Kasane

Sick mare, of course

What happens whenever you go to the hospital? You come home with a cold. It appears that Kasane may have done just that. On Saturday, I found a great wad of yellow snot on the wall of Kasane’s stall. She hadn’t been in the stall that long, so I thought maybe someone else had used her stall. Nope. No such luck. Today, the barn called and said that Kasane had white snot in...

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Test results for Kasane

The bone scan showed that Kasane has issues in her front right fetlock, ilial sacral joint, back left hock, and in her neck. The vet did some additional tests by repeating two of the nerve blocks. The low four-point nerve block (which blocks the fetlock joint) almost completely resolved her lameness issue. Some lameness was still present, but it was greatly reduced. The radiographs of her fetlock showed a boney spot on the...

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Radioactive mare

The vet called me this morning from the vet school with an update on Kasane. She is doing well and has been getting the radioactive substance via IV. Everyone loves her because she is so well-behaved and sweet. Proud of my girl. I went to the vet school to see her during lunch. I missed her by the amount of time it took for me to return to the car to put the...

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Bone scan for Kasane

It’s been almost six weeks and Kasane is still lame. My regular vet referred Kasane to the local vet school for additional diagnostics, including a possible bone scan. The vet exam today showed that Kasane is lame on her front right (moderate, 3/5) and her back right (mild, 1/5). The lameness was more pronounced on the lunge line. The vet school had a neat diagnostic tool for detecting lameness that uses motion detectors....

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Lameness check, part 3

Kasane is still lame, even after the chiropractic adjustment. She is moving much better on her hindquarters, but she still is off on her front right (indicated by a head-bob when she trots). During the initial lameness exam, the vet found an issue with the front right as well as the hind end. There was a swelling on the inside of her back right hock. This swelling appears to have gone down on...

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Post-chiropractor lameness check

The chiropractor said to check Kasane’s lameness on her front right leg a week after her adjustment on November 15th. I have very carefully had Kasane on rest: no riding, no rambunctious mornings. She’s been very good about it. We didn’t have a small paddock to turn her out in right now because of two other horses recovering from lameness issues. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of a change in her front leg lameness....

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Got some of the wonk out

The chiropractor adjusted Kasane today. She was seriously out of whack. Her sacroiliac joint (SI joint) was rotated up on one side and down on the opposite side, which caused her to have waddle when she walked or trotted. We’re hoping that the correction in the back was causing the lameness in her front right. Kasane seemed to feel a lot better after her adjustment. She has 72 hours off and then I’ll...

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Finding a wonky lameness

Today, I had planned to ride Kasane and do a little trot work. We have been just walking up and down hills on the trails to help her recover from the windpuffs (swellings above the fetlock joint). She has had them for a while, but the one on her back right leg was about 20% larger than the one on her right. The vet had told me to give her bute for 3-5...

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Windpuffs on Kasane’s fetlocks

Kasane has windpuffs on her back fetlock joints. According to The Horse article “Windpuffs in Horses“: Windpuffs are soft, fluid-filled swellings toward the back of the fetlock joint, resulting from inflamed deep digital flexor tendon sheaths. Most commonly, these puffy enlargements are symptomless blemishes–old and cold, the result of years of hard work. In some instances, however, the horse might be lame from recent injury to the tendon sheath, with marked heat and...

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Girth trials and tribulations

Ever since I got back from Horse Camp, I’ve had trouble with the saddle on Kasane. She had most of July off because of the heat and gained weight. Good grass and less work = chunky monkey. The Arc de Triomphe anatomical girth has been rubbing behind her elbows. My dressage saddle, a Prestige Venus K Monoflap, has been fitted to Kasane about every six months. Kasane has a well-sprung rib cage, a...

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Preparing for horse camp

Horse camp! Kasane and I are going to Horsemasters Horse Camp! We went last year and had a ball. She was amazing and we learned a lot. Camp is only three weeks away and I’ve been working on getting myself and Kasane in shape. We’ve upped the number of rides per week. We’ve made huge progress in our work (just what we’ve learned about trotting and cantering could be a bunch of posts)....

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Movement and subtle shifts when riding

I had a great riding lesson with my instructor on Friday. First the good news. Kasane and I have improved in maintaining trot tempo and in our ability to rate (slow down or maintain) speed. She’s listening really well and we are working well together. She isn’t pulling on me anymore. We were asked to ride a curve along the long side of the ride. It’s a movement from one of the dressage...

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Position, posture, and riding

Ever have so many posts in the backlog that you just never get around to catching up? It’s been like that. Many good things (and a few annoying things) going on! Good things first. I’ve made a lot of progress in riding, just in time for horse camp this week. Yay horse camp! There will be blogging from camp if I have internet access. Earlier this year, I started feeling frustrated with my...

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First ride after two months

I bought a bareback pad for Kasane over the weekend. It’s a Thinline bareback pad. Fits her very well and I actually rode in it for the first time today. It was crazy warm today (almost 80F) so she was very mellow. I put the bareback pad on her and lunged. She was great, as always. She has the loveliest lope. I got on her and we felt so discombobulated. It’s been months...

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Relationship building with Kasane

Last weekend when I went to the barn, I had a challenging ride on Kasane. It had been weeks since I had asked her to do any real work. All I wanted was to keep an even tempo. I hurt from being sensitive on my neck and lower back due to the injuries from the accident back in December. Any way, we ended up having a productive ride at the end, but it...

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