The Cycle

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

I haven’t written in a while because we’ve been doing a mainly light pleasure riding and nothing very exciting has been happening in the team green world.

We are waiting for the saddle to ship next month and whatever combination I use doesn’t seem to be all that bad but neither is it all that good (we’re getting dry spots and pressure points but they haven’t caused worse white patches or soreness).

I have a ton of work to do and it’s hunting season so we go out a couple days a week. One nice thing that’s happened this fall is I’ve had more people than usual come out to ride with me so each time I ride I’ve been able to get Faygo and Khaleesi together which is nice for all of us.

Something that’s been gnawing at me however is inflammation in her left rear fetlock joint. About three weeks ago I noticed it was visibly swollen when I brought her in from the pasture. I did an epsom salt soak and walked and trotted her in hand- she was not visibly off. Didn’t ride her that day.

After a couple days the swelling diminished significantly. One day the other rear had swelling (compensation inflammation?) then it was back to just the left and it was not visible to me, but I could feel it. Different from the right hind, there was soft puffiness that felt like it could be fluid right above the fetlock on the back of the leg.

What to do? She is not lame… there is no heat…

Dr. Google gave the basic advice that if the horse isn’t lame or sore then it isn’t really a problem. There isn’t much to do for treatment if the horse is not lame.

Hmmmmm…. but…. there’s swelling….

Dr. Facebook (endurance green bean mentor page) said that if it’s equal in 2 or 4 legs (right and left) then it might be normal (cosmetic only). If one leg is different than the other it’s likely damage. Khaleesi is young (5 is still young- sometimes she’s so awesome I let myself forget she’s really only 5) and in her first year of work. Pay attention to it now lest it become a long term weakness in a tendon. Why not turn her out in her pasture for a couple weeks and see if it helps.

Not ride her. Um… isn’t there a better answer? I like to ride her. We still have shoes, the weather is still nice… Can I wrap it, soak it? Something other than rest it?

Dr. B, kind enough to discuss over email from afar says… well, he says a lot of things and was really helpful. Here are some of the highlights:

… major tendons pass over the back of the hock… diagnosing without seeing .. close to impossible… Even with a radiograph sometimes it’s not clear… fortunately the potentially ‘bad’ things are almost always associated with extreme lameness…

generally we try to be conservative in our recommendations… we say take 3 weeks off….. trainers start back in 3 days.

since she isn’t lame you’d like to move on as if nothing was wrong… but… there is swelling and 6-8 mile rides won’t do it any favors.

best to back off.

but you know your horse and see her every day- you are the best judge of how she is doing and the decision to ride or not to ride has to be up to you.

And my favorite:

The best way not to have problems with your horses is not to have horses!

Yeah… I have heard that before. Probably from my husband.

Just yesterday I was reading my monthly Endurance News and there was a fantastic article about the cycle of “Training-Conditioning-Performing”.

It went into how the cycle works and how important it is to recognize training as the mental component of what a horse needs to do in order to be ready to perform: walk on uneven trails, be ok around other horses on trail, allow a vet to handle them, be able to camp in a new place, etc.

Then there is the conditioning which relates to training (these overlap) but conditioning is the physical capability of your horse to go the distance: aerobic, skeletal and muscular etc. These have to come before good performance which is what happens event day.

We all go through this cycle over and over and if you realize where you are in the cycle you will be more successful- also realizing when you don’t have good performance where your weakness lies. Did you get pulled because of lack of training? (your horse couldn’t be held back to a speed it could sustain and wore out too early in the ride?) or lack of conditioning? (not in shape to do the miles?). Then you go back through the cycle and increase performance with better training and better conditioning.

Ideally you begin the cycle with a sound horse who is reasonably built to do endurance. But on page two of the article the author added two new red boxes to the cycle that are inevitable for every performance horse at some point: “Injury-Rehabilitation”.

I love my Endurance News and always find a timely article in there I can use or relate to.

It appears we have now entered the pasture rest (rehabilitation) box.

Thankfully that doesn’t mean our training has to stop. This is a good time to continue to bring her in and work more on standing still and coming to my mounting stool better… maybe sending on the trailer (she gets on but I usually have to walk her up, would be fun to work on sending her on). There are plenty of things we can do together to continue our bond and increase her training while not riding.

Always find the opportunity.

Considering I don’t have my saddle yet, it’s hunting season, and life is busy, this is the best time I could hope for to put her out of rotation and see what happens. I’ve been avoiding it because I so love to ride her, but time to face the fact that this is what’s best for her even if it’s not what I want to do.

When I asked Dr. B about a vet visit (seems too soon to me) he agreed probably not necessary right now. We’ll give it a rest and go from there.

I can still enjoy the season with my fine Faygo. She’s developed quite a fan club this fall- I hate to disappoint her friends, but I’ll be riding her for a while myself now! Her dance card will be full for a few weeks.

Later this morning… Confirmation…

I arrived at the barn to check on my ‘invalid’ to find she had pulled a front shoe. I take it as a sign- her rest period truly is meant to be.

My farrier postponed his visit (that would have been this week) at my request as I’d planned a ride with friends in the Richmond area this weekend and wanted my shoes just long enough to get through that. My farrier told me that shouldn’t be a problem to just keep an eye for loose nails.

Since she’d lost one, the most sensible thing for a DIY horse owner was obviously grab the farrier kit and take off the other front.

If she’s going to be on rest, I’d rather her also be barefoot for the rest of the winter… starting now! I mean- he showed me how to remove a shoe in case I needed to. What better time to try?

Well… I have always loved my farrier, but I really love him now. It took me  at least 3o minutes, two trips back to the barn for additional tools, and some help from a friend to get that shoe off!

Meanwhile Khaleesi was amazing. She stood still for me the whole process and tied to the fence (I hadn’t planned to bring them in today). She never tried to pull her hoof or fight me. She was a great patient.

I will leave the back two on for now….