Splints

Poor Queenie, my draft cross buddy, has a splint. For my non-horsey friends, a splint is a bony swelling usually on the inside of a front leg. Splint bones on horses are the remnants of prehistoric horse toes. If the bone is damaged or over-worked, the body starts to lay down new bone to the injured area. We have been doing lots of cold therapy. 15 minutes of cold water and then an ice boot for 20 minutes. She is on stall rest for two weeks and not too happy about it. This is the third one she has had this year. My lessons and riding are on hold which gives me time to focus on Maddy. She was much better on Friday when I walked her in the arena. I set up a bunch of cones and earlier in her stall rest I did some "clicker training" with her where I taught her to touch with her nose where I point. So we walked around the arena and I pointed to cones and she touched them and I clicked and gave her a baby carrot. She enjoys this game. It is great because in order to touch the cone, she lowers her head which helps her to relax. I was pretty proud of her on Friday. I was ready for more "crazy," and she really impressed me by staying "checked in".

Lippizan or Quarter Horse?

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.

Another X-ray

The close of 2007 brings an end to Maddy's stall rest....or so I thought:-) Today I had the vet out to take an x-ray and see where we are at. The picture is Maddy a little drowsy from the sedative, but still looking for food. I used a different vet, because Mark Revenaugh doesn't go mobile and I didn't want to bother my friends with trailers to help get her over there again. Barb Crabbe is the vet for the barn and had gone over Maddy's films last week. She did the x-ray and it looks great. There is a slight shade of black at the very edge, which she says could be fiberous tissue that will always look that way, or it is still the fracture healing. To be on the safe side, I am supposed to go two more months on stall rest, but I can start walking her in the arena and start getting her mind active again. I am thrilled. I know it isn't perfect, but I saw a HUGE change in the fracture and it looks great. I have things I have been neglecting to do with her while on she has been on rest, so now I will get back to work. I had focused a lot of energy on riding and working with Queenie, the draft-cross. I really need to find a balance between the two. In a perfect world, I wanted a complete heal and the green light to start up again, but this is the next best thing. It really is a great way to bring in the New Year. I am full of hope and am optimistic about where we will be in 2008.

Antsy

Maddy is starting to get bored in her stall. I think for awhile, it was a sanctuary for her, but I really see a shift in her behavior. She is burning through her hay and when she is out, she starts to paw the ground and gets agitated. Of course she is pawing with her fractured foot, which drives me crazy! I ordered two hay nets and am going to double bag it so it takes her longer to eat. I bought her a jolly ball and she is not really interested in it. I thought about a stall treat toy, but she would eat the whole thing in one day and probably make herself sick. She is at 5 weeks of stall rest, so we still have a long way to go. I worked with Queenie today on the ground.
I have my first riding lesson with her on Friday. She is green broke and her owner started Parelli with her about 4 months ago. I worked with her on the seven games and she does pretty well. She still is a little reactive to big movement and the rope being tossed over her back, but she looks just beautiful on the lunge line. Queeine is the lovely paint draft cross in the photo. I think she is three, almost four. Her owner, Robyn, brought her all the way to Portland from Wisconsin. So I try to say "you know" and "you betcha" around her to make her feel at home:-)

Barn Party

Maddy is so depressed about her coffin bone fracture, she has taken to drinking as you can see by these photos:-) No really, the barn threw a little party on Saturday night. They had plenty to drink and a big spread. Even a pretty decent band. Lots of people set up tents and just spent the weekend there. It was a lot of fun. The whole thing was set up in the arena. All the horses were outside except for Maddy, so she got to rock out in her stall and get all the attention from the party goers. I take her out into the grooming area every Monday to remove her plate and just check her foot. I don't do it in her stall for fear of loosing bolts in the shavings. She is doing pretty good. I have been working a lot with her ears. When I first got her, she was pretty crazy when it came to touching her ears. She is finally letting me scratch inside them. I play with them for about 10 minutes every time I am out there.
Been doing some other stuff, it sounds weird, but playing with her tongue and mouth. Like pulling it out to the side in case a vet ever has to do that. Just trying to keep things interesting. I am working on trying to secure a paint brush in a thick plastic, non-breakable tube, so we can start painting. I think if I fill the hollow with applesauce, she will move it more. I am getting closer to figuring out what will give us the best results.

The "Contraption"

This is what Maddy's foot looks like these days. Basically there is a plate over top a round shoe that has a mold of her foot inside. I have to take the plate off twice a week and pull out her foot mold. I check for thrush and make sure everything looks and "smells" ok. There are four bolts on the bottom of the plate which seems a bit strange, but she is standing in a matted stall and they don't seem to be a problem. My farrier, Andrew Maris, has fixed 18 broken coffin bone wings with success and this is his method. I have to put a little faith in her healers. Of course, I have my dad contradicting everything I am doing. He thinks I should be taking her for walks and that I should allow her out in her run. He doesn't like the idea of the foot plate and just wants me to keep a bar shoe on her foot. Both ways would probably work, but the route I am going is recommended by the former vet of the US Equestrian Team,
so I can't help but trust him. This last picture is a picture of her foot mold. It is purple from the Thrush Buster. I just pop it out and check her foot and pop it back it. So far, so good. We are almost at one month of stall rest. I better get going on teaching her how to paint!

Adjusting

This shows what Maddy's injury looks like. Her wing bone is not completely broken away, but instead cracks half way down. The prognosis is good. This is a fracture that usually heals quite well. My vet has told me many horses have had this same injury and gone on to do great things. At this point, I just have to try to stay positive and hope for the best. I was out at the barn yesterday and she was quite content in her stall. They put the pony next door and the window is open in the next stall so she can see outside. Lucky for me, the barn is very active. There are lots of kids, dogs, four wheelers, and people in and out all day long. We changed her diet. No more oats and she gets eastern hay at three different intervals throughout the day and beet pulp at night. The farrier will be out to put shoes on her with 6 clips. This will help support her foot. I am just going to focus on working little projects in her stall with her. Working a lot with her feet and flexion. I want to maybe try some clicker training with cones and I have even thought about teaching her how to paint on a canvas. I am lucky to have a very supportive network of horse friends that have called and emailed me. Everyone is pulling for her to get better. I need to look into stall toys. I am just focusing on keeping her mind active. If anyone out there has ideas or suggestions for me, I would love to hear them. Also, I would love to hear from anyone who has gone through stall rest with their horse. Horse ownership poses so many challenges, this one will be tough for me.

Devastated

I am still in a bit of a fog. Maddy went to the see Dr. Mark Revenaugh today and we discovered that she fractured her left front coffin bone wing and also has a bone cyst on her phalanx bone. She was going through the surface tests and Mark kept telling me he was liking what he was seeing. We got to her flex test and she hopped a 3 on her left front. It was not pretty. I opted to get that leg x-rayed as long as we were there. When her coffin bone came up on the screen, I saw it immediately. A big, dark, angry crack down the outside. We were all pretty shocked. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I went into the office and we went over everything and really I don't remember much, I just kept looking at the x-ray.
What I do remember is that she has to stay in her stall for 4 months. This is going to be pure torture for her. I don't know if she can do it without being medicated. He also said the injury was older than eight weeks, but it could be a really old injury that never healed and it just re-cracked. When we got back to our barn, I hated to put her back in the stall. She was so good today about the trailer and her leg wraps and the tests. I just wanted to turn her out with her buddies. The doctor advised that I don't even take her out to graze, as little movement as possible. My poor girl. I am heartbroken. She is such a free spirit, it will be torture for both of us to see her standing in that stall. I just have to take things day by day and see where we go from here.