Ice, Soak, Rest, Repeat

Yesterday I was at the barn to check on Lily, and even before pulling her out of her stall, I saw it: the whole outside of her right front leg, from fetlock to knee, was puffy and swollen. I thought this was odd, but since she also has a giant, infected sore from her bell boots on that same pastern, I figured maybe it was inflammation from the sore that had crept up the leg from being on stall rest.

I clipped the lunge line on and took her into the indoor, where I had her walk in both directions for a good 10 minutes. I then asked her to do lots of walk-trot transitions on the lunge, just to get her blood pumping. If it was just a little inflammation from the sore, it should go down with movement.

After 20 minutes, there was no change in the leg. She had a slight head bob that was barely noticeable-mostly when she was doing a down transition if she rushed into it. I asked her to canter a half circle in each direction, then more walk-trot. No change in her lameness, but after another 10 minutes of mostly trotting, the swelling had not decreased. It had not gotten worse, but I still couldn't see the tendons on the outside of that leg, and honestly, if it had been swelling from her sore, I would have expected her pastern to be swollen too-it wasn't. The leg was really hot. She flinched a little initially when I palpated the tendons on the leg, but of course with all that swelling, palpation would be uncomfortable regardless.

Telling the alarm bells in my head to shut up, I took Lily out of the arena. Sally had arrived and just finished soaking Jezebel's foot when I was done in the indoor, so we took the mares out and hand grazed them for over an hour while we talked. The girls enjoyed the socializing. Afterwards we put them together in the indoor, since everyone had pretty much left for the day, and let them wander around.

Jez has the pink halter with pink fuzzies, Lily is the one on the right.

"Do you have treats for us?" If Lily didn't have the white on her face, they would totally look like twins. They are probably related through Lily's TB bloodlines. Same white coronet and white pastern in front, opposite white socks in the back.

 I eventually brought Lily back in to soak her hoof in the wash stall, and for good measure, decided to ice the leg as well while we were at it. Just because I didn't like all of that swelling. I wanted to see what would happen.

Being a fidgety brat! I had to re-fill the soaking boot twice...

30 minutes later, I removed her soaking boot and continued icing for a little more while talking with Sally and Heather, who had arrived and was grooming Nate in the wash stall next to Lily.

After about 5 more minutes, I took Lily to the cross ties in front of her stall, and removed the ice boot. It revealed a nice tight leg, with two 1" diameter bumps right above her fetlock, on the outside of her leg, right over her tendons. I almost sat down and cried. This wasn't just the bruise bothering her.

You can clearly see the bumps-the light was shining on them!

I called BQ and told them what I'd discovered. She immediately came down the stairs with John, her significant other and the barn owner (he is also a very knowledgeable horseman). I showed them what was going on with Lily's leg, and they both felt the lumps. Both of them thought this was a windpuff, but given the acute presentation and the fact that it was only on the outside of a front leg, they both agreed that it would have been caused by a strain. We decided to keep her on stall rest, ice the leg twice more tonight (BQ would take care of this), and apply Surpass and wrap the leg later that night (BQ would also do this).

Today when I arrived at the barn, Lily was pacing and fidgeting in her stall. Her legs were still wrapped. I removed the bandages, and discovered a nice smooth, tight leg. We walked in the outdoor arena for about 15 minutes, and I was happy to see that the leg didn't re-fill.

You can barely see the bump.

I pulled out the ice boot and placed it on her leg while I hand-grazed her for the next half hour. She was, for the most part, a good girl, except she was obsessed with the horses in the field and kept trying to turn around to look at them. Eventually she settled and enjoyed eating grass.

After that, I put her in the wash stall to soak her hoof, and removed the ice boot. Sally arrived as I was finishing soaking, and we let the girls wander around together in the indoor again. This time, however, they were more about getting in trouble and trotting around, so we ended up taking them out. With BQ's permission, I temporarily put Lily in one of the giant stalls by the indoor, next to Murmur, one of the horses who's been laid up for the past 6 months due to double soft tissue injuries on the same leg. In the presence of another horse, Lily remained calm in the stall, and dug into the hay. I put the ice boot back on and went to find Sally and Heather.

They were in the outdoor, and Heather was talking about setting up a jump course. When the arena was dragged on Friday, all of the jumps had been removed, so we had a clean canvas to work with. Heather had some really cool ideas, and I added more to her ideas. We then got to work setting up jumps. We had a really good time, and this was the end result:

The same jump combination set up for the last 6 months in the outdoor. A bounce, and 2 single fences. We decided to change it up.

We used most of the standards and most of the poles available. It took the 3 of us an hour or so to get it finished. We deliberately used the wing standards, and made some interesting combinations (like the cross rail with the log underneath and the oxer with the hanging tires) that would be a good desensitizing experience for the horses, and also difficult to re-arrange by yourself!

The oxer was one of my favorites. About 2'3" at the most, but  set  about 2' wide, and made wider by the hanging tires. Heather set the inflatable snake up on the standard on purpose, to make it even scarier.

The X. You could jump these 5 fences in several different combinations-there are at least 6 possible bending lines here, and it can also be ridden in straight lines as an X. I LOVED this setup. It was Heather's idea, and I tweaked it a little so it could be even more versatile.

Trot poles, set up as cavaletti. This was what I was talking about  at the clinic. 

We had fun setting up those jumps. I hadn't done that in a long time! The striding and organization of the jumps was made to be challenging. This is a classical, challenging jumper course that demands a good amount of athleticism from both horse and rider. It almost made me want to get back into a jumping.

I let Lily's leg rest while we put up the course, and then iced it again while Sally and I sat down to watch Heather jump. Nate made the course look easy as pie. Heather trotted him in to most of the fences, but cantered between lines, then brought Nate back to a trot after the combinations. He used to be a monumental fence rusher. Not anymore!

Afterwards, I wrapped Lily's front legs again, applying Surpass once more to the spot above her fetlock where the bumps were yesterday. We'll see how it looks tomorrow.

Speaking of Bruises...

Today just sucked all around.

I spent half the morning wrestling with a 110 lb Labrador who had a pneumothorax, and who was also regurgitating...we had to place an NG tube (nasogastric-through the nose to the stomach) to empty the stomach before anesthetizing him for an MRI to see where his lungs were leaking air. Why did we need to empty his stomach? Because with the regurgitation, there was a very high risk of him regurging while being induced, which could complicate matters further with aspiration pneumonia. You do NOT want a patient with a pneumothorax to end up with aspiration pneumonia to boot!

A pneumothorax is when air gets outside of the lungs, but stays within the chest cavity. It is common in trauma cases, such as bad hit-by-cars, but can also occur spontaneously, like with this patient. A pneumothorax is very dangerous because it creates increasing pressure on the lungs to where the patient can die from them collapsing-he won't be able to inhale.

Now that you know that, tune back into the above scenario. We had to wrestle with this dog. He had received whopping doses of 3 different sedatives, and was still shaking his head and trying to paw at his face every time my supervisor, who is another very experienced tech, tried to insert the tube into his left nostril. We finally had to give him a small dose of Propofol (the Michael Jackson drug) to knock him out 75% so we could quickly get the NG tube inserted and sutured in place. This whole process took an hour, because we were trying so hard to not stress him out. Why didn't we just knock him out entirely to begin with? Because patients need to be able to swallow so the NG tube will end up in the stomach where it's supposed to. If they are too sedate, they will lose their reflex to swallow.

NG tube in a cat. This was the best photo I could find, so you could see how it goes into a nostril, and is then sutured to their face. I can't say I blame our patient-I would've done the same!

We sucked out all the fluid we could from his stomach (about 15 mls, not much at all) then had to take the big boy to Radiology so we could take a placement radiograph, to make sure the NG tube was correctly in the stomach (not too far out nor too far in). It was definitely in, but it had curled around inside the stomach-we had to undo the sutures and partially pull the tube out, then stitch it back into place.

This turned out to be impossible. By then, all the drugs we had given the dog had started to wear off, and with one quick swipe of a front paw, he was able to yank the entire tube out. You have no idea how incredibly frustrating this is, especially on a critical patient like this one. You don't want to have to mess with them like this and stress them out, possibly endangering them further!

The doctor gave the okay to stop. She decided they would just have to be extra-careful during induction and place the NG tube then. It wasn't worth continuing to stress the patient out.

My arms, chest, and shoulders are going to hurt tomorrow.

That was the most eventful part of the day. We had 1...ONE...emergency ALL day. It was a 12 hour shift, and only ONE emergency! I was tearing my hair out with boredom.

I flew out the door at the end of my shift. I had brought a change of clothes, so I could go straight to the barn to ride!

I got to the barn, changed, and met Alex halfway as he was bringing Lily in from the field with the other horses. I saw it before he said anything-she was off.

After this frustrating day, I was upset. I took Lily down to the outdoor to lunge her so I could try to identify which leg was bothering her. She had an equal head bob to left and right, and it seemed to be her right front. She was acting like an absolute retarded nut. The arena had been dragged and the jumps moved. The same jumps she's seen every single time I've ridden her out there, but today she was blowing and snorting at them, and trying to run away from them! Yep, you guessed it-of course she's in heat! I HATE when she gets like this.

And of course looking at her in the setting sun, I could see the outline of her ribs and the backs of her shoulder blades. All the muscle I worked so hard to put on her, all of the weight I put on her-gone. Gone in 3 months. MONTHS of beet pulp, grain, going out of my way to find extra tasty, good quality hay; the haynets; the supplements; the rice bran oil and the vitamin E oil...It took me a good 6 months to get her looking the way she did back in July (see sidebar on the right). And it's all gone.

I took Lily out of the arena, and had her trot around me on the concrete. There it was-she was dead lame on concrete, and it was definitely her right front. I texted my farrier, who can't come out to our barn until Friday, and I decided to treat it as an abscess.

But first, I found Alex and asked him about increasing Lily's grain ration yet again. They had increased her Low Starch ration as originally requested, but I asked him to add more hay stretcher and also a daily pound of rice bran pellets.

I put Lily on the cross ties in the wash stall. It was wet, and when I picked up her hoof to stick it in the soaking boot, I saw it:

A nasty little bruise on her inside heel (to the right of the photo). I soaked her foot in the boot with warm water and Epsom salts, and brushed her again while waiting the 15 minutes for it to take effect. She was uper-fidgety on the cross ties, going back and forth and not holding still. I have to distract myself when she does this because it makes me insane. If she didn't know how to stand still, it would be a different story, but she knows-she just chooses not to when she's hormonal and/or acting herd-bound.

Finally the 15 minutes were done. I put her in the cross ties in front of her stall and packed her hoof with Magic Cushion, the put her up for the night. Alex had put bute in her grain for me, like I'd asked. I told him to keep her on it until Thursday.

It is frustrating. This mare was lame for a single day in South FL, the one time that her puncture wound really bothered her. That was the only time she'd been off in a year and a half of owning her. In the 6 additional months since we moved, she's been lame 3 times. There are 3 other horses with abscesses right now. Mud season sucks.

I'm just really, really upset right now, and it doesn't help that I only got 3 hours of sleep last night. While I love the longer days of Daylight Savings, I hate losing that hour of sleep. That one hour time difference really messes me up for the first month after the change. Last night was a classic: waking up every 2 hours thinking it was time to get up, then finally waking up at 3:00 am and not being able to go back to sleep. This scenario happens every year. We didn't have this in Puerto Rico-over there it's Daylight Savings year-round. I've been doing this little back-and-forth routine for 8 years now, but I still think it's the dumbest thing ever. I mean, why? It doesn't even make sense! Who wants a night that comes even earlier in the wintertime, when people are already suffering from SAD from lack of sunlight?

I'm off to bed. I'm whining. Sorry guys.

Abscess

So on Friday, I went to the barn after work with Charles, and I took Lily out for a 30 minute walk in the indoor. I had made arrangements with BQ to have her turned out in the little "round" (rectangular) pen next to Jazzy's paddock for 4 hours during the day over the weekend (only 4 hours because I figured Lily would get bored and pace in the pen after too long, and also because Jazzy had to be brought in for this, since she eats mares for dinner and I wouldn't be there to watch, and I didn't want to limit Jazzy's turnout unnecessarily).

I had Lily trot on the lunge for a few steps to assess her lameness. There was a slight improvement, but she was still shuffling along on her hind legs, and this freaked me out-I kept seeing something off about her hind legs. Of course I was dumb and didn't check her leg pulses until AFTER walking her, so of course there was  a strong pulse in the left front, and both hinds felt warm. The horses had just been fed grain while I had Lily in the cross ties soaking her foot, which made her antsy (yup, more routine disruption!), so while I was palpating her hind ligaments for the bazillionth time, she wiggled her legs in protest. So of course I didn't sleep much that night, thinking I had a horse with only one sound leg, and the next morning I put a call in to the vet to have him come out on Monday.

Wiggling her lips when I was scratching her neck Friday night. 

She hadn't done this in a long time-I scratched her neck, and she turned her head and scratched my leg. :)

Saturday another slight improvement. Only a little warmth on the left front, no bounding pulse, and no reaction when hind legs palpated. I soaked the foot again after her 30 minute walk. My gut instinct kept telling me that I needed to keep doing this routine, even though it was costing me an hour of sleep a night. (I work on weekends.)

On Sunday, I put her on the cross ties to inspect her before taking her for her walk in the indoor and while looking over her left front, I found this:

Can you see it? This is her left front seen from behind. There is a small red spot right above the coronet band on the inside heel. 

It was very sore to the touch, had give when I pressed on it with a finger, was oozing serosanguineous fluid, and it was a perfectly round little shape, so I knew she had not clipped herself being silly in the pen that day. I didn't dare breathe in relief until I put her on the lunge and had her trot...there was a 75% improvement! YAAAAAAY!!!! She got soaked after, and then I dried her foot off and applied Betadine to it. No wrap-she likes to chafe in precisely that area when her hooves are bandaged.

The vet and my farrier both came out today anyway to check her. My farrier/trimmer tested all 4 of her feet while we waited for the vet to arrive (the vet was running late) and discovered that all FOUR of Lily's hooves are solid and pain-free. She was very happy with this, and agreed about Lily's abscess, and figured this is probably from her bruising herself  after over-reaching. She answered 10 million questions I had on Lily's hooves, her current trim, the length, the unevenness of her fronts, her occasionally standing parked under, etc. I liked her responses and they made sense to me; I felt much better. (You should see her trim job on Jezebel-Jezebel is an OTTB who has been barefoot for the last year! PERFECT feet! And she's a TB!) She has Lily down to be trimmed again on the 27th, but said we can always bump her up if I feel she's getting too long too fast. I just might do that. I think she's ready for another trim NOW, but my trimmer said that she had left her hooves a little long on purpose because she was afraid that with the winter footing, Lily would wear down too much hoof too fast and she didn't want her to be sore.

The vet, Dr. S, arrived almost an hour late (he had been booked solid that day, so I wasn't surprised. They were nice enough to call beforehand and let us know they were running late), and he hadn't been at the barn for more than 5 minutes when he got called for another emergency! BQ had asked him to check Cody, so he took a look at him, and then, to my surprise, took his time with Lily. He had me walk and trot her in straight lines, then lunge her a bit in both directions, and she actually hopped into a canter going to the right! I didn't see a head bob at all today. The vet confirmed she wasn't lame anymore. I mentioned the location of the abscess, and he also agreed that that's what it was. He cut off a bit of her heel under her hoof, trying to create another exit hole for it to drain, but discovered only a teeny tiny hole (literally the size of a speck!) going through to her white line as a tract connecting to the abscess. Dr. S would've had to dig out a lot of hoof to open the abscess more. He felt confident that there wasn't much more fluid left in there, so he left it at that. I was instructed to soak it like I had already been doing, wrap it, and boot her if I wanted to turn her out. I only have to do this for the next 3 days.

Dr. S apologized for this visit not being more eventful, but I told him I totally prefer less eventful visits, which made him laugh. My wallet especially appreciates it!

Stall Rest Sucks

This morning I returned to the barn.  Lily was in her stall having a fit-she was pacing and weaving, calling every time a horse went by. *Sigh*

I put her on the cross-ties, picked her feet and inspected them again. No change. I inspected her legs. No swelling. But the LEFT front was significantly warmer than the left. Her right was ice cold, all the way down to the hoof. Her left, however, was HOT. Hot at the fetlock and all the way down to the hoof. Hmm... I checked her hinds. Both pasterns and hooves felt warm, but not like that left front. Her hinds have always run warm-it's freaked me out in the past. And if you pick up either hind leg and pinch her tendons, she will always have an initial reaction-she doesn't like it. But if you continue to alternately squeeze down the length of her tendons, she stops wiggling the lifted leg. No reaction if palpated while her hooves are on the ground.

I went around again and felt all 4 fetlocks. Warm left hind, warm right hind, cold right front, HOT left front. This time, I caught the digital pulse in her left front. She had a whopping pulse there. Ok-maybe she does have an abscess brewing.

Our resident trainer, Anne, is one of those very rare breeds of horsewoman who combines natural horsemanship and dressage. She owns 2 pretty awesome horses that she boards at our barn (you should see her gelding run around the indoor doing tricks! He's better than most dogs!), and is well-respected by everyone. She keeps to herself, but is happy to give an opinion or help out if asked. Alex, my favorite stable hand, had mentioned the day before that she is really good at pinpointing lameness.

I was thinking about this (I'm starting to think I have psychic powers...), and as if on cue, Anne popped out of the tack room and came over to say hi to Lily (my mare has a pretty significant fan club at the barn) and asked me why was she in her stall. So I explained everything that had happened, mentioned the bounding pulse on the left front. She felt, too, and confirmed the same thing. I asked her if she wouldn't mind taking a look, as I was stumped-the previous day it had seemed like every other leg EXCEPT the left front. Anne seemed surprised but pleased at my request. Our interactions are usually limited to "How are you doing?s" but I love watching her work with her horses, and have been a spectator several times. She teaches natural horsemanship, and at some point I'd love to take lessons with her, too, but Charles's and my joint wallet can barely afford lessons with one trainer (Blaine O, who gave the clinic at our barn a couple of months ago; he just moved with Dr. O to PA, but he will be coming back to MD twice a month to give lessons.)

Anne had me trot Lily out, and she was head bobbing a little on straight lines. She quickly said, "Left front". She trotted her out for me so I could see. Yup, left front all right, specifically in the push-off phase of the stride. Anne said she thinks it's her medial (inside) portion of that foot, too-she had her trot on the lunge to the left, and she was slightly lame, just like she is going straight. She explained that if it's the inside of the foot, she'll be MORE sore going to the right, because she has to push off specifically with that part of her left hoof. Which she was. Anne thinks it might be a stone bruise near her heel, or maybe an abscess about to rupture. If it's a bruise, she'll be like this for a week or so, but if the horse is very whimpy about pain, it can be longer. If it's an abscess, it will get worse before it ruptures.

This made me feel so much better. I thanked Anne profusely for her time and opinion, and took Lily up the driveway to let her graze.

Looking longingly at the herd in the big field

After about 20 minutes, I took her over to the round pen and let her loose. Jazzy, the mare in the adjoining turnout, eats other mares for dinner. She used to be turned out with Leo, the ancient miniature donkey, and would be extremely aggressive if any other horses, especially mares, came in close proximity. I think she was protective of Leo. Leo passed away about 2 months ago, and Jazzy is currently turned out by herself. I had a feeling she would not react this time to Lily being in the round pen, and I was right-she stayed at the far end of the turnout, munching on her hay, and never even came over to investigate. I watched for about 15 minutes, then went into the barn to set up to soak Lily's foot, stopping every once in awhile to poke my head out to make sure Jazzy was staying far away. She did.

Staring at the other horses in the turnouts across the way

Staring at the driveway. She really didn't eat much grass while she was out here, but at least she got to be out of her stall for a bit.

After almost half an hour, I brought Lily back in, and soaked her front left hoof. The foot is certainly ouchy-she didn't like the warm water on it,  and tried unsuccessfully to get the soaking boot off. Eventually she settled.

For good measure, I put Surpass on her hind fetlocks, and put standing wraps on. Just because I'm paranoid, and it can't hurt. After soaking Lily's hoof for 20 minutes, I dried it off and packed that and both hinds with Magic Cushion. Cody is currently splitting the medical paddock with Finnigan, the gorgeous new OTTB, and Cody was inside while Finn had his turn, so BQ had suggested I put Lily in the uninhabited stall across the way, so she'd at least feel like she had some company.

No such luck. The minute she went in the stall, she became very restless, pacing and calling. *sigh* I'll be back later this afternoon to take her out and check her again.

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.

Trot On!!

Schneider's posted that one on their Facebook page, and I just had to share, because I think it's so accurate...especially in my own personal life! *lol* Though I can now substitute "What I actually do" for this:

Cuz we're on full board now (no more needing to shovel poop, though this will mean I will have to start hitting the gym for real again...) and this is really what we felt like today. Like we were Edward Gal and Totilas. :D

That still falls under the category of "What I think I do", but whatever. *lol*

Today I brought Lily in from the medical paddock and tacked her up in one of the wash rack stalls. I'm not sure why, but she hates the wash rack. I'm going to just have to leave her tied there one day while I clean tack across the way or something, to just allow her to get used to it in peace.

I think part of it is that she can't see the other horses when she's tied there. She kept fidgeting restlessly, pooping nervously, and trying to look behind herself. All that is behind her is a wall. Granted, John was picking up manure with the excavator down the aisle next door, and maybe the roar of heavy machinery was reverberating from the wall behind her. But even after John was done, Lily kept fidgeting. However, if I walked away, she got worse, and the ladies talking and tacking up in the wash stall area expressed their concern when I came back from fetching my bridle from my locker. After that I stayed, and Lily reduced her wiggling to simply side passing from left to right and back again.

"I know there are horse-eating monsters behind that wall, Mom!"

I groomed her and got her tacked up, then walked her into the indoor. She was very forward at the walk, trying to walk in front of me, and I had to stop her and have her back up a couple of times on the way to the mounting block. However, once I was on, she was back to being her usual laid-back self, even when John drove the excavator in by the stalls at the far end to pick up manure. Lily didn't care.

A small group of boarders gathered at the gate to the indoor to watch us, as everyone had been dying to see Lily go. I warmed her up as usual at the walk, then had her move up into a trot. Definetely a medium trot. I had her do shoulder-ins at the trot in both directions, which proved to be a lot easier for her than back at the arena in FL. No more tail swishing when asking for it either, and the only time she lost momentum was when I lost the strength to hold myself up and out of her way. BIG improvement in her, and I've done nothing to cause it-she had a 3 week break, and all I did today was basically stay with her without interfering. I think part of it is also that my own body has had a 2 week break from my grueling work schedules which means that for the first time in a very long time, nothing hurts, nothing is tight, so it's a thousand times easier to flow with her.

We did our leg-yield serpentine at a walk, from one end of the arena to the other and back, then halt, and up into a trot. Lily's trot was FORWARD. Not fast with quick little steps-FORWARD. Down the long side of the arena, around the corner, and across the diagonal, and holy Batman-today she came the closest she has ever come to giving me real extensions. She arched her neck happily, ears relaxed, and surged up and forward. It felt like Lily had grown an extra hand, and I could feel her front legs flipping forward and up. Not only that, I never had to change the beat of my posting to maintain her going like this-I was actually getting a split second pause at the top of the posting motion, her stride was THAT long. I don't think I've ever felt this in any horse I've ridden before. We kept going around the opposite corner, and off across the diagonal again. We did this several times, just because we could, me grinning like an idiot.

We did other things, adding circles at each end of the arena before crossing the diagonal again, and then we took a walk break. I did some collected trot with her and more trot-halt-trot transitions, then finished with a long walk on a loose rein.

Everybody said Lily looked good and asked me how did she feel. I said she felt fantastic! I know the Simple Boots probably have something to do with this change as well-even when walking next to me with them on, she is definetely landing heel first, which I'm sure is contributing to this wonderful new trot of hers. No one ooohed and aaahed over her wonderful extended trot, so I'm assuming we didn't look like Edward and Totilas after all... *lol*

I untacked her in the wash rack, then moved her to one of the cross ties in the barn aisle, where she immediately stood still -no fidgeting- while I put away her tack and got out her brushes. I gave her a good grooming, then took her outside for a walk. Jose, one of the stable hands, was blowing the area in front of the gate to the medical paddock, so I took Lily to the outdoor arena, and we practiced walking over the bridge again, then having her wait, standing there, until I gave her permission to come to me.




Such a good girl!!

 I then took her over to this, which was a much greater challenge:

It is kind of a see-saw concept. Only about 2.5' wide, when a horse steps on one end, the opposite end does come up about an inch or two from the ground. Lily did not want to walk on it at all and tried to play dumb, but I treated the situation like we were practicing trailer loading on a ramp, and rewarded her every time she put a foot on the boards. Soon, she was crossing diagonally over the see-saw, all 4 feet touching it, and after that I was able to get her to walk over it length-wise. She pricked her ears and put her head down when she saw the opposite side of the see-saw come up a bit, but she walked forward without prompting. I had her stop right after, and praised her profusely. We left it at that.

We then walked and trotted over ground poles, and kind of just hung out in the arena. She would occassionally stare at the horses in the turnouts, but she was much more relaxed than the day before, and soon she wasn't paying the horses around her any mind at all. Hopefully I can ride her in the outdoor sometime soon-it's supposed to get warmer this weekend.

Pretty girl!

We never did get snow last night, only some rain in Alexandria. It dropped into the 20s last night, but both Lily and I are enjoying the cold. I'm still mystified that she is not showing the slightest hint of a winter coat, when last year I had to body clip her between September and October. Today it was in the low 50s when I arrived at the barn at 11:00am, and Lily had been turned out with her stable blanket. When I took her into the barn to groom her and tack up, I discovered she had just a hint of sweat around her shoulders from the blanket. In my case, I was wearing a thermal shirt and a cotton turtleneck, plus a lightly insulated jacket-first time since we got here that I've worn less than 4 layers!- and I ended up taking off the jacket while I was grooming Lily. I didn't feel the need to put it back on until shortly before leaving, when the temperature started to drop again. Meanwhile, all of the other boarders, the vast majority of them northerners, were wearing jackets and hoodies...and I'm the one that hails from a tropical climate. And Charles didn't believe me when I told him I'd get used to the cold a lot quicker than I could ever get used to the heat I'd lived in my entire life. *lol* We stopped by the barn the night before Dr. O's recheck to wrap Lily's foot one last time, and Charles, wearing 2 jackets, a wool cap, and my gloves, was shivering while I did Lily's bandage, happy and comfortable in my one jacket (Yes, I had 3 layers under the jacket, but all of them were thin layers). I didn't let him hear the end of that one for a few days! ;)

After our little bit of groundwork, I turned Lily out, then brought Beauty, the little black pony mare, out to keep her company. Initially, Beauty had chased Lily, always making sure Lily stayed at the opposite end of the paddock. Everyone seemed to be a lot more bothered by this than Lily and me. Lily is used to being the subordinate, and as long as the other horse isn't actively trying to hurt her, she has no problem respecting their wishes. BQ and I watched Lily get chased by Beauty the other day to her corner of the field, then Lily proceeded to run around and buck several times happily, simply enjoying the fact that she was out and free. I knew this about my mare, and I actually preferred that Beauty wasn't being sweet to Lily (as long as she wasn't beating her up), as it would mean my girl would become herdbound otherwise.

The mares' relationship has changed over the past couple of days, however-Beauty, who used to prefer geldings turned out with her, has suddenly stopped occassionally chasing Lily, and they are now coexisting peacefully. I stayed to watch after I put Beauty out, and saw her walk over to Lily. They looked at each other for a minute, then Beauty walked on past Lily, without pinning her ears at her at all. Lily gave her a certain degree of personal space, but she is not being relegated to the opposite end of the paddock any more. I went back to the barn to clean my tack, and this is what I found when I walked out to the car.

Grazing only about 5 feet apart

Yup, they are definetely friends now.

I left the barn at 2:00pm and still managed to get stuck in the very beginnings of traffic on 495. But the reward for waiting to take the GW is always worth it:

As a kid, October was my favorite month because even in Texas, this was the height of autumn. I had missed this so, so much. I don't think I could ever tire of seeing the golden, red and copper trees of fall.

First Ride

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!!!

Dr. O came today in the afternoon and rechecked Lily: she found her bruised foot to be 85% better (that was the number she gave), and cleared us for riding! She said only 1 more week of the Simple Boots for turnout and riding, which will end just in time for the trimmer appointment. She was thrilled with Lily's improvement: no more bounding pulses on her right front, and she was very happy with how well the bruises have healed up (yay me!). Lily even walked completely and 100% comfortably on the concrete, barefoot, for the doctor, too.

After the recheck, I put Lily's boots on and then took her for the long walk I'd been itching to give her from the get-go! I took her down to the outdoor arena, where in one of the corners they have a couple of trail class-type obstacles, and eventually convinced her to walk over the "bridge". We then walked over ground poles, then I took her for a 5 minute walk down the trail, only up to the point where the barn falls out of sight. Then we returned and I took her to the square pen, and set her loose to see what she'd do. I clucked to get her to trot, and she went a couple of times around in each direction, tossing her head, but no bucks or wild galloping around. She seemed "up" and relaxed at the same time, a new kind of mental state in her that I hadn't really seen before. Heather, another boarder, who owns Nate, Lily's handsome neighbor, a bay TB-type gelding, came over with her husband to introduce us and show him Lily. Heather and her hubs are triathletes-they are incredibly fit. Heather reminds me of Ines in the way she works with Nate: lots of magical groundwork, and that special quality of horse & owner relationship that borders on telepathy.

Afterwards, I took Lily over to the indoor and walked her around. During all of this time, I had been debating whether I dared ride my mare after 3 weeks of no riding, with no prior lunging on top of that, during one of the coldest days of the season so far (we had snow flurries in the forecast for both DC and MD that night!) The stable hands had a giant flatbed trailer in the indoor stacked with hay, that they began to unload with a forklift, and then proceeded to move the hay over to the loft above the stalls at the far end of the arena. Lily seemed only slightly bothered by the noise and machinery, so I took this as an opportunity to do groundwork with her. Ironically, her main distraction was Nate, whom Heather had just led past the indoor on their way to the outdoor arena. I was having a hard time getting her attention back after that, so, remembering one of Hempfling's tips, while holding Lily at the end of the lead rope, I gave a big hop straight up in the air. This startled Lily so much that she took off at a gallop in a circle around me, throwing in a buck. After the one circle, she immediately came to a stop in front of me, "Mom! What was that?!". I laughed at her, but right away she became distracted by the horses outside again. I gave another hop. She threw her head back, then took a step towards me, looking bewildered. After that, I had no problem keeping her attention. We did shoulder in, side pass, trot from a standstill-halt-back up until Lily started anticipating the backing up, then did a review of personal space, since, after having been spoiled for a week prior to our arrival in DC, Lily had stopped respecting that bubble of space around people. We then did several step & twirl repetitions, where she remained absolutely calm throughout. I was very happy with her.

Dr. O and BQ were both at the wash stall next to the indoor, observing Dr. S rechecking Murmur, the mare with the eye ulcer and soft tissue injuries on one of her front legs. I led Lily over to ask Dr. O if she thought it was okay to ride Lily today. She said it was fine, as long as it was in the arena.

So I tacked up. I took Lily over to the indoor and mounted up. She nuzzled my left foot for a minute, "Oh, it's you." then promptly stepped forward when I asked her to walk. She was a little skittish starting out, despite BQ being in the arena at this point hand-walking her horse Cody. At this point, Alex, the head stable hand, showed up with one of the tractors to water the arena. I dismounted and both BQ and I led our horses out so he could do his job-the indoor was indeed VERY dusty. Afterwards, I got back on, but had a brainfart: I didn't think they'd be back, but Alex returned with the drag. Initially he said that he could go grain the horses and return so I wouldn't have to dismount again, but I told him it was okay-this way he could just finish up since he'd already gone and brought the drag over. Plus the footing would be so much better after!

So I dismounted a second time and waited with Lily outside while Alex finished the arena. It was perfect after that, and after my 3rd time getting on, Lily didn't care anymore: she felt just like she used to back in FL.

We had a very, very good ride. We did a long warm-up at the walk, simply because she was offering a long, swinging gait, then we did some shoulder-in in both directions, 20m circles, some travers, and turns on the haunches. Not a lot, just enough to see how she was doing and finish warming her up. I could see both of our breaths' vapor in the quiet air of the indoor. I had missed that-in South FL, even when it gets cold, you very very rarely see the vapor of your breath. Now, in Tampa it was a different story: during my 6:00am rides in the winter before work, I'd exercise the horses in the big jump field and watch their breath steam in the air like the smoke from a locomotive.

When I asked Lily to trot, she stepped forward comfortably. I gotta say I have rapidly fallen in love with those Simple Boots! Not only was Lily comfortable, but as she warmed up and relaxed more (she was a little iffy about the sounds of the horses in the 2 corner stalls adjacent to the arena crunching their grain, and she was a little leery of the small mirror to the left of the indoor gate to the outside), she arched her neck on a loose rein and extended happily. We had a great workout. I even had her canter a half circle in each direction, just to see how she felt, and to get any bucks out. She put her head down once, but did not offer to buck. However, she did invert at the canter-I think her foot is not yet recovered enough to be cantering. So we will wait for the Eponas before we do any more canter work. Even so, after the little bit of canter, she still was willing to zoom around at her medium trot, and stretch down at the walk during our breaks. I gave her a lot of walk breaks on a loose rein, and felt her back REALLY come UP and swing towards the end. Very, very nice! The last remaining rider, a middle-aged woman I'd just met, stopped by to watch before heading out, and complimented Lily's movement. I stopped to talk to her, and discovered she is a pediatrician! So I told her about Charles and she gave me the names of all of the good hospitals in the area, but confirmed that Georgetown is definetely one of the best here.

It was a truly awesome day, and a terrific first ride at our new barn!

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?"