Happy Thanksgiving........

So, Thanksgiving, I got the phone call no horse owner really wants to get. Socks was dead lame and had a swollen upper leg. Now I'm frantic as I can't leave work and it took a little while to find my vet. She had to attend to another emergency before me so I got to the barn and ended up sleeping on some hay bales in my sleeping bag while I waited. She came in to examine him and he could barely even walk out of the stall! I was thinking the worst....it had to be broken! Shawn showed up with more jackets and a hot chocolate and unbeknowst to him, he was to be recruited for help with the exam. Dr. Williams took some x-rays and thankfully, nothing was broken. There was a small pinhole in his leg but it didn't appear to go anywhere. The injury was deemed a kick and stall rest and Bute was his future. We also hotpacked his leg and the weird lump moved down his leg and then the whole upper leg just stayed swollen. After a few days of him seeming to improve, I tried not to be too worried about him. But, then, he stopped getting better and seemed worse so, again, called the vet out. She could barely get him to flex his leg and made an immediate phone call to Dr. Garcia at Tufts to see if we could get in there. After about 30 minutes or so, Dr. Williams called back and said just go to Tufts, they're expecting you. Thankfully, CB was home and we made the trek to Tufts with Socks trailering by himself and Shawn leaving work to come with us. When we got to Tufts, Socks was a sweaty mess and only had one shoe on. How embarrassing! X-rays showed nothing and the pinhole again didn't seem to communicate with the elbow joint at all. He ended up having to stay overnight to get an ultrasound done. Around 5 pm, they called me to tell me that he had an abscess and it sat against the collateral ligament and they needed to lance it. UGH! Long story short, after waiting for the culture and sensitivity panel to come back, Socks spent one day short of two weeks at Tufts on IV antibiotics. Thank God for insurance! He got shoes put on about a week later and is continuing his stall rest until he goes back for an ultrasound recheck on the 11th of January. Summer was so nice and then.....BOOM......everything seemed to fall apart.

And it just keeps getting better.......NOT!

Socks ended up with some weird mystery lameness on one of our last rides together with CB and Sereele. We had trailered out to Upton? and were just starting to trot down the trail when he seemed just not right. We walked and he seemed fine, thought maybe he stepped on a rock but as we started to trot again, same thing...slight head bod and definately not right. I got off and headed back to the trailer sending CB on her way around a short loop on the trail. I was pleasantly surprised that Socks did not have a major meltdown walking away from his riding buddy. He called out a few times but did very well with me handwalking him back down the trail to the trailer. I let him graze a bit and all was well until he called and heard Sereele answer. YIKES, then the circling commenced and he seemed even more off than before! Luckily, Sereele and CB emerged from the trail and we tried trotting Socks out and he seemed fine again. UGH, maybe he didn't want to work. The next week was rainy so the week after I tried to ride again...still off. I called the vet and she took some radiographs and discovered that his pastern axis was off and suggested some wedged shoes. Tim came out and tried a wedge pad first that would be cheaper for me and give the same results....or so we thought. Socks couldn't handle the pad at all. It was a Myron MacLane pad with frog support and it must have been too much pressure on his feet. After another call to Dr. Williams and her and Tim talking, Socks got another pair of shoes on, this time the wedge shoe with leather pads as suggested. Again, he went lame....and of course, more phone calls were made to the vet. After about a week, he seemed fine and I got on him in the riding ring. He was poised to spring out from underneath me so after a few circles and a serpentine or two, I called it a ride and decided to longe him instead. He wasn't going to win this one at all. He seemed fine at the longe although a bit naughty. Later on in the week, I went out with CB and the dogs for a walk in the woods. Socks was so much better and happier and dare I write it....less ouchy with his new pads on. CB even got on him for one of the hills we had to climb on Mt. Pisgah. I was pretty happy that he was back in action and his gaits were nice and flowy again. YAHOO! It was also cool to see how my horse does under saddle as no one really rides him except me. =)

Fall fell =(

CB has continually tried to work Sereele out of her tripping. She's fine and then, without warning or really any reason sometimes, she would fall to her knees. It was very unsettling. So, she tried a barefoot trimmer, who skipped out on her, and then a farrier who put some shoes back on her, and hurt her....UGH! Poor Sereele was off for a while after he got a hold of her. What a jerk that guy was. Then, CB tried a different vet for a second opinion. He did some lameness exams on her and suggested a myelogram as one of her sides (the right?) seemed off. So, a neurology exam was scheduled at Tufts and away we went with Sereele alone in the trailer. What a trooper she was! She was definately nervous but trailered well. At Tufts, Dr. Bedenice performed the neuro exam. She could almost pull Sereele over with the tail tug at the walk and trot! YIKES! So, they took her to radiology for some neck x-rays to further investigate things. After a while, Dr. Bedenice came out with some preliminary news saying that they're pretty sure that there was a narrowing of Sereele's spinal column but they would have the specialists look at the rads too. They also have ortho do a lameness exam on Sereele and Dr. Jenei didn't really see anything that would pose as a lameness orthopedic-wise. Then, they showed us the rads and explained things to CB. It was a decrease in the diameter of the spinal column at the 4th vertebrae. Wobblers Syndrome. It was suggested that CB not ride her anymore to avoid any injuries that could occur to both her and Sereele if she had a really bad fall and they also suggested a myelogram to be totally sure. Although it was a point of closure for CB it was a heartwrenching discovery. How could it be that this pretty little mare have to be retired at the age of 5? She opted out of the myelogram. It's very invasive and would just tell her the same news. Her prognosis was fair to good. She may not have any problems at all or may get some arthritis in her neck down the line. So, with that, Sereele retired with her buddy Zak and hangs out eating, sleeping and getting loves. But, this leaves CB looking for another horse and so the next saga begins......horse shopping.

Welcome home!!! =)

Whew, so much has happened.....time to update this blog!

So, Speedy came back to live at Long Run Farm in late August. His mom was on her way back up to live up here too after a long time (forever it seemed) living in New Orleans. It took some growing pains and some switching around but he ended up sharing a pasture with Toya. Judy and Dave finally made it back up north a few weeks later. YAY!!! It's nice to have them back. Poor Judy had no place to really ride down south and his barn wasn't very close either. Now, Mr. Speedy gets to do some work more often and see his mom every day.

Chester NH.......or Deliverance?

So, being the intrepid riders that we are, CB and I drove out to Chester NH for another trail ride. No time limit this time. =) Lou and Becca were supposed to come with us but wimped out. Ha ha ha! It was a cool and overcast day and actually started raining at a pretty good clip on our way there. Oh sure, what would it be without weird weather right? We (I) decided that the 9 mile ride was sufficient and we were off after partaking in the yummy coffee cakes they offered for breakfast. The way out to the trail was down a paved road....oh yay. We had to pass by a weird Tudor style house with a rusty rooster "statue" in the front yard...pretty scary.....had to go down a hill (on pavement) and finally we got to the trail. I was having deja vu big time since we got there and then CB realized that we had done this ride before as well. I rode Zak so that's how long ago it was. The initial trail was very rocky and we picked our way along. We trotted where we could....kind of like at home. Then, we came out to powerlines with equally rocky trails and turkey buzzards looming over us waiting.........bad sign. Finally, we came out to a dirt road and we tried to go but both horses were scared and nervous about going forward. UGH! Then there was more roadwork...oh yay......there were a few nice trails we hit and we both cantered on purpose when we could. YAY! Then, you guessed it, more roads....we had come to the fork where the ride split off and I really wanted to just get the 9 over with, my Wintec was leaving white spots on Socks's withers and I was in my dressage saddle that fit a bit better but not much. Again, more roads and we crossed over and saw that we were going back into the woods. It was a nice dirt trail and we kept going not seeing any more blue ribbons to tell us how to get back. We came to a 4-way dirt intersection and there were no markers to be had....we turned back and ran into a couple who thought we had to go straight through the intersection. Well, that brought us to a shooting range......NOT where we wanted to be. We all headed back and CB and I took a left and the guy of the couple rode right and the woman said she'd stick in the middle and whoever saw something first yell out. The guy found the way home, yay. So, between going back and forth and being lost, we probably did close to the 14 miles.....;-) We headed back and of course, it was on a roadway. Socks was very excited to head home and as we were trotting up the shoulder, he started to feel like he was paralyzed and dragging his back legs.....OH NO! Of course, he was fine except for a tree branch stuck to his tail. CB got it out and we made it back to the trailer in one piece. The kids got to graze on grass for a bit and then we got to eat too. They were the best hamburgers I'd ever had, as I was so hungry. We grabbed our cookies to go and headed home without looking back. CB said to remind her never to go to that ride again....so, here it is....NEVER GO TO CHESTER NH again. The whole town was pretty scary itself......beautiful manicured lawns and houses with white trash hanging out on patio furniture....or the opposite, a trashy house with a brand new Challenger in the driveway. By far the weirdest thing we saw was the horse in a tiny turnout with an old Camaro with the doors off in the turnout with the horse and the water source was OUTSIDE of the electric tape. How was that animal supposed to drink?!?!? We also passed some small turnouts suitable for one or two horses with five or six of them in the lot!!!!! It was a trip at any rate......=)

Learning the ABC's of the CTR/CDR

So, the date finally came, time to attempt 12.5 miles on a conditioning CTR ride. We packed up the trailer with all our tack, clothes and sleeping bags and the coolers of food and drink and it was time to pack up the horses. Of course, Socks did not want to go in the trailer. It took a few tries and on he went, I had my doubts that he would enjoy this trailer ride. Off we went!
We made good time and Socks made a few paws and jostled the trailer a bit but not too bad until about 1/2 from our destination........We got stuck behind someone with a mattress on top of their car going about 25 mph! Socks was a bit pissed by this time and the pawing started again and the trailer would lurch forward. He was NOT happy, truth be told CB and I were a bit annoyed with this darn mattress hauler too. FINALLY, he turned off and I freaked out thinking that we had to go right and follow him instead of left.....had a hard time with that lately...ha haha. Soon after, we arrived at the horseman's campground and it was time to find a place to "land". Never do this with two indecisive women! We found a decent little place in the back and basically took up two spots, ah well. Then, it took an additional 15 minutes to decide where to put the pen for the horses....we're so bad! Turned out to be a nice setup with a downed tree as a sort of privacy barrier for the horses. Unfortunately, there were some very low branches in front of our site and trailers kept going by and scraping them and setting Sereele and Socks off so.....CB remedied the situation. She grabbed a water bucket and tried snapping the limb off and did actually get some of it off. Then, she asked me for the scissors so she could cut the rest of the limb off.....it was green and had the stringy woody parts that wouldn't split. All I could so was laugh. Mission accomplished, no more scary limb. However, someone had this horrid metal stock trailer that BANGED something awful and kept driving past us and freaking out the horses......why would anyone put any sort of animal in that?!?!?!?!?!? UGH!
Time to check in and vet in. Oh yay. There was a bit of a wait and we were in a large field with other riders and their horses. Everyone was pretty friendly so we all chatted. The lay judge picked out every little bump and nook and cranny on Socks and then snidely remarked that I rode one sided.."Really one sided".....so I decided that I hated this woman. The vet seemed friendly enough and I did my trot out and we went back to the trailer for some much needed food. Shawn had made us some Ceasar chicken wraps the night before so we inhaled those and I had also bought some chips and some M& M's and some York Pieces to munch on too. CB brought some munchies also, we've learned to bring food finally! =) We had no fire pit so CB and I stole the rocks from the campsite across the way to build us one....(Socks however found ours the next day, it was overgrown with grass and pretty disheveled so it was just as well that we stole the other one...hee hee) Our attempts at fire building were pretty sad. It would spark up and then fizzle out until we noticed that there were some VERY dry branches across the way so we built up our fire with those and had a decent fire afterwards. YAY! After a few beverages and some snacks, we decided it was time to try and get some sleep. I put the fire out with some Vitamin Water and off to bed we went. I slept in the trailer and CB slept in the truck.
Around 2 a.m., Sereele and Socks decided to do laps in their pen. UGH! It sounded like Socks was loose so I grabbed a flashlight and went out to look, convinced that there were bears or something bothering them. Of course not! I gave them a bit more hay and went to sleep still convinced that bears were going to come in the trailer and eat me! Well, they didn't and we all survived the night!
RIDE DAY! We watched a trailer pull into the site across from us and low and behold it was Seeker, CB's old horse! He was still a hot head and I'm totally convinced CB lucked out getting rid of him! There were 9 riders in the CDR and we were being sent out in groups of 3's and imagine our surprise when we were grouped with Roxanne and Seeker!!!!!!! OH NO!!!!!! Having ridden with Seeker when CB had him, I was not looking foward to this ride. Our time out was 9:06 a.m. so we went off to tack up and get ready. We walked to the gate and Socks was a bit hot...oh yay, so we went back to the trailer so I could get on and so Roxanne got on Seeker then too. Time to go........had to trot past the vet again on the way out.....what a horrid pulling trot Socks did. We crossed the road and into the trail and CB asked Roxanne to go ahead so we would hold back.......was a good idea in our heads but not Socks's. He freaked out and got mad that Seeker was ahead and started going sideways and turning and being an all out freak. CB wanted to try and get ahead but Socks wouldn't stand still enough to let her pass and then a car went by and Sereele spun and popped up a bit and then did a buck. What a great way to start......we called Roxanne back and ended up riding with her the entire time. The trails were pretty good save for a few rocky places and at once point, Socks took a few really bad steps and my heart went into my throat, thought this was it, we were out. Nope, just stepped on a nasty rock and we were ok. I was very worried about him though as he was very sweaty and the two little Arabs barely had any sweat at all. We persevered on though and I'm proud of my boy. We had to cross some scary wooden bridges and he went first on two of them to get the two Arabs over it. Sereele learns so fast so the next few didn't faze her in the least. She's such a little star! We had some really nice trails covered in pine needles and we made good time in there. Sereele did her usual little spooks here and there and unfortunately, Seeker was usually right on her rear end so he would either run into her or spin with her and Roxanne would freak out every time! Yikes! At one point, she was behind me and started freaking out because Socks was swishing his tail and she was convinced that there were bees and she started yelling "Bees, go go go go!" I had to inform her that he is a tail swisher and gets pissed and that's what he does.....oh boy. At one point in the woods, we came across a very narrow little wooden bridge......wasn't sure Socks was going to go over it but he did without any hesitation, I was so proud of him being so brave. =) Finally we came to the end, I was tired but happy I did this ride....but Seeker was in front and was afraid of the people sitting at the end gate so I just passed her Hell bent on finishing this ride!!!! We got our time and we set off to cool off our horses and get them to pulse down. After getting his tack off, Socks's HR was about 56.....not too bad for a big bodied guy. We got our P & R's done and his final was 44 and 18! Awesome! I know Sereele's was 40 and I think she was 12 for her RR but not positive. CB was very happy with her!!!!! She's going to be a great little endurance girl! =) At the vetting it was either pass or fail and we all passed! YAY! We stayed for the lunch and then packed up and set off for home, tired but happy we finished the ride, safe, unharmed, and within the time given with 3 minutes to spare!!!! WOO HOO!

7/5/10 HEAT WAVE..............

So, lately, the temperature has been pretty oppresive. We've had high humidity and high temps in the 90's or so. I opted out of riding for the weekend of the 4th but decided that I should probably make some feeble attempt at riding seeing as my wonderful orange steed needs to work or his brain fizzles. At any rate, I showed up at the barn in the late afternoon and decided that bareback was the way to go. CB showed up and we "tacked" up our horses and off we went. Well, I had to get on Socks first and that was a challenge as he decided it was too hot for a rider and didn't want to stand still next to the bucket so I could get on. Finally, after a bit of manuevering, we were one! CB walked Sereele up to the usual spot on Ball Hill Rd before getting on. I must say I was a bit nervous as the only time I usually ride bareback is the winter where there's snow to "cushion" the fall but there I was, sitting astride my boy and riding stirrup-less! The horse flies were horrid and at one point, CB said "Let's move out a bit..." and we picked up a nice little jog up the street. I commented on how we had regressed to 9 year old status again as lately we've been VERY wimpy about our riding abilities. CB and Sereele have come leaps and bounds and are a great pair! =) Sereele has been doing great lately, trailering alone, riding alone and with larger groups and without any fuss. YAY! Well, we only ventured halfway to the Mt. Pisgah opening and turned around to go home. I got off of Socks at Maplewood to handwalk home and boy were my legs dirty from riding him! YIKES! He was a very good boy and only acted up at Maplewood by trying to go in the driveway there instead of up the street. He wasn't bad for handwalking home either which is something I don't usually like to do. I must say that I've been having fun with this horse this year and I'm glad that CB and Sereele are there to share my adventures with.