Then it all fell apart. Again. Pt 1

The good news? Mia finished her last dose of Doxy on Aug 26th! Her final Lyme results came back as 1165 which is enough to be considered negative. WIN! It was a happy day indeed. So what else has gone on? A recap...

I had the USEA Horse Trial entry I had paid for that I needed to use or lose for Sept 5th. I decided to enter the BN HT, because I had no concerns about Mia jumping 2'7". Heck she barely jumps until you hit 2'6"! Despite not really being prepared, I entered and then immediately traveled for basically 2 weeks straight, I left on August 12th and got back on the 17th. I went out to the barn and Mia was off on her left hind with an abscess that had just popped. She was given treats and I immediately left for another week, getting back on the 24th. The new farrier trimmed her on Aug 23rd (I wasn't there) and could see where the abscess started, but she was still ouchy. He gave her a "passive trim" and she was still lame on that foot until Aug 27. On Aug 28th she was sound! 

We went on a trail/light fitness ride on the 28th and Mia was ready to GO. She was super excited to be out and moving, and while she was fairly tired fairly quickly, it was a good ride. We did a small XC schooling at the farm on Sunday. While we don't have a lot of jumps, we do have some and Mia ate them right up. I was getting optimistic about our chances at the show! On Monday and Tuesday we had dressage rides that went....okay at best, but at 930p on Tuesday night I got a call from the barn owner. There was a dressage clinic on Weds/Thurs and the first 3 riders of the first day had cancelled because of the hurricane coming through, would I be willing to ride? Uh, sure?

The clinic ride was excellent, much better than my ride with Becky in May on the borrowed mare. Becky helped us with a lot of basics, but also with some refinements to get Mia really engaged. With 4 days to a USEA HT, I was so PUMPED and 100% ready for the show. I was now quite confident in our ability to score really well, and was actually excited for the dressage phase! Possibly a first ever??

On Thursday we had a stadium jump session, and Friday/Sat we had more dressage which were both excellent rides. Sunday AM we loaded up the trailer and headed to the show, which had changed from a HT down to a CT due to the extreme water the hurricane had left. It was one of the few times I can say with 100% confidence that I was looking forward to the show, I wasn't anxious, and I was very comfortable with our chances. Things were looking GOOD, including Mia. I had bathed, clipped, and even braided her, she looked amazing!

We got down to the show and it was lightly raining. Mia was perfect at the trailer. I got on and walked from the trailer to the warm up ring. I walked the big warmup ring 2x before trotting. The ring was super wet and sloppy, though not slippery, but Mia was really not moving forward. I asked for some long trotting to get her forward, and she just didn't seem right. I trotted another lap before walking to the in-gate and asking the question I already knew the answer to. "Did my mare look lame? Because she feels lame". The answer was yes, she was lame and after riding another lap, she was not only not working out of it, she was actively getting worse.

We scratched before we even got to the dressage ring, packed up and went home. Based on the scores in our division? I am so confident we would have placed 1st or 2nd. It was disappointing, but I am 100% confident in making the right choice for my horse. Mia was fairly tender in her legs, I was afraid it was a suspensory issue. She got 7 days of bute and poultice before I finally called the vet out for a lameness eval on Sept 13. How did that go? Stay tuned to find out! 

Lyme update - Getting closer to clear

I had some blog posts started, everything kept going downhill, I abandoned it all. The end. So what has gone on?

In June, Mia was retested for lyme after 30 days. Her numbers went from 4600 to 3300. Great reaction to 30 days of Doxy! And she went on another 30 days of Doxy. 

We started work again after the 2nd round of Doxy, had good progress, signed up for a show. We had to cancel the day before because Mia was quite uncomfortable. This happened twice, because why not pay show fees for things you won't go to anyway.

We started lessons again, working on some fitness and seeing how Mia was feeling. She was feeling very good, until she would not. Very hit or miss, as Doxy tends to do, but when she felt good, she felt very good. We gave up trying to aim for shows after the 2nd cancelled show.

July came. 

My trainer retired abruptly due to some drama unrelated to me or my barn, giving a 1 week notice that I could not take advantage of. My farrier fired my barn over drama unrelated to me. My job started imploding. Covid is on the rise. Mia got retested for Lyme after her 2nd round of Doxy.

August arrived.

Mia's Lyme went from 3300 to 1600. One more round of Doxy and then she will be negative, good news finally comes! This time, when she is negative, I am insisting on the Lyme vaccine even if it is the double dose of the dog vaccine. I had asked for the vaccine last year when Mia was negative, however the vet wanted to wait until the equine version came out. I am not waiting anymore. I lost a whole show season because of waiting.

I am leaving for almost 2 solid weeks on various trips starting next week. There is zero chance I will have Mia fit enough to do the USEA horse trial in Sept that I have already paid for unless I went BN or N. I need to think on this, go to a BN or N show or just lose the money? We have BARELY jumped this year, less than 5 times? I don't know if even going N would be fair to her or her ligaments, so maybe BN? I am at a loss without a trainer to bounce ideas off of. It's funny how quickly I grew to love the "sounding board" of her mind. The only other instructor that has been coming to the barn is the one who didn't get back to me in 2019. I am not sure how well we would get along, but I don't know if I will have many other choices. I took me almost 4 years to find this trainer.

Mia is, however, feeling really good when she feels good. She has even given up and is now eating the Doxy in her grain without needing to doctor it 5 different ways! #littlewins We jumped last weekend and she reminded me that I need to jump with a pelham or xc bit. She was quite happy to be the driver and to let me be a passenger, except that is not what was supposed to happen! Silly girl. We did a fitness ride last night and while she doesn't have a lot of stamina, she does really enjoy getting out again. We have done some dressage and she is finally getting some muscle and tone back. She still has the intermittent day where she is sore, but those days are getting less and less. 

Fingers crossed things keep looking up. It's been down all summer, I sure 2021 was going to be our year and every single time we start doing something, we get knocked back to zero again. It is going to get better again, at some point anyway!

Nothing like a kick in the pants to get moving again!

 This is the first time I have ever had a trainer. I have been riding for 20+ years and have never had more than the occasional lesson until this past year. Sometimes it was due to money, sometimes it was due to time, sometimes it was due to a lack of both, and sometimes it was due to having no one who wanted to be that person. Having A give me lessons since Dec 2019, I can certainly say we have evolved into a trainer relationship. It is cool, I haven't had someone to rely on like this and I do enjoy it for sure. She really enjoys teaching me (even when I drive her batty) and I (sometimes begrudgingly) love her challenges. 

This lyme journey has been a long two + months. On April 4th Mia was definitely weird, we attributed it to the saddle fit. April 13th she was much worse after a chiro adjustment. April 15th is when the wheels fell off of the bus and we stopped all training when she broke out of cross ties, dumped my saddle, and refused to be caught. April 30th is when we did a full lameness exam with Lyme testing. She has been on Doxy since May 5th until June 8th.

Mia finished up the round of Doxy on Tuesday. She has been frustratingly off/stiff on and off for the past 2 weeks which I have been attributing to the antibiotics. Everyone tells me being on Doxy feels horrible, and even though Mia felt amazing at first, she was likely off due to the drugs. As a result, I have continued to ride very conservatively, 99% walking on flat ground only when she was comfortable. I rode on Thursday as the first time off of Doxy and while in the grass, she felt great. In the sand arena she still felt stiff, we did our normal walk ride with some light trot thrown in on the grass. On Saturday, she was not only NOT stiff in the arena, she felt amazing! I rode with someone else and they also said Mia looked amazing. Tracking up, very swingy in her back, and looking like she was very ready for work. We trotted on a loose rein in 2 to 3 minute sessions and it showed just how out of shape Mia is. After our third trot session, she was breathing harder than I was expecting. No worries though, we are both out of shape. We can get this fitness back in no time if she is comfortable!

How does this relate to A? After I told her about our amazing ride, she sent me a show for June 27th and said she wants me to go to it if Mia stays sound and comfy. Not only is it a show, but an actual horse trial that is "fairly" close to the barn. HA! Uh, we haven't been riding? Or training? Or even trotting! I conveyed my skepticism with vivid animation but finally caved and committed to ONLY go Beginner Novice only if Mia get can be fit by then. A knows I am very goal focused and there is nothing like a swift kick in the pants by being presented with a short deadline.

A BN show is something we SHOULD be able to do easily. Mia should have no issues what so ever going over 2'6" jumps in competition, since that is the height we typically warm up over. The dressage test should be an easy challenge. My big concern is the fitness for cantering, which A says we should have no issue doing by then. Besides 1. it is a schooling show and XC may not even be timed 2. we aren't going to the show to win a ribbon. 

This show is a super duper cheap HT to get Mia out and going over something that should be super easy for her. Going to the show is a goal for me to focus on to get back into a competition mindset, something I have definitely lost over these past 2 months. The actual goal will be to get out and scrape some rust off of ourselves. The goal is to assess our fitness and mentality. The goal is not to win a ribbon (that will be a bonus if we do!), but to just get out and find the joy in showing again. When I find the fun, doing the harder stuff shouldn't be so scary and maybe my brain won't freak at Training level like it did in 2019. 

Fingers crossed, tonight is going to be our first true ride in almost 2 months. We are going to do trotting with lots of walk breaks, but we are going back into training. With a show in 2 weeks, we have something to aim for! Not to mention I now have a lesson on Thursday, I think my butt is going to be kicked. Fitness here we come!

Coming back, one scoop at a time

Mia is finally finishing up her 30 days of Doxy and the turn around has been nothing short of miraculous. Do we have our ups and downs? Yes. Is she a fire dragon one day and totally body sore and lame the next? Also yes. But her demeanor has made a complete turnaround and I can't be happier with the results. Hyper-reactivity around the neck/poll/face? Gone. Often explosive reaction to simple requests? Gone. The overall sense of "something is wrong"? Mostly gone. 

She is looking GOOD

Looking back, I can see now that when things really started to come apart coincided with the time that I got my 18" saddle. I was telling my trainer that something was wrong, but we thought it was my saddle fit. Which, I mean, the saddle DID need adjustment but that wasn't all of it. Right after that, Mia started having weird reactivity including breaking out of cross ties twice. And having weird soreness/lameness. Even the second ever chiro eval was wonky, and the vet said she could tell Mia was amiss and very uncomfortable. Stupid Lyme being so hard to diagnose, why can't it present the same way in each horse for simplicity?

The weight loss she had is gone, she is BEEFY again!

This week will mark a full 2 months since Mia has been out of training. I have been walking her both in hand and under saddle constantly during this, as she always moves better at the end than at the start of a walk. I did try trotting her a few times over the past 2 weeks as she is totally over walking around. The first couple of times went very well, but then I let her actually do some fitness/work trotting last week and boom, completely uncomfortable again. I am going to wait until she is off of Doxy before I try again, many people are telling me their horses felt badly on Doxy. While Mia has felt great most of the time, sometimes she doesn't. No sense in trying to hurry the process, every time I have tried to get "back to normal", the wheels have fallen off of the bus. We are getting blood drawn this week to retest for Lyme, fingers crossed the numbers are good!

This is the face of someone who wants to do fun stuff again

IF Mia is comfortable and sound, we are going to aim to start working this week and maybe go to a schooling horse trial on the 26th. We would be doing Beginner Novice or Novice, depending on her fitness level. I had already paid for a USEA entry in either June or Sept, so fingers crossed we can get our fitness back by Sept. I would love to go Training for my USEA debut, however with the timing, going Novice may be much more reasonable of a request. I am also aiming to go to Loch Moy in October (Hey Emma!) with someone else if she stays sound. #Goals

It has been a really defeating spring, we had worked so damn hard to fall short at the start line. I am really optimistic that things will get better. Mia is already so much better, it can only go up from here right?  Here's to hoping she gets back to feeling great all of the time and we can start doing the fun stuff again! 

No more margaritas, please

 We do have answers! Finally. The vet was out on the 30th and we did a full workup on Mia. The vet said Mia was super uncomfortable even standing in the indoor arena, and I agreed. She was very uncomfortable and hyper reactive. Mia almost knocked the poor vet over when the vet tried to examine Mia's ears! A lameness exam showed her slightly lame on all 4 legs but flexions didn't show where, which may or may not be related to the trim that was done 2 days before. I showed pics of Mia's feet pre-trim and the vet agreed that her feet could have been making her sore and that the adjustment back to normal could be making it slightly worse. The farrier from Feb-Apr had not done Mia any favors but 1 trim has her back on track. Basically Mia was broken enough that we couldn't block to find where she was sore. The vet left with blood for tests, and a list of things we would do as we crossed other things off. First up? Lyme. If no, then EPM. If no, bone scan. At least there was a plan!

We put Mia on Robaxin to try to make her more comfortable, which did help. Well, they helped for 10 days anyway. After that, Mia went on a hunger strike and refused to eat if any pill DARE be in her grain despite the addition of applesauce and straight molasses. *sigh* On May 5th, we got our first result back. Hold the margaritas, Mia doesn't need any more Lyme! She tested positive for chronic Lyme. The vet thinks she caught it around the March timeframe based on her numbers and my description of her reactions. It sucks. I was the first person in the barn to break out fly spray in March but apparently I was already too late. Her numbers are 4600, which is definitely positive but also significantly less than other horses have tested in the barn and area. Another mare in the barn tested over 20k last November and is still being treated, a gelding at a nearby barn tested at 14k and is also still being treated. 

With this new information, we put straight on Doxy which quickly made a significant difference. After 3 days, Mia looked comfortable again. After 7 days, Mia started to walk normally and have swing in her back again. She has been so uncomfortable, she felt like she was a machine walking on stilts! After a week and a half, Mia is now acting normal again. She still has some slight hyper reactivity on her neck and poll, but it is significantly reduced and I wouldn't consider her borderline dangerous anymore. Yes, it had gotten that bad! For a while, I wasn't even cross tying her because of her extreme reaction when anything would touch in front of her shoulder! 

She had a 2nd chiro/acupuncture visit on the 7th and was told Mia is MUCH better. Mia was out in a few places and still sore, but was much better than the treatment the month prior and that was after only 3 days on Doxy. It was good to hear someone else agree that Mia is getting better.

Mia has been getting lots of attention and 30 minute walk rides for the past 3 weeks. The vet agreed she was working out of the stiffness so keep her moving and it has helped. I have increased the ride times to 45 - 60 minutes since she is feeling better, but I wanted to make 100% sure that she was feeling okay. After last night? I would say she is feeling GOOD! Mia is currently in a big almost 5 acre field with a 4yr old gelding and another mare. Last night, the other mare kept running Mia and the gelding away from me as I went to catch them. I had to walk ALL OVER the dang pasture trying to catch them, and when I did catch Mia? The other horses were running around us taunting Mia to run off with them and while she didn't break free, Mia was very happy to try. Needless to say, Mia was feeling GOOD.

Fingers crossed she continues to improve and her Lyme numbers are gone at the end of the month. It would be awesome of we could start training again in June, there are competitions I would love to go to this year! 

Jumping stuff! Then the wheels fell off the bus

 I have been doing some jump schools with Mia in prep for our show. The first time riding outside, I rode in the pelham so that I would have emergency brakes if needed. Mia has a tendency to....shall we say decline to yield in requests to slow or collect at times. Almost always at the start of a ride, and they aren't bad in comparison to other horses. She isn't bolting, she isn't taking off, she just declines to believe I am the driver for a few minutes at times. Since she hates any curb pressure with a heated, fiery passion, the pelham works great to fix that!

She was looking good

Our first ride was over stadium jumps with some of the small xc logs/jumps thrown in at the end. Overall? Mia was amazing. She was beyond happy to have real jumps to go over again after a winter of dressage! I was able to meet all of our distances but one, AND Mia is showing off our new ability to change leads over fences (!!!) that we developed apparently by magic. It was something we started doing in 2020 and it just happens. I never actually taught it. Ha!

The first ride required me to use the emergency brake three times. The last was the most amusing, as we were 2 strides from the ditch jump and I felt Mia's change. Because yes, I can feel when she decides she is going to not listen. We jumped the ditch and landed in a flat gallop. Except going straight means going down a semi-steep hill. Going right means going through thick woods/brush, and going left is the only option. I pulled her up with the pelham while circling left and it still took 6 strides, I was seriously wondering if she was going to jump the fencing into the outdoor arena! We came within 2 strides of the that fencing, that is about 3'6" high and not an actual jump. That's not for jumping Mia!

Happy mare

The second jump ride was much better. We did the same routine but with the stadium fences up to 2'9". Mia was, again, great and I only needed the emergency brake two times! The third ride was even better,  I only needed the emergency brake once! That was Apr 11th. We were 2 weeks from our show and I was feeling really good. The saddle swap and jump school had settled all of my nerves, I was feeling great about our chances at the show. I was feeling so good, I even entered the show on the the 12th! I always, ALWAYS wait until the closing date to enter because of the randomness of Mia but I was committing, we were doing it!

On Tues the 13th, she had her second chiro and acupuncture treatment. The first, in January, had made a HUGE improvement in her movement, I was hoping to replicate that. On the 14th she had her monthly professional massage. On the 15th I came out for our lesson and things were all kinds of wrong. Mia ran from the end of the pasture (ran past me of course) and went up to the gate after I called her. When I tried to get her, she played a game of keep away so hard, I legit thought I wouldn't catch her. Assuming she was still high from her run, we went in the barn and got ready for our lesson. 

New saddle before being fitted

After a quick brushing, I put the saddle and pad on. I went to grab the girth and Mia set back in the cross ties, broke loose, and ran out of the barn, dumping my saddle at the doors of the barn. I ran out to try to catch her and she wasn't having it. A came out to help, abandoning her lesson student, and we both had a hard time catching her. A finally got close enough to her left side to swing a rope over her, and Mia still tried to jet off. The hell?!

The loss of topline in 3 months. Left in Jan, right is Apr

After some examination, it appears Mia is extremely reactive on her right side. From her shoulder clear up to her poll. We gave her bute for a week with no change. I have tried massaging her right side, and while she seems to relax during it, afterwards she gets much worse and impossible to catch. And thus, this is the story of how I have lost 2 weeks of riding and missed my first show. The vet comes out today (I called last Fri, this is the soonest she could come out) to see what she thinks. I talked to the chiro and she is coming back out on the 7th, but doesn't think Mia's issues are related to the adjustment. The only thing that has really changed is the farrier, as mine stopped traveling so far so I had found a new one. After not being thrilled with the trims, and A thinks this may have started with the angle changes that happened too fast, I switched again this week. Fingers crossed we get some answers and she starts feeling better!

Lesson 29 - doing the things

After the failure of the 18.5", I was optimistic for the 18". When I had the Trilogy rep out, I was borderline on needing an 18 or 18.5 and she said I really could swing either way. The 18" came and it is in much nicer condition than I expected! It was a demo saddle that had been ridden in lightly before being sat for years before going to a consignment store, where it had also sat for about 2 years. I felt more comfortable in it, the difference in the 17.5 and 18 certainly feels more than a half inch! After a couple of quick rides, I decided to keep it and immediately scheduled the Trilogy rep to come back for a fitting. 

Lesson 29 had me coming into it with the wheels falling off of the bus. I had lost a week of time because of a malfunction of the tractor that filled the entire arena with exhaust. Mia wasn't acting right, we hadn't jumped as much as I felt we needed, and A got to see the rarely seen side of me with anxiety lol. We talked through a lot in the lesson, and while I felt better, I wasn't completely solid. I hadn't even jumped 3' yet and we were 2 weeks from the show. Would I blow her tendons by pushing too fast? Things had also went from "easy" to "hard" again on Mia. She had started fighting again, and I didn't always feel like I knew what I was doing again.

We worked hard on the test, doing every part of the test 2 to 3 times to really focus on the technical aspects of the test to maximize points. If Michael Yung can win on his dressage score on a not-flashy mare by being technically accurate, so can I dammit! We put the test together at the end and A was pretty happy. There are a few things I am missing, but she would have given us an 8 on several aspects of the ride. Score! I left the ride feeling really good.

One of the things I kept thinking was that Mia didn't like the 18" saddle. I couldn't pinpoint why, other than she was fighting me, but I needed to find out to fix some of the anxiety. The next Sunday I did a blind ride test for A. I rode in one saddle, then the other to see if she could see a difference. I felt a difference immediately, Mia was uncomfortable in the 18". When I swapped the 18" for the 17.5", Mia stopped fighting with the very first step. I set the 18" aside and decided we are staying in the 17.5" until our show, I don't want to keep changing things right before my show on Apr 25th.