Wednesday 13 March 2024

And Then There Was One

 On Tuesday night I arrived at the barn just before 7pm and went out to catch Cisco for a ride. He was lying down, which immediately put me on alert as I've never seen him lie down at that time of day. He got up and walked to me as he normally would, but stood with his nose on the ground for a moment before walking away from me to go and lie down again.

I ran to the barn for the banamine.

It seemed to do it's job and about 40 minutes later Cisco was his normal, obnoxious, wanting to put his nose on everything self.

Within the next hour, he started pawing. That is one of his tells that he isn't feeling very well.

I took him back to the arena in the hopes that he would poop, and he did oblige with a very small poop of normal consistency. He kept pawing though.

We went back to the barn and I tied him up to scrape some hair from him.

He didn't grab the rope after I tied him as he always does.

He got progressively more restless, pawing and moving around. I put him in a stall so that I could call the vet at about 9:50pm.

And I messaged a friend that I was worried.

The vet was finishing another colic call about 20 minutes away. Cisco was very restless in the stall so we walked the aisle, with him choosing a marching speed.

About 2 minutes before the vet arrived at 10:25, Cisco pooped. Yay! It was an OK size and consistency. I got my hopes up that he would just need to be tubed and all would be good.

After checking vitals and listening to gut sounds (that were present) the vet did a rectal. And quite quickly said that he was worried for my critter.

Ultrasound showed a 6 cm thickening of one part of intestine, with a 7 cm distortion (distention? My brain is fried) of another part in front of it. He said I'm going to ask you a question that you'll have to think seriously about, I said surgery is not an option. He said intestinal surgery, if everything went well, could easily run 15 thousand.

He said we could hospitalize him and treat medically, but suspected that we would still be making a decision by morning. I asked how realistic Cisco's chance would be with this option and he said he's only seen 2 or 3 pull through.

By 11:30, it was done.

Cisco, C-Man, C-Dawg, Turdle, Buddy.

We were just getting to the good stuff.






Wednesday 21 February 2024

Steal of a Deal - New Boots!

 About a month ago, I was scrolling through social media and came across an ad for a sample boot sale of Celeris boots from a store in Germany - reiten-leder.com. I'll often check these kind of sales out, but never expect to find something short enough and wide enough for my legs. Or cheap enough for my very low budget. I already have a pair of Celeris boots, I really don't need another.

Well, to my shock and amazement, there were plenty of short sizes on this site. That meant going through all of them, trying to figure out if there were any that had the right measurements for my rather odd size. I have a short height- about 15", my calf is about 14.5", and for my height of 5' nothing a largish shoe size of 7.5-8 - usually a 38 in European sizing, but I have some 39's.

I found one pair that I could make work. The right calf size. One cm shorter than my custom Bia's. But a bigger foot size at size 40. 

I decided to take a chance on them and order them despite the too big foot. I figured I could add an insole, wear a short, thick sock over my regular socks, or even put a wodge of tissue in the toe to take up the difference, because the price was a steal of a deal.

They cost $322 CDN. Including shipping and customs.


They arrived yesterday after a month literally on a slow boat. And they fit!

First time, wearing my previous days steal of a deal 100% merino wool base layer legging that I got for $34.

The left is a little snugger to zip up than the right, but both zipped shut on my first wearing. I wore them for a couple of hours at the barn last night - no blisters! The front of the ankle got a little uncomfortable during my ride, but not unbearably so. Not that I did much during my ride - I spent most of it listening to someone's terrible experience as a paying working student that she just returned from.



On my way out to the barn I picked up some insoles, which did snug up the foot size quite a bit. My wide toes appreciate the extra space they have in the toe box, though I might still put something into the toe end. I didn't feel like I was swimming in them by any means.

Cisco was very happy about the lack of effort that this ride required.

Only a few models were going for this low of a price - these were €150, down from the original price of €590. The majority of the boots in the sale were still in the €500 range. These are called the Ana, which appears to be an older model, so that is probably why the lower price.

I wasn't sure what to expect from sample boots, but the soles are brand new and have never been outside. 

I'm super happy with them, and can't believe how lucky I was to get them for that price. 

Of course, like buying a saddle, there's always extra costs - I need another boot bag, boot trees, black boot polish and brushes to go with them!

The sale is still on - check it out and maybe you'll find a great deal too!  

https://reiten-leder.com/pk/reitstiefel/stiefel-lagerware/

Sunday 24 December 2023

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone gets to spend time with their loved ones of both the 2-legged and 4-legged variety. Eat well, rest up, and enjoy the moments.




 

Tuesday 12 December 2023

Fall (Cisco)

Cisco got going again under saddle in early September. We took our time getting going, as he was quite unfit and had lost all his strength from the previous year. 

Over the last year, he really hadn't been ridden very much. We didn't have an arena through November and December, got in a handful of rides at the neighbor's track in January, got a few more rides in our new arena in February, had a break due to a cold snap, then the summer of unfortunate events started at the end of March with a hoof abscess.

Thus, the goal was to work on him getting some strength and fitness back, focusing of straightness and encouraging him to lengthen his neck.

For the most part, he's been a very good boy. The first half of our rides might have a bit of a llama-esque look to them, but the second half of the ride has been mwuah (chef's kiss). 

I've been asking more of him in regards to straightness, and doing lots of shoulder-fore on a left lead canter to try to get his errant right shoulder back underneath him.  We've also been working on a bit of a bigger trot. It feels good, but I need to set up the video camera and actually see what's happening - PRE's are really good at faking it.



Cisco hasn't been perfect for every ride - there was the night that he just couldn't go anywhere near the scary corner, which appeared to have been because the only light that wasn't on in the arena was in that corner and once it was turned on the monsters all went away. There was also the night that he lost his brain for an unknown reason and we could not go through the short end of the arena without spooking, despite the fact that the hay bales that are stacked there had been there for weeks and that there were four other horses in the arena, which usually means that he doesn't look at anything. 

There was also the ride that I hopped on bareback and he decided to be silly about the spooky end so I had to use my left leg in a much more encouraging way than normal. My knee wasn't happy the next morning and I limped around for a few days. It all seemed good for a couple of weeks but has been bothering me after sitting or crouching. It's the same leg that I pulled an adductor on a couple of years ago, and I wouldn't say that ever fully healed, so maybe they're linked. I really need to get a strengthening program going.

There's been nothing exciting to report, we've just been quietly doing the thing. Which is just the way I like it.

Saturday 9 December 2023

Summer

Our summer wasn't fantastic. 

Cisco's conjunctivitis of my last post in July cleared up nicely with only three and a half  days of twice a day eyedrops required. He tried really hard to be a good boy while I tried to grab his eyelid to put the medication into it, and by the end I figured out that if I had someone hold his head and stuff treats into his mouth I could get it done quite quickly.

Two weeks later, Cisco once again tried to get the vet to come for a visit and had a bit of gas colic. 

I had brought him in to eat his dinner (soaked beet pulp and ration balancer) which he ate with his usual enthusiasm. He pawed a bit after eating, which is not normal for him. He's not one to paw very often. I put him back out, and he laid down, didn't roll, got up, short walk, and laid down in the same spot again. He did this about 4 times in 10 or so minutes, so I called the vet. She suggested I give him some banamine and see if it got any better.

I knew Cisco wasn't feeling very good because he wasn't being his normal, obnoxious self as we walked up and down the barn aisle. If he isn't dragging me over to the poop bucket to smell it or trying to knock the blankets off the stall fronts as we walk past he is not normal.

Luckily, after about 30 minutes he started farting and his obnoxious behavior returned. He stayed in for the night so I could monitor poop production but everything seemed good the next morning, though he wasn't happy to be on half rations for the day.

The next week brought our first appointment with our new farrier. I had to change farriers as my previous farrier had to suddenly retire due to health reasons, and we went with the person that she recommended. 

Despite me telling her that Cisco has very thin soles, apparently she took off a bit too much because he was quite footsore for the next three weeks. We tried a couple of rides in the arena, but didn't really manage anything faster than a walk. (At the second appointment I told her that he had been been sore and she changed how she did his soles and it's been all good.)

After his first two attempts to see the emergency vet failed, Cisco got his wish when he colicked again, three weeks after the first time. I got a call while I was at work (and couldn't leave) that he was found lying in his shelter after he didn't come for his hay, and that he was shivering - it was rainy and cold.  He was brought in to dry off and warm up, and she said he seemed off and was pawing in the stall. Apparently,  pawing is his tell. 

I called the vet again, but this time only had bute to give him as I had used the last of the banamine with the previous colic. It didn't work as well, so I had to get her out. She tubed him, said there was a bit of displacement due to gas (he had started farting just before she arrived), and took some blood to check since this was the second episode in a short period.

Everything came back normal, so I changed up some management to try to prevent it from happening again. For six weeks, I went out every evening to fill three slow feed nets. He was in an individual pen for the summer to get him away from the road dust, so the people doing chores could hang a net at breakfast and dinner, and I threw a big net into his pen every night, in an attempt to slow down his eating and allow him to have food in his stomach for longer periods. This continued until he went back into the group of horses in early October. I was exhausted by the end of it.

Since mid-September, everything has been good and he's been back under saddle. Fingers crossed that this summer got in all my bad luck for a while and we only have to deal with weather for the next few months.

Phantom was doing pretty good through the summer. I used her for a student through August who has lots of riding experience but little formal training, and needs to build some confidence after a couple of bad falls. She's a fairly balanced, soft rider, and got on really well with Phantom. We talked about her doing a part-lease for the winter but she ended up buying a horse. 

That was how the summer went. Little riding, lots of time spent at the barn, and nothing exciting to write about. Oh - and air quality warnings every second week. The hottest part of the summer was at the beginning of June, the rest of the summer the constant haze of smoke blocked out much of the sun keeping the temperatures down.

(Sorry - no pictures. I didn't feel like trying to go back 5 months to find them.)


Sunday 9 July 2023

And It Continues...

In the continuing saga of why my horse has barely been ridden this year...

The most recent injury - a small cut on the back corner of the eyelid, which resulted in a very goopy eye the next day and suspected it was going to go the ulcer route, but was 80% better the next morning when I showed up with antibiotic drops I picked up from the vet, and a day later seemed almost completely normal.

How I found him on Sunday. If you zoom in you will see a bit of a cut in the back corner of the eye. (This was after I cleaned it up.)

Monday after cleaning. The goop just kept coming back and at some point seemed to cover almost half the eye.

Tuesday morning before antibiotics - just a little bit of goop left, and it never came back. I used the antibiotics anyways just to be safe.

I haven't had to do eye drops for quite a few years and forgot just how strong they squeeze their eyelids shut. It's not actually drops, it's the ointment that you have to try to get under the eyelid. So much more fun.

Cisco tried very hard to be the bestest boy while I played grabby fingers with his eyeball. He moved his head (totally understandable) but never moved a hoof. We discovered that he could totally be bribed to keep his head pretty still if the person holding him dispensed treats into his mouth. If it had happened to Phantom I would have seriously considered dropping her off at the vet clinic with a "good luck, let me know when you're done" and happily paid the fee.

He was at least considerate enough to do it on my week of vacation so that I could drive out twice a day just to see him. So thoughtful!

I was supposed to do the antibiotics for 3-5 days, so ended on day 4 (Friday) since it looked so good all week. It's looking like it was just a case of conjunctivitis but I'll still keep a close eye on it (pun intended). There was never any squinting in pain or cloudiness, so fingers crossed we are now safe from an ulcer. 

Enjoy this picture of a goat pretending that he has a moustache after looking at goopy eyes.



Wednesday 28 June 2023

Whoa's and Go's

 Cisco has been rockin' the dad bod so far this year. We just can't seem to get going consistently enough to get any sort of fitness happening.

This is how 2023 has gone so far:

January - no indoor arena. Thankfully,  due to the mildest January in recent memory, we got in a handful of rides on the neighbours covered track, which were mostly spent at a walk.

February - the arena was finally ready! Two weeks of riding before a deep freeze hit.

March - hoof abscess / not an abscess / definitely an abscess. A little over three weeks of the diaper/Vetrap/duct tape hoof boot, with a few short rides towards the end, mostly at the walk.

April - got one week of riding in before spring vaccinations.  A week off due to the big lump at the vaccination site. Then teeth floating at the end of the month.

May - the air tasted like BBQ. Two weeks of no riding due to the hazardous air quality, one week of walking, then some easy rides. Also a bunch of stupid hot days.

June - the newest thing to slow us down - Cisco's lip injury.


Cisco has moved for the summer to a different paddock that's away from the dirt road in an attempt to ward off the asthma issues we had last summer. It's going ok so far with his new roommate, but they aren't hitting it off quite as well as I thought they might.

Two weekends ago I put Cisco back out after a ride. The other horses's owner had been out while I was riding and put out some hay for her horse - just the one pile. When I released Cisco, he tried to also partake in that pile (I told him I was going to get him some hay, but did he listen to me? No.)

I didn't see what exactly happened as I was latching the gate, but I think that Cisco put his face next to the other horse's face in the hay, and the other horse lashed out and caught Cisco on the side of his mouth. There were a couple of superficial gashes on the side, which weren't of much concern. But he also managed to split the inside edge of his lower lip. I have a suspicion that he might have bit his own lip, but who knows.

It's right in front of where the bit would sit, so until it fully heals, we're going bitless. 


Cisco loves it. I hate it. My back does not like it when I ride a llama. All of our recent work on stretching forward and down into the connection has not transferred over to our rides with the hackamore.

I'm hoping another week will be enough time for his lip to heal and we can go back to the bit. As much as I don't want to promote the way Cisco uses his body in the hackamore (by which I mean he doesn't), I also want to work on getting him fitter, so doing something is better than nothing.

All of these things have been relatively minor and they've all just needed a bit of time to heal, which I'm thankful for. I'm very aware that things could be much worse.

At the very least, we've had lots of time to improve our walk work!

Tuesday 23 May 2023

The Big Two-Oh

 Phantom turned 20 years old on Sunday!

How it started:

The ponies celebrated the occasion with a couple of dishes of carrots that were next to a 4' tall unicorn balloon. Phantom, much like me, was far more interested in birthday cake (carrots) than the party decor.


 

Cisco, who will always be the life of the party, really liked the unicorn. Maybe he recognized it as one of his brethren. 

He really wanted to play with Phantom in the arena, but since she is now officially a cranky old lady, she wanted nothing to do with him. It was also still really smokey out so I also didn't want him running around.

Once the cake was eaten and many photos were taken, the ponies went back to the barn so that we could get back to our regular routine.

How it ended:

All the excitement from the party seemed to have gone to Cisco's head. I popped the Flexineb on him and took him outside for a walk while it worked its magic. 

I have no idea what set him off, but we were barely out of the barn when he started calling to someone. Which he continued to do for the next five minutes while I chatted with someone in the parking lot. He was trying real hard to be all big and bad, but it was really hard to take him seriously while he was calling with his squealy whinny that was getting muffled by the nebulizer.

He was an absolute twit to walk, including one time when he thought about scooting off with a snakey neck. I almost went back to the barn to grab a chain lead, but carried on, and he eventually (after many stop and back-ups) he got the message and chilled out.

Phantom came in and picked at her food (totally normal these days). She ate the few alfalfa cubes that I added to her regular ration balancer, and left almost all of the ration balancer. I had to add some oats to it and she ate almost all of it, but not quite. No worries, Cisco would get a second supper.

I took her on our nebulizing walk outside. We took a slightly different path than normal. There suddenly appeared a gopher hole in Phantom's path that I had to make a split decision about - move her out of the way, or, because the hole was only a couple of inches wide, let her continue on the path because she obviously wouldn't be able to stick her foot in that small hole. I chose that one. 

However, I forgot that Phantom will always put her foot into the hole I want her to avoid. 

Sure enough, she stepped onto the hole with a hind leg. The hold must have collapsed, she of course panicked, and in flailing about she stomped on my foot. Hard.

It looks worse than it feels. Still not sure if the nail will survive though.
 

She also managed to scrape about 4 inches of hair off the front of that leg.

Really, it's just a scrape. A two-day old scrape in this pic.
 

 Cue big guilt on my part.

I think she held a bit of a grudge as when I turned her back out she ran away from me and wouldn't let me catch her to put her fly mask back on. 

While this was happening, Cisco was standing at the gate waiting for me to give him the feed dish with the remainder of Phantom's food in it that was on the ground just outside the paddock. His hopes for second dinner were dashed by the goat that always slips through the fence and had eaten everything before I got Phantom's mask on. 

Let's hope Cisco's birthday in July is much less exciting.


Sunday 21 May 2023

The Air Hurts My Face - Summer Edition

Called it.

Although we had a couple of days of rain at the beginning of last week, it wasn't enough to extinguish the wildfires that are burning through much of the northwest part of the province. 

This week, the winds changed, and the smoke from those fires has moved throughout the rest of the province. 

The air quality over the week has been hit or miss, with most mornings being poor but getting better through the day as the wind continued to blow. This weekend, though, it got significantly worse, and settled in.

Friday started off a bit hazy and got worse as the day progressed. By mid-afternoon the haze blocked out the sun, so although the temperature was 27 celsius it felt much cooler. 

The view at the barn on Friday evening.

I woke up in the wee hours of Saturday morning and checked my air quality app. The area was solidly in the purple hazardous zone. And it stayed like that all day. 

Saturday night. 300 is considered hazardous. The horses live a bit north of that 449 in the top right corner.

This is not good for anyone that needs to be outside, human or other creature. 

I'm definitely not regretting that purchase of the Flexineb last year!

Those trees in the background are usually easy to see. 

Here's a Facebook live session where they talk about horses and smoke inhalation. It's probably the best information that I've found so far with some specifics regarding time and treatment.

So far, my horses aren't showing any negative symptoms from the smoke exposure. They live out 24/7. and are pretty chill so don't run around too much to increase their respiration. I'm trying to wet their hay as much as I can, and have added Vitamin E to their diet (if Phantom continues to eat it. We'll see.).

They'll get nebulized with saline every day for a while. At the moment, the only hand walking I'm doing is while nebulizing so that they inhale deeper. Once things start to clear up we will very slowly start our way back to proper exercise again. 


I wore an N95 mask for the couple of hours that I was at the barn on Saturday. It made it bearable to be outside and did a good job of keeping out the ashtray smell. 

We're expecting more rain again early this week, and with that an improvement in the air quality. I fear that it might be up and down for quite a while though and it will be tough to get the horses back into a regular program.

It looks like we're going to have solid lateral work at the walk by the end of summer!

Tuesday 16 May 2023

Stretchy

Something that I've changed with my pre-ride routine for Cisco is to use the Surefoot Pads before I hop on. For the last few weeks I've taken the bag that holds a couple of sets of the pads over the arena with us and given Cisco the opportunity to stand on them.

At first, I was hoping to use them as a way to get him to relax in the scary end of the arena, but since that end hasn't really been scary for a while I'm using them in the hopes that he will be more willing to stretch down much earlier under saddle. 

I try to keep it simple - stand on pads all round, then a double stack under each foot, one at a time. Cisco would prefer that he be allowed to stand on them a whole lot longer, but as it adds - 10-15 minutes to my ride I have to end it before he is ready.

It's a bit hard to see, but he's standing on a doubled set of pads under his left front here. 

It is working though! At a walk he is stretching right down on a loose rein, and is much more willing to do so at a trot. 

Walk

Trot

Canter (which had moments where he felt like a reining horse but didn't look that way in the video)

We're in the building stage - building strength and fitness. When he's not strong, Cisco's very wiggly and crooked. So, although we're not doing a ton at the moment, I've been adding some simple but difficult things, like transitions in shoulder-fore. counter-canter, and upping the lateral work. Nothing crazy, just lots of small moments that will hopefully build up.

Lots of cookies for trying hard.

Now, I just need to try to ride consistently! 

Friday 5 May 2023

Too Close For Comfort

Shit's getting real.

We've had record-breaking temperatures this week. July temperatures in the first week of May.

The fires that were about an hour and a half away from my area? They're now happening really close to home. 

This evening a barn that I used to board at was evacuated. They're 30 minutes from me. That area has a lot of stables in it, not to mention people that have horses in their backyards. The county is one of the most-highly horse populated areas in the country. 

Thankfully, due to the incredible horse community in this area, they were able to evacuate 60 horses in two hours. Other barns are on standby, clear for the moment but ready to go should the winds change. The Facebook groups are full of people ready to head out with their trailers to pick up horses or other livestock or offering a place to bring them to.

The area that my horses are in has so far been spared. There was one fire in the county this evening but it was quickly brought under control. 

That doesn't mean that the situation won't quickly change though. So I'm going into disaster preparation mode.

My Saturday will be spent prepping the trailer to be ready to head out as soon as I can hook up. I'm filling every haynet I own full of hay (we feed off of roundbales, so there are no squares that I can load up). I'll make sure that I have enough water buckets and feed tubs for two horses. The spare leather halters that I've had at home to be conditioned are going into the trailer which will save time going into my tackbox if needed. My spare trailer key is in my tackbox; should I not be able to get there fast enough but someone else can with a truck I can direct them to grab the key. The hitch will be in the trailer instead of with the truck for the same reason. 

I don't know if I have pictures that will be suitable for identification purposes, so I'll take some and make sure I include those little markings that only an owner would know about.

The biggest thing that's going to get resolved this week is Cisco's reluctance to load. It's going to get sorted out. I promise that he will be jumping on the trailer by next weekend. He may not get ridden all week, but he's going to be able to load.

I have no idea if the barn owner has an emergency plan in place. I've downloaded all the apps from the province and the county so that I hopefully get notifications, but I don't know how soon notifications are issued. I want to be informed at the first sign of potential concern, not when we are given a mandatory 30 minute evacuation notice. I'll hound her about what we can make work for everyone. 

I very much hope that all of these plans will be for naught. They are forecasting a bit of rain for the weekend, but it's going to take quite a drenching before the fire risk is significantly reduced. At the very least, I'm going to finally make sure that Cisco becomes reliable about trailering!


Tuesday 2 May 2023

Burning Up

You know how we keep hearing about how some parts of North America have gotten so much rain that there's been a bunch of floods this spring?

Well, in my neck of the woods, we are the complete opposite.

We've barely had any precipitation this year. Everything is brown and tinder dry.

The perfect conditions for wildfires.


Things are getting kinda scary. Over the last two days, there have been a multitude of emergency warnings screaming from our phones with notices of mandatory evacuations for towns about an hour west/northwest of the big city. That's too close for comfort - I know people in those areas. In fact, the lady that I rode with yesterday got a call from a sibling that her brother's house had just burned down. Shortly after that was when the first mandatory evacuation notice came through, and I wonder if he was in that area. 

There was a grass fire on my end of the city last week, that forced the evacuation of some newer houses on the edge of the subdivision. Thankfully, everything was contained and I don't think there was any property damage. 

That same day, there was another grass fire along the highway that I take to the barn. I saw the scorched earth, and it looks like it must have been quickly controlled. 

It's been windy, dry, and this week the temperatures are rising to high-20's (Celsius, that is). The situation is not going to get better. 

At this point, the wind has been blowing to the west, so our air quality has not been affected. The prevailing wind in this area is from the northwest, so once that kicks in and brings in all that smoke it could cause some issues. 

Because it's been so dry this year, some of the horses that are prone to some respiratory issues are already showing some problems.

I started Cisco and Phantom on an anti-histamine at the beginning of April to see if that made a difference. The vet recommended trying hydroxyzine over cetirizine - it's cheaper and can be given once a day versus twice a day. 

Cisco has been good about gobbling it down in his regular food. Phantom has not. She's smart and has held out for the apple sauce application, which she still won't eat and I have to syringe it into her. She happily sucks on the syringe, but I think that because it smells different she won't touch it otherwise.

I think it's helping them? It's hard to say at this point. Phantom has had a couple of days when she sounded a bit snuffly so she's had some dex nebulized on those days. I need to track it and see if that is linked to the odd day that I don't make it out to give them the antihistamine. 

The plan is to start regularly nebulizing them with saline to try to reduce any issues related to the dryness and likely upcoming poor air quality. I did it with both horses tonight, and it's gonna suck up a bunch of extra time at the barn, so yeah, that's going to be great.

All the grass fires in the area and a change in wind are bringing in the smoke.

Their workload will be affected by the air quality. When the air quality sucks, they don't get ridden (unlike some other horses at the barn).

It could be a really long summer. Fingers crossed that it's a wet one!