The countdown begins

Well we are getting closer and closer to November and Forrest is doing better and better. I do have to say, if this was gonna happen we couldn't have asked for any better timing. With the cold weather setting in, it’s doing the cold hosing/icing for us. Sandy is about to come and with her rain, rain and more rain. With the current temperature it’s like Forrest will get his leg iced for 36 hours straight with no holding…I like this! With the colder weather we have also switched tactics! We can finally start using DMSO gel for his leg! Over the last month while he’s been out, I have seen the swelling shrink and us slowly take a layer off at a time and break up the edema that still holding on in his leg. This past week his leg has hardened a bit and feels tight. It’s the best it’s ever looked and I couldn't be happier!

                                                                               October 24, 2012

                               

Forrest sadly is watching from his stall daily while I ride both Halo and Indy and I can tell he isn't overly thrilled with it. I definitely get the “what about me” look with the “puppy eyes”. But with November coming soon not only does that mean we start rehab if Forrest’s leg looks good but it’s the Thoroughbred show!

I have been busy working with Halo and getting her to bend and frame up and Indy to get in shape. Both have been doing so wonderfully and are ready for the show! I keep thinking of packing me and the horses but haven’t gotten to it with so much to do! I have been busy working on the Adoption books for the show (and drooling over the beautiful horses as well) and making a sign to for Indy that the packing has gotten sidelined…ehh lately I've been pretty good with winging it….

But everything will come together so I am not too worried....

If at first you don't succeed...try try again...

Lucky for me my trainer is familiar with ultrasounds and these types of injuries. I got copies of the scans taken and showed them to her. I was curious to see what she had to say as we knew that his injury wasn't as bad as I was being told. There was just no way; he was healing way to fast and doing so well. Granted we are still taking things slow, but no point wasting time if it doesn't need to be.

      October 20, 2012

She looked at all the scans and compared them to the right leg scan that was taken and said she was thrilled with the way they looked but that it was time to get a second opinion to ensure that we were doing the right thing. So off the scans went to a vet on the track that my trainer was familiar with. Forrest’s leg was looking better and better every day. It was consistently going down and we alternated between furicin, liniment and DMSO when the weather allowed. We have found that DMSO is more effective for Forrest but with warm weather it irritates his leg and we can only really use it a day or two before his skin gets flaky.

                                                                

By this point, Forrest has been turned out for 3 weeks and doing well. He has happily become part of the herd again and on top of which is the high man on the totem pole… who would have thought! I think he secretly enjoys being the boss. The herd dynamics are quite interesting. We only have 6 horses in the herd. Two of them are retirees (Chance and Tazzar), two of them aren't retired buy of age (24, Miles & 25, Indy) and then there is Halo who is our greenie and Forrest to top it off. Ironically enough, one of the retirees, Chance, can easily boss Forrest, but only on certain things, but everyone else can boss Chance. So interesting to watch the herd and how they do things. Of course Indy and Tazzar are on the bottom, Indy being new and Tazzar being the little old gray pony everyone loves.

Indy has been here a week and settling down. Every ride he throws in a buck at the canter which confirms even more that he needs a job and having a good time. The barn has fallen for the guy and everyone wants a ride! J Considering Indy has been on two years of full retirement and one year of semi-retirement it is still up in the air what the old man has in store but he is happy to have the attention and something to do.

                First ride after 2 years off                          Looking good after 2 years off

       

        

Well lucky for us we got word back from our second opinion! And all is good! It was quite funny actually the vets’ reaction but it was a very good one all the same. We gave no back ground information on the horse what so ever. No job description, previous injuries, etc. We wanted the vet to have a clear slate with nothing to sway what is seen and not seen. The first question was if the horse was in work, which we said he wasn't and was a bit surprised. The vet mentioned the old bow but it had no effect on anything going on in the leg.

The vet then moved onto the suspensory and said it looked great, other than being slightly swollen; there was nothing wrong with it. So you may ask; what was the swelling for? Well the next thing the vet said was this: I see severe trauma in the ligaments so either your horse got kicked with another that had shoes or he ran through something like a gate. BINGO! Forrest ran through the gate back in July.

The vet basically said that the swelling and irritation in the ligaments was from the trauma and that the ligaments were strained and stretched but NOT torn. We explained our rehab plan and the vet promptly agreed and even suggested that we should do another scan, maybe two to be extra cautious, in Dec/Jan to be sure we are on track but saw no reason why Forrest wouldn't be back 100% by end of February/March. YAY!!!

So all is good! Right now our plan is as follows: We are waiting for the Thoroughbred Celebration Show before we start Forrest since he will need full attention once we start. But after the show we will start hand walking him under tack for about two weeks or until he walks fine and legs reaction is fine for 30 minutes. Then we will slowly add in the trotting during December and if all goes well he should be up to 10-20 minutes of walking and 30 minutes of trotting. The same will be true for the canter in January and then eventually add small cross rails and fences in Feb and be back 100% in March. Sadly this will probably be the most fit my horse has ever been since we are spending a solid month on each gate! But I am excited, we finally have a plan, it will start in just under two weeks!

The Old Man Arrives!

Today was the day! Indy gets to move back to my barn and be with his big brother Forrest! It was a cold morning and I got to Indy’s barn around 7:45AM to pack him up, load him up and drive out. I think Indy was quite confused. I loaded all his things, which wasn't much, into the trailer and left him for last. I walked down to his paddock which he was standing there waiting for me. It was a big to do at the barn, there was a horse trailer that drove in and all the horses were anxiously waiting at the gates trying to figure out what was going on. Was someone coming off the trailer? Or was someone leaving?

I met Indy at his gate and slipped his halter on. He was fresh and in a happy mood. As I walked him back to the barn he started tossing his head and bunny hopping, basically being fresh, as we walked to the trailer. I couldn't punish him so I lengthen my hold on the lead rope and let him “play.” Once we walked by the trailer and stood in cross-ties Indy knew what was going on, and it was that someone new was coming it was that he was getting ON that thing! Indy is a good loader but a terrible traveler. I think he believes that every time he steps on the trailer he leaves for a new place with a new person. Why you may ask? Let me give you a brief history on Indy.

Most kids when graduating high school want a car for a gift so they can drive. Me not so much, I wanted a horse. So with the help of some friends and local horse listings I found Indy near Richmond. Ironically enough, I swore the last thing I wanted was a chestnut. They seemed common and you just saw them EVERYWHERE! I wanted a black, grey, or especially a paint. I wasn't breed loyal yet, this was my first “big” horse of my own. I can’t still remember the first visit with Indy. It had rained the day before so the ring, which was red clay, was unusable so there was a small area of grass I could ride. We tacked him up and walked him around and he was good. I remember trotting him around and thinking that I didn't like him because his stride was so big!

Now the only time prior to searching for my own horse, I rode 2 weeks out of the year at summer camp. My favorite camp horse was a 15H Morgan named Brewster. So you can see why I would think Indy, a thoroughbred, had a BIG stride.

I couldn't canter him or jump him so the owners wanted me to come back another day when the ring was dry. I have no idea why, especially since I wasn't thrilled with him as it was, but my mom and I agreed to come back and try again in a couple days.

A week later we made the trip back to Indy and gave it another go. The trot was the same but when I asked him to canter I was surprised to find that he also started BUCKING!!! So I rode through it and he stopped and kept going. He reacted the same way in the other direction but definitely not as bad and only did it once. I was definitely not thrilled but I almost took it as a challenge as well. I know it wasn't my horse, but I also didn't want him to think he could get away with it…bad horsemanship! So we smoothed out the canter and I felt a bit better. Next was jumping.

They didn't have anything overly decorated but they made a trot fence with 2 strides than a vertical. I was told that this horse was used for the owners’ daughter, who was 11 at the time, and taught her to ride. Internally I was surprised. Here is this bucking horse. Either the girl can ride ANYTHING now or the reason they are selling the horse was due to his reaction and not because she lost interest. So Indy and I start trotting over the little x and he tossed in a mild buck on the landing side but nothing bad, and I had kind of expected it. So we moved onto the combination and that little sucker would run out no matter what I did.  He would gladly do the first fence but not the second. So challenge #2: get horse over the fences! Well I succeeded after a while and he went over both.

So most people at this point wouldn't have given him the time of day after bucking at the canter let alone running out and bucking after fences, but something about him tugged at my heart and I looked at my mom and said he’s the one. I’m pretty sure she was shocked. But being that this was our first experience buying a horse with no trainer, she agreed and Indy was coming home with us.

It has been an interesting experience with him. Indy had severe trust issues. The first day in the barn when I had him in cross-ties and was grooming his face he got scared and reared knocking me over and under him along with hitting his head on the loft, breaking the cross-ties and bolting out the barn. I then spent the next couple months doing baby work. Indy had a fear of his head being tied down. So I started outside grooming him with the lead rope over the fence so when he moved it moved with him. We progressed into the barn and did the same thing. Then by late winter I was finally able to connect him to one cross-tie  that now had bungees on them, and by spring we were in two with no issues. During this time I was also trying to get Indy ready for Sweet Briar and hoping he would get accepted!

Arrival

Learning to trust

Training for SBC

Indy got accepted, through drama of its own, he made it by the second semester.  At SBC, we learned a lot about each other and grew as a team. We started in the hunters, than the jumpers, then the hunter trails field and cross country type schooling. We bother graduated and continued to compete in the local hunter show, hunter paces. He eventually became a lesson horse and took many kids through short stirrup to win champion ribbons for the kids.

Hunters at SBC

Hunter Trails at SBC

Hunter Trails at SBC

Four Oaks 2008

Four Oaks 2008

Four Oaks 2009

I got Indy in September 2000. According to his jockey papers the poor boy was bought and sold 14 times in his 13 years of life by 2000. For obvious reasons and not so obvious reasons, Indy came to me with serious trust issues and skepticism over everything.

Okay okay so maybe his history wasn't so brief, but I love my old man dearly and so excited for him to finally be with me. When he arrived at the farm, the horses were happy to see him. Forrest definitely remembered who he was and they nuzzled each other over the fence. Indy will remain in the injury paddock for the day while everyone adjusts to him and will be turned out tonight to join the herd.

Together Again

                                            

  

Check up day!

Well today Forrest was scheduled to have his 6 week ultrasound scan done to see how his progress has been going. Living in the town that I do, word gets out and unfortunately it also gets around. I as a horse person understand that if you ask the same question to 3 different horse people you will end up with three totally different answers. None of them are wrong, but different and meaningful to that person. So while learning all I can about Forrest’s situation or just being a better horse person in general I take that to heart and do not criticize anyone’s answers, unless of course it is bad for the horse, but I guess even then it’s not my business and not my horse. 

I had to stop updating people on Facebook of Forrest progress or how we were handling his injury. Some were nosy enough to stick their noses where they don’t belong and make it known that we are doing everything wrong, permanently damaging my horse, etc. So due to this “outrage” I no longer even post pictures or updates about Forrest online. It’s none of their business and at the end of the day I sleep well at night because I know that my horse is in the best care and getting better.

So the vet we used came out to scan. My trainer, who is an experience horse person and has dealt with racehorses and their injuries for many many years, took a look at the first set of scans and was thrilled with them, if one could be. She said that it wasn't bad and she knew exactly what to do and how to do it. So since the beginning we have had a routine that has obviously been proven right. The swelling was drastically down; Forrest had been turned out a week by this point and sound for 3 weeks. He didn't react to any palpitations and probably did every move in the book when turned out, yep I mean bucking, rearing, galloping, etc., and remained sound (and no these movements were not planed and not happily looked upon). Yay!

The vet starts by looking at the suspensory. In the first scan, the suspensory measured 2.99 cm. The vet told me that normal for a horse is 2 cm so we had a ways to go. The vet did not at that time scan his good leg for a comparison but did it this time. Lo and behold Forrest does not fit normal…shocker. Forrest’s “normal” for his suspensory is 2.42 cm and the measurement of his second scan was 2.74 cm. Yay this is great news. However the vet then compared the picture of each, right and left leg, and realized that they looked very similar. The left leg should have shown a tear, but it was basically identical to the right minus the swelling. The vet then second guessed the original diagnosis and questioned me about old injuries, which I only knew he had a cold bow. The vet then was curious if the injury was old or new since the leg was similar, but was unable to tell.

Next we moved onto the check ligament. Comparing the two pictures it was evident the swelling was down and the dark grey area, which I was told was the torn area, was lighter in color. But as the vet looked at the ligament I was told was bad, real bad and that it was basically blown and that Forrest needed to remain on stall rest for another 6-9 months on top of his 4 months.

During this evaluation the vet did not know that Forrest had been turned out or that he had been sound for 3 weeks. The vet did not palpitate the leg or flex him to see how he was. By the end of the evaluation, the vet was flustered and gave me the impression they really didn't know what to say. I was annoyed with the visit since I am spending money on a scan in order to know what to do with my horse and the vet couldn't tell me what was old or new and was constantly comparing Forrest to what was normal, which he has proven quite well he isn't.

I bit my tongue and say my fair wells to the vet. But inside I was steaming. I was so mad. I understand that the vet was fairly new and lacked experience in this injury, but I would have appreciated and respected them more if I was just told I don’t know but let me consult with someone else. I have come to know that every vet, doctor, etc has a specialized area. They are particularly good at one thing while not at another. It doesn't mean they are a bad vet and this is why you find most vet practices have multiple vets to encompass all areas of expertise. I will continue to use the vet, but this is not their specialty and that is fine. This is why we have second opinions.

Regardless of the vet visit, my trainer and I decided to keep doing what we are doing. She took a look at the scans and was thrilled with them. There were fibers everywhere and no black holes, but you could see where some fibers were stretched. I would take that any day to a lesion. Well Forrest happily went back out into the field and we continued our plan to keep cold hosing/icing and using the liniment and furicin and recently starting using DMSO as well.

                                      Leg on August 29, 2012                         Leg on October 9, 2012

                                 

    

At the end of the day I knew what I needed to do and it was time for a second opinion. Luckily my trainer is friends with a vet on the track and she was able to get him to see the scans. Now to wait and hear what the second opinion has to say

Blessings come in many forms....

So while I still am upset about Forrest and what happened, it’s funny how things work. There is always a plan and a reason for everything I believe. Forrest has been happy back with his friends and still constantly improving. However while I may not be able to ride Forrest, I have been able to start a mare that’s ready for her new career. Sparkling Halo, or Halo, has been at the farm since Aug 2010. She belongs to my trainer and is a sales horse and my trainer nicely offered me to ride her while Forrest was recovering. So Halo and I have been spending the better half of last month learning each other and getting back into shape. There have been a few disagreements along the way, but she is coming along so beautifully that we are taking her to the November 2012 Thoroughbred Celebration Show! This will be her first experience in just about every facet. First travelling away from home, first overnight (3 days) show, and first time showing!

Halo is a fancy little thing and definitely loves the attention and learning new things. I am lucky to be at a farm that I can do this. No only have a horse to ride, but take a green horse from beginning to end and learn. Forrest was green when I got him, but training him was much different than Halo. Forrest was a pleaser and wanted to learn but it had to be suggested not told. Halo is much different. While she likes to figure things out in her time, she also trusts you in what you are teaching her. She basically said why not doesn't hurt to give it a try. Once she does it she remembers and no more issues. So we have been blowing through flat work wonderfully.

Halo enjoying the attention

Another good news is that my older thoroughbred that has been living on the other side of the mountain, the farm in which I took Forrest to gain his weight and get healthy, was moving back home! I had visited him last weekend and played with him in the round pen and being 25 years old I have never seen a happier horse bucking and running around as I did him. With a spot available at the farm, I knew Indy wasn't happy being retired and wanted something to do! So it is planned to move him home and get his but back in shape and if all goes well maybe another participant at the Thoroughbred Celebration Show!

Strutting his stuff in the round pen! Not bad for a 25 year old.

Freedom at last

Forrest has progressed very well. For the last month, Forrest has been on stall rest. For a horse that is use to 24/7 turnout this was quite the lifestyle change. Not only that, but Forrest was kept in his stall alone with his friends in the fields behind him. He would stand in his stall watching out the back window as his friends would constantly stand vigil at the gate. Forrest has been a trooper. We have been aggressively working on his leg cold hosing it for 10 minutes and then icing it for 30 minutes. Twice a day we would slather some Furicin or homemade liniment on the area and every week we would see improvement.

After about 2 weeks on stall rest, Forrest was sound again. You could see the light come back into his eyes and happy to be out hand grazing. We occasionally got bold enough to let him spend some time in the injury paddock where he could get some grass, stretch his legs, and see his friends. Through the entire time Forrest was a saint. I was lucky to find people generously donate their time to help him in the mornings and he soon had a crowd cheering for his recovery.

With Forrest’s leg improving weekly, it was decided both physically and mentally that Forrest needed to be back with his friends. Now before everyone panics about “You’ll only hurt him again” or “You’ll permanently ruin your horse” we knew what we were doing and everything we have done was in the best interest of the horse. Forrest likes to play but at the same time I have learned he has great self-preservation. He is very smart about himself and limits himself to what he can and can’t do. We knew that when we finally were able to turn him out he would be fine.

So today his leg looked so good we knew it was time! We brought his buddies into the smaller paddock sized field and threw out some bales of hay. We gave Forrest a small amount of Ace and turned him out. Here is a horse that has been stalled for 30 some days and what did he do? He walked to the closest hay pile and started eating. While the other horses were trying to check him out, he didn't care. So while Forrest was hanging with friends I checked the fence line and fixed fence boards. After an hour, Forrest was still not active and happy to be out so I opened the gates to the other pastures. While the other horses rushed out, Forrest just looked up from his hay pile, assessed the situation and quietly walked through the gate into the field where he continued to eat grass and be near the herd.

                

I was so excited; it was the next step in his healing process. I understand that stall rest is good but its only necessary to insure that the horse doesn't do something dumb, but many doctors say the best thing to heal a ligament is to use it and build the strength back up. So it’s a catch 22…stall rest in hopes to not re-injure the area but needs turnout to strengthen and encourage regrowth. Knowing my horse as I do, we choose option 2 and have no regrets about it.