Burried

This is me trying to get to work yesterday.

On Thursday afternoon it started snowing here and didn't stop until early Friday morning. In all we got almost 12" but the bonus was the frozen rain (ice) under the pile of snow. I had a rough enough time getting home on Thursday and to work and back home on Friday without adding a trip to the barn. Today though, I couldn't take it any more and decided to brave the drive.

 

 

That's not snow on the road, that's a solid inch of glare ice. The drive that normally takes about 30 minutes took over an hour today and they really weren't any better on the way home. It was really good to see Katai though since I was having serious pony withdrawals.

 

I got some great work done with her today. I had to dig out the gate and none of the paths were plowed which meant wading through 12-15" of snow with drifting. I hadn't really planned on riding and after that I really didn't feel any more encouraged to tack her up. She was covered in ice crystals on all of her long hair and had a few that were hitting her right in the eye. I got her all groomed up and did some snow removal and then turned her loose to do some free lunging.

 

OMG pony is seriously uphill all of a sudden! It looks like she had another mini growth spurt and added more height to her withers but she was enjoying the freedom to move out without snow and ice so I was getting some beautiful extensions out of her too.

 

Finally, to add to everything else wonderful about seeing her today, her hooves look gads better!!! I've seriously made more progress on getting rid of this thrush in the last four applications than in two months of the other treatments. It was so encouraging!

Sweater Weather

It has been insanely warm here lately. Yesterday it almost made it above freezing and today it was all the way up to 40. I was literally in a sweater tonight when I worked with Katai and it was wonderful.

She was pretty keyed up when I started. It seems she's suddenly developed an attachment with one of the geldings in her field. The funny part is that the guy she chose happens to be the only other horse at the barn that is ridden dressage and he's about 17 hands of brown and white paint. They make an interesting couple.

Once I mounted up she was all business just like normal. I've been lunging her beforehand working on trot/canter transitions and today I tried walk/canter transitions. I've been using a very specific cue to get her to move up to a canter for the reason that I knew it would help under saddle. With her workman like attitude tonight I decided to go for it and asked for a canter after we had done a bit of trot work. She sprang right into it and it was a great smooth, balanced canter. I was so proud of her!

 I have been struggling a little on getting any type of consistent contact. She is young and green so it's not something I'm worried about, it will just take some consistency but she is the toughest horse I've worked with in that regard and loves to go around inverted with her head in the air so I've enlisted help. D and I spent some time chatting tonight so I have some ideas and we are going to set up a lesson as soon as we have an idea of what the weather will be like.

I put more mastitis drug in her frogs but this time my phone had died from the cold so I still don't have pictures. Tomorrow I'm going out again to take advantage of the warm weather. I'm hoping that in these next couple of applications I'll start to see some type of change.

Sunday Splurge

I finally have a pair of nice riding boots! I ended up with a little "extra" money this weekend because surprisingly I sold my broken down car. A couple of boys bought it to part out and I got more for it than if I had salvaged it like I thought I was going to have to do. Most if it is going to my credit cards but I've been sorely needing some real riding boots so I finally caved and went shopping.

I've honestly never had a nice pair of boots that really fit. The best I've done was a pair of wonderful Mountain Horse riding boots but because I had fat calves at that point I had to go with two foot sizes too large to try to make the calf fit and I still ended up killing the zipper because they were too tight.

The tack shop near me was having a sale on "winter" boots so I bought a pair of these.

I <3 them.

I've been wanting something like them for a really long time but thought I would go with a different style. When I tried them on though these were clearly the most comfortable and my favorites.

I also finally ordered a bridle that will fit her. I was trying to make do with the one I have which I got for $25 from Horze. Although I like it I never meant for it to be more than a schooling bridle and with her long winter hair the noseband isn't fitting at all and I need it to be. The new one should be here in a couple of weeks.

In other updates the new Thrush medication got to me on Saturday but I didn't pick it up until today. I brought it to the barn with me when I went today and put it in her hooves for the first time. I meant to get pictures to compare with how they'll look in a few days but she was upset about her boyfriend screaming to her and wouldn't stand still. I'm hoping to get out there tomorrow and will take pictures then.

The Thrush Saga

I’ve mentioned before that Katai has had awful, deep Suclosis Thrush for awhile and that I found out what it was and started treating in late October of last year. Well I’m still treating for it L

I’ve tried three different treatments for at least a month each and nothing has really worked. The best was when I could scrub out all four with a diluted Clorox solution, rinse, and then squeeze Pete Ramey Goo into the cracks in her frogs but with our temperature consistently in the single digits to double negative digits I just can’t do this right now. I was hoping that the frozen ground and snow would help me out and reduce the need for scrubbing but it doesn’t seem to be the case and I suppose that her interest in standing in poop isn’t helpful.

I’ve been doing research for awhile trying to figure out a solution that would work with the cold. I really don’t mind soaking and scrubbing and all but it is completely impossible in these temperatures and whatever I do needs to be consistent. Finally last night I randomly ran into a new option in the comments on a blog I was reading. The drug is called Tomorrow, which sounds to me like a song in a musical, and is used to treat Mastitis in cattle. However, from all of my following research last night reading hundreds of posts on forums, and blogs it looks like it is a wonder cure. I ordered 5 tubes, which sounds like it will be overkill from what I found and hopefully will take care of this nasty Thrush once and for all.

I am so hopeful that this will finally work since this whole thing has been driving me nuts. I can see how treatment could be lasting this long if I were being lazy, missing treatments, not doing what I’m supposed to be etc. but I’ve been squirting goo into her feet, picking them out extremely well and scrubbing them out with soap and water whenever possible and there is still literally no change. I’ve also changed her diet to include almost no sugars, added supplements that were supposed to help and increased her work to hopefully load her hooves/frogs and increase blood supply to help healing. Finally I’ve got a new farrier who is aware of the issue and did a GREAT trim on her last time which is a few weeks ago now. She is clearly less uncomfortable than she was before but I feel like I’m maintaining and really not gaining on ground on this thing.

I should mention that she is not and has not been lame but she is more sensitive to things like gravel than she should be and she doesn't love having me clean her feet. She was more uncomfortable in October which is what led me to figure out the issue and start treating in the first place and she is loads better now just not completely fixed and that's what is bothering me.

Fingers crossed…

In other news I had a WONDERFUL ride tonight. We are really starting to have some communication and even though she was actually a little naughty I was able to get her to lay off and keep working and we made real progress.