WW: Snow storm

I posted these on my Facebook wall today. We had about 6" of snow!

It was coming down hard and fast. My first time seeing horizontal snow!

 The barn was closed today due to the snow-BQ sent out an e-mail that they'd re-open as soon as they could plow. The snow has already started to melt, so I don't think that'll be a problem tomorrow.

Munchausen by Proxy

Last Wednesday I rode both of the girls in the indoor because the outdoor was frozen like concrete. It was SUPER dusty inside, despite the open doors at the ends of the arena. So dusty, in fact, that when I got home it looked like I'd used white mascara on my lashes from all the arena dust accumulated on them!

Jezebel had a bad, BAD case of the zooms. I think she is starting to see me as "that lady that asks me to canter!!!" as every time I shifted my weight, she grabbed the bit and sped up! Circling would bring her back. I laughed at her antics, and eventually did ask her to canter. But her balance isn't the best yet, and like I've said before, this is a fairly small indoor, so her little unbalanced self was having a hard time with the turns. She was also having a really hard time with that left lead. We finally got it right, but subsequent attempts at repeating our success were met with incorrect leads where Jez proceeded to swap in front but not in the back, and there were even some tiny squeals and pinned ears, to my surprise when I insisted. Sally did confirm that she is in raging heat, however, so I'm going to attribute the attitude to that. She was great otherwise! Rounding up and softening in the space of a circle, and staying that way down one long side of the arena at a time. Sally was there to watch, and she was very happy. We trotted A LOT, and when Jezebel had finally settled and had stopped trying to zoom around at a mach 3 trot, I handed her over to her mom, who hopped on for a short ride. The little mare was a good girl-happy and relaxed! Gotta love those OTTBs. :)

Lily was a good girl too, and I was sitting way straighter & more balanced than the previous day, because all of our issues had vanished.  We had a good session but I cut it short at 30 minutes because I -could- -not- -STAND- the dust anymore.

On Thursday, Heather, Sally and I were going to attempt a trail ride. Heather had had some major dental work done on Wednesday, and initially didn't feel good Thursday morning, but ended up coming after all. Sally had made plans to meet us, but got stuck at work. So it ended up being Heather and Nate, and Lily and me.

The ride started out with a small freak-out from both horses. There is a small puddle right at the trailhead, and Lily, who was first, decided she wasn't too sure about it (never mind that she crossed it Wednesday just FINE!), so Heather went with Nate first. Nate took a look at it, then, after some hesitation and protest, decided to jump over it. He leaped as if he were going over a water complex at a Grand Prix stadium competition, and landed with a sliding stop! Lily flung herself around excitedly after seeing that, but I reminded her that we're not playing monkey see, monkey do, and she pranced over the puddle without a problem.

Both horses stayed prancey as we continued up the trail. We tried letting Lily lead, which helped her settle, but made Nate become more worked up, so Heather went ahead on him. We continued on towards the "new" trail that Lily and I have taken twice before, and made it to the first bridge. I dismounted to lead Lily across (I didn't want her getting Nate even more worried with her balking), and she came with me without a problem. Heather dismounted to lead Nate, too, but he refused by all means to cross the bridge. She tried for a good 10 minutes, but he was not having it. He hated the mud in front of the bridge a hell of a lot more than Lily ever has! I suggested to Heather we take the back route, across the main bridge, and I remounted and we headed that way. Heather decided she'd get back on Nate after we'd crossed the bridge.

Lily balked a bit at the idea of crossing (this is our first time crossing that bridge under saddle going away from home), but with some coaxing she went over. I gave her lots of pats, and we waited on the other side. I  was in no hurry, but Lily didn't understand why I was making her stand still, so I let her turn and fidget as long as she wasn't escalating in her restlessness. Heidi struggled with Nate to no avail. We tried having Lily cross the bridge and getting Nate up close behind her so he'd follow, and this almost worked, but then Nate was back to dancing by the bridge. I had Lily wait, standing ON the bridge, to see if this would encourage him to try again. After a few minutes waiting, Lily decided that she'd waited long enough, and very slowly and politely backed herself all the way off the bridge, back to Nate's side! I had to laugh-I didn't ask her to do that AT ALL, but she did it so well that I decided to not argue with her...plus I'm not in favor of arguing with a 1,000 lb animal while on a bridge 4 feet above running water. I made her cross the bridge all the way back to the other side, and we waited again. Heather was able to get Nate on the bridge backwards! He finally stood on it with all 4 feet, then he stepped off of his own accord. This was a big success, and we agreed it was a good idea to end it there, on a good note. Heather re-mounted and we headed home.

Nate was SUPER worked up on our return trip, LEAPING over a fallen tree, and doing a canter piaffe at the "T" where the trail turns back towards the barn before attempting to launch himself down the trail at full gallop. Heather did a beautiful job of controlling her thundering boy. However, Lily thought this was a fantastic idea, "Oh if he can gallop home, so can I!" and she tried bounding forward, but I checked her, and she ended up pogo-sticking up and down in the same spot, head up. Both horses pranced the rest of the way to the barn, and we took them down to the arena.

This is the part where Lily got really weird.

I know she is in heat right now, and she had quickly developed a crush on handsome Nate. She was doing a very, very "up" trot in the arena, and getting so riled up that I was able to ask her to do circles in haunches-in and shoulder-in. (Those are best done when she's in Miss Zoomy Kahbloomy mode (there! I used it, Liz! *lol*)) We cantered a circle in each direction, but she was literally trying to launch into outer space, so after working through that, I immediately brought her back down to a trot.

Sally arrived around that time, and I stopped by the arena fence to talk to her.

Lily actually stood quietly on a loose rein while Sally and I talked, even cocking a hind leg. But then all of a sudden, she jerked her head up. It was almost as if something had stung her on her nose, but of course there were no bugs out because it was 31 degrees.

We went back to work, and she surprised me by being super wound up again. The violent head jerking continued, and I initially thought she was being bratty because she was trying to go fast and I wasn't letting her. However, I did not have a death grip on the reins, and she was doing it even when going in a straight line. Last year when we had issues with the Spanish bit, she was tossing her head only when I asked for lateral work, and at the time she would toss and/or shake her head until the pressure was released. Today was different in that each time it would be a single head jerk. She wasn't doing it constantly, just occasionally, but it was a violent head toss each time it happened. She'd even grunt sometimes when she did it. I started to get annoyed, and tried working her through it, even allowing her to extend the trot on a longer rein to see if going long and low would help. When she jerked her head again despite the loose rein, I decided to stop, have her back up (she did not complain about that), and got off. I checked the entire bridle and bit, trying to see if there was anything twisted or out of place, but everything was where it should be. The curb chain on the pelham was as loose as I always make it, on the very last link (I let it hang a good inch and a half under her chin-you have to really crank back for it to really do anything; she hates curb chain action.) I could find nothing wrong with the bridle, and she did not react when I squeezed her jaw and nose. Befuddled, I walked her into the barn, got her rope halter and lunge line, and walked her back out to the arena. I removed her reins, placed the rope halter on, and let her do as she wished on the lunge. She took off at a mad gallop, bucking and crow-hopping, and I let her get it out of her system. I did notice that a few times she still jerked her head mid-run, though not as violently as when I was riding, and each time she ran faster afterwards. We switched directions, and she went all wild woman again in the opposite direction. The flaps of the saddle were blowing back in the wind from how fast she was going, and this made her tuck her tail and gallop faster, but eventually she settled into a nice snappy trot.

At this point I asked her to halt and come to me. I had to reel her in a bit to get her to slow down, but then she would halt and come on her own, with no pressure from the halter. She came to me with ears pricked, appearing calm and happy, but as she got closer, she suddenly jerked her head up. I had not moved a muscle, had put NO pressure on that lunge line, and while it had been windy all afternoon, there was barely a breeze blowing at the time. What frightened me was the change in the look of her eyes when she did that-she was clearly saying, "Help!" I checked her whole head again, and squeezed her nose again under the halter noseband, and nothing.

I sent her out at a trot in the opposite direction. She was much calmer, but every once in awhile she'd still jerk her head, though not as violently.

At this point, she was breathing rather hard, so I replaced the reins, on the snaffle rings of the pelham this time, and got on just to walk her out on a loose rein. She still jerked her head a couple of times and I tried circling her to see if I could figure out WHAT was bothering her. It almost seemed like it was triggered when the light from the setting sun hit the left side of her face, but I couldn't figure out the exact angle. The gentle breeze was blowing her fuzzy forelock back, and it was tickling her ears, so I thought maybe it was that? Of course the wind had been progressively dying down and I couldn't establish a direct relationship between the breeze and her ears.

I gave up and dismounted, making sure it didn't happen immediately following a head toss.

I was especially bothered when I removed the bridle and she rubbed her nose vigorously on her front leg. This is a new thing with her that has started over the last 2 weeks. Granted, some horses do this all the time, especially when they're sweaty, but she has never done this before and I had taken note. She has not been sweaty when she's done this.

Lily happily stuck her nose in her regular halter when I held it in front of her, and gave a deep sigh when I loosened her girth. I poked and prodded every inch of her on both sides: muzzle, jaw, teeth from the outside, feeling for lumps and bumps and looking for some sort of reaction. I put pressure on her nose, under her chin, on her poll (all of the places where the pelham puts pressure), stuck my fingers in her mouth and looked at her teeth, tongue and gums; put pressure over her forehead in case she's clenching her jaw. Nothing-she was closing her eyes as if it all felt really good. Her neck was fine; I put pressure all along her spine, on the areas that the saddle panels touch, under her girth, and I even put pressure on her belly to see if she has an ulcer brewing. Nothing. Lily either had her ears were pricked and she was paying attention to something in the distance during all of this, or she was quietly licking and chewing with a sleepy expression in her eyes. I threw her cooler on and took her into the wash stall to rinse off her legs and feet and inspect her legs for anything. Of course nothing was wrong with her legs either.

I've read about head shaking syndrome. And I looked it up as soon as I got home, and freaked myself out, as everything Lily had been doing was a sign, down to the nose rubbing. I talked to BQ about it, and I'm going to schedule her dental floating for March-she is overdue, and Cody needs to be done. This way we can start ruling things out if this problem continues. 

I'm still hoping this was just a fluke, and she was just being a weirdo due to being in heat, and that I'm just being a worrywart...

Lame

On Wednesday, I decided to take Lily out on the trails again. Why again? Because she had just been out the day before with Houdan, and I figured she would associate the solo outing with the positive experience from the day before. Plus, I do get bored with arena work even if she doesn't. I wanted to do a shorter loop of the same trail from the day before-maybe just go up to the "track" portion, then turn around and come back. Nothing strenuous. This trail has some inclines, but not what I would consider hills, and the footing had been decent all the way through. A little bit squishy in some parts, but the horses had no problems with slipping.

When I went to get Lily in the field, all of the horses came tearing down through the chute from the upper field at a mad gallop. I don't know how they run like that through that awful footing. It's funny because this is what they do when someone wants to drink water-they stampede to the water trough in the bottom field.

Lily flew by in her now-muddy sheet, part of the middle group of horses. She came to a stop with the group that veered towards the gate, while a smaller group of horses trotted off towards the trough. I saw Lily move around in the herd, trying to find a spot with the other mid-level horses-she trotted through the crowd, and I thought I saw a slight head bob. BQ was on the other side of the fence, and had also been watching Lily, but she didn't mention anything about the slight head bob (this is the kind of thing she'd notice and point out for sure), and I thought maybe I'd imagined it. It's totally possible she was a little ouchy in that area, as it has been getting muddier with each passing day as the snow and ice have melted, and there is gravel by the gate. Lily came to me, and I took her into the barn. She walked fine behind me.

I tacked her up, noticing that she was extra-extra quiet in the cross ties, and I thought this was the ideal mindset to attempt a solo trail ride.

We headed out, and Lily automatically veered to the right at the fork in the trail (yay! She likes this trail!) and she crossed the road all by herself, too. Once we were past the brush, however, she became very, very insecure. The little bit of frost that had been on the trail the day before had melted, so the path was slimy. Lily would literally take 3 steps forward, then a hoof would slide. Nothing bad, but I could feel her frustration. She tried to turn around several times, but I brought her back to face forward. I allowed her to stand, stroking her neck and talking to her, but the only direction she was allowed to go was forward. After about 5 minutes, we surpassed this episode, and we continued on. The footing was much better once we were among the trees.

Like the day before, I got off to lead her over the rail-less crooked bridge, then got back on on the other side. Lily offered a trot here, and I let her. She felt sound. We trotted through the woods, following the path as it brought us right next to Rock Creek (again she gave it the one-ear-one-eye look), and there was some hesitation as we arrived at a spot where there were a bunch of fallen trees that had been cut to allow passage. We walked through this area, then we arrived at the first creek crossing.

This was a 15 minute ordeal as I slowly worked our way closer and closer to the water. Lily kept trying to turn around, but I kept bringing her back to face the creek. It was a little muddier than the day before, but not slick, and the mud was not deep at all. I felt confident in our ability to cross it without me having to get off, and knew Lily was just being stubborn. She would stop and stare at the water, then try to turn a couple of times, then she would walk forward, stop, and try to turn again. She wasn't freaking out, and she wasn't trembling. Every time she walked in the direction of the water, I gave her slack in the reins and tons of praise. Eventually, she did it-she crossed the creek all by herself without me having to get off to lead her.

We made our way to the track. There is a bridge by the beginning of the track that has been closed off with orange safety fencing. Tina had mentioned that that fencing had been there for a long time, but the bridge had been passable. Normally, this is where you would loop back to return in the direction of the barn. I studied it as we walked past it, as I thought I saw some gaps in the fencing through which we might be able to get through. Lily offered to trot once were on the track, so I let her.

As we came onto the part of the track that goes past a bunch of houses, Lily started to get more and more tense. She gave a HUGE startle at a deer that took off through the brush to our left-my heart was in my throat with that one. There was some whirring machinery in one of the houses over on the other side, and we heard some animal scream a couple of times-it sounded like a horse, maybe a flirting mare in heat, or a very high-pitched "I'm hungry" whinny...It didn't help that the wind had picked up and was blowing in our faces in this open area, so sounds were altered. I'm sure all of this contributed to Lily's nerves. I thought it interesting, however, that she obviously feels safer in the woods than out in the open.

It was a mission getting through here, however: 3 steps forward, spin, stop. 2 steps forward, spin, stop. She was getting more and more worked up, so my goal became to take 5 steps forward, and I would ask her to turn towards home. It seemed like the minute I mentally phrased this thought, she heard, because she allowed me to do exactly that, without attempting to turn around. She wanted to trot back once we were facing home (I could feel her relief!), but I made her walk.

As we arrived at the tree line, I looked over at the bridge with the safety fencing, and saw that there were, indeed, 2 gaps in the fence where we could cut through. I had Lily turn around (this did not make her happy), had her walk 3 steps, then dismounted and led her over to the first gap. I could see that others had taken this route before us, so I led Lily through, then I walked ahead over the bridge, stomping my feet-it was solid, and Lily followed without hesitation. We survived the bridge (it was only a foot above the creek), making it safely to the other side. So why was there safety fencing on this bridge? I have a feeling the banks had been partially eroded with the flooding from the rains-there was tons of fresh gravel piled up around each bank, edging the ends of the bridge. It looked like the graveling job had not been finished. The bridge itself looked much more solid than the first one at the beginning of the trail, otherwise I would've never taken this risk. Once on the other side, I mounted up, and we followed the path along the meadow and into the woods.

She offered to trot most of the way through here, and I let her. We eventually came up to the second creek crossing. Lily made a little bit of a fuss here, but she was much, much better than at the first crossing-it only took about 5 minutes to convince her to go across. More trotting, and soon we were back at the road, crossing the big bridge (all by herself! What a good girl!) Lily wanted to trot going up the slope, and I let her, but as we were coming even with the entrance to the trail, I felt her head-bobbing. Uh-oh. I brought her to a walk, and we made our way back to the barn. She was sound at the walk.

Back at the barn, I trotted her a bit in the arena. Sound in both directons. Cantered to the left. Sound. Cantered to the right. Major head bob. I got off, took her into the barn, untacked her, threw her cooler on. I  picked up each leg, cleaned out her feet looking for any rock or splinter stuck anywhere in her feet, or any holes or bruising. Nothing. Palpated all of her tendons hard-nothing. I walked her on the pavement, made her do tight little circles pivoting on her hind legs. To the right she was fine, but to the left I could definitely see some major ouchiness in...either one or both hind legs and/or one front leg. I palpated her entire back and hind quarters, pressing hard. No flinching. I took her into the indoor with the lunge line. I had her walk in both directions. Fine. Trot to the left. Ever so slight head bob. Trot to the right. Major head bob. She was bobbing every time her left hind touched the ground...or every time her right front touched the ground? I thought it seemed to be her hind end, but for some reason looking at her, I felt like this might be more than one leg. In desperation, I took out the Simple Boots, put them on her front feet (she is newly barefoot, after all) and had her trot in both directions again. Nope, still lame.

I texted BQ-she had just left the barn, but she turned around to come look at Lily (again, what barn manager does this???) I had Lily go through the motions again. BQ admits that she has a hard time seeing hind limb lameness. She thought maybe the left front. Aarrrgh! Which leg??? BQ also palpated her back, but Lily still didn't react. I walked her outside on the pavement again, and this time she seemed slightly off at the walk too. When doing turns with her again, her right front seemed to be bothering her. Now that is the leg that slipped on the trail at the start of our ride. I palpated everything again, including shoulders and neck, and still nothing. I'm stumped. Whatever it is, it was getting worse, but I couldn't locate where exactly the pain was coming from.

We decided to put her on stall rest and give her bute twice daily for the next 3 days to see if she improves. The vet will be out Wednesday for another horse and we can have him squeeze her in if necessary. Hopefully she's better before then.

So how did she do this to herself? Everyone said Lily had been tearing around the muddy field like a mad woman the last couple of days, but especially the day before. She had been 100% fine on the trail ride with Tina the previous day. Or maybe it's still a result of her being newly barefoot in the front-maybe it's an abscess?

Please say a little prayer for her.

Lily's Crib

So we drove up to Maryland to see Lily on Sunday, about 12 hours before Sandy was supposed to hit land.

The drive was long. It took us 20 minutes just to find the correct highway (270, 495, 66, 370...oh boy), and that's WITH GPS. The GPS wanted us to take the I66 exit, but it was closed, so we had to wing it. Finally we were en route (according to the GPS, as we had no idea), and we were able to arrive at the barn about an hour later, as we did run into some traffic on the way up. It's really only 33 miles from the apartment, but it does take awhile between traffic and the speed limits. It took a few days, but I got used to reasonable speed limits (55-60mph on highways) and the fact that everyone stays within those limits. It's another really nice change...in South FL, speed limits are 70mph average on the highways, but good luck to you attempting to stay below 90, as everyone will ride your ass or attempt to cut you off in spite. I don't miss it at all.

The barn is absolutely freaking gorgeous. The turnouts, even the "small" ones, are all what we would call fields by South FL standards. The terrain is gently rolling-nothing is absolutely flat. This is another thing-in Florida, EVERYTHING is FLAT. Flat, flat, flat. Coming from an island with mountains, not that different from what you see in photos of Hawaii, it was always nearly impossible to get my bearings in Florida, first because of the flatness, and second because everything is the same. All housing is the same, all the streets and malls look  the same, the only difference being the number of signs in Spanish increased the further south you went, and the amount of concrete increased the closer you got to the cities. I invested in the GPS simply because I would panick every time I became lost-there was nothing in the skyline other than the rising or setting sun to allow you to orient yourself. Being lost in the middle of downtown Miami with insane drivers cutting in front of you while you're trying to figure out how to get back to 95 was a terrifying experience. It would take me 6 months to become familiar with the area we were living in, but as soon as you took me out of said area, the minute you took me back I'd forget how to get anywhere. This, above all else, was the one thing I hated the most about living in South FL. I shocked Charles's socks off in the car when we arrived in Alexandria at 10:30pm in the darkness of unfamiliar streets, and even in my exhausted state, was instantly able to orient myself and remember how to backtrack as we were searching for hotels, not because I remembered the names of the streets, but because my body was instantly able to remember how the terrain sloped on the way to anywhere.

Semi-private turnout

View of the main field from the area above the outdoor arena

I love mountains. :)

So back to the barn. We walked around the barn looking for signs of life, and were met by another boarder, who instantly figured out we were Lily's owners, just as BQ was coming down the house stairs. Her and the barn owner, John, live right above the barn! BQ reminded me so much of one of my favorite people in Tampa-Marianne, the owner and manager of the tack shop that I worked at for 2 years. Down to the same gravelly voice. She hugged me after introductions, which immediately made me feel at home, and took us over to see Lily.

All of the horses were in, in anticipation of the bad weather that was supposed to start that night. Lily was in her stall, looking a little antsy to be cooped up. She immediately greeted everyone with her gentle nuzzling, and it seemed to take her a second to warm up to me, but then she was giving me more attention than anyone else. BQ had me take her out to walk around while giving us the tour of the barn.


Reunion after 5 days apart. :)

 

Ready for the tour.

 Small hallway connecting one barn aisle to the other. The horses are used to going through here as a shortcut.

  Bridge connecting the house upstairs to the upstairs tackroom. This is right above Lily's stall.

  Wash stall. Note the fan in the corner for when it's hot in the summer. There are 2 of these side-by-side.

 Heated tack room full of lockers for boarders.

 Walking across the indoor with BQ.

 Stalls at the far end of the indoor. These are the big Warmblood-size stalls for the oversized horses. Not that the other stalls are small-Lily's is 11'x14'.

 Opposite end of the indoor. There is a gate that leads to the outdoors, and a sliding garage-type door that shuts out the elements when it's freezing outside.

 Outdoor arena.

 Trailhead. Directly from the property-no more riding on the street!

 Trail. Isn't it beautiful?

I loved it. I was extremely thrilled with my choice.

After the tour, I let Lily loose in the indoor to do some groundwork with her, but noticed that she seemed off to the left at the trot, and especially in specific parts of the arena, which I found odd. Later I discovered that the footing was particularly firm in these spots. I felt my heart sink, but did not mention it to BQ, thinking that maybe, just maybe, I was being paranoid and imagining it.

The next day, BQ e-mailed me, and she had noticed the same thing. Bummer. :/ It was not my imagination after all. The vet, Dr. O, was coming out in 2 days to check on another horse, so with my permission BQ made arrangements to have her check out Lily.

We weathered the storm at the new apartment, staying in the next day, and didn't even lose electricity that night, despite the winds howling around the building. On Tuesday morning, I took Charles to work in the rain- he was starting his training at the hospital- but the wind wasn't bad, so I spent most of the day checking out the stores at the strip mall across the street.

On Wednesday, I drove up to the barn to meet the vet. As it turned out, I was SO glad that I had her check Lily-her left hind was fine, but she was honking lame in her right front. Dr. O used hoof testers on all 4 feet, and the biggest reaction was from the right front. Not only that, her pulses were throbbing in that foot. When Dr. O scraped off a thin layer of hoof over Lily's white line, she discovered some very bloody bruising all along the hoof's white line, to the shock of all of us.

My theory: she bruised the hell out of that foot pawing for 5 hours straight in the trailer at the stop in Savannah on the way to MD.

Dr. O recommended booting her, but I didn't have boots on me, and BQ's Simple Boots were too big. I ended up packing and bandaging the foot as if she had an abscess, then applying my spare Velcro wrap with its rubber pad over it. Dr. O approved. I ordered a pair of Simple Boots for Lily's front feet to be Next Day Aired to the apartment (ouch-that was expensive!) and had them on her by Saturday. She has been very happy with the boots on (no bandage under the boots), trotting off sound, and we have been able to continue turning her out with the boots on. The bruising has improved over the last 4 days, lightening in color, with only the medial portion of her white line (where she puts more weight) still a dark pink. After turnout, I re-apply the bandage and remove the boots. Dr. O also recommended Epona shoes for Lily, possibly on all 4 feet. After talking to the barn barefoot trimmer who uses them (and seeing her work on all of the barefoot horses-she does a beautiful job, and I'm happy to report all of the horses have adequate heels and nicely angled feet!), I'm really liking this option, as these shoes are specifically made to help the foot maintain its full function. The trimmer said she has been very successful in getting the horses to put out more sole with these shoes, which is one thing that Lily desperately needs. The vet's concern is that Lily's thin-soled feet will fall apart if left bare after the ground freezes. The Epona shoes would be a temporary therapeutic aid in the goal to keep Lily barefoot. The trimmer comes out in 2 weeks, which is when Lily will be due for a trim again, so I had her add Lily to the list, to see what she says about Lily's feet. I liked her-she seems very knowledgeable, and even BQ herself uses her.

Dr. O is supposed to come out again on Wednesday of this week to re-check Lily.

Lily grazing in her boots yesterday

"Do you have treats for me?"