Long time, no post.

Very little and a whole lot has happened. Honestly? I just wasn’t in the mood to blog.

In May, the best Hermione dog was diagnosed with mast cell. She was doing super well and her tumor was looking great. But, time wasn’t on her side and the tumor grew massively and likely spread. We lost her in August. She was my best friend and companion for over 14 years. The best dog I could have ever asked for. My heart is still broken, but it was time and she was ready to go.

We brought Dulcy into the family pretty much immediately. Marble (who is 13-15) is pretty happy to have a puppy around though she can’t move very well. We’re worried we’ll lose Marble soon, but she’s the best, calmest puppy wrangler we could ask for. Dulcy adores her. Dulcy was pulled from a high volume kill shelter in WV and was fostered in Maryland. But she experienced some trauma and is very skittish. It’ll take time, but we think she’ll get over her fear. She’s very comfortable around us and at home. She’s 16 weeks now. The cats are NOT impressed. We’re working on it.

On the horse front, Nay Nay is doing OK. I’m sort of kind of putting him into work, but he’s still NQR. He’s better than he was mid summer, but ultra weak to the right. Not lame, but almost? His hind end is a mess from Lyme and EPM and I just have to buckle down and start building back muscle slow. But it’s hard and he thinks it’s hard and it’s not fun for either of us. He’s pretty good to the left (and as a result, only wants to work to the left). I need to find some good ground work exercises to start doing that are more interesting that what I’ve been doing.

Then there is the problem child. Why yes, Nay Nay isn’t the problem child. That would be Jiminy. He has a whole slew of issues.

1. Asthma
2. Cushing’s
3. Insulin resistant?
4. Laminitis

The asthma/heaves isn’t new. We’ve dealt with it before. Did an inhaler last year and ventipulmin the past (he actually used up all of the BRAND NEW BOTTLE I BOUGHT FOR BATT prior to his inhaler…) Last year the Aservo EquiHaler worked really well (they are, however, discontinuing the darn thing). This year? It’s not a complete miracle. It’s helping, he is FABULOUS for it (I actually don’t use a halter half the time I use it). But, the vet was out for more blood work (see 2-4) and while he’s improved, he’s still wheezing on the right side of his lungs (the left are showing more improvement) and putting more effort into breathing than should be necessary. They’re harvesting a lot of corn, tobacco, and soy beans right now so it’s possible that is making everything worse. So, we’re going to give it a few days/until next week. If he doesn’t sound like he’s improving or he gets worse, we’ll add ventipulmin to his plan. This actually worked better than anything else in the past so hopefully in conjunction with the inhaler it’ll be magic. I can also get a small bottle unlike the mega bottle I bought Batt before we lost him… Oh. Jiminy is also on zyrtec (10 – 2x/day)

We ran blood on Jiminy and it turns out he has Cushing’s. With his recurrent foundering over the last couple of years, this actually makes sense. He’s not fat. He’s never been fat. So, at least this was an answer. He started on a half tab of prascend daily. He’s not thrilled but it may have been the zyrtec that he was suspicious of vs the prascend. Right now he gets his prascend with no sugar added apple sauce and 10 zyrtec squirted in his mouth every day before we turn out. Turns out, this is his preferred method. If you use an old succeed tube? You don’t even need to any of the pills. Grab the sauce, pop in the pills, add a couple drops of water, shake, and dose. It’s fabulous. James approved.

His blood levels also showed his insulin levels were out of whack. But, before we treated that, my vet wanted to treat him for cushing’s for 30 days and retest. So we just hit the 30 day mark and retested today. I’ll share the results when we have them. We’ve been soaking at least half his hay. I’d soak it all, but that would mean cutting him off from Nay Nay in turnout and I cannot do that. Or making Nay Nay eat soaked hay. I am willing to let Jiminy eat or not eat his soaked hay (somedays he eats it, some days I trash it), but I can’t do that with Mr. Ulcers and Gut Issues. But, outside he eats his hay through a muzzle so it’s something. While I’d like to see his levels improve, I’d also like them to be similar if it means that there is something we can address or fix. Since he seems about the same, I don’t actually expect his insulin levels to have improved. Stay tuned.

We’re also STILL dealing with some laminitis. Again with his freaking right front hoof. Again. I am over this. He’s fine. He’s sound enough. And he has no issue wandering around and exploring (they’re both off the grass this year — Jiminy for obvious reasons and Nay Nay because he can’t graze without Jiminy). He sees the farrier next week and my vet wants a really good trim (he has too much toe right now — his feet are growing way too fast). We’re going to drug him this cycle to see if that process makes it easier for everyone.

This past weekend, I started Nay Nay back into work.

After 6 months off (really a year if you forget his brief bit of work in December), I was entirely too optimistic.

I had plans. Lots of plans.

So, I suspect you all know that Nay Nay had other plans.

I thought I’d lunge him and then walk around for 5 minutes and call it a day. Nothing hard, nothing crazy, but something.

I did lunge him. It started off OK. And then SOMEHOW he managed to get his bridle off (I don’t always lunge with the bridle but I did this time) and decided to bolt when I went to fix it and gallop around my yard and the neighbor’s yard (from the woods) with his saddle, loose hanging bridle, and lunge line. FYI nothing broke. He made his way snorting back to his stall once I opened the barn gate. I took off the bridle, stuck on his halter, and went to walk him back out when BAM. Bolted again with the lead line. This time up the driveway (and into another neighbor’s yard) with the halter, chain, and saddle. Super happy my neighbor’s are tolerant…

At this point (he always comes back, thankfully), I grabbed him, pulled his tack, got my husband out immediately, and tossed him in the round pen. I free lunged until he actually listened (it took a lot longer than it should have) and called it a day.

The next day? Immediately to the round pen. He retained the previous day’s lesson and took himself out to the rail and began moving out. Much better.

Day 3? Less antics. Less bucks, rears, and spins. More trotting.

Day 4? Neighbor’s lawn service was mowing and weed whacking so life was rough. I chose to tack up and lunge vs free lunge in the round pen. He was worked up due to the mowing (he was worked up before I started), but we worked through it all. Then, I got on. I didn’t do much. Walked for 5 minutes in the round pen. But I sat on my horse.

Yesterday, I gave him off. 4 days of HARD work in hot temps (he was hot, sweating, and breathing hard — his choice) earned a day off.

He’s much stronger than the last time he worked. His right lead is much improved — picks it up every time — and his left lead actually exists. He still will cross canter when he’s off balance (he tore up the ground in places thanks to bucks and rears and spins) so if he’s feeling weak, he may lose the lead behind, but he’s holding it better each day. Last summer/fall? He wouldn’t even pick up the left lead at all let alone cross canter so I thinking we’re moving in the right direction. I’ll watch it, but I suspect this is just a weakness issue at this point as he’s better each day.

Since my last post was generally a “I have a massive blood clot and I’m dying,” I figured I may want to post again since I’m still alive. I’m OK. I’m continuing to improve and am no longer in pain (I can drive, woohoo!) but I’m lacking endurance. Severely lacking endurance. To the point that we’re all wondering if I may have also have a pulmonary embolism too… Did I present that way? No. But I also didn’t present like one would for a blood clot so… Either way, treatment was the same. My asthma flared up after I was on thinners but it was classic asthma. I generally don’t have a classic asthma presentation… So yeah. Who knows. Either way, how I am feeling now is typical for post PE so who knows? I see the hematologist in early June and we will go from there.

This year continues to suck. Massively.

My best dog in all the world presented with what we suspect is a large mast cell tumor last week. She went from running around like a fool to acting like a sick, sad sack of Hermione dog. Basically, it ruptured and started the degranulation process. She spent 2+ days throwing up non-stop while barely moving. Then started to perk up. (Tumor was aspirated 2x and we’re waiting on the official results — don’t ask — but at second vet appointment the vet looked at cells himself and saw mast cells). And then the tumor started bleeding again. See, every time she puts pressure on it (it’s on her hip), any scabs seem to come off. Is it healing (the infection) from the inside? No idea. And no I’m dealing with vet offices and no same day sick appointments because no one wants to actually ASK why she needs to be seen OR listen to be when I try and tell them… This is not an issue with the vets but office staff (not all staff, but certain staff and I can’t seem to get the front office staff that always help to answer when I call). But, after multiple calls and begging, I finally got an appointment for today (she’s out of pain killers and antibiotics and is dripping blood). Honestly, I’d take her to the ER if I needed to but I would want to talk to a nurse/tech first which would be possible if I could get a staff member to LISTEN. But, I’d have to follow up in the office again because we need next treatment steps.

As for the horses? They’re doing OK. My husband basically has been their full time caregiver. This has been good for him as he’s learning a lot, especially about handling Nay Nay and his emotions. I’ve finally started with morning chores (feeding/turnout) but he’s doing the rest (I still feel like a need a nap after turnout).

Eventually I’ll get Nay working again, but I need more energy and I’d like to meet with the hematologist first. I have no idea how long I’ll be on blood thinners for and I won’t know until we talk and run tests. If it’s short term (3 months), I’ll probably hold off doing anything major until I’m off (or not). If it’s longer term? Then I’ll just wait until I have endurance. I have a vest but I may invest in a more comfortable one. That’s the funny thing, my PCP immediately said, just be careful. I know you have the horses and ride. Live your life, just safely. And wear a helmet. Her sister has horses and rides and she knows there is no talking a horse person down so she doesn’t try. I told her I added a vest last year and she asked if I could suggest her sister get one.

Anyway, that’s all I got.

Or accidentally trying to die…

Writing this on my phone because I’m not up to using my computer yet but I figured I’d post an update.

Nay Nay has finished his medication and appears to be doing OK. Or so I assume. I haven’t really seen him in days. He got his feet done on Wednesday and was back to his old self for that so all is well on the Nay front, for now.

Jiminy potentially re-foundered on his front left which is his GOOD hoof. Having said that, he’s feeling good, super sound, and back to his ornery self. I guess he was feeling left out during Nay Nay’s medical debacle?

Which brings me to the point of this post.

Thursday night I was diagnosed with a (huge) DVT in my right leg. I had one symptom: pain. After talking with my PCP, it appears I am very lucky they even checked as I displayed no symptoms beyond pain.

Anyway, the pain has been bad (I pretty much couldn’t walk for several days), my mental state/anxiety has been bad, but it is what it is.

I need some testing to determine if I’m a 3 month blood thinner person or a lifer. My horse time will definitely depend on the answer—if I’m off in 3 month, I’ll likely just let Nay sit for a few months longer (once I can walk), but life? As my PCP said, you need to live your life—as safely as possible.

Anyway, just an update. Super down in the dumps but I’m sure I’ll get better. Today’s just rough.

As usual, let’s forget that I don’t post.

For reasons, Nay’s been off since the holidays. I was lacking motivation because it’s been winter and I’m without an indoor this winter (I probably don’t have to be, but I choose to be). And I just haven’t felt like riding. So yeah. I decided to just give Nay some time off.

All was going well. The boys were a little weird about hay this year (I’m not sure if it was them or the hay but they did this to a few different types of hay including some really nice $$$ hay). Anyway, otherwise, all was good. Then about a month ago, Nay Nay started to act…off. When I’d bring him in at night, if he was at the “wrong” gate, he’d basically meltdown. If we grabbed the breakfast buckets before bringing him in? Meltdown. Do something he didn’t like? Meltdown. I chalked it up to winter plus potentially ulcers, but Nay Nay generally goes off his feed when he is ulcerly and he was cleaning his bucket completely… And nothing changes with some meds. I tossed scoping in the back of my mind, but this didn’t feel like ulcers..

As the days went on, the meltdowns got worse. Basically, you’d take him out and he’d rear, buck, and then spin around you. He wasn’t trying to get loose, he was just melting down. Or he’d be very spooky. Things got a bit better with clicker training, but didn’t go away. At the other gate (the “right gate”), things were better until they weren’t. We started either spooking out or walking out then bolting or rearing in slow motion. It was really odd. Getting ready to go on vacation, this had me super concerned.

I decided to work him the other weekend (just ground work) and he was fine. Not entirely sound, but fine. Not spooky, pretty OK, but fine enough. Except he couldn’t bend his neck. Either direction. He almost fell over trying to do carrot stretches.

That evening he walked out of the gate quiet, walked to his stall, then bolted out and galloped to find Jiminy. He didn’t go anywhere because it’s Nay Nay (he saw my neighbor’s construction equipment and decided to stop and graze on our property instead) — meanwhile Jiminy, my husband, AND my neighbor went running to catch him while I came around with the halter I just pulled off (Typically you can let go of Nay in the barn and he go into the stall himself — he’s done this for 4 years).

Anyway, on Tuesday the vet came out (on call vs my normal vet since that’s who I could get out last week). Reading Stacie’s blog, EPM was in lurking. Vet mentioned it, but his neuro exam wasn’t bad. He was having muscle tremors which was super weird and the vet (he did our vaccines this summer, or at least Jiminy’s vaccines and Nay’s rabies since I did the rest lol) said he was way more tense/stressed than this summer. Vet did NOT like how his neck looked so we started banamine and vitamin E. Vet left thinking Lyme. And we discussed neck x-rays if all else was normal.

In the end, my normal vet called me Friday. Nay tested positive for Lyme…AND EPM. Or suspected EPM since we don’t actually know, but his titer was sky high and indicated EPM. So yeah. We’re treating for both.

Right now he’s on minocycline for Lyme and Marquis for EPM. It’s fun. And I’m freaking broke. 3 days later and he seems more comfortable and calmer so there is that. But, he’s off his feed because of course he is…

Oatmeal cream pies for the win though because we’re stuffing his minicycline in pies (with a peppermint center) and he’s happily eating them all up. The marquis is less enjoyable as it’s a paste, but he’s a good boy and takes it.

Anyway, stay tuned.

On Friday, Nay Nay and I took our second trip out to Fair Hill. I found last time that if I head out in the late morning, there are a lot of trailers (at least over at Gallaher Rd), but after 1pm? It’s dead quiet. So we went over after 1pm and were the only trailer. Perfect. He needs to learn to adjust to other horses, but we don’t need to do everything in one day.

We hauled over with our saddle on. Not necessarily because I was going to hop on. But, just in case. I wanted to lunge in tack to add that to our repertoire. And see if we were over the whole trying to roll while lunging. We’ll see. Results are positive.

We got off the trailer and without other horses, Nay was significantly more relaxed. We took our time gathering our equipment (no bridle yet) and took a walk up to the ring. He was good. We ran into a cyclist who was VERY nice to ask if he could ride by and once Nay got a good look, he was fine.

Lunging was both better and worse. He was amped so I just went with it. If he wanted to move, move we were going to do. We started to the right and I just let him canter. And canter. And canter. And when he wanted to trot, we cantered a little more. And did a little more to the left. At the canter and the trot. Nay has struggled a lot at the canter so it was nice to have a nice surface just to actually canter. Maybe next time I’ll bring out my longer line and really work on letting him stretch. But this day just cantering was what he needed. Since we cantered a lot, I didn’t want to drill anything else too much so we did some walk-trot-halt transitions and decided we were good.

And then I decided what the hell. Let’s see if I can get on this monster. He was quiet. Worst case? I’ll die.

I left a rope halter on under his bridle with an extra lead rope just in case and quickly schooled the mounting block. He had tensed up a bit, but didn’t lose his mind. More cars (no trailers, but cars with bike racks) showed up at this point so I just through caution to the wind and hoped on and stuffed a peppermint in his mouth. At that point, I achieved success.

My goal was to see what I could do. If it was walk to the ring and back? Great. If he panicked? We’d stop and school. But we just walked and stopped. Walked and stopped. He was super tense at first (his neck was very hard), but rather than being fast he was slow. So we just took everything in. The rocky ground kind of helped because I tried to keep him on the gravel so he stayed slow (lol) but eventually he moved himself to the grass. Whenever we stopped, we clicked, treated, and got some rubs, and he started to relax. Once we made it towards the ring, he started to stretch out and the reins got longer and looser.

Eventually we made it past all the arenas and took a look at the woods. He seemed to really like the crunchy leaves (why? No idea), but less the squirrels playing in the woods across from us. Once we turned around and wandered in the small field next to the ring we’ve lunged in and explored the area where the 2 horses jumped out of the woods last week. He very much enjoyed the journey around that area and wandering around the outside of the field.

Then I tossed all caution to the wind and decided why not walk through a tunnel. I mean, it’s scary, echoes, and looks terrifying. If I’m going to die, this will be the death of me.

And Nay just walked through the damn thing. WTF? No cares at all.

We didn’t wander too much on the other side. His timer was starting to go off and I didn’t want to get lost. So we just went back through, walked to the area we explored last week (he really started to say I’m DONE! My dollar is up!), but he was good anyway. And then headed back to the trailer and called it a day.

Did we ride long? No. But we were out at Fair Hill for almost 2 hours in total. And for the first ride? Perfect. Way more than I could have ever expected. Best boy ever.

Following the Fair Hill Adventures (hoping to rinse/repeat this week), I rode at home on Saturday. I debated on and off riding as it was super wet out. In the end, I wanted to take advantage of a tired horse from Friday (haha) and figured I could just walk.

Nay was actually great. Other than some carrot stretches, we didn’t actually do any ground work. I just hopped on and off we went. He was good and the ground was actually drier than I expected. We walked and worked on some different things for a while.

And then I decided to trot.

And all hell broke loose.

Sort of.

Kind of.

Right away the groaning and grunting and tantrums started. Because why not?

Did he do anything? Yes and no. He hopped around a little bit and all that got was more trotting (once we halted and backed up). So we trotted. And trotted. And trotted. And trotted. And ran into a tree. And trotted. And trotted.

He was significantly better whenever we trotted over poles because he had to concentrate to go over the poles, but honestly? I’m 95% sure he was attempting 2 things. 1. Attempting to show his displeasure over being asked to work and 2. Trying to scare me to get out of work. I’m 99% sure he was not trying to unseat me because if he wanted to unseat me, he could have actually put effort into getting me off. He didn’t. But, I suspect it was a scare tactic effort of hopping around in hopes he could stand and do nothing.

To the right? Again, same crap. But, the right is less easy for both of us. Same tactics, less smooth. I obviously need to work to the right. Instead of bend, I feel like we’re making right turns. So progress is needed. Poles again are super helpful. So, it’s a work in progress but much progress is needed.

Hopefully one of these days we’ll get to trot on a flat surface. That would be super nice.

We’ve been chugging along here, but I haven’t had anything interesting to post. So I haven’t. That said, we’ve finally had some adventures so back to blogging.

I’m determined to learn to trail ride. Nay Nay has big (very big) shoes to fill. Batt was the world’s best trail horse. And while I don’t think Nay Nay will ever fill those boots, he can at least aim to fit the role of “safe trail horse” or “fun and safe trail horse” or “we can go on a trail and have fun and go back to the trailer and not die trail horse,” right? Or at least that’s the goal.

But Nay Nay has opinions and I’m determined to work up to trail riding. I’m not taking him out, getting on, and expecting it all to go well. But I want to go work my way up to that so I can achieve success.

On Friday, I headed out to Fair Hill in the morning and bought my annual pass. First level of committing to I WILL LEARN TO TRAIL RIDE DAMNIT! And then hitched up my trailer, loaded up Nay Nay, and headed over to the park.

My goal? Get there, look around, and come home in one piece.

And while I had grandiose visions of riding, realistically, that was never in the cards.

We got there, parked, and Nay was fine until I opened the escape door at the exact moment that a pair of riders headed towards our trailer. Nay saw them and broke the trailer tie… but thankfully he walked out of the trailer like a gentleman. For all the crap he pulls, he respects the step up of my trailer and walks out slowly and respectfully. His eyes were popping out once off the trailer, but his feet were firmly on the ground. And despite the anxiety, he registered the clicker click.

After a moment of breathing, I grabbed my gloves (next time, gloves first, then horse), grabbed my whip, and off we went. We grazed for a while and then took up residence in the dressage warmup ring.

Goal there? Move our feet. We ended up lunging the entire way around the ring. I wish I could have recorded it. He looked fantastic. But we lunged at the trot, moving around as we went. Nay was definitely looky and very concerned about walkers and bicycles. LOL. But we did keep moving. I also forced him to lunge through a big puddle.

After we lunged to the left, I took him to the center to work on some other stuff when we almost died. Yes, death.

You see, we were in the center of the arena when 2 horses exploded out of the wood breathing fire (um, walked out of the wood and stood still). Nay basically started rearing and spinning when he saw them. I yelled my apologies to these ladies who thought I was insane with my crazy horse who I struggled to get under control… Eventually I did and they moved on.

We did lunge to the right, again around the arena, but it was less pretty (we also struggle to the right so we need to work that way). But, we got it done. After we worked on backing and regaining focus.

While we were backing I caught 2 horses walking towards us from the other direction. Not wanted to have another incident or destroy the ring again (I had just managed to stomp all of our foot prints/rear marks), I walked out of the ring and let Nay graze. Unlike the first pair, this pair called out hello to us and started chatting as they approached. Nay looked up, saw them, heard their voices, and let out a deep breath, and started grazing again. They stopped near us, chatted for 5+ minutes, and all was good. I think the calling out was biggest difference. It makes all the difference at home when my husband approaches and calls out. After they left, Nay wanted to follow, but he was happy enough to walk the other direction.

We ended up going on a 15-20 minute walk and explored the park. We chatted with a couple and their dogs and grazed as needed. We did some backs and halts when we needed to engage the brain and made good use of the clicker (carrots were a no, but nilla wafers were a yes). In the end, we headed back to the trailer and he was 1000% more confident than when we first headed out.

I rode my horse.

After who knows how long, I actually rode my horse on Sunday. And Monday.

What is this witchcraft?

Sunday started off with lots and lots of neighbor noises. Chainsaws and leaf blowers and other “fun” sounds. But clickers and cookies and groundwork and Nay quickly focused in on work. Anyway, I tacked him up before groundwork, thinking that if he was quiet, I’d get on, and if not, no worries.

And he was good! I’ve ben working on lunging to the right. The right in general has been a struggle. He isn’t bad. But he falls in. So, lately I’ve just been pushing him out on our circle. Nothing crazy, just respecting space while also forcing him to use muscles he doesn’t want to use. Each time, it gets better. (we’re sort of/kind of lunging but also not? Not working on a huge circle or worrying about speed, just following commands).

Anyway, I got on. Which earned someone a click and cookie. And walked. And explored. He was VERY good. It appears Nay really likes walking over logs. A lot.

I also trotted. I short half loop in each direction. It went fine. Nothing exciting, but fine. Regardless, he was the best boy ever.

I had some time on Monday so we headed out to repeat our exercises.

A brief lunge. Exercises over our 4 poles (spaced out like a clock) at the walk and trot both ways — he’s getting so much better! And ignoring the neighbors and their weird music and whistling. Following all this? I got on. It went well. Again. Easy walking and exploring and weed eating. We walked our logs and explored and listened to Jiminy call when we left his view. And then. Then. THEN. We trotted.

Spicy.

I mean, not at first. We trotted. At little in and on the edge of control but it was fine. And then someone stupidly trotted a log. You see, Nay was hyper focused on his log. Like stupid hyper focused. So I agreed. We had a slow and in control trot at that point so why not? You know why not? Because the entire wooded area is not flat. So we trotted and got super enthusiastic. There was squealing. And head tossing. But it was fine. So we trotted to the right. The right was quieter. Except we trotted the top area. And there was another log (I completely forgot about this log), but this log is smaller so I figured we’d be fine.

HAHAHAHAHA.

It was a log you could post over, but someone decided he needed to jump over it and try to buck on the landing. Going slightly downhill because that’s what you do. Right? So we got regrouped without walking and continued trotting without breaking to the walk. And it was fine. And being stupid, after a while, we reattempted the bigger log a few times, landing, halting, backing. So after a few spicy logs with a spicy, happy horse (JUMP — an 18 inch log at that), I figured I’d trot a circle and call it a day.

HAHAHAHAHA.

Nope.

SAY SPICY SPICY came out.

You see, trotting isn’t fun. Backing isn’t fun, and not jumping isn’t fun. But what’s especially not fun? Being told what to do.

Someone got angry spicy.

Yep.

He started grunting and swinging his head and squealing (we had to spin a few times). Then, I yelled “grrrr” back at him ever time he did anything and we trotted for 15 minutes until we looked like a horse instead of a spicy rolling meatball. I’m not sure it was ever pretty or perfect, but it was better than the ugliness he tried to roll out. He did try to toss out his best “I’m trying to scare you” tricks, but instead got my “grrrrrrr trot spicy meatball” response. He was thoroughly confused.

FYI, at no point did I growl. I literally just said “grrrr.” It seemed to work.

(yes, the log was a bad idea, but it uncovered the holes that needed to be uncovered, plus he was entirely too happy about it).