Thursday, February 14, 2019

Too lame to ride, too obnoxious to retire

As you might have guessed from the lack of Taran posts, things are not going quite as well as we had hoped after the ProStride injection in his RF coffin joint.

I'm not even sure how this horse did what he did.

We gave it a full month to take effect, but... he's not sound. Or I should say, not sound enough for much other than walk work.

The haffies hate it when he goes for hand walks by himself.

So... we've been doing some tack walking to keep him from going stir crazy. Except, last week when we went out he took off at a MONSTER (lame) extended trot, stuck his nose on his chest, and took off bucking. I stayed on, but it was a little sketchy there for a minute.

EARZ ON HIGH ALERT OMG (I risked my life for this pic, normally his ears aren't anywhere this near my face)

The other day I put the boys out to graze for a few minutes while I was doing chores, and when I called everyone in for dinner, Taran gave me a big old EFF YOU. The haffies all came running for food, but T just... well, ran. Like an idiot. Bucking, spinning... clearly whatever is bothering him isn't bad enough to stop him from doing dumb stuff on his own time.

Admiring yourself in the mirror seems like a much more reasonable occupation SINCE YOU'RE LAME.

He's driving the other horses absolutely bonkers, because he gets everybody all riled up and then they just run and run. For some reason, he especially likes chasing Griffy, who is not super excited about Taran's attentions.

This is fine. Everything is fine.

Unfortunately, T seems going back to his bullying ways, I think because he's not getting as much attention and exercise as he is used to.

Also he never gets any cookies anymore.

We discussed options with the vet, and at this point we would need to have MRIs done of both front feet to really understand where we're at, and then formulate a treatment plan. And... well, based on his history (nail through coffin and navicuar bursa in 2011, super-thin soles, ongoing struggles with Cushings, etc), we've made the decision not to pursue additional treatment options.

Haflinger companions are an excellent treatment option. Also moar cookies. 

So technically he's retired, in that we're not going to be pushing toward 4th level or any other sort of goals. When/if he's sound, I'll do more with him riding-wise, and when/if he's not, we'll just tack walk. I have no agenda and no schedule for him. If at some point in the future, he's 110%, maaaaybe we'll think about legging him back up for competition. Maybe not. We'll take each day as it comes.

Honestly this is fun too, when he's not spinning and bolting away from the terrifying bunnies.

I rode him last night WTC both directions for the first time in two months, since he was feeling pretty good (a little NQR here and there, but overall good). We worked on straightness, balance, and self-carriage (fortheloveofgodineedtoletgooftheinsiderein), which honestly are things I will always need work on, but it felt good to work on ME and not have to worry about riding a baby. It was also kind of amazing to have power steering and brakes, and remember what a horse who is truly over his back feels like to ride. Not to mention feeling his biiiig, powerful, rolling canter under me again, even for just half a circle. (Ok I know it's not that big in the grand scheme of things, but it feels light-years different from Leo's flat unbalanced racy baby canter.) Oh, and the bucks were nice too.

So that's the state of things in Taran-land. He's retired, sort of... but maybe not really?

Yeah buddy, I feel the same way. 

15 comments:

  1. i'm so sorry to read this :( here's hoping that maybe after some undetermined period of rest he'll be feeling better? or at least, fine enough to be able to use his powers for good instead of all that above naughtiness?!?

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    1. Some days he seems to feel great, other days not so much. We'll just play it by ear!

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  2. Oh no, this is unfortunate news. Fingers crossed you can keep getting him out and about to keep the squirrels at bay.

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    1. Apparently that half TB is a real thing lol!

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  3. He gave you a lot and you give him so much back, I hope he comes up sound enough so you can keep his hamsters between his ears and from torturing those poor haffies.

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  4. Horses. Always there for us should we need to confirm the masochistic tendencies that go hand-in-hand with equestrianism.

    I hope the picture looks more hopeful as some time passes. ❤️

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    1. Some days the picture looks great, others not so much, but we'll go with whatever we've got!

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  5. Darn it Taran. These horses I swear. But I would make the same call as you did. Maybe he will come around with more time, maybe not. Disappointing but I love how you roll with the punches and take things as they come. What else can you do with horses.

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    1. It is disappointing but honestly the cards are pretty stacked against him at this point. I'm thrilled that we got as far as we did and happy that he's still sound enough to try to get me off. Life is good, you know? :)

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  6. I'm sorry to hear that the injection didn't solve his soundness issues. The title of this really spoke to me because this is exactly where I am with Apollo... he doesn't seem to enjoy his work (or hold up well to harder work) but he is still fairly high maintenance so I can't exactly find him a retirement home. Who doesn't want a hard to catch horse who needs trimming every 4 weeks and sunscreen/fly masks on during the day but taken off at night XD. I'm curious to follow along with how things go with Taran! My only idea was to make him a "pack horse" on trail rides but I'm not sure he'd like that either.

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    1. Seriously why can't they just go with retirement lol??? These high-maintenance horses, man!

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  7. Well, poop! Not the news anyone wanted to hear. But your ability to just flow with it all is very admirable.

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  8. Ugh, that's super frustrating :( Ozzy was in a funny sort of semi-retired limbo his last few years. There were times when he looked really good and we did some pretty serious rides, and there were spells where he just sat in the pasture for months. At first, he was a real PITA about being "retired" but he eventually got used to it and stopped pestering the Fat!Pony. Hoping T will settle into his new non-routine sooner than later, for everyone's sake. I'm sorry to hear the injections weren't a magic fix.

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  9. Aww, I am so sorry, I know that feeling. I'm so glad he lucked out on a place with you where he can rest & see what happens. And be obnoxious, LOL. Solo still considers retirement somewhat of a punishment, but he is less openly resentful of it than he was 3 years ago.

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