Unexpected

This was a shocking thing to wake up to: snow. I was extra glad I'd put a blanket on Naners last night

See? It does occasionally happen.

I took it off maybe when it was cooler than I would have liked, but I much preferred the thought of her rolling in the snow instead of the inevitable mud

I also took this fabulous picture of her, worthy of the photography skills of my father

I can count the number of times I've seen her rear on one hand, so I didn't have the camera positioned for this antic. My dad, on the other hand, cuts off heads even when the subject more than fits in the frame.

And just like that, a screeching halt

Yesterday, I loaded Naners on the trailer and off we went for our lesson. She was quieter than usual, no banging at every stop sign and light (she doesn't kick, she just moves around and since the trailer is steel it makes a lot of noise.) We've been trailering a lot lately, so she's probably just gotten more tolerant of the situation (it happens. She's always bad for a bit, then gets better) We got to the trainers and I unloaded her and she stepped off so quietly, when she usually leaps. Unfortunately, she stepped off so quietly she didn't quite leave enough room for her hind legs to come down and she scraped them against the little bits of metal that hold the corners of the bottoms of the double doors. What originally looked like a surface scrape was not:

That's what it looked like after the vet had snipped off a flap of skin. There was also a pretty deep puncture that extends about an inch down from the hole, discovered when she was flushing it with saline and the skin was extending outward as the saline went in. I'm really, really glad I called the vet.

Naners is now laid up for goodness knows how long. Depends on how things go of course. Going to the rally is out, so we won't be able to qualify for PC Champs. I get to practice my fine wound wrapping skills again. I still have supplies from last summer.

Obviously, I don't wrap when we travel. She wears bell boots when I can get them on her safely (as soon as she realizes she has to get on the trailer she starts carrying on.) I've been thinking of ways to make the back of the trailer safer, there isn't a way to pad the things in a way that the doors will still be able to close. A neighbor/friend thinks we could at least take the corners off the holder thingies, which would make it quite a bit better. I shall post before and after pics when we do it, as my trailer is not the only one out there with doors like this.

I swear officer! It was like that when I got here

This is what I found yesterday when I opened the trailer when Naners and I got home from our lesson:

It looks like something terrible happened in there, maybe a murder, at least a stabbing. I was a bit frantic, checking Naners all over. All I found was dried blood around her left nostril and two tiny, wet drips. Guesses are she hit her nose, they bleed a lot, and because it is a stock trailer, so there's wind, it blew all over the place. I just can't get over all the blood. It did, fortunately, clean up fairly easily (much easier than the just oiled gravel that's all over the outside of the trailer. I tried, it's still there. I need more water than I'm willing to sacrifice from our cistern.)

Naners is fine. Today we went for a walk down the road and all was well.

It's been a fun couple weeks... not!

When last I posted I thought Naners and I were really going to slide off the eventing train and become a western dressage pair. Fortunately, I borrowed a neighbors wintec pro dressage saddle and neither of us had problems with it. Yay!

But, after I had this figured out Naners wasn't right... her back was okay, something else was going on. With it being the time of year it is, and as I was transitioning her back to grass, I felt for digital pulses, something I can never, ever feel... but there they were, bounding away. Long story short: Naners cannot be out on grass unless our temps are over 40 at night, spring or fall, (40 degrees being the magic temperature that grass can use the sugars produced during the day to grow) or she'll end up with full blown laminitis. I caught it really early, so she's okay. I just need to buy a heck of a lot more hay this year. It never ceases to amaze me how good a diagnostic tool my seat is. Every time things have not felt right to me, regardless of horse, things have turned out to not be right, even if it is so subtle it takes the vet awhile to determine the problem.

With the Wintec working it's very clear that my beloved Black Country Tex Eventer is not working for us. I can't bear to sell it yet, so it'll be collecting dust for awhile. We did a Ride a Test clinic on Sunday and our trainer agrees that the Wintec works just fine for us. Alas, I don't have dressage saddle riding muscles yet, so I'm a freaking mess in it.

We also got our fabulous bonnet from Heartland Horsewear. I love it.

Down the rabbit hole?

Argh. Since I've been able to ride again Naners has regularly had a sore back. First, I noticed she was sore after I rode her. Then I started checking her back several times a day. Generally, she's sore in the morning and not sore in the afternoon. So, one of those afternoons I put my saddle on, and she was sore after a 20 minute ride. I've been testing several variables. Today we tried a western saddle: no soreness. So, we may be looking at doing western dressage. Downside: Naners' natural gaits are much faster than a western horse should be going. Plus: blingy show shirts!

Adventures in grazing

Ummm.... Ollie, that's not how you're supposed to wear it

Ollie says, "It's so windy you can see my forehead!"

It's been quite breezy here the last few days, as it frequently is this time of year. One of these days the wind will turn to dust storms, which I seriously dislike. Dirt behind your eyeballs is never comfortable.

Naners be home

I had a plan for this last week. It was Naners' last week at the trainers and I was going to basically drive out every day and take a lesson.

Sunday morning, a week ago, I was driving out to deliver a browband to a friend and a stupid kid didn't look both ways while driving out of his driveway and hit me. I'm okay, but it aggravated just about everything screwed up in my body. The car is mostly okay, front right fender and wheel are scratched pretty good. Riding was out of the question, at least for a few days. Thurs morning I was thinking maybe I could ride her when I went to pick her up. Then I did something and must have pulled every muscle in my back and spent the rest of the day walking around at 120 degrees. I've obviously left parts out of this story, like trips to the doctor. However, I am cursing doctors past for not giving me the good drugs when I was in more pain than this though. Muscle relaxers are my new best friends.

I'm contemplating getting on her today, just to walk down the road, but only if the neighbor can come with.

I hope I can really ride soon, because our trainer is MOVING! *sob* and I need to take advantage of her all I can before she does. She did a great job with Naners, now we have to get the two of us working together.

And go like my browband business on Facebook :)

Spring

As has been noted elsewhere spring is arriving. Saturday morning the bees were awake, desperately trying to climb in the three half-blooming hyacinths in the garden. This also appeared:

I really dislike gardening, but I love my spring bulbs so much I suck it up. The prairie dogs have been awake for a few weeks, they looked rather ridiculous running around in the snow. The bluebirds have arrived. All we're waiting for is the meadowlarks and we'll be in full blown spring.

Addition: not two minutes after I posted this I heard a meadowlark singing. The gang's all here!

If you can't see are eyes really windows to the soul?

I have, of course, been thinking about the situation with Naners a lot as of late. Things just weren't adding up for me. Why was a mare that can jump, even if she hates it, refusing to go over ground poles? Then I started putting things together and called my vet. Could it be possible that Naners has a vision problem? The answer: yeah. And it would make a lot of sense actually. When talking with the trainer she's with about it she said that she had also been wondering at that possibility. Alas, horses can't read an eye chart, so unless there's something physically wrong with the eye, or there's an obvious problem, they're pretty difficult to determine. But, it would explain so many things with her, so as far as I'm concerned she has a vision issue. Fortunately, it shouldn't be a problem with our dressage plans, but it means that I really am never going to jump her.