Good News

Jul 182010
 

I rode Lily last night. I hadn’t ridden her since May 1st, when she was very lame on a trail ride. It’s been paddock rest and numerous vet visits since then. The last ultrasound on Friday looked very good and my vet does not think that she has DSLD/ESPA. Yay! Since her healing had gone so well these last two months, he gave me the go ahead to take her out on short, flat, walking rides.

One of our fist rides in the Black Forest back in May.

One of our fist rides in the Black Forest back in May

It turns out that Lily has a bone chip in her right hind leg. Specifically, it is an avulsion fracture at the top of the cannon bone, where the suspensory ligament insertion is. It is at the lower part of the upper attachment of the suspensory ligament. There was a shadow of it on the last ultrasounds, so we x-rayed and it all looked really clean, only slight, normal spurs on a couple of hock bones. It didn’t show up on x-rays then, as it is tucked in between the splint bones at the top of the cannon. Chris did three separate ultrasound images of it Friday and they were all consistent.

Riding in the FreeForm SB last November

Riding in the FreeForm SB last November

It was just starting to get dark, so I just brushed her saddle area and tacked up. She looked a bit confused, but went along with it. Once I mounted up, she was confused no longer and stepped right out. I pretty much let her choose the way, which meant that we followed the local gravel roads, visiting all the other horses in the neighborhood. She wanted to gait a few times, but I asked for a long walk instead. Walking is going to be good for both of us. The few months that I had ridden her last spring, she had lost her long walk. It was short a choppy instead. So this was really nice. I started to get a good feel of her back feet, something that’s been hard for me to tune into before. Short rides will be good for me too, as I am very out of shape!

So now, with these walking rides, I will have a chance to break in my new Black Forest saddle and decide if it will work out for us. I do think that it puts me in a much better spot than the FreeForm did, so that’s a good start. I do wish that I could find a sheepskin seat for it. I suppose that it will get more comfortable with time, but for now, there are a couple of creases that would not do well on a longer ride.

I flipped the photo from last November for a good comparison of where the saddles sit on Lily. I checked her today and she free lunged sound! I’ve been treating her legs with Sore No More and doing some massage on her back and haunches. This seems to help her comfort level. I hope that this first month of walking rides continues to go as well as the first one.

A new project

May 092010
 


I’ve traded Vinnie for Dove Tree’s Marcha de la Luna. Luna is an eight year old Spanish Mustang mare. She is well bred by Azul’s el Milagro el Asad and out of Unpa Kimimila Sanka Tanka, a Chato’s Shadow daughter. She had a foal by Paisano last summer and is now ready to move on to a new career as a riding horse. I’ve told Lily that she needs to help me train her. Lily’s quite good at working on my training projects in my absence.

Vinnie is in a superb home at Tired Dog Ranch as Amy Jo’s riding horse. I know that they will do great things together!

This is just what I need to keep me from being tempted to do anything with Lily right now. She needs the rest and I need a project. Luna and Lily know each other from a couple of summers ago when Luna was down to be bred to Paisano. The mares shared a paddock during that time. They became quite good friends. The also were together for a few months last summer at Tired Dog Ranch with their foals. Today, there was the normal squealing and posturing, mostly bluff though.

I’ll be posting about her progress as the summer goes on. She has had some basic training as a youngster, but not much has been done with her in the past few years, so I’ll be starting from scratch. There is a possibility that she may be for sale in the future, but I’m also open the idea that she might be my next riding horse.

The mares being mares

Resting and Waiting

May 092010
 

Lily at 3 years old

I was going to wait to post an update until our next vet visit, but questions are coming in from friends about Lily, so here’s the latest.


I went back and forth about putting shoes on Lily. I used boots for a couple of rides after the last vet visit. She didn’t move much in her paddock and when I ran Vinnie around to take his movement video, I could really see the contrast when she moved. She was in pain. It was subtle, but I could really see it in comparison to him. So I went ahead and ordered Ground Control plastic shoes and had my trimmer put them on her front feet. The do not have the concussion that metal shoes do and they leave room for her heels to flex. She was slightly better with them, but still not 100%. I wanted to see if they made her move any better. It was only very slightly better.

Since then, she turned up very lame in her left hind while out on a trail ride. I had to hand walk her back the last 3 miles or so, stopping to rest frequently and massaging her rump to help the spasms relax. Two massage therapists looked at her and we all thought that the most pain was in the muscles around her hip joint. When I went to load her to go home, she winced every time she tried to lift that left hind. I gave her some Banamine and that made it easier for her to load.

Lily last weekend. See how she is standing differently?

The following Tuesday, my vet had a clinic at the barn down the road, so I took her for another lameness exam. He did flexions and palpation. She resisted the flexions on her hind legs, but trotted off relatively even. She was very short strided though and stands with her hips tucked more than she used to. All these things are subtle and would likely be missed on a pasture horse or broodmare. I can tell when I ride her, as her gaits (all of them) are choppy with a hitch, not her usual smooth, reaching strides. It actually hurts my back.

Dr. Camp found that her hind tendons were both sore. DSLD/ESPA usually shows up bilaterally, so that could be a reason that she trots off evenly. Both legs hurt equally. She was still slightly off in the right front as well. We are going back to the clinic on the 17th for ultrasound of her right front foot and hind suspensories. He will also x-ray her hocks. He felt that she should have shown more improvement with shoes than she did. He thought that she may have a soft tissue injury low in her right front, possibly the insertion of the deep digital flexor tendon, or possibly hock problems, and he also admitted that she could be showing early signs of DSLD/ESPA.

So she is on stall/paddock rest, no riding…

She’s currently getting Thyro-L, MSM, Mag Ox, flax, whole psyllium and Equerry Plus supplements in a bit of Triple Crown Low Starch and I’ll be adding the herbs that are being used experimentally with D/E horses as soon as they come in the mail. I’ve been learning about D/E for the last year or so, as I had the suspicion in the back of my mind about it. This yahoogroup is a wealth of information. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DSLD-equine/

I certainly hope that it is something other than D/E. Something that is treatable would be really nice. If it is D/E, then I will be on a search to find out the source in her pedigree. I hope that research will soon produce a genetic test to see if a horse is a carrier or not. If our breed does have D/E in it, it should be discussed.

Black Forest Aspen – first look

Apr 252010
 


I’ve had three rides in this new saddle so far, two on Lily and one on Vinnie. I think that, with some tweaking, it can work. It needs some breaking in and more trials before I can give a full review.

I like the Grandeur pad that I bought with it. I am looking forward to trying a Skito with laminated shims though, as I would like a bit more twist. And it seems to restrict Lily’s shoulders a little more than the Barefoot I tried. I did ride that other saddle with the Skito, so it’s not a fair comparison, until I try it with that pad. The choice of pad is extremely important with most treeless saddles. I’m seeing that more and more.



Trying out Barefoot saddles

Apr 172010
 

Amy Jo came down to ride and brought two Barefoot Cheyenne saddles that she got recently. The brown saddle is a size 1 with VPS. The black saddle is a size 2, older and without VPS. I had heard about the Vertebrae Protection System, but didn’t quite understand what the difference really was. Looking at these two saddles and handling them made it very obvious. The black saddle was quite floppy. I could fold the cantle up the pommel easily, while the brown saddle had much more body to it.

Along with the saddles, Amy Jo also had 3 different Skito pads, hard and soft cantle inserts and 3 sizes of hard pommel inserts and a soft pommel insert. After trying a couple of pommels on Lily bare, I chose the medium width (pictured), as it gave her the best wither clearance. I wanted to try this before going to the soft pommel. The Barefoot London that I had tried previously had the soft pommel and it felt really wide to me. I used a Skito with wool felt bottom, 1/2″ firm foam with another layer laminated on. I also swapped out the fiberglass cantle for a soft foam one.

Amy Jo rode Vinnie in the brown size 1. It looked great on him and he went just fine. He has let me know right away when he didn’t like the feel of a new saddle in the past.

We took off to Pisgah and rode for 3.5 hours, mostly walking, but we also trotted and cantered and did some hills. Being young, Vinnie got tired doing hill work, so we didn’t ride on the mountain that much. He also needs a tiny pair of boots for his feet on gravel. He managed, but it was obvious that he would have done better with some foot protection. Coming out of the wet winter in a pretty gravel free paddock, there is just no way that he feet are tough enough.

I found the Cheyenne suited me better than the London. It didn’t feel too wide at all. Lily moved out well in it. I didn’t feel as far up on her withers as I do in my FreeForm. Though we didn’t get any photos of me sitting in it, I felt balanced and comfortable. I tested wither and shoulder clearance when moving. It was excellent. And the sweat patten showed a clear, dry strip down her spine. It was pretty even everywhere else with no hair roughed up.

I could mount from the ground, using a modified mounting technique. I reach across Lily’s back and hold the offside stirrup leather. Then I get my weight across her back as soon as possible, before I swing my leg over. This would be more difficult on a taller horse. Another reason that she is the Perfect size.

While this might not be my first choice in a saddle, I am on the lookout for a used one to ride in for the time being. I would like to try out a Barefoot Atlanta. I like the look a bit better then the Cheyenne. One step closer to a new saddle for Lily!

Spring!



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