Tyson

So where is Tyson among all the Star and Zoe updates?  He's been living the good life.  No riding, just brushing, eating and pooping with the occasional visit from the farrier.  His life is good.

I don't think that the lack of riding bothers him a bit.  He's always been on the lazy side but if we didn't take him out to brush him after we were done with Star, he gets really upset.  He wants his attention too!!!

Middle daughter sat on him bareback a month or so ago just for fun.  Naturally, he didn't care.  But that's all we are going to do with him.  He is still quite lame and can't trot at all.  He bobs his head at the walk occasionally as well, so I started him on the same joint supplements as Star.  The head bob is gone now so it must be helping him too. 

Almost every day (I say almost because I admit, there are days where I'm just feeding and running because of family commitments!) I do a thorough walk-around.  Checking his knees, fetlocks, joints and hooves for any signs of soreness or heat.  I noticed this last time that the foot that he hurt really bad this past winter seems to have new growth coming in.  Like maybe he's regenerating some new hoof where it had been torn off???  This is the foot that causes the severe lameness issues so I'm only slightly hopeful that he will keep growing that hoof and maybe someday be somewhat sound again.  One can only hope...

And now to end this post with Mr. Handsome, himself... (that's what I call him, Mr. Handsome.  I think he likes it!)

Until next time!



Quote for the day:
"Don't give up.  Don't lose hope.  Don't sell out."

-Christopher Reeve

Lame

In other news, we are battling lameness with Star again.  I suspected that she had some arthritis starting in one of her hocks but the soreness was coming from the other hock.  I started her on some joint supplements and she seems to be responding very well.  Part of me wonders if she took a bad step out in the pasture because we rode her on a Saturday afternoon and then on Tuesday she was LAME.  Three legged, couldn't trot, LAME.  The other day I went out with her grain and she trotted up to me, without pain so I think we are heading in the right direction.  I haven't tried her in the round pen yet, that's coming soon.  If she's good, we will try riding for a few minutes and go from there.  I don't want to re-injure her so we will take it slow.

Until next time!




Quote for the day:
"Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it."

-George Halas

Boot Camp Update #2

I visited Zoe at the trainer's yesterday...

Guess who's walk-trot-canter now???!!!  It's a REALLY bad picture but I was too excited to think about pictures at the time.

Zoe was soft, had a good headset, giving to the bit and pressure, and overall worked really good!  I was so excited with what I saw!  Let's just say I was very proud of my girl!  The trainer LOVES her big stop.  At one point they were cantering around and she asked to stop and Zoe slammed on her breaks so hard that she slid!  Do we have a reining horse after all?  Time will tell but it's definitely possible!

Until next time!



Quote for the day:
"The best time to make friends is before you need them."

-Ethel Barrymore

Boot Camp Update

I had the chance to visit Zoe at the trainer's last week and let me tell you that she's getting a reminder on what is expected of her!  I thought I had her ground manners under control but this trainer has this mare saying "Yes Ma'am!  Right away Ma'am!" instead of "Oh, ok."

Unfortunately, the trainer had a vacation planned during the first 30 days so Zoe didn't have much done yet.  They have been working on lunging and giving to pressure on the bit, breaking at the poll, bending, and overall obedience.  She's coming along nicely, the trainer likes her a lot!

At the end of the lesson, Zoe got a quick hose down...she really worked hard so she was dripping with sweat!  She will be nice and fit when the trainer is done!!!

I'm going to be visiting her again next week and this time she's going to have me ride one of her reiners to see what I can expect Zoe to be like at the end of the 90 days.  I'm really excited!

Anyways, the trainer said that she fully expects all horses that she is working with to be able to be handled safely on the ground by anyone, kid or adult, beginner or experienced so that's why they are working on ground stuff right now instead of jumping on her and riding right away. I appreciate that.  She's a no-nonsense, knows what she wants trainer and I believe I made the right choice bringing Zoe to her.

Until next time!



Quote for the day:
"There are no original ideas.  There are only original people."
-Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

Preg Check Results

We took Star to the vet and...she's NOT pregnant.  Let me follow that with a long story.  If you choose not to read, at least you have the results and your sleepless nights of wondering if Star was pregnant or not can now be over (only kidding...)!

We made an ultra sound appointment with the vet 21 days after Star's last day of breeding.  Star was a good girl and loaded into the trailer and we were off.  I led her into the stocks and she was almost in when she decided she didn't like the big, black contraption!  We opened the side of the stocks and she walked in that way like a good girl.  The vet came around and "got to work".

Once he had her uterus on the ultrasound screen, I came over for a look.  He said, "Yup, she's about 13 days pregnant."  We told him that wouldn't be possible.  So he looked around and said that we have a couple possible situations:  1. She's not pregnant and has a cyst. 2.  She's pregnant and the fetus is under developed.  If we have situation #2, Star could either abort the fetus herself, the fetus could be absorbed or we could pump Star with hormones for the first 100 days of her pregnancy and hope it helps the foal.  NOT the news we were looking for.

We decided to wait and see if she came back into heat since her next cycle would've been in the next 3 - 5 days.  We kept an eye on her but had a busy weekend so we weren't able to determine if she came into heat.

We made another appointment with the vet a week later to see if the thing we saw had grown.  If it hadn't grown, then it was a cyst.  If it had grown, obviously it was a foal and then we would have to make a decision.

I wasn't able to go to the vet appointment because of work so hubby took Star for me.  I really wanted to go so I made him promise to call before any decisions were made.

He called when the appointment was over because it was determined that Star had a cyst.  The vet said to try breeding her again because he's seen mares with more and larger cysts get pregnant and there's no reason she didn't get pregnant.  So there you have it.  We will try again...this weekend. 

It's getting REALLY late to breed her but I just have to have a foal out of Star before it's too late.  I got a picture sent to me of one of Star's foals (he's the same age as Zoe) and he's beautiful and extremely talented!  The people that own him said he is their dream horse and don't think they will ever own another horse like him in their lifetime!  They pretty much love him.  Which fuels my fire to get another good foal out of Star and reiterates why I want something out of her to keep.

I have more news, but that will have to wait for another post!

Until next time!



Quote for the day:
"Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius."

-Josh Billings