Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Update on the state of affairs

Sometimes, life really gets in the way of doing the things we love, like blogging. I've been holding down Wyvern Oaks solo for the last 6 weeks, because my husband has been off in Mexico doing this:


Here's the link to the Washington Post article, and the one from NPR, and the BBC. If you thought my husband was cool because he jousts, his day job is even more amazing. 

As usual, all the shit happens when he's gone. The dogs have started fighting, we had a tree fall down on the fence, and the painters accidentally knocked the hose loose from the washing machine so I flooded the laundry room.

Oh FFS.

Brego started to show signs of another abscess just days before hubby left, and we waited for it to blow but it didn't.
Suspicious looking.

When it didn't blow after two weeks, I had the vet out. When it still hadn't blown 10 days later, she came back, this time with the hospital farrier, and they took xrays to see where everything was located.

See those two dark lines going down from the hoof wall? Those are TWO rather large pockets of infection.

Roughly an hour of (unsedated) digging later, and we were left with this:

Holy hoofs, Brego.

They think that he had a white line infection somewhere deep in his foot (although the bottom of his foot is currently fine, so we had no way of knowing), and that the abscess last year didn't clear out the whole thing. The hole on the bottom right of the picture goes through to his sole (you can stick a shoe nail through, gag), and if you look in the big hole across the top you'll see a bunch of smaller holes. Those are all infection tracks. I'm flushing everything daily with betadine and copper sulfate, and actually can stick a needle in each of those small holes and flush them. Y'all, holes in horse feet are SO WRONG. 

And I know it's crazy, but Brego has been sound this entire time and is currently out galloping around like a nutcase, despite the swiss-cheese-like appearance of his foot. Vet and farrier will be visiting every two weeks together until we get this all cleared up and grown out. Fun times.

As for Paddy, he's doing fine. He's mostly being neglected, because I spend all my time riding Taran. I did have a great ride at my trainer's barn where he wanted to go zooming at the trot but I made him do nothing but laterals... eventually he decided that was too hard and started behaving himself. It's funny how riding another horse lets you figure out how to ride your own horse that much better.

When not being ridden, he helps me eat weed the garden.

Taran continues to be a rockstar. Seriously, I don't know where this amazing little horse came from - he just keeps getting better and better, a little bit every day.

Let's ignore the fact that I'm being left behind and focus on the amazing trot, ok?

We went to our last show of the spring season this last weekend, a 2-day recognized show here in town where we did 1-2 and 1-3 both days. We spent all weekend getting 2nd place behind a lady on her very nice confirmed 3rd level horse. Interestingly, the judge on the first day didn't seem to like Taran much - we put in two solid tests and we got decent enough scores (64% and 62%) but it wasn't as good as I expected. The second day, we had a new judge at C, but the same judge at E. The judge at C scored us 2% ahead on 1-2, and only .2% behind on 1-3, but the judge at E scored us 5.5% and 3.5% lower. The judges scored within 1% of each other for all the rest of the folks in my class, so it really was just me. Her comments were perfectly reasonable and spot on, but it just seems like the scoring was harder for us. Oh well, I have that judge's name and we won't ride for her again if we can avoid it. We still managed to get a qualifying score on 1-3 for the SWDC and GAIC championship rides (65.5%), so we're now basically maxed out on everything we can do at first level (Taran needs 1 more score for a Performance Award, but we'll get that this fall). Time to think about moving up to Second!

All the ribbons.

Also, have some adorable pet pictures, because I have them:

What happens when you fall asleep mid-stretch.

TOES!

Not sure when I'll get back to regular blogging, but hopefully sometime soon. Hope y'all are well!

42 comments:

  1. OMG Brego WTF buddy! Stop trying to grow new life in your feet!!!!

    (also omg your ribbons, omg omg omg.)

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    1. Seriously, he's got the new life going. Gross.

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  2. Such pretty ribbons! I'm glad you're back and not dead in a ditch or something. I was starting to wonder what had happened to you.

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    1. Nope, not dead in a ditch. Just kinda tired lol!

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  3. Moar ribbon pictures please. Ribbons > holes in feet

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    1. Alas, no ribbon pics for a while since we're done with rated shows until September!

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  4. Yuck Brego. How long di they think it will take to grow out? Glad you are having so much fun with Taran.

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    1. Probably 6+ months to grow out. Hopefully we'll get this taken care of though. What a mess!

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  5. GAH, those hoof pictures are INSANE. It really is amazing what horses can just casually deal with. Like, nbd, my foot is just half missing and looks like a flipping monster, whatevs.

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    1. I KNOW! Bregos are weird. Any other horse would be on three legs I'm pretty sure.

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  6. that foot makes me shudder... yikes :( other than that tho, WOW you and Taran OWNED first level in pretty short order. holy smokes. nicely done!!!

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    1. There's always room for improvement at first, we need more engagement and more lengthening and better transitions everywhere... LOL! It's such a process!

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  7. Whyyyy Brego?! I can't believe he was sound with all of that, insanity. But yay ribbons and YAY SECOND LEVEL!

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    1. We, uh, need a few things before we can actually do second, but it's definitely the next thing on the list!

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  8. Holy shit, Brego!!! And poor you for having to deal with all that while hubby is off doing science things. Thanks again for making the time to meet me for dinner and pony talk, I had so much fun! Next time is the Salt Lick in your neck of the woods!

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    1. It was awesome, we definitely have to do it again!

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  9. Yikes Brego! Glad he's sound but hope I never have to deal with hoof craters like that!
    Mucho drama while Hubby's away, but great news in fab show results and continued improvement with Tara & Paddy ☺☺☺

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  10. I was reading about your hubby on Smithsonian and I didn't even realize it! You two are seriously the coolest. You'd have to sedate me if my horse's hoof looked like Brego's. OMG WHAT.

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    1. Haha, I'm the boring one, the hubby is the one with the super cool job. I had to walk away a few times when they were working on Brego's foot because omg you should NOT be able to stick a nail THROUGH their foot. Just no.

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  11. OMG KITTEN TOES!

    Anyway. You've been super busy! And I'm making sacrifices to the horse hoof gods that Penn's foot doesn't end up like Brego's. Because 5 days in and it shows ZERO signs of being ready to blow.

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    1. Moo toes are the BEST. I will also make sacrifices to the horse gods because nobody needs abscesses like those.

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  12. Ack swiss cheese feet! Not okay. But glad he's got some relief! Seriously, every time your hubby leaves the shit hits the fan! Loving those ribbons, Taran is doing great!

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    1. It's kind of a joke how everything breaks when he leaves... only it's not really funny any more.

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  13. Horses are so strange. Like "swiss cheese foot? nbd just gonna go galavant around," but then sometimes it's like "I hurt maaayyyybe a tiny bit somewhere but I don't really know where but I definitely can't work under these conditions."

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    1. Haha, you totally nailed it! "Yes maybe i"m a bit ouchy here but maybe not and OMG DYING NOW". Horses are weird.

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  14. 1) Feet are scary
    2) Omg hooray Taran!
    3) Yay second level!!

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    1. 1. Yes.
      2. He's so cool.
      3. We're gonna die.

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  15. Just found your blog. Dressage, jousting, grays, and haffies? Yes please!

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  16. Missed Paddykis! Congrats at owning first level! And those feet are scary

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    1. Paddykins is perfectly happy with his mowing duties. ;)

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  17. I'm pretty sure I gagged when I saw Brego's foot. You have so much on your plate but you are still showing and taking names. Wow!

    How did your husband get into such a cool like if work? Seriously unusual.

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    1. I actually had to turn away when they were cutting his foot because holes in feet are SO WRONG. Gah. It's super fun sticking a needle in and cleaning everything out 2x/day too.

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  18. Your husband's work is fascinating, you and grey pony look wonderful, and I'm so sorry Brego's hoof is in that condition. I had a pony growing up who lodged a tiny stick straight through the bottom of her hoof. It went so far in that the vet couldn't pull it back out from the bottom. He drilled in the front hoof wall and pulled it out. I tell people about this now, and they look at me like I'm lying, that there's no way you can drill a hoof like that. I was beginning to question my own memory until I saw this post. Now I know I'm not crazy, and I remember things as they were. Hope your boy heals quickly and grows that hoof out :)

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    1. I was pretty shocked to watch the farrier trim those holes out with a hoof knife. But it worked, and he's so much more comfortable now. All we have to do is grow an entire new hoof capsule and we'll be back to normal, lol!

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  19. Um, so I listened to the NPR story in the car the other day! Too cool!

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  20. Oh my, it never gets boring, right? Wish Brego well and congrats on the ribbons! Do not forget the Haffy :D

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    1. The Haffie is not forgotten, I promise. He still gets all the treats!

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  21. O.o That foot, already! I have seen other "cheesy" feet grow in nicely and will have fingers crossed that Brego's does, too.

    Nice going at the show! I have a question (not a dressager so I genuinely don't know). How come the lady with the confirmed 3rd level horse is ALLOWED to go in the 1st level ring and smoke everybody? That seems highly unfair (although that one judge sucked, even I know the scores aren't supposed to be that far apart).

    Had to catch up with you today because I went to a Ren Faire over the weekend and was thinking of your hubby. I had to laugh when the pony/horse ride sign declared, "RIDE A REAL WARHORSE" and there was nary a draft in sight... LOL. Nevertheless, I persuaded my daughter (age 22) to mount up on an attractively-caparisoned spotted TWH because she had dressed up. Made a nice photo but nothing remotely warhorsey about it! ;)

    Last but not least, I knew nothing of an asteroid investigation taking place and am heading off to read all about it. Amazing that it's your hubby taking part!

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    1. The lady has only owned the 3rd level horse for 6 months, and this was her first show. There are no rules against buying a schoolmaster and riding it at lower levels... you can take a GP horse any level if you'd like. :)

      Interestingly, "real" war horses were more like a modern Haflinger or Quarter Horse. 14-15 hh and super sturdy. They wanted short, fast, sturdy horses and excavations have shown that's the size they were. Draft horse breeds actually didn't exist until the 18th century!

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