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.