Cellulitis (dun dun dun)

When I walked into the barn this morning I knew right away something was up with Hamps. He is always standing by his door looking at me and wanting to come out and do something.

 (And by do something, I mean look out the barn door while his slave of a human brushes him and pampers him)

This morning he was pouting in the back of his stall. I walked in and was all like "HOLY SHIIIIIITTTTT" when I saw his hind leg.

ouch ouch ouch

It is giant and swollen and very painful. He was was very, very lame on it. He would sort of put weight on it to walk, but he would drag his toe in the most pitiful manner. Straight to the washrack we went for a good 30 minutes of cold hosing.

I could tell he was in a lot of pain. Instead of his usual, bright eyed "what sort of trouble can I get into" face that he normally has on, he stood quietly while I hosed his leg. He had this worried and uncomfortable look to his face and would every once in a while reach his head around to sniff me. Maybe it felt good?

I examined his leg and could not find anything of significance. He does have a couple of run-of-the-mill scrapes on his pastern (a day or two old) that COULD be the culprit here. There could be something that I can't find due to the swelling. Or, you know, his leg or hock could be broken. But I'm not going to go there yet.

What is cellulitis? Cellulitis is basically an infection under the skin. According to TheHorse, The disease process starts with a wound that allows bacteria to breach the protective layers of the skin and spread to deeper tissues. Interestingly, the hind legs appear to be more commonly affected than the front legs. Other contributing causes to cellulitis include external parasites (e.g., mites), disease of the lymphatic vessels in the legs, and other unknown factors.

A quick call to our vet and the treatment plan is SMZs, bute and cold hosing until I am blue in the face. I also wrapped both back legs for the night and put poultice on the fat one. Tomorrow we will reassess. If it has not shown any improvement, then our vet will come on out. He may need IV antibiotics, possibly an XRay. But I am hoping bute, cold hosing and some hand walking tomorrow will help with the swelling and pain.

I am going to so get caught up on Candy Crush with all the cold hosing
I am going to be doing

Hampton is very stoic so I know it must be incredibly painful for him to be limping around. Thankfully, he was not running a temp this morning and was being as obnoxious as ever about treats and his lunch.

Will keep you guys updated. This is clearly the most serious injury/issue Hampton has ever had. (Which I guess means I've been really lucky!) I think he will be just fine, but it's certainly something I need to keep on top of.

I have been hiding his SMZ pills inside carrots, which he eats up great! I guess it pays off to have a spoiled, mouthy treat whore sometimes.

Theme from the Bottom

I may have mentioned that lately the Porkchop has been displaying some ... less than desirable behavior.

It started probably over the winter when we started to work more on canter half pass and the changes. I would ask him for half pass, and he would suck behind the leg and hop up and down. Not rearing or anything, but a sort of stuck, hoppy, type deal. I thought he was anticipating a change and getting tense and crooked. So, I would abandon the half pass and just go forward.

Leg yieldin' But interesting to watch his left hind.

When we went to bootcamp, this hopping came back out. It was never about the change at all, it was about not wanting to go sideways. It was about ignoring my leg. So instead of just sending him forward, I demanded he go sideways no matter what. Don't care if he flops leads. Don't care if he is on the bit.

Porkchop did not like this. I had now called his bluff.

It resulted in a tantrum of rearing, leaping, hopping and general threats to be really, really naughty. At this point, the only thing on my mind is to get out of his face and send him forward BUT also sideways. This little issue is getting better the more I work through it. However, you better bet I ride with a grab strap now.

The issue is improving, and so is the canter half pass and leg yield. I am getting him to jump much more sideways now, and remain obedient and supple. I have not had to use my grab strap at all this week. Woo!

BUT ...

While I think most of this is a strength issue, I think we may have something else going on.

So I started from the bottom.

His feet.

Take a look at his hind hoof (this is the left hind). He has worn off the outside of both hind feet fairly significantly. Plus, the medial (inside) side of the hoof have flares. He wears down his toes, too. (Note he does not drag his feet when I ride him, but has a lazy, plow-horse walk in the field)

He is losing lateral support on his hind legs when I ask him to move laterally? Perhaps he does not feel he has a solid base of support? His right hock is sort of funky, is it bothering him? Stifles? SI joint? He has always had a snarky side to him, but such dangerous behavior is not his MO. I tend to think he is uncomfortable, or doesn't feel confident somewhere.

So, I am giving a new farrier a call. One who does custom shoes and was recommended by a friend. Our current farrier is great, but I think I'm at the point where if I am going to put hind shoes back on him, we need to make it right the first time. We need to get the flares under control and give him better support.

Then we'll see if that helps him. If not, I will move on up the leg - the hocks and stifles - and see if he is experiencing discomfort. He isn't lame. At all. This behavior only occurs during half pass and sometimes leg yield when I really challenge him. And it does not occur every day. I had really hoped not to put hind shoes on him, but frankly he is working solid Third level now and starting Fourth. He is just too big to continue on without some sort of support. Of course there is a laundry list of potential causes for this behavior from ulcers to lyme disease. But I'm going with my gut and starting with the feet. It could be that the work is just difficult and he is trying to figure things out.

I also have to face the fact that he might be topping out at this level of work. Do I think that is likely? No. But it is a possibility.

I'm also thinking about a round of Adequan for him. It's so expensive, so I'm still just thinking about it. Right now I think he is too young to do injections.

I can feel my bank account tremble in fear.

Well nevermind then!

Hey all - so I've changed my mind (which I'm allowed to do! haha) and am going to keep this blog public for the time being.

There are a couple of reasons I wanted to make it private, but they don't really matter. The response from my last blog post was so touching, that I do not have the heart to possibly exclude anyone. I really had no idea so many people enjoyed reading about me and Hampers!

What I am going to do instead is set up a separate blog in which I will post private posts only, and give you guys the password if you choose to read it. I would like to write more candid posts at times and that is how I will go about that. I will link to the private post(s) from this blog for those interested.

So that is that.

Hampton updates coming soon. Spoiler: We have been taking jumping lessons and loving every second of it!

Private parts

I am going to make this blog by invitation only. I have already invited a few people (because I know their email addresses).

If you would like to continue reading this blog, send your email address and your name and how I know you to:

finalchapter.karen@gmail.com

I still would love it if my long time readers would keep reading!

I will be changing the settings to private in a few days.

Thanks much!

Porkchop turns 7 years old

Today is Hampton's birthday!

His gift was the fact that I left him alone all day and decided instead to be domestic and clean the house, do laundry and in general be lazy. 

Here are some photos of the Hamper. Kids - they grow up so fast!

Born in 2007 in Elizaville, Indiana.

Weanling porkchop

2009: Lucky horse finds me as an owner and moves in.
Within a week I have a saddle on his back. Here he is wearing a saddle for the
first time in his life. So wild.

Then I climbed aboard.
First time trotting under saddle. Fall 2009.

Spring 2010: He starts learning about contact.

Spring 2011: He grows more and starts to find better balance.
He learns that now he has to start going sideways when asked.

Summer 2012: Schooling solid First and touching into Second level work.
Starting to look more like a horse, and not a moose.

Summer 2012: We play in Eventer land and love it!

Summer 2013: We show First and Second Level.
It starts out a little messy, but by fall ...

We start to really get the hang of Second Level.

Spring 2014: We debut at Third Level
What an amazing journey so far!

Happy birthday Hampton!

Bootcamp

Something interesting has happened this year with Hampton. He is still wonderful to ride, but he has turned into a somewhat hot, spooky, "tourist" type horse this year. It's not uncommon. I had to make him hot for the training and demands of Third Level. He is FIT, and has muscles he never had before. He is powerful and full of energy. But as a result, he can be a very difficult, explosive ride at times. And I needed help on how to handle that. No one at home (in KY) has opened that can of worms with me. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because they do not know how to handle it. Or they don't want me to get hurt. Or whatever. I suspect they just don't know. I was just sick and tired of floundering and drowning during my lessons as the instructor sat there in silence. I needed someone who would know what to do, and give me confidence to work through it. That's why I went home this weekend to take some lessons from My Most Favorite Instructor In the Universe.

We have a new prescription for cleaning up the changes. I am armed with new techniques to deal with his snarky, "I'm a ganna launch you woman" behavior. The rein lameness at the half pass? GONE. It was all my fault this entire time. And NO ONE has caught it up until now. We worked on getting better turns on the haunches. I have some new exercises and tools for my toolbox. She also let me ride her Grand Prix stallion, who has an UNREAL piaffe and passage. I was speechless after riding him. Speechless.

She told me I could do Grand Prix with Hampton. "Two years," she said.

The weekend was amazing. Inspiring. Absolutely exhausting.

Look how uphill Hampton is! ha!

I need some serious time to bounce back financially, so our no more lessons or shows for us until further notice. I was aiming for September but I went WAY WAY overboard so far this year and now have gotten myself into a bind with money. It's my fault. And in a way, worth it. :)

Perhaps October or November we can do another weekend trip like this. If I have to haul 3 hours to get quality instruction, so be it I guess.

Sidenote: On our way up, we picked up my friend's gelding. Turns out she lives about a mile away from Conner from Cob Jockey! We drove right by their barn and I looked around for Conner like a creeper but did not see him. :) Lovely facility though! 

Happy father's day!

Here is a Happy Father's Day throwback photo. I think this is 1994.

I become more like my dad every day. Which is a GOOD thing!

the best dad

A fun weekend coming up in which I will take many photos. It does involve a little trip back home to good old Indiana, dressage, and I am sure some drinking. Stay tuned for that mess.