Whirlwind Weekend

So, I had an eventful weekend. Why, one may ask… Let me tell you.
On Saturday I rode. I did horse stuff all morning. In actuality, I didn’t ride nearly as much as I should have given the time that I spent out there. I started my day with feeding CZ’s barn (one horse, one pony and two goats). After that, I headed over to the jumper barn down the road. I had to pick up London’s bridle. He’s been using Opie’s bridle since he’s been home, and it really bothers me to share between horses. What if we wanted to ride Opie and London at the same time?
As it happens, I took London for a ride with my mom (she rode Opie… See? I can’t share). He’s much happier as a hunter jumper. No more third level dressage for that horse… He’d rather go in a training level frame, long and low. And you know what, it’s a lot more fun riding him when he’s happy. Who knows, I’m even toying with the Idea of taking hunter lessons on him. Why not try it when I have a horse who seems to enjoy it? Obviously, it would be beginner stuff, but then I don’t know how to jump so beginner stuff seems fine and dandy to me. And it would be really nice to actually show sometime in the next year or so….
After the barn, I went to the Poodle Rescue of Houston. Did I mean to come home with a dog? No. Did I come home with a dog? Yes. Oops… But honestly it’s not a surprise. So now my little ‘family’ consists of me, Tempi and now Ronnie (formerly Bison. Who would name a poodle Bison? Seriously?). Anyway, he is not a prime example of good poodle breeding. He’s a “meaty” poodle. His legs look a little short, or his body looks a little long, it’s hard to tell which. His tail and his dew claws weren’t docked. But he’s a silver phantom, so he looks distinguished. Of course, by getting a poodle from a rescue, I knew I would be signing up for a variety of behavioral issues. BUT so far he seems to be simply unexposed to situations. He doesn’t come to his name (either one), and he lifts his leg on any number of things (but he’s getting better about that). He seems so thrilled to be out of a cage, that he just runs when let outside. I’m kind of worried that he’ll run right out to a road. Thankfully my house is totally fences with mesh horse fence, so he has three acres to just run but I did have one episode of chasing him down Clapp road. I don’t know if he was scared that I was going to punish him, or just joining the game, but he wasn’t stopping. Fortunately riding several horses a day put me in better shape than a dog that’s lived in a kennel for nearly a year. Who would have thought, right?
Anyway, now I have a new ‘training project’ to add to my Blog. Say Hello to Ronnie. I’m sure I’ll have more to write about him.

All of this, and I haven't even touched on Sunday which was the Church auction with Ed and my Dad and RC's uber abscess. I was really worried about it being a tendon since his leg looked all blown up, but when I brought him to the vet on Monday, my favorite Doctor Will took a look at him, blocked his foot, took some x-rays and declared it the largest abscess he's seen in a while. Will dug the abcess out, which he described in detail when I came by to pick RC up in the evening (I know, I know... but now that i have a REAL job too, I have to be one of those owners that drops horses off and picks them up after work). Evidently it was the icky black true abscess type pus, not the watery liquid type pus. Thanks, Will... Now I have to wait before eating dinner.

No hoof, No horse....

A Day Off

So, I know it's been a while. There have been a few changes, but nothing drastic, to be sure. For one thing, I got a job! Now, before you get all excited, let it be known that it is not a full time engineering job so that search continues, but it is better than nothing and it gets me out of the house and around more people and all that jazz.
My job... I am volunteering at the Waller Equine Hospital as long as they need me, which has been about 5 days a week so far. I've been there for three weeks now and I can honestly say that I have seen something new every day that I go to work. The only real drawback is that on days that I go out to take care of the horses in the morning I have to be out at the barn by 5:30 AM. I am not really a fan on that aspect of things, but it is really calming to see all those hungry faces in the morning and do a little work with my own ponies before seeing all the sick or hurt horses.

I also have a not-so-small training project. His name is Wyatt, but I've called him Ike (Wyatt really didn't fit). He's a not-so-young green horse with a history of bucking in the canter. I've had him out at Pattison for a week or so now working with him to see if I can get him w-t-c broke in 30 days (hah). As it turns out, he also needs some lessons in basic ground manners as he has pretty much no respect for personal space... He also tends to panic a little when tied in the barn with no other horses. He might be quite the project, but he's progressed (a little) in a week... so I'll keep you posted on our progress.
Now for my own horses... Delight is recovering from a puncture wound in her shoulder. We brought her to the vet because there was an increased discharge (ew) and she was still limping on it nearly a week later. As it turns out, the stick or whatever she impaled herself with went all the way to the bone, killing a piece of it. I forget what it is called, but until the dead piece of bone flakes off and falls out the wound or it has to be removed surgically as the body will treat it as a foreign body and try to force it out. Can you imagine how annoying a splinter would be in your shoulder? Anyway, she has a vet appointment on Friday to remove the chip unless it's already fallen out (which it may have already done since she's running, bucking and rearing when turned out).
RC and London are doing well. They had their teeth floated on Monday, but other then that they are fat and happy. RC is even learning a new trick! Isn't he adorable?

Near Miss

The last few days has seemed to just fly by... I mean, after she show, I took a day off from horses. I raked the front yard, and spread leaves around the fence line. Exciting, i know... But after 40 bags, I was about done with that.
Then on to Monday...
I rode. Great. RC got some really adorable changes, and London was even willing to put effort into it. It was a good and productive morning. I came home, dropped off the dogs, ate lunch, then headed back out with the trailer to get Opie and RC for the Katy Cowgirls practice... Practice went well, yadda yadda yadda. The evening ended early and I though that we would be done in record time, before 10p, but it was not to be. Nearly as soon as we served dinner to everyone, London started acting weird. He was making a coughing/retching sound and hunching his back so that every line of his body radiated discomfort. His breathing was making a very wet sound, like liquid was rushing through tubes... Never good. But he wasn't kicking at his belly... yet. It was not normal at all, so I walked him around for a minute before I had Waller Equine on the phone, and London in the trailer for an emergency visit. We made it to the vet in 20 minutes, so we actually beat the vet there. I unloaded London, then put him in the stocks in the exam room. The tech took his temperature, cap refill time, breathing rate, heart rate, etc as we waited for the vet. As the tech was taking readings, London started retching violently and shuddering. Until then, i hadn't been concerned for the worst, but as his stance got more and more painful my mind as suddenly racing to What if's and worst case scenarios. Was it colic? Did he twist something when rolling after a dip in the pond? Would it be worth the risk to surgery to save him? Would the cost be justifiable to operate on a 17 year old horse? Was I going to cry in front of witnesses?
As my mind was racing, London started couching out mucus and dissolved Sr chow. There was probably a quart of discharge, which fortunately didn't come out of his nose (nose leads to lungs and water in lungs=bad). After that massive discharge i could see him relax, and his eyes became less glazed. He started looking around and was standing more normally... In the end, he resolved the choke himself before the vet even arrived. We still flushed his esophagus and pumped his stomach, just in case and now he's on a course of banamine and antibiotics to keep the inflammation down and suppress any secondary infections such as pneumonia.

And today he was happy as a clam, eating his mush (no solid food for a week) and pouting about his lack of hay. All's well that ends well, right?