Back on Track... or at least I found another candy

Too long, didn't read(tldr): D-Day for my semester work and Jellybean tries to buck me off

I think my last couple of posts have complained a bit about how busy life has been recently. Luckily, the end is now in sight. I will be done with my major exams right before Thanksgiving, just in time for vacation and the holiday craziness! Then I will probably start setting some kind of goals or something. In the mean time, I have started riding during one of the lessons I teach during the week so I can at least sit on a horse. Jellybean drew the short straw on Thursday.

First, her leg looks awesome. There isn't any major swelling, she is just healing along. She will have a cool scar to talk about at some point.

So I saddled her up and reminded her that she can't back away from the bridle. (Literally we backed around the entire tack up area until she bumped into a fence and she stopped). Clearly we have some lack of continuity. Its only been about 8 weeks since I last sat on her back... and lets be honest, I got bucked off. 

So we go into the big arena during lesson chaos and I get on. Normally she has been pretty eager to move off and start checking things out, but this time she just walked around. I think something about being cooped up in a stall for a month... with no turnout at all. Definitely some muscle atrophy. We eventually pick up a trot and I realize we have no steering. Maybe I general direction... but there is no stopping on a dime. Glad I left in the full check instead of switching to the regular O ring dressage bridle like I considered... 

Anyways, right when I first asked her to trot, she decided she didn't want to, and tried to throw some bucks! I guess she remembered that bucking got her out of work before, and she wanted to rehash. It was pretty half hearted, she was definitely just trying things out. I used the dressage whip and my legs to encourage forward movement, and she remembered she was supposed to move forward. 

So this steering thing is a problem. We will keep working on it as we go along, she is just really out of practice. I have been feeling sad for not working her at all, especially since she will be four in June, and that is high time to start her on her eventing career :)

Jellybean's early release and yet another new home

Welcome back for another installment of fun and adventures concerning three horses we hold so dear.

The good news is that Jellybean has received the news from the parole board that she will be released into the wild again!  Her release from stall life was executed on Sunday Oct. 26, 2014. Her stall door was opened and she was allowed to run into the cutting pen where the rest of her herd, Gracie and Knots, were eager to greet her with bucking and whinnying and lots of running around.  it was a joyous horsey reunion.

It quickly got old though and Amanda and I felt the need to be home. This begs the question of how you convince three crazy horses to cram into one tiny paddock....  FOOD TIME!!!!!

One bucket of food is the magic to getting a horse to behave.  As I carried the grain through the cutting pen they all fell into line behind me.  I felt like the pied piper of horses leading my little troupe to their home.  Dump some grain and horses begin chomping away merrily.  No lock the gate and get out!   Everyone ended the night comfy in their own beds...

Now the fun part.  We had a boarder leave the barn and a paddock not attached to the arena opened up.  So, we uprooted our little family AGAIN!   we are such a military family with all this moving.  Now the ponies live amidst the whinnies and neighs of other horses and get all the love and attention they could ever hope for.


Thanks for reading,

More pictures soonish...   there is a costume contest for halloween.

Cabin fever

Its been well over two weeks now since Jellybean tried to slice her foot off. She's been trapped in the stall, bickering with Panda and doing that weird thing she does with her teeth. She literally opens her mouth and runs her teeth back and forth on the metal bar. So odd. She has only really gotten released when she escaped one morning, and again when she goes to the cross ties for bandage changes.

Speaking of bandage changes, that last bandage was a bear. It would not stay on or up, so we finally just left everything open for the last day or so before the vet came back out to cut the stitches. Unfortunately I didn't really get to talk to the vet, but Jellybean was knocked out when I got there, and I was instructed to "hydro" the wounds until they healed. I thought that word was funny, because I have always called it cold hosing. The more you know...

Anyway. I know you are all here for the pictures, so wait no longer:

 Now we just need to wait until the sores heal so she can return to her friends!

Some more bandage changes and pictures

Its almost time to take out the stitches! Jellybean just has to make it to the end of the week and she will be on her way to the great outdoors (and some turnout) again. Lots more pictures for the next bandage change. The rub was healing, but pretty ugly in the meantime :/ We used less vet wrap with the green horse shoes and much more padding, so as to have less pressure points.

Stitches look good

Another bandage rub :(

The skin is literally falling off here...

That little flap makes everything look worse

And bandaged up

Unfortunately the bandage was not tight enough to prevent it from falling down, which is how I found it one night. Cue another bandage change (3 days later).

The stitches are continuing the improve

This looks better too, albeit still yucky.

 So when we rebandaged this next time, we wanted to leave the back of her knee pretty open. It looks very wet and gross, so we decided to air it out. We were considering limited wrapping at all, but we decided to protect the stitches until the vet comes out at the end of the week. Whew. This is all a lot of work. But this last change happened without sedation, which was good and bad. Good because I know she's not in too much pain, disappointing because it wasn't an option (btw... at $25/go, its not a cost effective solution).

I'm very excited to hear from Dr. Lee on Friday and determine what he thinks about the wounds and how he thinks they are healing. And then Jellybean just has one-two more weeks in the stall before being turned back out in the paddock.

You can stop holding your breath now

I know, you have all been waiting to hear if Jellybean is surviving this nightmare. I finally have a couple of spare minutes to update her adoring fans. The first couple of days were pretty boring, mostly spent in anxious anticipation of the upcoming bandage change. You may not have been reading between the lines very well, so I'll just say it. Jellybean is a sassy red mare. And she doesn't like to tolerate what she doesn't like. You see where I'm going.

The vet school initially said the bandage needed to be changed on Sunday (2 days post stitching). I asked about pushing it back a couple of days until my normal vet (the wonderful Dr. Lee of South 40 Equine) could help/supervise the bandage change, and the attending said sooner, and that it would be best to do it Sunday. Now I'm not made of money. I want my horse to be healthy, but I'm not really willing to pay for a weekend farm call for a bandage. I talked to Dr. Lee, and he suggested if the bandage was in the same place, I should make an appointment early Monday morning. Whew. That was a lot of stress that fell away.

So Monday morning comes, and Dr. Lee starts taking the bandage off. Opinionated mare is very unhappy with this setup, and proceeds to be naughty. Cue the good drugs. Jellybean relaxed in the cross ties and Dr. Lee does his business. I forgot to take pictures the first time we changed the bandage :(. So Dr. Lee gave (haha sold) me a bunch of bandage supplies and most importantly, a sedation drug, Dormosedan. He finished the bandage and remounted the splint, and Jellybean went back to her stall to sleep it off.

The next time the bandage was changed, there were flies sitting on the outside of the vet wrap, indicating extra drainage. So we tried to cut off the bandage. Jellybean was really really really upset about this procedure, even through the fuzz of sedation. As it turns out, we were pushing the scissors into a bandage sore from the splint. Nothing worse then forcing a horse to stand while you are causing them pain :'( We made the executive decision to leave the splint off one bandage change early, in the hope that the rubs could start healing.

I took some pictures:

This is the rub on the back side of the knee

The actual wound is healing really good

Bandage shot!

Stay tuned for another post on further care of this wound!