Continuum

So life is supposed to go on, but it is difficult. The last 5 days have been like climbing a very steep emotional hill. Working over the holiday weekend did not help-we had a record amount of euthanasias, to the point where the freezer where we keep the bodies in the meantime before the crematorium can pick them up (in Florida it is illegal to bury pets in the ground because the water supply is so close to the surface-all dead animals must be cremated) overflowed. They had missed a pickup day because of the storm, and we had an unprecedented and unusual number of deaths on top of that. At one point I'm rearranging the bodies in the freezer, then trying to get it to close by sitting on the lid, and I just start laughing and sobbing at the same time hysterically. It was just cruel...the whole situation was just plain cruel to the point of being ridiculous.

On the upside, however, I got to work with good techs and a decent doctor, who, despite the hospital being insanely busy and us having to play Jenga with the dead bodies, managed to make us feel like we were worth a million bucks. It was a little ray of light in the middle of a whole lot of darkness.

And of course, Lily's treatments have continued. She rests the leg on and off, though I have seen her resting her other leg as well-a sign of improvement, I hope. I was unable to ride for 3 days in a row due to the crazy work schedule, but it was dry at night, so she got to go out with little Willy and move around on her own. She has 2 more days to go on her antibiotic, and I have continued to give her bute, though only once a day. Her reactions to the treatment vary-on some days she doesn't care, and just wiggles the leg, but day before yesterday, I actually got kicked in the ear! Both wash racks were wet, so I had cross-tied her in the middle of the aisle, however, so I don't know if maybe Pink tried nipping Lily while I was working with her.

I was just finishing up, stuffing the crack with a tiny piece of cotton covered in the doctor's medication, which usually ellicits no reaction at all from her, when suddenly she actually lifted her leg out of my hands, and kicked back. She has NEVER done this before! She missed hitting me square in the face by inches, and the side of her fetlock slammed against my ear. My jaw felt dislocated, and my ear was so hot it seemed impossible that it was not bleeding. I stumbled back, then stood still, furious, holding my ear while she danced forward on the crossties, trying to get away from me. Thankfully, the crossties did NOT give (it would've been a reward for the naughtiness) and at the same time, she didn't do anything where she could have hurt herself either-when the crossties didn't set her free, she piaffed in place, then settled to a trembling standstill when she realized I was not going to hit her.

After confirming that my ear was, indeed, not bleeding, and that my jaw was still in place, and after taking several deep breaths to let my temper simmer before approaching her, I picked up her foot again, and checked that the cotton was still in place. It was. She was wiggling the leg, so I simply held it up for a few minutes, not touching her foot, until she stopped. She did not get cookies that night, and I came thisclose to not buting her, simply because she likes the molasses I pour on it so much, but in the end I did give her her anti-inflammatory. I then turned her out with Willy for the night.

I have since started wearing my riding helmet when treating her frog.

Yesterday I was finally off, so I decided I'd lunge her in the arena to let her expel energy, since, it had been a week since starting her treatments. I'd had a particularly bad day on the Lucero front, and felt it wasn't a good idea to ride when I was angry at the world. I was still thinking about this when I went to put Lily's rope halter on. She felt my rage and immediately stiffened when I put the halter over her head. I saw her reaction, and I slowed my movements and let my breath out, clearing my head from everything except Lily. It's amazing how attuned she is to me-she immediately relaxed when she felt my own emotional release. I put my arms around her head and kissed her, "It's not you. I'm sorry." When I stepped back, her eyes and ears had softened, and she turned her head and nuzzled me. "It's okay." she seemed to say, as she blew softly on my cheek.

Judy had applied Roundup to some of the weeds in the arena, so I probably won't be working her at liberty out there in our remaining time at this barn. From what I understand, Roundup stays in the ground forever, and is extremely toxic to horses when ingested.

There was a storm brewing, and the wind had picked up just as I let Lily out onto the end of the lunge line. Of course it started whipping through the trees with tropical storm force, and Lily took off, bucking and doing bicycles in the air with her front feet, and almost ripping my arm out in the process. She showed absolutely no signs of lameness or soreness in that left hind. I reined her into a smaller circle and after she had settled into a steady canter, asked her to change directions. More bucking and bicycles, as we made our way from one end of the arena to the other. Lightning flashed horizontally across the sky, and a couple of potted palms next door fell over. She bolted, tail tucked in, then suddenly, as if a lightbulb had gone on in her head, she turned toward me unbidden and came trotting to me, coming to a stop right in front of me and giving a deep sigh.

It was the most moving thing that she has ever done for me so far. We stood in the middle of this raging windstorm, side by side, Lily's ears relaxed and eyes drooping simply because I was standing right there with her. My heart went all squishy inside.

We stood like that for what seemed like a long time. The wind calmed down a bit, and I sent her out onto the end of the lunge again. Judy had set up the arena as a sort of obstacle course, with the 3 water storage barrels in a small triangle in the middle, a small cross-rail by the arena exit gate, a pole "L" in the corner by Bali's turnout, and a fan of 4 trot poles at the opposite corner. I steered Lily towards the trot pole fan on the lunge. She did everything in her power to avoid them-veering towards the inside, or circling wide around them. I shortened the lunge and aimed her towards them, making their approach inevitable. She completely surprised me by leaping like a deer into the air and clearing all 4 trot poles in a single bound. All 4 poles. It was like a 10-foot wide jump, with a good 3 feet of air.

We tried again. And again. Each time, she jumped the first 2 or 3 poles, then tripped over the last 1 or 2 poles, even when giving the command to TROT...Goofy mare! I tried taking some photos of her incredible jumping skills, but the light was dim due to the storm clouds. This is the best I could get:

You can barely see her, but she's coming out of the right of this photo to leap over the first 3 poles...

Jumping over the first 2 poles. Note her position-it looks like she just cleared a 4' fence!

Finally she trotted once over them:

HIGH STEPS! *lol*

Then we switched directions. This time she continued trotting over the pole fan, but still with the same ridiculous high steps.

On a whim, I laid the water barrels down in a single line, and lunged her over them to see if she would jump. She refused 3 times, then on the 4th try, she did another deer jump, all 4 feet in the air, overjumping by a good extra 2 feet. It was a monumental jump that I wish I'd gotten photos of-I was looking UP at her as she cleared the barrels!

After that she realized she didn't need that much extra room to go over the barrels, and her jump was a lot more conservative. We did 4 jumps total in each direction, then called it a day. I let her walk herself out on the lunge for a long time before bringing her in.

Of course her foot was sore again after all that activity and I felt horrible. I gave her a double dose of bute, Stud Muffins, and I linimented and wrapped her legs for the night for extra support. It did start to rain while hosing her off, so I put up her stall chain and dumped extra shavings in her stall to make it extra cushy so she could lie down if she wanted to.

Today, she was feeling better again. It had rained in the afternoon and the arena footing was damp, so I wrapped her foot in Vetrap and Gorilla tape (there are 2 rolls of duct tape at the barn and for the life of me I couldn't find either one!) to keep it dry, and tacked up. We did a long walk warmup, first on a loose rein, then the usual lateral work we've been doing at a walk (shoulder-in, shoulder out, renvers, baby leg yields), then moved up to a trot. She did not feel sore at all-very even in both directions, and did not resist any of the lateral work. We did some more trot-halt-trot transitions, which she did fairly good on-she trotted off after each one, but not as snappy as she's supposed to. I did give her a break though, because of her foot. I made her wait extra long during one of the halts and she got soooo pissed because I was making her stand! She began tossing her head until she got her curb chain off, but stood still while I turned her head and reached forward to reattach it. I then let her trot off.

She was a really good girl. We did a canter half-circle in each direction because I just wanted to see how she felt. She was reluctant to pick up the left lead, so she is still sore on that foot for sure, but she is feeling better: she maintained the canter until I asked her to walk after the half circle.

Most of what we did was walk, however. We did tackle the trot pole fan again (at a walk), and she tried dodging it, even at a walk, "I really don't want to jump that today." she said. "But you're not supposed to jump it; I just want you to walk over it." I replied. After 2 more tries and much giggling from me at my mare's silliness, she finally grumbled "Alright!!" and stepped hesitantly over the poles as if they were going to jump up and bite her! I saw the lightbulb moment again, "OH! I get it!" and so we walked over the fan a few times in each direction, no more high steps, and no more hesitation. She's hysterical though-I've told you guys how my reward for her is to let her stretch down at the walk when she does a good job, and how she sometimes anticipates it. So right after going over the poles in both directions, she pulls her head down as if saying, "Ok Mom, that was hard and I did a good job. Give me my head please." I did.

Our achievements for the day: leg yielding around the barrel triangle, and then doing a shoulder-in/turn on the forehand combo around one barrel, in both directions (at a walk). She did a FANTASTIC job, and I was able to keep her going without getting her frustrated.

Diana arrived at the barn, and poked her head out the arena gate to say hi and ask how I was doing. The day before she had been asking me how do you get a horse to move laterally, and so now while we were talking, I shifted my weight first one way, then the other to make Lily sidepass to the left and then right. (Yes, we were showing off!) Diana completely lost track of the conversation, watching Lily move sideways so effortlessly.

My mare rocks! :)

On another note, I noticed today that her neck has started to smooth out. Back in May, it was lumpy, and it had me concerned-I knew I had to be doing something wrong somewhere. According to Hempfling and Equus Magazine's conformation series, this kind of neck lumpiness may be caused by use of side reins and draw reins:

May 18, 2012, back when we had our picadero work phase. Note the 3 giant knots in Lily's neck.

As you guys know, I only used draw reins on her very briefly back at the beginning of the year, and only very lightly-only as a suggestion. I really, really hate this, and would never do it to my horse:

But I had been using side reins about 50%-75% of the time when I lunged her. I figured it couldn't hurt to try, though at the back of my mind I was afraid she'd continue to overdevelop the underside of her neck.

I'm happy to report I was proven wrong-the experiment worked.
This is her today:

The knots are still somewhat visible when she turns her head (I did ask Dr. Gillard for a reference to a good equine massage therapist months ago, when I first noticed these knots, but apparently there are none in our area that are good enough for him to recommend!), but are so much less obvious-I haven't worked her in side reins in over 6 months

My trimming equipment arrived. I rasped her feet a bit, but you can barely tell the difference. I'm being timid-I want my farrier to check out my work before I do more. I do love my rasp and gloves, though! Along with the equipment, I also ordered the book Horse Owner's Guide to Natural Hoof Care by Jaime Jackson, and have started reading it. One fascinating thing I read on there (pg 266):

"The "double-back" is a physical characteristic wherein the longitudinal muscles that parallel the horse's spine rise up even with or above the interjacent spine. This muscular configuration occurs in sound, healthy horses that move naturally most of the time. [...] Xenophon noted that the double-back was a sign of correct training and that it was more comfortable to ride than horses with unnatural backs with protruding spines and withers."

Also (same page):

" Leslie Ann Taylor and Carol Brett of England [have written]: One common symptom of saddle damage is the horse that is described as having 'high narrow withers'. It has long been accepted by the equestrian world that certain horses have this as a natural conformation...[but] it is usualy a lack of natural, healthy muscle below and to the rear of the withers that makes them and the shoulder blades appear more prominent than they should be. This lack of muscle mass is often caused by the pressures of a saddle fitted or used in a way that does not allow normal movement and blood flow in this area. There are so many horses who have this 'compromised' shape to some degree or other, that it is considered normal."

Lily:

May 2011. Note the high withers and the discernible shoulder blades.

August 2012. BIG difference in her back, withers and shoulders! (And demeanor, too!)

Mr. Jackson also proposes that most healthy, balanced horses in their natural state, without riders or ill-fitting saddles, develop a "double back" of muscle, as clearly seen on the bay stallion below:

Lily's back, today:

A "double back" if I ever saw one!

I guess we're doing something right! Coooooool!