Nope - Not Spoiled At All

As I've said before, I don't know what standing on the Surefoot pads does for the horses, but they sure love them! Especially Phantom - she almost always has a moment where she goes into a Surefoot-coma.

Last night I put her on pads in front and back, thinking she'd only stand on them for a couple of minutes. Wrong! After 25 minutes I pulled her off - reluctantly on her part.

It was interesting to see make some very deliberate moves when she decided that she was done with a specific pad. She clearly was finished with the left hind first and gave it a kick to get it out of her way before placing her foot back down.

She stood in the exact same spot for the whole 25 minutes, with the shank on the ground, while I leaned against the wall sending texts.

The initial set-up - firm pads in front and hard slants behind.

7:23 pm - Where we started.

7:31 pm - done with the left hind.

7:40 pm - now done with the left front and has adjusted her position on the right front.

7:41 pm - stoner pony face.

7:47 pm - still in the same spot. Had to make her walk it off.

Leadline Pony Extrodinaire

I was recently contacted by a mother of twin 4year old girls regarding a "riding lesson". She had actually been referred to me by one of the other instructors at my barn as their schedules weren't coordinating. It was to be a one-off glorified pony ride, one hour in total, with both girls splitting the time to ride and having some time to pet the pretty pony. Easy money for me.

As the day approached, I started to put some thought into what the heck I would do with them. As it was only a one-off ride, I didn't really need to work on any skills - really, they just needed to hang on while being led around. But that's kind of boring. I needed something fun for them to do.

What horse do I know who is very quiet but has some special skills? Phantom!

Standing on a podium was not one of the skills she demonstrated on this day.

Thus, she got put into service as a leadline pony. And she did an excellent job.

The biggest skill she demonstrated was kicking a ball. I thought the girls would find that amusing, but apparently walking over the trot poles was the best part. Phantom sidepassed quite nicely over a pole for each of them (with my help), and did a very nice job of going from a slow amble to a fast walk and right back to an amble, without breaking into a trot (though it was close a couple of times!).

After the rides she stood perfectly still while the girls brushed her - well, the bottom half of her. That's as high as the 4 year olds could reach. She even dropped her head so that they could gently brush her face.

And before they left, Phantom posed for a smiling picture with the kids.

Phantom made two little girls very happy today. Apparently they were hoping to ride a white horse, and their mom had warned them that it probably wouldn't be and would be a brown horse. I guess that when they walked in and saw a white horse waiting for them it made their day!

Drug Money

 A couple of weeks ago I took advantage of the offer from Boehringer Ingelheim and took Phantom to the vet for a free PPID blood test. It was one of those things where I've long wondered if she maybe has Cushings based on her winter polar pony coat, but I didn't really want to have the confirmation because then I'd have to react to it - meaning, she'd need daily medication.

Sure enough - she tested out of range. Drugs for life it is!

"Just one more hit" says the pony crack whore about homemade horse treats.

I have yet to pick them up - I was supposed to grab them today but I had a couple of very long days this week and frankly was just exhausted today on my day off. I'll head over to the vet clinic tomorrow after work. 

It's a good thing I already pulled Phantom's shoes - that's where the money for the Prascend will be coming from. The plan was to save the money and put shoes on both horses next summer, but Phantom has decided to make it all about her. Typical princess behavior. 

Little old moi?

Prascend (pergolide) is about $100 per month if I buy a 2 month supply, or about $84 per month if I buy it in a larger quantity of 160 pills. I'm going to grab the smaller supply for the first batch, and if all goes well I'll plan on getting the larger quantity when I get a refill. 

I still have to get the logistics of getting the pill into her daily sorted out - she lives out in a mixed group paddock 24/7 and I would prefer to keep it that way. Hopefully, she will eat it out of your hand with a small amount of food like she does with Previcox. I've talked to the barn owner about supplying baggied servings that can be given to her by hand - if she will eat it.

Return to Work

 Since my area was the first to get the polar vortex a couple of weeks ago, it looks like we might be the first to get out of it. Daytime highs are back up around the freezing mark - which means it's time to get back in the saddle!

Cisco's new job description is pack mule as I made him carry in Phantom's blanket. She got to get nekkid for a couple of hours in the sun.

For the first time in ages I hopped on both horses yesterday. I couldn't ride two in the same day for most of last year due to my adductor injury (which hasn't totally disappeared yet). After three weeks of mostly sitting on the couch I'm sure I'll be paying for it tomorrow!

A couple of weeks ago I had snagged a couple of BR soundproof ear bonnets for $12 each in a sample sale. I've been wanting to try one for Cisco for ages but I haven't been able to find one locally for cheap and if I had to order it online it was too expensive for something that would maybe work. At $12 and free shipping - totally worth trying it.

They are full size but seem to be a small fit. On Cisco, who is generally more of a cob size, it's a bit of a squeeze to get his ears in without them getting folded up. I was also worried that the bonnet would pop off during our ride (although I got it over his ears it didn't want to rest atop his head), but happily it seemed to stay put under the bridle. 

Even more happily - I think it made a positive difference!

This was Cisco's first ride in about three weeks. He's been lunged a couple of times in the last few days so he's had a chance to expel some energy, but that hasn't made a difference in the past. This is usually when his spookiness is at its highest level. 

On this night we had only three moments where he thought about spooking, but got no further than planting a foot differently. Even when the end door opened up and horses appeared through it - usually this results in a giraffe neck, but he just quietly looked over at them while on a loose rein.

I definitely think the ear bonnet helped. It's going to be a regular part of our kit!

This was also Cisco's first ride after his bodywork on Monday. I think his trot felt a bit more up in his shoulders and he seemed better bending right (when he wasn't pushing into my right leg). Especially considering that when I tacked him up I was so focused on getting the ear bonnet on securely that I failed to notice that I had grabbed Phantom's bridle to put on him. I had a moment just before getting on that I glanced at his bridle and thought something looked wrong about the browband, but it was in the right position so obviously it's fine. Then it took me half a lap of the arena before I realized that I had the wrong reins on, and how the hell did Phantom's reins get of Cisco's bridle. Facepalm. Idiot moment.

The browband is a U-shape on Phantom but Cisco's wider noggin stretched it straight.

He didn't feel great at the canter, which I wonder if it was because of the wrong bit in his mouth, orif  he was still a bit body sore. He was really sticky to pick up the canter on both leads. This can be a problem when he hasn't been ridden for a bit, but our last ride had some lovely transitions with a pole exercise. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and just did a couple of short canters on each direction and basically called it a night. He was getting tired and I didn't want to lose the benefits from his adjustments that I had been feeling. 

Post-ride SureFoot pads sessions. Cisco isn't a horse to normally drop his head and neck like this so this was a good session!

I wasn't planning on doing much with Phantom. I figured she'd be pretty stiff after all the cold. I was planning to mostly walk and then kind of see how the trot felt.

Apparently the Previcox I'd given her the day before had done its magic because she felt pretty good! The fact that she hadn't had a chance to get the sillies out as I usually would do with her probably helped give her some extra forward momentum.

I pretty much confirmed that she is now deaf. Whereas when I had tested her using voice commands under saddle back in October and I felt she heard them, last night she didn't. I don't think I saw a single response to any of my clucking, kissing, hand-clapping, caw-cawing, walk, or whoa sounds. Not a single ear flick. 

Which means I have to find a way to slow her down when she wants to take off at a canter! Pulling on the reins doesn't slow her down - it just makes her get bouncier!

I'm trying to think of some options that I can use under saddle to replace my voice. I'm going to try a neck rope, and maybe see if I can install something like my hand squeezing her crest means stop. I also want to work on some hand signals on the ground. A quick google search didn't bring up too many solid tips on dealing with a deaf horse, so I'll have to be a little bit creative. But I love this kind of challenge! Thankfully, Phantom does too - especially if cookies are involved!

Sorry, I Couldn't Hear You

 I am pretty sure that Phantom is deaf.

It's one of those things that I'm noticing more and more these days, and when I think back I wonder if she's been like this for a while. She's always been kind of bombproof - she's never been one to react to loud/sudden sounds. (Lights in a weird place, however...)

She's actually got the markings and breeding to be predisposed to congenital deafness. She's a paint, with a mostly white head and two blue eyes. There is a much higher chance of a horse with these markings being born deaf.

Phantom's baby picture, where you can see her white face. 

In the past it wasn't something I was concerned about - she definitely seemed to hear when I used the clicker and a treat would be forthcoming. There was the odd time when she would be snoozing when I went out to catch her and I would talk to her as I approached and realize that she had no clue that I was there, so I would touch her shoulder and she would startle and give me a "where the fuck did you come from?" look, but I chalked that up to her just having a good sleep.

So, what's changed?

For about the last year, whenever I go out to get Phantom she is super happy to see me. She comes up to me, talking the whole way. Since she moved in with Cisco it's become a competition between the two of them to try to get to me first, and the horse that gets to me second usually puts themself between me and the other horse, hoping that I'll bring them in.

This is pretty consistent behavior for Phantom. Like 19 out of 20 times. 

Unless she doesn't see me. 

If she is standing in the shelter, or behind the round bale, and she can't see the gate, I get no response from her. I'll call her, and talk out loud the whole way out to her, and she doesn't make any attempt to look around the obstacle that's blocking my approach. As soon as I am in her path of vision, she nickers at me and is excited to see me. 

It's happened a few times over the last few months. 

It was back in October that I first started wondering if she had lost her hearing. I tried to make some noises behind her to see if she reacted, but she tends to be very attentive towards me (doesn't want to miss the possibility of a cookie suddenly appearing) so it's hard for me to test her. I had someone help me one day by standing behind her while I was standing in front, and it was inconclusive. 

I thought I would try a ride using voice commands and see if she responded to them. She did - "and walk" definitely gave me a downward transition. I tried really hard to not change anything in my body when I asked her to walk, but I can't be 100% sure that I didn't. She's quite sensitive to changes in my position so it doesn't take much to have her slow down, but I did think it was due to the voice command. 

So I'm not sure if she's newly deaf, always been deaf, going deaf, hard of hearing, or just has selective hearing. I'm leaning towards the newly deaf/going deaf/hard of hearing options.

Last week she didn't notice me until I appeared around the round bale she had her head buried into, despite me calling to her. On Sunday I unintentionally dropped a bucket on the floor behind her and didn't see a reaction, so I walked further down the barn, waited until she was looking the other direction and both ears were perked forward, then banged the bucket against a wall out of her line of sight. No ear flick back towards me.

Yesterday I tried another test. The barn was quite busy and her attention wasn't so much on me as it usually is. I grabbed a small bucket from the tack room and threw some crunchy treats in it and kept it behind my back. She was looking the other direction as I approached, shaking the bucket. Her ears did swivel back towards me, but she didn't get excited about the potential treat sound. 

I ducked into a stall behind her so she couldn't see the bucket and continued to shake the bucket. She didn't move - her butt was towards me. She looked at me momentarily but not with much interest. 

After a couple of minutes of hanging out in the stall, Phantom had her head turned slightly left looking at something. I put the bucket in front of me, came out of the stall, and walked along her right side, starting at her butt, shaking the bucket. She didn't react to me until I got almost to her shoulder, which would have been in her line of sight. 

As the person who was watching me stated, it seemed pretty conclusive that she didn't hear me, especially considering how food-oriented she is. 

What does this mean going forward?

First, there appears to be no treatment for it. No such thing as horse hearing aids. It is what it is.

I'm pretty sure Phantom will be totally fine with it. She's not a horse who startles easily, so someone suddenly popping up in her field of vision isn't likely to freak her out or cause her to be dangerous. 

I mean, if this happened I would totally expect her to spook. But that's probably about the only thing that would do it!

I'll talk to the vet about it when she gets her vaccinations done in a couple of months. It could be just age or the congenital paint horse issue, but it could also be a tumor. I don't think that they will be able to run the electronic test that would give me a definitive answer, but the tumor thing has me a bit concerned (you know, since she's a gray horse).

The biggest change will be in how I work with her. I've never really relied on voice commands with her of any sort because she has always been so tuned in to my body language; they've been used in conjunction with each other. It will be under saddle that will be the hardest to remember that she doesn't hear my cluck or whoa, or figuring out something to use instead of a clicker if I want to continue with some of her "tricks" that she enjoys. 

Maybe we take up mounted shooting?

We'll see. I'll hop on her in the next few days and see how she reacts to voice. 

I've dealt with a blind horse before, and now it looks like a deaf one. I hope Cisco doesn't turn out to be dumb!

A Daily Dose

 Phantom had her hocks injected about 4 weeks ago at a vet exam where I said I suspected it was either her hocks that were sore and she was overloading her front end, or she was sore everywhere.

She definitely looked better after the vet appointment. Much less stompy on her front end. But she still didn't feel as good as I had hoped she would. 

I've let her loose in the arena a couple of times recently to get rid of some energy and I really wasn't happy with how she looked. To me, it still looked like she was trying to unload her hind end, and there were a few transitions from canter to trot that looked like they stung (specifically on the left hind).

While waiting for Phantom's Ventipulmin to kick in I dumped my grooming kit out to clean out the hair. I forgot there was an open pack of elastics in there. Oops.

So this weekend I started her on some Previcox. I had gotten some at the vet appointment to have and see if it helped her over the colder months in the winter when she always seems to be stiffer.

Two days of Previcox and I rode on the third - Phantom felt fantastic. Probably the best she's felt in the last couple of years.

We had easy bend in both directions and she wasn't falling onto her left shoulder through turns. I braced for the downward canter/trot transition expecting it to be ugly but she stepped right underneath herself with her left hind.

I also had a whole lotta sassy speed to deal with. Girlfriend was feeling good!

It might not look like it but this is her sassy walk.

I didn't do too much - she hasn't "worked" in a while and I don't want to tempt fate with her ending up sore somewhere else. Plus she just rides up and gets herself all wound up as I continue riding. With her, it's better to do some short rides until she's been ridden down enough to keep her brain from spinning. 

So it looks like this might be the way we are going to go with her. Last week my vet had sent an email to follow-up with how Phantom is doing after her appointment so I finally replied back with how she felt on Previcox. I asked if I should be spending money to try to fully investigate where she feels sore (which could just be peeling back layers of an onion) or, if a daily dose of Previcox works, do we just go with it? That's what my inclination would be, especially knowing how much my horse dislikes being uncomfortable. I really don't want to have to inject all the things on her body.

My homemade horse cookies work great as pill pockets. Break it in half, and it's soft enough inside to squish the pill in there and then squish the two halves back together to feed. I don't know if Phantom realized there was a pill in there - or she didn't care because it was encased in pony crack!

Phantom's "moar pony crack cookies" face. (This is old - we don't have snow yet!)

Hopefully, this continues past the first ride. It's always hard to tell when there is a bit of extra fuel injection propelling them forward!

The Sassy Gray Mare

 As soon as I hopped on Phantom on Monday night I knew she was feeling better.

She was pretty sassy. Maybe she was just happy to be inside and not out in the unexpected downpour of rain and wind that picked up just after I brought her in. 

Cool sky colour from inside the arena at the end of my ride. Everything was completely dry when I arrived at the barn.

But I'm pretty sure it was because her hocks felt better.

She was far less stompy and heavy on her forehand at the walk. When we picked up the trot, her first few steps were slow and shuffly, but by about step six she was picking up her pace. A little too much pace.

The whole ride really was just trying to keep her trot from getting silly. A little harder for me at the moment - I use a lot of thigh on her to half halt her and slow her down, but my left thigh is still sore (getting better slowly) and still hurts to squeeze in, so she wasn't responding as well as she would have if I could ride her better.

Whatever, I'm just happy she's feeling good!

Really, she was sassy and feeling great!

We didn't do a whole lot, a bit of walk/trot/canter, but because of the weather I took my time. On Saturday I had set up my Pixio determined to see if I can figure out a better setup as I've been having issues with it consistently losing me in one corner of the arena. I tried a couple of different configurations on foot and had a friend wear the tracker for a few minutes while she was riding and it all looked good so I was optimistic that I had found a better beacon setup.

I also finally got around to labeling the case for my Pixio. 

On this night, I took my time getting it set up, and was really happy to find that it only lost me once at the beginning of the ride - in a different corner than normal. Success!

It's only been one week since her hock injections so hopefully she will start to feel even better over the next couple of weeks. Now the challenge will be to try to build some muscle again (on both of us) - I need my leg to get better faster so that I can ride more!

Vet Visit - Phantom

 The old gray mare has been feeling a little creaky lately.

Phantom had her hocks injected last August. Her right hind felt like it had a spring installed. The left one just never seemed to take as well.

When winter hit, she decided she was an old lady and started moving as such. She always warmed out of it, but there was something consistently niggling there when tracking left. It felt like left front on a turn, and left hind on the straight lines.

It was so minor though, that I've just kept putting it off getting her looked at. She's been getting ridden once or twice a week for half an hour, mostly putzing around. Lameness was never obvious.

Until recently.

The Equisense agreed with what I felt.

Within the last month, I've noticed that she seems much heavier and stompier on her forehand when leading into the barn. Under saddle, she's also been a bit stumbly. It was finally time to deal with it.

Off we went to the vet clinic early last week. I picked what is likely to be the hottest day of the year to haul her over. Thankfully, she stayed nice and cool on my Boeckmann trailer.

Waiting (rather impatiently) to be able to unload at the vet clinic.

I told the vet what I'd been feeling and that I suspected my drama queen of a horse is either overloading her front end to get off her hocks, or she was lame in all four legs.

At first, it looked like the all four legs thing might be right. She trotted and he could see it on the left front, then the right front looked worse. We took her outside to a sand ring and she looked better on the soft ground.

We did flexion tests and Phantom looked far better than I anticipated. He said if he was doing a PPE he'd say she flexed like he would expect a 17 year old horse to flex. I'm okay with that!

He agreed that we should inject her hocks again and see if that would do the trick. He also gave me some Previcox to use as needed over the winter if she seems to be a bit creaky in the cold again. If I don't think she's feeling sounder after about a month then we might have to look more into her front feet.

I warned them that Phantom is not a cheap date when it comes to sedation, which meant she had a really good snooze after the procedure had been completed. Thankfully we were able to stay inside out of the very hot sun, but it also meant that she had many people laughing at her very loud snoring. 

Good thing there was a wall there.

I plan to hop on her today (Sunday) and see how she feels. Fingers crossed that she's feeling a bit better!

There's a Hole in Her Heel

On Thursday, Phantom, my drama queen of a horse, was pretty sure her leg was going to fall off.

I fed her when I brought her in before an intended ride. She's a right foot forward when eating horse, so her left hind needs to stay underneath her to keep her balance. She wouldn't keep that foot weighted on the floor. I found a strongish digital pulse but nothing else so I suspected an abscess might be brewing.

It's been really muddy for most of the last week. We keep getting pelted with bursts of rain. On that day it had poured rain for about an hour just before I arrived. 

A farmer's field a mile or so from the barn. Supposed to be a crop field.

The barn would be visible behind the trees. I hope bees can swim!

The roads to the barn have been atrocious this year. This is on the good road.

Yep - it washed out. I had to go through in my rental car (mine was in for repairs).

I had forgotten to put my boots on when I went out for Phantom. Thankfully, she likes me, so she came to me and I didn't have to walk through the mud (though it took some convincing). Also, note that she is fully standing on her left hind and might even be resting her right hind yet would not put weight on that left foot 5 minutes later in the barn.

I buted her and threw her back out. Despite not wanting to stand in the barn with weight on her left hind, she was walking perfectly fine on it. 

The next morning I went out early so that I could have a look at her and if I needed to call the vet hopefully avoid a weekend fee. 

As I walked towards her paddock, she was picking at the grass, walking and standing on all four legs. When I got to the gate, she saw me, lifted her left hind to leave it resting kind of awkwardly, and gave me a nicker. As I said earlier - she's a total drama queen.

Otherwise, she was about the same. Walking without issue, resting it in the barn. Still a strong digital pulse.

Saturday I found a hole in her heel.

I'm still thinking that's it's an abscess. The cleft in the center of her heel has been pushed to the side and the hole is close to the center. I'm thinking that the pressure of the abscess pushed that cleft over.

It was already wet from being outside in the mud. Ugh. Thus I didn't soak it. I flushed it with some betadine as best I could and wrapped it with some Animalintex. Not my best wrapping job as Phantom refused to unflex her fetlock. I tried to wrap up a bit higher than I might normally wrap to keep the mud out, but I'm not sure how well that will work.

I have no recollection of buying fluorescent orange vetrap.

Hopefully, it was indeed an abscess and she should be more comfortable in a few days. I'm also hoping that it stops raining. But that isn't looking so good.

Birthday Girl

Phantom turns 17 today! One more year and she gets to drink and vote!

We celebrated her birthday the day before because we are supposed to have a bit of a monsoon all day Thursday. The dirt roads to the barn have been in poor condition this spring and after 2+ inches of rain I'm probably not going to want to drive on them for a couple days.

I didn't get organized enough to make popsicles for the kids this year. I also didn't want to stand in line to get into the dollar store to pick up some of her favorite cookies. So I wandered the aisles in the grocery store on my weekly trip trying to figure out what I could make work. I had to go down the cereal aisle so that I could come back up the cookie aisle (one-way aisles due to Covid) and I was inspired. I finally decided upon brown sugar-flavored Mini-Wheats. I was pretty sure they would be a safe option.

They were! Well, all except one Mini-Wheat. Apparently Phantom doesn't like soggy cereal. Can't say I blame her. 

She flat out would not eat this Mini-Wheat. Cisco, however, had no issue with it.

The kids got to eat their birthday party treats and then I chucked them into the arena for a quick play. I'm pretty sure they're going to spend most of the next 36 hours standing in the shelter so they might as well get some exercise.

For once Cisco took the lead and Phantom followed. He was quite full of himself and sassy and Phantom was content to just lope behind him.

Happy birthday Phantom!

Sweet Sixteen

Tuesday was Phantom's sweet 16!

I wanted to buy her a silly hat to wear and a sash or something sparkly to go with it - you know, embarrass my kid. But I left it too late, and the dollar store I checked didn't have anything suitable. So no decorations. Just cake.

And by cake, I mean pony popsicles.

It's become a birthday tradition. Chop up some carrots and apples (sometimes bananas), pour some unsweetened apple juice over them, and place the rubber dish in the freezer overnight.

This time I remembered that I own a good camera and wanted to use it, so Pony Grandma and I took the ponies over to a grassy area to eat their popsicles so that I would have a nicer background to work with. Unfortunately, the popsicles were harder to eat than the grass was so we had to drag them back into the barn so that they would finish eating them without any distractions.

When I made the popsicles I used a full liter of juice in each dish - it was too much. Neither horse finished their serving. Maybe brain freeze kicked in.

The kids definitely enjoyed their treat. Afterwards, Phantom got the night off, but Cisco had to work - it wasn't his birthday!

Happy birthday Princess! I hope to make you many more popsicles in the future!

Don't Run With Scissors

Isn't it amazing how horses can always sense when we have great plans and find a way to foil them?

I got out to the barn on Wednesday a little before noon so that I could have both horses ridden before their dinner time. They both are in diet paddocks so dinner is a big deal to them. And they both live with other horses, so if they are absent at dinner it gets difficult (and lengthy in time) to make sure that they get their full hay amount. Thus I try to ride before dinner on my days off, and by the time I get out on work days they've already eaten.

Anyhoo, I went out to give Phantom her Ventipulmin before riding Cisco so that it would have a chance to kick in for our later ride. It's spring and it's muddy. She had obviously been on the ground at some point. But her face was weird - she had mud around her eye, and it looked like it was wet mud that dripped down her face.

Oh wait - it wasn't mud. It was red. So it was blood.

It looks like she cut the top corner of her eye. There is no soreness, oozing, or weeping from the eye itself, so I think she just missed the important bits.

Phantom is a drama queen. She is a horrible patient who dislikes anything that makes her uncomfortable. I knew cleaning this wasn't going to be easy.

I loaded up my pockets with treats. This is where clicker training pays off.

I used baby wipes soaked in warm water. The goal was just to remove the blood - I was pretty sure that I would be lucky if I managed to get that far.

She wasn't as terrible as she can be, but I didn't really get to the sore part very much. There was no way that she would let me do anything other than just lay the warm wipe on top of it. Just doing that resulted in drama.

You know what's hard to clean from gray horses? Blood. 

Whenever Phantom gets a cut she tends to blow up. I looked at her about 4 or 5 hours after I had first seen it, and there were no signs of puffiness around her eye, so I'm hoping we're in the clear. I left some bute out just in case it's fat in the morning though.

She also broke one of the plastic buckle things that the stomach straps on Rambo blankets attach to. Pretty sure that when I bought the blanket it came with a spare one, but that was like 6 years ago, so I have no idea where it would be. I'm hoping a local store carries them or can get them in a timely manner so that I don't have to order online and pay for shipping that exceeds the cost of the pieces.

I had planned to still ride her but ran out of time. Apparently, she and her buddies got some exercise in though - they were scraping the winter poop in the paddock with the skid steer and the horses were all being idiots and running around. I was worried about Phantom's shoes if she was galloping through muck but they were still attached. I hope that equals free lunging and she isn't too silly when I get to ride her this weekend!

She Needs Drugs

We hit a glorious -4 C on Tuesday. So I suited up in my riding gear and went out to the barn to ride after dinner.

Good thing I still put my long johns on as it was pretty chilly by the time I got out there.

I decided that Phantom was the priority for the night. I hadn't ridden her since early January, and I wanted to see what her respiration was going to be like. I hadn't given her any of the Ventipulmin yet from the vet visit almost three weeks ago since the plan was to give it to her before I ride, and well, she wasn't getting ridden.

The last couple of times that I had put her in the arena to run around her breathing seemed pretty good. No issues with recovery. I decided to try the ride without the medication. I wasn't going to be doing much - mostly walking with some short trot sets.

I really need to do something with her mane. Like brush it.

The good news is that she felt pretty good in her body. And she had lots of energy and wanted to do way more than I was willing to let her do.

The bad news is that I should have given her the medication before riding.

She was puffy and doing the short shallow breaths after I got off. Her recovery was not very good, considering how little we had done.

I gave her some Ventipulmin post-ride. I guess I will have to use it for the next while, pre-ride.