Hurricane winds of change are a blowin'

    Well, here we are almost into December. Things have changed for sure here again. Survi had healed from his suspensory injury but a nagging back issue caused some concern for CB. As luck would have it, the breeders agreed to take him back and trade a mare for her to take instead. After some long weeks (more like almost 2 months) Survi went back to Pennsylvania and CB didn't take the new mare. Too many issues both seen and also looking into her future. In the meantime, Judy found a little Arab mare in the Carolinas that she bought. The shipper totally sucked and his truck "broke" down and he wouldn't communicate well with her and all was very stressful. As she waited to hear from the shipper, CB started looking at rescues. She found a little gray Arab mare at Camelot and scooped her up for the exorbitant price of $200! Not a bad catch. They both arrived safe and sound the other day. Kharma (CB's) has a bit of a snotty nose and some loose manure but no worse for the wear seeing as she was in an auction house. Roxy had a little runny nose too so the girls are on antibiotics to clear anything up. Kharma is also a bit on the rotund side....perhaps CB got a 2 for 1 special? Only time and a vet will tell.
     On the Socks front.......he had a horrible setback and was EXTREMELY lame again. His ultrasound on the ligament looked good but the joint capsule itself was very inflamed. Not good. He got a round of steroids and more walking to do. He was still pretty lame again so back to Tufts he went for IRAP to be done. He got his 3rd and final one the other day and was still a 2/5 lame. Dr. Heidi Williams thought it may need more time...he may never fully come back or he may after 6 months to a year. Lovely. She was going to have a conversation with Dr. Jose Garcia (the surgeon) and we'd regroup from there. Lots of tears shed. I may never be able to ride my silly orange boy or maybe I can in a year. So much up in the air. It's amazing I haven't lost millions of pounds from stress!!! At any rate, during all this, I have to thank CB and Mary for letting me use their trailers and time getting Socks back and forth to all his appointments. Your friendship and help has helped me through this.
   Guess I'll mention the grand old man in this as well. Zak managed to choke a few weeks ago on the little bit of grain he gets. With the help of Dr. Fred Nostrant, we got the crud passed and he was no worse for the wear. Now, he gets his grain wetted down and he seems to think he gets a mash every night and is loving it. Thank God! Other than that and his wonky leg, he seems to be enjoying life and is still kicking his stall and running people over when he can. 
   Where do we go from here? Heaven only knows!!!!! I may be busy crewing for Judy and CB....perhaps being able to rehab (again) with my boy and get riding again this summer...helping foal out the potential mystery baby.....or, I can write all this down in a country song and become ridiculously rich!  At any rate, there's adventures ahead for us all!

And so it begins...........

So, Socks' surgery went well and he even trailered to and from Tufts wonderfully thanks to 1 mL of acepromazine IM.  Guess I'll have to use that to take off "the edge".  Of course it was a rainy day getting him  home and it's been pretty rainy ever since with a hail/thunderstorm yesterday.  YIKES!  At any rate, he's to have "strict" stall rest although I can hand graze him for a bit.  Survi, on the other hand, is getting walked about 40 minutes a day to keep his rehabbing on track.  He has another ultrasound soon to see if he can have a bigger paddock.  That will be exciting for him.  Socks can have a small, stall sized pen if I want and I'll probably do that once his stitches come out in a week or so.  That will help his little brain immensely if he can be outside with his "buddies".  Then, in another week, he too can start a walking regimen starting with 5 minutes a day and working our way up to 20 minutes a day.  He'll be happy to be able to do something and I'll be that much closer to riding again.  Hopefully CB will be riding again too in the near future!  As for now, we're planning a "Pity Party" and hope to see everyone from the "old" crowd to commiserate with us.

The winds of change.....and a nasty wind at that...

Well, Survi is still rehabbing and still in his pen.  He is progressing so that's a good thing.  Zak is getting out for about an hour to graze in the afternoon and is loving it.  He's lost a good amount of weight from living in the babysitter pen next to Survi and looks much better being on the Prascend pergolide pills.  That being said, Socks is the latest to fall victim to the black cloud that seems to loom over the barn lately.  He went lame a few weeks ago, had an ultrasound at Tufts that confirmed a tear in his ligament attachment to his meniscus.  UGH!!  So, he too is getting hand grazed with Survi but he has to live in his stall all day.  Thank God he's a neat stall keeper!!  The tear is such that he will be going into Tufts for surgery next Friday.  It hasn't hit me yet that he's going in and even though it's not too big of a deal....arthroscopic surgery.....it scares me.  He can then start rehabbing as well.
More sad news.........CB has been having the nagging thought of what Sereele is up to and finally tried to get in touch with Norman.  His phone was disconnected and his e-mail was cancelled......she called the equine dentist that he referred to her to ask if he (Dave) had heard anything.  He had indeed.  He received an e-mail from Norman thanking him for his service but also adding that he wouldn't need him any longer as "we're all dead".  Norman had euthanized all of his horses including Sereele and then killed himself that night.  This all happened over the winter around January some time.  =(  How horrible! Very sad, sobering news. 
With any luck, this nasty wind of change switches in our favor again and a redeeming wind blows these damn clouds away!  I am totally up for planning a Pity Party for us all.  We could sit and eat and drink and feel pitiful for ourselves for a bit.

More injuries to plague us!

So, it turns out that Survi has a suspensory injury and is stuck on small paddock turnout. Carolyn had Dr. Brett Gaby out to ultrasound and eventually do PRP with the hopes that Survi recovers quicker and with less scar tissue. Zak was Survi's original babysitter keeping the peace for a little bit anyway.....until Survi wanted to play more than Zak's old body could take which led Carolyn to separate the boys. Now, Zak has his own little paddock with Speedy and Toya behind him and Socks is by himself behind Survi which leads to the next little problem. Socks and Survi now play over the gates with each other and Socks even goes as far as pulling the pins out of the round pen panels!!!!! Bad boy! So, we had to make a space between the round pen and Socks so he won't do anything stupid or egg Survi on to do something stupid. ARGH. To add to the festivities, Socks somehow did something to his right eye and came in the other night squinting. An emergency call later, his eye is not scratched but he has to wear a fly mask for the week and get eye ointment in it for a week. Could we all just be healthy at the same time just once guys?!?!?!?!?!?

Shall we play a game?

Ok, so, Carolyn got a hold of a natural horsemanship trainer who agreed to come and work with her and Survi...and I jumped on the bandwagon as well. Socks had the training early in life and he could use some manners. So, we met with Bryan Martinez to let him meet us and the boys and see what he thought. Long story short, he "read" our horses easily and told us his training approach and even did some small stuff and we agreed this would be helpful to both horses. Bryan does the Parelli training so we had to learn the "7 games": friendly, porcupine, driving, yo- yo, circling, sideways and the squeeze game. Survi, being the sensitive one, was really good at most of the pressure games. Socks, not so much. He liked to try and test how far you really wanted him to go with the game. So frustrating! However, he did really well at the circling game and the sideways game for whatever reason. Maybe he remembered a thing or two. At any rate, we had 7 weeks for the 7 games and our horses actually starting to LEARN! GASP!!!! It was really great to see some things starting to click in their heads. Bryan is an amazing person with such a quiet disposition but when he got our horses, they definitely paid attention and did what he asked of them. Of course, Socks had to push the limit of sanity sometimes.....he would totally work harder than Bryan would ask but.......that's Socks for you. As our training went on, he "lost it" less and less. Survi was such a great little student. He was so sensitive that he picked things up very quickly with barely any aids to "remind" him of what he needed to do. For example, Carolyn really only has to wiggle her finger at him and he will back up...Socks still needs the rope swaying to remind him that he has to back up but he also needs less asking than he originally did. We just had our last lesson on the 10th of December. We figured we could work with the games and regroup early next year to continue and at least we have the basics to work with. It's been fun learning how to "talk" to our horses and watching them continuously do what we're asking of them is also fun and rewarding. I look forward to learning more and getting my horse to behave.......and watching Survi walk right on a trailer without flicking an ear at Carolyn! =)

Whirlwind of change!

Ok, so, really, really going to keep this blog up. I've been really bad at this! So, without further lapses in time, I need to introduce to you all Survivant! Legend decided that endurance wasn't his thing so he found a nice home with someone who wanted a reliable trail horse. Survivant is the horse that Carolyn had been looking at for years and he ended up being for sale again. It was fate that she was to get this guy!!!! Although he's 7, he hasn't been under saddle very long but is a very good boy about most things. Carolyn is pretty thrilled with him.

One little problem is that he's not a fan of the trailer. Carolyn had Bob Burelli come out and he indeed got him on the trailer but not really willingly so, taking a step back, she found another trainer willing to work on the ground with both her and her horse.......and me and Socks as well! =) Bryan (the trainer) has been doing Parelli with his horse for 6 years or so and although he isn't a certified trainer, he's been helping us gain some respect on the ground with our boys. We're learning so much about how we can work with the horses' instincts and it's actually fun to see results! Socks tends to push the the issue of how far he can avoid things a lot and Survi is pretty sensitive so he picks things up quickly. Both horses understand what is asked of them but need different levels to get the results needed. At any rate, we're seeing the horses become "better citizens" and it's fun to get things accomplished. I think it's time for me to learn how to upload some photos so this blog becomes a little more interesting to look at! ;-) Plus, we need an updated photo of the "new guy".

Summer is here?

Well, it's definitely questionable as to whether or not summer is here. There have been many nights at the barn where we're in fleece jackets or sweatshirts to feed! Luckily, I believe we may have finally gotten what we've been asking for....80 degrees and humidity.
Lots of stuff has happened since the last post. CB and Judy have gone to Vermont twice now and have gotten to enjoy the trails up there.....despite the snow in April and the rain in June. CB is on a mission to get Mr. Legend in shape for some rides this year. Speedy is always ready. ;-) With the wedding behind me now and planning not in the way, I can now start focusing on Socks. He really hasn't done anything in about 2 months.....or even almost a year with his silly abscess problem. I did get to jump on his back on Saturday and ride through the trails a bit. They were pretty muddy and slippery but he was relatively good seeing as we haven't done anything and he was by himself. He's a goofy boy but in general, I do have fun with him. Hopefully, there will be more posts of our achievements!