2 Year Anniversary

Wow, how time flies when you're having a good time!  Two years ago, I began this blog with the intent of chronicling my entrance into and journey through the world of eventing, and any other equine adventures that occurred along the way.  Since starting this blog, we've gotten just under 12 000 hits, and by the time I've posted this we'll probably be over 12 000.  Most of the readership is Canadian or American, but we've gotten a few fun ones like Latvia, Sweden, and Israel... though I often wonder how many of those are just spam!  The most read post is the Awards & 200th Post, and the 2011 Rolex cross country pics coming in a close second.
To be honest, I'm incredibly pleased I've managed to keep this blog going for so long.  There area times when its been tough, to be sure- I only posted 6 times throughout all of July and August. But for whatever reason, I've managed to stick it out & couldn't be more pleased about that fact.  Thus far, I've met my goal of chronicling my own progress and my horses progress, and I love the fact that no matter where I am, as long as there's internet I can pull up a picture of my ponies!  This blog has proved a great training diary, and a fantastic place to toss around ideas & put 'pen to paper' so to speak!  Next year will bring a lot of changes to my personal life, which will undoubtedly tumble over into my equestrian life as well... so will I get to write a third anniversary post? Only time will tell.  But in the mean time, I plan on keeping up with the blogging for as long as possible.

As there have been so many changes over the past two years, I've compiled a brief history detailing my adventures from the time I started this blog to the present day:

Because Life Just Sucks

In my last Cadence-related post, I mentioned that we jumped again.  All was well, and that weekend (on the Saturday) we had a jumping lesson that was fantastic. Kept it low, mostly cross rails with only a few verticals all of which were 2'9 or less just to keep it easy.  The Mare was fantastic, and it was an awesome feeling being able to ride a horse who could actually trot calmly around the ring.  She had Sunday off, and we were supposed to have a dressage lesson Monday, but we all decided that it'd probably be pushing a little too hard so we cancelled the lesson and I opted just to lunge.  Bad decision...
Cadence was fantastic overall, but at one point in time something spooked her and she did her typical leap-4-feet-in-the-air freak out... and she landed on some soft/slippery footing & took a tumble with both front legs out behind her.  Or directly underneath, depending on how you want to look at it.  She hopped up, and was a little dazed but fine overall.  I kept lunging her to ensure that she was sound (which she was) and after rubbing her whole front end down with linament, put her in her stall for the night.  The next day she was sound, but had some mysterious swelling at the top of her front right cannon.  No heat, no lameness, no apparent sensitivity.  Just more fill.  I left that evening after spending the whole day fussing over her, and entrusted my baby to the care of my coahc and BO.  She was lunged on Thursday and ridden Sat, and all appeared to be well.  But even now, there's still swelling.  Never any lameness, but it kind of feels like small comfort.
Ideally, I'd love to take her to the vet and have them ultrasound and x-ray the shit out of her legs so that I can stop being so paranoid, but I just don't have the money to be spending hundreds of dollars on what appears to be nothing.  Peace of mind is great, but is it really worth it?  There's just this niggling in the back of my mind thnat keeps saying 'what if'.  What if it is someithing serious?  What if the other vet missed something?  What if...

Leg Update

2 weeks post surgery, 2 days after stitches come out.  Looks pretty good, eh?  Yesterday there was a wee bit of puss & drainage, but I popped some polysporin on it and I think it'll be fine.  It's the first time there's been ANY drainage since the surgery, and I think that only happened because it got a bit irritated.  The vet bandaged it, not me, and the bandage had slipped so that it was no longer covering the wound.  Additionally, she'd managed to get some shavings inside her wrap, and some dust/debris made its way into the exposed cut.  Either way, I cleaned it with clorhex on Wed, added polysporin yesterday, and today I'll re-bandage again.

Oh, and I remodeled the blog a bit.  Let me know what you think!

Self- Carriage

I lied- I didn't post the pictures.  I didn't even have a chance to upload them till this morning, so I figured I'd just post them with today's post.

 Cadence looking toward the forest raring to go

Anyhow, Cadence got her stitches out yesterday.  The vet said her leg was looking great, so over the next 2 weeks we'll be gradually increasing her work while letting the top part of the wound heal.  Our ride yesterday was awesome too.  20 min (5 in hand, 15 under saddle) of walk, with lots of focus on straightness, suppleness, and self-carriage. She was truly carrying herself, and I was able to correct her when she started to lean on me (which was always on a turn) by lifting her with my outside aids.  I was very pleased.  Her halts on the other hand... need some work.  She locks up her neck, leans, barges, and grabs.  Eventually, once I get some semblance of lightness and bend, we continue on.  Once she was supple and carrying herself, her halts improved (or rather her transitions into the halt improved) but once halted we were back to square 1.  Tonight is more of the same, but with 20 minutes under saddle and 5 of hand walking.

What I like to call a bad idea

Pictures to come... I'll be sure to have them up ASAP


Guilt is an amazing thing.  It does crazy things to your mind, and impairs your decision making skills in (upon occasion) disaster-inducing ways.  At least that's what happens with me.  Guilt is really the only reason I can find to explain why I decided to take my high strung, hot headed, 6 y/o mare out on a hack... on her 3rd ride back after a month of stall rest.  Yes, not my brightest idea.  It wasn't until I'd hopped off her after having just sat one of the most terrifying bronc rides of my life (something touched her while we were walking through the forest, and she... exploded) that the fact I could have just hand walked her occurred to me.
I should have known that, no matter how amazing my girl is, that her pre-ride piaffing was not a good sign.  Nor was her attempt to hide behind me at the sight of... a truck that is not normally parked in the parking lot.  Yep, both of those should have set the warning light a flashing, but I soldiered on.  For the first part of the ride, things went quite well.  It was frosty, and in spite of the blue cloudless sky that had dominated the horizon for the majority of the day, dusk brought with it grey clouds that hung low in the sky.  Though only 4:30, the sun had already sunk behind the horizon when we started our hack, & pinkish-orange light cast long shadows over the slowly dimming land.
Though tense, the mare was pretty good.  Her brief bit of trot that she snuck in as I hopped on sent me into a panic; she had only 1 day left to survive her stitches!  If she did something now... but (not without considerable effort on my part) I slowed her back to a walk, and we headed toward the entrance to the forest.  She seemed to relax a bit as we walked into the forest.  Cadence power-walked on, and all seemed to go pretty well, until... she stepped on a stick.  This led her to brush into a tree branch, and set her into a full on bronc spree.  She spun around to face the way we came, and leaped forward before launching herself straight up in the air, rearing, and then bucking.  I landed on her neck, managing to almost stay in the saddle, and grabbed a hold of her neck thinking 'I must not fall off!' Fearing that if I fall, she would continue on with her antics and mess up something on her leg.  She was still spinning around and hopping up and down at this point in time, and I knew we were seconds away from taking off again.  No can do, Mare. As carefully as I could, I hopped off/emergency dismounted, while taking care to maintain a grip on my reins without catching her in the mouth. Once off, she trotted around a tree a few times (???) before I finally got her to settle.
Generally, I would have hopped back on at this point in time. However, my paranoia of her being injured was strong enough that I hand walked her for the rest of our hack.  Aside from a minor incident that involved her kicking out & bucking as we walked down the barn's drive (I have absolutely no clue what prompted this...) everything went pretty well.
Do I regret our little 'walk'?  Yes.  I REALLY REALLY want this whole episode to be over, and if she's somehow hurt herself with her little 'episodes' then I don't think I'll be able to forgive myself.  Howeve, I'm just trying to think positive; she'll be fine.  Stitches are coming out today.  It'll all be fine... it has to be.

What I must have looked like trying to stay on Cadence: (Just not NEARLY as pro...)

And We're Back

It seems I start my posts like this more often than not, but once again I feel the need to apologize for my absence.  Life has been crazy, and its only about to get crazier.  My exams start on the 25, and before that I have loads of end of semester work to complete.  I'll try my best to keep my blog posts to (at least) 3 a week... but (as I'm so often reminded) school is my priority here.
Okay, onto the pony.  Miss Cadence's leg looks fantastic.  Like unbeleivably fantastic.  Since her bout of colitis, all's been well with the mare, and on Friday I hopped on her back for the first time in nearly a month.  As of tomorrow, it will have been 1 month since she was first injured back in December.  On Tuesday or Wednesday, she'll have her stitches removed, and then we'll be just about back to regular work!  Well, we'll have about a month of rebuilding muscle and doing lots of straightening & suppleness work.  However, in her 2 'rides' (15 minutes at a walk) she's been bending and carrying herself pretty dang well if I do say so myself.
I'm going to attempt some pictures (and maybe a video) when I go out to the barn today, so If I'm successful hopefully I'll have something exciting to post tomorrow.

Home Again

So the verdict after the last visit (our 3rd) to the vet was that Cadence had antibiotic induced colitis.  This means that the antibiotics she'd been on for her leg had killed off some of the good bacteria in her gut, causing her to have a fever, stomach pain, reduced white count, etc.  They redid her blood work and checked her fecal before sending her home, and her white count was back up and the fecal came back clear.
It was freezing cold when we trailered her home, and we had to load on questionable surfaces.  Cadence wasn't all too thrilled about this, and was shaking like a leaf.  When we go home, she started stretching, then lay down in her stall, and was rolling around and kicking.  I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like colic.  She had pretty normal sounding gut noises (they were down a titch) but I still got her up & walked her around the arena for a while.  When she returned to her stall, she drank, ate some hay, and looked pretty good, so I kept an eye on her for another 15 minutes or so and then headed home.  When I went back to check on her yesterday evening, she looked much better.  I took her out and we walked around the arena for 10 minutes or so and walked over a cavaletti a few times.
The vet has said that she'll be able to have her stitches out some time around the 10 or 11 of Jan, and in the mean time she needs to be hand walked for 10-15 minutes 2-3x/day.  I don't know about you, but I can't make it out to the barn 3x/day... anyhow, the other thing he said is that we can do  the 10-15 minutes of walking under saddle.  While this is wonderful news, I'll admit- it makes me a wee bit nervous.  Here's why: Yesterday while I was walking Cadence, one of the lights in the arena made a bit of a noise when it came on. Cadence did a full on up in the air, scooting sideways, and pulling to the end of her lead.  Because a light popped on.  So I'm going to go about starting her back under saddle like I would backing a 3 y/o... slowly and carefully.

When it rains, it pours.

Honestly, I'd love to be able to catch a break... but that just doesn't appear to be in the cards.  Generally I'm a pretty firm believer in things like taking responsibility for your choices and actions, and not BLAMINg things on anybody.  However, I honestly don't think the whole Cadence situation (regarding her injury and subsequent month of torture and careful nursing back to semi-health) could have been handled any better.  However, when I got home from my 32 hour holiday to visit my family for New Years, Cadence was back at the equine hospital.  Thank god I have the most wonderful group of support staff (inc. our amazing barn manager, my extremely committed coach, and a group of friends that I owe my horse's life to.  Not many barn owners will drive repeatedly to and from the barn to check on a boarders horse with a slightly elevated temperature, on a HOLIDAY!  And not many friends would be so considerate as to haul your horse to the vet clinic for you [ALSO ON A HOLIDAY] in bad weather when they should be spending time with their family, organizing their wedding, or doing any number of equally important things) back home to watch over Cadence for me.  I'll give details when I'm awake.

The Culprit & Vet Photos

I was going to post a video from the Belinda Trussell clinic back in November (way back when I stil lhad a ridable horse) but I think this'll be far more interesting.

This post details the events of our second visit to Milton Equine, but beware: I took pictures. Like, pictures of blood, puss, and other fun stuff running down Cadence's leg... It doesn't bother me, but I thought I'd at least give people the option to not loose their lunch if they aren't much for blood and such.  It's nothing to terrible, honest.  Some just don't like that stuff though, so I figured I should give the option

Here's a sneak preview to entice you into reading further:

Merry Christmas & Cadence Update

I hope everyone had a safe and happy christmas, and for those who don`t celebrate the holiday rest assured it`ll soon be over!
I was away for a few days (getting home late Christmas eve) so yesterday was the first time I saw my pony since her  vet appointment & the change up in her bandaging routine.  She`s been on a few hours of arena turnout, and has had her bandages off for a few hours each day too.  Her leg looked... big.  And she was dead hopping lame on it too when I trotted her out.  Oh mare.  Later when I cleaned the wound, the lameness made sense.  I scrubbed it with chlorhexadine as per the vet`s orders, and it began oozing puss.  Oozing isn`t intense enough... it was like somebody had turned on the faucet and puss was running from the wound.  The buildup in pressure would (I`d imagine) be responsible for quite a bit of pain, so at least her lameness made sense.  Unfortunately though this means that the pocket hasn`t been draining as we`d hoped so Cadence is back up to Milton tomorrow for another appointment with them. (the previous 2 have been with our local vet clinic)

The Return of the Vet

First off, my sincere apologies for not being diligent about my updates.  Until the end of Janruary, I'm not quite sure how this blog will fare in terms of update frequency.  Ah, to be in school.  Those days of whipping out two essays, studying for two tests, memorizing lines for a dramatization, and popping together a quick project all in a day's work.

In regards to the pony, the vet's coming out today to do a follow up.  Hopefully the bandages can come off, and MAYBE she can even get some turnout.  Poor girl; she's handling it so well

On The Weekend...

... I had a lesson on Z, discovered that Cadence is freakishly balanced, and pulled a muscle in my back.
The lesson went well.  Z was amazing, and (in spite of my difficulty adjusting to her) I think it was really helpful for me to ride her.  She's gotten to the point where she carries herself perfectly now, and riding a horse who had absolutely nothing in your hand was a wonderful feeling.  Totally weightless, carrying herself perfectly, a light and elastic contact, and working back to front.  It showed me where Cadence will need to go once she's truly straightened out.  We did some medium and extended trots, leg yield and shoulder in, and had some fun with that  beautiful canter of hers.  I wish my riding had been a bit better, but Z was fantastic about putting up with me.
On the Cadence front, she's been absolutely wonderful.  Yesterday, I knotted her lead around her neck and she followed me around the arena for 10 minutes, walking circles, serpentines, shallow loops, and over a small cavaletti.  Unfortunately, she's still SO Sensitive about anything touching her leg.  To change the bandage, it takes one person holding up her front right leg, one person changing the bandage on her right hind and attempting to not be kicked (thankfully, she always kicks straihgt back & away from us... but it's amazing how well she can kick her RH with her RF being held up!), and one person holding her head with a lip chain.  We've tried just about everything else, but you CAN NOT keep a hold of her without the lip chain.  What a mare.  I had no idea a horse could stand on two legs on the SAME side of their body for that long.  She defies physics.
After riding Z, I was sore.  Like 'ouch, I can't walk!' sore.  However, today I woke up in twice as much pain. It apepars I've pulled some weird obscure muscle in my back that hurts like the dickens when I move in a certain way, pick up certain things, or push in certain spots.  Add that to my still aching muscles, and I'm a bit of a mess.

Oh, and Christmas seems to have snuck up on me this year.  I swear it wasn't there last week, but now it's looming just around the corner and I'm not prepared in the least.

Cadence Update

My apologies for the lack of posts; things have been busy.  My semester is drawing to a close with but 3 weeks of school left.  Naturally, this means lots of projects, tests, and then once all that's over and done with... exams!  I can hardly wait.
Cadence had her drain out on Wednesday, and while she did fuss about quite a bit (she continued to kick out behind her... graciously kicking away from all of us humans... for well over 5 minutes after they'd removed the drain) she showed less hesitancy to put weight on her leg than before.  She's sound walking on it, and most of the time she'll put weight on it. She's been off any pain medication since Sunday.  As of Wednesday, she's on 10 - 15 minutes of hand walking / day, and bandage changes once every other day.  In about a week, she'll have a follow up appointment with the veterinary assistant to ensure she's still on the right track, and recovering properly.
In regards to my riding, I'll be taking two or three lesson's on my coach's mare Z.  Miss Z is now working on shoulder and haunches in, as well as counter canter, walk-canters, and all sorts of fun stuff.  So different form the mare who couldn't walk straight down the long wall last winter!  It'll be lovely to ride her again, and to brush up on my dressage skills.

Back Home

Yesterday the vet finally gave the OK to bring Cadence home.  She made the trip safe and sound, and is now enjoying chilling in her stall.... for the next two weeks.  You heard me right, two weeks. She'll have the drain taken out Friday, and until then her bandages have to be changed daily.  After Friday, they need to be done every other day.  She's on 15 minutes of hand walking/day, and stall rest until the wound heals.  Additionally, she gets 38cc of antibiotics 1x/day.
Last time we were in a similar situation (when we put her on stall rest till the vet could check out her leg) she managed to break out of her stall and gallop into the arena, tear a metal ring out of its concrete base, kick another horse in the chest (although he DID stick his nose in her butt) and just be a general pain in the arse.  I love her dearly, but if she was that bonkers after  4 days, I have no idea how we're going to get through 15 :(  The poor thing, she's going to be bored to tears.  Anyone have good suggestions for mental stimulation whilst on stall rest?
Oh, and while at the vets they noticed her manure was dry, so they gave her 2L of oil via a gastronasal tube to prevent colic.  Yet another thing to worry about.  Please send the Mare your love and positive thoughts... and perhaps send me some of those positive vibes while your at it. I think I may need it more than her if either of us want to make it to christmas!

They've haad to put a tube in to help Cadence's wound drain (there's some fancy medical name, but I can't remember it...) and are going to be keeping her at least until tomorrow.  I know she's in good hands and its the right place for her to be, but I want my baby back.

Updates on Miss Cadence

First off, thank you all for your lovely comments; it means a lot.  Now onto Miss Mare:
Cadence appears to be doing well.  Unfortunately, tey had to do a small I and D (incision and drain) just below her wound, but the vet says she'll probably still be able to go home tomorrow.  Cross your fingers and hope for the best please!

Mare Emergencies

Cadence somehow got a nice puncture wound in her RH, and at first was fine but within a few minutes was rolling on the ground in pain.  Had the vet out, she said to take her to the OVC or Milton, so we went to milton.  X-ray & ultrasound came back good, tendon and sheath both fine and all bones are clean.  Keeping her till Sunday am to monitor infection; she'll get injection antibiotics then wean her onto oral Sun.  Longer post once I have time.

What's New and Exciting?

Absolutely nothing.  I dragged some jumps outside the other day, and handed my dad a camera with the instructions to take some jumping pictures.  Cadence was amazing, the weather was perfect, and all was right with the world.  Everything that is, except for my choice of photographer.  Ah well, better luck next time.  Cadence's jumping is doing fantastically.  Her dressage... is doing alright.  She's getting the whole collection thing pretty well, and her extensions are still in the baby stages.  Forward-going horses often have more trouble with extensions, contrary to popular belief.  They're more prone to rush things, so when you start work on the lengthens, it's all slow and steady wins the race type stuff.  I've seen the evidence of what they'll become when we free lunge and such, but for now it's just grasping the whole concept.
On Saturday, we went over to a friend's farm for some flatwork fun.  We did a little dressage work in the arena, and then headed out for a trail ride.  It was Cadence's first time doing anything more than a walk with other horses, and she had a blast!  At one point, we were all trotting along and she got pretty excited and broke to a canter.  I moved to bring her back, and she collected herself into a beautiful collected canter, and held it!  There was no way I was letting that one go, so I let her hold it for as long as she liked, and she maintained it  until everyone else returned to walk.  I was impressed, to say the least!
It was a fun day all round, and her leg seemed to hold up pretty well.  She still gets some swelling going on near the top of her LH cannon area.  If I had the money, I'd have the vet out to re-examine.  It's been a month and one day since the suspected injury date; why is this still here!  But alas, I'm not rolling in cash, so I think I'm going to have to settle for a distraught phone call.