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.

3.1 miles and 1.03 miles, YTD 39.65

The weather has returned to its mild mannered self and I am taking FULL advantage. Plus I need to practice for my lesson this Saturday (WHEEEEE!!!!)

On Saturday the 25th, I decided to ride up in the farm fields. I do have permission to ride on the properties that I was on and I pointedly stay off the ones I haven't gotten permission for yet. Some frustratingly put up no trespassing signs AFTER I rode out there once so I do suspect there are trail cams. Anyway. Have some screen grabs from my helmet cam. Once I get the video uploaded to youtube, I'll share it.

 I got 3.1 miles of riding in that day and covered a decent amount of ground. I also worked on getting Gwyn on the bit. It was really productive for a trail ride.

Tonight I did 1.03 miles in the arena and then a jaunt around the pasture before calling it a night. Since during the week I basically get home after dark I've resolved to just ride after the kids are in bed. It's really pleasant and I'm enjoying it a lot more than I expected.

A confused pony who would like her hay now thankyouverymuch.

How I ride at night when there's minimal to no moon.

We can see pretty well!

UGH. Okay. Naughty donkey. So I decided to pick the first exercise from the ground poles and jumping exercises book by Cherry Hill. I figured it would be something to practice and give us a purpose (other than practicing the principles from my lesson) for the ride so I wouldn't just feel like we were toodling.

I set the book and my new measuring tape (JUST for measuring jump distances!) to the side of my 'mounting block'.  Saffron came over and PICKED UP THE BOOK AND STARTED FLINGING IT.

So I chased her around the arena. I got a REALLY nice canter out of Gwyn while doing so and was pleasantly surprised! Like, a canter that I would need WAY more leg to maintain and felt very nice underneath me.  Gwyn has a long way to go to really have the stamina for a good canter but this is a HUGE step up from where we were! She's definitely gaining muscle, we just need to keep working more frequently than before!


After I was done doing arena work we practiced Standing By The Gate So Your Rider Can Unlatch It Without Dismounting.  This took some time and required going back to basics (Yes, you can walk straight on the side without swinging your butt in and away from the fence) (Yes, you can stand quietly by the gate without swinging 90 degrees to face the gate)  Eventually I was able to unhook the gate and open it. From there we ventured out into the pasture, leaving our lights behind.

Up on the Hill, looking down at the arena. Right side is my solar powered flood lights, left side is the barn lights.

 We toodled around the pasture and I wished for less clouds and more moon. Then it was back to the arena to turn off my lights, take a selfie in the dark and go untack.

A good Goober Pony repping that sweet purple Two Horse Tack!

My Ghost is somewhat solved!

So the next day after I'd made the post about my barn ghost, Saffron escaped. I was in the bathroom and heard Gwyn whinny.

Sidebar:
One of the perks of having your animals on your own property is you get to know their habits and behaviors. You KNOW when something is out of the normal range. Gwyn whinnying only happened at ONE time, when she hears our sliding doors screeeeeech open at dinner time or if Saffron is not with her.

Saffron was not with her. I look outside from the bathroom window in time to see Saffron merrily trotting her way up the neighbor's driveway to go find some grass. I grab the baby, toss warm clothes on her and go grab my carrier so we can go catch a donkey, while Kaylee frantically tries to get her warm stuff on so she can come with me. Thankfully Eric got home as we were heading out of the house and I tossed him (not literally!) the baby and went running to grab a halter and leadrope from the barn as well as some treats for bribing.

Much musing was had. We set up the Nest Cam to face the barn, thinking we had an intruder, but now we were wondering, was there a spot where they could escape. I thought it was the gap by the water tank and stuck in a couple of poles to make it more difficult. I also turned the electric on the fence back on.

The next morning, we're getting ready to leave and the donkey is out AGAIN.  I rush to again get the kids ready to go outside so I can catch her and hope that it won't make me late for work.

That day, while at work, I get a text from the neighbor and from Eric, who is monitoring the nest cam from his phone.

Neighbor: Your donkey is in our yard.
Eric: I saw how she got out. Donkey has escaped. I'm going home to get her back in.

The neighbors I originally suspected of my windy day ghost texted me right away when something went awry, so I'm betting it was not them who caused the strange goings on. They helped get Saffron back in and that was right when Eric got home and she promptly went to her little spot to try and get out AGAIN.  He tossed some sticks in the way and put together a temporary lower fence line.

That super smart donkey found the ONE spot where the slope of the land made the lowest strand of electrobraid decently far up off the ground.  She walks up to it, gets on her knees and scootches underneath it. Her super thick winter coat probably shields her from the zap.

You can watch it for yourself:

Now, this still doesn't solve my 'who locked Saffron in' and 'how did Gwyn get out' conundrums, but it's a start. My working theory is one of our OTHER neighbors saw Saffron escaped, got her back in and locked her up (using the pine pellets as a grain lure not realizing they weren't grain).

Or Gwyn just fucking jumped because we have plenty of previous experience of her doing that because she can.

Gwyn says, "WHY DOES SHE GET TO BE OUT!?"

My original suspected escape route, later proven to be wrong.

Kaylee helps lure Saffron.

Have a cookie!

Actual escape point with anti-donkey additions

My ghost had to have undone BOTH of these carabiner clips and then latched the bottom stall door.

The ghost also unbuckled my macguyvered old kid stirrup leathers.

And if a horse was let out, they reclipped the gate.

Anti donkey measures. Gwyn is too wide for this space.

The door is broken and won't stay latched with even a slight breeze unless I do this. This was undone on ghost day.

Anti Donkey measures

The black t-post is a temporary one until we put more stakes on the current fence posts. That bottom line is what we added. The top three are original.