Summer Camp Days

Moving to this mini-farm I gained something non-horse related I've never had before, a pool! The kids and I have taken full advantage of it, our pool is completely worth the work it takes to maintain. I feel like I live at a summer camp, swimming during the day, horseback riding at night. 

Since the show, I've just ridden the boys around the pasture with the bareback pad until tonight. Between time for Bandon's shoulder injury from Whisper to heal, waiting on 2 new girths in the mail that fit Czech, and pop-up storms when Chris is home, an arena ride just hasn't come together.

We've gotten used to having Czech around, perking up and nickering whenever I come in. Merry, the barn cat, has not gotten used to his length of neck though. She still jumps out of her skin when he reaches down and touches her since none of the other horses can. 

This morning Czech met my farrier and stood for him just about perfectly, on a loose rope. He was almost too perfect, the pessimist in me was wondering if he would show his ugly side under saddle.

He didn't.

Wow. 

He is a completely different horse to ride than Bandon and I think that's good to help make me a better rider.

The horses and I are out of shape from our time off and I see a lot of flat work in our future. I specifically want to strengthen my lower leg so that when Czech surges off the ground way away from the base of the jump, I'm not losing my leg. Bandon seemed like he enjoyed his one on one time with me again and I was impressed that Czech rode while all the other horses were in the barn calling, without an issue.

Sweating through twice daily barn chores in the oppressive humidity it's easy to forget the fun side of a great ride that comes with having horses. 

The weather forecast looks good and the arena is freshly mowed for a week of more fun with the bay boys. Hopefully this coming week Whisper will have improvement as well. Being on paddock turnout she is very sore on the injured hind leg. She's on stall rest again for a little while to heal that tendon inflammation (I'm hopeful that's all it is) and allow us to get her back out again.  

Whisper's Healing And Other Farm News

Whisper has been on pasture rest after being released from her 90 day stint on stall rest for the tendon injury in January. This is how that leg looks today.

We've lowered the shoe for the last time, in 3 weeks she will go flat and be able to put her heel down and fully extend the healed tendon.

She moves okay on it, we've had some setbacks with lameness. The hind leg that was injured a year ago, has grown down, it's holding together well though the deformity from the scarring at the band will always be there. A "normal" hoof can't grow out of that type of scar ever.

She is happy on her pasture rest lifestyle and I hope she just lets things be. From what I understand about this type of injury is that re-injury is highly likely with use and could be crippling.

Spotlight is fat. Really fat. Special ordering a pony-sized grazing muzzle kind of chunky. His job as pony-ride giver isn't giving him enough exercise and to be truthful, I don't enjoy riding him anymore than he enjoys toting my oversized pony-jockey body around. The longe line and he are starting to be friends in an effort to shape up a bit.

He's still better with kids than with any adult, exactly what he's supposed to be, and we love him for it. He is happy to give my one-year-old niece a pony ride then stand dozing while kids tug all over him to brush him.

Toad will be here before we know it. His coggins was pulled Friday and his feet were done the week before, so I've just got to get back out there to get him picked up!

90 Days, Whisper's Sprung!

Whisper is 90 days out on the injury that severed the majority of her deep flexor tendon. She's been on 100% stall rest since then. Last week she had her special shoe changed out to one that was a lower rise and safe for pasture use.

The skin wound is almost completely healed, there is only one hole, about the size of the tip of my thumb, that needs to close up. Moving sound, Whisper was cleared for leaving the stall.

It was a day we were excited about and dreading. If she tore the tendon again or did more damage to the leg running, it would be much more devastating than before. I handwalked her outside to graze for the first time and she began to self-longe, running circles around me even with the chain over her nose. Asking for control she began to rear and strike out with her front feet. I decided if the leg was sound enough that she could rear on it then trot without any hint of lameness, we were ready.

The next day I wrapped the leg up in a polo wrap and set her out with the boys, hoping she wouldn't damage Bandon kicking him or damage herself. Predictably, there was a lot of running at first.

Rolling was good too, she rolled 7 times in a row.

A few times the wind stirred them up to be silly again, still her leg was moving sound.

After 2 days on turnout, she did come back up a little lame. Nothing major, just obviously sore, I'm expecting a few days to be like that.

I took Bandon riding after all of this major change and reviews are mixed. He lost it in the crossties when Whisper was still out and I had him in the barn. I'm installing a hitch on the outside of the barn later today for tacking him up next time. I wouldn't call him studdish while she's in this super-strong first season of Spring, just a boy with a boy brain who was oblivious to me in his pursuit to get back to his mare.

Once I had him in the arena, he could see Whisper and settled in for a ride. We started steps for jump training with my new jump poles, unfortunately I learned that setting a straight line of correctly spaced poles while you're holding the reins of your goofy boy horse isn't easy. I couldn't tell my line was off until I was on him.

Whoops. Oh well, we made it work and damned if he didn't touch a  hoof on a pole. I dreamed last night I was riding him and he just glided over fences like floating over the top of a wave in the ocean.

Between that and looking out my window at 3 very content ponies, I'm happy happy happy (the only cleaning stalls once a day instead of three times - around a crazed mare - is an added bonus, that was a LONG 90 days).

54 Days

Here's the new normal.

5:30 am: bring Spotlight in, feed everyone, hay everyone and the pasture if it's really cold, clean Bandon and Whisper stalls, fill stall waters, turn out Bandon

Noon : Pick Spotlight and Whisper's stalls. Love on Spotlight who is always enjoying a stall nap by then.

7:30 pm : Bring Bandon in, Feed, check waters, clean Spot and Whisper stalls, hay, turn out Spot. Groom.

This was working okay, Whisper always had company and we're getting through. The biggest drawback going into month #3 was for the horse on turnout. They were out alone and getting really jumpy. Spotlight spooked almost every morning as I went to bring him in. Bandon was painfully lonely, spending most of his time by the barn gate instead of out grazing. Today at noon I hadn't seen him leave that spot since morning turnout.

I decided to put Spotlight back out. I don't know if it's the right thing to do and I'll keep and eye on Whisper, my concern is that I'm starting to sacrifice the mental welfare of the entire herd to help ease one.

It was a happy reunion.

Tomorrow Whisper's special shoe gets lowered by a little less than half, next week the bandage should come off for good, and in 29 days (barring complication) she'll go to pads on that foot and begin limited turnout. Maybe she'll be good about the boys being out together, they really needed it.

Horseshoes & Tattoos, 31 Days Out

We've crossed the 30 day mark since Whisper's injury. The wound itself is looking good and we've dodged infection while scarring (tendon healing) is forming. Odds are growing steadily in our favor to have a pasture-sound horse at the end of this. My vet is staying on top of her healing process the whole way, probably deserving extra points for handling a slightly neurotic TB *cough* owner *cough* as well.

She's graduated from the rolled-up casting and tape heel elevator, to one fashioned out of steel.. Keeping her toe down and heel up will keep the tendon in the best position to heal.

The bars on this shoe are fashioned so that they can fairly easily be cut to gradually lower the heel down over time, hopefully keeping the tendon from healing too tightly while providing enough support that the tendon isn't stretched while weak. With the shoe on, she's moving at a walk like a sound horse.

Obviously, this is a strictly stall-rest-only shoe. Stall rest is becoming more difficult for Whisper and it hurts my heart to see her sometimes exhibiting neurological behaviors like weaving, chewing, and spinning. The radio is on 12 hours a day and she has company at all times. A few times a week she won't allow me in her stall to pick as she works up into a full episode of spinning, When she's like that, we're better off leaving her to work it out and coming back later to clean. As of today, she's been cleared to start walking the barn aisle (the same shavings/dirt combo as her stall to keep the shoe stable) with me.

Bandon and Spotlight are showing signs of her confinement taking a toll on them too. The lack of herd interaction while they are on solo turnout shows when I handle them. Rain is back soaking our area and preventing me from getting in much riding in anyway so it's just a strange sort of vacation for everyone. Daylight Savings is the most anticipated "holiday" of the year for horse folk and I'm counting the days.

While we wait out a dry out, I had a tattoo done to represent my beloved Thoroughbreds. I searched a long time to find just the right image. The day after sitting for the tattoo, I saw a photo Boss Mare Photography took of Bandon and I couldn't believe the resemblance. It wasn't meant to be a portrait, more a likeness of a TB that could be gray or bay with a star since both of mine have one, it turned out a LOT like my bay baby horse.

Whisper's Accident

The long drenching winter rain had finally stopped and the arena was showing signs of beginning to dry, I was starting to have delusions of working my Thoroughbreds again after weeks off.

Whisper's hoof injury from 8 months ago had healed and grown down far enough that she was now all clear to start building muscle up again on that side of her body. I had plans for a horse chiropractor to come out and get her ready to start work. We'd start with ground exercises and build up to my new cavaletti. Whisper was going to get a job and learn how to channel all of that energy to the same direction I was moving. A local trainer was going to begin giving us lessons together once groundwork was done. By Fall, we would be a team under saddle.

That was the plan.

Yesterday, we had ice storm warnings all day. School was closed and as temperatures dropped and the rain began freezing to ice pellets, it made sense to leave the horses safe and warm in stalls all day. A little extra hay and the radio on, they were just fine.

I went to do chores this morning expecting them to be a little high from their confinement the day before, Spotlight bit at my coat and my rake trying desperately to get me to play while I cleaned his stall. After I was done with him, I went to Whisper's.

I cleaned her stall while she finished her breakfast, my wheelbarrow, already full of Spot's stall stuff, blocked her stall door. She paced back and forth between the wheelbarrow and taking bites from her feed pan, like she always did. When I was finished cleaning her stall I pushed the wheelbarrow forward so I could pull the door shut and take her blanket off.

I always do this, this routine of cleaning first, then taking blankets off. The wheelbarrow is always in the middle of the aisle for just this moment of the day so that I can get the blankets back on the blanket racks.

Back in Whisper's stall, I pulled the door closed behind me. Her door sticks firm on the threshold, a convenient thing since I'm too short to latch the dutch door on the outside while I'm in the stall.Whisper stood still at the door while I went to do her blanket buckle. One second I was beside Whisper, the next she was launching forward into the stall door, bursting it open, leaving the stall at a canter.

It would have been okay, if the wheelbarrow hadn't been there. She missed it as she left the stall, but once she reached the end of the barn (closed gate) and spun to run back up the aisle, she ran straight through it. She could have easily gone around it, I still don't know what made her choose to see it and run through it.

She took out the wheelbarrow with her front legs and as it fell to it's side, it trapped her rear legs. She panicked and thrashed. One leap and she was free of the whole thing. Blood was everywhere, she trembled as I approached her and put her halter on. As soon as the halter was on she felt safe and dropped her head down, yanking her rear leg up. Blood splattering.

I called the vet and he was 40 minutes out. I wrapped her up in a brand new polo wrap and put her back in the stall, called a babysitter since my husband is away on a 4 day trip, and tried not to lose it.

After 4 sedatives and numbing the leg, the vet was able to assess it.

Whisper's laceration cut through her skin, muscle, the tendon sheath covering, and severed 2/3 of the deep flexor tendon. The sheath covering on the tendon removed, and partially cut, the tendon extended out of her leg like a popped rubber band (that's the white coiled up thing in the photo).

2 hours worth of surgery to the leg, we are hoping for the best. Best case scenario, we can keep it free of infection and keep her off it to allow the tendon to heal in as small a scar tissue mess as possible. If all goes completely right, she may be sound on that leg one day for light riding, jumping is out of the question.

A lot can go wrong. Infection is the main concern. In our favor is the fact that we addressed it immediately, the wound was fresh and we got it flushed and antibiotics on board. Against us is Whisper. She required repeated sedation during the sutures even though she had no feeling in the leg. I lost count. At one point she broke my lead rope.

After all of this sedation, walking her in-hand back to the barn she refused to move slower than a jig that was trying desperately to break into a trot. She also jumped a ditch.

We boostered her tetanus, the leg is wrapped up, and the hoof has a modified heel elevator on it. If her heel stays up off the ground, the tendon stays un-flexed and more likely to heal. If that heel goes down, it would all tear apart.

Whisper will be on stall rest at least 6 weeks and possibly much longer. The vet comes out to do another IM antibiotic and check her on Tuesday. So many things can go wrong we have to stay on top of this. She screamed from the barn so loud we could hear her in the house, for 3 hours. I couldn't take anymore after that and took the kids out on a previously promised zoo trip.

Now that I've had time to process what happened I am passed the sad stage and onto fury. I don't understand. I really don't understand why this stuff keeps happening. I swear I am doing everything I know to do and injuries just keep going.

Grooming her tonight, I apologized to Whisper again for having not done the wheelbarrow first. I didn't expect a horse in the aisle so I simply hadn't moved it. Stupid error.

Bandon also got a heart to heart from me tonight. I hope he handles pressure well, all of my eggs are now officially in his basket. He was nice enough to let me fall apart a little then.

I hope to be lucky enough to ride Whisper again, I hope to be lucky enough to keep loving her for a whole lot of years no matter what. Looking back on our jumping start I was so sure was the beginning of something great, stings.

I saw horses alongside a backroad as I was driving back from the zoo tonight. Four of them crowded together pushing into their strand barbwire fence until it bowed under their weight as they reached for a cow-quality roundbale. I was struck by how people keep their horses in a careless way and never see the injuries Whisper and I have weathered. It is just too much.

Farm Girls Do It Better

Having the ability to walk out into a cold night under a sky so full of stars it feels like they will start dripping on you; just to go see your clean, fuzzy horses and feed them an apple before bed, is amazing. It comes with a price above and beyond the purchase of the space, that little thing that is lovingly called sweat equity.

Okay, maybe I make farm upkeep a teeny bit harder by being *slightly* OCD and liking things done instead of seeing them sitting on a to-do list.

Things like getting rid of 4 truck loads of garbage from the barn and pasture, distributing a dirt pile that was longer than I am tall and 4 feet high, leveling out stall floors that are clay based and don't want to hold, getting water from the house and up the hill to the barn, killing 20 wasps, sweeping up remains of rats, and cleaning out the masses of spider webs. The house list was even longer and my list of things I can do (garage door hardware installation, doorbell replacement, etc.) grows every day....but this is about horses and you really don't want to hear about mild electrocutions and forgetting to tie my hair back before operating a drill.

The barbwire fence enclosing 5 acres will be coming down next week (and given to a bobcat operator who moved all the dirt for me for barbwire payment) and this will turn into my new fence.

The farrier in our area came out today to trim Ben and do Whisper's shoes. He was good with them both and they stood nicely in return. Added bonus, the farrier used to ride here with the previous property owners (who apparently worked roping horses but went through them like candy) and told me how great the footing is in the riding ring, under all of the over growth there now, including an arena drainage system. Score!

After the fence goes up, some gates get replaced, some gates get painted, barn doors are made, stall walls are filled in, and winter hits, I should be ready to take on the beginning of a dream... stay tuned.

I want it all quickly 'cause I don't want God to stop and think and wonder if I'm getting more than my share - Velvet Brown

July Strides

A year has been spent working "whoa" and "easy" so lately I've changed my riding focus because frankly we are both sick of it. Post injury Whisper has taken to hitting a trot the second I'm in the saddle, we collect, and then we just go.

Working corners, bending, leg pressures, releases, collection, and I'm not focused what the pace is (though I'm encouraging her to slow by getting behind the motion). Riding her at a full gallop doesn't even make my heart race anymore. It's just her and she's with me and we are together. Still singing to stay in the impulsion of the moment instead of letting over-thinking get in the way.

She's going to have to learn more of the finer points of collection as we advance, okay okay... I am going to have to learn a lot more about the finer points of collection too... chicken arms and forward shoulders sabotage me every time. My dreams are leaning heavily towards seeing what this mare can do jumping to give her a direction and solid job. 

When the wounds are 100% healed starts the time to work sequences of low cross bars with ground poles between. Here we are 9 weeks out, crossing fingers time will eliminate the need for flesh to be removed. She's carrying herself well though she falls in (probably due a lot to lack of muscle) when arching to that side so we've limited rides to short sessions to gradually bring her back.

Whisper's getting through the unrelenting heat with cold hose soaks, watermelon snacks, stall fan during the day turnout at night, and gatorade dumped in her dinner. When she's worried about me she is kind enough to shake water in my direction like a thousand pound dog. She's also perfected angling her head just right so her body completely deflects the hose back into my boots, is proficient at making a breeze for me by spooking and running by, and once she stepped on the hose where I couldn't see and then she moved just as I went to check it... if all else fails to cool me off there's the good old fashioned surprise horsey sneeze in the face. She's a thoughtful beast.

"If the world were truly a rational place, men would ride side-saddle" Rita Mae Brown

Days Go By And Turn Into Weeks

A year ago tomorrow, I was gearing up for my first real ride on Whisper. Then she stone bruised and abscessed leaving me without a sound horse for months. June 2011 was our first arena ride, our first ride lasting longer than 10 minutes, and our first real solo ride.

This year I was hoping for another awesome June milestone since we'd made so much progress through Spring. Instead, I'm 5 weeks in on an injury. Twice daily drives out to the barn to treat the foot are paying off since she's moving absolutely perfect. It's a waiting game as we see what the hoof is going to do with growth.

Rear Injury 5 Weeks Post

Front Leg Injury 5 Weeks Post

We've had a lot of time to hang out with each other, play around, and do not a whole lot of anything. The cool early summer evenings are going by while I get caught up on house stuff or go out running dogs. It's hard to settle for that, I miss watching the sun go down every night from the best vantage point (short of a pier) there is.

Meanwhile, my daughter Sage has finished up with ballet and turned her attention to horses. She's taking lessons and already making progress.

My youngest three are also budding equestrians, they came downstairs like this telling me they were ready to go ride Whisper and Scooter.

Gratitude

As I'm not-so-patiently waiting on Whisper's injuries to heal and her hoof to grow, I've been lucky enough to ride Scooter. Scooter is the horse that took me on a safe trip for the 10k race and also one of the mounts I had at the IEA show.  He's an awesome school horse who's steady, has a good sense of humor, speed when he feels like you're balancing well with him, jumps reliably even if you get in front of the motion, and is affectionate when he bonds to you. I'm getting spoiled falling in love with the sweet natured gelding.

Trail rides with an alert but safe horse, bareback rides in the evening with any and every horse nearby, and enjoying riding with friends, playing with him like I remember playing with my horses as a kid.

At the end of the day though, I'm missing riding my own horse.

I might spend my whole life chasing what I'm looking for with Whisper, but I couldn't trade that now for anything. Then again, maybe that's just easy to say when I'm soaring over jumps on the back of a wonderful little gray gelding.

"By the time you've had a relationship with a horse for awhile, there are characteristics in the way the horse behaves with you and around you and responds to you that are directly (related) to some of your traits as a human being. Whether it's insecurity or aggression or fear or hate. Horses are a mirror for our souls and they never lie" Buck Brannaman

If They Were Easy, Everyone Would Have One

Yesterday it rained and postponed our lesson, today it was in the 70's, gorgeous outside, and I'd had it up to here with the 12 hour Mommy shifts I was pulling during potty training of our youngest three. I was balancing precariously on the brink of losing all that was left of my sanity as a human.

Chris came out to the barn to help with the kids so I could focus on riding my girl. I got to her stall and there it was. A dark shadow of something all over her back leg and covering her hoof. Her stall was full of shadows with the lights off for the heat of the day, so I was still hopeful it was mud.

She limped to the wash rack. It wasn't mud.

Thick dried blood caked her fetlock while fresh blood still dripped down a hoof that looked torn and splintered. No. No no no! My mind raced to hoof injury, top of hoof, time to grow down and repair... I'd just lost my horse to expensive treatments and healing for months. Her whole leg was swollen and hot.

Standing in my riding clothes, half chaps and all, I tried not to cry. I was able to get it hosed off and clean the blood away while we waited for the vet to arrive.

After sedation, she debrided the wound, and was able to give us an idea of what we were looking at. It appeared that Whisper had gotten hung up on something in the pasture the night before and judging by the soft tissue swelling and capped hock, fought. The hoof damage we thought was awful wasn't as bad as it looked since the tissue over it was so swollen it distorted our view.

Whisper has to stay stalled for 3 days, Bute for inflammation, and an antibiotic. She's in a pressure wrap and with a steroid silver cream mix applied often we're hoping to avoid proud flesh.

By Monday we'll do films if the lameness isn't markedly better. If proud flesh occurs, vet will come back to evaluate. The damage to the growing hoof will have to just be assessed as we go over the next few months.

Day 2

Playing nursemaid to a 1000 pound patient is not the easiest job, especially when the patient is confined, hot blooded, and fast to kick. I figured out a system for cleaning, treating, and wrapping the wound after mild sedatives and 2 helpers failed miserably the first morning she wasn't fully sedated.

I also happened to take off her bell boots to clean since she had mud on her ankles slightly visible above the boots. This was under the boot, under the mud, on the left front.

It's clear now she was trapped in something Wednesday night during turn out. Luckily the front foot wound didn't cause any lameness, is healing well, and I've already got the right stuff on hand to treat it. I've also started treating the rain rot that is coming up all over her legs.

Turn out on Saturday night is going to be a must so that she doesn't do more damage pacing small circles all night in her stall. She's rubbed her tail and her mane badly and Ace isn't taking the edge off.

Horses Are Not For The Weak-Stomached

Whisper's hock injury sure presented as a soft tissue injury from stall kicking, unfortunately, that's not what it turned out to be.

Monday morning : Whisper was found to have some swelling in her right hock and was lame by the morning shift. I felt the leg, no marks, no bumps, no lumps, just general swelling and warmth. Bute to reduce inflammation. Turn-out. Assumed soft tissue injury from kicking or something silly.

Monday evening : Moving well, swelling down.

Wednesday morning : Looks stiff, moving loose through pasture at all 3 gaits though. Re-shod the shoe she threw and had no issues bearing weight on that leg to support another held up.

Thursday morning : pronounced lameness back in the leg

Thursday evening : Little stiff, choosing to trot and canter in pasture at will.

Friday morning : hard time getting out of stall, took a few tries to try and get her leg to flex up 3 inches to get over the stall threshold to go out.

Saturday morning : had a friend warm/cold hose the leg, she also examined and saw/felt nothing except the warmth and puffiness we'd seen so far.

Saturday evening : a small amount of liquid was seen at her hock. I started poking around and more clear amber non-smelly fluid seeped. Moving around some hair on the leg to see where it was coming from, hair and skin sloughed off in my hand. Wound is pink and flat with rest of flesh, cleaned, and treated with nitrofurazone. Thoroughly confused as to what's going on, not even a pimple felt on Monday that would indicate a puncture that healed over and is now abscessing, but it's possible a small hole was missed before then.

Sunday morning : horses left up due to extreme weather so I didn't drive out to see her until later. She didn't eat all of her breakfast even though she was in all day.

Sunday evening : Quarter size wound is now brick red and half dollar size. Fluid, clear to amber, continues to seep. Swelling is still evident in the leg though not extreme or spreading. The wound is larger and another small hole is appearing near the large lump of a wound now protruding from the leg. She ate about half of her dinner and all of her hay.

Emergency Vet contacted, photos sent, case reviewed in detail.

Want to guess what they immediately tell me this is textbook for : 5 to 7 days mild to moderate swelling, followed by seeping clear to amber fluid, then sloughing? Poison. Brown Recluse to be exact. There is no anti-venom. There is no treatment. Antibiotics may be useful if she shows signs of cellulitus or infection. All you can do is treat what presents as it presents, most often necrotic tissue. Plan made for the farm's regular vet to examine Monday.

Monday morning : wound is larger and Whisper is over it. Her stall is trashed and it's obvious the pacing and spinning she's doing in front of us is what she has been doing for most of the night. She curled up her front more than once looking to jump out of the stall window. Good to see her with vigor and the swelling in the leg itself was slightly reduced.

Vet Report : he feels a spider bite would have ruptured sooner in the week so he's leaning strongly towards a bacteria versus poison. Hock joint itself is not involved. Agrees that fluid is not smelly or thick to signal deep infection.

Injection of bute and IV oxytetracycline given.

Monday evening : gave Whisper a stern lecture on how we must use the wash rack and how she must not crush me or bash my head in as I begin to work on a leg that hurts her. I used Dawn to wash dried drainage and debris off lower leg, coated in vaseline to keep from caking again. Cleaned wound, removing dried and frozen serum. Closed mouth, squinted eyes, and expressed wound to encourage draining (insert gagging noises here) then coated with nitrofurazone. Pic sent to vet who agrees it's looking good.

Wednesday: It began to look much more disgusting, but still showing great progress healing. Glad we were in the wash rack because I was seriously dry heaving. That gelatinous material in the middle didn't want to budge even with strong cleaning, removed a bunch of it, this didn't want to move so it stayed overnight.

Thursday : she'd really turned the corner and the crater that was there the night before was filling in with pretty pink tissue. She was also getting a lot more mobile and showed me a few times that she could kick me with that leg now if she decided to. Dinner and breakfast were cleaned up without even a crumb left behind.

Saturday : after a lot of running around the pasture, she will hold up the leg, but overall it's looking good and she's choosing to bear weight on it to rest often. Started hand walking/trotting her a few laps to keep things moving and to get training back on track. Firey Whisper is back in business and after a riding lesson on Scooter today, I'm getting impatient to ride her.

Good thing I stayed calm and rational Sunday night, especially when we thought it was spider venom (insert sarcasm here). Boy I'd be embarrassed if I had brimmed tears in front of multiple adults... and the barn manager/lead trainer.... and the teenagers who ride at the barn.... and another trainer...

Careful, She's Fragile

Whisper's sessions with Trainer, Erin Beach, went well. She began by ground driving her, keeping her calmer than longeing while encouraging her to respond to the bit the way she should under saddle.

She also rode Whisper through 45 minutes of 4 steps walk, surge forward. 5 steps walk, surge again. By the end she was trotting her and bringing back to a walk that had some moments of loose rein.

I was excited to continue her ground driving when I walked into the barn Wednesday. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen. I brought Whisper out of her stall and the 4 beats behind me on the barn aisle were completely off tempo. Lame on her right hind.

I found a knot on her cannon bone, just beneath her stifle, firm and warm to the touch, a quick call scheduled the vet for the morning. He came out to examine her, she was already moving a lot better than the night before after being turned out, and palpated the knot on her leg. He said she had a bone bruise that felt like a charlie horse to her, gave me some anti-inflammatories to put her on for a few days, and mentioned he expected improvement pretty quickly with lots of movement to help it along.

Leave it to my stall-kicker to find a way to weasel out of training a few days.

Spring Babies

Star is out in the pasture today. She looks better and is getting enough milk to nourish her little body, but that hind leg is still an issue. To me, it appears she is developing muscle growth in a normal pattern to compensate for structural abnormalities.

She is starting to show more curiosity in the world around her.

And no hesitation letting Pirate know that he should respect her space.

She can hold her leg straight as long as she is moving straight, as soon as a weight shift or turn occurs, the defect is more pronounced.

Pirate continues his quest to be the cheekiest mule colt that ever was.

Still very adorable though!

Star followed his lead and wanted to pose a little for my camera

Promise is more than happy to let me give her a good scratching.

Whisper's legs have been healing, the inflammation is gone and the skin is healing over. I've put contacts out to over 30 horse locations and have yet to return another work for board offer to be able to move.

Changing Weather

Here in Northeast Georgia we escaped the tornadoes that ravaged my home town in North Carolina this weekend, but we did see our fair share of tree toppling winds, hail, and strong lighting activity. At some point in the evening of storms, Whisper got hurt.

It's not really known how it happened or why, but it appears that she kicked the board fence. The board fence around the pasture we use is also lined with taunt barbwire. I know, horse people everywhere just cringed. Please remember this is free pasture land that has been offered us, until now without incident.

The wire and the boards on the fence each showing pieces of Whisper. Her left hind had the most injuries with a small, but very deep puncture near the base of her hock joint, a large and long abrasion on her cannon, as well as 5 other small gashes and abrasions where hair is missing and only her black skin shows. This leg also suffered soft tissue damage seen as swelling. She favors it the most.

Her right hind leg has less injury, but the worst cut. A deep gash that goes very near her splint bone and a long abrasion on the inside.

Treatment has included a lot of cold water hosing to help with pain, alleviate swelling and inflammation, as well as flushing the wound sites. The first two days I also added in a chlorihexidine wash to the wounds and flushed the punctures. After cleaning the wounds are being dressed (the punctures packed) with nitrofurazone.  We are watching closely for infection signs and carefully keeping the punctures open to allow healing to occur from the inside out. No complications yet and the swelling seems improved, the soft tissue damage causing her lameness has me the most worried so Banimine powder once daily is helping with the inflammation.

Promise and Pirate were fine through the storms. Promise has the added advantage of years of natural horse sense that Whisper did not get being kept stalled on horse tracks for years.

Looking ahead, Whisper would be much better off in a stall situation and safe pasture fencing. While we were lucky to be offered free pasture boarding that allowed us to take Promise and Whisper in the first place, I'm not doing the best thing for Whisper keeping them like this. I spent an afternoon writing to every barn within a 30 mile radius looking for options.

It would be sad to leave David's horse, Beauty, and her bright little Star behind if we can find the means to move. Star is holding her own for now, still having hind leg issues that have not strengthened up enough for her to be out of the enclosure with Beauty yet.