Sunday, September 27, 2015

bending my vets advice with Sadie

My vet is good and usually if I call him out I follow is advice exactly and I pretty much did for Sadie with the cellulitis to start but I stopped the Tucoprim after 9 doses because it was close and I came home really tired on Tuesday.  Wed I took her wrap off and left it and went to work and returned home to hot and swollen leg so I gave her a differenent oral antibiotic that another vet gave us for CJ for a suspected internal abscess that had made him colicky and CJ went off food on it.

Well the vet left a message to keep on with tucoprim and wrapping but I kept with the other antibiotic, because I figured I wanted to give it for at least a few days to kill of most of the bacteria that would have some resistance to Tucoprim after I stopped it before they were all dead.  I guess since Dad was out or sleeping and they only left a message and I did not give the antibiotic change in my message vet may not have known I had switched ABs and might have confirmed doing that anyway.  Especially since I'm also giving Sadie some probiotics and she is maintaining good appetite. 

Sadie is feeling really good and trotting and cantering around in the wrap so I don't think she has much tendon damage.  I sure hope we can get the cellulitis defeated and I can get the little wild wench back into some work.  She is so chunky.  

Monday, September 21, 2015

Garden of the Gods weekend trip.


Lots of really pretty red rock formations for backgrounds riding at Garden of the Gods.  Lady is not into getting her picture taken nor standing still for DL to take pictures.  

I must file for reference that it is too stressful to take a big trailer into the Garden of the Gods park.  I won't go again unless I'm only towing the smaller bumper pull trailer.   We did get in and out without any crunched metal or tickets though so all is well that ends well.

J canceled on coming so I only had 3 horses to haul and I got to ride Grey Moun myself.  Grey probably would have preferred the 14 yr old with great balance but he handled me fine; he got a bit sore on his left loin so I was not perfectly centered.  

DL and R were great sports when I got a bit lost and had to turn around, and back up etc.   I ended up doing most of the horse care but DL cooked supper so it was much like camping with Sis.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Tanza got his 5th LD completion on Saturday

I keep forgetting to get a new picture scanned or taken so I guess I'll write the post and maybe add a pic later.

I went to the Beaver Meadows Classic ride on the weekend.   I thought I might ride two slow rides but it was a pretty tough ride.   Tanza was actually a bit lame about 2/3rds or so into the first loop.  I pulled him up and led him a ways and then got on and mostly walked; or at least tried to, Tanza did lots of jigging and up and downs wanting to race back to camp or at least to buddies.   I don't know if he was spooked by the mountain setting or what.  He was fine riding him alone at Shamrock although I led him away from base camp because I knew he'd be unhappy to leave his buddies especially w/o any other horse company.   And Sunday at Basin after the first loop he was a bit tired and decided he had no need to keep with the other horses on the second loop.    But he was sure not happy to have me slow him down and lose the group this time.  But we survived and made it back to base camp.  A couple of riders behind us caught up and I let him stay with them rather than have another fight as I was not feeling the lameness as much on the trot anymore although I still thought there was some gait unevenness.

There was a long line at the vet check so he got a lot of rest on  his leg before we got to the vet and she pronounced that she did not "see anything."  I had told her he was off and which leg I thought he was favoring so she would be watching extra close.   So we went on and did the second loop.   I pulled him up from the people I started with when she was trotting through a section of road that I thought was too rocky and again had the anxiety and we have to hurry so it was a wash at best for his legs since he then went prancing in some spots through serious rocky trail sections.  Oh well good mental training overall I guess.   We ended up catching back up to them and I made them do the loop correctly where we almost cut off a big chunk of trail (we blew over a red line but thought it seemed off when we got to trail intersection and had not seen any ribbons so I took out my map and saw what we had done.)  The red line was plain as day when we backtracked, but then the folks with me kept doubting if we were correct even though we had ribbons and paint until the very last little bit.  But we made it back to camp.

We were 30 minutes overtime for a 25 mile ride but I thought the RM might fudge the time or change the ride distance because it certainly felt like the ride was long to me.   Some entrants with GPS showed her where the distance was 28-29 miles so it should have been sanctioned as 30 miles and she made the change.  Love a RM who does not get stubborn if shown that a ride is long and should be changed to the longer distance.   In fact the RM did a great job overall.  They had a huge number of entrants and the treatment vet who was intended to be a 3rd control vet to manage the big crushes at the checks was pulled away treating horses but they had volunteers offering people cold water, lots of hay and beet pulp for the horses as well as volunteers who would hold a horse so riders could have a potty break or grab snacks etc.    I was thinking I would pull and did not get my snacks out; and I know better, but with thinking I'd probably end up pulling while we waited in line plus some plain old DIMR I still whiffed that after all my years of practice.  Oh well I was able to ride the last loop OK and even kept the rookies with me on track after that one instance of riding over the line to block the trail segment we were not supposed to take and that was a less than 1/2 mile detour.

Tanza vetted through fine at completion but no way was I going to go out again after the temporary lameness. Those things usually mean there is still a little something wrong and little somethings that will self heal with a bit of rest can become a serious injury with months of lay-off with a second day of fairly hard riding.   I quit while we were ahead.

I went to ride Sadie Sunday night to see if her leg should be OK for trail-riding next weekend so I can  give Tanza serious rest and she had injured the other front leg.  Stupid little wench.   I thought it was just a minor scrape and bruise of the tendon, grabbed RazzMo to see how he would do.  Razz was fine but I am undecided on taking him or Tanza yet.   Sadie's leg was very hot and swollen Monday.   I called my vet and he was able to come out today.   I guessed right on treatment, had started her on antibiotics and a Furazone wrap and she got a shot of penicillin and a tetanus booster today as well as a new wrap from him and instructions to give the oral antibiotics for 10 days and call to get an ultrasound if the tendon is still tender after we get over this cellulitis skin and soft tissue problem or if the swelling does not go away in few days as it should.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

What a way to go...

Ray Kennedy song from the '80s.  The songs refrain is "women gonna be the death of me but what a way to go"  I remember back when it came out I thought one could substitute horses for women and it would be perfect for me and endurance riders in general.

The song popped into my mind this weekend because I came off of Tanza on Saturday and wrenched my back.  I think he stumbled and then did his Grrrr and deer hopping that he has been doing a bit.  Well this time I got off balance with the stumble and ended up coming off even though it was just deer hopping.   Landed on my back, or at least hit my back on the bank we were next to and wrenched my back pretty good.

But it did not hurt for riding, only for bending over and some twisting movements so I was able do finish the ride and ride again the next day and Tanza did complete both days and it was not too sore driving home either so I guess my playing hooky worked out OK.     Need one more completion on Tanza within the MRER rides and we'll get a little award at the convention this winter.  It is fun to get those so hopefully mr crabby pants completes at least one day this weekend when I take him again.

I have no sympathy for working fairly hard in just a one month period with my back still giving little twinges throughout the day even though I've been taking ibuprofen and rubbing arnica on it every few hours during the day and taking naproxin at night and using heat wraps the last couple days too.   Luckily my every 4 weeks chiro appointment was set for tomorrow and my chiro does a lot of muscle work so I have hope that he can break up the spasms and get me feeling much better.   I'll probably schedule an extra visit for Monday for any needed mop up.

I experimented with two different pad changes after Tanza had dry spots and white hairs after the IKYR ride a few weeks ago.  The Supracor pad in the Skito liner ended up with a bit of soreness in the middle of Tanza's back.  I'll need to do some tapering of edges and trim to have the pad not so close to the horse's spine in the middle of the back but it looks hopeful for using under the treeless saddle for Sadie and as a spare pad for Tanza.

Cutting up the old Skito memory foam and making a shim from the front part to use with his Skito pad seems to have worked quite well.   The vet dinged him one point for withers on his BC score but I didn't see or feel any problem,  I think it was residual from the IKYR.  

Tanza also told me that the old CMC I was mixing with electrolytes is not cutting the potassium salt bite.   I was not happy with his stubborn redhead self but then if he had not been protesting I would not have considered and realized that yes I need to toss that old bottle that had separated and find a better way.   Sadie just figured I'm mean and took the stuff but Tanza gets stubborn if he thinks something is unpleasant.    I bought some banana baby food which has worked good to cut electrolyte tang for me in the past.  I may just give Tanza a little electrolytes in his food this weekend though so I don't have to get some plain applesauce or molasses into him a few times to get him over thinking stuff in the syringe is nasty while my back is whinging.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

gulp, someone really does want to start a race war

Investigating another Texas cop's homicide.   This one killed in his home*.  Hopefully the good folks of Texas have worked with each other long and well enough to resist such provocations.  But if very much feels to me like if the Sheriff Clarks (WI) are not able to shut down the thugs and string pullers trying to start up a race war soon the string pullers may get their evil wish and the thugs will become the 21st century equivalent of cannon fodder.   *killed in his home may mean it was cupidity and he just happens to have been a cop.   I hope it was in this case and the truth comes out quickly, times are scary enough with China's economy staggering, our own still not doing well -- I think (because I now read media reports and government stats that say things are ok, or better than last year, or whatever and think "lies, its all lies from you lying liars")


 To all the idiots who refused to publish or re-publish all the accounts of what sleaze ball Barry did before he ran for president and the ones who learned some of it and voted for him anyway to advance racial healing -- you stupid idiots have hurt us all, and reflexively giving him a pass on his horrible moral character was and is the exact opposite of MLKs dream.   Shame on you for being closet racists -- except here I am now remembering the alternatives.  Hillary of the crime family,  Edwards.  And then R primary voters letting themselves be tricked into voting for "the maverick" because it was the only way to counter Bush hatred even though the experienced voices were warning against that, and myself who had no clue back in that primary season and did not even switch to a party affiliation in time to vote in that caucus/primary, and truth be told if I had I was one of the suckers who had fallen for the maverick bullshit as an R leaner.

lazy weekend. rode Tanza and did errands today so will be a late day

I felt like I could barely cope with the heat this weekend.   Even if I didn't have the crowd phobia I'd have to forget about ever trying Tevis because the heat would knock me for a loop.   Luckily Big Horn can have some heat but is more likely to have some cold at start/end and just have to be thinking and take off the extra clothes before overheating so if I get myself and Tanza fit for riding the distance hot temps are not too likely to take us out.

I'm thinking I may play hooky to go to a ride I had originally planned on skipping this weekend.  I'd talk myself out of it if the end of Sept ride had not been canceled but since it was canceled maybe I should be talking myself into having a seize the day outlook.