Monday, April 13, 2009

Wow, it's a beautiful morning. Very windy, but with the sunshine and all the green grass it's very nice to look at out the window. Inspiring.

Yesterday we kind of finished a mud-free pasture for Cisco and Soxy. I say "kind of" because part of it is temporary fencing. Just can't set posts in this mud. But they are loving it. Since they're our two most likely to founder we have to be careful about introducing them to pasture. So, off I went to the other side of the property to clean out the stalls. I'm trying to perfect my left-handed poop-scooping to try to work one side of my body as much as the other. It's hard! My body just doesn't want to do it. But I made some headway on developing the muscle memory. Then I put panels up to block them in but give them air and a view out, and they stayed in nice dry stalls all night. Those two... They're the least likely to enjoy being pampered. Not that they mind being stalled, but they don't seem to appreciate being loved on in their nice dry peaceful stalls. They've been using horses in their formative years, not buddy horses, so they're a little different. This morning they were thrilled to go out on the pasture again.

Bella has been in her separate pen since Friday, with the idea that she'd move around less without other horses to push her. WRONG! She runs and bucks and runs and bucks. I think she needs to be back with her buddies. I'm still confused about that stifle. It was really bad Friday morning, and then not so bad. She can be very athletic on it, with sliding stops and quick turns and of course bucking... I wonder if it goes out and hurts really bad, then goes back in and that's when she seems mostly sound? I'm hoping this week of bute twice a day will curb any inflammation and magically cure her, but I think we're going to have to take her in for an in-depth exam.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In addition to the usual veterinary lameness exam, you might want to consider having a chiropractor look at Bella. I used to be a real skeptic about chiropractic - I thought it was quackery - but I have a mare that has back/hind end/stifle issues who has been enormously helped by it. My chiropractor is also a vet, which to my mind is important so important things aren't missed, and she does as much massage as she does chiropractor manipulation. All my horses love to see her coming - even the ones that are usually less welcoming to strangers! Good luck!

froglander said...

I have tried in the past but never stick with it long enough, but it's really hard to scoop poop with the opposite side that you are used to! Good luck with that :)

(I also periodically work on my left-handed penmanship, it's not great, but it's readable, lol)

Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

Kate,
I did have a chiropractor out once, and it didn't do a bit of good. I'll look into it again though, depending on the results of the upcoming exam. Maybe I just needed to do it more than once.

Linda said...

I've heard some great stories about equine chiropractors, too--but never used one either. I had a friend whose mare, after delivering, was off in her movement--it also came and went and the vets never really diagnosed it. She decided to use her mostly as a brood mare--and I think it has largely gone away. She's down in Lewiston. I'll ask her about it next time I see her.