First off, I'm all signed up (and paid for) two of the most expensive lessons of my life with Ken Borden Jr. I am, however, magnanimously going to hand over that giant check for two wonderful hours of getting my (and Delight's) butt whipped into shape. I know that after 8 months of no lessons that I am in pitiful condition, with all of those bad habits that seem to creep back into a person as soon as the instructor turns their back.
I swear I try hard! My legs are better... But I'm sure that I'm spending half my ride staring into the back of my ponies heads as if they hold the answers to life, the universe and everything.
(Which is 42, BTW)
Anyway, stay tuned for an in depth report of clinic experience. Unless I died, in which case... No more blog.
Reason Numero Dos for next weekend to be exciting:
The ponies are coming home!
That's right. Everyone will now be living at home so that I can watch their shenanigans while sipping my morning coffee and eating my breakfast granola bar.
Of course this means that I won't have access to an indoor anymore and I'll have to find a new workout class that will better fit my schedule, but I'm sure I can handle it.
And now for the bad news... It's been wet as all get out this week. Snow that then melted and was followed by rain. Long story short: horses are back to standing in mud. Of course, RC threw a shoe (which is a blog post in and of its self)... And Tilly has developed an awful case of scratches and now one of her hind legs is all blown up even after careful treatment so its time to up the ante, as they say."Scratches? Isn't that a poor horse problem?!?!" Thank you Courtney for those kind words of sympathy. Really.
As you can see in my blurry cell phone picture (what? It was 30 degrees and I had to hose the mud off her poor swollen leg! My hands were freezing!), poor Tilly's left hind isn't looking so good. I sissored off all of her pony feathers - because I keep forgetting to throw a set of clippers into my truck- so that I could smear her poor pasterns with water resistant triple antibacterial cream
After cold hosing to reduce the swelling, Tillys leg looks a bit better, but I still feel like a terrible horse owner for letting her experience any discomfort whatsoever. The fact that the swelling was so reduced by a few minuted of cold hosing calmed me down. Like any horse owner with the internet or too many books/subscriptions to Equus, i was imagining that poor Tilly had developed cellulitis or was suffering from Lymes disease as well as her scratches. Fortunatly, It looks like I'm just a worry wart.
Whew.
Since the normal thing to do during my stint as a vet tech was to wrap to help reduce swelling and to help keep grime/shavings/poo out of Tilly's sore, I brought a trusty role of off brand vet rap and a few diapers that I had lying in my car (left over from RC's brush with abscesses! Sheesh people....). I do believe that this was Tilly's first experience with bandages or wraps of any sort, based on her reaction to seeing this giant blue thing stuck to her leg (she doesnt know how lucky she is that I didn't choose tie dye). Tilly stood like a champ for me to medicate her scratches sores, wrap her hoof, pastern and leg in diapers then seal everything up with vet wrap - while checking obsessively to make sure that nothing was too tight.
Now, I don't want to toot my own horn here, but I will say that I can do one heck of a good job with a bandage. I take wrapping a limb to an art form. Beautiful, isn't it?
Maybe it was my stint as a vet tech (doubt it) or my time as a working student at a show barn (professional polo wrapper just didn't fit on my resume), but there is something satisfying about nice neat smooth bandage.
Even better news: When I removed her bandage this morning, all of the swelling was gone! I know, I know, it's probably only temporary but I'll take any win I can get. As for Tilly, she went out today, sans bandage but with her water resistant triple antibiotic cream liberally slathered on all four pasterns (better safe than sorry!). Tonight I'll rewrap her - in hot pink vet wrap this time.
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