Todd is Sneaky

Last Sunday I was puttering around doing chores.  Todd was sleeping, I thought.  Turns out he was following me with the camera.  I didn't realize it until I was coming back up to the barn after feeding the girls. 

Hope you enjoy my ensemble.... see I was born to be an endurance rider- with this fashion sense! 

oblivious

Nick plays Pet Cemetary, I'm in the left top corner, dragging the feed cart across the field.

Draol got very excited when she noticed me with the Cart and went galloping around.

Pinky

Aha!  I see you.

Do these 20 year old red sweats make me look fat????

No time to dilly dally, I've got chores to do.



Cleaning out the trailer.



Life with Dog

This just made me laugh, thought it was good to share!  From YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GRSbr0EYYU

OMG It's me as a small child!

Am I grossing you out yet?

I guess a series of posts featuring a hoof wound, could be a little much for the average blog reader...

Sorry, but I just can't help myself, someday I'm going to look back at these pictures and posts and think how glad I am that that experience is over!

A little oozy upon first removing the wrap

cleaned up pretty good and the hole is filling in with tissue! I think the light grey areas surrounding the top are what we're after.

s

I LOVE the Hoof Sock.  Saves me from worrying about a wrap wearing thru and coming open.  It doesn't keep the hoof dry, but definately adds to the life of a wrap.

Cartman is on babysitting duty tonite.

Tonight we are getting our first "storm" of the winter season.  I deliberated all day, checking the internet every few hours and fretting about how cold, wet, or windy it may be.  Certified Girl is going to be 23 years old in 6 weeks and I don't think she handles the cold wet weather as well as she used to. 

Girlie and her sidekick Draol spent the summer at the spa (that's the neighbors farm up on the hill) its about 10 degrees cooler up there and has a lot of shade trees for them to hang out in.  By contrast our large pasture was a hayfield and is flat as a pancake and right about sea level.  In fact half of the field is bordered by a large creek. 

I brought the girls home last Saturday.  Draol cracked me up, she got SO excited when we turned them out on the home turf.  I think since it has been rainy the last few weeks that they were not being too exuberant up on the hill, it was a little slick.  When Draol hit that flat pasture she took off at a full gallop- and galloped, and galloped, and galloped in big circles.  Girlie jogged a few steps and dropped her head to start eating grass, occasionally looking up as Draol blew past.

Back to my fretting.  To blanket or not?  If there was much of a wind break I would not worry about it so much.  The pasture has a large arena but there are no walls, so if it's nasty they can stay out of the rain, but not the wind.

My blanketing dilemma was enhanced by Girlie's incredible coating of mud.  Did I mention she is the ultimate mud roller??  At one point I actually wondered if I could get close enough to her with the shop-vac to get the mud off.  In the end I spent the evening removing the mud from Girlie and covering myself with it instead.

The girls are now back out in their field, sporting their light winter turnouts, and I can rest easy tonite even if I hear the rain slapping in torrents against my bedroom window.

Arena ride

Today I forced myself to load up in the pouring rain and haul into the covered arena at the fairgrounds in Longview. 
I've not ridden C. in an arena like this before but he was really good about it.  We got to see some barrel horses practicing their runs and spent a bit of time just hanging around watching the action.

The last time I rode C. he had done something to his shoulder (Todd saw him slam  into a gate earlier that day) and he was definately "off" in the right front.

Several days later I pulled his shoes, had the chiro out to adjust him ( he was out in that shoulder) and then gave him 2 weeks off.

Today I detected just the slightest bit of a shortened stride on that leg.  C. is somewhat more upright in that front leg, it is the one that he always places underneath him when he grazes or eats off the ground.  I believe one of the speakers at last years Pacific Endurance Riders Association annual convention referred to this as high/low syndrome. 

I think we're going to take things easy for another week or so, just light arena riding.

Another thing has changed in the last few weeks.  Despite wearing a sheet every day and coming into a well lit barn in the evenings C. has grown quite the thick coat (for a TB, that is).  Today he got quite damp with just the littlest bit of work! 

On a good note,  Pinky is doing really well.  Her foot continues to heal up and today she actually attempted a few steps of a trot going from one side of the stall to the other :)  No more hopping!

I will get some weekly pictures on Tue. or Wed. when we do the next wrap change.

Cast is Off!

I took Pink back down to the equine hospital today so that the cast could be removed and a shoe put on.

Dr. H is pretty pleased with the healing that has taken place.  But he did put her on some antibiotics for 10 days as there was a little yellow gooey fluid in the wound and the top of the wound actually had a little blood soaking onto the gauze.  The blood was not there on Monday when I did the last wrap change, so antibiotics are to keep us on track for healing!!

I was wearing my lucky Klickitat Trek sweatshirt (a lucky shirt- or the equivalent- is needed for all hospital visits) and the farrier asked me if I'd ridden it.  I told him that I had two years ago.  Later on as he was forming a custom bar shoe for Pink, I made conversation and asked if he shod a lot of endurance horses.  He said he did a few.  Then added that he had his 1000mile badge! ( I think thats what its called)

I was pretty shocked to run into a farrier that actually rides and owns horses, let alone does endurance!  Small world it ends up the horse shoer is the son of local endurance rider and ride manager Mary Nunn.

So, a big thanks goes out to farrier Calvin Nunn for fitting Pinky with a beautiful custom shoe.  I think she is going to be a lot happier very soon.

Also a HUGE thanks to Columbia Equine Hospital and Dr. Hansen, I am so thankful they are there to help us care for our horses.

It may look gory, but that pink tissue is a good thing.

It starting to "fill in" a bit.

in

I think it looks a lot better with the shoe on for support.

Pink is now safely back in her "grande" stall.  Brother Taj is babysitting this afternoon, and spending a relaxing day inside snacking on Orchard grass with her.

Healing and other stuff

Well last nite was bandage change number three for Pinky.  She has been really  good about everything so far but last nite she was getting a little pissy about things.  It could have been that it was dinner time when I finally got off work, got all the chores done, and did the wrap change.

I tried 4cc of Ace the first time we changed the bandage, and it seemed like 3cc would probably have done the trick, she was pretty relaxed!

Last nite I think she needed the 4cc.  She was using her big old head to try and push Todd out of her way to  get back to dinner.  I did finally get her all wrapped up with Elastikon and the little Gorilla Tape bootie re-installed. 

The wound is looking as good as can be expected at day 11 of a hoof resection, I suppose.  It is starting to fill in with tissue a little, but is still exuding the amber colored fluid.  I called the vet clinic to ask about pain management, as I was wondering when she should start to be less ouchy on that foot. 

They decided to move up her appointment for cast removal to next Wednesday at 10am.  At that point the vet will have a farrier present to shoe her with a bar shoe.  I took the day off work to take her down there and have plenty of time, unhurried for once!

Cartman had his shoes pulled Thursday.  He has been in shoes with pad for about 18 months now, so I was a bit worried that he'd have some significant hoof tenderness.  Surprisingly he seems completely unfazed by the loss of his shoes and is plowing right down the gravel driveway when I've moved him from barn to pasture, go figure!

Since I can't ride this weekend, and its pretty wet, cold, and rainy I've been devoting my time to baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and shopping!  Yes, I really did say shopping!  Hee hee, I found some wonderful bargains at our local liquidator store- lots of cheap barn hats, gloves, and two coats.  I saved so much money that I came home and ordered Cartman a new turn out blanket from Schneider's :)