What every horse person should know about head shaking syndrome - In memory of Echo

Long-time readers may remember my Baby Racehorse, Echo. Sunday marked one year since I decided that we could not treat his terrible disease, head shaking syndrome, and donated him to UC Davis to be part of their research program on head shaking. For those of you who are not familiar with this disease, I'd like to take a moment to share what I learned in hopes that if you come across a horse with these symptoms, you'll be able to identify them and know what your options are.

Quite probably the fanciest horse I will ever own.

Headshaking is a syndrome where the horse involuntarily flips or shakes his head in a vertical motion. The tell-tale action is the sudden jerk, like a bee flew up his nose. Horses also frantically rub their noses/faces on anything to relieve the pain, often causing sores or cuts. It most commonly occurs in TB geldings between 7-9 years of age. It can be seasonal, with summer being the worst time. The initial trigger is unknown - there are over 60 proposed triggers, but thus far research shows nothing concrete.

So gorgeous

What causes the sudden jerk is a response to neuropathic pain along the trigeminal nerves in the face. Vets think it's a sudden, sharp pain like the pain of a migraine headache in a human. In Echo, this pain manifested itself in several ways. He rubbed his face so hard on trees, fence posts, and the water trough that he cut his face and mouth. He would stand with his head submerged - up to his eyes - in the water trough. Because Echo's HSing was photic (caused by strong sunlight), he could not eat during daylight hours, and would stand with his face in his feed tub, unable to take a single bite yet so obviously hungry. He went from being a sweet, calm horse to one that was irritable, spooky, and unpredictable. Under saddle, he would slam on the brakes to rub his face frantically against his front leg, and several times almost pulled his bridle off. He'd fling his head in the air unpredictably, or tuck his nose to his chest in response to the pain in his face, then buck and bolt. He would also "black out," where he would carry his head up and to the right, completely oblivious to anything in front of him, any voice or rein commands, anything. At his worst, he was dangerous to handle and ride, and was in terrible, terrible pain.

Because the cause of head shaking is unknown, it's difficult to treat. I would best describe it as throwing the kitchen sink at the problem and hoping that something miraculously helps the horse. We tried a UV-blocking mask (this helped some), a nose net (helped some), magnesium (might have helped?), cyproheptadine and carbamide (both antihistamines, and both on the USEF illegal drug list), and Dex pulse therapy. We considered doing a permanent block of the trigeminal nerve, but long-term success (that is, more than one year) in most cases is low and there is a high chance of making the HSing even worse, so we chose not to follow that route.

Echo's UV mask

About this time, I found another horse owner in Austin who had been managing her HSer for the last 8 years. She kept him at a VERY nice boarding facility, and was able to do a few schooling H/J shows with him. She wrote me this about her experiences (reposted with her permission):

"I feel so much pain for you reading your story and thinking back over my years of heartache trying to manage Ian's HS.  I spent so much money trying everything under the sun.  Once his HS was "managed" I spent a ton of money on body work etc to undo whatever was probably already there and whatever all the tension from the pain caused.  I certainly saw amazing results and had a horse I loved to ride, but in hindsight, my choices in how to manage him leaving no stone unturned because I couldn't bear to see him in any pain, the money I spend trying everything under the sun plus keeping what did work going did which was 10s of thousands over the 8 years, going to the barn to take care of him every single night, not riding in lessons most of the year because I only rode him after dark which also then meant I rarely saw my husband during the week because I'd be at the barn until 10pm all seem pretty crazy.

I know I kept going with Ian long after anyone else would have and if I'd decided to put him down I knew any of my friends would have done it long before me, but I look back and can't believe what I went through and what I did for him every single day for 8 years.  I honestly was relieved in a way when his vision started to go [and I had to retire him].  He was still doing great and fun to ride but I just couldn't do the constant maintenance anymore.  Had I known he could live outside in retirement I would have retired him a long time ago. However, it's possible he wouldn't have done so well in retirement a long time ago.  His HS was the best it had ever been when I retired him.  That "best" still required a lot of effort and money.  I look back and wonder what life would have been like if I'd put him down before I committed much of my life to trying to make him well.  

One of the hard things with HSers is that you know for some horses the solution is simple so it feels like if you just keep trying, you'll find that thing that makes your HSer better.  And if you quit, what if there really was a simple solution and you just didn't find it.  So many HSers seem to be really talented and wonderful horses too.  It's torture and if I were giving advice to a friend 8 years ago with Ian, knowing what was in store, I would have advised that friend to quit trying and put him down to end his pain.  I physically had the money to spend but never would have imagined just how much I would sink into maintaining him and in hindsight I think I would also advise a friend to not only end the horse's suffering but it's not worth the emotional and financial cost.  I love Ian dearly and can't imagine my life without him but the cost, in so many ways, has been significant.   Obviously I didn't take that path I would advise and it's easier to give that advice than take it but I'm glad to hear you are being realistic about the possible outcome. There is no easy answer.  My research does tell me this condition can be extremely painful.  My opinion is that when Ian is snorting and wiggling his nose, that is not pain, but when he flicks his head or flings it, that is pain and when he flings his head so hard his feet come off the ground, that is significant pain.  So I tried to keep that in mind when I was trying to get his symptoms under control and had decided he would not spend another summer suffering. "

This letter was perhaps the nicest gift anyone could have given me. She laid out exactly what Echo and I were in for with the head shaking, in terms of time, money, and emotion - but most of all, the pain that Echo was in. I realize that there are many people out there with HSers that successfully manage the symptoms, or they try for years to find that "magic bullet" that helps their horse.  With Echo, I simply could not stand to see him in so much pain despite everything we tried. I chose to donate him to the UC Davis research program on head shaking, in hopes that he could help teach us something about this awful disease, and maybe find a cure.

So my plea to you, as horse lovers and advocates, is that if you see a horse exhibiting these behaviors, don't immediately attribute them to the horse being naughty - it may be a response to sudden and severe pain. And if you're shopping for a horse, keep your eyes open. This is a terrible disease, and the cost is so high for both horses and humans.

For more detailed information about my experiences with Echo, here are a few links to old blog posts (Warning: these are not happy posts):

• Diagnosis - Headshaking
• Headshaking - good days and bad
• Making the impossible decision

I hope you are at peace, my little Echo. It was the best I could do for you.

Chapters in life you’d rather forget

After yesterday’s silly post, this one may require Kleenex.

Those of you who have been reading for a while will remember my OTTB Echo, who I acquired in February of last year and was diagnosed with Headshaking Syndrome over the summer. We tried so many things to treat his terrible pain, but sadly, none them really worked for him. With my vet’s help, I made the decision to send him to UC Davis to be a part of their research program on Headshaking Syndrome.

(For a description of Headshaking Syndrome, visit this post. For a synopsis of what happened, visit this post.)

Echo was only in my life for about 6 months last year. I don’t have a lot of happy memories of him, and we never really had time to bond. Most of my memories of how much pain he was in, how hard we all tried, and how much it sucked to give up and put him on that trailer. It’s a chapter of my life I’d rather forget, or that I wish never happened because it was so awful. But it did happen, and I can’t forget it. But what do I do with the tangible things from it?

I admit, I don’t have much - some print copies of pics from our only dressage show, and his halter from the track. But what do I do with them? The prints were hanging in my office, but I took them down and they are now face-down on my desk. The halter is hanging on the back of the tack room door. I won’t put it on anyone else – maybe it’s weird but I just feel wrong doing that. I don’t want to throw these things away but I also don’t want to make a shadow box or some other box of memories from them. There’s just … not enough. I don’t want to forget, but at the same time I don’t really want to remember. But then I feel guilty that he somehow didn’t mean more to me. A lot of people really went out of their way to find him for me, thinking that he’d be the perfect horse. And maybe he would have been, if only. If only…

Not every horse is a heart horse, even with the best intentions and a bright start. That’s how horses go sometimes. But what do you do with the “things” you collect while they are in your lives?

Photo courtesy of Lauren Mauldin

Making the Impossible Decision for Echo

It’s hard to keep a blog when you don’t feel much like writing, because you haven’t got much positive to say. This is a long post, and it sums up what’s been going on in the last month.

A month ago, I was trying to be positive. The Quiessence was helping Echo. His headshaking symptoms were better, but still there. He had started eating at normal times, which made management easier.

But Echo was still in pain. He would bite the barn half-wall or the edge of the water trough and hold it for minutes at a time. He’d bite Cash constantly. He liked to submerge his face in the trough, up to his eyeballs, holding his breath until he had to come up for air. I can only guess that the water provided some relief, since he also likes to have his nose hosed (but now hates having his body hosed, and flings his head about maniacally while being bathed).

So we tried another round of Dex Pulse Therapy, which did nothing for him at all. Then we tried the Cypro and the Carba, which maybe helped his sneezing and snorting a little (which makes sense, it’s an antihistamine) but did not affect any of the other headshaking symptoms.

In desperation, I began to consider doing a permanent block of the branch of the trigeminal nerve that goes to the upper nose. Unfortunately, the block requires general anesthesia, the success rate is less than 50%. In a significant number of horses, the attempted block makes the symptoms worse, and the result is having to euthanize the horse. I even contacted USEF to see if they would allow a horse with the nerve block to compete, but they would not. Given the cost and the risk factors, plus the fact that Echo would not be able to show, we decided that the permanent block was not an option.

I rode him a few times, always in an arena. Under saddle, he rubs his face so hard that he has almost pulled his bridle off several times. I have learned to do up the throatlatch much tighter than usual since having a bridle come off mid-ride isn't safe. He’s gone from being a confident baby jumper to stopping in front of a single ground pole and refusing to go over it, to the point of rearing up and spinning away. He sucks back, tucking his nose to his chest, and he has become very spooky, whereas before he was a pretty cool customer.

Because I felt like I was running out of options and was no longer able to view Echo’s behaviors objectively (that is, green horse issues vs. headshaking issues), I put him in training with Paige, who I take jumping lessons from. We agreed to a two-week trial, so see if he would improve at all. Two weeks is up today, and I’m sad to say that while I can tell he’s been ridden by a pro (he doesn't fall in as badly to the right and he’s more forward in general), the HS behaviors are still there. The scariest one is what Paige refers to as “blacking out,” where he sort travels with his head way up in the air and to the right and just sort of zones out. You can’t turn him or stop him, he’s so focused on the pain in his face that everything else ceases to exist. I can’t even imagine how dangerous this would be if it happened in front of an XC jump, or out foxhunting.

Paige told me that if I want to keep trying, she’s willing to help me, but we could spend huge amounts of time and money and it could go nowhere. Despite being on a whole bunch of drugs and supplements (the bill for that stuff alone is over $250/month), he’s not getting better. In fact, he’s back to rubbing his face so hard that he’s got cuts on his nose and gums. I had hoped that with the shorter days, his HSing might be seasonal and the symptoms would improve, but they are not.

What it comes down to is this:

• Pain – Despite all the drugs (and we are literally out of options), Echo is still in pain, even just out in the pasture. I can’t make him feel better, and this will be something he will have to suffer for the rest of his life.
• Safety – I don’t feel safe riding Echo. He’s not being naughty, but he cannot control his responses when his face hurts, and we cannot predict when an episode will occur. He also flips his head viciously when being bathed, and when his symptoms were bad this summer, it was almost dangerous to handle him because of the head flipping.
• Emotions – Any time your horse isn't right, it’s emotionally draining. You keep hoping that the next thing will work, and then the next, and the next. When do you stop trying? Horse-wise, I have already been through the deaths of Saga and Oberon this year, and I am having a very hard time emotionally handling Echo’s HSing. 

And then randomly through a Yahoo group, I found another horse owner in Austin who has been managing her HSer for the last 8 years. She kept him at a VERY nice boarding facility, and was able to do a few schooling H/J shows with him. She wrote me this about her experiences (reposted with her permission):

"I feel so much pain for you reading your story and thinking back over my years of heartache trying to manage Ian's HS.  I spent so much money trying everything under the sun.  Once his HS was "managed" I spent a ton of money on body work etc to undo whatever was probably already there and whatever all the tension from the pain caused.  I certainly saw amazing results and had a horse I loved to ride, but in hindsight, my choices in how to manage him leaving no stone unturned because I couldn't bear to see him in any pain, the money I spend trying everything under the sun plus keeping what did work going did which was 10s of thousands over the 8 years, going to the barn to take care of him every single night, not riding in lessons most of the year because I only rode him after dark which also then meant I rarely saw my husband during the week because I'd be at the barn until 10pm all seem pretty crazy.

I know I kept going with Ian long after anyone else would have and if I'd decided to put him down I knew any of my friends would have done it long before me, but I look back and can't believe what I went through and what I did for him every single day for 8 years.  I honestly was relieved in a way when his vision started to go [and I had to retire him].  He was still doing great and fun to ride but I just couldn't do the constant maintenance anymore.  Had I known he could live outside in retirement I would have retired him a long time ago. However, it's possible he wouldn't have done so well in retirement a long time ago.  His HS was the best it had ever been when I retired him.  That "best" still required a lot of effort and money.  I look back and wonder what life would have been like if I'd put him down before I committed much of my life to trying to make him well.  

One of the hard things with HSers is that you know for some horses the solution is simple so it feels like if you just keep trying, you'll find that thing that makes your HSer better.  And if you quit, what if there really was a simple solution and you just didn't find it.  So many HSers seem to be really talented and wonderful horses too.  It's torture and if I were giving advice to a friend 8 years ago with Ian, knowing what was in store, I would have advised that friend to quit trying and put him down to end his pain.  I physically had the money to spend but never would have imagined just how much I would sink into maintaining him and in hindsight I think I would also advise a friend to not only end the horse's suffering but it's not worth the emotional and financial cost.  I love Ian dearly and can't imagine my life without him but the cost, in so many ways, has been significant.   Obviously I didn't take that path I would advise and it's easier to give that advice than take it but I'm glad to hear you are being realistic about the possible outcome. There is no easy answer.  My research does tell me this condition can be extremely painful.  My opinion is that when Ian is snorting and wiggling his nose, that is not pain, but when he flicks his head or flings it, that is pain and when he flings his head so hard his feet come off the ground, that is significant pain.  So I tried to keep that in mind when I was trying to get his symptoms under control and had decided he would not spend another summer suffering. "

Y’all, that’s what Echo and I have ahead of us. I just can’t do it, and I can’t put Echo through that. 

So, I have decided to donate Echo to the University of California at Davis. He’ll be shipped out there in the next 7-10 days. Dr. Madigan and his team are doing ongoing research on headshaking, and Echo will be part of their research program. It’s likely that they will observe him and run tests for a few weeks, and then he will be PTS. My hope is that he will be able to contribute in some way to further the knowledge of this awful disease, and of course, that one day soon he’ll be able to run in the great golden pasture pain-free.

I am honestly not sure what to do in the meantime. I had thought to take some pictures, but like with Saga, I want to remember him when we had our blue-ribbon “winning” day at our first h/j mini show, instead of now with cuts on his face from rubbing. Every time I see him I cry, so that’s hard too. I just feel kind of lost and adrift and sick to my soul.

My poor little Echo-Gecko. I am so, so sorry we couldn't help you.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Mauldin.

Echo lesson videos - Hindsight for headshaking symptoms

Because I am actually starting to feel positive about riding Echo again (and thanks to all of you who listened to me whine and mope about HS essentially being a death sentence), I went and looked at some videos of our last jumping and dressage lessons. I’d never gotten around to posting them before, because shortly after the lessons, things went downhill dramatically and I stopped riding. Plus, it’s hard to look at videos when you think you’re never going to get to ride your very lovely horse ever again.

As I watched, I noticed that was had some really nice moments. And then I saw the really, really bad moments. Moments where he flipped his head. Moments where he bucked and bolted. Moments that I now know were his reaction to the pain he experiences from headshaking syndrome. Hindsight is, as then say, 20/20.

I don’t actually remember the head flipping much, but I do remember the buck-and-bolt thing getting worse and worse. At the dressage show, he “spooked” at a horse doing tempis, at another horse in the mirror, and a few other random things. But Echo’s not a spooky horse, so why would he suddenly have such a dramatic reaction? When we went XC schooling, he did it several times, and I thought it was in response to another horse coming at him – except that in the worst instance, the horse was 50+ yards away, so it didn’t make sense. Now, I don’t think he was spooking at anything other than the pain in his face.

So here are the videos. First up, jumping. Please ignore my form and look at my lovely gonna-be-an-eventer-not-a-hunter pony. And look for the head flip at 7 seconds in.

Second, our dressage lesson, in which we have the best canter transition EVER at 3 seconds. Didn’t see that one coming, did you? But lest you get too excited, watch him start to suck back as we come around the circle, tuck his head to his chest at 12 seconds, then buck and bolt at 14 seconds. I yelled at him and he came back to me, but still, it’s not the kind of behavior you want under saddle. Plus, how can you reprimand a horse for a response to pain that he cannot control?

My hope is that with the Mg he's now on, and with a second round of Dex Pulse Therapy (we started today, per my vet), that his symptoms will be much better under saddle. In fact, I have a lesson scheduled with a new eventing trainer on Sunday! My plan is to ride Red (YAY FEERLESS WAR PONY!!!), but bring Echo and longe him and ride him lightly in the (relative) safety of an arena. Hubby is traveling again, and so are all my regular riding buddies, and I don't want to get on Echo unless there's someone there to dial 911. Just in case, lol! We'll see how the HS symptoms are then... it will be the first real test.

Headshaking - Moving in the right direction (we hope)

I know, it’s been a while. I could use the excuse that I was on vacation, but that would only be partly true. Initially I didn’t post because I didn’t have any good news to share, and then it was because I was afraid to jinx things. So here’s what we’ve been up to:

The last time I posted, we were about to try low levels of Dex to get Echo’s HS back under control. His symptoms were as bad as they’d ever been. Well, we tried the Dex (4 mg on Aug 5, and 6, then 8 mg on Aug 7 and 8), and it had absolutely no effect (in contrast, he was almost symptom-free after the first dose of the Dex Pulse Therapy). Echo continued to be unable to eat at dinner, as well as flicking his head and jerking. 8 mg of Dex was the max my vet wanted to try, so we discussed plans B, C, and D.

• Plan B – start him on 10+ G (that’s GRAMS, not milligrams) of Magnesium per day. I ordered Quiessence, and bought human-grade Mg pills to feed in the meantime. The jury is out as to why Magnesium works for some HS horses, but it does work. Cheap, easy, and legal. Definitely worth a try.
• Plan C – start him on a combination of Cypro and Carbamide. These drugs are USEF illegal and can have nasty side effects, but they have a high percent chance of working… at least for a little while. I ordered almost $200 (1 month of Cypro + 1 week of Carba) from a compounding pharmacy.
• Plan D – the vets (I’m working with two) would do more research on nerve blocks for his face. This is the same block they use for dental work, and the more I learn about it, the more I don’t want to go there. 

I started the people-grade Mg on August 5, and the Quiessence arrived on the 9th so I discontinued the Mg then. We also changed up Echo’s feeding schedule – he was getting more and more frustrated about not being able to eat dinner, pawing, walking around, and generally being (understandably) pissy. So, on the 6th I gave him a flake of alfalfa at dinner instead of his grain, and after a moment of hand-feeding, he dove right in and polished off the entire flake. Since then (and it’s been two weeks), we have been 100% successful in getting him to eat a flake of alfalfa at dinner time, and then eat his grain between 9 and 10 pm, when it’s dark and we do night check. It’s not the easiest schedule to deal with, but it’s working and he’s eating.

By the time the Cypro and Carba arrived on the 14th, Echo had been eating well for week and the flipping symptoms had gone away entirely. I consulted with the vet and we decided that the massive doses of Mg were doing something, and to hold off on the big drugs unless we absolutely needed them. It’s now been about two and a half weeks since we started the Mg, and we seem to be in a steady place. Echo eats, and the worst of the symptoms have gone. He’s not flipping, rubbing his face frantically, snorting, or sneezing. However, he is still chewing on wood and the water trough, and when he’s having a bad day, he’s very aggressive to Cash and Red. Cash currently looks like a chew toy, poor man, but when Echo’s feeling OK, they are BFFs and eat out of the same dish. It’s sort of an abusive relationship.

On the 8th, another lady in Austin whose horse was also recently diagnosed with HS kindly came out and tried some very gentle massage techniques on Echo. I’d noticed that because of the jerking and flipping, Echo had developed a very odd set of muscles on his neck, and I figured he was probably pretty sore. Unfortunately, we had to take off his Guardian mask to do the massage, and in less than 5 minutes his HS symptoms started to appear. It’s hard to know whether it was the sunlight (it was early evening) or the fact that we were working on his poll and neck that caused the symptoms to appear, but they were quite strong and sudden. We put his mask back on and worked on his butt and shoulders instead, which he seemed to like. I should probably do an actual experiment and take off his mask during the day to see if the symptoms reappear so quickly, but frankly, it’s hard to do anything that I think will cause his symptoms to worsen.

Guardian mask - what all the cook kids are wearing.

I actually took Echo on a short trail ride on the 10th, and other than trying to bite Red (a relic from his racing days, I think – he tries to bite any horse that’s next to him), he was pretty good for not being ridden in almost 5 weeks. We had two episodes of head-rubbing, but if that’s the main symptom under saddle, then I’m OK with that. Yesterday (the 20th), I longed him briefly for the first time in 6 weeks, and while he was quite zoomy and didn’t want to pay attention, it went well enough. No sneezing, snorting, or any other symptoms. Of course, it was dusk so the light was very low, but still, it’s a start.

My plan right now is to continue light work and try to get Echo legged up again. I was looking at some videos of our last lessons, and thinking how we had some nice moments. It would be nice to get that back and improve upon it. I am also going to talk to my vet about trying another round of DPT. Echo’s symptoms are much better, but the fact that he’s still chewing on things tells me that he’s still uncomfortable. If my goal is to keep symptoms manageable, I’m there, but if my goal is to make him completely comfortable, we've got a ways to go. And I really don’t want him to be miserable.

Headshaking Syndrome - good days and bad days

I've started a daily diary of Echo's headshaking symptoms, along with treatments. I'm trying to make a page that shows my spreadsheet, but so far Blogspot is not cooperating with Google Docs, so you'll have to wait for the nitty-gritty details. Let's just say that there are days when the only symptoms he shows are sneezing and a little nose-rubbing, and days when he's so uncomfortable that cannot eat at all, unless it's pitch black out. Those are the days that break my heart.

Before I get into things, let me define the behaviors that Echo shows as a result of headshaking:

• Rubbing his nose/face on anything and everything, hard
• Snorting and sneezing (most noticeable when he's running around, or while eating)
• Pausing while eating - just sort of standing in front of his feed bowl, looking like he wants to eat but just can't. These pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes, and sometimes they're as long as his entire dinner time. This is when he just can't eat.
• Flipping his head and neck in an up-and-down motion
• Jerking his head up and in, as if he's been stung on his nose by a bee

We started Dex Pulse Therapy (DPT) on Saturday, July 20. He got 60 mg on the 20th and 21st, 40 mg on the 22nd and 23rd, and 20 mg on the 24th and 25th.

During and for several days after DTP, his symptoms were reduced to almost nothing. He'd dive into his dinner and polish it off, whereas before we started DTP he practically couldn't eat his dinner, and exhibited head flipping and jerking symptoms while trying to eat. I was gone the 26-28th, but MC house-sat and said Echo ate everything. It was also rainy and cloudy while I was gone, and I definitely think that helps. Unfortunately, by the 30th he was pausing for long periods of time while eating, and on the 31st he simply would not eat dinner at the usual time. We managed to get him to eat at 10 pm when it was pitch black out - he ate quite happily and showed no headshaking symptoms then.

Echo has a Guardian mask, which blocks 95% of UV rays, which arrived on the 20th. He's been wearing it from sunup till full dark every day since. I don't know how much it really helps him, but I suspect it does as he shows no symptoms at all when it's dark out. I am kind of unwilling to take the mask off during the day and see how bad his symptoms become, but we will probably do that at some point in time as part of the data collecting.

I've also started keeping Cash and Echo up in the barn during the day. They hate being stalled, but the barn is essentially a big run-in shed, so I simply put all their hay up in the shady area, and that seems to keep them up for the most part. I've also started to feed more alfalfa, per the vet's request. Echo has suddenly decided that it's OK stuff, so he and Cash split a couple of flakes, along with a bucket soaked beet pulp, every morning. They also still get regular hay, so I can't really tell if the change of diet is making a difference. I guess time will tell.

Since the symptoms have gotten so much worse again, and we still have two weeks to go before the next round of DPT, I consulted with my vet yesterday (the 2nd) about other treatment alternatives. Starting today (the 3rd), he's on 4 mg of dex daily, along with 6 G of Magnesium. Generally, folks don't have a lot of success with low doses of dex, and long term usage carries quite a few risks, but anything is worth a try right now. The Mg helps calm the nerve firings, so maybe that will reduce his symptoms as well. We're going to try this for a week or two and see where we're at, then reassess.

Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of other options to try, and none of them seem to be 100% effective. If the dex and Mg don't help, we will likely try a short-term nerve block to see if that works. If it does, then we'll do a longer-term block. I could try Cypro (an antihistamine), but it's really expensive, causes colic and laminitis, and is testable. It also tends to stop working after 6-18 months of use.

This disease seems to be a big guessing game, where you throw things at your horse and hope like hell that something works to relieve his pain. We're still looking for something that works, because the alternative to finding something is really too sucky to contemplate.

The dangers of texting your vet (sort of NSFW)

So I was texting with my vet yesterday about dexamethazone dosages for Echo for the pulse therapy we want to try for his headshaking. As I was texting, I noticed that my iPhone auto-corrects "dex" to "sex". Suddenly, my innocent medical questions took on a whole new meaning. This was the text conversation I *almost* had with my vet:

So, how much sex do I need to give him every day? How often should I give it? Twice daily or is it OK to just give it at night?

And then...

Can I order sex online or do I need to come to the office to get it? 

And this morning, after we got the dosage protocol from another vet:

I'll give him sex right now since it says to do so in the morning. Thanks!

Fortunately I caught the autocorrect before I sent the texts, but I texted my vet after to tell about the near-miss. At least she's got a great sense of humor!

And the hits just keep on coming - Echo has been diagnosed with Headshaking Syndrome

I was planning for this post to be cute pictures of the kitties, with lots of happiness to counteract my earlier posts, but it's not to be. I don't know what I did to piss of the universe, but seriously, I'm at the end of my rope. To top off Oberon's death, trouble with all three of our vehicles (which resulted in the very untimely purchase of a new truck), and 7 chickens dying in last week's heat wave, Echo was diagnosed yesterday with Headshaking Syndrome.

Insert a whole lot of four-letter words here. And crying. Lots of crying.

Remember this post about Echo's ulcers, where I mentioned that he was flipping his head and not eating? I got a video of him doing it. (Note that the stuff on the ground that he's eating is soaked beet pulp, which he had just dumped out of his tub. The green bucket on the fence has 2 scoops of soaked Senior feed in it.)

At the time, I thought this behavior was ulcer-related - that is, he was flipping his head and not eating because his belly hurt him too much to eat. Turns out, it's not ulcer-related at all. Instead, it's a syndrome where the horse involuntarily flips or shakes his head in a vertical motion. The tell-tale action is the sudden jerk, like a bee flew up his nose. Horses also frantically rub their noses/faces on anything, often causing sores or cuts. It most commonly occurs in TB geldings between 7-9 years of age. It can be seasonal, with summer being the worst time. The initial trigger is unknown -there are over 60 proposed triggers, but the research shows nothing concrete.

What causes the sudden jerk is a response to neuropathic pain along the trigeminal nerves in the face. Vets think it's a sudden, sharp pain like the pain of a migraine headache in a human. Can you even imagine trying to eat your dinner, and every time you try, it feels like someone is stabbing you in the face? Or when we take a break during a ride, every time we stop, he insistently rubs his head/nose HARD on his LF leg. I thought it was a bad habit from the track, but it's a symptom of Headshaking Syndrome. In fact, he rubs so hard and so often on posts, trees, ANYTHING, that he's got cuts on his nose. My poor, poor Echo.

I've been wracking my brain as to when this started. I called Adopted Horse Mom yesterday (in tears, ugh), and we talked about if he'd done it during the month he was with her (Feb 20-March 15). He had not. I was not able to ride much the first month he was here (March 15-April 15) due to a bite to the saddle area and his mangled RF hoof, so I would not have had the opportunity to notice anything during that time. I remember my first few jumping lessons on Echo (April 15th-ish), he flipped his nose a few times when we were first warming up, and Paige commented about flies. In between May 19 and July 1, I did a number of dressage lessons where Echo snorted and sneezed when we started working, and Jeanne commented about allergies. The frantic rubbing of his face has been pretty consistent since I started dressage lessons (I remember commenting to JD during our first lesson on May 19 that it seemed to be a habit). Then somewhere between June 28 and June 30th he wouldn't eat his dinner, and that's when I really started to get worried.

Then I started trying to figure out if anything had changed. He's on a ton of supplements so it's possible that one of those was the trigger. My vet wants me to take him off everything and stop feeding him hard feed, and provide him with an all-alfalfa diet. I am really, really hesitant to do this for several reasons:

• I've had a really hard time getting weight on him. He currently gets 15 lbs of Senior per day, including a bedtime snack. He got the same feed when he was at Adopted Horse Mom's and didn't show any symptoms, so I'm pretty sure it's not the feed. 
• The ulcer meds (Zantac and Omeprazole) I've been giving him have helped TREMENDOUSLY - he's back to his snuggly self, and we even had a nice grooming session the other night where I got all his itchy spots and he made silly faces (as opposed to him pacing frantically, pawing, wringing his tail, and trying to kick while I groomed him just two weeks ago). He's halfway through a six-week course and I'm afraid that if we quit now, the ulcers are just going to come back worse than ever and he's going to be even more miserable. Also, he was exhibiting mild headshaking symptoms BEFORE I put him on Omeprazole the first time, so it's very unlikely that it's the trigger.
• He doesn't eat alfalfa. I've tried pellets, cubes, flakes, and chopped. He won't touch pellets. The cubes he will eat if hand-fed as treats, but he won't touch them if they are soaked. He eats the leaves off the flakes and leaves everything else. He sort of eats chopped alfalfa, but only if it's mixed with Senior and only in small quantities. Also, for me to get 15 lbs of alfalfa down his throat every day, I would have to keep him in a stall during the day. He HATES being stall-kept, paces, and chews the walls, (even if I keep his BFF Cash with him) plus it's not good for his ulcers. I can't win.

I thought about when I'd seen him doing it, and figured out that he mostly won't eat his dinner. He generally polishes off his breakfast well enough, and his bedtime snack is no problem. I've seen him flip his head while eating hay too, during the day, but he seems to graze peacefully enough when he's out in the late evening. Many horses that are headshakers stop doing it when they are in a dark stall, because light exacerbates the problem. As a test, I went out this morning and fed a little earlier than usual, and left the barn lights off. Echo ate steadily, with no flipping or pausing - until the sun started to come up. I put his fly mask on in hopes that it would offer him a little protection, and after a bit of encouragement, he finished his breakfast, again with no symptoms. Last night I snuck out to the barn, again leaving the lights off, and watched him eat hay. No flipping or rubbing. Looking at my notes, his symptoms have also been markedly better during dinner time for the last several days, but we've had rain and it's been quite overcast. Given all these things together, I think his headshaking is caused by bright sunlight. I also think that since it started showing up in late spring/early summer, that it's seasonal. 

After reading everything I could about it last night, I'm pretty down. There are some treatments we can try, but most of them aren't very effective. Most horse owners seem to try a bunch of things and hope that one works. So here's the plan as of right now:

• I've ordered him a Guardian Mask, which blocks 95% of UV rays. If I'm right and his is photic, this should work miracles. 
• I've ordered him muzzle nets for riding. The constant contact of the net seems to help some horses - it's worth a try since I cannot ride him in a big mask at shows (assuming I have some hope of riding and showing him).
• We're going to try a dex pulse - four days of high doses of dex, every 21 to 28 days. It helps some horses, not others. It would be nice if it worked for Echo.
• Melatonin helps some horses, has low side effects, and I can get it OTC at Costco. However, it must be given at 5pm every day, year'round. It sort of fakes the horse out that it's always winter, so it can help horses that are seasonal headshakers.
• Long-term nerve blocks (lasting 2-4 months) seem to work in about 70% of cases. On one hand, I really like this option, because it means that Echo would be pain-free. On the other hand, he won't be able to feel his face at all, and that seems like a bad thing. 
• We may try cyproheptadine, which is an antihistamine and seratonin antagonist. It's definitely way down on my list of options, because side effects include colic and sedation. It's also a testable substance, and it sometimes work for a while and then stops..

So there you have it. I'd like the universe to please stop now. I'm usually really good at rolling with the punches, but I'm finding it really hard to cope. I am so physically and emotionally drained right now, I don't have anything left. In the grand scheme of world problems, I know this isn't that big of a thing, but right now it feels huge. I really hope that we're able to find a way to help Echo, and soon. It's hard to see him in pain.

Echo's ulcers are giving me ulcers

When Echo first arrived at Wyvern Oaks, I was concerned that he had ulcers. He pawed, he chewed his lead rope, he hated being groomed. He wasn't a very good eater, and despite getting huge quantities of high-quality senior grain, you could see every rib. Ulcers can manifest themselves in a number of ways and these were all on the list, so I chatted with my vet about options. We discussed scoping but because hind gut ulcers can't be seen on a scope, opted not to do that. Instead, we decided to try the cheap form of omeprazole, the active ingredient in GastroGaurd. They are fondly known on CotH as "blue pop rocks", and are the granulated, coated form of the drug. We also threw in some magnesium and aloe juice, both of which coat the stomach to help relieve symptoms. Plus, he was out on 24/7 turnout with hay and/or grass in front of him at all times.

After a month of treatment, Echo was a different horse. He had almost completely stopped pawing, even in the trailer. He didn't bite his lead rope. He was fine with being groomed, and had gotten really good about picking up his feet. He was polishing off all his food and was looking plump and fit at the hunter show last weekend. I'd stopped with the omeprazole and was just using the aloe and Mg for maintenance, and was patting myself on the back about being such a good horse mom and all.

And then last Thursday, he wouldn't eat his dinner. Kept acting like he was going to take a bite and then flipping his head. It was the strangest thing - I wish I'd gotten it on video. After an hour he'd only eaten half of his feed. Argh. I started giving him omeprazole again the next day.

This weekend, things got worse. He pawed in the trailer whenever it was stopped. He pawed like a lunatic in the barn aisle, no matter how many times I yelled at him to quit. Not only did he chew his lead while I groomed, he started chewing on the wood half-walls. He pinned his ears, wrung his tail, and kicked out while I was grooming him. Awesome. Practically overnight, there were ribs that hadn't been there a week ago. I noticed chew marks on the water troughs when I went to scrub them out Sunday afternoon. Horses with ulcers often chew things in an effort to find some comfort, as the saliva produced by chewing helps to neutralize stomach acid. I felt like the worst horse mom ever, for him to be in that much pain.

I put a call into my vet first thing Monday. We discussed symptoms and options, and agreed that we're going to have to treat him again and then put him on a maintenance dose. I also asked about using ranitidine (Zantac) to help make him feel better while the omeprazole works. See, ranitidine inhibits acid production, but only for a brief while, whereas omeprazole is a proton pump inhibitor. So omeprazole actually helps the ulcers heal, and Zantac helps reduce the pain while they're healing.

Soo, starting last night (Monday), I began giving Echo 20 crushed ranitidine pills on top of a small serving of grain, about 30 minutes before mealtime. This helps give it time to work, with the idea that eating won't be painful. And either it works miracles or the omeprazole has started working, because he polished off his dinner for the first time in several days. Breakfast and dinner today have been likewise consumed, thank goodness. I've ordered more omeprazole, and we'll likely do a 6 week course this time, then see about doing a maintenance dose or using a supplement like SmartGut to help him. He'll likely get ranitidine tablets and probably the treatment dose of omeprazole any time we haul - which is pretty much every weekend, since I haul to lessons.

As for how to change his lifestyle so that he's got less stress in his life, that's a hard one. He's out 24/7 with hay or grass in front of him at all times. We've had a bit of a hectic schedule for the last three weeks, with two shows and an XC schooling session, so I probably need to cut back a bit there. Still, I try to haul to at least one, sometimes two, lessons per week, so that will be an ongoing concern. Hopefully we can come up with a long-term maintenance plan that works for him and doesn't stress him out too much.

At least Costco carries large bottles of ranitidine for cheap? Because seriously, I may start taking it myself.

Screamin' hot cross-country school

And when I say that our XC school today was screamin' hot, I mean literally. The high today was 107. We are certifiably insane.

MC and I rolled out this morning at 5:30 to head to Pine Hill to school. It's where I took Reddums this spring to show, and they have a lovely course with lots of teeny-tiny jumps (well, and giant Prelim jumps too) and good footing. We made the two-hour drive safely, unloaded, and tacked up. We'd arranged to meet Toni S., an eventing trainer whom I've worked with before, for a lesson. We were on by 8:30 and headed out to the stadium arena to warm up.

Echo was, per usual, looky but not spooky. Toni was very impressed with how well he held it together and how little the stuff in the arena bothered him. He started off very rushy (understandable, as I have not worked him much this week due to the heat) and she gave me a really good exercise to get him to release his poll/jaw. She made the point that racehorses are taught to pull against the bit, so the last thing I want to do is put even pressure on both reins. I practiced softening him at the walk and trot by moving my outside hand to my inside hip, then immediately giving when he softened. (We also did inside rein to outside hip.) 10 minutes of this and I had a very soft, attentive horse. WOW! So awesome when you find something that works!

We did some trot poles to get going (he was brilliant), trotted an X a few times, then headed out to XC. Toni rode on a Gator, which I thought might be a problem, but Echo never batted an eye at it. Unfortunately, what he DID bat an eye at were the other horses coming near him. In fact, he got downright naughty about Red coming toward him, and another horse cantering within 100 feet of him. Both times he tossed in a few bucks and thought about taking off, but I growled at him and he knocked it off. We really need to work on riding in traffic - I can't keep him away from other horses in a show situation forever, so we're going to have to learn to deal with it.

Our first log was a bit of a flub - came in at a good forward trot and I forgot to ride him all the way OVER the fence, so he sort of petered out in front of it. I smooched to him and kicked and we hopped over it, so no refusal, which was good. We trotted that one a few more times, stopping on a straight line after it. He started to get the idea and we moved on to a tiny brushbox (with no brush). This time we walked up to it, then trotted a few steps out. He was super good over it several times, hopping it and stopping nicely after. Awesome!

Next, we went to a big manmade hill that has some T/P jumps on it. Here we just walked up and down the hill, and he was balanced both ways. We had a momentary fit when Red trotted off up the hill and Echo was "left", but I asked him for some bend and we got back under control quickly. After that we went on a walk through the woods (he neglected to spook at the rabbit that zipped across the path, but we have those at home), and then came up to a small bench. Toni asked if we wanted to jump it and I was a bit nervous, as it was funny-looking and bigger than anything else we'd done. But I put on my big girl panties and trotted up to it - and over he went, cantering away nice and balanced as you please. WOOHOO! What a good Baby Racehorse!

From there we went on to do a teeny bank up/down, and that went so well that we tried the BN bank up/down. Up was super easy and he was very confident, but he took a moment to look at the down option. He stopped about 2 steps out, and I let him take a moment to figure it out. Then I closed my leg, sat up, and let my reins slide - and he stepped off like he'd done it a million times. We did it a few more times, and then we went up the Novice bank! He's now officially a pro at banks.

For our final stop, we headed to the water. Unfortunately, Echo seemed to have forgotten that he loves water and refused to get in. He wasn't even interested in taking a lead from Red, so we were on our own. We stood at the entry for perhaps 10 minutes without making much progress, and finally I turned him around and backed him in. I think he was a bit surprised when he first got in, but then I turned him around and let him stand for a moment and he was fine. We walked around in the water a bit and then trotted through it no problem, but when I went to trot him out he stopped dead and WOULDN'T LEAVE THE WATER! We figured out pretty quickly that he didn't like the change in color of the footing (water was grey-green, sand was reddish where it was wet), but it took several tries to get him to leave the water, at which point he leapt out. We turned around and came back in, and this time trotted and cantered through the water, then went to leave - same problem. He just didn't want to come out! What a conundrum - I didn't want to let him stop in the water (afraid he'd roll) but I was getting tired keeping him moving and he was tiring quickly too. Eventually we managed to make a glorious leap out (eeek!) and then I trotted off to finish on the BN bank up, to end on a super positive note. We ended up cantering up to that one, and he thought about popping his right shoulder, but I smacked him with the bat twice on his shoulder and he went to it straight. We were up and over and called it a day!

All in all, we had a great day. He was a really good boy and I think we are really starting to click. However, we have a lot of work to do to be more confident out there. I'd like to shoot for GAG at the October schooling show, and I think we're going to need to school a couple more times for that to be a confident possibility. We've also got to work on the traffic issue - maybe some group jumping lessons? Something. Lots to think about.

Of course I have exactly zero pics of the entire experience. I had my camera on me, but was worried that as soon as I took it out to snap a pic (even an ear pic!) he'd find something to be silly about and it would all be over. So you will have to make do with the one I took after we were done...

Post-ride snacking.

Last place blue ribbons

Let me start by saying that this picture is deceiving - we were the only ones in all three classes at the teeny-tiny hunter schooling show we went to this weekend.

(Yes, I still have vids from the dressage show last weekend. Someday, I might actually catch up on blogging. But not today.)

Yesterday (Sunday), SheMovedToTexas graciously came with me to a local hunter schooling show. She said she was there to groom and take pictures (and HOLY COW did she take some NIIICE pictures, which I am going to spam y'all with), but secretly I think she was there to make sure we didn't do anything stupid and eventer-y. I haven't been to many hunter shows in my life, but I swear I need a secret decoder ring to figure out the classes (seriously, how can you have an "X-rails Under Saddle" class where there actually aren't any x-rails involved?!?) AND some sort of magikal crystal ball to figure out when to get on to warm up. 30 trips around the arena = approximately one hour, unless it's teeny kids doing lead line, and then you have to use some sort of equation where you integrate over a margarita? Apparently I'm spoiled as an eventer - we get our ride times pretty much to the minute.

Anyway. This was possibly the worst-run show I've ever been to. The show bill said that classes would start at 8, with X-rails going first. Yay that's me! We arrived just before 7 and checked in. Echo felt that being left to stand on the trailer was an insult of the greatest magnitude, and proceeded to attempt to paw his way through the trailer floor. He's mostly quit pawing in the trailer when it's not moving, but I DID ask him to stand for like a whole 5 minutes. Poor baby. Anyway, we unloaded and Lauren longed him a little bit both directions while I got my boots on and fixed my hair. No Aimee, I did not do Hunter Hair. Lauren let me live anyway.

We headed down to the Derby field (drool) to warm up. There were several horses in the main arena, and I wanted to keep Echo clear of traffic as much as possible. As usual, we did a lot of walking before we picked up a trot. Also as usual, he was looky and only spooked at things like horses jumping.

Mostly, we looked like this. Whoa, Baby Racehorse!

But we had a few fancy moments.


And a LOT of "yes, we are new to this rodeo" moments. (Please ignore my awful chicken wings as my talented horse jumps me out of the tack over a 12 inch crossrail).

At 8:30, they STILL had not started any of the classes. Lauren went over to talk to the show management, and was informed that they were going to do lead-line and the other beginner classes first, and were NOT going to run the rings simultaneously like it had said on the show bill. Xs would go after the beginner classes, and then the 2' class. We decided I might as well get off Echo, hose him, and let him hang out at the trailer for a while.

Lauren got the MOST AWESOME shots of him being hosed. I just love these:

Such a cool shot.

I love the lighting in this one, especially how it's shining off his rump in the background. Lauren is one amazing photographer!

I call this his Fabio shot. He's even got the wind-swept forelock thing going on, lol!

After his bath, we tortured Echo by tying him to the trailer, while we sat down for a snack and some water. He pawed, and pawed some more. He walked. He pawed a little extra just to let us know how tiresome this was. He looked pathetic. Finally, he gave up and started eating his hay. So, even though standing tied to the trailer was not part of the day's plan, it ended up being an excellent lesson in How To Be Patient.

Eventually, Lauren looked into her Magikal Hunter Time Calculation Crystal Ball and said that I should get back on, so we tacked back up and went back over to the derby field to warm up again. More walking, and I decided we wouldn't trot or jump till just before we went in.

Good thing too, since we ended up waiting almost an HOUR AND A HALF. First, they finished up the ground poles class in the small arena. Then, the 2' folks finished warming up. Then they had to reset the 2' course. Then they had to CHANGE the course, since one of the trainers argued about a short turn off the rail (dude, SUCK IT UP AND GET IT DONE. Sheesh.) Then they had to do the 2' section... all while Lauren and I wondered what the deal was when they said the x rails were going to go first? Echo got another lesson in patience while we stood and watched the 2' riders jump. It was good for him (and probably me too, lol!)

We had a really funny moment when Echo discovered a vinyl sign on the side of the arena. He was suspicious of it, but very curious. He reeeeeached out to touch it... and was like, oooh, no. Not safe. Then he got curious again and got a little closer. Maybe this time? Nope. Danger! He finally screwed up his courage and TOUCHED IT WITH HIS NOSE!!! At this point we were laughing at my "brave" baby racehorse, and then a small gust of wind caught it and made it move. He immediately jerked his nose back and regarded it suspiciously, then apparently decided that discretion was the better part of valor and tried to eat grass instead.

Jumps are not as dangerous as vinyl signs, apparently.

After the 2' class finished up, they reset the course with cross-rails. FINALLY! Then one of the trainers (the same one) argued that the flower boxes under the jumps made them too big for all the beginner riders... so she went to find the show organizer, talked about removing the flowers, then they had to find someone to take the boxes out... As soon as they were done with that, Lauren let me in the arena to wait for the judge to give me the go-ahead. But, apparently they a) had me in the wrong classes, and b) thought the kids were doing the x-rails first. W. T. F. Inwardly I was thinking "I've been on this poor horse for almost TWO HOURS" but I gritted my teeth, smiled, and politely asked if I could go first since the course was the same and the jumps were the same and I was the only one in the adult x-rail division. The judge took pity on me and let us do our thing. About damn time!

As we were doing our opening trot circle to the right, I could feel Echo sucking back under me. He does this when he's tired and he thinks we are done... and after an hour of warmup (the first time), then another TWO hours of standing and waiting, I could not blame him one bit. However, it was our turn to shine and I was going to make the most of it.

Me: WE ARE DOING THIS. Echo: DERP.

The first line he was way behind my leg and I kicked him down the line in a canter. It wasn't pretty, but I just wanted to get him thinking FORWARD. We came around to the second line, and he stopped dead to stare at a rolltop that had been moved to the side of the arena. I booted him over the first fence of the line from a standstill, so it didn't technically count as a refusal, lol! We cantered to the second fence, and that went well. Our second loop around went better, although I still felt very haphazard. My plan had been to come back to a trot between the fences in every line, but with him being so behind, I opted for a more forward ride. It mostly worked.

By the last fence, we almost had our shit together.

We did our second class immediately after. This time it was twice 'round to the left. Left is his better direction, and I figured we'd already had a chance to see the sights, so I was gonna make it count.

Determined.

Almost looking like we have a clue.

Again, our round didn't feel stellar, but he did it and I lived. And that was really the whole plan.

Lastly, the under saddle class. They were planning to put me in with the kiddos (all 6 of them) but I think the judge figured out I was riding a greenie, she generously asked if I wanted to go by myself. I was thinking, "Why yes, I think that would be the best for everyone's health and welfare," but managed to say a polite, "Yes, thank you, that would be really nice!". Echo and I discovered that he has a relatively decent walk-canter transition to the left (I think he was as surprised as I was), but unfortunately he forgot that he can canter on the right lead. We got it on our third try, and then he fell in so badly that I literally booted him with my right leg - Lauren said she heard him grunt from where she was standing, lol! We managed one lap and then the judge took pity on us before asking us to walk. 

Pretending we can canter left.

So, that's the story as to how I ended up with three blue ribbons at our first hunter show. It definitely wasn't due to skill or expertise! But overall it was a very educational outing - Echo got to learn how to stand at the trailer, and stand and wait for hours. Considering how long I was on him, I'd say he was a superstar and a very good boy about the whole thing. And, we made it around both our little jump classes without (much of) a meltdown on anyone's part. Mostly that was due to Lauren's expert show management and grooming techniques - THANK YOU LAUREN!

Good Baby Racehorse!

Next weekend? Cross-country schooling! Poor Echo has to work SOOOO HARD!

*All these gorgeous pics are courtesy of Lauren at SheMovedToTexas. THANK YOUUUUUU!!!

About that dressage show...

So remember the dressage show I'd hinted about signing us up for? Well, it was last weekend (yes, I’m that far behind)…

I’d signed us up to do Intro A and B (walk-trot) at a local schooling dressage show. My goal was to stay in the arena and stay on my horse, anything else was a bonus.

It’s kind of strange to me going to a show just to get miles. When I showed Cash, we were prepared, schooling above the level we were showing at. We were on a mission. I knew we could go out and kick ass and take names. My goal was always to put in the best performance we could on that day, and I have to say I was never disappointed. With Saga it was the same – I knew we were ready, and we were out there to conquer. Even when I showed Red this spring in the horse trials, and I knew we would have a hard time in dressage, I also was confident that we’d eat up the stadium and XC course and have a great time – and we did. But with Echo, my goal was literally to stay on. I had no idea how he’d behave, or what he’d do. It was all uncharted territory.

I had signed up for a stall, and decided to haul out Friday night and leave Echo overnight (oh the horrors, poor Baby Racehorse). Our rides were at 8:14 and 8:32 (have I mentioned how much I love knowing exactly when I’m going to ride?) so I figured staying overnight would not be a bad thing for him. I arrived around 7 pm, got Echo settled, then tacked up for a ride. We did a short longe in their round pen, and then I got on to ride. We spent about an hour, mostly walking, in both the warmup arena and the show arena. It was quiet, and I was the only one riding, which was really nice. Echo was very looky but not spooky. The mirrors in the warmup were not interesting, nor was the judge’s stand, although he did have one moment where some sand hit one of the dressage letters and made a funny sound. Oh well.

The next morning, I repeated our warmup – a short stint in the round pen, followed by almost an hour of walk warmup. Every horse needs a different warmup, and I’m still trying to figure Echo out. Lots and lots of walk seems to work well for him right now – he can look around, we can work on circles and bending and getting his brain into work/focus mode, and he gets a chance to relax.

There were two other horses in the warm-up arena with us, which I was really grateful for. Echo threw in some pretty good spooks. He spooked when the judge stood up in the booth – which was in the arena NEXT TO the warmup. He spooked at the Intermediare horse doing tempi changes (insert eye roll here). He spooked when the baby horse in a nearby paddock stood up. He spooked when he saw another horse (not him) in the mirrors. These were good spooks too – he skittered halfway across the arena, sideways, at the horse doing the tempis. Yes, I was *that woman* on *that horse*. Awesome way to make a reputation at shows. NOT.

Eventually he started to relax and listen to me. We worked on engaging his hindquarters, following my hand, and keeping a steady rhythm. I tossed in some halts here and there to keep his attention, which was still (constantly) wandering. He threw in a few more random spooks, but I stuck with him no problem and we moved on. We didn’t do a whole lot of trot work, just enough to get going, and we had some nice moments. Then, the lady on the I-1 horse did her freestyle (it was awesome) and of course everyone got distracted watching that – including me and Echo. One more ride (and some more attempts at halts) and it was our turn.

Our first test was decidedly meh. We did all the figures in the right places, and all the transitions, but I was riding VERY conservatively. Echo was looky and distracted, so I was just trying for straight lines and circle-like shapes. He mostly listened to me (in his distracted way), and did not spook at the judge’s stand or anything else while we were in the arena. So although we only scored a 55% and change, I had a huge grin on my face coming out of the arena.

We had one ride to go until our next ride, and Fuzzypony held Echo while I took a few sips of water. I relaxed a little in the saddle, and decided that in our second ride, I’d actually try to ask more of him. I did a bit of trot in the arena while waiting for the bell to ring, and he actually came round for me for a few steps here and there, and we had a little bit of bend. The test itself went much better, although in places I was concentrating so hard on riding straight and not having him fall to the inside that I got us buried in the corners, oops. It wasn’t a stellar test by any means, but it definitely had some promising moments, much more so than the first test. We scored a 59% and change on that, and I was very pleased to have improved that much between the two rides.

The judge’s comments were as expected – we need more bend and relaxation, and I need to ride better. Real shocker there, lol!

Here are some stills from the test, courtesy of MC. Yes, Echo had his very own cheering section!

Our trot looked mostly like this - above the bridle, with me riding him back-to-front in an attempt to keep a slow, steady rhythm. Oh, and him with his mouth hanging open - he does not approve of me asking for him to give to a half-halt. Work in progress.

Walking. We did a lot of this. I'm kind of amazed that the judge manages to stay awake during the intro tests!

Not sure if you can see the huge grin on my face. :)

Must have a smoochy picture.

I wish we were further along in our training and could have put in better tests, but we are where we are and I keep reminding myself that this is for the experience, not the scores or the ribbons. And as experiences go, it was GREAT! Overall he was a very good boy, and I know what we have to work on.

I have video of both tests, which I will post for a good laugh. That way, in a year from now I'll be able to look back and remember how far we've come!

* All photos courtesy of MC. THANK YOU!!!

Attack of the fire ants

We've been very lucky this year to have a relatively wet, cool spring in this part of the world. I say "relatively," because just two years ago, by this time we'd already had 10 days over 100 degrees and hadn't seen a drop of rain for over six months. When you're comparing to that sort of drought, highs in the mid-90s, with a weekly or bi-weekly rain, seems quite mild.

While rain is wonderful for our pastures and trees, and I won't complain about a drop of it, it has the unfortunate side effect of bringing the fire ants up to the surface. If you live in a part of the world with no fire ants, count your blessings. They are truly nasty creatures that were imported into the US in the 1930s and have been spreading since. They take over everything, decimating the local population of insects and stinging en masse anything that disturbs their nests. Stings are initially painful and then incredibly itchy. Put it this way - I won't go outside without boots on right now, and I always look where I put my feet.

Unfortunately, poor Echo wasn't as lucky. The boys were turned out in one of the front pastures the other evening, and Echo decided to roll. I watched him do it, and then shortly after noticed him rearing up and double-barrel kicking the air, repeatedly. Our neighbor was riding down the street on his horse at the time, so I thought that perhaps Echo was feeling a bit frisky with the neighbor horse in close proximity. Still, it was odd behavior. Then at night check, I noticed that Echo was behaving really strangely. He and Cash usually come in and share a beet pulp snack while I take off their fly gear and check them over. Echo was interested in the BP, but he'd take a bite, walk around in an agitated manner, sniff the ground, pester Cash, and swish his tail madly. I thought he might be colicking, but he was eating and not rolling. I finally ended up putting Cash in the stall to eat his share of the BP in peace, Echo was pestering him so much!

I watched Echo for a few more minutes, pacing constantly, all but wringing his tail, trying to figure it out. Finally he came over to me and put his head in my arms, and as I rubbed his face I noticed how the barn lights were shining against his gleaming, dappled coat... with the HUNDREDS OF WELTS ALL OVER HIS SIDE. I realized immediately that he must have rolled in fire ants, and the antics before were desperate attempts to get them off. Poor guy! I ended up calling my vet to consult about what I could give him to reduce the pain and swelling, since he was so miserable. Turns out that a nice cold hosing, along with 30 mg of Dex, was just the thing, and luckily I have plenty of that on hand for Cash. I stuffed the Dex pills in some carrots (since he was too agitated to eat anything that wasn't hand-fed) and he gobbled them up. Fortunately, by this morning, the welts were gone and Echo seems to be back to normal.

In the meantime, I purchased four containers of fire ant poison and have so far treated over 250 mounds, most of them very small. We had been using the "environmentally friendly" version, but eff that shit. I want those little bastards DEAD, immediately if not sooner.

Especially the fire ants!

The beginnings of an actual dressage horse

For realz. That was us on in our dressage lesson on Sunday.

We had our second dressage lesson on Sunday. I was pleased to report to JD that we'd been working hard on our homework (leg yields and squares, along with longeing in side reins and not falling in to the right) and that I felt like we'd really made some progress. I started off showing her our leg yields (excellent to both sides at the walk) and squares (pretty damn good when I remembered not to over-ask) and we quickly moved on to the trot. I'd also been practicing a bit of a leg yield into the trot transition, and we are getting these amazing upwards transitions. In fact, he's stepping under himself so much that he's throwing me out of the saddle. So the transition is great, but I can't stay with it so I make us fall apart. Fail.

We worked in trot almost the whole time. He was about a million times better than the previous lesson, and there were two major take-aways from this ride.

First of all, I have got to RELAX MY ARMS. This basically means having noodle-arms from the shoulder on down. I am really bad about holding my elbows away from my sides and stiffening in my shoulders, because that's how I type on the keyboard all day. Whenever Echo would brace against me (usually on the left rein), I'd immediately relax my arms and he'd go soft. Well, really what was going on is that I was tensing my arm, he'd brace, then I'd remember to let go and he would too. Poor guy was trying so hard to figure it out, and I wasn't where he needed me to be. Something I have got to work on fixing, ASAFP.

Secondly, in my very first lesson on Echo with Adopted Horse Mom, she told me that I was riding the bend "backward," especially to the right. We didn't have a chance to really break down what that meant, but JD explained it in a way that really made sense. What it comes down to is that when we go to the right, my shoulders and hips move as if we're doing a left bend. My right hip moves toward his left ear, and my shoulders are angled to the outside as well. What really needs to happen is that I need to turn my body to the right, starting with the shoulders. My left shoulder needs to lead slightly, my right needs to come back. My hips will follow my shoulders, and you know what? Damned if Echo didn't move his ENTIRE BODY in line with mine when I did that. We still had a smidge of falling in, but for the most part it was magically fixed. It's amazing how nicely your horse goes when you ride him right, you know?

Here's the video proof. It was at the end of our ride, so he was tired and really wanted to curl up and stop by the mirrors, but it had some good moments here and there. 

So my homework for the next week: turn shoulders and hips (in that order), and keep arms noodly and hands down. I may try to get FuzzyPony to longe me on Taran (he's steady on the longe) with no stirrups so I can work on getting my weight to the right... well, really, getting my weight in the center of the horse. It seems so simple, but it's so hard to keep track of all the body parts at the same time! That's the story of learning to ride, though.

In other news, I may have signed us up to go to a schooling dressage show on the 15th. That's right... Echo's first show! SO excited!!!

Ground poles are SO HARD for Baby Racehorses

We had an amazing jumping lesson today! We did tiiiny verticals (with flowers under them!) with ground poles in front of them. Echo was a star, even though he had to think really, really hard about where to put his feet and THEN jump. You could practically see the wheels turning in his brain as we approached it each time... too funny!

But, let me back up. First off, Echo has become an ANGEL to load on the trailer. Not that he was bad to begin with, but he'd hesitate now and then and require a bit of a pat on the butt. Now he just follows me right in, no problem. I may try teaching him to self-load, but we'll save that for later. :)

In warmup, all of the ground work and dressage work we've been doing has really paid off. We're doing a TON of laterals to get going - lots of leg yields down the rail and across the arena, squares, a little shoulder fore. My goal is to make sure I'm sitting evenly in the saddle (I tend to shift my weight left) and make sure he's responsive to my leg so that when we trot and everything 300x faster, he responds to my aids and doesn't fall in. Once I'm sure we've got that, we move on to trot.

I've discovered that I have to plan our rides pretty carefully, being sure not to do too much warmup so that I still have plenty of horse left for the actual lesson. It's not the he gets physically tired, it's that he gets mentally tired, I think.  On the track, workouts are half an hour, and you can totally tell when Echo's timer goes off the first time. He likes to park somewhere and pretend like he's not going to move, lol! To avoid the "but... but... we're DONE!" argument, I'm taking frequent short breaks. This also seems to be helping to allow his brain to reset since the lateral stuff is all very hard on him mentally. It really helps get him focused and attentive on me, but that's hard on his baby brain.

All the lateral work at the walk is translating into much less falling in at the trot. We had some amazing trots today, bent in the corners, soft in the poll - and of course we had some really awful moments in between, but that's OK. I'm asking for more and he's giving me more! Our canter was big, rolling, and oh-so-balanced... LOVE IT!!!

We did a couple of Xs for jump warm-up, and he was straight and nicely forward. Then, Paige added a ground pole. Echo approached it bravely enough, but sort of got his legs muddled. He was SUPER careful and didn't touch a thing, but you could tell he was thinking hard about what to do with his feet. We came though several more times, then Paige move the pole closer for a bit of a shorter distance. On the approach, I could feel him slow as he was sizing it up, and just kept my leg on. He compressed into this teeny little step, practically did a levade, and went over the fence. Good boy! A bigger distance was easier for him, and he adjusted his stride like it was nothing.

But then, we move on to another tiny vertical... WITH TWO TROT POLES. Echo's poor brain did not compute, and he stuttered to a walk on the approach. I smacked him on the shoulder with my bat and we walked over the poles, and then he daintily stepped over the vertical. We came around again at the trot, and he managed to organize his feet enough to make it through. The third time through, he forgot about his hind feet over the jump and touched it - he didn't make that mistake again! Once he was going through nicely, we moved the poles to the other side of the jump and approached it from the other direction. I swear it was like starting all over again, lol! He got better and better the more we did it, as he was able to figure out what to do with his feet. Ground poles take a lot of coordination, didn't you know?

For our grande finale, we did the vertical with two trot poles, then a big circle in the corner of the arena, then the vertical with one trot pole. After the first vertical, he landed in this perfect balanced right lead canter (the correct lead), and I went with it. We did a lovely 20 meter circle and the canter, came back to a nice trot, and trotted to the second fence. He came in a bit fast, but then adjusted his stride (all by himself!) to get a comfortable distance. He cantered away from that fence too, nice as you please, and I went with it down the long side. He was such a good boy, I was really super pleased with him, and Paige thought he did great. Naturally I have no pics or video of us in action, but here are the extremely difficult fences we jumped:

ONE trot pole. With FLOWERS! 

TWO! TWO TROT POLES! You have no idea how hard this is.

After I hosed him off, Echo discovered the fabulous floor fan. He happily stood in front of it for about 15 minutes, without moving a single foot. I think he wants one for his birthday.

Yep, that's my maniacal ground-tied baby racehorse. Better be careful - he might inspect you for treats!

Tomorrow: Dressage lesson! Woot!!!