Friday, April 21, 2017

Wherein SB Spends ALL the Money (not including tack)

It's been slow on the horse front lately. Two weekends ago, Courage was on a field trip and got a (metaphorical) bee up his (figurative) bonnet. He generally ties like a champion, but he pulled back HARD and SEVERAL TIMES.

And of course, all that had to be like four days post-bodywork by his usual lady.

I gave him a couple days off, then tried riding again.

We mostly went sideways and in a hurry.
carefully cherry-picked nice moment
Apparently, trying to rip one's own head off is not recommended for the body sore horse. But also apparently, the week before leaving town is a FANTASTIC time to hemorrhage money straight into your horse.

We did vaccinations and then a few days later, standard spring "teeth and sheath" funsies.
spent all my booze money on getting him drunk wtf
I had a good chat with the vet about Courage's proclivities and maintenance. He was a model patient, even though his teeny tiny dose of sedation made him too drunk to walk back to his stall and we got stuck in the parking lot for a while.
not actually a joke
The following day, we had another vet out for bodywork stuff. I say "stuff" in the most technical sense of the word which means that I'm not 100% sure what to call what they do, but it does make a huge difference for Courage. What I can say is his normal lady does more muscle manipulation/therapy and couples it with cool high tech tools. This lady is more focused on spinal type stuff. Hard to say. They compliment each other well and I value having multiple eyes on my #wildmustangdressagestallion and hey, always fun to try new things.
ears like this the whole time. watching her and his body.
There used to be this super cool older gentleman who came to our area and while he was a vet with a scientific explanation for everything he did, there was this soothing force field around him that horses really responded to and he made huge differences with simple things. This lady trained with him and Courage responded to her similarly to how I used to see horses act with the older guy.

I have never seen Courage be so calm, relaxed, and focused during an adjustment.
not murdering anyone #winning
She found all the same problems spots that we normally have, plus a few others. We talked about his history, his lifestyle, and the other vet's comments on him. He's been just not... great... in terms of movement lately. I mean, he's not unsound that I can see or feel, but he's not holding adjustments well and he doesn't look as good as I think he should when he's moving freely.

I mean, I was willing to admit it might just be me being hypersensitive, but something isn't quite right. Plus, Courage and I have been doing a lot of simple ground work and not pushing the riding and hard work lately and he's turning back into the horse I remember him being and less of the overreactive lunatic I've seen the past six+ months.

at long last, lady
And because Courage is a horse that doesn't mind the hard work as long as it isn't hurting him... that's something to think about.

Before starting on Courage, chiro vet just just checked him out and all the indicators for pain in his front feet and hocks lit up. After working on him, we talked about a plan of action. I was already tossing around hock injections as an idea because high-mileage 12 year old warhorse. She wants to give him a couple weeks to see where we're at. Some of the adjustments she did are things she only has to do 1-2 times on a horse to see a permanent change.
soft eyes

We also discussed doing front feet xrays to see if they will help my farrier out. She's all "might help see angles/some horses do better with non-standard angles so i dunno" and I'm like BITCH PLEASE IM AN AMMY TAKE MY $$$. So yeah those will be scheduled here shortly.

She also said that he's the type of horse who either does AMAZINGLY well with acupuncture or who will have NOTHING to do with it. Imho, the horse gives zero shits about needles and was fine with her connecting acupressure points with her hands, so he'll be great. Also imho acupuncture is hookum, but I'll gladly shell out for hookum to see what it does for my horse. #adultammystrong
yup
(And now that I think about it, proprioception is something Courage and I both struggle with and logically it actually kind of makes sense to stick needles in shit so you feel it moving.)

Annnnnnd that's where we're at. To me, it's worth it to spend the money to look for answers because dammit. I like this horse.

31 comments:

  1. Ugh, mystery NQR is the WORST. And so expensive. Hopefully something you try helps the poor guy out!!

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    1. I guess I know him well enough that I expect to see him move a certain way. The change is subtle enough that most people don't see it (and I'm not the best at consistently videoing) but I want to see if I can help him out here.

      Cuz dude. I get the pain thing.

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  2. LOL!! Huge word, proprioception!! Accupuncture is awesome, I love it. Just had two sessions with tens stimulation to get my labor going! Bliss!! Make sure you give him a Deepak Chopra meditation to listen to while he hangs out with the needles in ;)

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    1. Yeah I can see him being in to that. I keep saying his ovaries are hurting. ;-)

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  3. I dunno, the acupuncture has been great for Henry.

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    1. That's next on the docket for Courage. Well and X-rays. ALL THE $$$.

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  4. Ashke has been benefiting from both chiro and accupuncture for five years now. He also benefited from the cranio-sacral myofascial release work done on him last month (a lot). IMHO, this shit really works. Especially on sensitive horses. It's pretty wicked to watch them push the needles out of their body when the work is done. Ashke is more honest in his communication with his chiro/accu vet then he is with me.

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    1. I'm glad you've found something that works for you. :-)

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  5. I am super interested in trying acupuncture on Annie. Need to find someone around here that does it though. Hope all the thingzzz $$$ help courage!

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    1. Haha right? I'm so picky about who lays hands on my horse, so I will never use someone unless I've been able to watch them work on a horse I already know. It definitely limits the pool.

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  6. i mean. imo, i like answers. and, lacking answers, i like collecting data. trying things out, seeing what sticks. the alternative view is "why spend money on something when it isn't necessarily going to change the outcome" but... ehh, i don't mind being a little exploratory. also good luck with the injections and stuff. seems like sometimes the horses just need help getting to a good place, and then they can kinda cruise for a little while.

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    1. I'm even ok with just finding out which questions I need to be asking to start looking for the answers and I feel like that's what happened for us. Fingers crossed!

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  7. I want to X-ray my guys before shoeing them too. I've know a couple to have it done and it helps so much. Even if there doesn't seem to be a problems farrier are basically going in blind all the time. Being able to see the angles has to make them move better! Now to shell out the $$ for it 😳

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    1. Yeah it's definitely a good idea. Courage has kinda funky feet but they usually work for him, so I'm interested to see what's inside.

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  8. Ugh, I feel your pain! Spending all the monies on vet stuff is so not fun. But if you think that something is amiss with Mr. Courage, you are probably right. You know him best of all.

    Here's hoping the therapeutic stuff makes it easier for him to sporthorse. :)

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    1. I think my catchphrase for this year is "interesting". Vet stuff isn't traditionally fun but I love learning and I'm certainly doing that. :-)

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  9. I think between me and you, we could support a vet's entire family straight through college.

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  10. I'm having a mild case of PTSD at the thought of hoof xrays. I get the whole, he's fine but he's not perfect so he's not fine thing. Currently trying to suss out that nonsense myself. Who needs money anyway?!

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    1. Is that related to "she seems fine but she's not being enough of a jerk so she's probably not fine?"

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  11. I mean.... at least if you spend all your money this week, you'll leave me things to buy at Rolex? ;)

    In all seriousness, I think it's fantastic that Courage is owned by someone who cares enough to explore ALL the options (literally all of them, money be damned) while figuring out what's going on with his body. Too many horses are owned by people who aren't willing to take the time or spend the money like you have, and I have so much respect for that.

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    1. I mean. It hadn't been that much yet. So don't get too excited.

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  12. I hope that you get some answers so that you can make a plan. I hate the nebulous 'something is not right' thing.

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    1. Yeah. He's such an expressive guy too. Hopefully we can help him out.

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  13. "I'm an ammy, take my money" is definitely right on 😂

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  14. So, just curious - are you thinking of doing any back x-rays on Courage?

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    1. At this point, no. There are a lot of steps to go through before we'd get to that.

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  15. Just did rads on T's front feet because he was sore (again)... a year's worth of hoof $upplement$$ and he's still just over 4mm of sole dept. No Bueno. So he got front shoes courtesy of the hospital farrier. And hock injections too based on flexions (because you can have clean rads and painful hocks, so rads aren't always the best diagnostic tool). And now I have a fancy new horse whose trot I can barely sit. So yeah, throw all the money at all the things and hopefully find something that makes C more comfortable!

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  16. Honestly, I find vet work shopping spree even more fun than tack (probably because I can't justify spending as much on tack as I do on the vet... the whole "broken horse" thing and all. Farrier rads sound like a great idea... if nothing else, it'll give you one less thing to work about!

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