Extended Pasture Rest

I'm a big believer in the healing properties of rest.  The following personal success stories with our horses have me convinced.  If you want to read more about any of the horses below, scroll to the bottom of my blog where there is a cloud of words.  Click on the name of the horse and it will take you to all the blog posts tagged with that horse's name.

1.  Kalvin:  A number of years ago we were asked by our trainer to rehab/board a horse.  Kalvin was a huge dark bay who had progressed to Prix St. George in dressage when he came up lame.  The lameness came and went and it took many months and many specialist before the owner found the problem; a hairline fracture in his foot.  The owner was told he would never compete in dressage again.  The specialist suggested six months of paddock rest to see if he could become pasture sound.  Kalvin lived in our paddock at Aspen Meadows for six months, sharing a fence line with the rest of the horses who were in a larger adjacent area.  At the six month mark, we moved him into the larger area with the rest of the horses where he floated around, demonstrating the impressive gaits that got him to PSG.  His owner drove up the mountain faithfully, once or twice a week, and gave him a bath, a grooming, and played with him in the arena doing groundwork at the walk.  After a year of rest, he seemed perfectly sound and she started doing light riding in the arena.  He remained sound.  She moved him a few months later to the therapeutic riding school where she works as an instructor so she could be closer to him.  ...they are back in the competition arena, doing great.

2.  Jackson: Concussion laminitis, thin soles, mystery lameness... my stellar trail horse and dressage project (he is as crooked as is possible) kept coming up lame and after battling abscess after abscess, I decided to retire him.  Jackson has been on pasture rest the longest of these case studies -- four years.  I tried pads on him and many special shoes before making the retirement decision.  He was so young, only eight.  Nothing helped.  Finally, in an attitude of "it couldn't get any worse," I pulled all of his shoes and just let him be.  We took x-rays every year and over the course of the first two years, he showed very slight rotation.  It wasn't enough to expect a problem but horses each have their own very personal pain threshold.  Jackson did okay down at Aspen Meadows but not great.  He remained very gimpy when turning and winters continued to be a series of abscesses.  When we relocated to Northern California, our farrier down south recommended putting him down.  He didn't think Jackson would be able to tolerate the  eleven hour trailer ride, Jackson would never be sound, and I was "throwing good money after bad."  Truth be told, the comment made me really angry.  Jackson tolerated the trailer ride fine and, other than being harassed by Winston, he was the same.  Jackson ended up in the donkey pasture where Winston and Mufasa couldn't torment him.  The first winter was the same as always, a series of abscesses.  X-rays showed no changes.  This winter I decided to put trail boots (hard rubber tennis shoes for horses) on all four hooves.  His hoof walls aren't the greatest but it's his thin soles that do him in.  When they get wet in the winter, they get soft.  When they get soft, he gets stone bruises from pebbles.  The stone bruises lead to abscesses.  Now he clomps around, happy and abscess free.  Lately, he's been trotting and even cantering around the pasture.  I'm going to talk to our farrier next time he comes about some sort of pads or other protection for his soles.  He wants to be ridden and I think I will be able to do that soon.  (big grin).

3.  Flash:  Brett's mounted patrol partner and trail buddy became more and more uncomfortable when being ridden.  A thorough work up revealed arthritis but nothing definitive -- no torn anything, but definite discomfort in his hind end.  Brett tried hock injections and Adequan but nothing helped.  Two years ago, Brett made the difficult decision to retire Flash, who was 16 at the time.  Flash maintained his alpha status in the herd but he didn't partake in the gallop fests enjoyed by the others.  He walked slowly and deliberately.  Sometimes, he just stood quietly under the trees all day.  A few months ago, we noticed a change -- right after his recovery from tick fever.  He has pep in his step: he runs with Mufasa, he rears and bucks and walks with purpose.  Brett is thinking about hopping  on him one of these days.  He won't ever go back to full work but, like Jackson, we think he may be sound for light riding.

4.  Pistol: Okay, she didn't come to us lame.  She came to us perfectly sound -- and very over-weight.  I was concerned about her gaining more weight, just hanging around in the pasture with Lucy and the goats, eating hay and nibbling on the grass.  Instead, she has dropped to a respectable weight and no longer looks like she is in foal.  She runs around with Lucy on cold mornings.  When she first came, it was difficult for her to trot more than once around the small arena.  She's much more fit now -- on pasture rest with infrequent rides by myself or Camille.  I mean, really infrequent.

Of course, I know that not everyone has access to pasture the way that we do.  We came from Southern California where small paddocks are a luxury.  Don't even think about pasture.  It doesn't exist.  But now we have that luxury and the horses are reaping the benefits. It seems to take at least a year, sometimes a lot more, for healing to occur and I know that is an expense not everyone can afford.  But if you can, it is worth trying.  We are 3 for 3 on lameness and even Pistol is reaping the benefits.

Kalvin Moves Out

Sunday was Kalvin's big day.  Katy was scheduled to arrive around 2:00 to move Kalvin to his new home at The Shea Center where she works as a newly minted therapeutic riding instructor.  She started out as a volunteer, exercising and training the horses at the center.  She loved it so much that she ditched her plans to go to nursing school and instead enrolled in their program to become certified as an instructor.  She starts work full time there Monday and one of the perks is being able to have her horse boarded there with her. 

Kalvin spent his morning and early afternoon as usual, eating and hanging out with Jackson.  I apologize for the PG rating on these photos.  For some reason, he was dropped down all afternoon.  Happy?  Relaxed? Needs to pee?

Katy arrived around 2:30 and got Kalvin ready to go.  She wrapped his legs for the trailer ride and then loaded him onto our trailer.  He stepped right on, only pausing to take a bite of hay from the bale sitting just inside the trailer door.  Katy took a bale of our hay to help him transition to the hay at the Shea Center.

When we got to the center, he unloaded and walked calmly with her to the round pen where she put him to chill, roll and run around while setting up his stall.

Get a load of this arena.  The footing is amazing; the same footing used at the World Cup.  It's a mixture of sand and silicone.  We were drooling with envy.  They have the same footing in the round pen.

While Kalvin was cooling his jets, Katy gave us a short tour.  The mounting blocks are designed for wheelchair access and allow a therapist to stand on either side of the horse, helping the rider mount.  It's very similar to the setup described in Courtney King-Dye's article about her rehab (in the June issue of Dressage Today).

There are two tack rooms at the Shea Center.  One is for hippotherapy horses and the other for therapeutic riding.  Courtney recently "graduated" from hippotherapy to therapeutic.  The tack rooms were amazing.  First, we went in the one for hippotherapy.  Each horse has their own bucket of brushes (spotless) and tack.

The therapeutic riding tack room was huge.  And clean.  You could have eaten off of the floors.  I kid you not.  And all those beautiful saddles?  Donated by Custom Saddlery --- which makes me feel good about owning one.

Outside the tack room, on the barn wall, was a huge white board with the horses names and schedules.  This week the therapy school is on vacation and they are having camp instead.  Katy says she misses her therapy kids.  Able-bodied kids are a bit wild and wooly.

The barn was amazing.  The Shea Center is in San Juan Capistrano so the climate is about as perfect as you can get.  Not too hot in the summer since it is on the coast, and not too cold in the winter.  The barn is a wide open structure with a roof.  The roof was full of skylights so it was full of light.  There are two aisles, dividing the barn into four areas.  The stalls are very large and open with stall mats covering some sort of footing that was very squishy and soft.  It felt like walking on a mattress.  I couldn't help but think it would be good for Jackson's feet.  The stalls were clean, the aisles were spotless, and the horses didn't have a speck of dust.  They were all groomed and in good weight, relaxed and content.  The energy of the barn was very peaceful. 

Each horse had  two cards.  One had feeding instructions and the other gave information about the horse.  Here's Annie, for example.

Meanwhile, Katy was busy grooming Kalvin and getting him ready to be tucked into his new stall.  He came down the aisle like a bride on the arm of her father (well, Katy), greeting all the guests and enjoying the attention.

He settled right into his stall, digging into his hay and then going off to meet the neighbors.

I think he's going to be just fine.  How could he not be?  He will see Katy every day, be surrounded by new friends with enough access for mutual wither scratching, and great footing.  Life is going to be very good for Kalvin.

An Update on the Ranch

So, what has been going on with the animals while I've been lounging around writing poetry and snoozing on the couch?  Brett tethers me to the house when he is home but Monday he went off to work and I headed outside with my camera to feed the horses lunch and give you an update. 

The Blanket Flower jumped out of the flower bed and started growing in the lawn.  I'm hoping it continues its migration into the orchard.  I love these flowers.

Poppies are supposed to be done blooming by now.  These didn't get the message.

Easter lilies are blooming.  I don't like this angle but with my cast, I couldn't get low with the camera.  Grrrr.

Jackson is packing on weight again.  We moved him out of the paddock when Winston arrived and then never moved him back in since he was getting along okay with the herd.  However, he is getting chubby and he is also getting bites from the others (I suspect Winston).  He can't move fast on those laminitic feet so he gets nailed.  We put him back in the paddock where we can regulate his hay intake and where he can socialize without being bullied.  I gave him a bath.  He was pleased.

I was very popular at lunch time.  Kalvin and Flash came up from the bottom of the pasture where they were napping under the oak trees to meet me, nickering as they came.

I tried to get a good picture of Kalvin, but he wouldn't keep his head out of the hay long enough for me to do so.  He is going to be moving to the barn where his owner works on July 1st.  We will miss him but it is best all the way around.  Kalvin and his owner have an amazing bond.  They will be together every day when he moves.  Kalvin will live in a stall with a large run out.  I think he'll be happy.  He loves being in the barn; he has spent most of his life there and I think it is a place of security for him.  Since we got Winston, he hasn't had a stall in the barn and he complains about that.  He stands behind the run-ins and paws at the gates.  His move will also mean less for us to muck and that's a good thing too.  Especially since I can't help Brett with my broken foot. 

He will leave here fat, shiny, sassy and sound.  We feel good about that. 

Dinner Dance

On Memorial Day, Brett and I had dinner on the viewing stand.  We barbequed hamburgers, nibbled on chips, drank a bottle of wine and watched the horses do their dinner dance.  I love the evening light in the pasture so I took pictures of them as they moved from feed bin to feed bin.  We divide the hay between four bins plus the run-in shed.  They rotate from station to station, pairing up.  The donkeys hang together, Flash and Kalvin are inseparable, and Winston and Jackson have a love/hate thing going on.  Winston made Jackson go with him to get a drink of water at the pond (herded him down there) but in the next minute, chased him away from a particular bin.  Here's the dance -- or musical chairs.

Went to the dr for my toes yesterday.  I couldn't take the pain anymore.  He sent me for x-rays -- second toe is very broken and there is extensive ligament damage in the others.  I must say Flash was thorough when he kicked me/Winston.  I have an appt with a specialist Thursday afternoon. 

Kalvin and Flash: BFFs

Flash is the alpha, the herd leader, the aloof head honcho of the pasture here at Aspen Meadows.  So, imagine our surprise when he and Kalvin became inseparable.  Flash used to hang out with Auke, years ago, but it wasn't like this.  These two are never more than a few feet apart.  They eat together, they nap together, they practically pee together.

Do you see Flash's fly mask on the ground by the fence?  Kalvin takes it off of Flash everyday.