The Actual Last Ultrasound (Though Probably Not)

Surprise! On Friday, TC got a recheck ultrasound. I dunno why I didn't share this, I just felt like I was jinxing it for some reason (I swear I'm a researcher/data analyst and do not believe in stuff like that, but let's be honest, horses cause all rational thought and good judgement to escape from my brain).

At his last ultrasound (side note, he looks SO SKINNY in those pictures, it's only been three months and he's positively exploded with muscle), my vet had not thought that this ultrasound would be necessary. If you remember, he said that if TC was sound in full work after three months of undersaddle rehab (so October 7th), TC was then cleared to be turned out and trail ridden. He said we would only do another ultrasound if I wanted to jump him, which I do not.

But I'm the sort of person who would rather pay for an ultrasound now than pay for surgery on his leg if I turn him out before he's ready (um aren't we all that sort of person?), I emailed my vet and asked him a bunch of questions (when can I turn him out? when can he live in a larger paddock? when can I let him walk up and down hills?), and he also agreed that another ultrasound would give us the answers.

Look at this happy horse! He's uh still working on his six pack

Luckily my vet was able to come down to my barn on Friday morning. I couldn't be there since I can't take too many days off (I already have to take one for my brother's wedding and one for my thesis defense, which is in just over a WEEK and I'm freaking out, prepare for some hastily written posts), but I sent along a million questions and got a report back.

The vet had TC trot in a straight line on hard ground, circles both directions on hard ground, and then he had him longed in the round pen. TC was perfectly sound in all places! That alone was a relief. Sometimes TC feels lame on that leg for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, he feels lame because I AM CRAZY and make it up in my head. He also doesn't like to use his left hind as much as his right so it throws him into the right rein, which he then nods on and off of when he isn't through.

After that, they set up for the ultrasound. And it went GREAT! Like way way way better than expected.

Most of turnout is going to be him scrounging for food

Let's revisit the two issues we had been facing since I know there are some new people catching up and also I forgot:

1) TC's initial injury was that he fell in his paddock because he was climbing. He yanked the suspensory ligament out of the origin site on the medial side. He took some bone with it and by the fourth ultrasound (last time), it was pretty much as healed as my vet thought it would be. It still looked a bit rough but it was hard and doing well.

2) TC's suspensory was threatening to adhere itself to the splint bone. By the last ultrasound, it was staying about the same. It was there, it was organized, but the suspensory didn't show any issue with having it tug on it (our biggest fear- that the adherence would yank at the suspensory, causing the suspensory to swell, and there is almost no room for it to swell, so bad things).

Rolling is the best!

I'm happy to report that TC's bone is fully healed! Like better than we expected! It looks normal and the insertion point is totally strong and perfect again. I'm STOKED for this.

I'm HAPPIER to report that not only does it look like TC's suspensory isn't being bothered by the adherence, the adherence is becoming less organized! I got excited thinking that it was disintegrating, but I think he means that it's just not tight. We need it to remain looser than the suspensory so that they don't tug on each other. But my vet says that if this is full work for TC (it is), then we should be good to go with that adherence.

The happiest horse

What does this mean? TURNOUT. TC has been cleared for turnout in the 24x24 paddocks! I'm going to go get some no climb after this storm and have the guys put it up, meaning that TC will get an assigned turnout that only he goes in. I'm very nervous that they will put him in the wrong turnout, so I'm thinking about how to make that guaranteed.

TC has also been cleared to jump. Uh. Okay. I don't know if I'll feel comfortable jumping him until at least next year. But it's good to know that the vet thinks that his leg will hold up to jumping. I mean it should given how much he's been bucking lately.

I'm also allowed to trot and canter on hard ground and go on trail rides without too many hills. He can climb small hills, but we have some pretty steep trails around here so he can't go on those. I don't think we'll be trail riding until at least next year just because of the weather. And the stronger he is, the better, so the longer I hold out from trail rides and jumping, the better.

In spring, TC can have a large paddock to live in. I'm really excited for this. My vet said that if it was coming into summer now, he'd be good to go in one of those, but that he's worried about it being muddy/slick and TC slipping. This way I'll have the next year to get him really strong so that when/if he does play in his paddock, he's strong enough to do so. Now that it's storming, I'm getting a good look at how the paddocks hold up so I'll have a good idea which one I want!

He's such a weird looking horse

So that's that! Fingers crossed things continue to go well with this injury, but I'm really glad to have another look at the suspensory now that he's in what I consider full work. I might do another one in spring before I put him in the large paddock or maybe in the summer before we start passage training, but we'll see. For now, I'm just glad my horse is sound!

Or was, on Friday. Since yesterday I came out to find all four legs super puffy. He was sound and it went down with riding, so I think it was just from standing inside while it rained. He was totally dry and it had been raining all night and all day. His water is outside so I hung him a bucket inside and now I'm hoping he's not colicking.

Horses are fun!

Exceeding Expectations

I'm happy to report that the baby horse stepped of the trailer yesterday at his new home and I was SO glad to see him.  

Making friends! 

Hi pony!

TC was scheduled to come in around 8 so I was planning on leaving the house at 7. I get a text at 6:30 moving the time to 7:30 so I quickly zipped over to the barn, only to get a call as I was turning onto the road the barn was on saying that they were there, damn! Apparently to get to the barn by 7:15, their day started at 3:30. I'm glad that's not my job. They had five other horses going to the vet hospital about 1-2 hours south of the barn and their appointment was at 9 or 9:30. So we got an early start and I was glad for that.

TC unloaded super well and then spooked hard. The owner of the rehab center led him into his stall for me. He really didn't do much other than spook a few times and passage next to us when two horses went nuts in their paddocks right next to him. I thought that was pretty good!

Oooo a friend

So glad to have this face home

Once as the trailer left, I hung out with TC in his stall. He seemed super stoked about having a paddock, though didn't think much of his water trough. He lapped the water like a dog (wtf) and kept dragging his lips over the wire. His neighbor on one side (the other side is empty) is another young baby horse also there for brain installation so they reached over to touch noses. I like these stalls because the horses can reach out to touch noses but can't play very easily over the railing.

TC seemed SUPER happy to be there, but not all that interested in me at first. Oh well. I gave him some cookies and made sure he got food for breakfast.

After making sure he'd be okay, I ran some errands. I had thought I sent him with a pan for his food, but they didn't give me one and I also thought that he still had a salt lick, so both were picked up at the tack store up the road. I also got myself some breakfast since I had run out of the house that morning.

Weird

No more pawing his food!

Back at the barn, it was nice and warm. I hadn't wanted to try anything with him until the fog burned off, setting ourselves up for success, you know.  My goal for the day was to keep absolutely no pressure on either of us. If we sat in the stall all day, we sat in the stall all day.

So we started in the stall with some work on the ground. He was super good and seemed so happy to have something to do. The horse loves to be told what he should do.

I grabbed my groundwork weapon stick, his sports medicine boots, and the rope halter and cautiously led him over to the cross ties. He was fine. He snorted at a trash can so we looked at that for a second, but it was generally uneventful.

Finally got the fly mask on

We spent a while in the cross ties, which he hasn't been in since December. I was answering the phone a lot, talking to recruiters, clients, and my mom, who wanted to know what was going on. TC would very carefully paw whenever I wasn't paying attention to him. When I was paying attention to him, he looked at me the way Tormund looked at Brienne. I felt like his pet, or maybe his own personal entertainer. He was so excited to have me doing anything with him, even pulling the shit out of his mane.

I mostly used the solo comb (and wore out the blade), but did thin it a bit with the pulling comb. He was fine but I didn't want to push it. I got it short enough but over the week and weekend I'll be trying to thin it out a bit more. It's so poofy!

He was super good about a few things that he used to be terrible about. First, he doesn't yank his feet out of your hands anymore. Woohoo! Second, he seems a LOT less attached to other horses. I think 7.5 months in a box stall where he had no direct contact with other horses did that. He only whinnied at another horse twice and didn't care about horses coming near him and then walking away. Third, he doesn't paw nearly as much as he used to. He still does, but it's not the crazy pounding it once was. Apparently he also doesn't paw in the trailer anymore since he had to be on it all day whenever he had a vet check. Progress!!

Before

After!

After getting his mane under control, we went on a walk. My goal was just to go as far as we could without being stupid, then turn around and come back to the cross ties. If that's all we did, great.

We wandered out toward the round pen first since he had been ridden in there a lot the last time he was at the barn and he had already been led by it on the way in from the trailer. He was fine. He wanted to walk on top of me and did spook hard at nothing once, but other than that it was no problem. Once as we did some ground work though, both of those behaviors stopped. He was fine walking out to the round pen, so we did some work in there. Just turns on the forehand and reining back. He is SO good at his ground work and so in tune with me. I just love it.

After being in there for about five minutes, we wandered back to the cross ties and then out to the covered arena. I really want that to be a safe place for him and it was completely open so we headed in. We did more ground work and looked at the mirrors. He was totally fine. I had a moment where a car passed us and I wondered if he was going to lose it. Not sure why he would, but still. I just put him to work and it was fine. I gotta trust him a bit more!

He's so cute!

Cones are fun!

We went back to the cross ties and he stood with one foot rested, just watching everything. He was so good in hand that I decided to keep going! I went out to the tack locker and got his saddle and bridle. I also grabbed longeing and riding stuff just in case. No pressure, but I wanted to be prepared.

The saddle surprisingly fits him quite well! I'm not sure if we'll even need to have the fitter do much to it. I played around with the balance, I'd rather it toss me in the back seat than the front. The bridle obviously still fits, and I got to put his bridle tag on it! He accepted the bit easily and I kicked myself for forgetting sugar. He got a cookie instead. No need to worry about him.

He stood there fine while I was messing with him. I banged the stirrups around on him and fixed the pad. With him being so good, I put side reins on the saddle, grabbed a longe line and my helmet/back brace and off we went to the round pen!

Tack fits!

Once again I just wanted to see what he did. If we just walked in a circle, great! If we actually longed, even better! Side note here: I was super proud of myself for putting zero pressure on us, that's very unlike me.

We started by leading around the outside of the round pen doing ground work because someone was riding inside. When they left, we did some ground work inside the round pen too. Longeing went well, I had him walk for a while, working on the whoa aid since I want him to think that we do a lot of stopping and turning in on the longe line just in case.

He was totally fine so I asked him to trot. And he exploded. But only a little. He mostly really wanted to put his head on the ground and shake it. Then he'd just porpoise. I sort of made a bad decision at that point. If he hadn't been on rehab I would have smacked him forward, but I halted him. Then we tried again. He got better and better with each transition and was eventually fine trotting each way. But looking back I probably should have just pushed him forward, he was just excited.

I put his outside side rein on and he was even better! The inside one came on shortly after and we did a lot more trotting in each direction. Only once did we have head shaking and bronc bucking but I sent him forward that time and it was much better. I'm so worried both on him and off that if I send him forward, things will get worse, but with the side reins giving him a place to go, it got so much better.

A little lazy but so fancy

If he was any more over his back he'd be a fucking beach ball

Just a bit of sass

After trotting I just really really wanted to sit on him. But I knew better. Hah. No I didn't. So I put my stirrups up (forgetting that Emma was the last one to sit in the saddle and we had to raise them a couple holes woops) and brought him over to the mounting block.

He stood fine as I banged the stirrups around again, leaned over him, and shifted the saddle around a bit. I just wanted to make sure that none of that was going to result in a problem before I jumped on him. Nothing phased him. I got on. That was fine. He stood for me to take a behind the ears picture. And then off we were in walk.

My first thoughts were these:

OMG I AM RIDING MY PONY
Hmmm no one is here to scrape me off the ground
Is he going to kill me?
I guess not
Damn he's lazy
I should have worn spurs
I want my whip
Ugh he's over bending
Ugh I'm nagging with my leg
Damn these stirrups are short, need to fix them
Okay that's better
Probably shouldn't have dropped the reins when fixing them
Ugh he is SO LAZY 

The fact that those were my first thoughts shows you how good he was! He was super behind my leg, a bit short in the neck, and kept popping his shoulder, but there were absolutely no incidents. None. Even though a horse across the property (we could see them) was rearing in hand and the horses in turnout next to us were moving around. We did some figure-8s and I nagged him the whole time, trying to remember to sit in the back seat. Whatever. I can fix all that later.

I got annoyed that he was so lazy that I asked him to trot. He immediately threw his head down, shook it, and did one bronc buck before I stopped him. I asked again and he just shook his head and then trotted the world's smallest trot. I smacked him with the end of the reins (who the fuck am I?) and we got a half circle of trotting in before I decided not to push it anymore.

YESSSS

But the day was perfect. He walked quietly back to the cross ties, stood quietly while I sat on the mounting block posting on instagram, and stayed relaxed while I untacked him. He even went into the wash rack and got a little hose down. No pawing, no obnoxious behavior, barely a spook in him. Just quiet, relaxing, super fun baby horse!

I couldn't have asked for a better first day. Fingers crossed today goes well, it's our first lesson with BRH trainer and I'm hoping for me to get him more forward without bucks and maybe for him to pop on to walk the pony around the ranch a bit.

But we're in no hurry. So happy to have him back!!

Coming Home

Today is the day that TC comes home. I can't believe I just wrote those words. I'm beyond excited to have him back with me but I know that the battle has not been won just yet. We have more rehabilitation to do and a long road ahead to full recovery, but I'm so happy to be taking this next step. I get to go see my horse every day now.

Big shout out to everyone who stuck with this blog in the last six months, it's been so incredibly boring I just can't stand it. Hopefully it will get more interesting as I can finally write about my favorite little baby horse. It's going to be tough to not write about EVERY ride since I've basically been writing a post any time my butt got near a horse.

This was taken on the worst day 

Just to reflect on all that we've been through, here is a short recap:

December 7th- Initial injury, in the blog post I mention a swelling on his right suspensory area but it seems so small and insignificant, it had been raining so much that I thought (and literally everyone I talked to, including my farrier) it was an abscess
December 11th- TC was totally sound, farrier had poked around and said that the abscess probably released inside and it would show up in a few weeks as it grew out
December 14th- I rode TC and he came up lame again, more soaking ensued and I started to wonder
December 15th- TC shows up with a weird swelling on his leg and is super lame again
December 16th- Initial vet visit with initial ultrasound (not with my vet), the vet finds that his suspensory has been torn in two places and I freak out a lot
December 17th- TC moves to my parents' ranch for rehab
December 18th- TC jumps out of his paddock at the ranch and is shunned to a box stall
December 21st- TC gets his first ultrasound with my vet, who deems it not as bad as we initially thought, but still a fairly serious injury
December 23rd- TC leaves for rehabilitation at the best place I can find in the area
January 28th- TC starts the aquapacer and is immediately an asshole about it
February 8th- TC starts swimming rather than doing the aquapacer
February 23rd- TC gets his second ultrasound after 60 days of rehab
April 15th- I get to watch TC swim for the first time!
April 26th- TC gets his third ultrasound (120 days of rehab) and my vet wants him to stay at rehab for another 60 days, but he gets to trot on the eurociser!
June 10th- I get to watch TC swim for the second time!
June 18th- I visit TC for the last time
June 28th- TC gets his fourth ultrasound (180 days of rehab)
July 6th- TC COMES HOME, THAT'S TODAY


Looking back at December, obviously I feel a lot of regret, frustration, pain, etc. I've gone through times where I've convinced myself that had I not tried to ride after that one initial day that he came up NQR, I would have not had to wait all these months because TC wouldn't have been hurt so badly.

And yah, I feel like that sometimes because it's probably true. I've really let myself have it. But thinking that way is not good for anyone. It doesn't stop what happened from happening. I can't go back in time. All I can do is my best, and I feel like, given the information I had at the time, I gave it my all. I sacrificed a lot the last six months to keep TC at that rehab center. And I'm sacrificing a lot now as I've turned down two jobs that won't work with the location that I want TC to be in because of the facility/trainers I need him to be with. He will continue to get the best of the best care and I will sacrifice whatever it takes to keep him going.

One day, a long time from now, I will see this view again and it
will be marvelous

I can't make myself feel bad for a couple days where I lacked the foresight to call the vet when he was showing every sign of an abscess and no signs of the severe injury lurking inside his leg. I can't make myself feel bad for how long it took or how far away he was or even go down the rabbit hole of why did I take that horrible job in the first place and move him out of his comfortable pasture to a place with no trainer. No, stop. Yah it sucks. It's been over six months since I've had my horse home with me, but all I want to focus on now is the future.

I'm so excited for TC to come home.
I'm so excited to be at the barn I want to be at.
I'm so excited to work with the trainers that I know and love again.
I'm so excited for TC to be in training this month.

And I'm so excited to ride TC, finally. Tomorrow. Unless he bucks BRH trainer off, then maybe not. 

The Last Ultrasound

Yesterday was TC's fourth and last ultrasound, at least for now, in this terrible series of events. Yes, LAST ULTRASOUND for at least 90 days depending on his soundness blah blah blah. But LAST ULTRASOUND was all I heard.

Hi mom, I would talk to you but you forgot
carrots and there's a fan moving slowly

If you remember from our third (and second) ultrasound, the main issues we were facing were twofold.

First, the horse had yanked the suspensory out of the origin site enough where he took some bone with him. To fix this, after the second ultrasound, TC was put on a supplement by Platinum Performance called Osteon, as well as given an Osphos injection. Both are used to increase bone density and we hoped that it would help this site. At the third ultrasound, not much had changed. It wasn't getting worse but it wasn't getting better necessarily.

Second, the suspensory had tried to adhere itself to the splint bone. This was our biggest fear initially, since when this happens, IF the adherence is tighter than the suspensory itself, then as the suspensory stretches, it will become irritated. This puts us in chronic suspensory land and effectively ends TC's riding career unless I wanted to do surgery. I felt wishy washy about the surgery, but at the second and third ultrasounds, my vet felt like this wasn't going to be as much of an issue. But we weren't sure how it would react to trotting. This ultrasound is to look at how both of those issues responded to more work.

Still kind of derpy, but much fitter

Now TC is trotting 15 minutes and has been sound as far as the people at the rehab center could tell. He is only trotted on soft ground in the eurociser so it's not like minor lamenesses are obvious. The goal at this last ultrasound was for it to be the last ultrasound, for him to be given the okay to start undersaddle work, and more importantly, to come home. A lot was riding on this ultrasound.

Because of the heat, I got up early and rode a horse, then taught a lesson before the ultrasound. I shouldn't do this. Much like the last three ultrasounds where I worked from home and then went to see him, I basically was worthless at doing my job. Luckily teaching and riding come more naturally, so both horse and rider didn't get shafted. I just couldn't tell you what they worked on. My brain was just like "pleaselethimbeokay INSIDE LEG PUSH HIM OVER pleaselethimbesound OUTSIDE REIN MORE CONNECTION pleaselethimcomehome THAT CIRCLE HAS CANCER FIX IT NOW pleaselethimbeokay."

Around 10:15 I was finally on the road to the vet office. I had put my lesson earlier than necessary since every time I'm on time, they're early. And last time I got to hang out with TC in the stall beforehand, which made me happy.

He was a little sassy on the longe line

Interested in everything but staying quiet

This time I beat them there. It ended up not being too bad because I got to see TC come off the trailer. I expected him to be kind of explosive coming off- he was not. He arrived with another horse. I expected him to be attached to that horse and scream for the horse when it left- he was fine. A horse had been put down so was covered with a tarp right near the stalls. I expected him to be spooky and nervous about that horse- he was not.

He was so quiet and relaxed. I led him to the stall and he just sort of hung out. No screaming, no pacing, no throwing himself around. Just so chill about everything. I was much less chill. I'm normally the chill one!

When they went to longe him, he just quietly trotted around. Sometimes he would shake his head, but nothing like the explosions from last time. Nope, just quiet baby horse with a couple moments of head shaking. What? Craziness.

He was completely sound- both fetlocks dropping really well. I did get a nice lecture from the vet, and I now have a farrier. Rico's farrier. Because TC needs shoes with plastic pads (pads in the summer only). He basically isn't growing any heel and his coffin bones are RIGHT next to the ground. I'd rather lose the one and a half lessons a month in farrier fees than not be able to sell the horse in the future because he has no feet. Yay for expensive shoes, ugh.

Dude 

The ultrasound was really good too! Even though TC has been in a LOT more work than he was, his leg is still improving!

The bone issues are completely resolved. No more Osteon (phew, so expensive) and no additional Osphos injection needed (phew, SO expensive).  The ultrasound did show what my vet called a "hidden splint," which means that his cannon bone has a bump on it under the suspensory. It's smooth and doesn't get in the way, but it just means that there is less room in there for the suspensory to swell if it gets irritated. I don't mind that, because if it does get irritated, I want to know!

The adherence is still there, though it's very small (one square centimeter or so) and doesn't seem to be bothering him at all. My vet says that if the adherence is loose enough where it never yanks at the suspensory, it won't cause problems. If it does yank at the suspensory, we need to catch it soon and do surgery to remove the splint bone and clean the adherence up.  Of the horses who had this same problem, only the jumpers have needed surgery because they land on their feet a lot harder off of the big jumps than the prancy dressage horses. Dressage horses really don't get as much wear and tear on the front legs, although both of my dumb horses having ST injuries in front hardly proves that.

Can I ride it yet?

Starting to get sleepy

So we aren't out of the woods on that adherence yet. We have 90 days to have TC in full work undersaddle and then if he's sound and okay by then, my vet says that it'd be very unlikely that we would need surgery after that. So on October 6th, we're officially back.

The best news out of all of this was that TC does get to come home!!! One week from today I'll have the baby horse back in my life full time, and I am so excited about that! But still very nervous about the 90 days. I'm trying to take an it-is-what-it-is approach and just enjoy him and whatever happens happens.

Obviously hearing that he could come home made me ask lots of questions, here is a bullet point list about what information I got:

• TC can canter! My vet wants him in a very collected canter to keep him off his forehand,. Upon hearing this, I laughed at him. The horse has no collected canter, he has no working canter, we have a frantic run sort of thing? So I am going to push his cantering out a few weeks so I can work on the collected trot first.  
• TC is okay to go into his paddock, my vet said to keep an eye on him and put him in a box stall if he gets silly. I think he'll be quieter to ride if he's out so hopefully he stays quiet in the stall and paddock. 
• No turnout until after the 90 day waiting period.
• No trail riding at all until after the 90 day waiting period.
• No real trail riding (hills) until next year, and always be careful about walking downhill.
• No jumping until next year, but small cavallettis to get him picking up his feet are fine after the 90 days. 
• Keep him fit so he doesn't get tired and drop his fetlock. 
• Put him in Sports Medicine Boots and tack on a piece of plastic over his suspensory. This means I can return the boots I got from Dover (glad I didn't put him in them). I'm not sure how to make a strike guard, but I will figure it out. 

I also asked about the future. My concern is that he will not be okay to do the extended trot or the passage, since both of those are hard on the tendons. It was something that made me so nervous with Rico. But my vet said that by the time he's ready training-wise to do those things, his leg should be totally fine. Like, it's literally just these 90 days and then I can consider him completely healed and okay to do anything. He said maybe not jumping 4' or galloping on the hills, but I knew he wasn't going to be an event horse at the vet check because of his feet anyway.

So yay! Grand Prix is still tentatively in his future, though obviously unlikely for other reasons. At least (hopefully) his physical health won't be what keeps us from that level. It's likely going to be his natural talent, his rider's lack of natural talent, and logistics that keep us from the level :) which I'm totally fine with.

I don't care if he bucks me off if I can feel this trot first

I'm cautiously excited. I won't feel capable of relaxing until the beginning of October, if at all, and I'm already diverting money into an account for his surgery and am prepared to send him back to rehab this winter (the fact that I'm doing this should tell you how fucking quiet the horse is being because there was a time where he was nutty enough for me to have not chosen to do the surgery). BUT I'm trying to just focus on being excited about riding him while preparing myself financially for the worst. It can't hurt because I mean if he doesn't need surgery, I can buy a saddle I will have a bigger emergency fund. I'm also going to insure him, but the insurance very likely won't cover the surgery.

One more week to wait and then I get to have that baby horse home and attack the hell out of his mane and pathetic feathers. Oh, and RIDE him. And now, making a shopping list for my tack locker, I called my dad and he has an amazing idea to get it working for me! So excited to have my pony back!!

Wishing and Hoping

Today is what we hope will be TC's LAST ULTRASOUND in this awful suspensory saga. I'll be selling tickets to the musical soon to help pay off all his medical expenses.

By the time this post goes out, I'll already be getting off my first horse of the day and probably on the way to teach before the vet appointment starts at 11. It's been in the 100s so I just couldn't stand doing the vet check and then going to teach/ride. After this all I have to do is go get some delicious tea and find some air conditioning to enjoy.

A collection of my favorite pictures from rehab and ultrasounds

Resting a foot!!!

Yesterday I stopped in at my new barn to talk to BRH trainer at the request of the barn owner. I had emailed her to touch base and she said all was good, but that she wasn't sure why he needed 8 flakes of hay. Apparently the website is not up to date and they feed 4 flakes already, so double feed would be completely excessive. That's awesome! That's almost a lesson a month I'm saving.

BRH trainer was in charge of finding a stall and dealing with my crazy now that he's going to officially be my trainer. I have a trainer and will be *in training* with someone. Cool! I'm excited. I love that the pressure will be off me to deal with issues and make decisions. I know that I'm fully capable of getting through this by myself, but man it's sometimes just really nice to follow a program and turn my trainer brain off and fully enjoy my horse. Definitely less stressful.

I got there and he was working with one of my previous trainers' young horses (a lot of people send their super fancy horses to him, TC will not be the nicest horse he works with by far lol). She's two years old and just amazing. He said that she has these amazing gaits, especially when she's being bad. I only saw her walking but man she's built for dressage.

So cute!

GIMME SNAX

He showed me the stalls (12x36 paddock with 12x12 of it covered/matted) available and there was one available in the row I wanted! We talked about getting a load of blue rock in to even out the paddock a bit so there isn't such a big drop off of the stall into the paddock. That's prime for reinjury so I was glad that he brought it up so I didn't have to be a crazy person. And I went by the hardware store nearby to get no climb wire to prevent the dumb baby horse from injuring himself again. He said that if I provided it, he would have the guys put it up! That's really helpful.

I also have a tack locker! The plan is to put my trunk outside his stall so that it can hold blankets and his grain (I'm going to bag up grain each week so that the guys can feed him) and probably a few brushes/fly spray and things I might want near the stall. The tack locker is next to a set of cross ties near the covered arena, which is going to be super convenient in the winter. It's small, and actually there is a slightly bigger one next to it that might be open and I might request that one. But either way it will be fine, I have a place at the ranch to store stuff that I don't need and I can always get another trunk or something for in front of his stall.

The only downside in my mind is that I'm going to have to be creative about hanging things on the wall- I'd love a set of shelves, a bridle rack, and a saddle rack all on the walls to leave room on the ground for a few things, but the entire locker is plastic so nailing into it probably won't be an option. I'll be searching online for how to make it work for me. At the very least I want to be able to hang his bridle and longeing stuff so that will be the first thing I look into.

IS THIS SMILING?

The best at selfies

We also chatted about what to do with TC. I said I wanted him in full training for July (so basically 3 weeks) and then we'd reevaluate. Honestly we'll probably back off to half training or even just working together once or twice a week to address the minor issues he's had. It's all going to depend on how TC is. I can see it going a lot of different directions- he might find the riding work so much more interesting than swimming/endlessly circling that he calms down and focuses better. Or he might think FINALLY I AM FREE and be crazy. It's likely to be a little of both.

Our main goal is to get TC comfortable being ridden all over the ranch and in all the arenas. I'm not actually worried about riding him around the ranch. At our previous barn I would regularly hop on him bareback in the rope halter and ride him up to turnout, even after a day or two off, and then he'd explode only when he was let loose. The horse is good in the open at the walk. It's when you open the door for trotting/cantering, he thinks he can get sassy.

Then I talked to him briefly about him helping me with trail riding- me on Rico and him on TC for the first ride- but that it probably wouldn't happen until next year.

Our first lesson is scheduled for next Thursday (THAT IS SO SOON), as he's leaving on vacation and returning the same day that TC comes in, so I'll be handling TC on the first day. If he's quiet we'll walk around but if he's nutty, we'll just hang out in the paddock.

Love his little hippo face

Loves getting his lips brushed

Overall I was just SO happy to be at my barn. The familiar drive, meeting new people and seeing old friends, and just imagining going through the trail course and riding in the covered arena with mirrors and playing in the dressage court. I just love the place! It is definitely going to make a HUGE difference to be able to have the facility I need, the trainers I need with both BRH trainer and Tracey coming into the place, and the location I need. Even if I had to force the situation a little bit with my job. Worth it.

I'm also SO happy that the ultrasound is TODAY, I feel like I can't wait any longer. I have a lot of hopes and expectations for this visit. And I am a bit worried, obviously. But the worst case scenarios aren't so bad anymore.

The absolute worst case scenario (other than suddenly needing surgery, which seems unlikely but is still entirely possible) is that he needs another month or two of rehab and another ultrasound. That puts us into the fall for him coming back and that makes me nervous. The second worst case scenario is that he comes home and needs another ultrasound before he canters. I really really want this to be the last ultrasound. But another ultrasound is only money, money I will have to scrimp and save up, but it's only money.

Luckily he has been pretty sound and the leg has stayed tight. An obsessively detail oriented person who stares at horse legs all day could see that there's a difference between the two legs, but just glancing at it, you can't tell that there's anything wrong. Like I've said in the past, I don't give two shits whether his legs look terrible, I just want him sound and able to work.

Traumatized

I want that hock flexion undersaddle omg

The best case scenario is that his leg looks great and that he could come home and be ready to canter or increase trotting to 20-30 minutes right away. That's unlikely to happen. I'm guessing that we're going to be trotting undersaddle a bit less than he was doing on the walker just because there's more weight on him with a rider. Then we'll work back up to 15 minutes and then to 20 and eventually 30 maybe. I considered Rico in full work when we were doing 30 minutes of trot and 20 minutes of canter, though that seems excessive for the baby horse. Like, I don't want him capable of cantering that long.

As much as I'd love to get the okay to canter right away, I'm not banking on it. In all honesty, he will need a lot of work in trot training-wise to get him ready to canter even without taking into account the injury. With no dressage under his belt in eight months, we're going to be hanging out in walk and trot a lot to reestablish the connection/throughness and get him moving off my leg well. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't canter until this fall just from a training standpoint. Although with his tendency to bolt, it'd be nice to start cantering in September at the latest just because of the winter.

His face kills me

Omg eight days before I get to sit on that amazing trot

So please cross everything you can and even some of the bits you really shouldn't. Today I'm really hoping to hear that my pony can come home next week.

I'm also just excited to see him, it's been a couple of weeks now!

A Date and a List

Yesterday I touched base with the people at the rehab center and we made a date for TC's last ultrasound and a date for when TC comes home (pending ultrasound). So on June 28th, TC will get his last ultrasound and on July 6th, TC will (hopefully) come home!

I can't wait to ride this fucking horse I just can't STAND IT

This works out really well, even if it was a week later than I had hoped. I figure the later the better, even if I'm eager to get him home. He's safe where he is, and having him come after the Fourth makes my weekend a lot less stressful (my brother having a big house party = enough stress already, no need to add the pony to that) and lets me use the first few days of the month to move stuff into the barn and get settled before there's an obnoxious pony in the way.

I have a LOT to do before he moves in though, so I have a list:

Boarding
I need to email the barn owner about his boarding situation. The barn is sort of an a la carte barn, so I think I'm going to sign up for one load of shavings a week (one big wheelbarrowful, it's not a ton but it's enough for him) and double feed to start (so four flakes vs the two that they feed) with half grass and half alfalfa, to be moved to 3 grass and 1 alfalfa if he's too buzzy or to 2 grass and 1 alfalfa if he gets fat. He won't get turnout because he's not been given permission for that yet, but BRH trainer will be getting him out every day so that's good. He also won't get the hot walker since I don't think I'm going to trust him on it with the baby TBs.

I know what stall I want, or at least what wing of the barn I want. I want him in a 12x36 stall/paddock combo in this one area where he won't be tempted to jump out. I also need to buy no climb and some wire to make him what will hopefully prevent him from doing the same fucking thing again. If he does manage to climb, I'm going to give them permission to put him in a box stall without my direct permission. Just move him. No climbing.


Tack Room
I don't know where my tack will go. It's kind of a random little place, there are some random tack lockers throughout the property or you can bring your own little locker/shed/trunk/whatever. If there's an open tack room/locker near his stall that I like (unlikely), then I want it, but it's most likely that I'll have to buy my own. It needs to be weatherproof-ish and big enough to hold a saddle rack (hopefully two so one can have pads on it), two big garbage cans for feed, and have some shelving/hooks in it. At first I'll just be bringing my trunk over, which will stay permanently as extra storage, and maybe stealing this one random shed thing from the ranch that is kind of falling apart just to keep my saddle and a freestanding saddle rack in.

Even his shitty canter, I can't wait

Training
I need to talk to BRH trainer, although we sort of already made plans. The idea is to hand him over to the trainer for 30 days, although I'm feeling really bold and strong recently so I'm hoping to be doing mostly lessons and less rides. No offense to BRH trainer, but I want to quickly reestablish the connection and get him thinking about dressage from the get go. BRH trainer is a great dressage rider but um, you know. Regardless of how bold I'm feeling, I want full training, five days a week of lessons or rides. I'd rather be frustrated because I'd rather be riding on my own than be frustrated because my horse bucked me off again. BRH trainer will for sure be the first one on him in the round pen when he comes home, although I really want to ride him on the first day he gets ridden, even if it's just me being led around at the walk.


Feed
I need to buy him his grain (LMF Gentle Balance and Rice Bran, although I'm going to pull him off the Rice Bran and find something else to put him on) and make sure that I have enough of all of his supplements. I really really hope my local feed store has the LMF food, since it's right on the way to the barn. If not then I'll have to get creative about where to pick up grain, maybe on the way home from work. He'll stay on his MSM, the Osteon, and the SmartCalm until it runs out. If the SmartCalm is working, he'll stay on it, but he's for sure coming off the Osteon whenever we get permission from my vet, it's too expensive. After he gets settled, I'll put him on a hoof supplement, but I'm letting myself ignore that for now.

I can just TASTE the connection... wait that's weird

Saddle Fit
At a recent horse show, I found out that my old decrepit Custom saddle can have its tree changed out and be fit to TC! So one of the things that I need to do now that I have a date is to call them and schedule that fitting. I want to schedule it as soon as possible so that I don't have to ride in an illfitting saddle for too long, but I also don't want to be terrified as I try to ride the horse during the fitting. Obviously BRH trainer will be there, so I'll have to schedule it on a day that he's around so I'll have to confirm with him when that will be.


Farrier
I totally don't have someone to trim him yet. Woops. Hopefully he'll get a trim close enough to when he moves where I'll have a bit of time to find one. I can use Rico's shoer, but she isn't a barefoot person. Also I'm kind of a psycho client and don't want to ruin my mom's relationship with her (she shoes all their horses) if it doesn't work out, I like what she does to Rico's feet but I was spoiled by a barefoot trimmer at TC's old barn and want to find someone similar to that person. So I'm looking to find someone else who does barefoot feet. I'm going to ask the BO and BRH trainer who they recommend, as well as a couple friends there who are just as obsessive as I am.

Probably my favorite picture of us, hence it being my facebook
profile picture since September, I'm lazy

I'm so excited guys. SO EXCITED. It's been over six months since I sat on the horse, and it will be about seven when he finally comes back. Seven months is a long time and a lot of things have changed in that time, but what hasn't changed is that I'm SO FUCKING EXCITED to ride my horse. I'm so glad this rehab is almost over. Can't wait to feel that gorgeous trot and that amazing connection. And hopefully I don't come off too many times this summer as he gets back into the swing of things.

Using His Brain

I headed out to see TC on Friday morning fairly early so that I could get up to the Western States Horse Expo to meet my parents and approve of a saddle for Rico. I was glad that I got to see him, as I wasn't sure if I'd make it, since it was a lot little out of my way.

Look at that hippo!

I asked if I could come out (something I always do out of courtesy but they're nice about basically always saying yes) and I was told that I could see TC swim again!!I've seen TC swim once before and he just loves it. I'm so glad that it worked out after the fiasco that was trying to keep TC in the aquapacer.

When I got there, I had about twenty minutes to stuff him full of carrots before the guys came to get him for the pool. Once again, I forgot his brushes, ugh, but I didn't have a ton of time anyway. I made him do his tricks and told him that he was almost done with living in the box with no friends and no fun except his swimming and trotting for what I think is probably now longer than ten minutes.

Resting a foot, whaaat?

Someone came to get him and I followed. TC was MUCH better than last time. Before they swim the horses, they hose them down because it's less of a shock to their system getting in the pool and it prevents so much dust from getting into the pool.

Last time I was there, he spooked pretty big walking over there, and then stood ready to GTFO if something went wrong while they hosed him down. This time, he quietly walked over there, stood quietly tied, and even COCKED A FOOT while they were getting him ready. He spooked once and didn't even hit anything before stopping.

Let me tell you why that is relevant- he's a flighty little thing and almost always needs something to get in his way before he gets his brain back after spooking. This could be a human yanking on his face, a fence in his way, or pulling back and hitting the end of the lead rope. But this spook, nothing got in his way to make him stop. He spooked like he always does, but then stopped spooking without smashing into the fence, getting smacked by the guy working with him (they don't smack him but I would), or pulling back and hitting the end of the rope. He just used his brain.

Getting ready to go swim, can't wait to get ahold
of that upside down neck

Ugh his hair

Swimming was great! He was much quieter about the whole thing, just going in, doing his job, and quietly coming out. A lot of the time the horses come out amped and shoot out of the pool (TC did last time), but TC just quietly walked out. He even stayed quiet when a horse in the eurociser he was being lead by was leaping and biting the fence trying to get it to go faster than an amble. I genuinely wondered if he was sick for a few minutes.

TC got in his eurociser and seemed more relaxed about it too. He was still up against the front of it and I saw him bite it a few times because it wasn't going fast enough. Nothing like the cute little quarter horse type who was walking juuuust forward enough to not get his butt smacked by it. But it wasn't as frantic, he wasn't waiting back and then cantering forward and shaking his head to catch up, he wasn't as smashed against the front as he was last time.

Does this mean the magnesium is working? Or is he just getting used to everything? Or the trotting is calming him down? Or he was particularly bad the first time I saw him and particularly good this time? I don't know and I don't care. I just took it that this one day was a good day and I can't wait to get my pony home.

He even lets them hose his feet (and pick them
from both sides)

I headed out before he came off the eurociser. Not before heading to his stall and stacking the rest of his carrots against the wall where he had dismantled his feeder. I wish I could have stayed for him to come off the eurociser so I could have hung out with him more, but like I said Friday, I'm going to see him every day for a long long time (hopefully), so making myself miss him a bit just makes me feel more positive about him coming home.

After a lot of traffic, I completed my 4+ hours of driving that day (well, thirty minutes more waited me that night) and arrived at Horse Expo.

Resting a foot again!

After swimming, going in the eurociser

The first day of expo was only a half day because of TC. I wasn't really planning on going on Friday but my parents were going and we're still shopping for a saddle for my mom to use on Rico. I'm the picky one with the saddle fit, so I went to help them find something.

We went through each booth but I rejected a lot of saddles. Rico is fit now, which is good for him, but if we get something that is custom fit to him now, it won't fit him when I'm not riding him. I suggested a treeless saddle, but my mom said they were hideous. I'm also skeptical about them so that was fine.

We landed at this one place, with weird looking endurance saddles (only 13lbs!). They had trees built for gaited horses, so they were better suited to Rico's back, but then under the tree rather than having regular panels, there were foam panels that could be removed by velcro. They had little inserts you could put wherever the horse lacked muscle to change the fit of it. My mom loved the way it felt to sit in, so we wrote everything down and made tentative plans to haul Rico up closer to the lady so that she could fit him and teach me how to change it for later when he isn't as fit! I'm excited since TC will soon take Rico's saddle (and it will have to be changed to fit him), and I actually didn't hate this saddle. Not going to be easy to do dressage in, but it certainly beats riding him bareback on the trails.

Obviously we got a whinny, he's got to be loud
and obnoxious no matter what

The bulk of Expo will be covered in tomorrow's post, because on Saturday, after epic pony sleepover round two, I went with Peony and L!