Progress, pain and pictures

Progress is great because the App was in fact sound yesterday.  We have been doing leg stretches to stretch out the hind muscles and it seems to have been effective enough to bring him sound.  I will attempt to keep up on them because I know how beneficial stretching can be.  I rode around bareback yesterday after doing groundwork with the App and got a little Appytude, someone was quite peeved over the fact he got only a HANDFUL of grain instead of his whole dinner since we were going to work but we worked through it and ended on a good note.  I will probably ride him again tomorrow, gotta get back in shape for our xc schooling in 3 weeks.  Yikes!

Pain is all about me.  I did two point most of my trail ride on Sunday and oh the pain!  I look like I am probably 70 gimping around but my thighs are useless, painful appendages.  I would rate myself at least a 3 on the lameness scale if I was a horse.  I know the new boots had some to do with it, thanks to the nice sores on the back of my knees, but my being out of shape is most of it.  I am going to push through the pain and ride Wed and Thurs, maybe even Friday. We'll see how it goes, come on painkillers kick in soon!

Finally we have pictures of Daisy and her new toes.  She is moving amazingly compared to how she moved last week.  Last week was especially bad and she required bute both AM and PM and was still uncomfortable.  Right now I am only giving her a half gram in the AM and am on the fence about taking her off of it.  I am so happy with her progress.  I think it is worth noting that to get her here has taken only 3 farrier visits and 2 xrays, less that $200. 

Daisy says Hi!  I am almost pain free!
Note snow still on ground, ugh.

Hind feet

 The hinds are coming along greatly and I am happy the vet wasn't concerned with them to even feel the need to xray them.  The farrier worked on shaping them and removed about 1/4 of an inch in height.

Hind feet. Look at the nice shape

 It is nice that she is actually looking like she has hooves now instead of the the clunky chopped "things" she had before.  Of course the second trim was the week I had just gotten her to pick up her hind feet without retaliation on her part so we couldn't do too much with them at the time.

Front feet, they actually look like hooves

This is what I am most proud of, she is starting to look normal.  Armed with a printout of the xrays, the farrier 
was able to alter her angles to match her bone structure.  We had slight reservations over ligament damage but because she has been so extremely lame we all agreed it was more important to get her correct and deal with ligament issues if it arrived because she couldn't stay in the pain she was in.  Luckily we haven't had any issues at all.

Front feet with rear feet in background.

You can still see the laminae via the upside down smile, we still have a way to go and need to take about an inch or so off of height still.

And just to remember what her front feet USED to look like

We really have come so far with my lame donkey.  I am really happy I have been able to make her life more comfortable.

Things are looking up, a sound(er) donkey?!?

Had a good weekend, got a lot accomplished.  Armed with printed xrays, the farrier was out on Saturday and worked his magic.  I am truly impressed in the difference, Daisy now actually seems comfortable and I would rank her as a 2 to a 3 on the lamness scale instead of a 3 to a 4.  Even this morning, without getting bute last night, she was fairly sound and I would rate her a 2.  She even looks like she has "normal" hooves, he was able to shape them to look like hooves instead of the horrors that they were.  Am hoping to get pictures of her feet tonight, was just too busy this weekend to pull out the camera.  I am impressed and hope you would be too.

The App is doing better, the farrier agrees it looks like he pulled a muscle probably in his lumbar area.  We are doing some leg stretches and there is already good improvement in his movement.  When I went out to feed yesterday it was really cold and the App was doing a full body shiver in his stall so I threw his blanket on.  When light walking wasn't stopping his shivering I threw him in the indoor and had him trot around a bit and he looked pretty sound.  I withheld bute this AM and am going to check him tonight to see if he is still off, here's to hoping he can be ridden on Wednesday!

Had a good trail ride on the TWH yesterday.  It was pretty dang cold but I worked on two point and we even cantered a bit to keep warm.  I LOVE the fact I can canter him without fighting like I have to do with the App.  Every time I get frustrated over the fact I can't do what I want thanks to Sinatra's "extra" gaits he reminds me of his awesome qualities and I get determined to find a way to make him work with what I want to do.  Most people would have sold him and gotten something they knew could do what they want, I am taking something and remodeling him to try to do what I want.  It's a good thing he has such a great personality, if he was stubborn like the App I probably would have given up too. 

So on a fun/sad note, there is a tack shop in my area that is closing so the owner can retire.  I am really disappointed because they really helped me make contacts here and there isn't another tack shop in the immediate area.  This tack shop was heavily involved in the community and even held "pro nights" which is where an equine professional of any kind could come and give a presentation to help anyone learn more about them.  Farriers, vets, chiros, hydro-therapy, they've had them all.  Pretty sad they are closing but they have everything 40-50% off so I went to say goodbye and see what they had left on Sunday.  I was able to find a pair of boots that FIT and DH didn't squabble over their price!  They are Mountain Horse with zippers and the calf is big enough that I am pretty sure I won't bust out the zipper.  I am so excited, finding boots that fit my small feet but ginormous calves and even more ginormous instep is virtually impossible so the fact they had a pair (a single pair, in the entire store of over 150 pairs of boots) AND they were 50% off made my day.  Also able to get some bucket hangers, bull snaps, hanging saddle racks and other fun hardware all on sale.  I now have my tack room 95% complete and it is actually organized.  Once I find a spot for my winter blankets I can call my room complete! 


Pics of the donkey to come shortly.  Waiting for April because as soon as April hits it is supposed to get up to 50 degrees again!  Waking up to single digits when the normal low is supposed to be in the 30's sucks.  Come on spring, push winter out of the way!

It is good, it is bad

So the App is still slightly off, he has been off in the right hind before the vet was out and he is still slightly off despite a week of bute.  It has been a pretty low dose, 1/2 gram 2x a day but he hasn't became sound yet and that is frustrating.  The vet had said it wasn't joint related and is probably soft tissue, maybe a slight strain thanks to the mud, but I had hoped it would be better by now.  I will do another recheck tomorrow, hopefully he will be sound.  I could probably ride him now since the lameness is so mild but don't want to cause more damage since I am not trying to make the problem worse.  Hope he's liking his time off, he has 4 weeks until we xc schooling and he has to be good to go by then!

I am also getting quite frustrated thanks to my non trotting horse.  I had emailed the local dressage organization and talked to them about doing "gaited dressage" back in December and they said they wouldn't have a problem with that but they didn't know how they would handle awards and such.  I emailed them a couple of weeks ago with a link to the updated NWHA dressage tests so they would have easy access to them and got an email back.  The email stated they had talked about my situation with the board and they do not feel they can offer assistance to me.  They couldn't offer a "new" division for gaited dressage because they said they would then have to open divisions for other specific breeds as well.  They won't let me compete in the "normal" divisions because I have an unfair advantage since we wouldn't be trotting.  They then went on to advise I could ride in a Test of Choice/Percentage class.  I am okay with this, this is how I have ridden dressage in the past.  They continued in saying that in most instances I would be riding for a score only and would not be placed because I, again, would have an unfair advantage.  They operate by the USDF/USEF rules and the rules require trotting so that is that.

Am so frustrated I am seriously considering not showing dressage anymore.  I truly don't enjoy doing dressage, I really dislike it.  The App truly dislikes it and the TWH doesn't mind it and tries hard.  I understand I wouldn't be trotting but I would be doing a gait in place of a trot.  I experienced a similar situation in Ohio when I started riding the TWH and had given up when I met up with a dressage organization that was understanding.  It had totally renewed my faith in dressage and kept me going at it for the past 3 years.  It is disappointing that this organization doesn't really want me to compete in their sport because we don't naturally trot.  There is the possibility to rejoin my old association, ride up here for score only and mail my tests down to my old association for year end awards.  It is the principle though, I am not sure.

On the flip side with good news, the TWH and I are actually trotting very well right now.  We are going to be able to show intro classes in a walk/trot and are working hard to get a canter/trot transition so we could show in normal training classes if we so chose.  Or we can continue down a new path of hunter/jumper with some eventing thrown in which is more what I am considering.  I really am serious about the consideration of not showing dressage anymore.  We had a lesson last night and it went very well, complete difference from last weekend. I had to ask, multiple times, to get the feedback I was looking for but in the end I enjoyed the lesson.  Need to work on getting the TWH actually ON the bit all of the time and lots of work on 10m/15m circles at the trot.  If we can get that then I am pretty confident we will have a good show season regardless of the discipline.  So I guess we will see how things play out.

Xray pictures of Daisy

So I had xrays taken of Daisy last Friday so we could see what was going on.  Why is she still so lame, what can we do to make her more comfortable?  First lets remind our self what a normal hoof should look like.

Notice a nice triangular shape with an even space of hoof that runs the entire front of the coffin bone.  The bottom of the bone is solid and flat as well.  This is what Daisy's xray of her "good" foot looks like.

Notice the front edge not being straight.  There is also bony changes along the bottom of the coffin showing growth where the coffin has grown to accommodate its new shape.  Here is her "bad" foot.

 This one is especially bad, notice the curve on the front edge being more significant than the left front.  You can see there is even more bony growth and the bottom of the "new" bone is slightly curved and not flat like the left front.

Both xrays do a good job of showing how much hoof still needs to come off.  The farrier got these xrays today and he will be out on Saturday to make changes.  About the only good thing we found in the xrays is that she doesn't have any fractures, something I was afraid of.  Maybe someone is better at reading xrays than I am and has additional insight?

Waiting for pictures so just an update

As you know I had the vet out on Friday to do spring shots and to take xrays of Daisy's feet.  The shots went uneventfully save when the vet walked up to Daisy too quickly for her preference, she decided to high tail it out of there and man did she.  She ran around the pathway from in front of the stalls over to the hay area and was headed outside when I was able to stop her at just barely the last moment.  I told the vet she wasn't used to other people so go slooower and we had a good chuckle out of it.  For a lame donkey she sure can move super fast when she wants to!

I also had him do a lameness eval on the App since he was off last weekend and hasn't been "right".  Not really lame, not really noticeable but not really sound.  He said it looks like he may have simply pulled a muscle or ligament in the mud and so the App gets a week off with bute.  He wasn't even lame after a flex test (18yrs old and not lame after a flex test, go App!!!) so we are just giving him rest from work.  I will evaluate him mid-week and see how he looks, he definitely feels better on bute as he has been pestering everyone during turnonut.  I am quite happy that he has been ridden very regularly since he was 2 and doesn't have crippling arthritis.  Yay for my management processes!

We took the xrays of Daisy and all hopes of a donkey pulling a cart were deflated.  At best we will make her pasture sound.  Her coffin bone looks like her feet did, they are turned up in an elf shoe shape and there is significant bony changes on the bottom of her coffin.  The vet knows my farrier so they are going to pow-wow before the farrier comes out on Sat and find a game plan for her.  I am glad I now know why she is so regularly lame, I know there isn't anything I can do to fix her and I can just make her comfortable.  It makes me not feel so guilty when she has a bad day, at least she can walk now.  She couldn't really do that when I got her.  Pics to come as soon as they are emailed to me.

For a funny donkey story to close, we have this.  No sense in having a sad post..  Since it is so wet lately I have been putting the critters in the indoor for turnout to save what little pasture I have.  Once it firms up I will put them back outside.  I have 2 chains spanning the large doorways so they have sufficient airflow and sunshine.  Yesterday we were getting sawdust which is stored in the indoor.  I was in the barn spreading sawdust/cleaning stalls and DH was getting the sawdust and driving to me.  During the last load I was done with my part and decided to go help him instead of standing and waiting for him to show up.  Walked outside and there is Daisy eating on a pine tree.  Walked over to her and she walked off.  Talked to her and got her to look at me, at that point I was able to walk up and grab her halter and walk her back into the arena.  DH had put up only the top chain to keep the horses in.  He didn't think that by leaving the bottom chain open it became a perfect donkey door that was wide open.  Moral of the story?  Daisy had her chance at freedom and instead chose to come back where there is apple treats and oats.  Good donkey!

The App is a smart one

Here is how I imagine the conversation went this afternoon.

Donkey - I am thirsty.  The buckets are empty.
App - Yeah well she brought 2 buckets out this AM.  Not my fault we were thirsty.
Donkey - And you dumped the last quarter of a bucket on the ground.
App - It was... an accident.  Yeah, an accident.
Donkey - Well DO something about it!  You think you are the leader.
App - Me?  Mom checks on us during lunch, I will just stand here at her new chains looking for her.  
Donkey - I said do something, that's not doing anything.
App - She will see me and will come say Hi
TWH - You guys are dumb.  Just eat hay, there is hay still.
App - I'm thirsty too, I'm gonna look for her.

Me - go downstairs for lunch, notice App is staring at the house.  Start lunch, open patio door, App turns his head and looks straight at me.  Figure might as well go say hi.
Me - Hi guys!  How are you enjoying the weather?  You are really enjoying this sun huh?  Guys!  You drank your water and dumped the rest over.  Ugh.
Me - go get 2 more buckets of water, bring it out.  App drinks about 1/4 of bucket.  Donkey walks over drinks about 1/8 bucket.  Groan and get another bucket of water to top it off.

App - See told you she'd bring more water.  I just had to look for her.  You should take notes.
TWH - So what, there's haaayyyyy....

Cool pics to come

So I finally broke down and called a vet to come out for spring shots.  Since moving I haven't heard of a decent, reasonably priced vet in the area.  While I understand some people think $75 for a barn call is reasonable, I find that pretty high!  Especially since it is just a standard, run of the mill vet.  If they were a specialist then I could see it but if I just need some shots, I'm gonna pass.  That is reasonable thinking, right?  Or am I crazy, wait maybe don't answer that last one...

Anyway, I am going to try a guy recommended by both the farrier and my riding buddy.  He is coming out tonight to give shots and to also take some xrays of Daisy's feet to see what is going on inside.  Since she still bounces between a grade 4 and a grade 2 lameness, I want to see if it just angle/ligament issues or if there is something bigger going on.  I really hope we can fix her soon, it is hard to watch her gimp around on her bad days.  She still lays down a good bit so I know her feet are bothering her.  I asked for a copy of the xrays for the farrier so I should also be able to post them.  I hope you will find them to be cool to look at.

Have a lesson for Sunday again though I may reschedule it for next weekend.  I haven't been able to ride a single time this week due to being busy and spending time with DH.  I've been having a hard time even getting up at 530 so riding in the AM has been out.  At night we've had something going on every night since he's been back, aside from last night where the contractor didn't show up or call until it was 45 mins after he was supposed to be here.  At least we were able to get other things done but it meant riding was out.  Maybe tonight I can accomplish something.

I have been turning the horses out in the indoor arena since we have had the great melt and it is working out really well.  We bought chains and put them up where the sliding door of the arena goes so the horses can have a nice spring breeze and warm sunshine and still be contained.  I didn't like how stuffy it got in the arena when they were out there on Saturday so this is a nice compromise.  They can be out, they can eat hay, they can have sunshine and I don't have to worry about them destroying what little pasture I have.  It's was in the 60's yesterday and will be staying in the 40-50's this upcoming week, thank goodness spring is here this weekend!!