotting & cantering around in the pastures on his own. I'll never know exactly what happened -- maybe it was a kick, maybe he just slipped, maybe it was both.

His lump 10 days ago

I did put him back on the Equioxx, carefully, after we finished other meds, & am relieved that he is having no issues with it, so he has that mild anti-inflammatory support as we work through the physical therapy process. He also completed a week of Ulcerguard & his stomach is much happier, so he's back to eating his meals (although still at the slowest....speed.....possible).

Farrier also put the hoof testers on him last week & he had no reactions, so it looks like the coffin bone bruise is healed up too. At least it helps me to gauge lameness without the compounding factor of that foot on the same leg as his shoulder.

I'm sure Echo will find new things to do, but it still felt good to cross at least a couple of the more recent issues off the list. And even though I hate any injury in my horses, it's going to happen one way or another, because horses, so I'm still grateful when it is at least something that will heal, because I've dealt with enough things that won't & that is much worse.

Shaking off gnats while regaining weight, shine, & getting less lumpy every day

Baby steps for Baby Monster, but we will begin re-building that topline once again. It should be easier this time since he has more skills than he did a year ago - some of them are even useful.

Bute Vs. Equioxx: Tradeoffs

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:14:00 +0000

Because it's a good time to learn about things, right?

I recently had the unfortunate but useful opportunity to compare the results of the two most commonly used equine NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs; bute & Equioxx) on the same injury -- Echo's shoulder. There are pros & cons to each. Because I firmly believe in making the most informed decisions possible, let me share with you what I learned.

Background

Heat, pain, & swelling are the result of the body's inflammatory cycle. One of the primary mediators of this cycle is a group of prostaglandins created by cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes, which convert a substance interestingly named arachidonic acid (does it have spiders in it?). There are different varieties in this group, referred to by number: horses have COX-1 & COX-2, while humans have additional variants. NSAIDs aim to break the inflammatory cycle by inhibiting the production of these enzymes, during which the body can break down harmful prostaglandins which have already formed (which takes about 12 hrs).

As you might suspect, COX-1 & COX-2 have different functions. COX-1 plays important roles in things like maintaining stomach mucous coatings, keeping blood flowing through kidneys, & coagulating blood. COX-2 is only found at low levels in normal tissues, but levels surge when that inflammatory process begins & COX-2 feeds that cycle.

A simplified illustration from previcox.com; click to embiggen

Drugs

Bute refers to phenylbutazone, our old friend which has been around for decades. It's cheap & fairly effective for pain management. Given orally, it takes about 2-3 hrs to absorb from the belly & peaks in 3-5 hrs. Persisting about 12 hrs, bute blocks both COX-1 & 2 production.

Equioxx is a brand name of firocoxib, a newer drug that is known in the canine world as Previcox. It was developed for the treatment of osteoarthritis. It's also given orally by owners, but is much slower to take effect. It takes at least 24 hrs for levels to begin to peak & does not reach steady state for 4-6 days. It also has a half-life of 44-46 hrs, so it takes an additional two days minimum to disappear after you stop giving it. Firocoxib is a selective COX-2 inhibitor, which means it preferentially blocks COX-2 but still has a minor effect on COX-1.

Choices & My Observations

It just so happened that I was able to directly compare the two as Echo was on bute for the first week of his shoulder pain, then on Equioxx for a second week. Pros & cons:

Bute Pros:

Much more effective pain control (side note: I've heard the same from others)
Significantly more rapid action - both to start & finish. The latter can be especially important if you need to take a lame horse to the vet the next morning & you need the pain unmasked for an exam.
Relatively cheap
Easy to give -- even picky Solo will usually eat it on his food. If they start refusing it after multiple days, I just dump it in a syringe with a little water & shoot it in their mouth.

Bute Cons:

Blocking both COX-1 & 2 is what brings about the higher incidence of GI issues with bute. This is why I switched to Equioxx, as Echo had already been on bute a lot for his foot bruise & I was beginning to see ulcer signs.

Equioxx Pros:

Primary benefit is its selective COX-2 action: this spares the GI tract some abuse, as well as protecting other COX-1 processes (cartilage maintenance is another one not mentioned above).
Also pretty easy to give as a tablet -- Echo snarfed it up when I put it in my hand with a little grain. I've also heard of people stuffing them in cookies or gumdrops. Just don't let other humans eat the gumdrops. I've also heard of that happening once, LOL.

Equioxx Cons:

I saw significantly less pain control that definitely seemed better suited to something milder like arthritis.
Slow action, both to kick in & withdraw.
Not cheap -- I did find (too late for me) that it was significantly cheaper online than through my vet. Vet also did say that he did the math & it was actually cheaper per hour of pain control than bute was. I believe him, but almost $2 a pill still hurts me.

Related note: Equioxx & Previcox are both firocoxib. Because Previcox can be cheaper, many people use it for their horses & just divide pills themselves. However, be aware, it is now illegal, through the FDA, for a vet to give Previcox for a horse. This is because accurate dosage for firocoxib is important to avoid adverse effects & it's very easy to over- or under-dose when manually dividing dog tablets. This legal change occurred around 2016, when the tablet form of Equioxx became available; here is a good explanation. I'm not going to call the drug police on you, just informing.

One more note: I learned from the Equioxx package insert that all NSAIDs have the potential to also block the prostaglandins which control body temperature. This isn't common, but is something to keep an eye on if something goes awry.

Take Homes

Just like pretty much all of life, there are tradeoffs with each option, but I hope this will help you better understand which might work best for you. I still consider bute my first line tool in acute pain control due to its strength & speed. However, if you need to give an NSAID for a long period of time or are treating a horse who already has ulcers, Equioxx may be a more appropriate choice to protect GI tracts.

If you really want to dig in, here is a really nice paper from the Journal of the American Vet Med Association from 2017 on the COX enzymes & use of selective COX-2 inhibitors.

Disaster Horse Votes No To Boring

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 22:58:00 +0000

Without doubt, we are in tumultuous times. Echo the Disaster Horse did not want to be left out of this & had no interest in my plea to be boring. Not that I thought he actually would.

Right after my last post, he galloped around the pasture like an idiot & re-aggravated whatever he did to his shoulder. Two weeks later, he still has some lingering soreness. Vet says it's possible he bruised a nerve, which will take a little longer to heal. I wish that was our biggest concern.

About 9 days ago, last Sunday morning, Echo was just looking kinda sorry for himself at breakfast. I took his pulse on a whim & it was a bit elevated, so I took his temp & discovered he had a fever of 101.8 F. He was already on Equioxx, so I consulted vet & he said go ahead & give bute if the fever gets higher. At 102.1 F, I went ahead.

The bute did control the fever well & Echo perked up, but then Monday night, I went out to give the horses their midnight snack of alfalfa cubes only to find the poor kid was completely covered in hives. As in, his whole body looked like furry cottage cheese & his neck felt hard as a rock, I have never seen anything like it -- even his butthole had hives on it. He was extremely tolerant of me shoving my shaking hands up his nose to make sure he still had an airway while I dialed the vet emergency line yet again.

Gee, mom, you didn't actually want to sleep ever, did you??

A few doses of dex took care of that & we never did determine exactly what he reacted too. It wasn't fire ants (no bites), he had no changes in food (not even a new bag) -- the best guess is maybe a wasp sting but invisible aliens are equally plausible. At this point, I had no idea what was going on & took him in to the clinic to figure out what the heck to do before I had an aneurysm.

Long story short, blood work came back showing a possible bacterial infection (origin unknown). Even though the fever had quit by Wednesday, vet prescribed a course of SMZs, which we've just finished. In addition, & completely unsurprisingly, he also has some acute ulcers from the on-and-off bute over the last few months for his foot bruise.

Baby Monster, you be killin' me.

I have UlcerGuard on order & will be stalking the tracking number, since Echo is now off his feed & he doesn't have weight to spare. After the last 10 days, I'm off my feed too! Until it gets here, I'm offering him soaked alfalfa cubes & anything else he will pick at -- at least I have grass coming in & he is grazing some.

Alfalfa slurpies

I have been itching to get him back into work, as he has lost all that muscle & weight I put on him last fall & he just does better overall when he is doing SOMEthing. But I don't have the heart to ask him to do anything extra with a sore belly sloshing around, especially when I can't even give him any painkillers. I'm even afraid of the Equioxx now, which will take a whole 'nother post to get into.

I am absolutely grateful they are at home with me right now & that Echo can at least keep himself mobile since they live out. I think Solo is also grateful Baby Monster is wayyyyy less annoying right now. And at least I can keep a close eye on him since I am working from home most of the time right now.

I hope you all are staying safe out there & I hope all your horses stay very very boring!

Update On Disaster Horse

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 17:18:00 +0000

Maybe that should be his new name...

Echo's shoulder has improved some this week. I'm leaning heavily towards it being a kick & have absolutely no doubt that he was asking for it (he basically always is). Reason being, he has shown no protest to me extending the leg & he did a big "downward dog" stretch himself this morning, which I don't think he'd be that in to if he had pulled those muscles.

He still has a lump there, although it's reduced a bit, which I'll continue to SoreNoMore, but plan on tapering back the bute & seeing what happens. He's moving much better, I don't see any more tightness in his walk & he trotted up for his late-night snack last night.

I briefly got on him bareback this morning, just to walk him around & get a feel for things, as that can often give me a lot of information. I didn't feel anything from that bruised foot (granted, he was still on bute, but that doesn't hide everything), which is good, & got no real resistance from the shoulder.

On Thursday, farrier removed the glue-on boots & put him back in the flip flop pads. So far, he's looking pretty comfortable in them, which confirms that his initial discomfort with them last time was in fact that it was a suddenly firm surface under that bruise. He's made enough healing progress now that it no longer bothers him. We did use race nails (thinner/lighter) in the shoes this time, just for cautious bet-hedging.

They're back (altho this weird-angle pic is from the first round)

Thanks to the commenter on that post who gave us a perfectly timed tip: the EasyCare flip flop boots CAN be reused! We pried them off intact with a screwdriver (by the way, the Adhere glue worked perfectly for 5 weeks). The adhesive stayed stuck to the hoof, so the boots came off clean & ready to go if I ever want to use them again. If adhesive does stick to the boot, it can be easily dremel-ed off. This at least made the price slightly less painful -- if you get two cycles out of them, that's $30 a cycle, which is still a bit high, but much closer with other plastic/rubber/polyurethane footwear.

I am happy with the boots' performance overall: they stayed on (always critical), tread still looks good, horse moved normally (you know, for a creature with 3 functional legs). I would definitely add the pour-in material in the toe in the future, as there is just no way to get gunk out of there & there was some moisture trapped in there when we pulled them (we've been in a rainy period). Echo's feet were healthy when they went on, so no harm done, but pad material would help prevent that buildup. Alternatively, you could probably cut out some sole "windows," the way we've done with the pads, because the material is pretty sturdy (caveat, I haven't tried this, but I bet someone has).

Please, Echo, can we just be boring for a while?

Discovering spring grass a couple weeks ago

Unlucky People Shouldn't Own Unlucky Horses

noreply@blogger.com (eventer79) — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 22:58:00 +0000

Echo insists on continuing to demonstrate his talent...for misfortune. Combined with my own terrible luck, I feel like we are stuck on a moebius strip of exasperation.

You know his left front leg, the one with the bruised coffin bone at the end of it? Well, it had been showing some improvement...until yesterday.

I came home from work to find him limping anew. I initially thought we had somehow aggravated the foot on the short, walking trail ride I ponied him along on Sunday. Oh no -- now he has done something to the shoulder ON THE SAME LEG!

I found a big, hard lump just behind his scapula that foamed up white as soon as I put SoreNoMore on it (which can be an indication of elevated temperatures which go along with inflammation/spasm in the muscles, which arnica reacts to). At this point, my hypotheses are either:

Solo kicked him. Which I have absolutely no doubt Echo deserved, so I couldn't even be irritated at Solo. If you get kicked by Solo, it's only after you have ignored countless warnings, which are not subtle. Echo is not one to take warnings seriously if he feels entertained. There wasn't a mark, but Solo is barefoot.
Echo torqued the shoulder playing Wild Rearing Plunging Mustang games. Equally possible.

He didn't react at all when I poked it. I've seen him roll & get up just fine & he's weight-bearing. He had no problem with me lifting the leg, extending it in front of him, rolling the shoulder around in its joint. Which is a little baffling, but at least tells me he didn't break a rib (or anything else) & he didn't dislocate the shoulder.

At least one piece of my tack is getting some use

I'll give him a few days with bute & rest -- oh wait, he was already resting, gahhhh. If he doesn't improve much with that, then I'll call my poor, harassed vet again. I'm cautiously hopeful it looks like nothing too major right now, as the lump had softened when I got home from work today. I put some ice on it this afternoon, although I'm not sure it can penetrate much in an area with so much body mass.

Hopefully he will decide to quit all this nonsense before I forget how to ride a horse. The key to preventing this kind of stuff is strengthening soft tissues through fitness -- which is a little hard to do when you can't work them. That hollow, thumping sound you hear is just my skull hitting the table repeatedly. I'm thinking it would be smarter to trade him in for a pet turtle -- it takes some serious effort to break a turtle.

Can someone just pat my head & possibly pour some libations down my throat??