Horse Women Unite!!!

Yep... taking a jump in a dressage saddle is.... weird, isn't it!

Gilmourgirl, I'm so sorry for your loss of your sister. 

 Thank you so much for your advocacy work with the horses in NYC!  

Lynn loved horseback riding. She learned to show jump three years after her mastectomy and almost wasn't allowed to continue after she was partially paralyzed with brain mets. She soldiered through it to her first show and had to quit soon after that for safety reasons - but she loved it and she loved her Sailor a rare Newfoundland pony (Lynn is very short so a full sized horse was out of the question with a paralyzed leg and malfuntioning hand).

I just discovered this thread - love it! 

Jancie, I found a wonderful product for my mare, who has arthritis in a fetlock due to an injury when she was 3 (13 now).  There's an HA supplement made by Flex-Force, same company that makes Corta-Flex.  I bought it through Valley Vet's website.  If you search for it, it's listed as Sodium Hyaluranate.  $60 for a gallon, and at an oz. per day will last 4 months - a real bargain!  I had used Conquer and other products at a much higher price, but the Flex-Force worked beautifully for her.  After starting her on it, I haven't injected any joints in a couple of years now.  I had to stop riding 1 1/2 years ago, so I took her off of it since she's not being ridden.  She has grass allergies, and is pretty much unridable during the summer, so no sense keeping her in work. When the allergies flair, so does the arthritis.  Right now she's looking quite good, though.

Merry Christmas my Horsey Friends,

Have you guys seen this?  This bronze speaks to me so much.  It was on the cover of The Chronicle a few months back - this brings tears to my eyes.  Hope you will love it like I do.

http://www.equinesculptor.com/bronze_horse_sculpture_firstlove.html

Happy to have found this thread, and have spent the last hour or so reading it and veiwing the attached pictures and videos.  I am a former Tennessee Walking horse breeder.  At one time, my husband and I had about 30 horses.  Now I am retired and have 4 horses,  3 Tennessee Walkers and a Peruvian.  My husband and I are avid trail riders, and we like to travel with our horses and explore the country by horseback.  We just got back from 2 weeks in Florida, and we hope to spend about a month in SD, NE, and WY next summer, if my health allows.

HeidiToo, we have ridden at Moses Cone several times.  Such beautiful and senic trails.  My home base trails are the trails in the Smoky Mountains.

Hope to be posting some pictures of my horses soon.

Beacon,

Thank you!  That was the best news I heard all week!  I am small as well, so maybe it will be easier for me too.  How long was your recoup time?  Did the Dr tell you to stay away from the barn with the drains still in?  (I am assuming yes?)  How long till you rode again?  My current boy is a relative Steady Eddie, in as much as any of them are in an indoor in the winter!  Truly, everytime they called for the past two weeks it just got worse and worse so your post was very much appreciated!

Hi Duffy, the issue you will have is with using your arms, especially when pulling the reins, like when you are balancing him into a frame or something. That will use your pec muscles and you cannot strain those til you are healed. The stitches are usually inside, so the outside is held with surgical glue and steri strips. Talk to your doctor about this and tell him exactly what activities you intend to do. He can give you a guideline about the timing. It may be a good 6-8 weeks. You'll feel fine, but you'll not want to rip anything open. As for barn work or riding with the drains. No way. If you have bilateral snb you may have 4 drains in you. Pretty much you can't do much with those drains on you at all. You should take stuff down out of your higher cabinets in advance unless you have someone at home who will be there to reach stuff for you. I had surgery dec 16 and went out dancing on NYE. My husband was freaking out, but it went ok! However, I don't need my arms to dance like you would for riding. By then the drains were gone.



I didn't have snb which probably made my recovery very fast. I can tell you the overall surgery did not affect riding at all. Just like nothing happened. However you want to give yourself time to heal well and you want to be very well versed in preventing lymphedema, which if you get it, could actually stop you from doing vigorous riding for good.

SWEEEET.......Horse people!!!  me too!  I live on a 25 acre farm and have multiple animals including my 16 year old, semi-retired western pleasure show mare and a 4 year old bay Quarter mare..  Both are unique in their temperments and thankfully, they are pretty happy being turned out and not ridden currently.  I get their stalls cleaned, turn them out, occasionally run a brush over them and continue healing my own body :-)  I am already trying to figure out how I will continue training the 4 year old (luckily she is super quiet) in the spring.  I am scheduled to have my implant swap in March-ish.  I am thinking I may need an able bodied friend to ride her for a month or so before I climb back up in the saddle.

Also on our farm we have 4 dogs.  A German Shepherd, Flat Coated Retreiver (rescue) and two pugs.  Thank God for laminate floors!! My dogs are my babies!!  They have been a God send while being stuck at home alone much of the time healing from my BMX in October.  Talk about unconditional love!!

We are owned by 3 donkeys--two minis (rescues) and one mammoth, broke to ride. I LOVE my donkeys and since they are pastured out front near the road, it amazes me how fascinated people are with them!!  well...they are so stinkin cute!!  LOL

We also have a super friendly llama (born here) and she is pastured with 3 Icelandic sheep.  All are able to be petted, and we use their fiber/wool for knitting various mittens, hats, scarfs, etc. My daughter and I both love to knit.

So that is our farm.  In the spring we hope to get some chickens so that we can have our own farm fresh eggs once again. aaaaaaah.....life is good!!

Well.. I will be 49 this month... time is ticking away... I need my horse.

DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA

I will start off asking a question - as experienced horse owners do you not ask questions at times or get second opinions from vets or do you just automatically take the word of your trainer.  How involved are you as owners with your horse's training?  Do we not have the right to ask questions since we are the paying customers?

Apparently NOT with the trainer I have had for the past 2.5 years.  I am not to call another vet in for a second opinion regarding hock injections.  I am not to question my trainer about putting my horse in tight spins if she is acting up.  I am not to question my trainer as far as how much or how extensive the training is or what is recommended. 

I was given 30 days notice to leave the facility based on those two things.  I have given my trainer 90% leadway in what she wants to do with my horse.  I have taken her advice over and over again.  I have increased training based on her advice (which BTW didn't help but make matters worse).  I was promised pasture turnout if I moved my horse to her new facility from a place that had 38 acres of pasture, heated barn, heated indoor arena, hot/cold water wash stalls, washer and dryer, 3 arenas, etc. etc  You get the picture - a very nice comfy place for both me and my horse to a small barn that had ZERO turnout, no indoor wash stalls at all - no bathroom, absolutely no amenities other than a humongous indoor arena.  I was paying as much money in board as a premier facility and yet.....it was never enough.  The board got raised twice in one year and will be raised again in 6 months and still limited turnout for one to two hours a day and on top of that solo turnout - no horses together.

My horse was raised going out in a pasture with lots of other horses and you wonder why my horse is unhappy and chewing her stall wall up?  Pacing her stall, etc.?  Not because I haven't been out there 5 days a week, not because she wasn't getting worked consistently and yet that was never good enough for the trainer.  She wouldn't be happy unless you were out there 6 days a week and if you drove out there, by god, you had better work your horse.  I was getting way too much pressure and with my physical health - not able to do all of that.

I go to Florida and within 24 hours got a phone call that my horse has chewed up the stall wall and the trainer doesn't know what to do with her anymore and I need to get my horse out of there and take her where she will be happy.

So....got the notice yesterday.  Decided to send her back to that Taj Mahal facility though I have no clue about what to do about training and I was questioned "why?  Umm.....because you gave me 30 days to leave!  That was being "snippy" on my part.  How else do you respond to a question like that from the person that told you to leave in 30 days.  Heck no...she is leaving Saturday.  I am not waiting 30 days to move her.  I guess my current trainer didn't think I could get a move accomplished so fast and it shocked her that I turned it back on her in a sense and told her that I would leave at the end of this month - not next month.  I will not leave owing her money.  In fact I was calling her to let her know I was leaving in 4 days and could she get my bills put together so I could pay them and instead I got chewed out royally.

OMG - this horse is going to be the death of me one day.   I have more stress over her than anything else in my life.

Oh yeah, to answer your question... I NEVER take the word of a trainer. I rely on my own expertise and instincts; they've never failed me.

I put my horse with a trainer after being talked into it BY the trainer....they wanted my mare bad.  They said they could make her so much better...and hey, let's go to the Nationals where they were sure we would clean up.  yah....I was an easy mark.

My horse and I had already been placing strongly, regionally and I had done it all on my own.  I kick myself for getting sucked into the trainer trap. I got my mare's non-pro western pleasure superior title on my own...why did I feel that I needed more??  Off to Oklahoma City we went to the Nationals--me paying the trainer for the transportation because they had other clients going too.  It was going to be so fun and successful...ha! That was the beginning of the end.  I came home broke with a sore horse and no placings.  They had worked my horse so hard that she was sore in every muscle in her big body. They would 'work' her when I was back at the hotel asleep.  One morning, I went to put her halter on and said, oh did you give her a bath last night?  Her halter was wet.  The doofus laughed and said, NO that is sweat....we lunged her until she was sweating.  Seriously???  Then he told me they tied her head around to the saddle so long that she finally gave up and laid down!  With her head/neck bent to the side.  I was sickened.  I told them to stay off her and stay away from her!! I had to find a chiropractor to massage her sore neck while still in Oklahoma City!

When we headed home (after two loooong weeks) we arrived back at the trainer's barn after getting home at 1am and a 10 hour drive...I loaded my mare into my trailer and drove another 4 hours to get her home.  I never looked back.  I was done....finito!  No more so called trainers...I don't trust them.  After all, it IS their job to make money off their clients so they keep telling you what you want to hear and you keep giving them a check. 

I won't ever send my horse away again.  If I need help with a horse, I will ask a friend.  IF I have to pay someone to ride my horse, I would go check on her daily and never have her 4 hours from my house again.  I have learned things the hard way over the years.  by the way...I never talked to the trainer again and they lost 5 other clients after returning from Oklahoma.  Trust your instincts.