A visit to the equine hospital

Napping poneh

So today was the lameness evaluation at Blue Water Equine Hospital. It's about a half hour away and has some nice facilities (though they need to replace their border fence....)  We started with some basic trot outs, then I lunged her so the vet could see the canter. Then she went through and did some flexion tests with more trot outs after each. After the last flexion though, the vet tech went to lunge Gwyn at a trot and the Goober reared her ugly head, ducked and yanked the lunge line and took off.  Her tail was flagged, and she basically said "Fuck all y'all, I am done being vetted in, it's time for the endurance ride"

The hospital staff took off after her in their vehicles while I felt helpless and a half mile away she finally deigned to be caught and then they walked back.

Zoomed out, the vet is walking her back.

Walking through the fallow field.

 Apparently they had perimeter fencing but it got blown down in one of our windstorms.

Pretending to be sweet.

 The vet saw mild lameness and it wasn't consistent with the right hind like trainer Alison had seen. Vet also saw some soreness up front but nothing that couldn't be explained by doing trot outs on gravel. She also said that her hooves were nice and solid (despite the chipping stuff).

Her feet are terrible. The farrier wanted to leave them longer this time and I don't think it was a good idea.

We moved on to x rays. They did her left front, left hock and right hock.

Are you ready for the results?

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Are you sure?





The damn mare has textbook perfect joints. No remodeling, no signs of arthritis. Her bones look beautiful, her joints have lovely spaces in them for synovial fluid. Nothing, nada. Zilch. Vet was laughing and said these are the best joints she's seen lately.

Vet recommended I give her some Adequan more as a preventative than a full on treatment. Then we did do a chiropractic session. Her SI joint was ALL out of sorts, which would also cause some of the issues we've been having. She's got a muscular butt but it seems her back and core need more work. Vet wants us to come back in 6 weeks for another chiro session but basically gave the go ahead to have me tell the trainer we can be pushed and that it's more behavioral and lack of proper muscling. I have been reading up on Sacroiliac Disease and I'm concerned that's more what we're looking at. Bonus, I don't need to buy any new BOT stuff because I have a rump rug I can use to target her SI already.

She also recommended front shoes as Gwyn's soles were not as thick as she'd like to see (based on xray). And was mildly intrigued/concerned that Gwyn has a yellowish tinge to her skin/mucous membranes. Now that she points it out I can see it but I think it's her normal.  There's a spot on her belly she wants me to keep an eye on, one that I've been slathering in swat but it might be a sarcoid and need to be removed.

So now I need to up my ground poles game and find a good place for walking hills. This might be a good excuse to go back to Ortonville Rec Area for some ambling trail rides! LOL. It's what the doctor ordered...

So anyway, that was a hit to the pocket book to find not much, but I'm glad I have baseline images so we can see if any changes do occur.

Also, let it be known that I tried to spoil my critters and let them eat down the ditch grass in our backyard which is hard to mow because it's a seasonal stream and instead they snubbed me and escaped and went for MORE gallivanting up to the neighbor's house and that was adrenaline pumping as I raced to get the ATV to retrieve them. They came back on their own. I have no idea where they escaped as my cobbled together fence was intact.

I suspect they went under. Damned animals. I wish I could completely fence off the property.

OREA Poker Ride May 26

Last week Alicia messaged me to see if I wanted to meet her at a Poker Ride at the state recreation area. It's only about a half hour drive from home and I was very game! We were supposed to get thunderstorms through the weekend but the forecast was showing they wouldn't be here until later in the day. The ride was in the morning? Heck yes!

It was super relaxed and run by the Ortonville Recreation Equestrian Association. $10 to ride, $5 if you were a member. I decided to join the group mainly because they're the ones responsible for the maintenance and building of the equestrian campground and trails. Support your local trail orgs! It's a good cause and it helps you keep access!

They've built a pavilion and a couple other amenities at the campground, which is quite nice. I wish there were more trails though. I'd be TOTALLY willing to ride manage an endurance ride here if there was enough mileage. As it is, you'd struggle to get an LD. At most you could do an intro ride. It would be a good spot to do clinics.

Anyway...

I made sure I was mostly packed Friday night and then went out to load Saturday morning.  Gwyn was a pill and got away from me before I could close up my magic loading pen of magic. But because I always anticipate things like this, I ended up only being 5 minutes behind schedule, lol.

Putting away the first set of strings

 The sky was threatening rain and it was oppressively humid. Alicia and I were wishing it would actually rain. It never did, but the sun did come out which only added to the heat. Thankfully the trails at Ortonville are all wooded. It was quite pleasant.

For the poker ride we had to go collect string from 7 different stations along the trail. They'd marked the map with the path to take where we would find each station. For each string we found we'd get a card from a deck and whoever had the best hand would win half the pot of money from the entries. You had to find a minimum of 5 stations.

Happy mare after we ditched the big group

 Most everyone found six but there was a HUGE tree down on the trail that had to have been recent and apparently the 7th one was right there, lol.

Alicia and I started out with a group of people that she knew from up in her neck of the woods. They were riding somewhat green horses (and a mule!) and immediately set off on this hardly used trail in an effort to avoid the muddier parts of the main trail.

Alicia and I had no idea what was going on and I honestly should have applied the endurance maxim "Ride your Own Ride" to this one.

We briefly took a wrong turn.

 Gwyn was PISSED OFF. I figured this would be a low key event and wanted to try my new sidepull noseband. Haha. Hahahahahahahhaah. That was a mistake. It was like a comedy of errors.

1. We tucked in behind Alicia's friends. Gwyn did NOT like that.
2. Those friends were going S.L.O.W.  Gwyn did NOT like that either. I was constantly turning her into the trees so we wouldn't run up the quarter horse's ass in front of us. I felt awful because that's just rude on my part.
3. I had very little braking power from Miss Friesian Muscular Neck in that sidepull. Or at least very little respect from her.

We got to a water crossing and the lead horse was balking at going through either the water or over the bridge so I asked if we could just pass them. They let us go, Gwyn eyed the bridge, then clomped confidently over it. We turned a corner and there was a hill and that was where I lost control.

Gwyn TOOK off and just galloped up the trail. She blew through my aids and while I was laugh-crying, I wasn't entirely pleased. I should have turned back and grabbed the baucher I had in the trailer. Hindsight.

Patches of mud

Alicia caught up with us quickly and we went on to have a much better ride with just the two of us. Gwyn led the whole way and only had one more run away moment. Otherwise she was rating back and listening to the sidepull. In the future, I'd use it for endurance rides after we've been on the first loop. But not for the first loop, dear god. That mare is a freight train.

I swear she thought it was an endurance ride too. I was hoping for a more relaxed pace, haha.

Ponds in the Rec Area

 And again, sorry for the tilt. I need to figure out how to mount my go pro so it won't be like this.

Notable Quotes Include:

"Holy shit that frog's huge! It's like a mountain chicken!"
"You almost had a frog in a frog!" "Oh that wouldn't have been fun to pick out later..."
"I just squished a little caterpillar bug on my leg!"

 On approaching a hill: 
"Hey, we're probably going to end up going up this fast. Are you good?"
"So grab my reins?"
"Yeah"
"AS I EAT A CLIFF BAR!"

 Then later...
"Still eating the cliff bar!"

Hard to tell, but this is a giant, steep hill (for Michigan)

 "For the past, I don't know, quite a while, she's had a stick in the bottom of her tail..."

Those steps are used in their judged trail ride. We went up them just fine!

 "Can we not walk in the marsh? Thank you."

The downed tree and where the path is supposed to go...

Creek or bridge option crossing. 

Gwyn checks out the marsh

Hot mare.

The purple cantle pack was one of my blogger exchange gifts! It's perfect with all my purple!

They are good buddies now.

Walking back to our trailers to cool the horses off.

Neither of us had a good enough hand to win the money, but we were famished enough to enjoy the grilled hot dogs that were provided by OREA.  I will definitely return, both to OREA events and this trail system. It's got some nice hills we can condition on and get some decent mileage in with loops that aren't far from parking.

I'll eventually have a video of the highlights of the ride.

Memorial Day Trail Ride 6.5 miles

I have been itching to ride. After Brighton my attention when at home turned to getting our garden beds in order. Any outside time was spent working on that (and BOY was it a huge project, but it's finished!) But with those finished and knowing I wouldn't have work, I felt it was reasonable to take a day and get off property to ride. If we could get chores done the first part of the weekend, riding would be reasonable.

Safety Vests!

Being fat is not always conducive to riding. It's hard to find riding pants, but thankfully not impossible (I love you Kerrits!) Tall boots are out of the question until I'm willing to pay over $500 for customs or until my calves shrink. Show clothes are equally difficult to find unless I'm willing to pay. In other words, it's hard, but not impossible and requires lots of digging through online stores. Brick and mortars rarely have anything that fits me. Usually it's the size just below. I'm not that far out of 'standard' sizing. There is one item that has eluded me thus far. A safety vest for riding.

I've been wanting to take Gwyn Cross Country schooling for a while now, just to introduce her to baby jumps, but I can't as I'm required to wear a safety vest to school and compete. These are foam and are designed to protect you in the event of a fall. When I was a kid they were suggested but not required, but times change. They are now required and when you have a bust of near 50" and a waist that's similar, there just isn't a product that's easily found on the market.

But I found one. And for a damned decent price too.  The really cheap ones are about $150 and offer some protection, or the appearance of protection.  The expensive ones (without going custom) are $350+. Then, if you go into inflatable vests that puff up when you leave the saddle it gets even more expensive to buy the vest AND the CO2 canisters since it's a one time use thing. The one I found is made in the UK. Only 2 US retailers carry it and around the $350 price tag.

But thanks to currency exchanges and Brexit, a UK store is selling the size I need for $250 which includes shipping and customs charges.  SOLD.

Additionally, since I just got paid for my first article, that's what's funding this purchase. I'm so stoked. I'm one step closer to Xcountry schooling. There's a course nearby that is open for schooling, so YAY. YAYAYAYAY

If you're similarly well endowed in the body fat department, check out this website for body protectors.