Clicker Training

Fun Day! I ordered a horse clicker training kit and went out to the barn to try it out. For those who don't know, my mare Maddy, is on stall rest until December due to a fractured coffin bone. I thought I would do some clicker training exercises in her stall to keep her mind busy. The book suggested I start by introducing the clicker by clicking and giving a treat. I did that a few times in between grooming. Next, I took a small cone and held it out in front of me. When she touched her nose to it, I clicked and gave a treat. Then I moved around the stall and set the cone in different places and would point to the cone and when she touched it, I clicked and gave a treat. She caught on real quick and realized the cone was like a mini vending machine. She was having a ball eating little pieces of carrots. I think she really enjoyed playing our little game together. I am going to work on clicker feet lifting and clicker dropping her head next. I do realize that you have to make sure your horse doesn't get pushy about treating, so there is a fine line I will have to watch for. This is something we can do to pass time until she gets better.

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.