What we've been up to this year

The need to update this blog has been niggling. First, I looked back over my lists of posts. Hmm; last year I was absent from here until May 22. It's a bit later than that now, but I haven't been absent for as many months as before. Now that I'm back in the saddle again, I can look forward to enjoying some more adventures this year!

"Back in the saddle" you ask? For those who don't follow me on IG/FB or my sheep/farm blog, you're likely unaware that I had bilateral knee replacements on April 9.

my no-longer-bowed legs one month after surgery

Six weeks and a day after surgery I had a post-op appointment with my surgeon, who surprised me by saying it was okay to ride again. So of course I went home, tacked up Stella, and rode! I had been preparing for that day by resuming the groundwork I did with her before backing her almost five years ago, and I did some of that groundwork before mounting. I also told my son, who was home from work, to keep his phone on in case something happened, and then asked if he'd come down to provide proof. Stella was as good as gold; it certainly helps that I've trained all my horses to stand where I put them so I can use a fence, rock, stump or hump to mount to save their backs from the torque of the saddle tree. I now use that process in reverse to dismount, as sliding off and hitting the ground on my still-recovering legs doesn't sound like a good idea.

preparatory groundwork

'groundwork' done from the arena fence

first time astride post-op

I've ridden nearly every day since, progressing from short walks, to adding a little trotting (sitting is more comfortable than posting), to cantering on the one-week anniversary of getting back in the saddle. And what an anniversary that was, because my husband rode that evening, too! He hadn't been on a horse in years, and Lance hadn't been ridden in years, but Rick really wanted to try out a saddle he had taken in trade on a client's account. Lance reinforced why he's retired, stumbling to his knees once while walking. My tall husband sure looked better on him than he did on his former little cutting/reining-bred QHs, though!

two riders generated a LOT of dust (it's been a very dry spring)

Between my last post in November 2024 and my surgery, Stella and I continued as usual, schooling at home, getting in my usual New Year's Day ride, and poking through the woods in hopes of spotting an early wild iris just days before my surgery.

 

no wild iris, but lots of other flowers, including this feral cherry

There; now I'm all caught up, and so are you!

Waiting for eruptions

No, not behavioral ones; Stella continues to be reliably sane. If she doesn't get regular turn-out for some reason, she is definitely more energetic and tense, but never out of control. The eruptions I am waiting on, before scheduling another lesson, are the rest of her canine teeth. Suzan advised riding her bitless or on a loose rein until those come in and her mouth is more comfortable. Since I don't have a bitless bridle (my German hackamore doesn't qualify), I am riding Stella as carefully as I can to not aggravate her sore mouth. Stella is letting me know that I am mostly successful, and we continue to make steady progress, especially at the canter, riding 4-5 days a week. In our last four rides, she has picked up the correct lead and maintained the canter for several 20M circles with my verbal encouragement to keep going. Can you see my smile from there??? 😁

We got over two inches of glorious rain Friday night and Saturday, so for right now we get to ride in a dust-free arena. Sunday I turned her loose in it first to let off steam, as the pasture was still muddy and slick.

Hopefully I can record a dust-free ride with Pivo before the arena dries out again; I want to see us canter!

The farrier was here Monday. When he started trimming Lance, he noticed that Lance's right hock was really swollen:

By later that day, the swelling had progressed down the rest of the leg:

I had been gone Thursday through Sunday and Rick had cleaned stalls that morning, so I hadn't been in with Lance, but I still felt bad that I hadn't noticed. I kept the horses in a couple days to keep Lance from aggravating whatever he had done to it, but it wasn't until I turned him and Stella out Wednesday that the swelling finally went down. All that running....

But the next day it was swollen again – and Lance was lame. 😒

So we added SMZs (antibiotic) to his Bute (anti-inflammatory) on top of his meds for 'asthma' and 'diabetes,' and although he thinks we're horrid for ruining his mealtimes, the lameness has abated though some swelling remains.

Telltale signs that you're doctoring a horse

What a month-plus!

On many fronts not much has happened since I last posted here. My new student hasn't been back yet due to other commitments and bad weather. I haven't done much more with Stella due to bad weather and now stall rest – mine, not hers. And with that, I'll segue into what has happened....

Because of all the rain we were getting, I started ponying Stella off Lance again. That kept both of them exercised a little and kept me from getting soaked. On January 19, I put the body wrap on Stella, saddled up Lance, grabbed the flag, and headed to the arena. Stella was feeling a little frisky from not getting much turn-out (when there are puddles, she DIGS; NOT good for the footing)

which made Lance cranky. She frisked, he reacted at her, I corrected him while inadvertently swishing the flag (which he isn't used to; oops), and off he launched towards the arena fence. Deciding that I'd rather bail before we reached the metal panels rather than possibly getting thrown into them, I let go of Stella's lead rope – but not Lance's reins. My split-second reasoning was to prevent Lance from chasing Stella down and trying to kill her, like he did last time he got loose in the arena with her. Judging by the amount of jumping around he continued to do after I hit the ground, that was precisely his desire. Unfortunately, one of his big feet came down on the back of my right thigh as I lay on my side. Yeah, that HURT; he weighs in at 1200+ lbs. But thankful that he didn't step on my femur or knee or torso, I got up, led him to the other end of the arena where Stella was standing (and stood, even though the back loop of the body wrap had slid up under her tail like a crupper; woot!), got back on, and finished our walk.

That night I showed my leg to Rick, who was concerned enough that he ultrasounded it. Even though the lump appeared to be filled with serous fluid, not a clot, he thought it best to have my doctor check it out, so the next day I did. The doctor agreed with Rick, and recommended R.I.C.E. So for the next two weeks, I iced it, wore some compression capris I got to wear under my white show breeches, and applied arnica cream and DMSO. Elevating my thigh above my heart wasn't really feasible, and rest, well....

Laying down, the lump isn't as obvious.

The bruising improved but the lump remained. Rick decided to ultrasound it again, called his BIL who is an orthopedic trauma surgeon, and learned I had actually sustained a type of closed degloving injury called a Morel-Lavallée Lesion. Then the search was on to find the best way to deal with it. In the end, that led us to an appointment with a local plastic surgeon last Tuesday, who looked at it and decided to drain it on the spot and tightly wrap it. (One of the characteristics of ML Lesions is a loss of feeling, so he just stuck an 18-gauge needle in it and I didn't feel a thing!) He instructed me to leave the wrap on for the next two weeks and stay off of it as much as possible; I go back for a check-up tomorrow.

In between appointments #1 and #2, we had a doozy of an ice storm. My poor husband was already doing all the barn chores, and then we lost power for three and a half days while everything was (ultimately) covered by 1.5" of treacherous ice, making everything more labor-intensive. But at least those were days I didn't feel bad (as I have all the others) about not being able to work/play with my horses!

Someone is feeling as cooped up as I am!

So all of us have some ground to regain, and I hope we can get back to it sooner rather than later.

Happy first Andromeda-versary!

Yes, I've been AWOL here on my horse blog. Putting together a post has been a struggle, not for lack of activity or photos. Maybe for lack of progress; we've finally regained the ground Stella and I lost after the 'long-lining incident' but haven't really moved forward from there. And now the weather is slowing us down; turn-out is limited to the arena and always supervised if there are puddles (which is most of the time) because of Stella's propensity for pawing at water. Less turn-out means more energy and reactivity, which makes our work together resemble Groundhog Day more than The Incredible Journey. I brought her home the Sunday after Christmas last year and here we are a year later, still in pre-Kindergarten. Sometimes I am tempted to despair that I will ever make a riding partner of my little Morgan mare!

Meanwhile, I was able to start hand-walking Lance back in October, slowly progressing to under-saddle walks and eventually a bit more. But he's had a couple alarming flare-ups of heaves this month that have necessitated rounds of additional drugs, and his breathing is still not back to normal.

Then on Monday our taps dried up. It's one thing to not have running water in a residence; it's a whole 'nuther beast to lose water when you have livestock. After a $200-fix-that-was-not-a-fix yesterday, we learned today that we are going to need everything BUT a new well; the pump, wiring and pipes are all shot. Hoping that will all get replaced tomorrow ($$$$), but because of both the failure and the fixes I'm not sure the water will be safe for man or beast for another day.

All this to say that my one-year anniversary with Umpqua Andromeda didn't get any fanfare. And yet, as "Facebook memories" have popped up in my feed this week, I realize how much Stella has changed. My scruffy cygnet has morphed into a beautiful black swan!

Then:

Now:

I see a blacker, sleeker, fitter, more filled-out mare whose neck has gone from upside-down to rightside-round. I see a horse who trusts me, comes to me, and tries for me. I guess she really has 'come a long way, baby'!

Oh, and there has been one visible bit of progress; I've blanketed her for the first time!

I didn't leave it on her, but did lead her around. As reactive as she is to things that touch her, she handled it pretty well. She also handles gunfire surprisingly well. On Christmas Day Rick and Brian shot some clay pigeons while she was turned out, and after a couple big spooks, she mostly stood her ground.

Finally, I got a little holiday surprise. The guy who accompanied our group to Perrydale Trails to take photos created some beautiful images. They make special 'keepsakes' of some of the best memories of 2020!

You knew it couldn't be all sunshine and roses, right?

As I mentioned, it took a looong time for Stella to decide to get in the trailer for our outing to Perrydale Trails last Tuesday. I said "for some reason;" I have a pretty good idea what at least part of the reason was. A couple days before I had decided to long-line her for I think the third time since our lesson with Suzan. The first two times we practiced it Stella did great even though I don't have a round pen, but the third time she was more reactive. I thought we were working through it when she started panicking and took off, yanking the long lines out of my hands. Of course the lines 'chased' her, which panicked her more. She ended up jumping the 4' arena panel into the strip between the arena and barn, where I was able to catch her and 'rescue' her from the lines. (I shudder to think of how bad things could have gotten if she had jumped into the pasture and run through the fir trees which she often does....) When I tried to load her Tuesday morning there was nothing behind her at all, but she definitely acted nervous at first. And once she loaded and we set out exploring Perrydale Trails, she was so wonderfully calm and thoughtful that I was over-the-moon happy with my girl. But I suspected that long-lining again would be a challenge, to say the least – a challenge best left to a professional at it. Since Wednesday's forecast showed rain more likely from late morning on, I texted Suzan about a lesson. She was agreeable, so Wednesday morning I loaded up Stella (Rick was there and stood by, so she got right on) and off we went for a lesson.

I shared what had happened so Suzan backed up a step, putting the outside line over Stella's back instead of around her haunches. She did let her trot, however, which seemed a step forward after the first lesson when everything was done at the walk.

But in spite of that lovely, animated trot, it was apparent to all that Stella was still quite fearful of the long lines. So Suzan took off the surcingle and just worked on desensitizing her to the long lines.

You can see from Stella's lifted back leg in that last photo that she is still quite worried about that outside line. I feel bad that a confidence-destroying wreck happened on my watch, but there is no point in wallowing in regret; we must move on and rebuild trust.

Yesterday I ground-drove her for the first time since the wreck. Had to do a lot with the outside line over her back, just like Suzan did with the long lines, but slowly and carefully graduated to walking behind her. I doubt I'll try long-lining her without a round pen again or at least for the foreseeable future; we'll stick to what we can safely do with what we have.

Stella isn't getting all-day turn-out now that we're getting some rain; I don't want her to slip and injure herself running around in the pasture. Instead I let her burn off steam in the arena; it's been awhile since I've gotten to see her frolic like this!

I'm finally back in the saddle again with my big red goober. After getting treated for his injured ligaments, I started hand-walking him. Had to use a stud chain, because even a lazy boy gets cooped up and full of himself after too much stall rest! After a couple weeks of that, Rick said we could continue our walks under saddle. It is so nice to see this view and have a conversation in "dressage" again; I didn't realize how much I've missed it while working with Stella. Someday she'll learn to speak "dressage," too; I'm looking forward to that!

I'd better reduce the 'snow' load...

...before there's an avalanche!

In plain language, so much has happened in the last two weeks that I'm in danger of forgetting things that I want to document. So this might not be the most eloquent post; maybe a "Just the facts, ma'am." Oh, plus LOTS of videos that I insert here for my own reviewing convenience, not because I expect all of you – or any of you – to be that interested.

Besides getting video proof of riding Stella, Lisa did a lot more with her at our last lesson on September 30. I took seven other video clips to help me remember what we worked on.

As you can see can see, Lisa added a LOT of new things in that lesson – leading from a distance to build confidence, ground-driving with the lines run through surcingle rings on both sides and running around Stella's hind legs, having me add bending and 'one-rein' stops to our bareback rides, adding the saddle back in the working equation, and adding trot to the circle work. Stella handled it all very well, and as I continued to practice daily and think about my calendar, I decided, after conferring with Lisa, that we were ready for a long-lining lesson with Suzan Davis Atkinson. Last Wednesday was the only possibility until sometime in November when the weather could be a problem, so instead of Lisa coming to my place to give us a lesson, she met me at Clover Valley Equestrian Center to watch Suzan work with us.

When I went to load up Stella, I realized there was a rather important hole in our recent trailer-loading practice. (Remember, she had only been trailered twice in her life before this, and the last time was more than nine months prior.) We had worked on getting in and getting out, but I hadn't actually secured her in place to haul. How was I going to do this by myself, without freaking her out? I knew that leaving her head whether she was tied or not (I prefer not), moving the divider over, and securing it by her rump would cause her concern at best, or a confidence-destroying wreck at worst. As I stood in my trailer with her, I had an idea. I turned her around as if to lead her out, then backed her into place. That allowed me to move the divider over and secure it while standing near her head where I could stroke her neck and reassure her. I tied the lead rope around her neck, closed the trailer door, and off we went!

At Clover Valley Stella unloaded calmly and then stood there, taking in the new sights, sounds, and smells; we were all impressed with her! We eventually made our way to the round pen, and learned how to properly set up all the equipment, using some carabiners to enable optimum placement of the long lines. Since I don't have a lunging cavesson we just used her web halter; I assured Suzan that that's what we've been using and she's very soft in it. Stella proceeded to prove that. I took the first short video, then Lisa offered to film so that I could focus on Suzan's instruction – and then get my hands on the lines.

Back home, Stella and I continued our near-daily training sessions. Sunday I had time to try long-lining her on my own, without the benefit of a round pen. She did very well . . . until the line on the far side got up under her tail. When she reacted it got tighter, and then she REALLY reacted; she's obviously not ready for a crupper! 🤣 Eventually I got her stopped and the offending line moved; we did some more long-lining after that and all was copacetic again.

Yesterday I worked her saddled, like Lisa did in her last lesson with us (and I've repeated at least once since). That was going well, too . . . until I asked her to trot and apparently a stirrup "attacked" her. She startled, the stirrup bounced, and she went to scrambling, kicking and bucking like she was trying to dislodge a cougar! Again, I eventually got her stopped, and tried to de-escalate things. It was kinda-sorta working, but then she started scrambling again and actually fell down on her side. We did just a bit more work at the walk, and then I took the saddle off to finish up with easy, beginning 'building blocks' to give her back some confidence.  Whew; that felt like 'no steps forward; ten steps back'! So it goes....

 

#################################################

Oh, Lance got his third shockwave treatment on Sunday. I assume Rick will ultrasound the injured area to assess healing, and Lance should be cleared to start hand-walking soon. I've missed riding my big red goober even if we do just walk, but it has been nice to focus exclusively on Stella's training guilt-free!

Ratzenphooey

This evening I got Lance ready for a twilight ride. He walked out of his stall off or stiff, I wasn't sure which, so I led him to the arena (where we do our walking warm-up), cleaned out his feet, and got on. After a couple steps I jumped off; he was clearly lame on the left front. I called my 'built-in veterinarian' for the second night in a row (last night my Shetland ram had a goopy, painful eye), and Rick came down to check Lance out. After watching Lance walk in small figure-8s, doing a flexion test, blocking the nerves to the fetlock and foot, then blocking the nerves to the upper suspensory area, Rick narrowed it down to the upper suspensory. Neither of us could remember which legs Lance has injured before, so when we came to the house I checked my blog. Six years ago he tore his suspensory and his inferior check ligaments in his left front, the third of his four legs to sustain soft tissue injuries. 😖😖😖

My poor big red goober. He has had more problems than any one horse should have to bear. I am thankful to have an understudy in the wings, but I need Lance to keep my riding muscles limber to be ready for Stella. 😩

Well, shucks

The weather is getting nicer but my horse is getting heav-ier, as breathing harder. Lance's respiration rate isn't nearly as fast as when Rick diagnosed him with Inflammatory Airway Disease (because he's on twice daily prednisolone), but it's definitely more labored, and exercise has become much harder for him. I suspect Lance got triggered by our period of cold, dry air combined with the micro-particulates from wood smoke; I cringe when I see ours or the neighbor's drifting towards the barn. Rick and I have talked about doing a dex suppression round and then treating him with a new formulation through the inhaler, but haven't acted on that yet. Since the last time-intensive inhaler treatments didn't do a whole lot of good, I can't get excited about trying it....

Still, we do our limited work in the arena, or get out and about (especially when I can smell wood smoke in the barn/arena area). Lance needs the exercise for his metabolic syndrome, and I need the time on my horse. But until his breathing eases, I won't be considering any more shows.