The Repurposed Horse

Tonight, I had a freaking fantastic amazing wonderful lesson on my badass ASB. But. I am waiting on media. So today's post is going to be about my buddy Griffin, and his eyeball, which have been consuming a large amount of my barn time lately. (((WARNING, IF YOU DO NOT LIKE EYEBALLS, DO NOT READ THIS POST))) Griffy and me at his second show ever. Griffin recently (3 weeks ago ish) had a growth removed from his left eyeball. It was suspected to be a squamous cell carcinoma, although the test results haven't come back yet. He came back from the hospital with ointments galore, and a fancy hood to protect his eyeball from harm. He and Leo were eyeball twins for a while there. Griffin's surgery occurred before Leo's ulcer. Anyways. Griffin is a saddlebred, and he is very ~sensitive~. He also has aural plaques, which has led to him despising having his ears touched. Seriously, this horse's bridle goes on in several pieces, and he only has a browband at shows...

EYE = OPEN!!! Leo is officially done with his recovery period.  He is off bute, off atropine (which was keeping his pupil dilated), and off of whatever the other ointment was (thanks, brain, for forgetting).  This is incredibly exciting, as we are setting our sights on our First Real Show in just under one month.  (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)   From Monday - our first ride post injury. Although Leo is in now way, shape, or form a hunter, we will not be doing jumpers for his first show.  I want to set him up for success, and as I have never actually done jumpers (outside of the mini-event), and have no idea what his brain will be like at a show, we are going the super safe and easy route.  He will be entered in crossrails, with the plan being a default to ground poles if the brain is overwhelmed, or a move up to either 2' Schooling or Baby Greens if the brain is present and accounted for.  I'm choosing not to be competitive over a complete a...

Still dilated, but fully opened.  <3

Because what else do I have going on in my life right now? Without the halter, this was gone in 30 seconds.  Leo's pain levels have yet to reach a level that the vet considers 'manageable.' He is extremely sensitive to light, is still tearing, and is still squinting whenever his eye protection is removed.  Thankfully, Leah ( Confessions of a Dressage Barbie) , was able to loan me a couple of items that will hopefully provide the poor guy with some relief!  Leah is, by the way, one of the most amazing humans on the planet and I am so, so grateful that she lives relatively nearby! I call this the 'extreme bug eye' look She loaned me a racing hood with a protective bubble that is about 1000x better than the fly mask - for one thing, it's protected if Leo starts rubbing his eye to try and itch it, and for another he actually seems to find it pretty comfortable to wear; he kept it on all day without any issue! And really, he looks quite dashing in a...

In my last post, I mentioned that Leo's eye has been having some issues - for almost a week now, it's been squinty and runny. The vet looked at it on Wednesday, determined there were no ulcers, prescribed ointment, and told me to let her know if it got any worse. I wasn't able to make it out to the barn over the weekend, but he was still getting his ointment. Upon my arrival out there today, the first thing I did was pull him out of the pasture to check his eye...And it was worse. (Note - if eyeballs freak you out, maybe stop reading now) This is how it looked Friday. Thankfully, the vet was already out this morning to do a lameness exam and joint injections on other horses. She looked at it and decided to start with sedation so that she could do a more thorough examination - Leo hates her (unfortunately, because she's a pretty awesome lady) - and last week he was a nightmare to get to stand still.  Drunk bb Once the happy drugs kicked in, the eye was re-s...

Leo is a registered American Saddlebred. So legit. I know essentially nothing about saddlebred genealogy, but I was able to find out some information on his ancestors through  The American Saddlebred Blog .  I was most excited about this photo - as soon as I saw it I guessed that it was going to be related to Leo in some way...for what I think are pretty obvious reasons. from The American Saddlebred Blog, reposted with permission That's Center Ring, Leo's great great great grandsire.  If you look closely, he even appears to have a little white patch on his belly!  I have yet to find photos of Leo's parents (Sire: Vanilla Ice, Dam: Rachel's Choice), but it was pretty cool to get to see some older pictures of his further-back relatives! from the American Saddlebred Blog, reposted with permission Starheart Stonewall ties Leo into the Stonewall line, which is kind of a Big Deal in saddlebred land.  One of his offspring was a stallion called Absolut...

Last weekend, I made a pretty amazing consignment find while I was visiting the tack store in St Louis. NWT. They had a brand new Ogilvy gummy pad, dressage cut, for almost $100 cheaper than the online price with shipping!!!  It doesn't fit under my jump saddle particularly well, but it was too good of a deal to pass up, and it does ~work~ with the jump saddle...it just kind of sticks out a bit. Okay maybe a lot. It's fine.  I love it.  And someday I'll have a dressage saddle to use it with.  I may have spent the rest of the week scouring ETT and the rest of the internet for a good deal on a used jumper cut one.  It makes a huge difference in the level of back pain that I have while riding, and it looks great (minus the sticking out part). My first ride with this pad was most excellent.  By the end of the it, I was ready to write a post about how insanely proud my horse was making me. He made friends with a mini - which is a pretty big de...

Before diving into the main point of this post, I need to take a minute to give a huge major gigantic THANK YOU to Hawk at No Longer Fiction  for the most excellent 2016 Blogger Gift Exchange gift -- she and Fiction sent Leo a super adorable tub for treats (everyone who has seen it so far wants to know where they can get one of their own), plus a supply of Red Bird mints.  I'd actually never given Leo mints before, but he is completely obsessed with them now.  He has learned the 'crinkly wrapper' cue.  (the success of the mints with Leo prompted me to purchase a container of them to give out with all of my horsey Christmas gifts).  Thank you, Hawk and Fiction!!! So adorable. One of the things that I struggle with the most as a rider is relaxing through my forearms.  I have a tendency to grab and hold when things start to feel out of control, which is not particularly productive - especially when you are riding a highly sensitive, reactive horse that d...

Since I started this blog in, like, August, I'm not going to do a year in review that goes month-to-month.  My year in horses was essentially this: I started working at the barn to pay for lessons -> I picked up more barn hours to pay for a half lease -> half lease ended with an injury to the mare / her owner deciding to move her to a different barn -> I started a big kid job -> I bought a horse -> I became so busy working at the barn that I began running out of time to work said horse.  2017 is here, and I am so ready for it.  As the college students return from break, my hours at the barn are going to return to manageable levels.   On that note, here are my horsey goals plus one non-horsey goal. (1) Successfully complete a Starter level horse trial or mini event with Leo by October. (2) Successfully complete a BN level horse trial with an horse (if Leo's not ready, one of the school horses) to build up my own confidence and experience le...