Savings almost desolved

Mazy was supposed to go to her first driving show over the weekend but my friend we were hauling with had a whole bunch of personal stuff go down and had to withdraw. I could have gone alone and still competed but it wouldn't be the same without her there so I withdrew as well.  Luckily we had plenty of time to cancel the hotel reservations and everything else.  What was starting to come out to a $1,000 weekend cost $50. 

I had no idea showing could be so expensive. My Word! Between memberships, class entry, office fees, stalls, shavings, exhibitor dinners, coggins, health certs, and all the other stuff it was adding up. Then comes the clothes, hats, gloves, apron and the bank account starts hemmoraging. We hadn't even packed to leave. At least the hotel room included breakfast so there were two meals taken care of. 

It sure sounded like fun and I probably would have had a great time, but for now we will keep working on things at home and fine tuning everything. We will just be a bit more prepared for the next one. 

AMazying

A few updates. 

We went for a lesson with the trainer we found online. Mazy hauled like a champ, settled right in and 'owned the place' in her mind. We worked at the walk and trot, re-established the idea that half halts actually mean something and we found our actual Working Trot that OMG has rhythm and cadence, rather than the flustercluck mess we had been calling that gait. We worked with contact and while I didn't pick at her, in return she didn't gnash her teeth every stride in frustration. I didn't hang on her and turn it into a tug of war, but I also didn't keep dropping the reins and expecting her to maintain self control, balance and speed without racing off when I applied leg to push her over and use our corners.

We still have things to work on but the trainer was super impressed with how quiet Mazy was in a new environment and when given a chance to relax and walk, rather than give the jump standards and poles in the shape of a box a hairy eyeball, no Mazy walked right over to it, passed straight thru the standards, stepped into the box and stopped.  She clearly wanted to jump. Lol 

Since then there has been rain. A lot of damned rain. Almost every day the sky opens up and soaked the shit out of everything. The arena has been too sloppy to ride in or even ground drive either for that matter so Mazy has been getting turned out a lot. 

Her shoulder has healed up nicely. There may be a small scar left where there was once a hole the size of a silver dollar that the vet stuck his fingers all the way inside (yuck!), but her movement has not suffered and she will compete again someday.... 

Last night I figured - Why not drive her? Mazy seems to enjoy it, we can work on our half-halts and Working Trot, and its all good. So I drug the cart out, put the seat on it, whip in the holder, put it in the arena and harnessed up. 

Pic is actually from after our drive- hence the reins not attached.

I'm not sure how long it has been since our last drive, but it was sometime last year. That was at least 7-8 months ago, if not more. I just went back and looked, it was the end of September and I posted about it the beginning of October. So almost a year since drive #13 and she stood like a statue while I put her to, climbed on the cart and got situated. 

I got a couple few pics from the drivers seat as we walked around the arena warming up. 

Going both directions is always good. We worked on our trot and maintaining a nice steady rhythm that didn't so much include speed. Circles, turns and serpentines, stopping, backing, walking forward, up and down transitions between halt, walk and trot and let me say she executed everything so effortlessly. She was listening and tuned in to everything I asked of her. I would like to say she performed flawlessly, but there are always things to work on and improve, tweak this, adjust that. Always.

Of course afterwards she stood perfectly still while I unhooked everything and got her free of the cart. Then she posed in the barn aisle while I snapped a couple more pics before removing the bridle and getting her a heaping handfull of well deserved treats a lot of generous pats, Good Girl and other words of praise for a job well done. 

I'm looking forward to another drive while the weather holds out, albeit a little warm for my liking.  I know- give it a few months and everyone will be complaining its too cold. Lol 

Focus please

So many things in the works at the moment. Looking at a show schedule for the upcoming months. A lot of options and a lot of it do-able. A show here, a couple shows there, here a show, there a show, everywhere a horse show.... 

Realistically Mazy could do a lot of them. Dressage, hunters and now with driving as an option, a lot of different doors are opening up for her and for us both really. Discussing the plans with a friend of mine over the past few weeks, we agreed that showing is how to get her sold. People seeing her out and about doing things, doing Her thing- she will Not go unnoticed. With her coloring, presence and her attitude for commanding your attention- Mazy will not be ignored. 

Would I like to show up and sweep everything? Sure. But if we are going to be competitive, we have work to do. We have to get serious about What we are doing, Which ring we will be doing it In and Where we will be doing it. 

One show in particular would be a good place to display her talents as my friend L knows a Lot of people involved in the organization of the show. She has competed with them, shown under some of them before and discussed course design and hazards with them. What to look for, tips on your overall appearances, what judges like to see, what they don't like to see. 

The funny thing about it all is the diversity of the Different backgrounds from everyone. Different people cross over from different events and become hooked on something they may have always wanted to try or maybe it never crossed their mind before. Just as they come into our sport of choice, others leave to explore other options too. One of the beautiful things about horses- there is always so much more to learn. 

Mended

With Mazy's shoulder almost all healed up, I have been wanting to try my new bareback pad on her and see how much of her training she has retained. I would like to say All of it, but there was a few  small things missing. Mazy now gives Zero shits about the 'corner of Doom' and 'scary shit over the fence'. She can't be bothered. I'm not upset by this. Quite the opposite actually. 

I found a good deal on a bareback pad- $15 online. It has the rings for stirrup attachment, but no stirrups.  NBD- I can ride with or without stirrups and I have some I can always put on it -either way works. It fit and I hopped on to push some buttons and assess the damage. I planned on nothing more than a walk. 

The arena is a bit soupy in areas, soft and deep in another and slick in other places too. I would have liked to ask for a trot and possibly a canter but not in that footing and not until she's for sure toned up a little to be sure she didn't lose too much muscle with all this down time. We can both wait. We've waited this long.... 

Healing

Right after publishing the last post about Mazy's vaccine reaction- it opened up. I will spare you the pics and the gory details for those who may have a weak stomach- as I sit here eating my dinner... Lol There is still some swelling and plenty of drainage, but remarkably there is no detectable smell coming from it. Normally an abscess stinks enough to make some of us gag. It just does and there's no nice way of putting it. So now comes flushing it out to keep it clean and hope it doesn't get infected. 

Even with the nozzle on Shower which is the 'lightest' setting I can find on it- she is not happy with me hosing it. I rinse it and all around the open area and she fidgets and moves and protests in a number of ways. One thing she will do once she feels I have hosed it enough- Mazy will turn her head and use it to block her shoulder. I can't spray it if her head is in the way, right? Then she starts spinning circles around me to get away. When I put her up against a fence or wall where thats no longer an option- she cow kicks! But.... When I go to sticking a syringe up in there to flush it out with antiseptic mouthwash- that doesn't seem to bother her. She stands nicely for that for whatever reason. Maybe she knows she's almost done with this round of torture? I dunno. 

I get it. It hurts and since everything opened up I no longer give her IV shots of pain meds (she hated that too) so while I try to be gentle and understanding, so far she gets a verbal correction for the cow kicks. So far she hasn't connected and has only tried it a couple times. 

We went back to the vet for a checkup and first thing he does- jams his finger into the hole and starts feeling around. Heifer stood like a rock and didn't budge. I told Dr. K that I figured there was room enough to stick a finger in there but I wasn't going to. You just had to go there... I also figured he would have to sedate her to do it and there she stands all Miss Manners. 

We got a bottle of antiseptic spray and a container of antibiotic powder to put on her feed and a bill for our records. No need to come back unless it gets infected and there's complications. This may be a while, but everything looks good so far. Get some petroleum jelly and smear it under the holes so the drainage doesn't burn her skin, and hope for the best. Keep cold hosing until all swelling is gone, he slathered on a decent amount of furazone and sent us on our way. 

Two days later and it has really started to heal rapidly.  To read it looks almost all closed up at times going from the size of a silver dollar to the size of a quarter. Still has the hole the depth of a middle finger, but that is slowly healing from inside out. Still hosing/rinsing, flushing with antiseptic, spraying with flyspray, smearing on furazone and trying to find a way to get the powder antibiotics In her. Miss Mazy doesn't like it even though it smells good (sweet) and is supposed to be apple flavor. Wasted 2 doses so far. Ugh! I'll skip this for now and keep hosing, flushing, spraying it and thinking of a way to get the antibiotics in her and hope it doesn't get infected in the meanwhile. 

When I turn her out she runs and jumps around having a blast and tearing it up. Sometimes when she comes in- everything is oozing. That's a good sign since it is flushing out any stuff I couldn't get to. We're getting there and hopefully there is minimal scaring and all of her hair comes back. Time will tell. 

On the mend

Last week we went to the vet. He said it should/could abscess and once popped open, there will be relief and smelly goo drainage, but will still require watching it and treating it to keep it clean to prevent infection. Take the wraps off and let everything drain down the leg- so what if it swells -> cold hose it, cold hose it, cold hose it some more. Two to three times a day if possible. Easy on the banamine and watch for ulcers. Watch the right front for heat & swelling like you're doing and bring her back in 10 days. If her shoulder hasn't popped open we will look at helping it. I asked about shots of antibiotics to help reduce the size of the abscess? Nope, this one will be a wait and see. Only if it gets infected once open. There will be a soft spot and that's where it should open up.

Sunday there was a spot on Mazy's shoulder where what shoukd be an abscess is starting to come thru. There's a small area about the size of a quarter that about 2 layers of skin has opened up. Of course the flies are on it like white on rice. After hosing her shoulder and getting the skin to soften more, I tried to feel for the soft spot and help open it up more. Mazy was not thrilled about this and kept turning circles around me in protest. She doesn't like anything even touching her shoulder.

After a good soaking I sprayed it with some antiseptic mouthwash and a light mist of fly spray. I also enlisted the help of another boarder to spray it in the mornings to help keep the area clean and fly free. Payment of shavings in her stall was well received and super appreciated.  

Her lower leg swelling has gone way down and right front no longer swells. She has started to move on it more and last night was actually loping around in the arena. She seemed glad to finally be able to run again, one of her favorite things to do. While she may have been running around on it, she still showed some degree of lameness so not totally out of the woods yet but her spirits are definitely up. 

I'm relieved she shouldn't have any long term effects from this. The vet told me that had it happened in the back end, sometimes after the abscess the muscle can atrophy and scar tissue sets in. This will limit the range of motion in that limb and they are pretty much done as a performance horse. Whew! So glad we dodged That bullet! 

Sidelined

Taking lessons has proven to be a difficult thing to schedule for us.  The facility has a lesson horse, but the horse now has an ulcerrated cornea and needs to have some time off. I offered to haul Mazy in for a lesson and all things set for Go. She has all her shots and her Coggins is clean but the barn owner is insisting on a strangles vaccine. That is one I know she has not had. Lesson gets pushed back another week. 

I got the shots and gave them on Thursday before the holiday weekend. I figured she might be off for a few days and then we could get back to work.... Wrong! Two weeks later and I'm still dealing with it. Mazy had a bad reaction to the vaccine. 

This pic shows the swelling in front of her shoulderblade at the top up by her withers as well as down to just above the white on her leg. This was Monday- Memorial Day. She had a fever and was off her feed as well as not consuming much water. This pic she had gotten a healthy dose of banamine a full body rinse and cold hosing to bring everything down as much as possible which is why she was actually putting weight on it. Otherwise she was 3 legged lame and pretty reluctant to move at all. 

As you can see in the photo above- the next day both front lower legs were swollen. According to everything I found online- this is one of the symptoms of a bad reaction... The bonus here- she wasn't dead. Well isn't that helpful?!?! 

Mazy has gotten a bit anxious about getting her IV banamine shots since getting them once a day. Once she realizes it helps subdue the pain, she's ok with it. I was concerned she might develop ulcers but since the dose is low enough and spread out as well as getting time to free graze and then getting fed, we've passed the mark of this being a huge concern. The other thing I'm still concerned with is compensatory laminitis in the right front as well as soreness in her back and hind end. 

Thankfully I was also able to borrow a pair of Back On Track boots. These helped take the lower leg swelling down too. They're a bit big for her but still worked.  

At first I wrapped all four legs with her pillow wraps and stall bandages. Mazy was not happy about the wraps on her back legs and not only did she get one off, she tore two holes in the other one and destroyed her stall. She dug a couple Big holes in the shavings, down to bare dirt. Shavings and dirt in her water tub.... So now the front legs still get wrapped but not the back. 

Every day her knee is swollen and she still has a huge lump on her shoulder. One of the things I read about reactions- they can cause an abscess at the injection site. 

Yes that left shoulder is huge. The swelling has also come around to the front of her chest. We may be headed to the vet to see if it is in fact an abscess and if they can drain it. If that's the case, I'm sure she won't like it but once it is opened up and drained- it should feel much better. I'm really hoping this isn't what's going on, but if it is and can bring her some almost instant relief then who am I to argue?