Progress Report

Quila's showing slow improvement.

I was beginning to get alarmed when the swelling hadn't gone down at all after the first week, and there was still heat, but FINALLY, the last day or so, it has been looking better. She'll be thrilled when I tell her that tomorrow is the last day of Bute. She hates Bute.

The only part she likes is the twice daily bran mashes. She loves bran mashes. Of course, she'd like to have her grain, too, but given a choice, she'd pick bran mashes over grain in a heart beat. Go figure.

She also hates being handwalked. Anyone that sees us making our 7 laps of the perimeter of the property for our 30 minute stint remarks on it... her head hangs low, and her face, which always has a wealth of expression, has a look that says, "Why am I being punished? What did I do?" She looks absolutely miserable.

She is not a mare that needs words, her voice or action in order to communicate. You only need to look at her face. Her eyes and facial expressions speak volumes. Anyone can read her basic thoughts, and I never have to guess at what she's thinking.

I hope we'll get clearance for tackwalking when she's rescanned. She'd be much happier. That, at least, feels worthwhile to her. She'll have a bounce in her step and stop moping, stop looking like she's being led to the slaughter. I'll have to see if I can find someone to snap a photo... the misery on her face is almost laughable, like a small child with a big pout on.

Damn It!

We didn't get the news I'd hoped for yesterday.

Tequila has at least a strained suspensory, maybe a tear. There was too much edema surrounding the tendon to get a good view, so we're going to be doing aggressive conservative therapy to get the swelling and inflammation down over the next two weeks, and then rescan. THE GOOD NEWS? There was no obvious "black hole." THE BAD? We're off for at least a month. Bye, bye Del Mar National. Bye, bye DG Bar. Shit, shit, shit.

Worse yet. No fun with my favorite riding partner at all. She hates handwalking. So do I. She glared sullenly at me the entire 30 minutes today (and at Birthe during Birthe's stint).

So for now, it's Naquasone for 4 days, Bute for 10 days, and we're icing 4 times a day, handwalking for 30 minutes twice a day, and I'm poulticing it every night. And prayer. Lot's of prayer. I want my best buddy back as my riding partner.

Two weeks actually puts us in the middle of World Cup, and my vet is the official vet for the US Dressage competitors (not to mention that I plan to be in Las Vegas, too, leading the cheering section for Leslie Morse)--so our reassessment will have to wait until after we all get back.

Hmmmmph.

Say A Prayer...

As if creaky hocks weren't enough, yesterday, when I went to ride Quila, I found a new problem. She had swelling and heat in the suspensory/deep digital flexor tendon area of the right hind--all new. She's never had a problem there before, and she has no reason to have one there now, especially after the last week of work, which is less than 40% of the usual intensity. We've only done basic walk/trot/canter, no circles smaller than 15 meters, no forward/back within the gaits, no lengthenings.

She is the Queen of casting herself, but she's also smart about carefully pushing herself clear of the wall--and I keep her wrapped all the way around for just that reason. Her bandages were undisturbed. I hope it will turn out to be nothing. I iced it twice yesterday, then put her away for the night with it slathered in poultice. The vet is due out today for the hocks... I'll guess he'll be looking at it as well.

I didn't jog her, so I didn't get a sense of lameness. She didn't seem too bad at the walk (but I can never tell a darn thing at the walk, not unless she's so darn lame I can't bear to look).

The photo is from the Dressage Affaire Show, taken by Amy McCool. She said I could post it with attribution. It's our first photo in lateral work--the first one worth claiming, anyway.

July 21, 2006: Half Full and Trying Not to Spill

After a week off, we were given permission to go back to work on Wednesday. It turned out that Quila DID injure herself, but not in an “important” way. She apparently damaged her “curb” ligament, which isn’t important to locomotion, and since she’s not lame, there’s no reason not to return to work... so continue the Bute for a few days for any muscles soreness that will result from having laid off for the week, and continue icing to treat the residual heat and swelling, but otherwise life as usual.

Great, right?

Not exactly. Quila’s memory is not the greatest, you see, and she apparently forgot the meaning of half halt during her “vacation,” or, at the very least, how to pay attention to me while I’m riding, so that she will notice when I am giving one. She also became incredibly stiff, and was having trouble bending to the right the first few days, though that was MUCH better today (the third day back). On Wednesday, we had a miserable ride. “Half halt?” she said. “What's a half halt? In fact, what's a halt? Or a down transition?” She wasn't being naughty. She was just daydreaming, and couldn't keep her concentration on me to save her life. We were walking. I asked for a halt. We were still walking. I asked again, louder (but NO PULLING--I could not, would not pull--yank, yes--but pull, no). Still no response. Whack, whack, whack with the whip. Quila startles a bit. “What? Oh. Were you talking to me? Could you repeat? Oh. Halt? Um, yes. Let me see. How does that go? Oh. Yeah. Right. Here you go.” Very frustrating ride.

Today was a little better, in that she was paying attention to me most of the time, but we’ve lost a lot of ground. We just aren’t working together as a team, and performing as we were before she got hurt, and I don’t feel the confidence I had in our ability to compete that I did earlier. We were not so confirmed at Test 4 that we could afford the time off, I’m afraid (or at least I wasn’t, and for me it was more than 2 weeks out of the saddle, because you can hardly count the single ride I had between Pebble Beach and her injury). It looks like a huge hole that we need to dig ourselves out of in order to be ready to show next weekend...

I talked to Jürgen, and we agreed to wait until the very last minute to decide whether or not to scratch for the show. I want to qualify for the USDF Region 7 Championships more than anything else--it was my one big goal for this season (actually, it was my goal last season, but Quila’s lameness kept us from achieving it. I really thought we’d have a chance at it this year, though). If we’re going to do it, we MUST show next weekend, and score 62% or better on one of the two days (ideally on both of them). But I don’t want to go out and show if we’re not ready... we’ve had enough tests with scores in the 50’s, and they aren’t confidence building for either one of us. We don’t need to go out and have a bad experience. So, unless we have improved to the point where we are communicating and functioning as a team, I will stay home and say goodbye to my dream for this season. It’s the only reasonable thing to do. I’m trying to remain upbeat for now... but boy, it looks a long way from where we are and where we need to be.

July 14, 2006: Avoiding Heatstroke

I might have chosen a cool drink, but Quila went for the sure thing... avoid the heat of Ramona altogether! We were to have shown at Creek Hollow this weekend, but our plans had to be cancelled because Tequila cast herself in her stall. Nothing too serious, I think, but after discussing it with Jürgen, we’ve decided that the intelligent thing to do is to give her the weekend off and just tack walk until he can look at her on Tuesday because she has some swelling in the left hind. The amazing (frustrating) thing is that she managed to do this WHILE she was wearing standing wraps and to an area COVERED by the wraps! What the @(*&#? Now that’s one determined mare. (The temperatures on the COAST this weekend are projected to be 95 to 100º; I can only imagine what it will be like in Ramona). Of course, if she’d asked, I could have told her that they were using their indoor arena with misters going as the warm-up this show, and that the outdoor arena was for the rides,which were scheduled to be completed by 10:30 am. But she didn’t ask.

This enforced time off puts the kibosh (I think I spelled that right) on any hopes I had (I don’t think Quila particularly cared) for qualifying for the CDS Championships. There simply aren’t enough judges to ride for between now and the qualifying deadline, what with traveling to Lexington, VA to do the “Mom thing” for Susan and going to WEG. Oh, well. We should still be able to qualify for USDF, unless we screw up or this is worse than I think.

She actually injured herself on Wednesday. I hand-walked and iced her then, and rode her lightly (equal to our warm-up) yesterday. She was stiff when we started but then felt good yesterday, and the leg looked OK after the ride. We did a bit more (just a tiny bit)—I rode no more than 20 minutes, and only did easy transitions from walk/trot, trot/canter and canter/trot—today. No simple changes, no trot/halt, no collection, no extension. I kept things easy, and just asked for her to be loose in the poll and to give through the ribs (but kept my circles large, 15 meters or greater).

It was a really helpful ride, in that I learned a lot in 2 minutes. I was having trouble at the canter: she was traveling haunches in on the right lead, and coming against my right leg, stiff in the poll and I was having a tough time getting her to do a transition to trot without pulling. I was getting frustrated, since my new mantra is “Thou shalt not pull.” And I didn’t want to bring her up hard onto her you-know-what because of the hind leg... Fabian was riding another horse at the time, though, and had seen the problem. “Look,” he said. “You have to get her into your outside rein.” What? But she’s looking to the outside already? Increase the contact, and won’t we be facing the other direction in the arena? That’s what my instincts wanted to shout... “Let go of your inside rein NOW and half halt on the outside rein, and use your inside leg.” My instincts screamed NO. Boy, are they STUPID!

I did what he said, and PLOP, she softened in the poll, straightened, and the problem was solved. Then I heard Jürgen’s voice in my head. “She’s haunches in. Put your inside leg on and push her into your outside rein.” OK, Jürgen, now I get it. You meant I should stop trying to pull her to the inside and twist her into a pretzel with my inside rein, and do something that works instead. Thank goodness you’re German. An American trainer would be billing me extra for having to repeat themselves and for pain and suffering, because I’m so slow on the uptake... I’m sure Susan has said the same thing, too. I just wasn’t hearing it. I had to get to the “I’ll never pull again” place first, I think.

I also realized that it (today’s problem) STARTED because I hadn’t gotten her there (on my outside rein, in correct contact) from the FIRST canter stride. I waited (again) until there was a problem, and THEN tried to fix it. I DO HAVE TO GET BETTER ABOUT THAT.

Of course, now I won’t get to practice what I just figured out, at least for a few days, because the swelling increased from just the small amount of work we did. I’m hoping it was just the heat and nothing more, but as Jürgen said on the phone (he and the rest of the gang are at the CDI*** Woodside), a few days walking never hurt anybody. So, it’s ice, ice, ice and walking until he’s back and can take a look on Monday or Tuesday. It doesn’t look scary bad, but I don’t want to take risks with a horse as precious as she is to me.