Chill time

Literally..it's CHILLY!!!

No brown wooly caterpillars this year, that is for sure. 

That means, we will have a cold, snowy, windy winter.

Here's what Laz has been up to.  Being a horse, with his horse peeps. 

They are in fraternity "No Worka Mega"

Saturday I did opt to leg boot him and take him for a bit of a walk. He's walking 24/7 as is so I figured it wouldn't hurt him any. We literally walked .05 mile so it's like zilch.

He's weighting his leg with the sprained tendon, as you can see, but it's still 'off''

I haven't trotted him, nor will I until I feel it's OK to. I haven't seen him trot off on his own, but I'm only there a few hours a day...

It still seems to hurt him a bit, as I can tell he's just weighting that foot differently and is a bit more 'shifty' with it.  We've been cold hosing, and slatering/rubbing with Surpass
Hopefully time will heal

As we move into this cold, wet weather; he's got TIME! ;)

Hurricane Sandy brought us some 35+ gusts of wind with constant 27 mph winds, sleet, rain, snow, sleet some more. 

It's the kind of day where you just want to;

Our re-exam is Thursday for Laz's leg.

Each of my fur kids is testing us right now. Laz with his tendon, Mason had a trip to the ER vet with a sore tummy (at age 9.5 we don't mess around and wait) and Pudgie pooped in the house, ate it, and then puked it on my duvet.

Yea. Can't make this fun up.

Full moon, wasn't it? 

Tendon sprain

Well, the weekend of fun trail riding did NOT happen.

We had glorious weather too :(((

On Saturday morning, I arrived at the barn to find Laz laying down. 

Not an odd sight being it was his naptime window, but when he stood, he was LAME. 

My heart dropped onto my stomach which dropped onto the pasture grass.

I quickly grabbed him and started looking at his hooves, sure it was that.
When I was picking out his club RF, he was gently yanking his foot from me.

Huh? 

Usually he is SUCH a gentleman and leaves his hoof in my hand. I set him down and sure enough, I noticed a slight swelling in his LF.

UGH. He seemed he twisted his leg or tweaked it. He was standing off set and not weighing his LF like he usually does.

I opted to do a cold hose for about 15 minutes and then rubbed my liniment gel on it to help with swelling.

I came BACK that night, loosing it. I went from a sane horse person who thought maybe he tweaked it, to WHY?!?! and after googling tendon injuries, it further sent me down a crazy spiral of fright. I cold hosed him again, applied a light amount of gel and used his standing wraps.  I haven't wrapped him since he was first sick a couple of years ago, which then really brought me down, down, down, down. I just felt awful for him.  I felt all those terrifying feelings rise up again from a couple years ago.  I hate seeing him in any amount of pain. I kept telling myself, HE IS FINE. HE IS NOT DYING.

BUT, he was standing better and the swelling went down considerably so I kept it barely together. Poor Frizzle for my crazzzzzy frantic emails! ;)

 Sunday morning he was better yet and he was walking 90% normal. Again, just did a cold hose and rub rub rub with liniment and I left the wraps off.
I didn't dare trot him, so I just waited until Monday to book our appointment.

 I decided that for MY sanity, I needed to have my vet out to confirm via ultrasound that indeed it wasn't major. or if it was, to prepare of how to handle it.

Otherwise, I didn't feel right saying "oh he's fine" and riding him out on the trails for miles, etc.

So, on Tuesday we had our Vet out. She confirmed that he has a mild suspensory branch strain.  She compared it to a twisted ankle.  We've had a few days of rain, so the pastures have sections of slick mud and I'm guessing that was it, or when they geldings all play and gallop around. It happens, I guess when you choose a life of turnout for a horse. 

So, our plan to help him heal;

 Rest it (no riding---der), ice it, cold hose it and apply Surpass to the area, when dry, and rub it in.

He has sliiiiight swelling in joint area that showed up on the Ultrasound. He also tested slightly when she tested him with her fingers.

So, I'm to apply the Surpass once a day, rub into his lateral and medial side for 5 minutes into the skin, until she re checks him next Thursday. She hopes he'll continue to be tough and I"ll be back on his back soon after. Hopefully, he'll stay quiet since I WONT stall him (she didn't even suggest it) and it will continue to heal.

I know I'll worry a bit on our next ride but I'll only go for it if he seems to be back to normal.  She mentioned if he isn't back to normal by his re check, to maybe think about a Legend injection---eek

Tendon issues scare the bejesus out me! 

TrailMix

 Meet Lazaroo, Trail riding Ponee who wants to lead the WHOLE trail and loves to walk, trot or canter.  

I swear, this pony loves the trails like I do. It's SOOOOO freaking beautiful in there right now.  

 Remember when/if you were a child in the 80's and you saw this movie , this is how I feel when we trail ride, lol! It's magical. Swear. 

There may have been a unicorn sighting...or a deer...I don't know, we were blind with bliss.

"I see U kneeCORns!"

Laz and Justin are total trail mates-it's awesome

Justin leapt over some logs and he's such a beautiful jumper! It was fun to watch

 I mean, DO YOU SEE that trail?! It calls to you...summons...

Here is the section below

where one (who was brave enough) would cross the FAST Milford Rd to get to Kensington which has more MILES of trails. 

One day.  That road scares the bejezus out of me right now.

Also, you see that little red building. That is a Dairy Queen closed (sin!!) for the season.
Bucket list; next summer Laz and I are enjoying a cone there.

 Side note; the not so blissful part are the people that like to drive by at 40000 million miles per hour and not.tap.a.brake. 

Do you not see girls on their beautiful steeds that don't want to die?! SLOW down. I'm glad it's literally 1/4 mile of road before we get to the private property, and then to the trail.

 See, I told you it's magical..hearts in a forest?! 

Who knew..but they are there.

See, photo documentation. I can't tell a lie!

 Here is what we rode until my phone DIED, and we probably rode another 2 miles more.

Again, we timed it perfect (because we may have gotten lost) and got home RIGHT at dark

Friday we have a Parelli lesson and will do it IN the saddle or bareback vs ground work.

In memory of Enzo

A couple of years ago, I randomly met this sweet pretty girl, J9, at a laminitis seminar.

A quick friendship took off as we discussed our babies; our horses and our current attempts to train them, keep them safe, happy and sound

I got to meet her boy Enzo, a young Friesian that she was developing into such a sweet gentleman.

In their up's and down's of training, she stuck with him and quickly had him becoming quite an awesome horse.

This past week, she lost her lovely black Enzo, suddenly, at way too young of an age from a genetic aortic rupture.

How quick they can be taken from us.  

Thankfully he died quickly, peacefully and with no pain.

I know first hand, how deeply she loved her horse and how completely dedicated she was to him.

Please go to her blog and leave words of healing...

http://enzo-janine.blogspot.com/

Enzo, may you gallop on in heaven, sweet boy.

I'm so devastated for my friend...I know she's hurting and I can't imagine the pain.

She is the kind of horse woman that should have her horses until their late late 30's, with the impeccable care she provides.  

It's unfair and sad.

I hope she knows, she has Enzo and Palidor watching over her with love as she heals from this.

"Off the Track Jacket" and hoof updates

My Husband and I went out to the barn to take some photos of me riding in my new OTTB product, the "Off the Track Jacket"

I'm advertising in Dapple Grey's upcoming holiday edition and needed to get some photos asap

 I would have preferred to have someone else in 'ad' this but..Laz is definitely handsome enough 

despite, of course having brand new herd love bites on him.

 The Fall colors are so awesome but BRRR it's been chilly lately; 40's and low 30's in evening are making for "Laz the Yak" to appear a bit early.

 I think I'm going with one of these above...still have to figure out the layout of my logo, etc.

After the 5 minute photo session, I couldn't LEAVE without riding him, but Hubbie was starting to whine, the Tigers game was soon going to be on, etc etc so it was a quick 15 minute play session.

 Laz was READY to move move move!
Love his neck here and remember, he's bit-less!
Below you can see he's actually chewing.
He was a bit anxious and reallly wanting to RUN but behaved...mostly

 He was a bit naughty throwing in his snakey side to side head tosses that are quite powerful and can throw me off balance quickly, and would try to pick up a bigger trot or canter, and being bareback (no helmet!!) I wasn't into it.

 After cleaning his hooves, his cast has now cracked off competely on lateral side.

Cast is about 4 weeks old so this is lasting longer than last time

 I soaked his foot the day before for an hour in clean trax to help keep it clean

The horizontal crack above his heel is concerning to me but my trimmer is aware and said to keep moving on and we'll address it at next wrapping coming up in two week's time. That crack is where we think he blew out an abscess about a month ago-or more under his 1st cast. 

See below for a comparison shot of then; (a month ago) so see growth difference to above photo.

Sept 2nd

Below-Oct 9th

(Looks ratty because I hadn't groomed him yet-yipes!)

Definite growth which is great. I can see where the abscess blow out has grown down.

That heel crack just frightens me...While we wait for our next hoof cast, I'll continue to soak in Clean Trax and apply Thrush off to keep clean.

My trimmer still wants me to ride him and even suggested for trail rides to wrap the area with vet wrap/duct tape to keep sand/gravel out and KEEP HIM MOVING.

Ok...

I'm DYING to get back out on the trails so hoping it works out weather wise this weekend!

In which we RIDE RIDE RIDE

(Massive Photo purge ahead!)

So, per my trimmer's request of "RIDE HIM" that is exactly what I've been doing!

Here is our barn of three, this past GLORIOUS Fall Sunday evening, plus a friend so all horses could go out.

FUN FUN FUN is the only way to describe it.

The horses were AMPED to go and were just as excited.

Laz, my sweet lovely, was brave, excited, rambunctious and a good boy all in one.

He kept throwing mini head snaking bucks and channeled his inner race horse while he jigged down some mowed down paths, but then quickly settled after a good 35 minutes into a steady Eddy on the trail, even leading and wanting to lead.

Could.Not.Love.Him.More. 

3 OTTBs and a X WB=awesome

A happy follower or leader-yes please!

Leading his herd!

This was our little yellow loop, that we can access off a private property. The lady gave us a happy "YES of course" to ride on her 11 acres that backs up into this trail.

Michigan has some incredible trails that are literally fairy tale like

Part of the private property

This was the stretch were Laz said "OH ya, I rememberz..I runz real real fasst and WINS thingz..letsz gooooo!"

And I'm all like "Ya, three legged horse, we walk nice or trot forward not sideways now, M-k?

Look at those Fall colors!

Proof of mega fun!

Coming back home via our road

I had opted to boot up Laz's fronts, and left his rears bare (with the exception of his hoof cast is still on RH).  Next time, I may go totally bare being the footing was quite nice and not rocky (for the exception of our dead end road in which I can ride on the grassy sides)

Laz and his X WB bestie, Justin. It's amazing how well this herd all gets along.

"We did sooo goodz"

As if that day wasn't perfect, we ended up by grooming after and watching hot air balloons in the sky.

Here is our new found secret trail from barn to trail, what we rode.

Now prior to our trail rides, I was doing a LOT of ground work reinforcement

And alone hacks with him, to encourage bravery on his own

We would just go down our dirt road and walk into some of the woody side areas so he got used to brush, etc.  He handled it all VERY well.

Piles of logs and rocks sometimes make him STOP and stare

But no bolting. I allow him to stop, we chat about it, and then give him a pat that he's always OK with me, and usually it's followed by a big SIGH

Riding alone helps him not be so herd sour! 

Not that he is in the least but I never want that for him

We are Team K.Laz!

Lots of loose rein 

Team K.Laz likes to have Mason as our protector

He scares away any thoughts of hiding monsters

The worlds most awesome chocolate Lab

He protects us from scary ass Halloween cats

Hiissssss

I'll get her!

Or, made he got a royal black cat smack down and swiped across his nose.

Awww

From barn dog to "city spoiled I get to lay on the couch and duvets dog"

Then this past Wed evening, two of us did the same trail run, but found yet another little loop to take.

We went totally barefoot (plus his hoof cast) on this trail ride and he was 100% fine

Laz WANTED to lead, so he did most of the trail. 

I like to trade off so he's versatile so we did a bit of that too.

 I mean..BE MORE GORGEOUS!!? I think not...

 Michigan right now is in her FULL glory just exploding with color

 Gilded

 The two minds meet

 Picking up the pace as the sun started to set and we were 2 miles out...oops!

We had nice trotting sessions and CANTER through the woods

Can I say how FUN that is!! The boys were just snorting with pride after our canter!

 Souvenirs!

 A few minutes before dark on our street and look at how this red tree is BURSTING with red!

 We came across two Doe tucked in the woods and do you know what the horses did?!
NOTHING but stared.

HOORAH!

 Oh happy day!

 These two were awesome together

We got home JUST before dark...as Justin turned into a Gremlin!

I went back the next day to make sure he wasn't ouchy.

I get SO nervous to push him and thought maybe the trotting/cantering was a bad idea...

 but he was FULL of energy and totally fine.

After a quick lunge, I just groomed him and loved on him.  Once I released him, he full tilt galloped back to the pasture to stuff his fat face

Aw Lazaroo!