So Here is Some Big News...

I am moving to South Carolina!! Say What?
It is true. Telly, Vinny and I are leaving on the 21st and I will be starting my job. I am very happy I get to bring both of my boys but Vinny is only able to stay there for 2 months while I try to sell him.
The place covers a lot of acreage and is just very beautiful and peaceful there. They have a racetrack and tons of trail access. I believe Telly and I will be quite happy there.
I am looking forward to the next chapter of my life and feel this is the right step for me to take. I will be helping to oversee the barn and horses and will have plenty of opportunities to ride. I am going to see about helping out other barns on my days off if possible to make some extra cash.
I plan on keeping up with my blog more once I settle in to have something to look back on of my first real job experience. So until then, hang tight and stay cool.

The Diagnosis Is...

So Telly has a torn tendon sheath. It is very upsetting and I want to know how he managed to do that. I just do not understand why these things keep happening to him. All I want is for him to be comfortable, healthy and happy. I can give him all the love in the world but if he is in pain then it breaks my heart a little more everyday.

He has to be on one month of stall rest and I can take him out for hand grazing. I let him go out in the roundpen for a little bit in the morning before it gets too hot and then take him out again later in the day. I was told for the first initial 7-10 days put his leg in a bucket of ice cold water and soak for 20 min. He has been very good at doing this and will stand patiently for the most part. He seems to be more comfortable on it than before he was taken to the vets, so I hope the healing will continue properly and he can resume life after the month passes.

Once we get over this hurdle, I plan to start saving my money so we can take him to have an MRI on his hind end. I am hoping this will help to diagnosis what is going on that is making him so lame and that there will be a fix for it. Then I can start riding him again. But I won't get too far ahead of myself because I know anything can happen, and if it does it will happen to Telly unfortunately. But I will never stop loving or caring for him and we will be together till the end.

That Time Again...

After another nice massage yesterday for Telly and no improvement, I decided to discuss with my mom about taking him back to Ocala and have him checked out. It has now been 17 days since I first discovered him to be moving more off than usual. I still cannot pinpoint if it is the left or right hind that is bothering him more. He had that odd swelling and is resting the left hind more so than normal, but when he is walking he looks to be having a more difficult time using the right leg. So I guess we will find out tomorrow what crazy stuff is happening to my poor boy. I really hope they can figure out not just what has happened recently but what has been making him so off for all these years. I am praying for a miracle. I really just want him to feel more comfortable and not be in so much pain. I do not think it will ever be pain free what with the arthritis and all but I have him on a supplement now and am hoping that will ease some of the stiffness. I only want the best for him and will do whatever I need to because he is my all. I hate putting him through all this vet work but if it helps him live a longer happier life than I feel it is worth it.
Farrier is supposed to be out before we leave in the morning to trim his hooves.

Hoping to get more boarders soon so I will have more money and will save what I can to make sure Telly gets the best of care, that might even be putting shoes back on him. Only time will tell.

Massage Therapy baby

So I had a massage therapist come out this afternoon and work on Telly. She was here for an hour and worked both sides thoroughly. Telly was definitely enjoying himself, was relaxed and did not seem bothered in any areas. I was hoping for a more extensive massage that involved the legs too and not just go over the body but am having her come out on Wednesday and will go from there.
I might try somebody else in July if I have the money and feel that these two sessions helped him out in any way. I would like to start saving up my money though to have a MRI for Telly and that may be able to pinpoint his troubled areas. I guess only time will tell.

We are going to a show!

So I am back riding Vinny. I went to Hilda's today and rode 2 horses and had a great time. So much fun being back in the saddle and going for a long gallop. She mentioned she was going to Canterbury next Saturday and I thought that may be a good place to get back out there. It will be a low key, small competition and great for both of us. I plan on entering in the 2'11" and 3'3" jumping classes. Should be an interesting day with hopes of it being successful too.

Will definitely be video taping it so we can have some new footage of him finally to put up and show people.

What Did My Horse Do Now?

So two days ago when I took Telly out for a quick bareback ride I felt that he was a bit more stiff than usual. He was not too bad but in my head I felt that things were not looking up. So I wrapped him for the night and hoped it was just a bad day for him. Yet, come morning upon turnout I could tell he was doing no better, actually worse. He was noticeably having a harder time walking though I could not figure out which hind leg it was. But I turned him out hoping it would be good for him. I unfortunately did not end up grooming him or checking him over that night, so I cannot say if I missed an early sign or not. But this morning I took him out to rinse him off and clearly noticed his left hind limb swelled. There was a bit of swelling down the back of the cannon bone with much more throughout his fetlock joint. It was mildly warm but upon some squeezing and rubbing over it there was no huge reaction from him. I did notice he was keeping the weight off it as I rinsed him down and cold hosed the leg for 10min. I gave his legs a good towel dry and then wrapped them all. I also gave him 2 grams of Bute and will be keeping him in for the day. He is definitely having a hard time walking on it, and he is dragging the right toe. I am praying he did not tear something or do major damage to it. He is already going through so much. I am debating calling the vet to come out and probably have an ultrasound done. Might see how it is tonight and if no better than call in the morning.

Testing, One Two...

So, since I wasn't up to riding and still am not due to my whole accident, mouth issue, I decided to lunge Vinny with the new martingale on. Have never done the whole breastplate/martingale thing so am going to look up some photos to be sure I did it up right. Vinny had no issues with it and it seems to fit him nicely. I made him walk, trot, canter in both directions and I must say he looks much better going than he did a year ago. Then I decided to set up a jump so I could see how he'd respond. There were no issues there, he jumped it nicely in both directions and I even made it quite high but he did not knock it down. Then I decided to make one side of it an oxer to give it some width and make him work a little harder over it. I made it too wide the first time so he caught the back rail, but I adjusted it and he quickly figured out he needed to jump further over it.

I did not do anything with him today due to the fact that upon feeding him this morning I noticed he had cut his lower lid. If it is not one thing it is another. I am hoping he will be alright and that tomorrow, if we are both feeling up to it, I will lunge him again. I will just have to keep an eye on his eye and be sure it stays clean.

Today we also gave them their EWT/WN vaccine.

Accidents Happen...

Had a good ride with Vinny yesterday. More of the same basically. He was very responsive to my aids and corrections. I got my breastplate/martingale today so will get to start jumping him soon.

Unfortunately, I think I will be taking a few days off because of a little mishap that happened last night. Was heading out to the barn and it was dark so couldn't really see in front of me. Well there happened to be a utility dolly sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, which I just managed to run right into, fall on my jaw, break a bottom molar and scrape up both shoulders and legs. Oh good lord how I hate pain and how my jaw hurts so bad. I am hoping I did not do any really damage to it, but it is still upsetting that a ruined a tooth and one of my other bottom teeth has slightly moved.

The farrier did come out this morning and get everyone trimmed. Though Telly does have white line on one front hoof from a crack. So will have to get some stuff to take care of it. I just purchased White Lightning since farrier recommended it. Hopefully this will do the job.

Andd Awayy Wee Goo

Ha...yes I rode Mr. Vinny yesterday and he was very consistent. His counter canters are much improving, the right is better than the left, and we got a couple of good straight lead changes. He also impressed me with doing much smoother downward transitions from the canter, still needs more work but overall is way better. Plan on doing more of the same in todays ride but will work on lengthening and shortening the stride, keeping soft through transitions and may set up more cavelettis to go over.

They are over their 5 week farrier trim and both Vinny and Telly's hooves are not looking pretty. I really wish I could throw shoes back on Telly but I do not think that is likely to happen at the moment. Hopefully the farrier will be able to get out here soon.

I really find it fun riding Telly in the pond but am not sure how good it is for his hooves. But if I only keep it to like twice a week and no other water contact then I am hoping it will not mess up his hooves too bad.
I thought we had done a real swim before but the other day I got a real taste of him swimming with just his head poking out. It was super fun and I hope there will be some benefits to Telly.

Been doing a lot of advertising online to get some stuff sold and we are having a garage sale this weekend. Should be very interesting and hopefully we make some money.

Yes, I Did It...

I rode Vinny this afternoon. We did not push too hard but had a good workout overall. I am happy about how far he has progressed and I am looking forward to jumping him soon. I would also like to get him to Hilda Donahue's for a lesson before the end of the month and start preparing him for upcoming shows.

The main things we have been focusing on include being soft in a collected frame, using the hind end through all gaits and a lot of transition work. I have also set up some cavelettis (my version anyway) and ground poles and been going over those in all 3 gaits teaching him to stay consistent and collected.

We still have a ways to go before being very competitive but in the short time period we have resumed training he has developed quite a bit. Overall, he has finally matured into himself and is much easier to work with and more of a pleasure to ride.

There is Still No Improvement...

It is unfortunate that we have yet to get a diagnosis of Telly's lameness issue so we can do something about it. The closest we have gotten is the vet feels he may have a bone cyst, which if he does would probably require surgery. I hate to put Telly through another surgery unless I know for certain that this would cure him and he would be rideable and pain free.

Lately I have just been getting on him bareback or undersaddle and walking around for about 15min. I am also doing water therapy with him, which includes swimming in our pond. He seems to really enjoy this, splashing me till I am soaked and wading around in the cool water. I will probably not do this more than twice a week just for the fact of trying to keep his hooves dry. I have heard that making horses swim is really quite good rehab and I can only keep praying that it will be beneficial to my boy.

 Other than that, there is not much more I can do for him at this time. I would like for him to be on a supplement that could possibly lubricate his joints and make him more comfortable. Right now I am saving up for an HD Sony Handycam and then hopefully I can start saving up  to do something more for Telly by next year. Until then I will just keep enjoying our precious moments and good times in the pond.

Whoops...

OK So keeping a training blog has not really worked out. Vinny has been going very nicely and there has been much improvement flat work wise, but I am waiting to get a martingale before we start doing any jumping. I sorta gave him like a week off and I really need to get my butt going and start working him again. I want to get him to some shows this summer so we can possibly get him sold and I can move onto something else.

I have been distracted mostly due to our selling of horse tack and show clothing. So I have been responsible for taking pictures, advertising and adding it all to the website. We are also going to be having a garage sale this weekend, which will be scary but will hopefully bring in some bucks and I will have enough to finally get a new camera. I really want to get some new footage of Vinny online since everything else is over a year old. Plus I would really like to do some more fun videos of my life with Telly....and Vinny I guess for now.

So I WILL ride tomorrow, I will.

Training Journal

I think I am going to use this blog to track the progress of my training and showing journeys with Vinny. I have had him since the end of 2006 and he will be turning 7 in June. We went through some rough patches in our training and there have been periods of time when I let up on my riding, so unfortunately he has not had the consistency needed to be more advanced for his age. I am hoping though to get him out to some shows this summer so that we can make him more marketable for a future sale.