the world according to

In honor of what would have been Charlie’s Sweet 16 tomorrow, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much he taught me. 

lessons from charlie: face hugs are best hugs <3

After the better part of a decade with the world’s best brontosaurus (not to mention drawing paychecks from various barn mgmt jobs for 15 years before that…), I was pretty sure I Had Horses Figured Out. 

charlie reinforced that curry = life
also, wow the shedding volume remains intense

And, well….. maybe that’s just the plight of your typical one-horse adult amateur. What I thought were deep truths in horse keeping and training were maybe just…. Deep Truths About Charlie. 

I’ve written chapter and verse of the Book of Charles on ye olde blogge, but now here we are in a new place, new time, and with a different leading lady who — shocker — is a very different type.

doozy thinks the tractor is fine. the bunnies that live in the shrubs tho? less fine
charlie liked tractors too <3

But ya know. When I step back and think more about the big picture, the journey, the purpose of it all… There are some pretty important truths from dear Sir Charles that continue to guide me in my decision making and approach to Doozy. 

He remains my beacon of wisdom <3

patient biscuit!!

You might remember the trials and tribulations from Doozy’s early days… her failed 30 day performance review and a probationary period that wasn’t immediately convincing about her longterm prospects as my riding horse. 

And that was after just 30 (thirty) days! You would be forgiven for wondering (passively or otherwise) why I haven’t injected any of that same prior pessimism again now, after a whole 3 months (!!) of similarly uncertain turbulence.

charlie loved planting his nose on a friendly butt to zone out for peaceful hacks. doozy is still learning to be polite about following, but she’s getting better <3

Again, tho, if there’s one thing Charlie taught me, it’s patience. Gray areas from Doozy’s probationary period — would she be sound? would she even like eventing?? — came into sharp focus last year. Doozy loves eventing* and was remarkably sound before this winter.** 

(*obligatory “excluding dressage,” lol except I’m honestly excited about our work there too!!)

(**ymmv but around here basically EVERYBODY agrees that this winter was particularly atrocious)

trees are blossoming!!!! the season of renewal is upon is

Charlie’s first few years with me were characterized almost entirely by this weird anxious urgency in my approach. I could see so clearly how capable he was, wanted so badly to be where I had gotten with Isabel, and experienced every setback (and oh lawd, did we have setbacks!) like an existential shock.

And looking back on all that… Well. While I believe with all my heart that I loved the shit out of that horse and never lost sight of how lucky I was to call him mine… It’s also clear to me that I robbed my own self of joy, satisfaction, and downright pure unadulterated glee in being so preoccupied with where I wanted to go, that I couldn’t appreciate where we were in some pretty special moments. 

my sweet wild child. everything is so different, but thanks to lessons from charlie, i’m feeling excited and peaceful about the future <3

Charlie’s final lesson to me, of course, was that we don’t in fact have all the time in the world. His riding career ended long before I quite realized it. And while I’m grateful that he got a properly pampered retirement, that too was far shorter than I ever expected.

But it’s not the moments of glory, the blue ribbons or the big jumps that keep his memory alive to me. It’s those same moments of joy, satisfaction, and deep appreciation — often from the quietest days together, or from those rides where everything felt present and connected and flowing… Those are the memories that stay with me. 

And those are the same memories that guide me in persevering through bumpy times with this sweet red mare who is proving to actually be an incredibly cool horse, one who will undoubtedly teach me a whole new education. The World According To Mondeuse. Should we all be so lucky, of course!

wednesday wellness

Happy Wednesday folks! It’s been a week around here, not gonna lie. Life outside of horses has been a bit consuming, so it felt like a good enough time to just let Doozy rest whatever was bugging her after Loch Moy while I did other things.

stabby jabby <3 <3 <3

Tho, naturally, we were already on the books for a visit with my favorite equine wellness professional, who has been treating horses in my care since the Isabel days. 

finally learning to give in to the zonked-ness!

It’s funny bc I still remember her reaction the first time she met Charlie. Not that she said it out loud, but I could sense that she was maybe a little dubious about my choices in getting something so fresh off the track lol. This time around, tho, and obvi amost *ahem* 9 years later, she knows me and my horse keeping habits and is all aboard the Dooz-Cruise.  

started with two here but she twitched one out

And Doozy is obviously a much easier treatment case anyway. Aside from the whole “absolutely indignant about all the stabbing!” thing. She only has 13 race starts under her belt, compared to Charlie’s 33. And consequently seems to have much less generalized wear and tear.

end of the line!

Tho naturally we spent a long time discussing all the highs and lows from this past winter, and my various theories in unpacking Doozy’s nagging complaints. 

mare threw a bit of a tantrum about getting poked lol

Laura found a rib out right in almost the exact location of that squishy bump I’d seen appear under the saddle before we got it reflocked, and agreed that there was some generalized back soreness that tracked with our saddle fit issues. 

“i am immune to your sorcery!” — doozy, quite annoyed by the poking

She also observed that Doozy has a notably long “pain memory” — meaning that she continued to be protective and reactive to that spot even after the adjustment. This, to me, tracks with other aspects of Doozy’s personality — like her sensitivity to even having her hair *snipped with scissors OMG* back when I first got her. 

lol not 2 seconds later

So that, to me, was another good reminder to always first consider pain as a potential source for any strange, unusual, or undesirable behaviors in the mare. Bc apparently trying to push her through pain could lead to long term problematic associations… 

Which obvi is true of any horse. But y’all know how challenging it can be to parse out that slippery gray line between training and wellness issues.

overcome lol

Anyway. Relating to the NQRness, Laura advised that I should try to manufacture an opportunity to get my vet and Doozy in front of each other at the exact moment Doozy is presenting her lameness, since it seems to be a fleeting intermittent thing. Her idea was that we should do a nerve block to either confirm or rule out the foot as a source. 

Tho, not long after, I observed some strange cracking around an old heel grab (from about 7ish weeks ago) that got me wondering….

chaaaaanging gears — that’s kinda ouchy looking, no? an old heel grab is growing out and seems to have split a bit?

I shot the picture off to my vet, who confirmed that Yes, in fact, that probably felt a bit tender and ouchy to the mare. She suggested a soaking protocol, and also that I check in with my farrier about it.

vet recommended hitting it with a solid soaker

The soaking protocol was…. Not gonna lie, kinda challenging. It’s a pretty intense powder that you mix into a solution and then soak for like… 40-60minutes. And guys, I’ve actually never tried to soak one of Doozy’s hooves before…

this product calls for 40-60 minutes of soaking, so i opted for a plastic sleeve

Charlie was always such a perfect gentleman (most of the time, lol), and would more or less acquiesce to standing in a bucket for however long I needed. Which, realistically, was usually just like 20min. 

amazingly, it worked! held in place by a polo wrap and some elastikon

I wasn’t convinced I’d be able to keep Doozy reasonably civil for that long standing in a bucket… Plus I didn’t want to keep reintroducing more dirt and debris into the soaking solution. So I opted to try these crazy plastic sleeve type bags again. 

everything stayed in place for a full 30min before the bag sprung a leak and drained

I’ve only tried this soaking method once before and didn’t have a lot of luck — the more fluid you put into the bag, the farther it collapses down onto the ground… Plus I had what felt like a realistic expectation that Doozy might, hm, lose her shit upon discovering a water balloon attached to her foot lol.

But it actually worked great! Doozy took a few moments to finally put her foot down into the bag and keep it there. Then I quickly wrapped on a polo and secured the bottom with elastikon. And Doozy made me so proud by not being particularly fazed while occasionally stepping around in the crossties, good mare!

hopefully it was enough to clean out any nastiness that got into the split

We had a nice long peaceful grooming session (omg the shedding is intense right now, tho omg) before the bag finally sprung a leak and drained at about the 30min mark. Not quiiiiiite as long as I wanted, but hopefully long enough. 

farrier suggested using Farrier’s Fix for more routine care + maintenance

It honestly doesn’t really look all that terrible as far as hangnails go… And it’s nothing compared to Charlie’s gnarly heel grab injury from last year. So hopefully the soak cleared out any embedded funk, and we can just manage with topical treatments from here out. 

i like that this stuff can get applied the entire hoof, including frog, heels and coronet band

Farrier suggested this Farrier’s Fix oil, which markets itself as a versatile cure-all treatment for whatever ails ya, or your horse’s hoof. I stayed away from the softer tissues immediately post-soak, since the Hoof Soak advised not to rinse afterward and I didn’t want to mix chemicals. But this will be our daily go-to for the heel bulbs, frog, sole and hoof wall going forward. 

here’s a cat as a reward for looking at so many foot pictures LOL

Hopefully that’ll finally do the trick for getting Doozy totally back to full and consistent comfort!! Bc omg it’s already April, how on earth did that even happen??? We got stuff to DO, mare, c’mon!

So yea. If you need me, I’ll be fussing over my horse’s feet and hoping for a full return to riding asap. Wish us luck!