Wow...today I thought Maddy was a Lipizzaner. I took her for her first "walk" in the arena after 4 months of stall rest. She walked in calmly. I let her sniff around for a couple minutes. Lots of pets, lots of hind quarter yielding and I let her look out the windows. I pointed to ask her to walk to the left and she went straight up into the air and hopped on her back legs. A perfect "courbette." Then she went straight up, a giant leap and then kicked back, a "capriole" to rival those of the Lipizzaner's. It was quite a show, but not one I wanted. I immediately went into task manager mode, getting her to back and come forward, put her in a couple binds, made her drop her head A LOT. She settled down, but of course I worry those hops could have hurt her fracture. The footing is deep hogsfuel and she has a bar shoe with clips, so hopefully no damage was done. Her adrenaline is so far up. I am thinking I may have to give her a little Ace to keep the edge off for her own safety. I sat with her in her stall for awhile afterwards to see if she remained calm or was agitated after being in the arena. She was content to eat and did lots of snorting. I shed a couple of tears as I watched her. Worry and stress got the best of me. Every day has been a learning experience with her. Such extremes...my greatest pain, my greatest joy.
18 Degrees, Felt Like 3
3 hours ago
13 comments:
It is a beautiful post. I suppose she doesn't realize she can hurt herself. I hope things all work out for her and you.
I totally understand what you mean by "your greatest joy and ur greatest pain".
Hang in there, Maddy will get better.
I totally understand. I worry contantly about mine, even if they aren't injured, much more when they are injured.
Not suprising after her stall rest, but wow how nerve racking. ((hugs))
Worry is what we do best with horses.
I'm sure Maddy was thrilled to be out of the stall. However, in your situation every move is a concern.
Hope she improves rapidly.
((HUGS!!)) I can totally relate. I felt the same way last spring when "D" was sick and took months to get better. I was so stressed and would start crying at the drop of a hat that at one point the gal who was helping with chores told me to stay home one night to give me a break. I felt bad doing so but I can't thank her enough for taking care of him that evening and letting me rest. And although it's been several months now but I still frequently check out his neck and under his jaw to make sure the lumps are really gone and I'm not dreaming...LOL. It was such a nightmare that at times I worry that it'll come back even though reason tells me it probably never will again. Anyway, ((HUGS!!)) again and I hope she gets better very very soon!
I hear ya with pain and joy! But we love them all the same!
She was just jumping for joy that she was out of her stall, I'm sure! Have you ever heard of Bach's Rescue Remedy? You might want to try it before resorting to Ace. It's an herbel stress reliever, my barefoot trimmer swears by it and we have used it on Jasper a couple of times. I just rub it onto my hands and have him smell it. Seems to calm him a bit when he is stressed.
Horses have an amazing way of working things out on their own. Perhaps she needed a good stretch, I would not worry to much. Good luck !!
Oh, Maddy, Maddy, you must take it easy girl. I know that is so much easier said than done.
Hopefully, she will get better about the hand walking once she gets into the routine. That's how it went with Echo with her leg wound any way. The first couple of times were so distressing because she was so full of herself. But she did get into the routine and behaved herself.
I can understand why she'd want to get all sassy. I feel like I'm on stall rest! ha ha
But seriously, she must have felt so free, just needed to get a little wild so she could do something she decided to do, something she wanted to do...and maybe she wondered what she was capable of. I'm not a horse person, just a person wearing a brace unable to do what I want to do for awhile. I wish you and Maddy the best.
Maybe you should paint her hoofs pink so she feels all fresh and pretty?! :)
Well, at least you know she feels good.
Do whatever you have to to make your worries less. If that's Ace, go ahead.
This has been painful enough for you.
She will heal. Time passes so quickly -- unless you have a hurt horse.
Take care of yourself as well as you are taking care of her.
When you come out the other side of this, when you reflect, you will realize how much it has taught you and what a better person you have become. Challenges are there to help us stretch the boundries of what we know and to push our limits. I know, Julie, that you will have great success with Maddy and someday we will look back on this and celebrate all that it has taught us.
Tee hee, what a little pill! Oh well, at least now that she's gotten out of the stall again, hopefully she'll behave better now. But I totally get the "greatest joy and greatest pain" bit - just add "greatest worry" to that! Oh well, the good times with them are worth it...
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