Cheers!

 Happy Holidays!

Love,

Karen & Hampton

Rescuing Ralson

 After Hunter died, I decided I would wait until after our February Aiken trip to maybe look for another cat.

That did not work out, because I saw this:

Adoption photo!

This poor guy had been loitering behind a local pet store. They finally were able to trap him, and after the usual shots, blood tests, neuter, and a bath they put him up for adoption. He is a rack of bones under all that fur, but otherwise doesn't appear to have any health issues. 

I stopped in to look at him one day and just could not resist taking him home.

his face just melts my heart

So, everyone meet Master Ralston the Second.

Unbeknownst to me, my parents had a cat named Ralston back in the 70s.. Which is why this guy will be Ralston II. lol. It is my dad's middle name, and the name Ralston goes back quite far on my dad's side. I found it fitting. 

My dad and the original Ralston lol

He's still very shy, spending most of his time under my bed where he feels safe. But he is eating like a champ, uses the litter box and is as quiet as a mouse. (As opposed to Buckley, who is an AUDIBLE breather, snorter, talker and makes loud thuds when he jumps on and off things).

Who du fuq are u

Speaking of Buckley, he is being very good to Ralston. We are just giving him his space for a while as I am sure his life has been turned upside down. He does enjoy pets and head scratches when I am down on the floor on his level. He still seems pretty timid about me walking around and being above him. That's ok though, I respect his space and will earn his trust with time.

He may take a little more time than the other street cats I have brought in, but that's ok. I'll have him fat and spoiled in no time.

Example of Fat and Spoiled

Destroy mode

 Hampton is in destruction mode lately.

1) He is destroying the one-tempis:

Yes I need to seriously quiet my body, and it's a work in progress. But not bad for two noobs!

2) He also destroyed his sheet. (Thanks to SmartPak guarantee, a new one will be on the way!)

3) And he also had his hind heel bulb sliced up to hell. (Mild gore below) This happened while I was out of town, so by the time I got back and found it, it was too late for stiches. The vet may still have to come out and deal with this. Sigh. Did a round of antibiotics, but I'm not sure this thing is going to heal well on its own. It seems like it's just a really bad hangnail.

4) Then Hampton lost a front shoe.

FFS. Horses!

Can't be too mad at such an adorable face though haha.

What makes you rich

We had a last hooo-rah of warm weather here in the midwest and I took advantage.

I did a cleaning rampage of my tack locker, trunk and tack. And have enjoyed working Hampton out in the field, around the farm and a few arena rides, too. We did 12 one-tempis one day! And have also been working on canter pirouettes on the centerline, and the zig zag. He's been feeling pretty good with the help of the chiropractor and some polyglycan. 

I also did a botch clip job on him. Was mostly done but my clippers crapped out on me. Soooo he looks like a 4 year old gave him a clip but it's honestly not worth stressing about.

The Porkchop is now enjoying a few days off while I'm up helping my mom out after surgery. In addition, my aunt had some weird event and has yet to wake up from it. It seems she is nearing the end of her life. (Not Covid). It's my mother's sister, which seems especially unfair and cruel since it hasn't even been 3 years since my father died.

Watching your mother say goodbye to her sister via Facetime is shattering. Heartbreaking doesn't even cover it.

I'm sort of disassociated from everything currently. 

So grateful to have Hampton, Buckley and amazing friends.

If you have your health, you have everything.

LS Clinic: Less perfect, more sloppy

Photos: John Borys

Last weekend was a clinic with one of my all time favorites: LS.

She is just one of those teachers I just click with and makes such a big difference in both me and the horse in just two days.

I don't have any media, so Regionals photos will have to suffice.

Day 1: Be sloppy

Today was a canter day and we focused on keeping the jumping, itchy FEI canter through all the work. We touched on some pirouette work and had some lovely pirouettes after I stopped being so rigid and trying to be perfect all the time. 

One great exercise - especially for me - was a 6m schooling pirouette and for me to "ride sloppy." So, give my elbows, take my leg off, put it back on, put "air in my seat", move his neck. LET HIM make the mistake and then correct him. Pretty soon, I could just it chilly and he would do the work himself. Instead of me trying to make it happen and hold him up. He has to take more responsibility. And by letting my own body be loose, he was more loose and far quicker behind (because he had to carry himself). This got rid of our issue of the slow, labored, head bobbing pirouette! I just need to keep schooling them this way, so when I get in the ring I can sit still and turn it.

he needs to keep his hind legs closer together.
work in progress

Then we moved on the changes. Threes and twos looked good, so she said let me see some ones. 

By the end of the lesson we had done ten ones! She gave me a couple of tools to use to help improve them, since Hampton likes to slow down a little too much in them.

-- Do 3-4 ones, then refresh the canter. Make it itchy. Then another 3-4 ones. Eventually take out the "refresh" in between.

-- One-one, ride the shit out of the canter, then another one-one, then refresh, another one-one.

-- If he steals a change, trot and pick up desired lead. Don't do another flying change for the correction

-- Maintain balance out of the piros, we have a tendency to sort of run out of them.

Also forever my theme in any work: Keep your poll up!! Christ.

Day 2: Experimenting

Since we did mostly canter on Saturday, we made Sunday the Trot Stuff day. His piaffe is absolutely spot on for the I-2, and just needs to be a tad more on the spot and snazzier for the GP. But for now, I need to let him creep a little since he has tendency to suck back. We worked a little on keeping him off his left side, which he likes to lean on in the piaffe.

We worked quite a bit on passage and which method works best with him for adding more lift.

I tried:

-- Flap my calves (no-go, I just ended up flopping like a pathetic white girl dancer and Hamp could not keep the cadence. I can not blame him)

-- Put spur on and hold it there. Somewhat ok, but not there

-- Squeeze with just my ankles. Ding ding! This method worked the best for us. Hamp developed more lift, and less of a "trotty" passage. He is getting there, but just needs to work harder and add expression.

At the end of the lesson, she gave me some great pointers for the GP trot half pass zig zag.

-- You need to have your bend before the corner, so then all you have to do is steer across the ring.

-- Set him up like there is a huge jump out of the corner

"Well, that was lovely," she said once I actually, you know, used my corner.

I know he's on the forehand, blah blah blah. Poll is in China.
But I love his happy face and effort he he putting out! 

LS is probably one of my favorite clinicians ever. She is spot on, observant and has a tool for everything. She called Hampton a "gem" (I mean, duh. He charms everyone). And gave me the green light to go for the I2 (and GP!) in 2021. I love riding with her because it is about horsemanship, thinking outside of the box and riding with feel instead of overanalyzing.

Hamp is really in this super fun stage of training now because he knows the tricks and movements, now it's just about making him strong and expressive. And more about ME learning to ride at this level.

... next project is to finally body clip this poor horse. My clippers broke so they've been in the shop. Sorry, Hamp! (Not that he's complaining about being feral and nekked and furry)

Regionals 2020: A long strange trip

Festive set up at Regionals

 Hampton had a couple of really great months after his navicular bursa injection.

But then was unsound about a week before regionals. It was not so much that front foot this time though, but severe back soreness. 

I tried acupuncture. Robaxin. Massage. Easy walk days. I rented a f-ing magnawave machine.

Two days before we left for St. Louis I called the vet and he blasted him with IV robaxin. (He said hocks, stifles, feet checked out fine. Just seemed like muscle soreness)

I decided to put him on the trailer and see what happened. But I did not ride him for 4 days leading up to a Regional Competition. Not exactly confidence boosting.

It was a long haul so all I did was hand walk him and magnawave him on Thursday evening when we arrived. In true Hamp fashion he settled in just fine.

on the trailer!

Hand walking

(Note: Most of the following photos were generously taken by friend extraordinaire Leah who came to watch us!! It literally made my weekend to have her come!)

Hamp over our shit.

Friday I rode in the AA Equitation finals, thinking that might be a good warm up ride for him since it's easy for him. He was a perfect angel. Many of the other horses were leaping and bucking around because they can't handle trotting in a group. Anyway, there were 12 of us and only 8 were picked to do the pattern. The judges did not care for my riding this year and excused me (last time I was in the finals I almost won!). I did not make mistakes, and neither did Hampton. I simply wasn't what they were looking for and when this happens you just say "eat a bag of dicks" and move on. 

Leah gives Hamp some masked kisses

That is my Dammit Doll which makes a great horse show mascot

Mostly I was happy that Hamp felt significantly better so I decided let's do the I-1 champ class on Saturday.

Unfortunately, on Saturday morning he was stiff all over. He was short on the right hand, tight in the back and rigid in the poll. So I did not get my usual magical warm up in. But, I got him decently loosened up and hoped for the best.

Winter project: Get those hind legs to jump closer together!

The test was ... ok. I made a mistake in the 3s. He fell behind my leg in the canter work and his poll started getting lower and lower. I fought for it the best I could but we just weren't good enough.

Plus, one of the judges is one who a couple years ago wrote on a PSG test that I had no business at that level. I'm glad I didn't know that before I went in. I was doomed before I went in the ring. We weren't going to get more than a 6 no matter what I did. And with a bobble or two, and his croup being up on outer space most of the test, that gave us a 59%. A very fair score at this level of competition.  That did earn us a 5th place though, which I am pleased with. 

It's amazing to even have made it this far at all. And hell, there were some NICE horses in that class! We deserved the score. Best of all, I did do a proper victory gallop which Hampton loved! I mean, that's the whole reason to make it to Regionals anyway! 

You know what was kind of sad? Only 3 of us showed up for the awards ceremony in my division. Only Res. Champ, third place and myself showed up. 

Sunday morning I schooled him a bit at 7 am and he felt MUCH better, Which in turn made me feel much better because I am codependent. The trailer ride home was thankfully uneventful, too.

 Now he gets a week or two off to see if I can't get his back to chill out even more.

I'm super proud of him. He is just the most reliable, fun horse to show. Not the most uphill, fancy thing but his brain and character are one in a million. I'll take that any day! 

We have had quite the season (although brief) at I-1 this year and I could not be more proud of him.

We have a clinic at the end of the month, and other than that back to schooling and tasting the GP! 

Oh, by the way one of my barn mates brought two of her ducks to the show and they were invaluable comedic relief. Highly recommend.

You can add duck walker to my resume.

In Memory of Hunter | Oct. 8, 2020

 I haven't even had a chance to write up a post on Regionals, because the day I got home from the show I walked in the door and found Hunter - my sweet, toothless, diabetic, tripod cat - very very sick.

Waiting in the car at the vet.

He was catatonic, dry heaving when I tried to wake him and severely dehydrated.

I had a cat sitter for when I was gone, and that is a long story.

Basically I will never know what exactly happened. 

Thankfully, my ER nurse friend gave me a bag of fluids that I started to run sq immediately. And I called the vet. Oddly, his blood sugar was normal. His temp was normal.

Giving fluids

Once we run a bunch of tests at the vet, we found his potassium was extremely low - which could be the reason behind his lethargy. So he spent the night in the hospital on a slow drip and more fluids. I was really hoping he would perk back up in the morning.

Well, he didn't. More tests. thyroid normal, urine culture fine. Blood sugar still was not soaring even though at this point it should have been since I stopped giving him insulin (he had ZERO interest in food) After his potassium drip, we did get those numbers back up to normal but then his phosphorus plummeted. At this point the vet started calling specialists because she had never encountered this. 

On his sun window. lol

Tuesday night, there was still no change in Hunter's condition. We discussed a few things, including a possible tumor on his kidneys. There is a test for this, but you have to send the blood to the University of michigan and they only run this test once a week. OR he was more likely a very very sick DKA cat (Diabetic Ketoacidosis). We did find ketones in his urine, but his low glucose numbers were throwing us off. (A typical DKA cat will have blood glucose often so high it's off the meter). One of the specialists did say that can happen, but only in the sickest cats.

There was a chance we could pull him through. But it would require at least a couple weeks in intensive ICU on multiple drips and $5K + in bills. And still no guarantee. 

I brought up euthanasia and the vet very kindly agreed with me. We decided to give him one more night on fluids, just to see if any improvement.

By Wednesday, he remained the same. And his potassium had dropped back down.

So I went in about 3 pm and held him and pet him. I knew it was the right thing, his eyes were vacant. He did try weakly to roll over for a belly rub, and put his head on my hand. He knew I was there, but he was just too sick to pull through.

He died so peacefully in my lap.

I am trying very hard to not feel enormous guilt over this. What if I had not left town? What if it was someone else watching him? did I miss early DKA signs myself and he crashed? Did I not manage his diabetes well enough? 

It just sucks. I have no idea what happened and was not remotely prepared to lose an animal. It was so sudden.

Buckley seems to be ok, he was a little extra vocal for a couple of days and a little extra clingy. Also pissed because he isn't getting unlimited canned food anymore. Poor starved animal.

Do any of my blogger friends have diabetic animals? I have some supplies and insulin I'm willing to donate. If not, I can take to the shelter.

He would sleep with his paw in my hand almost every day lol

Fun on Furlough

 I'm making the best of my furlough days lately! 

The BFF Liz brought Royale down on Saturday and we took the boys to Deam Lake for some trail riding. The last time I was there we did an easy ride, but this time we took a different loop and while fun I would not call it an easy trail. It was a 6-mile loop of some significant terrain, creek crossing, mud and challenging hills. It was a great fitness ride for both boys! After two hours they were both running out of quarters lol!

Photo did not capture how steep this hill was!

It never ceases to amaze me that kind of people one can encounter on trail rides, especially in southern Indiana. How one can ride without a shirt in the woods I will never know. #enjoythoseticks

Now it's time to get back in gear for Regionals!

I've logged about 20 hours on a kayak over the past
2 weeks, too! Love it!

Beats per minute

 My generous barn friend let me play with her HyloFit system the other day. I've never used one, but was curious to see Hampton's heart rate (and mine!) during a typical morning of schooling.

It was really easy to hook up. The horse sensor goes on the left side, hooked up around the girth.

And the human sensor is on a band that you can tuck up under your bra.

Download the app, and you are all set!

I'm not sure I had the human monitor on correctly since at first it registered my resting heart rate around 37. I did indeed confirm that I was conscious, and no Code Blue needed.

Hampton checked in at about 68 bpm for his resting heart rate, which is technically high so who knows how accurate I had this thing.

So you select what discipline you are doing for that ride, and then off you go.

We had a very typical 40 minute school. And here was the results:

Keeping in mind I'm not sure how accurate the numbers really are, I do think the 

general up and downs do represent the general trend of his heart rate. I'm not sure why it didn't register my distance or speed?

The colors represent zones:

I like how we stayed in Zone 2 and 3 most of the ride. And it appears he recovers quite well. He is fit, but as as fit as I would like right now since I didn't do much fitness work this spring due to his foot. 

I think I probably need to use this once or twice a week to really get a feel for it. Then you can see trends and take more of an average in numbers.

Anyway, a fun experiment and I can see how useful this would be especially for eventers.

Gratuitous photo of Buckley trying to smush into this scratch pad box