Last night I was a little worried about riding Isis on the trail. Would she listen to me? Would she pay attention and not freak out? We’d never ridden in a wide open space or woods, much less with a horse she didn’t know. Trail worries were soon replaced by trailering ones. Isis doesn’t load very well. Last time, it took several hours to get her to load. During the phone call last...
Continue reading...Isis
Trail ride jitters
Isis will (eventually) start lessons just like Logan has. He’s been doing very well and has been a real champ about it. He’s so much more fun to ride now. Yesterday I lunged both Isis and Logan. Friday Isis had a full workout with a nice bath. Saturday was Logan’s turn for the majority of attention. It had been severl weeks since I’d done much with him. He saw the bit and actually...
Continue reading...Back in the saddle…
Isis has been a real trouper this summer. And last summer too. She’s been recovering from laminitis and a tendon injury. Her feet have been looking better. Last time the vet was out, she gave me a regimen for Isis to gently ease her into riding again. The riding has been going well. We’re just doing basics, walk, a few minutes of trot, and some more walking. All on level ground. No trails,...
Continue reading...Finally!
After ages and ages, I finally rode Isis! Not much because she is still recovering from her tendon problem. The vet asked me to ride her for four weeks on a slowly increasing work load. The first week we walked undersaddle 15 minutes. We’re slowly building up to about 30 minutes this week. Next week, we’ll add a little trot (3 minutes). The following week we’ll double that trot time to 6 minutes....
Continue reading...Isis update
At least there is some good news: Isis is no longer lame! Her swollen tendon looks normal. The vet will be coming out on Tuesday to do a sonogram on her tendon to verify that it’s fully healed. If it is, then Isis will begin a light work routine until her hooves have fully recovered from the laminitis after-effects. Isis has a condition called ‘seedy toe.’ Last week, the farrier noted that her...
Continue reading...Ah c’mon, Isis… just a little bute
Isis, like her sire, is very intelligent. She tasted the bute (horse aspirin) in her grain and refused to eat it. Even crumbling treats into the grain didn’t tempt her. She picked them out and left the grain. We had another trick up our sleeves! The barn manager quartered an apple and inserted small pieces of a bute tablet into each section. Isis ate the first one, then spit out the a piece....
Continue reading...Laminitis and tendons, take 2
The farrier came out today and had some excellent news. Even after Isis had a mild case of laminitis, her feet are in excellent shape. The white-line growth is normal and she isn’t lame any more. As far as he was concerned, her feet were good enough to start riding again. Six weeks pasture rest and the grazing muzzle had paid off! Except for an annoying swelling on the inside of her right...
Continue reading...New pasture, new ‘tude
The first week Isis had her grazing muzzle on, she discovered how to take it off by rolling. A few minutes after she was turned out, she would roll and rub her head back and forth against the ground. The strap behind her ears slipped off, and she dropped the muzzle on the ground. She did this four out of the six days I turned her out at lunch. The one time she...
Continue reading...Unhappy Horse
Isis is thoroughly pissed at me. I’ve purchased a grazing muzzle for her to wear in hopes that it will reduce the amount of grass she is eating. She had it on for the first time on Saturday. She was not a happy camper. The grass in her diet paddock (dry lot) was so low that she couldn’t get any grass through the hole in the bottom of the muzzle. She walked around,...
Continue reading...My mare, my kid
How to start things off? My mare came up lame last week on Sunday morning: stiffness, no apparent swelling, ouchy on both front feet. Add that to spring grass coming in and her tendency to put on weight faster then a cheetah bringing down an antelope, and you get the idea. Yesterday, the vet confirmed my worst fears: laminitis, a serious disease which causes the laminae (interior parts of the hoof) to break...
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