August Update

That's really how it goes, doesn't it? A once a month update....shameful.

On the one hand a lot has been going on and on the other, not much. Shortly after camp, I was turning the horses out for the night. I don't know if I did something or if Angel saw something, but she spooked. I was leading her out by her halter, so when she spooked, she reared back taking me with her. This is my #1 recurrent injury: a horse rearing back and me getting my arm virtually yanked out of my shoulder socket. It's like a whiplash and hurts for days. This time was no different, I couldn't lift my arm up or hold anything with a weight to it without my shoulder screaming. Not sure what I did, I rarely ever go to the doctor for one I'm cheap (I'll admit it when it comes to me, I'd rather skip and splurge on my horses) and two I don't like to sound crazy. I learned a long time ago that regaling the nursing staff with detailed stories of previous horse related injures, like they can't just look it up in my file, and that fact that I continue to do it, makes me sound crazy.

After I had healed up and was ready to ride, Dino got hurt. I'm still not sure what he did, I had gone down to feed in the morning, the horses had been in their stalls, and Dino had fresh blood on his front left. It looked like a puncture wound, but wasn't and it came up from the bottom. Nothing in his stall revealed the source for the injury. The 'cut' itself was between the inferior check ligament and the deep digital flexor tendon, right above the suspensory ligament. Dino's leg was extremely swollen and tender. At first I cleaned it with betadine solution and treated it with Well-Horse and continued to keep it clean for days and it just wouldn't get any better. Not only am I cheap, I'm also a hypochondriac when it comes to my horses and I was slowly convincing myself that Dino had a flesh eating bacteria. So I changed tactics; gave Dino bute (1 gram was upped to 2 grams) and applied fura-zone and that's when the heat showed up in his leg. Cold hosing didn't make it any better and stall rest made it even worse, so I switched tactics and applied cool pack green jelly. By this time the 'cut' had healed with the help of blue lotion, but the swelling, tenderness and heat had remained. Within a 48 hours of using the jelly, Dino's leg returned to normal and he returned to light work on the third day. The unusual part in all of this, Dino was never lame but I certainly was not going to try and take any chances.

Dino's leg on August 8.


Dino's leg on August 31.

Dino has now returned to light work, not because he's sore or anything, but because we have nothing else on the agenda this year, shows or clinics, and winter is coming so I'm backing off the workload now. Right around three times a week he's being worked and currently only on the lunge line. I'm really focusing on picking up the right lead in the canter and keeping the consistency. We're about a 60, maybe 65%, consistent in getting the lead the first time everytime. When we get to 80%, I'll go back to riding him and work on getting the right lead under-saddle.

Which then takes me to the inevitable yearly question: "To board or not to board?"

You want something? Don't wish for it.

You know how they say, if you want something bad enough, wish for it and it'll come true? Well it's ALL hogwash. You see, I've been wishing for wonderful riding weather. Wishing for it with all my might. What did I get instead? Rain. In fact, I have been able to work Dino since April 13! Which is why the blog has been so quiet. How was he prior to that? Doing pretty good, he was just starting to show signs of Losgelassenheit -- looseness in his back. I could visually see him swinging in his back, and let me tell you, it got me so excited! For a dressage horse, it is one of the hardest things to truly achieve. With this, Dino was also really starting to come over his back, engage his hindquarters while using them more effectively beneath him. A lot of racehorses, they, obviously, don't know how to properly use their body. So when they trot, they kind of just go up and down on their hind legs like a pogo stick. To make them more engaged, loosen their back and have a connection is really a step forward in the right direction.

But then it started raining...and it hasn't stopped!

So what else has Dino been up to? Remember a few posts back when I said Dino really doesn't have anyone in his corner? We can emphasis that now. On April 7, Dino managed to kick off Angel's stall door.

What happened was simple (and completely my fault). Angel, for whatever reason, has decided that she doesn't like the timothy grass anymore and was literally starving herself over it. So I went out and bought $4 alfalfa hay, but I'm still mixing it with the old hay. Doesn't really do me any good, Angel just shifts through it and scatters it in her stall. I don't want to waste it, so when I clean stalls I pull Angel out of hers, put Dino in there and I'll then clean Dino's stall while he finishes up her hay.

Angel's a smart girl, too smart. She knows how to open and close her stall door, open the grain barrel, the pasture gate, etc., among other things. This is were it becomes my fault. I've shown her how to do the first two things, after that she started to figure things out.

So I'm in Dino's stall, he's in Angel's stall and Angel's loose in the barn. My back is turned and out of the corner of my eye, I see Angel open her stall door and enter. Before I could even do anything, Dino started kicking. I don't know how Angel escaped unscathed, but poor Dino didn't. He actually kicked Angel's stall door off, and I'm talking the 4x6 that the door was hinged to split right down the middle and the door itself, landed 4' in front of the opening! How do I know the distance, because it cleared the 4x6 rubber mat in front of Angel's stall door.

At first, I didn't even see if Dino had any cuts on him. I thought he had injured his patella by the way he was holding his leg, and the fact he was hopping around on three legs. The patella is the knee cap and on a horse and is located at the stifle, the juncture where the hing leg meets the belly. When the patella has slipped out of place, it will move over the joint locking the leg. The best way to remedy this is to either a)back the horse up or b)pick up the hind leg, stretching it back until the horse pulls it forward. I opted for option (a) and backed Dino up to see if it popped back into place, if that was the problem. It wasn't. Then I discovered the bleeding right at his left hock. It was a good abrasion. I cleaned it up and managed not to get kicked. Yay me! Last year, while I was at WEG, I purchased a bottle of Well-Horse and I am so glad I did! It really came in handy and I'm happy to report, the product lived up to its claim. Dino's leg healed within two weeks with new hair growth. I should also mention, that Dino's entire left hind stocked up but a little DMSO cleared that up within a few days as well. I just swear by DMSO.

So without further adieu, and for your viewing pleasure, the pictures:

Angel's stall door (top), right where it landed, four feet in front of her stall. Dino's back left hock (bottom), the day after the incident.


In other good news, Dino has two projects in the works. Along the lines of National, and not just me writing here, publication. Stay tuned! ;)