Fiera seems better today

This am Fiera was gimping along in her bandage but did seem to feel better. She ate some of her antibiotic, but not all...she's a little picky about having anything added to her food. This evening Maggie couldn't get her to eat any antibiotic, so she and her dad gave her some of what was in the tube. I had pre-dialed it to the correct level in case she wouldn't eat the powder. I had Maggie set the feed in the trailer and I'm going to go armed with maple syrup to pour on the feed tomorrow. I may have to leave her in the round pen tomorrow to eat her food. I hate to leave her away from her mom all day, but I also hate for her not to get her medicine. I have 2 more doses in the tube and if she continues to refuse to eat it, she will be finding herself with a syringe full of applesauce, maple syrup and antibiotic. I don't blame her not wanting it, but she has to have it. Thursday am I will take off the bandage and if it's not significantly better we will be making the drive to Decatur to the buddy of Dr. Whiting to have the joint cleansed. I don't even want to think about what that will cost, but worse, I don't want to think about my baby being lame before she's 6 months old. She did still have a slight fever this evening...it was 101, but it's down a degree from Sunday.

Baby Horses are out to kill themselves!

Fiera has had her first official vet bill. Sometime last week she injured her leg. I saw it on Thursday and it looked like a scrape and I didn't think it was a big deal. After all, she wasn't limping, she was eating and drinking and running around and didn't mind me handling it. Unfortunately, now it's 3 times it's normal size and the vet had to come and she's loaded up on antibiotics. The vet was talking about me needing to take her into the racetrack clinic to have it flushed and cultured and I was pretty nervous. He just didn't want to waste my money coming out only to have to haul her to the vet. But, once he got there he was reasonably confident that we can get this under control.

I'm usually pretty quick to call the vet on stuff like this...In fact, I did call one of the vets I use yesterday evening and she said that it didn't sound like an emergency to her and to call her this am if the baby had a fever over 102.5. She didn't have a fever this am and was moving better, but then this evening she had a temp of 101.8 and when I called the same vet again she told me to call my other vet because she couldn't come out till Thursday at the earliest. Since I have to work the next two days, I wanted to get it seen so I didn't miss work so that Marisa didn't fuss at me for missing work, like I did two weeks ago when Merlin died. I just got the feeling that she didn't want to come out. I had that same feeling in April when Freeley colicked, but I just chalked it up to a lot of colics, busy Saturday...now I'm not so sure. It may just have been that she had plans and she's off tomorrow. Maybe she doesn't really do emergency calls? I'm not sure, but I think I will be sticking with the larger practice I have used in the future.

Poor Fiera is wrapped from hoof to knee but she was feeling better already from the banamine by the time I left. I have antibiotics to give her 2 times a day and banamine for the next 3 days. I'm sure my bill will be pricey with the after hours call, but I don't care since I don't plan to raise another baby and she is something really special. If she's not better on Thursday I am to get a referral to take her to one of the equine hospitals to get the wound cultured and flushed, which will be expensive!

Extreme mustang makeover

So far the makeover is lame. It started an hour ago and they have done a lot of talking and very little horse showing. We got in here with no cash and there are no atms in sight. So no lovely beverages for us.

In other news: Maggie and I rode the white trail at the grasslands today and had a nice time with Yvonne, who I met at the last supreme trail challenge. Liberty was very chargy and hard to settle and rate. It's a new problem that he's developed when he has to go behind someone. Instead of adjusting his speed to suit the horse in front he puts his head up and acts very pushy. He will walk fine behind anyone but pick up the pace he's in a hurry.

I found this post in my phone this am. I forgot to send it Saturday when things finally got going.

Great lesson today

Peter came with us to Jennifer’s house and brought his camera. He took over 400 photos and ended up with 50 he liked really well. Here is the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pyovich/LessonDaySeptember2008#

Unfortunately, when I see photos of myself riding all I think is “oh, gosh, I didn’t feel fat till I saw the pictures” So, I have to take a deep breath and remind myself that we just have more work to do and then not beat myself up.

Today Maggie spent time playing with one of Jennifer’s horses while Jennifer worked with Dixie on the ground. Dixie proved to be really good at tuning Jennifer (and Maggie) out and Jennifer spent a lot of time smacking her with the carrot stick and rope. Jennifer hates smacking horses, but she had to get her attention and keep it! For now we have decided to take more lessons and spend less time competing…For Maggie that translates to no time competing. No fall NATRC rides for her or me. We want to wait till Maggie is really good and can be competitive and can have nice comments written on her card. Her next attempt will be the trail challenge at Teresa’s the end of November.

My lesson was another passenger lesson. IT started out by Jennifer showing me some tips for teaching Liberty not to crowd the next horse only it morphed into something completely different. She discovered his draw was broken. HE has never been “drawable” in the round pen and always does outside turns. He never just comes in. So, I rode and she directed. I rode with no bridle at all and when things got fast I was instructed to sit deep and tight in the saddle. It was pretty exciting at times and I felt like I was being whipped right and left, but I stayed on and we had so much fun. She showed me how to actually move him sideways on the ground, which is something that so many people say (teach the sidepass on the ground first) but no one has ever actually shown me how to do that before today. I have pretty light hands (according to past dressage instructors) but every time I go without a bridle, I see how much I’m really pulling. I started teaching him how to backup without reins today and I learned a lot about how to steer him without a bridle too…he wasn’t very good at some of it, and it made me aware again how much I resort to using my bit and reins. I think if I’m practicing this alone, I will have to have a bridle on him because I need the ability to steer if he doesn’t do as I ask but I now have a ton of things to practice.

The practice comes at a good time. Next weekend is the Parelli Tour so I won’t be trailering anywhere, but just riding at home for the next week. The following week is the Benefit ride, but it looks like I won’t be going to that either…I don’t think. I’m torn about taking myself to it and competing, but I know that Maggie would be sad if I went without her.

I don’t think we’ll stay off Dixie altoegher, but I think that we’ll spend more time on the ground trying to get her softer and lighter.

Cat's boy

Just to make sure that everyone reading about Merlin knows, he was Cat's horse. She bought him as an 18 month old and he was just now five, old enough to start doing some work. He had a nervous disposition and had trouble keeping his fear under control, but he was going to be OK. That's what makes this even worse. Cat was getting braver, Jena was riding him...he was going to be OK and then he died. Cat is better today too. We both feel like we were hit by a massive Percheron cross right in the heart. I went to the field this morning and it was hard not to see him there and to smell the odor of DMSO on the breeze. I was glad they had picked him up. I can't stand to think of him like he was at the end.

Merlin on Sunday

Peter was taking photos on Sunday and took this one of Merlin. It's a beautiful picture and really shows his soft expression.

It's so hard to realize that he is gone.

The vet came this morning at 9am and Merlin crossed into Rainbow Bridge.

Merlin

It doesn't look like Merlin is going to make it. He had some bad reflux before but the vet was hopeful. We left him at 2am and Cat called at 4:30 to say he was thrasing. She gave him one of the pain killers and called the vet who said to give him the second one and wait a bit. The vet had originally said if she had to use them both that he probably needed to be put down. This whole time I have wanted to be hopeful but now I am running out of hope I upset Cat by talking about calling the cemetary to come pick him up. Practical me just thought about how a horse carcass in the city heat was a bad idea...