Kirsten's Blog Post # 3

One Step Forward, Three Giant Leaps Back...

So right off the bat I apologize if this comes across as whiny... But you know what?  I think I need to whine a wee little bit.

The Beast Mare herself has been not quite right since November at this point... If we want to be technical she has not really been 110% since a xc schooling accident we had in September.  She is a big girl and any minor injuries she has takes a while to heal.  So she was given time off-off to recover, then slowly brought back into work.  She felt pretty horrid as she had lost so much muscle and strength.  But we worked through it and it was getting better, slowly, but surely.  Our trots got longer, she was bending more, balancing herself back, offering to carry her big self more... Things were looking up!

Then the Beast Mare does something the Beast Mare does and gets herself into trouble.  This time apparently getting her self cast in her stall overnight and DESTROYED her stall.  I'm talking about smashing both water and feed buckets to smithereens and pounding on her stall wall so hard she popped the metal bars out.  Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't hear this as I live at the barn and have woken up on several different occasions for cast horses.  Not that there is a whole lot I could have done... But it still bothers me I wasn't there for her.  

After that we reduced our work under saddle a bit as she seemed very sore (go figure right?) and something just didn't feel quite right... But we kept working and she mostly worked out of this "stabbing" feeling I felt every once and a while.  Then she got herself stuck again... again no signs of colic or anything else, I figured she is just being a brat about being locked in at night and the stalls are not huge for a horse her size.  Again, kept riding, the "stabbing" feeling came more frequently, but again, it went away.  I had a lesson, it was a good to have someone else see her go, but this time the "stabbing" came on from the start... that was new.  But again, we work through it, she gets more supple, and it mostly goes away.... 

And life goes on for another week or so until I notice she's not really working out of it anymore and its more than just an off step here or there.  So vet comes out, she flexes awful, blocks about 70% sound down low, but clean x-rays.  We called it a day at that as it had gotten quite late and now I get to play the fun waiting game of waiting for my vet to really look at her x-rays and re-evaluate her ultrasounds from November and put together a plan.  

This is frustrating for all equestrians, but it is especially frustrating for me.  Ariat has been rock solid over the past 4 years.  Sure she needed to have her hocks done and got a bit foot sore every once in a while, but nothing that had us out of commission for any length of time.  Our "season" was already planned short with just 3 events.  Because of a very good friends wedding and all that goes along with that we already had to nix one of those events and even if she was 110% sound tomorrow I don't see us being ready to go out of the start box for the end of may...

So at this point I am sitting here with a lame horse, no real diagnosis or treatment plan as of this second, no events to look forward to, and an extremely tight budget that really doesn't allow for a ton of diagnostic work or advance treatment plans....  Horses are my passion, but sometimes they also just plain stink!

I know I am not the only one dealing with these issues right now and again on a big picture perspective, is it the end of the world?  Not really... I'm reminded I wasn't planning on competing heavily this summer, that I was going to take it easy to keep the Beast Mare happy and healthy, but that doesn't make this time any easier to deal with.

What the heck am I supposed to do with this free time I don't spend riding, conditioning, competing?  Cleaning, running errands, doing laundry more frequently than once a month (joking... mostly...), finishing my Grad Degree?!  Crazy talk I tell you CRAZY talk!  I'm sure Ariat will come up with some way of keeping me entertained during the next few weeks/months as we figure this out and I'm quite sure her antics will spark more blog posts.

Also a note for all of you equestrians out there with happy sound horses you are competing on... Don't feel guilty about it... Go out there kick on and kick ass so all of us stuck on the sidelines can cheer you on and if you ever need a groom up here in Area I, drop me line!


Update: I've received several e-mails "warning" me not to share so much information about the soundness of Ariat in case she is ever for sale.  Ariat will never be for sale, if she were to leave me it would be on a free lease situation and I will be very upfront about her different issues and quirks.  I have always been honest on this blog as I know from talking with other eventers and riders that they feel the same way and enjoy hearing the truth from someone "just like them".  All riders have their own personal issues and all horses have their own quirks and history.  Not talking about it just makes us all think we are the only ones going through hard times.


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