ww: scenic strolls

The recent break in the weather meant basically errybody at the barn was trying to get out into the fields and woods to soak up the pleasantness. And naturally Doozy was super jazzed to join the parties!

I’m sometimes a little hesitant to take her out in very mixed company bc she’s so animated and energetic I worry she could trigger a nervous horse or instigate a race to the front. 

But that hasn’t happened yet! Most of our riding buddies either share Doozy’s electric joie de vivre or are satisfied to mosey along and occasionally trot to catch up LOL,

Doozy, for her part, doesn’t really seem to care one way or another what the other horses are doing.

Tho she definitely seems to generally prefer company.

And actually I think she likes following too. We often end up in front on the narrow paths in the woods just bc she’s the fastest walker, but if there’s a horse who wants or needs to be in front, she’s happy to relinquish the spot even if it means being stuck behind a slower walker.

There are a couple trees down in the woods right now actually that look like they’ll be fun to jump - hopefully they’re still there when Doozy’s ready!

Once we’re back out into the hay fields tho it’s easier to sorta mosey along as a group vs single file.

And natch, easier to get pictures of everybody LOL!

Doozy is so funny too… she obvi knows the route bc we take the same loop more or less every time, but she’s often her slowest when we turn toward home.

The happiest clam, I think she would have strolled along behind these horses forever haha.

Tho obvi it’s nice to be back at the barn too bc that’s where the #snax are lol…

“garçon! my snax!!!” - impatient mare

But there’s always another day, esp when the weather is this nice!

Doozy was super happy to go strutting off into the woods all proud of herself the day after her grand return to horse showing at Tranquillity haha.

Honestly, what a gorgeous day!

Tho Doozy was slightly sad that they’d been thru to cut and bale the hay already, it made her “grab ‘n go” snacking technique a little more challenging on the steep hills haha…

All good tho, obvi we stopped often anyway esp for pics!!

All my friends have phones with cameras so much nicer than mine, it’s insane.

Like honestly LOL… I knew my phone was old and clunky but maybe it’s finally time for an upgrade so I can return the favor of getting such nice pics (odd outfit choices aside!) haha.

As it is, tho, ain’t a bad way to spend a summer day, amirite??

jonesin for a fix

The events calendar is really picking up around Maryland — something about the month of May, there’s usually at least 2-3 different equestrian activities either day of every weekend.

another blingy dark bay!

I’d originally planned for our next show to be two weekends* ago, so this weekend was penciled in for getting an early start on volunteer requirements. Year end awards at both my local riding clubs require at least 8 volunteer hours specifically to the benefit of each club (vs hours logged at any random show). Esp with the DVCTA, whose hosted shows can be slightly farther away, this can take more advance planning.

(*Fortunately even tho my entry was submitted and it was post-close date already when Doozy had her accident, the secretary hadn’t actually processed the entry yet and let us ‘pretend it didn’t happen.’ So nice of her, and so nice to not be out that entry on top of everything else!) 

my poorly framed shot doesn’t do this sweet dressage court + judge’s gazebo justice, it’s a lovely place for a schooling show!

Last year I signed up to scribe the morning shift at a dressage show without checking the address first, only to discover it was a nearly 2hr drive from home, oof. It all worked out in the end, but I don’t want to have to do that again! 

Luckily this weekend a venue only about 45min from home needed a scribe for the morning. So I got to knock out the first 4hrs for the DVCTA, scribing for a lovely judge while getting to watch some extremely pleasant tests. Everything from kids on ‘been there, done that’ school masters, to adult ammies on beloved homebreds, to higher level contenders looking to put some polish on before heading out to a recognized show.

audited a fun local clinic!

And the timing worked out perfectly that I was able to cruise down the road right after to watch my new friend Murray and his person ride in a dressage clinic with another well respected local professional!

I’ve actually tried to ride with this trainer a couple times, actually had already secured a clinic spot with him two winters ago when Doozy’s weird hoof bruising issue first started and we had to scratch… He’s got a really positive and encouraging approach while also really focusing on correct posture and alignment in horse and rider. So it was fun getting to watch my new friends go with him!

ok ok back to that sweet blingy dark bay — meet Milliner!

After all that, tho, I admit to feeling a little sad and demoralized about the situation with Doozy. Like, part of why I love volunteering and auditing clinics and all that is that it’s just straight up inspiring, ya know? Makes me eager to get back to the barn and go riding, right??

Obvi I still went straight to the barn after to see Doozy, and we had a nice time grooming and all that… But you know what I mean. It’s not the same. 

not quite as blingy as Calvin, but still extremely handsome!

Fortunately, my barn manager was completely understanding when I sent her a desperate plea text later on, and one thing led to another, and the very next day I got to spend some quality time with lesson horse Milliner! 

I don’t know him very well, don’t really know anything about him, actually, except that he’s one of those sort of typical ageless TB geldings. And he’s got basically the best possible “if you’re going to be a lesson horse, this is the kind of lesson horse you want to be” gig. He’s slightly too advanced for the typical once-a-week lesson kiddo, so he doesn’t get used a ton. It’s mostly adult students who ride him (and ideally take leases on him) or good riding boarder kids if one of their horses is laid up. 

tried to get a majestic ‘look of eagles’ shot with the buttercups background, didn’t quite succeed LOL

He’s apparently in between leases at the moment, tho, and could benefit from more regular work. Tho, as I learned when I hopped on for our first little “get to know you” session, they really did mean it in the purest form. Milliner is a good boy, he doesn’t need any tuning, he doesn’t “need work” in the “needs miles” sort of way. 

Rather, just like any of us — actually, just like me! — it’s good to just stay in a routine. Sounds like a win-win, right? Here’s hoping haha. Our first little ride was lovely and low key and exactly what I needed <3

no ‘look of eagles’ from this one either … 

Doozy, for her part, is doing more or less quite well. I’ll probably do a more thorough update later… tho mostly just to get all the various pictures off my phone bc there isn’t a whole lot of actual ‘updating’ to do. These things just take the time they take.

poor bored mare… she’s so demanding!

And in the meantime, my sweet beloved little chaos engine is… Well. Chaotic. Literally not more than 3 minutes after I snapped the above little video, as I stood there rolling up her stable bandages, standing right there with her… she managed to pick the whole ass grooming bay mat up with her foot (knocking over the trashcan in the process, natch), spooked, broke the cross ties, and got loose AGAIN. 

Like. Mare. WHY tho?? Ugh, sigh. Fortunately she’s pumped full of trazodone, plus her best friesian friend was standing right outside the doorway hand grazing, so she opted to just stop and stand there all sad with her cross ties dangling, rather than bolt off into the sunset again.

ridiculous critter, glaring incredulously at a saddle pad drying in the sunlight.
“hOw DaRe.” — doozy, presumably

So ya know. Never a dull moment, I guess! The sooner we can get this mare healthy and back to normal, the better!! And in the meantime, it seems like some pieces are coming together to keep getting that saddle time I so desperately crave… Thank god for the Milliners of the world!

pardon the interruption

Alternate Title 1: Acting As If

***

Alternate Title 2: When Trashcans Attack

***

Alternate Title 3: Oh Doozy… :(

pictured: a victim of the consequences of her own actions circumstances beyond her control

Sooo… My dear sweet mare… Ms Mondeuse, Best of Biscuits… We had a little accident last week.

The Hill Where It Happened

I had just hopped off after a particularly hot and sticky afternoon dressage school, unbuckled the girth, and slipped off the bridle (reins still around Doozy’s neck, plus neck strap on, obvi), and Doozy was, as she always is, immensely itchy. 

Except, two totally unrelated events occurred in rapid succession. First, Doozy tried to rub her face on a nearby trashcan. BUT THEN, in a totally unrelated circumstance, the trashcan moved and made a noise. And that, as they say, was that. Doozy shied backwards, turned away from me, Lost Her Shit when the ungirthed saddle subsequently slipped off, and got away. 

“the hills, they call to me!” — doozy, on drugs, performing a slightly less dramatic reenactment

For whatever mysterious reasons guiding Doozy’s chaotic impulses, she opted to bolt straight up and over the biggest nearby hill — exploding her bridle into a million pieces (not all of which I was able to find!) along the way. 

She made it all the way to the neighbors before apparently realizing she wasn’t in Kansas anymore, and so naturally turned tail and bolted straight back down the same gigantic hill and back toward the barn yard where we were still just standing there stunned. At which point her inner GPS kicked in and she made the turn she *should* have made in the first place and bee-lined toward her field, where she then waited in sad panicky agitation for me to come rescue her.

pictured: It

Somehow, Doozy kept all four shoes on throughout the ordeal, and had no visible wounds or marks. Plus 3 of her 4 boots were still perfectly in place — one of the hinds had slipped a bit but nothing crazy.

So I checked her over, hosed her off and did my best to help her cool and calm down… Obvi she was extremely agitated and sad after all that… But I hoped that perhaps we escaped any meaningful injury.

anonymous mare has #SomeRegerts
also, shoutout to my farrier who was like, “yea ok but let’s NOT shoe this horse today tho”

Unfortunately, tho, that doesn’t seem to be the case. When I arrived back at the barn about 12hrs later for our regularly scheduled farrier appointment, her left lower forelimb was hot, swollen and sore. I had just shot a text off to my vet when my farrier arrived, and he kinda confirmed my fears that we might be looking at something serious here.

shoutout to anti-inflammatories and antidepressant sedatives too, the real MVPs

He recommended waiting to shoe the horse until after the ultrasound, since her feet look fine and, as he noted, ‘we may want different shoeing based on what we find…’ Oof. 

pictured: as much action as we’re gonna get for the foreseeable future

Fortunately the vet was already scheduled to be at the farm later that afternoon anyway, so I was able to go back out and meet her. She just did a basic exam with palpating the leg, basically just to confirm that it’s possibly a tendon or ligament injury. 

these ice-vibe boots are a nice touch while we hand graze!

Her preference is to wait to ultrasound until the swelling is reduced to improve the quality of imaging. So we’ll do that at the end of this week. And in the meantime, the prescription is to act “As If” we’re dealing with something serious here. 

cold hosing is stronger medicine, imo, but it’s nice to do it all!

So, in other words, complete stall rest — hand grazing only allowed if the horse will behave. A 10 day bute regimen to help with pain relief and inflammation, plus a generous allowance of trazodone, to help with said “behaving.” Cold therapy via cold hosing and ice boots, and standing wraps during the acute phase.

doozy finds this liniment a bit too strong for her large muscle groups especially along her top line, but it’s nice as a diluted brace after cold hosing and under the standing wraps

Based on the initial exam, my vet thinks it’s very unlikely that it’s a worst case scenario rupture — mostly bc the horse is moving around reasonably well, albeit with bute on board.

snoozy doozy <3 <3

In fact she was willing to let me hope that perhaps it’s something like a check ligament injury, vs a less ideal deep digital flexor tendon problem. And, obviously, until we actually scan to find out, it’s entirely possible that there isn’t any significant injury at all and that the characteristic swelling was a fluke, an over reaction of a sensitive red mare! 

seems like no matter what the horsey activity is, there’s always so much stuff involved…

Now I’m a data analyst by profession, I spend a lot of time with statistics… so… ya know… My feeling is like the data in this case, the odds etc, all kinda point in the same direction: that there’s some sort of soft tissue damage. 

4 days post accident, clearly comfortable for weight bearing, swelling much reduced (yes the right leg is totally bent here, i know it’s a weird angle). we’ll ultrasound 5 days from now.

So we’re just gonna continue operating under that assumption. In this type of circumstance, the risks associated with a false negative can be far worse than a false positive. Meaning, the worst that can come from being overly conservative is unnecessary stall rest, vs possibly letting a small injury get suddenly much worse without sufficient precaution. 

The leg is looking good as the swelling reduces, tho, so I’m taking an optimistic view.

in a strange twist of fate, her best friesian friend is also stall bound with a significant soft tissue injury… makes for nice company while hand grazing!

The stall rest is also obviously not ideal, and something I’ve honestly always dreaded for Doozy. But she’s actually coping very nicely with the trazodone! At least so far. I think we helped her by loading her up on a dose before she even knew she was on stall rest — before she even had a chance to get upset. 

and they can see each other from their stalls <3 <3

The trick, I think, will be in keeping her eating it long term. It’s clearly not the tastiest stuff, ya know? So far, so good, tho, and we’ll explore options if/when she goes off her feed.

poor princess, please just keep eating your sedatives <3

I’m obviously pretty upset and sad, tho, even as I try to stay optimistic long term. Naturally I wish I would have done literally anything differently to avoid the accident in the first place. 

meanwhile, us while we wait for the scan.

Things just have a way of escalating beyond all expectation with horses tho —  especially horses like Doozy. Even in the best of times, to think we’re ever really “in control” of a situation is kinda delusional. Ugh. Mare. It really did NOT have the be this way!

So… yea. Cross your fingers for us — that the mare keeps eating her drugs, and that the ultrasound looks better than expected. In the meantime, if you need us, we’ll be in the wash stall cold hosing…

a sticky situation

Poor Ms Doozy was left all alone for a few days while I was out of town for work. The sadness, my friends, it was extreme.

the saddest biscuit

I’d let her have the couple days prior to my trip off from riding too bc honestly it was just sorta like, ‘eh, what’s the point?’ when I really had some other stuff to get done anyway.

poor thing, living in such squalor, brutally exposed to the warm spring sun… truly. she’d MUCH rather be working, but — *alas!* — she lost a shoe in the muck. what a shame, eh?

And then naturally, the weather warmed up, the horses were all kicked out to frolic in the mud, and roll and roll and roll around, scratching that spring shedding itch… Truly. A difficult life!

there’s zero chance this survives the mud lol, but it’ll protect her from rubs while stalled

Sweet princess managed to survive all that catastrophe with heroic stoicism, however. And was hale and hearty when I finally got home and saddled up for our first ride back. And naturally she was a perfect princess for that ride too! Perhaps the first time I’ve EVER been able to say that about Doozy after so many days in a row off work lol…

bright eyed biscuit legit lives for being fussed over lol

But, much to Doozy’s intense dismay (obviously!) she was not able to repeat the achievement, having subsequently lost a shoe to the deep sticky mud the very next day. 

it’s soft enough outside she doesn’t really need the cloud boot, but hopefully by wearing it while stalled we’ll reduce the chance of her getting sore?

Clearly her regret was palpable… Especially after the clocks changed this weekend and the barn decided to let the horses have extended turnout hours… Obvi she would have much rather been working!

lol she’s already bored tho, and getting ready to spook herself touching the trash can ha

But no. Circumstances being what they were, we couldn’t possibly run the risk of bruising her delicate tootsies. Siiiiigh, such a shame.

 

anyway. unrideable horses must suffer the consequences. and suffer for their beauty, ahem.

Tho. Joke’s on Doozy, I guess, bc in Emma’s world, horses that can’t work might find themselves subject to other, ahem, indignities. 

snip snip, mother fuckers!

Like, say, whatever the opposite is of “world class grooming” haha… hahahaha.

washed a winter’s worth of grime out of the tail, and gave that a tidy little trim too!

Tho before you get too worried for Doozy’s overall safety and wellbeing, I will say we’ve been having pretty decent luck keeping her mane in order with the solo comb pulling method (basically where you tease up the hair as if you were pulling, but then snip the solo comb as close the root as possible).

“bitch did you just cut me?” — doozy, aghast

Her bridle path is still a scissor job, tho. And, ahem, a pretty bad job at that. Bc with Doozy, you really only get ONE snip. So, uh, make it count? 

This horse, I swear. You can practically hear her whining, “but my hair hurts!!” with every little snip. Her chiro / acupuncturist once observed that Doozy has a ‘long pain memory,’ and it really makes ya wonder what they must have done to keep her trimmed up on the track. 

“whatever, so long as there’s #snax”

And so it goes, tho, amirite? I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to get the shoe reset asap. But in the meantime, I’ll probably keep her in the cloud boot at least overnights in the stall to provide relief from any soreness. Presumably the boot wouldn’t stand a chance against the same mud that claimed a shoe, right? We’ll see, tho. Cross your fingers for us!

anyway. enjoy some mountains, pic snapped from the window of my uber bc i just had time for meetings while traveling, womp

And in the meantime, if temps stay so warm and pleasant, Ms Thing might find herself subject to an actual first full bath of the season!! 

We’ll see, tho, let’s not get too crazy haha, it’s still early days of March! Happy daylight savings, friends!