Back in The Saddle!

I got on Tango for the first time in twelve weeks today.. very exciting. I don't think he's ever been quite so excited to see his bridle - he tried to put the bit AND noseband in his mouth. I sort of half expected him to be a beast when I got on him, but figured it was time. Much to my surprise, he couldn't have been better. We walked for ten minutes on a long rein, and he was perfectly content to just wander around the ring. Maybe now that he's starting work again I'll be able to place him somewhere.
I had a lovely wander around equine affaire yesterday. Watched the bruce davidson clinic, did some poking around the breed pavilion and drooled over all the stuff that I can't buy in the other buildings. Tango did, however, get a nice treat out of my visit.
Unfortunately, there's not much to update about these days. I do have pictures from today though.

Fall

Wow, we're already into fall, and I'm still stuck with my very handsome, very useless boy. He's finally getting turnout in a very small paddock, so I guess that's a plus. The leg actually looks great - no swelling, no heat and he's jogging sound on it. Next step? GET RID OF HIM!
In other news, I've begun working evenings for an accomplished dressage rider up in Washington. She deals mainly in spanish horses, and has 5 stallions and 3 geldings. They're all lovely and nice to handle, and I'm really enjoying the job so far. I've got some pictures of the boys here:


Novador


Taz


Amado


Amado


Taz


Rascal


Kiko


Novy


Novy


Ilyad

SUSPENSORY BLUES

Sometimes... most times... I find myself asking WHY? Why do I love horses so much? Why are they SO self-destructive?
Tango is officially broken. He was broken before, but manageably so. NOW? Seriously broken. I pulled him out of the paddock almost two weeks ago now, and he was short and stabby on the LF just walking. No swelling, no heat. I jogged him out and - big surprise - DEAD LAME. I immediately assumed that he just strained the old injury, since we'd had a LOT of rain, and he tends to run about like an asshole occasionally. He's done this type of thing before, so I just cold-hosed, buted, poulticed and locked him up for the night, figuring he would be fine in a day or two. Well, the next day there was obvious swelling and major heat up high on the LF. NOT GOOD. More cold hosing, more bute and more poultice. The swelling went down a bit by Tuesday, but it was hotter than ever, so I called the vet. Now, I don't exactly have money to be throwing around on diagnostics, and the vet is well aware of this. I told her what was going on, and what I thought had happened (I was starting to think it was more than just stressing the scar tissue), and she agreed with me. Now I'm stuck with an INCREDIBLY useless horse who (probably) sprained or mildly tore the suspensory or check ligament, and I'm going to be in quite a bind once school starts next week. I really wish that there was a way for me to find him a forever home with people willing to rehab him and love him, but I know I'll probably end up resorting to plan B, which is to rehab him enough to get him pasture sound and then send him to PA for 6 months to live in a big field and eat all the grass that he could ever imagine. I just want something that I can ride.

BAD NEWS BEARS

Well, Tango and I took a trip to Belmont on Tuesday to pay a visit to the Ruffian Equine Medical Clinic and finally get to the bottom of this lameness thing. As it turns out, he isn't actually LAME... just limited. He apparently had an old injury to the check ligament that was either really terrible or just never given the care to heal properly, because the ligament is now very thick because of scar tissue and the scar tissue has actually ADHERED to his suspensory. DAMNIT! I've now found myself with a horse that can't jump anymore, since jumping is going to pull on that scar tissue and make him sore.
Looking at that ultrasound with Nancy and the vet and coming to the slow realization that I can't fix him absolutely broke my heart. I would have given anything to be able to fix this horse... I would have taken any amount of time and given him any level of care if someone told me it would make him OK, but instead I'm left helpless with the knowledge that I need to find him a more suitable home... a home where someone can pet him and adore him and take him out on the trails... maybe do some flat work, too. I guess the only thing that's good to know is that he isn't in pain... this thing up front is just happening because he's lost so much elasticity in the ligaments.
I've had to sell horses before... Dusty needed a less challenging home when she went blind in one eye and Kess decided he didn't want to be a preliminary horse... Both of those were hard for me, but I at least felt like I'd gotten the chance to TRY with them... I spent 4 years with Dusty and we got a chance to to all sorts of marvelous things together.. we both finished our first Training level together... hell, we finished our first recognised NOVICE together. That mare taught me all sorts of things about riding softly and efficiently. She gave me confidence. Most of all, she gave me brilliant memories and I couldn't ask any more of her... she gave me all she had and it was time for her to do that for someone else. It also didn't hurt that Jen bought her, so I was going to be able to keep seeing her.
couple photos from our time together:

Dusty and I as Black Riders for Halloween one year with my friend Helen and her horse Benji

Millbrook

Ethel Walker stadium... on our way to 2nd place

Kess was a totally different story. We had a great, short run. I got him as a Novice packer who wanted to do more, and more we did. Our biggest highlight was finishing 2nd in the TR division at Stuart, and I was SO excited about him. However, with him going lame at Fitch's Corner, and me going lame as soon as he was rideable again... we had some issues. I loved him dearly, and had a blast with him, but I guess I never quite felt the same sort of connection with him that I did with Dusty.. probably because I wasn't the one who trained him. He is now happily trucking around Novice with a little girl and I'll get to see him run when I go up to Millbrook next weekend! Anyway.. here are some fun photos from our time together:

Stuart XC

Meeting santa at LEC!

Stuart SJ

Kess and Gunner - his love at Lake Erie


I was able to handle selling those two because I felt that we'd at least gotten a chance to perform together and have some fun. Maybe that's why I'm finding this so hard with Tango... I feel as if the two of us haven't ever gotten a chance to do anything. I absolutely LOVE this horse... Dusty was sort of green when I got her, but Tango was VERY green... everything we've accomplished has been because of our teamwork. And let's not even mention that he is the sweetest, most talented horse I've ever met... I had such high hopes for him, and it really feels like my heart is breaking when I think that I'll never get to experience his BEAUTIFUL jump again, and that he'll never get to enjoy it again... because he LOVES to jump. This isn't as hard as saying goodbye forever... not by any means... Sierra gets the medal for the hardest goodbye... but it's just the fact that he's SO talented and SO lovely and he'll never get the chance to really prove it. I can't even type anything more because it's just making me upset. The blog isn't finished... I'll keep updating on Tango until he finds a new home, and then I'll start up anew once I find a new project... but I'm done for now.

return of the mystery lameness

well, Tango's weird lameness is officially BACK. I've been wondering about it for a little while now... not always sure he looked great, but not always sure he DIDN'T look great. It's probably at less than a 1 right now and only visible when he drops behind the leg at the trot, but it's there. I took him to Nancy's to have her take a look at him too, since I wasn't entirely sure if I was just being paranoid, and she definately saw it.
The whole thing is incredibly frustrating, so she called up the new Ruffian clinic at Belmont, where she knows a few of the vets, and told them what was going on. They agreed to see us this coming Tuesday, and Nancy's going to come along since she a)wants to see her friends b)wants to know what's wrong with this horse and c)doesn't think I should be hauling through NYC by myself (AGREED!).
I'm nervous that they'll find something irreparable, but at least then I'll KNOW and can find him a situation that will work for him. It's not fair to either of us to keep beating our heads against a wall with all these different diagnoseses.

Clinic Preps

This weekend is the Jon Holling clinic up in Sherborn, MA and while I'm excited about it, I am also nervous nervous nervous. We're going to be in the "Soft Novice" group as opposed to the other novice group, which is "Novice/Training" and DEFINATELY not us!!
This past week was a bit of a waste, and he had a LOT more time off than I wanted him to, but I'm not too worried. Last Monday (the 29th) I walked into the barn to find that his front left was all scraped up. It was hot and fat and he was head bobbing lame on it... GREAT! We were scheduled to truck down to Nancy's the next day, but that was not looking likely, so I called to leave her a message that my horse is an idiot and we might not be sound tomorrow. I cleaned the scrapes (Luckily that's all they were) and deduced that he had probably stuck his foot through the fence. After the scrapes were cleaned, I put ice on the leg for about 20 minutes and then poulticed it for the night, hoping maybe it would be magically better in the morning.
Needless to say, it WASN'T magically better in the morning... it was still hot and still fat. He WAS, however, sound on it, which made me extremely happy. We missed the lesson, and I re-iced/re-poulticed and took him for a hand-walk. I went back that evening to take the poultice off, put more ice on and re-bandage. Luckily, it was looking a lot better. By wednesday the swelling had gone down quite a bit and he was still sound, so I elected to do a little flat work. Thursday, I showed up ready to really put him to work and discovered that he had ripped that left front shoe off. Our farrier, being the WONDERFUL person that he is, came out within an HOUR of me calling him in a panic and fixed the problem, but I had run out of light for riding. Friday we did more flat work, but it was kind of an awful ride... neither of us was in sync. He was tense and pissy and I was impatient. After forty minutes of arguing and not getting much accomplished, I finally just had him do some stretchy work, which he loves, and called it a day.
Speaking of stretchy, I am really excited about how great he's doing with that. He really takes the contact down and stays engaged behind now, so I really feel like we're improving from the stretch work now.
Saturday we had a lesson with Jen, which wound up being somewhere around an hour and a half long. We spent about an hour on flat work, drilling transitions and working on lateral movement a bit. I really feel like he's starting to GET the transitions up and down, but I also feel like I need to help him out a little more. His trot work is really improving... he is more consistantly forward and has become easier to ride at in terms of asking for more trot. His canter is, as always, a work in progress... he has a pretty good canter naturally, but I never feel like it's as good as it could be. We're getting there... he's more forward than he used to be, at least. After working on the flat, we did a little jumping. Jen set up a 9' bounce and we continued working our transitions before/after it to get him more uphill. Eventually, she shortened the distance a little, and I really felt the quality of his gaits improve through the exercise... he was responsive, up in front and jumping in great form by the end. Now we just need to get him a little more careful over smaller jumps! He jumps very correctly most of the time, and uses himself well, but he sometimes gets lazy... especially when the jumps are small and/or plain.
I'll post more later (or after the clinic, if I don't find time before then!).

First Post!

Since I'm dedicating this blog to Tango and our adventures in training (and lameness, both his and mine), I figure I'll start this thing off with a history of my little boy.

In August of 2007, after a year-long haitus from horses, I decided that it was time to get back to riding again, and needed a horse to do that with. I stumbled across him online, and while I didn't think too highly of him from his photos, I figured I would take a look at him, since I was going to be ten minutes away trying another horse, anyway. When I arrived at the barn, I was confronted with a skinny, leggy, scruffy gelding, but he had a sweet look to him, and seemed to be pretty quiet. His owner informed me that she had gotten him off the track the previous december, and after turning him out for six months, she had begun trail-riding and taking him over some of the local hunt jumps.
I got on him to discover that he didn't really know how to steer, only understood the leg in regards to signalling the walk, trot and canter, wouldn't bend, and couldn't or wouldn't take the correct lead most of the time. However, he tried hard, was a cute mover and seemed to have potential in the jump department - if he could get past the geekiness induced by youth and ineducation. I left with the feeling that for the price, he might be a good candidate for a re-sale if I could fatten him up and put some training into him. He passed the pre-purchase and I hauled him home the following weekend.
We spent all winter learning how to steer, bend, move off of the leg and pick up the proper lead on the first try. We also worked on producing a jump that was less extravagent, doing gymnastics religiously. I quickly decided that this was a seriously talented horse, and threw out the re-sale idea, deciding to keep him for myself.
Around February in 2008, he bagan presenting with a mystery lameness in his left front. It would come and go and was never accompanied by heat or swelling. By April it was occuring more frequently, and I took him to see the vet about it, no longer convinced that it was something that bute and a lighter work-load were helping. The vet did several nerve blocks before deducing that the pain was in his right hind hock and left front hoof. X-rays revealed minor density loss in his navicular bone, but no change in shape. While he was skeptical that this was causing SO MUCH discomfort, he nevertheless prescribed bar shoes and bute.
Ever the intermittent lameness, I managed to take him to King Oak in May for his first event where, despite a tantrum at the mandatory water-crossing, he was an absolute star...


Despite that success, however, the lameness continued and I called the vet back out. After watching him jog on the lunge and in hand, she couldn't detect any lameness (he had had a week off at this point). Due to his history, though, she decided that it was probably a good idea to inject the joint.
That done, I still didn't have a sound horse. My trainer suggested that unless I wanted to take him to Tufts to get "the works" and figure out what exactly I was dealing with, I should probably just sell him as a trail horse, since he seemed to be ok on minimal work. After much hemming and hawwing, I decided that it might be for the best to sell him to someone who didn't want to do much with him.
I had one or two people come out to look at him, but watching him go, I was dismayed to see that despite virtually no workload, he was still sore. After calling up Stephie Baer, the MA-based trainer that I was a working student for and still rode with when I could, we decided that not everything was adding up to navicular. He didn't move or act like a horse who had sore feet, the lameness was worse with a saddle on and manifested in an unwillingness to stretch the left leg out completely, but out in the paddock, he had to qualms about tearing around like a lunatic. Stephie suggested that I take him to see Mary, a vet that deals more in holistics and chiropractics, to see if she could find soemthing else going on.
I trucked him up to Littleton, MA for Mary to look at. She quickly found that his left shoulder muscles were extremely sore and told me that this would not only explain the increased lameness under saddle, but also the reason that the other vets had thought it was in his feet, as the muscles were pulling in the tendons and ultimately agitating the navicular area. She worked on him for an hour, injected some homeopathics, took blood to check his vitamin levels (since he was eating a TON and not really gaining weight or looking 100% healthy.) and sent us home with some Platinum Performance.
All of his vitamin levels came back normal, so on our next visit a month later, she pulled a Lyme titer. He was looking much more sound, but I felt that he had become more listless and had begun to look generally dull. The Lyme test came back VERY positive, so on the Doxy he went! In February of 2009, he finished up with his doxy and I finally put him back into work.
Of course, by the end of march I found myself sidelined with a back injury, so poor Tango was back out of work. I've finally wrangled a few friends to ride him while I nurse a torn disc back into riding shape. I plan on dedicating this thing to the progress that we're both making. Here are photos from his first time back undersaddle last week:





Whew! Long first post!!