Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Same old stuff...and playing vet :)

I've been going to the barn every day, cleaning stalls and taking care of the horses. I've also been working on showmanship, and I actually rode Stella today. It was a real ride! We could actually canter because the whole ring was nice and dry. We had a pretty good ride, but Stella was wild today too.
She just hasn't been working that much lately. I did manage to work some of her silliness out. We cantered for a long, long time. She started to buck at one point, but she only did it two or three times before I made her pick her head up and continue cantering. I think she was really glad to get out and canter. I, on the other hand, would've been perfectly happy to skip riding today and lie out on my bed.
I went to the chiropractor again today. Everything hurts so bad. I'm going to give it a day or two to get better and then I'll see what's going on. Last time I went, I was terribly sore afterward and I was in constant, excruciating pain all last week. I do NOT want that to happen again. After my first appointment, I swore I hadn't felt that good since before that awful day in gym class back in 8th grade, when I finally decided something was wrong with me. Now, I'm not feeling better at all. I do feel more aligned, but that does me no good when I can't stand, let alone walk.
Agh, enough about my pains. I don't want to think about it, and no one wants to hear about it.
I "diagnosed" a case of colic today. Blondie, the horse Larry has for training, was behaving oddly. She kept lying down and staying down for long periods of time. At first I thought the warm weather and flies might be bothering her, so I sprayed her with some fly spray but kept an eye on her. Larry had also just free-longed her, so I thought she might be tired. She started to roll, which I discouraged, and I brought out the stethoscope so I could listen to her gut. I didn't hear much, so I was really worried. I continued to keep an eye on her as I finished up the stalls. When Larry came back, he decided she was probably colicking too. Blondie seems to be better now, so I guess it was just a mild tummy ache.
I've also been fighting a tick battle with the horses and dogs. Fortunately, I haven't found many ticks on myself so far, but I've been plucking them off of Jack, Abby, and Stella left and right. Poor Blondie has a bit of swelling on her stomach from some sort of insect bite.
Abby's foot is getting much better. She cut it a while back. It was a pretty good-sized cut, one that I personally thought might need stitches (When the vet took a look at it, she also said it probably would've been a good idea, but the paw is healing nicely anyway.). Larry's been doing a good job keeping his little Hoo-Dog's paw clean and bandaged, and Abby is back to her old antics.

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