Horse Women Unite!!!

I was worn out when I got home.  I was with the vet for almost 3 hours and of course it is a 2 hour drive back and forth.

We talked about blocking and the issue with Jazzy is that we would have to tranquilize her in order to block her - well as you know, you can't jog a drugged horse.

He flexed both back legs and she was sore and lame.  Her back is also sore but he said that is due to the hocks being sore.  He is not one that likes to automatically inject hocks and will go that extra mile to try to figure out what is going on before he does this.

Jazzy has been really pissy lately and I know that is due to pain.  I knew her back was sore - I just didn't know that sore hocks could have caused her back to get sore.

The vet is going to come back Saturday with his digital x-ray machine and inject her hocks.  He prefers to be able to see exactly where the needle is before he does the injection to make sure he is hitting the right spots.  He will inject each hock at two separate locations using the digital x-ray to guide the needles.

We will see how she is 10 days from injection.  If she is still not right then he will come back again and we will try to figure it out.  He ran his hands down both her back legs checking her tendons, suspensory ligaments, etc.

I was told to put her on bute 4 grams each day for 2 days and then drop it down to 2 grams per day for 3 days - total of 5 days.

We had not given her bute because I don't want to mask the pain without knowing the cause of the pain. 

I feel very comfortable about this recommendation as this vet is just freaking awesome and deals with sport horses, race horses, etc.  His speciality is lameness.  I am not comfortable about how much this is going to cost!  He is hoping that we just have to inject her once, get rid of the pain, build up the muscles in the back end, etc. and be done with it.  Right now we can't build up the muscle because all we are doing is hurting her and making her sour.

Good... hopefully they just got sore from the increased training and this will quiet them down.  Did he recommend starting something like Adequan?

I lunged Jazzy today and she was moving forward from behind without any problems.  I ran my fingers down her back to see if her back was still sore but she gave me no indication of that.  Tomorrow I will ride her and see what happens.

I am in the market for a dressage saddle.  I don't have much money at all  and I do want to buy a used saddle to save some money.  I tried a Passier today but it was an extra wide tree and too big for Jazzy.  I know a medium tree will not fit her (too small) so I have to figure out if she is a medium-wide or a wide tree.  It is so hard to find decent saddles!  I also want a close contact dressage saddle which is not what most people are using these days.  They want those huge blocks in their saddles which forces their legs in the right position.

Call me anal, stupid, or whatever but personally I want to learn to ride with my leg at the correct angle - not have a saddle put me there.  I feel no different about giving my horse drugs at horse shows - to me that is cheating.  I want to win based on my ability to ride my horse - not the saddle making me ride with the proper form and certainly NOT the drugs.

Well I use the Adequan as an adjunctive therapy; to help keep the joints healthy (it also helps the other joints in the body too) and I have found it helps keep from having to inject as often.  (ie. some horses that have had to be injected 1 - 2 times per year can go much longer between joint injections.)   And don't worry if you ride her tomorrow and don't feel much difference; with hocks I have had some horses take a full 10 days (and some 14 days) to feel a big improvement.  (Whereas high motion joints like fetlocks and knees seem to respond a lot faster.)

 I know exactly what you mean about a closer-contact dressage saddle!  I don't like the big blocks either.  (although maybe it's my fat thighs....haha)  I am not a big fan of the County jumping saddles but I have a "plain" County Competitor dressage saddle (the base model) and I love it.  It might be worth trying to find a used one to try out and see if you like it, then look around on ebay.  A friend of mine has an older one she keeps talking about selling to get a new one, so I can ask her what her status is now.  It's a med-wide; it fits her 15.1 hand QH and also fits my warmblood.  The other thing is, one brand's medium is like another brand's med-wide and vice-versa.  (Frustrating.)  I used to have an older Kieffer that I loved, and it was more of the closer-contact type. 

Last but not least, there is the Wintec.  I can be a bit of a tack-snob, but I actually had a Wintec dressage saddle that I used for years.  (I even used it at Preliminary-level events.)  They don't always work well with really bouncy horses though.  It's worth a try!

oh good, glad Jazzy is feeling better!  I agree with you with the small circles/spinning, too much lunging, etc.  Hopefully if they change the training techniques she will stay sound easier.  (as will the other horses!)

 Blue---depends on the joint for the Adequan vs Legend.  I have found (from my OWN lame horses as well as clients') that Legend works wonders on the high-motion joints such as fetlocks and stifles, but for the low-motion joints like hocks & pasterns (and even navicular!!) the Adequan gives better results.  And giving them at the same time 48 hours before a competition can help a lot too.

A little humor...

If you didn't see this on the Tonight show, I hope you're sitting down
when you read it. This is probably the funniest date story ever, first
date or not!!! We have all had bad dates but this takes the cake.

Jay Leno went into the audience to find the most embarrassing first
date that a woman ever had. The winner described her worst first date
experience.

There was absolutely no question as to why her tale took the prize!

She said it was midwinter...Snowing and quite cold... and the guy had
taken her skiing in the mountains outside Salt Lake City , Utah .

It was a day trip (no overnight). They were strangers, after all, and
had never met before. The outing was fun but relatively uneventful
until they were headed home late that afternoon.

They were driving back down the mountain, when she gradually began to
realize that she should not have had that extra latte. ! ! They were
about an hour away from anywhere with a rest room and in the middle of
nowhere! Her companion suggested she try to hold it, which she did for
a while. Unfortunately, because of the heavy snow and slow going,
there came a point where she told him that he had better stop and let
her go beside the road, or it would be the front seat of his car.

They stopped and she quickly crawled out beside the car, yanked her
pants down and started. In the deep snow she didn't have good footing,
so she let her butt rest against the rear fender to steady herself.
Her companion stood on the side of the car watching for traffic and
indeed was a real gentleman and refrained from peeking. All she could
think about was the relief she felt despite the rather embarrassing
nature of the situation.

Upon finishing however, she soon became aware of another sensation. As
she bent to pull up her pants, the young lady discovered her buttocks
were firmly glued against the car's fender. Thoughts of tongues frozen
to poles immediately came to mind as she attempted to disengage her
flesh from the icy metal.. It was quickly apparent that she had a
brand new problem, due to the extreme cold.

Horrified by her plight and yet aware of the humor of the moment,
she answered her date's concerns about' what is taking so long' with a
reply that indeed, she was 'freezing her butt off' and in need of some
assistance! He came around the car as she tried to cover herself with
her sweater and then, as she looked imploringly into his eyes, he
burst out laughing. She too, got the giggles and when they finally
managed to compose themselves, they assessed her dilemma. Obviously,
as hysterical as the situation was, they also were faced with a real
problem.

Both agreed it would take something hot to free her chilly cheeks from
the grip of the icy metal! Thinking about what had gotten her into the
predicament in the first place, both quickly realized that there was
only one way to get her free. So, as she looked the other way, her
first time date proceeded to unzip his pants and pee her butt off the
fender.

As the audience screamed in laughter, she took the Tonight Show
prize hands down. Or perhaps that should be 'pants down'. And you
thought your first date was embarrassing. Jay Leno's comment... 'This
gives a whole new meaning to being pissed off.'

Oh and how did the first date turn out? He became her husband and was
sitting next to her on the Leno show.

If you laughed at this pass it on.

 

Blue - I never forget what grain and supplements the horses get or what kind of grass or alfalfa hay, how many flakes, etc.  I can always keep that straight but myself....well that is a different story.

Before I married dh I went without health insurance for 1.5 years.  Now do you think for one second I went without horse health insurance?  No freaking way! 

jancie- I always found that particularly intelligent horses were often prone to figuring out ways to "beat the system". When I worked this type I varied the exercises a lot, to reduce the likelihood of their looking for ways of "creative expression". Kept them on their toes!

Oh wait, just realized I have a story!!!

Last night I was riding around 5 pm; it was dark out already so I was in the covered ring.  Two of my friends (fellow boarders) were in the ring resetting the jump course.  Well Emrys was just being a moron.  He couldn't focus for more than about 2 minutes at a time.  Usually his warmblood-edness comes out, and even if he's feisty, he gets over it quickly if I wear him out.  Well not last night.  He kept spooking along the side by the woods, although I personally never saw the monsters or bears he thought were there.  I tried cantering around the ring 8 times in a row (even doing collect/extend, etc.) and it didn't matter.  It was irritating but kind of amusing in a way; I realize that getting mad at him accomplishes nothing, so I figured we'd at least get some exercise if not any decent "training."  Then as I was cantering down the long side by the woods, he did a huge spook and ended up about 4 feet over, and pointed at a jump -at an angle of course- and being the honest guy he is, he jumped it.  Problem was, I was in my dressage saddle, long stirrups, etc.  But I stayed on!  Then we're headed towards the out gate, but luckily I was able to get him pulled right and eventually stopped.  I was laughing pretty hard by that time.  As were my friends.  My horse is a dork.