A life too short

It is with deep sadness that I write this post. Two weeks ago on July 11th I had to put Miss Izzy down.

The end of June was her first two weekend, back to back shows. Because she's a young horse, she had some well deserved time off. She had done her best and I was and still am, quite pleased with Izzy's performance.

When I turned her out on Tuesday night, She had gone directly to the water trough. When her other two friends came out and went to the trough, she went over to a different part of the pasture and started to eat the dirt. She was crunching at it as if eating ice. I thought it as a bit strange and figured tomorrow I would get some of her manure and test her for sand in the gut. To do this,  you put some of the manure in a bucket of water. The manure will break up and part of it will float, but if there is any sand, it will sink to the bottom. When you pour the water out, you will have your answer.

The next day she was seen laying down out in the pasture. It was strange for her so I borrowed some medication, injectible, from my friend and gave her a good dose to make her comfortable. It seemed to help and things settled down for a while. Later she was standing by the water trough drinking and splashing in the water incessantly. Her breathing was rapid as if she had been running and she was sweating. I brought her up front and rinsed her off to cool her down and clean the dirt off her, then moved her to the round pen where she could be watched more closely.

Izzy seemed to relax some but she laid down again and although she wasn't rolling and thrashing at first, she started to so she was made to get up. Things started to really go downhill. As she tried to stand, she was a little wobbly on her legs and went back down. She tried to stand again and this time couldn't straighten her front left leg. She stayed on her knees for a few moments until she could finally straighten the leg and stand up.

A call was made to the vet and it was decided to take her in. The trailer was hitched, she was loaded and away we go. Before leaving, she was given another dose of medication, IV this time. Stopping for gas, I checked on her and there was a trickle of blood from her neck where the needle had gone in. She looked ok otherwise, a little sweaty and still a bit stressed as if asking what was happening.

When we arrived at the vet clinic things weren't any better. After unloading her and trying to take her inside, it was as if now Izzy couldn't bend her front legs. She was walking very strangely and the vets seemed to think it was a reaction to the medication.

Inside the clinic she was loaded into the stocks to be assessed. She had blood drawn, temperature taken (normal), heart rate (a bit fast), gut sounds? (none), palpated from behind- lots of manure coming out although she hadn't pooped in a while and a tube went up the nose into the stomach to drain things. There was a bucket and half of water that came out. The skin pinch test showed she was also dehydrated and her gums were pink with good capillary refill.

The initial blood tests came back and the numbers for what is normal being 2, Izzy was at 17.5 which indicated she had likely twisted her intestine somewhere. They tapped the stomach and at first couldn't get anything so they used a longer needle. When they finally got a few drops, enough to test, her results? The test goes up to 20, but Izzy's numbers didn't even register. It kept coming back as Error. She was off the charts.

Surgery was the only answer and after some serious consideration on my part, I decided to go ahead with it to a degree. I was hesitant to do it and when they checked her gums again and ran another test, the outlook was turning grim. Her gums had gotten a darker pink and the tests showed her kidneys were starting to fail. IF she made it thru surgery, recovery would be more difficult and drawn out.

The cost of surgery- by the time she walked out the door it would easily be in the $8k-$10k range. Once a horse colics, they are prone to doing it again in the next 60-90 days. Due to the meds, they are also prone to ulcers which are also not cheap to treat. With all things considered, the only option- and the best one for Izzy, was to put her down and end her suffering.

You could see it in her eyes that she was hurting and confused. They gave me some time alone with her and I held her head, braided part of her thick mane and told her everything would soon be okay. She wouldn't be hurting anymore, she would simply lay down on the grass and go to sleep. She would be in Heaven soon where there are a lot of great horses and an endless supply of treats. I told her how much I loved her and that I promise to never, ever forget her.

I have tons of photos of her and I'm looking forward to putting them all together in a book. The book of Izzy the Wonder Pony. She was a great pony with a lot of heart and would always try her best. She was very much loved and quite fortunate. Izzy never fell into the wrong hands, never had a bad day and was always waiting there at the gate for me with a whinny as if to ask "What are we doing today?" I was lucky to have had her for the best year of our lives. She went out on top and truly lived the life of a spoiled Princess pony.

RIP my beautiful girl  💖 💕

Hella scores- Intro 2

Our first test was interesting because Izzy was rushing thu part of it, a bit nervous and excited to be in a new arena. She had a bit of a tough time focusing.  Baby horse things so no big deal. The second test went a bit better, I used a caller to keep from having the judge blowing her whistle and screwing us up. I also had taken the chance during a short break to ride Izzy around the outside of the ring so she could see things and help her realize there was nothing to get excited about to help her focus. 

Again she liked our halt and this time at least added that we needed a better bend in the corners, but I would have liked to see a comment of some sort with the score of 7 to know what she ws thinking was so nice about our circle. I'm also wondering what our score might have been if Izzy had stopped more square and we had stood for the exact 4 seconds.

Again we needed more stretch down which would also be a bit more freedom in the free walk. That was not our forte that day. lol  Very immobile in the halt. I'm guessing that part is good? Another 7 for our upward transition to the jog. (Yay!) The 6 for our circle is debatable. While not a bad score, the comment is what I don't agree with. More on this in another post.




We did wander a bit and our halt probably could have been more squarem but I'm okay with the score.

Again no comments on the Collectives which I would have liked, but what do you do at this point? lol  At least she scored us higher where it counted and it was worth double points, again she liked Izzy and thinks we made a good pair. I'm happy with that.  

Hella scores- Intro 1

Izzy's person here- For our first attempt at Western Dressage, we did okay, but we also nailed down some really good scores too. We did two tests- Intro 1 and Into 2. One of the most memorable is on our first test at the very end. Working walk from X to G, halt and salute. We scored an 8 y'all! An 8!! 



If that wasn't good enough, the scribe was using a black pen with the judge signing everything in blue. Comments all the way down the page were in black ink except for the last one.



Do you see that? So very awesome sauce!

Izzy has always had an awesome stop. I taught her early on to feel for my change in position- I would take my legs off her sides and slightly push back, sitting a little deeper before asking for a stop. It didn't take her long to figure it out. I shifted my weight a little and Izzy would shut it down. I didn't have to say a word. What I did say was what a good girl she was as I scratched her neck.

Test 1-
We also received a 7 for our Develop working walk. No comments though so no idea what was so good about it.

The 2 scores of 6.5, were decent, but what about the comments? Is the More Bend mean we need it or we had more of it than necessary? Inquiring minds want to know. 

The two Errors on the test- I do not agree with. I could swear I was doing the test as it is laid out, yet the judge blew the whistle at us twice and had us repeat what we had just done. It was truly a WTF moment. 

Our Collective remarks were pretty impressive with the exception of the 2 errors pinned on me in our WTF moments. Yes Izzy needed a refresher on what the cues were for a free walk. When she's on her game with the free walk- she has a lovely fluidity about her and her overstep is quite substantial. The judge did seem to like Izzy and how could any owner, rider or trainer not appreciate that?  

Western dressage

There's this new thing that seems like everyone is doing. Western Dressage. My person found us a show the weekend following the last show and we gave it a shot. I liked this one so much better. 

Here I am all ready to go warm up.  

My person knows how to pack for a show. Look at my hay net! I'm Rocking that Sexy Round look in this shot too. Woot! Woot!

We had to remove the leg wraps before our tests. They are allowed only in colors to match the horses coat and not be distracting. No boots of any kind- No bell boots or SMB's.  

My bosal is hanging on the saddle horn. We were the only horse showing without a bit. were were also number 13 which turned out not to be unlucky for us. We rocked some hella scores for the day!

I'm watching you. Don't think you're taking MY hay or taking me away from it! Hahahahaha

I look good from all angles. My person is really proud of me.

Pool noodles and hula hoops

My person managed to get a few pics of the obstacles 1st the show.

In the foreground is the Ball Slide. We had to get close enough the rider could roll the ball down the slide.

The blue barrels to the left is a Push Cart.  The horse was supposed to push this with their body. For us this didn't happen.

Above/behind the push cart you can see the jumps. We did these fine by the end of the day.

To the right of the jumps, you can see the Cowboy Curtain- a gate with strips of garden hose hanging down from the top rail.



To the left of the Ball Slide was the hoops. Four (4) simple black hoops to jog or trot thru. This was just not happening for us. I'm sure they were going to snap shut on my legs or something. They were not to be trusted.

Off to the right is the water box. We didn't have to do that, but we did go past it as part of our course. That was close enough for me.

At the far end of the arena, under the overhead stand, you can see the Tunnel (of death!) We did eventually get thru this. I didn't even die! Win

To the left of the Tunnel (of death) there was a roping dummy that we eventually conquered. Ground poles to the left of that- we did those.  

On the far left edge of the photo is part of the Noodle Platform.  I wasn't going to do that one at all. No way, No how. I got close enough to sniff it. That had to be good enough.