#my horse

Stevie continues to blow me away with her progress. She figures new behaviors out so quickly. It’s extremely fascinating to watch her figure out what the right answer is in real time. Yesterday, I brought the saddle blanket into the training area and left it on the fence. I was only planning on working on targeting and just having it be in the background, but she came up to the blanket and touched it of her own accord. I rewarded her for that, so she kept doing it.

Later, as I was packing things up for the evening, she saw me carrying the blanket and approached to sniff and nose it while it was in my hands. Which is huge!!! She used to be absolutely petrified and would fully tense up or run away at the sight of any tack. There were a few moments where there was subtle tension - big eyes, looking away - but she would actually come back to me and choose to continue interacting with the scary blanket even outside of a training session. 

Girl and horse

Blorbo from the shows

Sploinkk

a Mare for Christmas

I’ve been wanting to do some art of sweet girl Indie for quite some time so what started as a nice illustration of her turned into an x-mas doodle. So happy holidays from me and the best girl and happy 2020-is-almost-over!

I’ve been waiting to share this one for a while! This was such a fun challenge, doing a human portrait and an equine one in the same painting! It was a rewarding piece though, and I thoroughly enjoyed working on it. Looking forward to doing more like this in the future!

Days 31 and 34. It’s not really bad to look at anymore but I’ll still put it under a cut.

Day 31, exactly one month later. The scab fell away and the skin underneath was looking pretty good!

Day 34. I put some more lavender balm on it and called it a day because it’s doing so well now.

Clinic day!

Feeling quite sprightly!

Warm summer days are here at last ☀️

Giving me the side eye during his appointment with the farrier yesterday.

It went fairly well, with some…news. This was the first farrier appointment I got to be present for since we moved here, because I had classes on Tuesdays when he would come out. But I’m on break now, so I got to be my nosy self while he worked on his feet. Farrier said he’s got pretty good feet, and no thrush or abscesses, his toe crack is steadily going away, etc. He got rasped and cleaned up, as he didn’t grow enough foot for any to be clipped off (again), and got his shoes reset with much less fussing than before. Then I asked how his white lines were looking, referring to the toe crack and his previous propensity for developing them, and he said, “Well, they’re still pretty separated from the laminitis, but it’s getting better.”

Wait, wait. What? Laminitis??

If y’all remember, before we moved he developed some serious issues with foot-soreness and was very uncomfortable and lame for a time, until I finally ignored my barn owner and decided to have the vet and farrier out together to evaluate him. A set of x-rays and a pair of shoes with pads later, Nav was pretty quickly on the mend, and we moved. Apparently…it was a bout of laminitis. My horse was laminitic. Which is why he seemed so “fussy” at his first few appointments that I missed, it explains all the awful bruising in his soles that trimmed out last time, it explains how he got so bad so fast back then. Thankfully, it was a very mild case, especially considering that the x-rays showed no changes or anatomical issues of any sort, and the newer growth is healthy. In fact, he’s the soundest he’s ever been. But six months ago, he was the lamest I’d seen him. And I feel guilty for not knowing better, or preventing it somehow, and for taking so long to find out that that’s what it was.

But I’m also pretty aggravated with my old BO, who told me I should keep riding him like that, or that if I rode him better he wouldn’t look lame because it would disguise it, or that he didn’t really need x-rays or shoes and I was overreacting. When in reality, her barn and shitty turnout led to him becoming laminitic. I’m glad I didn’t listen to her about those things she said. I’m glad he’s doing better now.

Day 25 update on the bum:

It’s scabbed, it’s smaller, and it’s filling in. This has been a much, much longer process than I thought it’d be, but I’m pretty happy with how it’s looking now.

He’s a little tired, but that smokey eye is still on point

First ride outside! He was pretty happy about it.

Finally getting to really test the new saddle fit

Bliss is being nose-deep in dandelions

Can you tell he was excited to canter again

To celebrate the Healing of the Butt, and also to make some positive changes as we prepare for an upcoming show season, I’ve updated several bridle parts.

First, he got a new bit (old bit above, new bit below). He’s always been in a loose ring and seems comfortable with the flexibility of it, and he’s very content with the copper lozenge style. But the ends can be a little pinchy on the corners of his mouth, so when a fellow boarder recommended this style with corner guards by the rings, it seemed perfect. And he loves it!

I also bought a set of stübben rubber reins from that same boarder, upgrading from my flimsy webbed reins. What. A. Difference. My hands seem to be less obnoxious overall and the feel is so much better!

Finally, just for fun I got a new browband, because the rhinestones are falling out of the old one en masse. It’s a snap-on which is…literally BRILLIANT, and utterly adorable on him. Less is more, with his face. Big blingy gem bands don’t show up very well on all his white.

Here’s everything all put together after I cleaned and readjusted my bridle. Snazzy!

Now that we’re caught up, lil dude is back in work!

@ whoever reblogged my post to say he has big nostrils…you’re right but you shouldn’t say it

It is dinner time and he must monch

Posting some pictures I forgot about

A couple updates from before and after the vet did a recheck.

Day 13, the day before the vet came for the recheck. After the improvement and fresh blood on day 10, I gave it a couple days to fill in and close over, but it didn’t quite do that. On one hand, the drainage and leaking was significantly less, resulting in a much cleaner leg on that hip and pointing to progress in his healing, yet the wound still looked gooey. It didn’t fully close and what was present seemed more yellow-y and bleh again. Underneath the scab looked worse, and I was very disappointed to see that, feeling as though we weren’t much further than where we started. Even though we pretty much lost the entire month of April to this situation, it’s still not over when it shouldn’t have happened at all. So, a bit of a horse-mom panic/frustration-induced down spiral for a day.

Day 14, when the vet came for a recheck. He palpated the hip and didn’t find any remaining swelling, inflammation, pockets of infection, etc. He applied some pressure around the wound, and nothing oozed out aside from a drop of blood or two. He said it was doing better and looking pretty good, then flushed the wound 3-4 times with a fat syringe full of saline solution. Some small bits and yellow liquid rinsed out, but mostly blood, and then it was clean. He mentioned the deeper portion of it has started to heal and close up because he couldn’t get the syringe in very deeply, and the bumpy-looking stuff was proud flesh forming in the middle. Further instruction involves keeping it clean, letting it finish closing, and bringing him back into some work to rebuild the condition/muscle he’s lost. He was even allowed to roll for the first time in several weeks! Which he did, gleefully, followed by a quick hosing to keep the dirt out. All in all, it’s fairly good news. It can just be tricky to remember what overall progress looks like when you’re dealing with something daily for an extended period.