Healing - Week #2

***WARNING!!!***

More Wound Shots!

On Monday I had Dr. Hill come out to update the horses' vaccines and while here he also took a look at Ben's injury. He said I have done a great job with his wound care and wasn't worried about it's healing process. He gave me a different topical antibiotic to use on it since the Fura-Zone may have been slowing the healing process by using it everyday.

I mentioned that I was worried about him being lame and so we had Ben do a trot test and sure enough Dr. Hill described him grade 3:5 lame. (To learn more about Lameness Exams, read this article.) Dr. Hill suggested that if once the wound was healed in about 2 weeks, if he still seems lame then he'd need to recheck Ben and run some additional tests on him. He mentioned the possibility that he could have seriously bruised or slightly fractured the wing of his coffin bone. I'm really hoping this is not the case, because I'd hate for Ben to be out of commission for much longer than a month. After reading this article on Coffin Bone Fractures, I'm really worried. Even though I sounded hopeful when I gave the vet Ben's update today, I'm thinking it would be wise to get him x-rayed soon so I know exactly what we are dealing with. I can't imagine him being on rest for the next 6 months! Poor Ben! Let's hope this isn't the case and everything continues to improve!!

Here are some photos I took today, two weeks after the injury occurred. It's still pretty swollen as you can see in comparison to the right front foot picture at the bottom. Sorry for the blurriness!

Healing - A Week Later

***WARNING!!***

More Bloody Details

and Wound Photos!

I'm happy to report that Ben's wound is healing nicely although after Tuesday's episode I was a bit worried. Tuesday afternoon while I was cleaning Ben's wound it didn't seem to be making much progress since the skin flap was impeding the healing process, so I decided it need to be removed. I washed up a pair of scissors and cut it off. It took a little longer that I thought since I was a little nervous about it and I knew it was hurting Ben, but in order to help it heal it had to be done. After it was removed a little vessels was squirting all over the place and the only thing I had close to blot it with was a white towel. Big mistake! By the end of the event it was stained red and so gross looking I had to just throw it away. Actually it wouldn't have been that horrible had all of this not happened in the middle of the wind storm we were having. The power went out just as I was cold hosing his leg and I didn't even realize it until the water stopped coming out of the hose. Ooops! I ran the well reserve dry! So that meant all of the blood that dripped on the driveway I had to clean up with the towel as well. Ick!

In order to stop the bleeding I had to wrap his foot with cotton, rolled gauze and vet wrap. I was very proud Wednesday morning to find the wrap still on his foot. Since I had to leave Wednesday I wrapped it again and wasn't able to check on it until the next day. The second wrap didn't hold up as well as the first and so I decided that since I wasn't house-sitting anymore that I'd do away with the wraps and just check on it at least every other day to clean and care for it.

These photos were taken 3 days after I cut off the skin flap and it had a chance to heal. Today (Friday) the wound looked really good. I could see the edges started to come together and even though the area was still warm and swollen it's making progress. Here's hoping it'll be all better in a couple of weeks!

Stand By Me!

This afternoon while Jonah was napping I decided to make good use of my time and scooped up all the poop in the pasture. What fun, yeah right! At least it was a sunny afternoon and I was able to spend it outdoors. Today was actually the first day I took Ben's blanket off since it was in the 60s. He took a good roll and enjoyed warming his coat in the sun rays. As I was pushing the wheelbarrow around I spotted the horses laying down together. When I approached them to take a picture, Jena immediately jumped up and walked over to stand by Ben. It actually worked out for a better photo since they weren't laying that close together before. I thought it was interesting how she went right over to Ben's side almost to protect him. I guess she must have sensed danger, she's much more sensitive than Ben. Funny how when laying down Ben is the same "height" as Jena, well at least their heads are level.

Out of Commission Yet Again

***WARNING!!!***

For those of you who are queasy

in any way, the following

posts is not for you!

Friday night we came over to Bainbridge to start house-sitting for my parents while they are visiting my brother Tyler in South Carolina. Then Saturday morning a couple hours after I fed the horses I looked out at them and saw Ben limping out of the barn. Oh no, not again! I quickly grabbed his halter and ran down to the pasture to see what was wrong. Upon initial inspection all I could see was that he was having a really hard time walking and putting weight on his left front foot. His leg was warm and swollen from the knee down. After I slowly walked him out of the pasture and up to the cross ties, I began to cold hose his leg and clean off all of the caked on mud and blood and found this...

He had injured his front foot by over-reaching and striking the bulb of his heel. There was a flap of skin still attached by a good inch and I was leery to remove it at the moment. So I did my best to clean it up, slabbed on some Fura-Zone and called it good since we were late in leaving for Olympia to visit Jeff's Grandpa for his 80th birthday.

Today I checked on the wound and it looks slightly better, well at least it wasn't as messy. It's still warm and swollen and I'm wondering if I should call the vet or not. This is actually the second time he's injured himself in this same spot and that last time it healed just fine. So I'm thinking that I'll just continue to treat it and see how things go. For the time being Ben is out of commission yet again. UGH!! I hope you get better soon Buddy!!

A Surprise in the Bushes

This afternoon I rode up at Gazzam Lake again. Ben did really well except for a bit at the beginning of the ride. We were going along the trail perfectly, his ears were pricked forward, he was listening to my aides and he wasn't hesitant at all.

Then out of no where he decided he didn't want to go anymore and just stopped dead in his tracks. I tried coaxing him forward and got no response out of him. All he wanted to do was turn around and go home. Thinking I'd try and trick him a little, I backed him up on the main trail until I was at a fork with a trail that headed toward the lake. He was willing to go forward down that trail so on we went.

After looking at the lake for a bit we turned around and half way back to the main trail he refused again to go forward. No bit of encouragement was going to coax him this time, but somehow he decided that he needed to start making his own trail. Not wanting to fight with him, I said "Okay" and let him trail blaze his way through the ferns. He was having a great time and since I could see the main trail in the distance I thought I'd just sneakily work our way back to it.

Then, out of the bushes came a bounding tan colored dog. At first we both thought it was a coyote and totally freaked out. Luckily the owner of the dog was on the main trail and called it back to her and scolded him for scaring us. Ben was really nervous about heading back the way the dog had jumped through the bushes, but in the end he complied. Once we were on the main trail again, he acted as though nothing had happened and we were on our way and peacefully enjoyed the rest of the trail ride.

Brrrr!! January in March??

Two days ago when I was riding it was 20+ degrees warmer than it was today. What happened??? Brrrrr!! I almost forgot what it was like to ride in winter weather since we've been having such a great Spring Pre-View lately. This morning when I left my apartment in Seattle it was snowing!!! Sure it didn't stick and melted right after hitting my hair and coat, but it was real snow!! Then while I was tacking up Ben it started snowing again!! Brrrrr!! I felt really bad for Ben since last night he didn't have his fleece under blanket on and since he's been shedding like crazy he must have been cold. It's almost like we went on a little vacation, either that or time traveled since now we are having typical January weather and here it is March. Crazy El Nino winter!!

After tacking up and layering us both in our fleece and water proof coats we were on our way. I even had to wear my fleece ear covers. Normally 40 degree weather doesn't seem that bad when it's consistent, but after a 20 degree drop it felt like it was much much colder. At least once I got riding I warmed up, but I was still glad I had my fleece gloves, ear covers, and winter gloves on. I think Ben was feeling the cold a little too while I was riding since he acted out more than he has in the past two times when I rode him in the sun. That and we were in the indoor arena today to keep a little warmer. He may just prefer the outdoor arena, but there was definitely something annoying him today.

For the most part he did pretty well, but he had his moments of acting out as well. At one point he got spooked when a few crows decided to land on the metal roof and scrape their nails as the slid down. Then there was Barb and some workers talking over the ravine and since he couldn't see where their voices were coming from he found it very concerning. After working through these distractions, we had a pretty good ride. The whole time though I kept thinking about my upcoming clinic with Henrik and how I'll really need to focus and relax during it so I don't tense up Ben. I'm really excited for it and have lots to prepare for.

At the end of my ride when Ben was really warmed up and working very nicely we schooled a simple dressage test. Really, it's just one that I made up since I can't seem to remember any from start to finish. We we rode is comparable to a Training Level test and Ben did really well. If I was the judge I would have given him at least a 60-65%. Here's the "Test" we rode:

Enter at A working trot.

X - halt, salute.

Proceed working trot track right.

E - 20m circle working trot.

Between H and C canter right lead.

C - canter 20m circle.

C - transition to working trot.

M X K - cross diagonal working trot.

Between K and A canter left lead.

A - canter 20m circle.

A - transition to working trot.

B - circle left 20m working trot allowing horse to stretch forward and down.

Before B - gather reins and proceed working trot.

H X F - Cross diagonal working trot.

C - down center line.

X - Halt, salute.

Ooops, so I actually rode this "test" and ended up opposite where I should be since you are always supposed to be facing the judges at A when you end. But at least it put me through the gaits and phases pretty well and allowed Ben to work through the transitions and prepare for each movement. He actually does really well when riding tests! I can tell he's show before and at least he doesn't get sour when doing so. It's almost like he prefers the constant changes. Hopefully we'll be able to school some tests with Ulla in some of our future lessons and maybe even compete in a schooling show or two by the summer. That would be fun!!

Soaking up some Sun!

The past two days I've ridden, Wednesday and Saturday, have been absolutely gorgeous!!! Sunny and in the low 60s!!! It's amazing considering it's March! To take advantage of the great weather I rode over at Barnabee in their outdoor arena. Compared to riding in their indoor arena, Ben is like a different horse. He has so much more energy, is more attentive, less spooky and much more willing. He's definitely an outdoor horse! It's funny because so many of the people who board their horses at Barnabee won't even dare take their horses to the outdoor arena. It's indoors only for them! So sad!

We had a great time riding both days and worked on lots of counter-bending on the serpentine and counter-cantering. I am loving teaching Ben these exercises! He is doing really well with them and since they require him to pay 100% attention to my aides, he's always right there with me. If he's not, he easily becomes unbalanced and starts moving in the wrong direction. I can tell that it's in moments of imbalance that is when he starts to resist or kicks out. It's almost like he doesn't know what you are asking him to do, gets all of his energy built up in a little ball and has to let it out some how.

After my ride on Wednesday I tackled the track again to see if it was going to be a spooky situation for him like last time. He was awesome! He walked around it like an old pro and remained calm and focused the whole time. I was very proud of him! He didn't even try to veer off the track towards the barn when we go close to the land bridge heading that way. This was a major first for him as well. I was even able to trot him a couple of times around and he stayed relaxed the whole time.

On Saturday I tried the track again and he was just as good as Wednesday. To change things up at bit, I thought I'd introduce him to the trails. He used to ride their trails just fine, but now he's totally afraid to even step foot on them. I don't know if he thinks we aren't going to come back to where the other horses are or if he senses something dangerous back there, but he'll have nothing to do with it if I try riding him on them now. So I just hopped off and coaxed him to walk beside me on them. That seemed to boost his confidence, although he still had to stop to look all around him all of the time. He seemed quite surprised and happy in the end when the trail lead us back to the track towards the barn. Maybe next time he'll be able to do it on his own? I can only hope!

I'm crossing my fingers that we'll have many more beautiful sunny days ahead of us!! Although I hear it's supposed to cool off considerably next week...SIGH!! :(

"To the lake, Mommy!"

That was Hyrum's response when I asked him where he wanted to go to ride his pony today. Since I've only taken him up there once before and we had some extra time on our hands I thought, what the heck?! It was a long walk/run (well for me anyway since Hyrum just rode the whole time). I was worn out by the time we got to the lake since Hyrum kept wanting me to go faster and faster. It was at times to keep up with Jena! That little pony's legs are like lightening! I can't believe how quick they are! If you are ever in the need for a running partner, don't pick a dog, pick a pony and they will be sure to keep you going!!

Hyrum really loves riding and especially going fast, even though he's bouncing all over the place. He actually is gaining really great balance and prefers at this point to either hold onto the saddle horn or hold his arm out at his sides like he's flying. I usually try to get him to hold the reins, but sometimes he pulls too much on them, so I actually prefer him to just develop his own balance before he takes up any contact.

He was so excited when getting tacked up before we left. Putting on his boots he said, "My riding boots are just like yours Mommy!!" I bought his some brown paddock boots and chaps last fall and they are finally fitting him. They look so cute on him! He outgrew his cute cowboy boots so now it's on to the English boots. Next all he needs is a little English saddle and he's ready for the shows! That'll be the day!! I don't know if he's going to keep up riding or not, but if he does he'll definitely the best Mommy Coach around. :)

Battling the Barking

I think today will be the last day that I'll be riding over at the Martin's arena. I've been having a lot of trouble over there lately, especially since the weather has gotten warmer. Their neighbor has two large black labs that they keep outside on nice days and they bark non-stop. It's really irritating to both Ben and I. Ben has such a hard time focusing on me and what I'm asking him to do that it's proving to not even be worth it to ride him there since I'm really not getting any training done. He's so distracted and nervous that the whole time we are just working on him calming down and focusing on me, that we have little time for anything else.

Plus with all of the riding I've been doing there, the arena is getting worn in and the footing is becoming too loose and soft in areas. Ideally you would drag your arena at least once a week if you were riding in it everyday and there's has never been dragged. I don't want Ben to get hurt from contrast between the deep sand on one side and the harder grass on the other.

So unless I'm really short on time or just need a place to quick lounge Ben, I think I'll be taking the walk to Barnabee more often now, either that or it's back to schooling the trails again. Maybe I'll be able to talk to their neighbor about the dogs or maybe my dad can bring his tractor over sometime and drag their arena??? Hmmm, we shall see...