Happy Three Months, Rocket!

My little girl is three months old! It's weird - instead of being all "I can't believe she's three months old already," I feel more like, "She's only three months old? It feels like she's always been here!"

Without further ado, here are a ton of pictures my mom sent me this morning. No, that's not a yearling. That's Rocket.

I am a mysterious lady.

Rocket and her uncle TJ, who is the size of an elephant.

Pretending to be demure.

Head over the fence: Done. Over the gate? Getting there.

Please note also that her butt is higher than the fence.

Ol' Knobby Knees.

The End!

Jump Chutes!

I've had the opportunity to do a lot of cool things with horses over the years, but one thing I'd never done until this past weekend was put horses through a jump chute. It was a really cool experience, and I got to meet Teddy O'Connor's breeder and put her pony Cash through the chute several times!

Teddy!

We took Fynn and Zephyr to the clinic. Fynn showed some talent but got really nervous. Zephyr crashed through a bunch of jumps for awhile and then seemed to figure it out.

It was a well-run clinic. The lady running it had me walk the horse through to sniff all the poles and see what he was supposed to do, and then she started building crossrails - there were three jumps, and the first one stayed a crossrail, the second became a vertical, and the last an oxer. The heights varied according to the horse's fitness and abilities. Neither of our horses got to jump anything huge, which is fine. They'll get there.

Me and Zephyr waiting for our turn in the chute ring.

There's nothing handsomer than Zephyr.

Fynn overjumps a bit.

Fynn is adorable but it took us like 10 minutes to get this shot.

Zephyr eventually figured out how to tuck his knees. Good boy!

The photos above seem to be choosing their own order, so sorry if they don't make sense.

Lex is doing well. She enjoys her handful of minutes of hand-grazing every day, and tomorrow she's getting cleaned up. She's pretty gross from lying in her own poop all night, and sometimes brushing just isn't going to be good enough. I took her stitches out yesterday, though, so I can finally give her a bath. Also, I haven't seen a return of the puffy leg. YAY.

Without taking away any of the snuggling I'm giving Lex, I think I'm gonna commit to bringing Zephyr along, especially while she's on layup. He's a very nice horse, and he can be my project for the next few months. Maybe he'll be an eventer, who knows.

Pony Games

Pony camp, y'all. It is the most draining thing I can think of. TWELVE children. ALL day. For a week.

I need your ideas for mounted games that kids can do without having to hold the reins in one hand because I am running out of ideas. Oh, and they can only walk so far. Yesterday we had a relay race in which they'd go to the end of the ring, circle the mounting block, and come back. Today we did "pole bending" and "barrel racing" around jump blocks. We aren't going to be doing bareback rides.

I also need your ideas for not strangling know-it-all kids who yell at me when their horse doesn't stand like a stone statue or doesn't walk at mach 3 or whatever.

In other news, Lex is doing well. She has a new best friend. His name is Slim.

That's DOCTOR Slim to you.

Slim likes to supervise hand-grazings, excursions into the tack room, and water bucket filling. He is 90 million years old and a mangy flea-bag and I adore him to pieces. He reminds me of the cat from Coraline. I imagine that he sits on Lex's window ledge and talks to her at night.

After her ten minutes of grazing, I took her back into her stall and unwrapped her standing wrap so I could re-wrap it. I was standing with my back to her while she munched her hay. The next thing I knew, she'd sidled up next to me and leaned her shoulder into my back. I scratched her chest, rubbed her head, and just hung out there, for a long time. She was really snuggly last night, too. I think she is really starved for contact since she doesn't get to hang out with her buddies in the paddock at night. I also think she likes me. My trainer said to me one day that he thinks she's a tough horse, and that we have to make sure she's tough for our team. I have a feeling we'll be able to accomplish that. She's such a good horse. All of this mess is definitely worth it.

Hold Whatcha Got

I'm working hard to beat the blues these days. Things have gotten so gross around here that it's hard for me to find a bright side to look upon. I feel like I spend most of my time lonely, sad, frustrated, disappointed, and overwhelmed. Most of this is because of Lex's situation. At least, without that going on, everything else would seem more manageable. The thing is, though, I don't regret buying her at all. I am not sorry I own her. Every day - multiple times a day - when I get to the barn to see her, and I walk up to her stall, and she looks at me with her adorable, beautiful, sweet face, my heart skips a beat. Every time.

I mean... Look at that face.

Yesterday R helped me give her an Adequan shot because I was having issues and my hands were shaking (she needs seven, one every four days... $$$) and was talking to her: "Do you know how lucky you are? Your mom loves you soooooo much." But really, I'm the lucky one. I get irritated at her when she insists on pooping in her water bucket every other day, but she's like this amazing cool being that I never thought I'd be awesome enough to get to hang out with.

Riding her was like hanging out with someone I've known forever.
I hope we get to do it again.

Sigh.

She is being such a good girl on stall rest. She gets wheelbarrows full of hay brought to her on the regular. I'm back to seeing her 2-3 times a day. This morning I was at the barn for three hours just working on getting her feed bagged for the week (she's on 30 very hard, large pills a day. My pill crusher can only handle one such pill at a time), cleaning her stall, hosing her puncture-wound leg, etc. Then I was there for another four hours this evening to work on her some more and do evening feeding. I worked on my dissertation for one hour. This isn't good. On the other hand, when I'm at the barn, I'm usually pretty calm and content. It's when I'm at home that I start to fall apart.

I'm glad she's being so sweet though. Today she got to hand graze for five minutes between rain storms!

Precious grass! I have missed you!

She was awesome - just stood in one spot just outside the barn door, stuffed her face for five minutes, and then went politely back into her stall. 

Eatsing grasses.

After our foray into the wilderness of the first five blades of grass outside the barn door, I took off her stack wrap and determined that her leg is still too stocked up for my liking and that cold hosing and wrapping aren't doing the trick. I texted the vet, and she was like, "Put a sweat wrap on. If that doesn't work, it's more pills."

DAMMIIIIIIIIT.

I am a top-notch wrapper. That stack wrap you see in the photo above had survived overnight on a horse who likes to lie down and roll and is very hard on her clothes. But sweat wraps are my least favorite thing. It's not the wrapping itself, really. It's the DMSO. Have you ever had to use DMSO? It's made of Satan. Get it on your skin and you will have a garlic-death taste in your mouth for the rest of the day. And you WILL get it on your skin.

The first step is to mix equal parts Furazone and DMSO. WEAR RUBBER GLOVES.

 

Spread a thin layer of this on whatever part(s) of the horse you're wrapping. Then take regular old plastic wrap and put a couple layers over the area you just put Satan's Own Mixture on. I did separate wraps over her leg and her hock.

Then, cotton batting. You can use your standing wraps but I just get the disposable stuff if I'm going to be using DMSO because that stuff is nasty. I just measure and cut so it's the same length as my regular quilt. I did one wrap on her leg - just like a regular standing wrap - and one on her hock, again.

 Then, rolled gauze! I like brown gauze but I couldn't find any today so I just used regular rolled gauze. Same story - one roll over the leg, one roll over the hock.

Then, everyone's favorite, Vet Wrap. I actually did the batting, gauze, and vet wrap as a regular standing wrap, and then I did all three over the hock. Then I took a third roll of Vet Wrap and went back over the whole leg to keep it secure, making sure not to cover the point of the hock.

And finally, Elastikon around the top and bottom to keep dirt out.

Tada!

Pretty proud of this.

Cut out the point of the hock if you can - it helps prevent hock sores. The last thing this horse needs is another excuse to blow her leg up.

I always worry with wraps like this that she'll become uncomfortable, but I'm going to make myself leave it on for 24 hours. I really don't want to throw more pills at her. She's already on antibiotics, so I don't think it's infected. If she could go outside and walk around, that would probably clear it up. Thoroughbreds love to stock up!

Anyway, I'm glad I could do something for her. That always makes me feel better.

Fireworks!

But not the kind in the sky.

One of those "awkward moment" kinds of pictures...
I do not ride like this.

We got a new pony to try at the lesson farm and no one had gotten on him yet, so since R was there yesterday, I said I'd hop on him.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

This little guy is six, and he has Opinions. Our ring is a pond, and he was like, "Uh uh honey, I am NOT swimming today." He attempted to leap out from under me sideways at the last minute several times at the trot, but I'm handy with a crop and I have strong legs, so we reached an understanding. He did some cute trot work, and so I legged him into a canter. He was flying around the ring. We would have made time on prelim xc. I didn't feel like I was being run away with, he was just really going places, and the idea was for us to see what his default settings are under saddle, not for me to finesse a hunter eq round out of him. The kids have to be able to ride him.

What he really, really didn't like was when I asked him for a circle, probably 30 meters, at the canter. He got super into bucking, and he picked the wrong rider to try that with, because he found himself galloping around the ring while I held the reins on one hand and the crop in the other looking for the mildest hint of anything sketchy. He also had to slow down when I asked, circle on my whim, and canter through the damn puddles. He was much much better after that, and walked nicely on a loose rein for awhile. I popped him over a couple little jumps, and by the end of that whole experiment, I really liked him. We'll have to see if he can fit into the lesson program, but damn, it was fun to ride a bucking pony.

Lex update: She is on the mend, and super snuggly. She wants me to hang out with her in her stall all day and hug her. I think she'd also really like to go outside. In one of our sixteen thunderstorms of the day today, right before I got there this afternoon (second visit of the day), she was hanging her head out her stall window. Her whole head was soaked, but when I dared to cold hose her hock, she acted like I was throwing acid on her. I'm glad she's not angry about her stall rest yet. I can hand-graze her tomorrow for five minutes as long as she'll be quiet. Usually, if she can eat, she's a happy girl.

What are your recommendations for entertaining a silly young horse on stall rest?

Surgery: A Success!

Hi y'all! Just a quick post to let everyone know that the surgery went fine, and to thank everyone for their kind words on the last post. I promise, things are gonna be good again soon and I won't be complainypants all the time. I really appreciate y'all who had stories about how they thought they broke something and they didn't. I've decided that I also did not break my foot. If it still hurts real bad Friday, maybe I'll do something, but I can't handle having a broken foot.

Anyway, I was very, very proud of Lex this morning. She got on the trailer in the dark. She settled right into her stall and ate hay. She was an excellent patient for the catheter in her neck, for the x-rays, for everyone who handled her. I got to hang out with her until she went for surgery, watch the surgery itself, and then hang out with her until R got back to pick us up. She was excellent the whole way through.

How come we only get alfalfa at the hospital??

Excellent window. And yes, I realize she is underweight.
That's an aspect of recent weirdness I haven't even touched on.

Watching the surgery was really cool. I got to see the whole thing on the ultrasound screen. When it was done, the surgeon turned to me and kinda did this little half-bow/half-shrug thing. After she came out of the anesthesia (by far the scariest part) and she was awake enough to handle it, I went to hang out with her. She was groggy and out of it.

Is this real life?

She also pretended to eat hay, even though there wasn't any hay left.

No, Mom, I'm toooooooootally normal. I promise.

After we got home I got her settled back in and took her hock wrap off. Her hock looked great, so I put more goop in her eye, kissed her on the nose, and left for awhile. I had to be at the lesson farm to meet with some peopel Of course, when I got back this evening, it was all swollen again. I called the vet and picked up the antibiotics she called in, came back, gave her the pills, cold hosed her hock, and then wrapped it again. I can't even tell you how tired I was. Am.

The view from the hosing position.
Was there ever a more unflattering neck angle?

She was a really good girl for everything. I just hope we've got some improvement tomorrow on the hock and that she gets through the night okay. I'm too worn out to function, so I'm off to bed. Thank you thank you for being so great. I really appreciate it.

Are You Fucking KIDDING ME WITH THIS?!?!

Okay. You guys.

I have alluded to, and in some instances addressed directly, how crappy the month of June was. I felt good that we had a diagnosis and I figured the month of July would start with some healing.

That's what I get for getting my hopes up, I guess.

I figured that today I'd be writing a post about how I'm nervous about Lex's surgery tomorrow (which I definitely am) but how I'd feel better once it's over (I still think this will be at least partially true), but let me tell you about some parts of my day. I'm going to omit the entire saga of my dog issues except to say that my little guy, Eddie, kept me up all night with a horrendous case of diarrhea. I mean, his gut sounds were so loud I couldn't even sleep through them, so that wasn't a good start to things, and he's still sick, poor baby.

In other news, the weather has been apocalyptic lately. The rain has ruined the footing in all the rings in the state and the horses' hooves are not holding up well. The paddocks are mucky messes. I taught a lesson early this morning and had a 90 minute break til my next lesson, so I decided to ride Zephyr.

Public Enemy #1.

He was a good boy while we were riding, but when I turned him out, he STOMPED on my foot and now I think it might be broken. So that really fucking sucks, though I probably won't be able to get it checked out until Thursday, unless I want astronomical ER bills, which I do not. I already have increasingly-astronomical vet bills.

After my second lesson, I got in a fight with my small animal vet's office (a story for another day) and went out to visit Lex. She'd stayed in last night because of the storms, and the farrier thinks her feet are getting too soft, so I wanted to put Keratex on her feet and love on her a little. The terrific girl who works on Tuesdays had turned her out for awhile for me. I brought her in and started to groom her and... her right hock is HUGE. Like a basketball. I called the vet immediately and told her I thought I saw a puncture wound, so it was probably cellulitis, and I started cold hosing. I cold hosed her hock for 40 minutes waiting for the vet, who arrived about 15 minutes before I had to leave for my last lesson of the day. I fervently hoped the lesson would be rained out, but it wasn't. I had to leave ten minutes before the vet was finished. She agreed that it looked like a puncture wound had caused the issue, but we couldn't figure out how the hell she did that in the first place, as the girl who worked today said that she looked like that when she went out (she'd heard Lex was having surgery and assumed it was on that hock so thought nothing of it). It gets more fun, though: Lex at one point whipped her head around and managed to scratch her eye on the cheekpiece of her halter.

SHE GAVE HERSELF ANOTHER CORNEAL ABRASION.

I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

Anyway, now she's in a huge wrap from her stifle to her pastern over a Furazone sweat, so it'll be fun for me to get my horse out of her stall before dark and load her onto a step-up trailer while she can't move her right leg and my right foot is probably broken.

Sorry for the horrible picture. It was dark and storming and I was crying.

I went back out to the barn after my last lesson, and feeding the dogs and grabbing a quick bite myself. I had to take out some hay cubes and put gunk in her eye, because we're back to doing that four times a day. The rain was really unbelievably torrential, which made the whole thing all the more depressing.

Ugh. The depression's getting legit, I have to say. I need something actually good to happen right now, because the hope that things will get better soon isn't enough anymore. There are no guarantees that she'll be okay after the surgery, or ever.

Anyway, do you think I'll be able to talk the vet into doing some x-rays of my foot?