Recovery Week 4

 

A Porkchop in the wild

Hampton was QUITE happy to have turn out time again! He has a couple more days in the small paddock and then on Wednesday he will be released back into the wild with his friends.

The first time I let him out for some turn out time, there was some ... theatrics ...

That's his hind legs .... above his head. Sigh.

But after about 5 minutes he calmed down and went right to grazing and has not had a case of the stupids since. 

His legs have stopped stocking up, too.

Gross and hairy

SO HAPPY TO BE OUTSIDE 

Annnnnd I have started riding him again! Starting out very light and easy but he feels sound, swingy and fresh. I have not felt this push in his gaits for probably a year. It makes me so happy to have him feeling so good! The time off seemed to have been very good for him and his body. Everything had a chance to heal and rest.

He is still enjoying being hairy and somewhat feral. I will probably clip him when he starts working hard enough to break a sweat. But for now, he looks like a fuzzy school horse and he is loving it haha.

So happy to have this view!

Now it's time to slowly build both of us back up. That means trail rides, poles, hills and long power walks.

I could not be more impressed with Hampton on how he handled this entire process. I guess I am not terribly surprised, given his nature. But you never know. He has never spent this much time in a stall ever in his life so that was an unknown. But he caused zero problems and I am so beyond thankful that he was so sensible and easy to deal with.

onward!

Recovery Week 3

 

Porkchop and I are getting our steps in! I usually walk him about a mile or so (20 minutes) and then just let him graze for another 30-40 minutes. A few days I got frisky and put side reins on and made him do hills. That's a great idea until you realize that you, too, are walking up and down the big hill.

He continues to behave like a gentleman.

Although we have been playing some ring-around-the-which-leg-is-puffy-today game. The surgery foot looks great, but the other legs are often stocked up in the morning. I added standing wraps to help but poor Hamp is still pretty stiff when he first comes out of his stall.

I am not super worried as this should go away once he is back in turnout.

This week (Wednesday I am thinking!) he gets to go out in the small paddock! I am not sure who is more excited for this, me or him. haha.

What you little guys lookin at!!

Another riveting blog post. Sorry guys! 

Recovery Week 2

We are now finished with Week 2 of stall rest and now into a week of handwalking!

Hamp and I are getting our steps in every morning. I started out walking a mile (took us about 20 minutes) and will increase that over the week. Honestly I will probably be the one who wears out first haha.

He is behaving remarkably well. I am still using a chain over his nose  but I have not had to use it. . He has been such a good boy. I did add in some alfalfa pellets (soaked) and GUT supplement to help support his stomach. Plus a lot of treats and daily grooming and scratches.

On Monday I yanked his stitches out and he handled that like a champ as well.

So far he seems to be walking just fine as far as the mechanical use of his foot. When I first starting taking him on short little hand grazes, he would stab his toe and trip a lot. This of course made me want to puke. But as time has gone on, he seems to have figured out this new situation and the tripping and catching his toe has almost totally stopped already.

Next week if things are ok he can go out in the small little paddock!

Recovery week 1

Hampton will be on 2 weeks of stall rest with bandage changes every other day or as needed. As of this blog, we are one week in and he has been a wonderful patient. I can tell he wants to go back out with his friends but he is behaving and letting me change his bandage with no problems. 

He can do brief periods of hand grazing, as long as I don't get the bandage dirty or wet.

His staples come out 10-12 days post op and then he can start hand walking.

Week 4, if everything looks good, he can start turn out in the small paddock and then Week 5 he can return to light exercise and then we go from there!

Forgot to post this photo of this MAGNIFICENT chonk that lives 
at Rood N Riddle.

 I am not sure what to do with myself for these first two weeks. I guess get stuff done that I always put off? Like organize my bedroom. Maybe deep clean all my tack. Annoy Buckley obviously.

I am picking up some side hustle jobs as well, and other than that I think this break is good for both myself and Hampton. We have been training pretty much non stop for 12 years! I think our longest breaks have not been more than a week at a time? 

Yeah this gate didn't last long with the foster kitties lol

Into the thick of it!!

Life took a bit of a ... turn ... recently and so many things happened at once that I sort of went into a dissociative state and decided let's just deal with one crisis at a time shall we? 

Before shit really hit the fan, I had already decided and made the appointment for Hampton to get a neurectomy. (Specifically a palmer digital neurectomy) Injections and a variety of shoeing options, Tildren, and even a pretty big dose of Equioxx were not keeping him at an acceptable comfort level. 

I got him to trot up sound, and even appear sound while working but he has just not felt 100% really since the spring. I am sure this has a part in our difficulties at shows this summer, and while I could have kept on going messing around with shoes the reality is I cannot afford the big time wedge/pads/kitchen sink shoes that cost $400 every 5 weeks. Also, they may or may NOT even help him.

Variety of bar shoes, rolled toes, rocker toes, set back on foot

Bursa and coffin joint injections
(Can you spot the coffin joint arthritis?)

Pour-in pads

My options were: 1) Sell him to someone who could afford the big honker shoes (still with no certainty he would stay sound.) ...  2) Retire him to be a trail horse or ... 3) The Neurectomy.

I thought long and hard about this decision. And ultimately, I decided the procedure was best for him and his comfort. I might get some judgement or hate, but his quality of life is most important to me.

He SHOULD be able to return to being a riding horse. Whether or not he can return to FEI levels I am not sure, but it is Hampton we are talking about. I am taking things one step at a time. (It is illegal to compete a nerved horse at FEI events, so we cannot compete at CDIs. Which was never on my radar anyway)

I chose to take him to Rood n Riddle because they have seen him several times before. The surgeon, Dr. Hopper, agreed with me on the procedure, even saying he was the perfect candidate for one, and he and his team took excellent care of Hamp.

I am telling you, the staff at RnR are top notch. I knew Hampton was in great hands, and they did. not. bat. an. eye at my helicopter parent behavior. lol. They even took some photos for me! 

They do knock them down for this procedure and Dr. Hopper reported that Hampton gave them no problems and woke up and got up wonderfully. Honestly that was probably my biggest worry. 

Warning: Some of these photos below are a little gross, but not too bad.

Arrived at the hospital

He was in the first stall on the left. 

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL ... a week before his procedure, Hampton blew out a GIANT ASS abscess out of the cornet band of his right hind. Was never lame. Has never done this before in his life. Of course after it blew out a hole in his foot, he has been pretty ouchy. He did a week of antibiotics too to be in the safe side. Like shit was bubbling out of this hole. Might as well send him to RnR just a hot mess. *facepalm*

They say owners mirror their horses. Har dee fucking har ...  well I decided to haul Hampton to RnR on a Tuesday night because his surgery was sometime Wednesday. Turns out it was my turn to abscess. It so happens that I had a tooth MASSIVELY abscess that day. And I was in a huge amount of pain. While I was driving him down, I could literally feel my right cheek swell up. At one point my right eye was half closed. I started to shake from pain and nausea. Like what a time to have this go wrong. Tooth pain is the literal WORST. I would not wish it on anyone. I am not posting a photo of my chipmunk face. 

FFS. It smelled BAD too.

But the good news is that Hampton is home - although annoyed he is in a stall and not with his friends. He is bright and seems no worse for wear. And my tooth pain is MUCH better although it's my turn for a procedure when I go in for a root canal on Tuesday.

Really a bundle of fun around here lately LOL.

Next up: The recovery and rehab!

Are you ready for some surgery photos??

Graphic credit to Cornell.
Real Hampton surgery photos coming up ... scroll down ...

Here you go!

Yummy spaghetti looking nerve! lol

Nerves!

All stapled up!

 

Wordless Wednesday

 I snapped this stunning photo Saturday morning at Flying Cross Farm.

I mean seriously Kentucky is stunning.

Bonus photos - foster kitty spam!

They are getting more comfortable around me day by day. 

The Women from Snowy River

I convinced the BFF to come down for a trail ride on Sunday. Let's try out a new place to ride, I said.

Mr. Royale says water no problem now!

O'Bannon Woods State Park (and Harrison Crawford State Forest) is about an hour from Louisville so we hauled the boys over there to see what trouble we could find. There were maps, but neither one of us could read them to save our lives. Shocking, I know.

Yeah both boys together!
(light is weird, Royale does not actually have a trace clip?)

So we picked a day use place to park and picked a trail. (Edit: We ended up doing Cole's Loop)

At first it was a nice trail. Wide and well maintained. We started to go down a slight incline. And it kept going down ... and down ... and down.

Then we took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

Pretty quickly we were INTO THE THICK OF IT and the trail become treacherous alternating between rocks, mud, a steep terrifying ridge on one side, dropping down ledges, and in general footing that the horses really had to pick their way through.

Much of the trail ran along the Blue River

At some point we came upon the Blue River and someone had sort of made kind of a trail leading down to the water. When I point Hampton down a path, he goes. And he has no fear. And I just hang on and let him go. The horses has to slide down this embankment (like sit on their bum slide) and there might have been some shrieking from the BFF but Royale used his brain and picked his way down like a smart boi.

Both horses enjoyed a few minutes in the water. It was lovely! 

Getting back out was less terrifying thankfully.

The second half of this loop (THANK F we picked a trail that did a loop) was much easier although definitely in the wilderness. We never saw another single soul, and the loop trail did not look like it was ridden much. The horses then had the looonnnng incline back up to the trailers. They were both tired and drank well at the trailer. Pretty thankful no one lost a shoe too because we definitely pushed that envelope.

I heard later that the trails at O'Bannon are pretty neglected. Whoops.

I'm not sure if the other trails would be easier but while a really fun time this is not the place for a "drink beer and take photos and relax" trail ride. It was challenging and Hampton got poultice and hoof pack when we got home. Plus bute lol. Royale got a great education on keeping track of his feet and he did super too! 

One well-done Porkchop

Just call us Women from Snowy River!