Update of lots of little inconsiquental stuff (like how I can't spell!)

Ok lets try and break this into sections:

Horses: I had another very interesting ride on Sunday. Very energetic again. I am adament that I am going to take her on a longer ride this week or this weekend. I ment to do it last weekend but other things got in the way (see following). One thing I wanted to mention because its so amazing. I have a vary steep hill on the road going to my house, I have to go up and down this hill when I ride on my local trail. Last winter when Lucy was very sick she had one of her breathing attacks after just walking up that hill. Only three or four months ago when I started working her again she would get severely out of breath going up the hill and we had to stop several times to make sure she was ok. Now she has so much energy that we trot up the hill only stopping once, briefly, because I like her to catch her breath, but she is only just out of breath at the top.
Its amazing and wonderful for a horse that a lot a people thought would never come back. I mean the nerves going to her airways were paralized to certain extent, and from my mom's sickness I know how long and hard it is to repair nerves, and now they are all fine again. I think she is a super horse!Hehe!

WOW: Yes, I know, playing wow makes me a geek. Or a loser. Or just really need an outlet other then my horses! I think its just because wow is an incredibly addicting game. Just like horses! Anyway I now have three charaters, all named after my animals: Eeli (my dog), Lucy (my horse, because Keziahs name comes from a book that both loren and I read he already has a character named Keziah) and Dieta which is a different spelling for my first horses name (it pronounced Deetah). They are, respectively; a paladin (according to Loren the most unfair class in their abilitlys) a mage (by far my favorite!) and a Priest (they are good healers but die a lot!)
Anway, now I am trying to fit that into my schedule as well!

Oh right, another thing that is horse related. I am working with Sassy, one of my friends horses. She is super cute and lots of fun to work with. She is a Gypsy Vanner/Quarter Horse cross but looks all Vanner. Right now she is just a wee bit overweight (ok I am being nice, she is a tub!) but I think with some ponying off Lu she will lose weight. It will also help that I will be working with her on a regular basis. Right now the plan is to train her to a cart and then Carolyn will send her to someone to be backed. Should be fun!

Kezi Lameness chart

I just made this chart of Kezi's lameness ( I downloaded a timeline and was planning on using it to make a timeline for Lucy's conditioning for the summer) and decided to try my hand at publishing it on my blog, this may take a couple trys to get right!


http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.1ec3c1a5-53e1-4774-bab3-8e83e6b1d74f&hl=en


Ok so I cannot figure out how to make a title clickable, but then I am the girl who cannot figure out how to post pictures in the middle of a post, rather they all end up at the top! Haha!

Ok lets see if this works!

The hoof of the problem

No matter what sport you are training for you should never overlook the horses hoof. I know this, and yet its what I did, and I am now suffering for the consiquences, or Lucy is anyway.

Ok, ok its not that bad, but I hate for anything to not be quite right and since a lot hasn't been quite right lately, this was sort of the final blow. But it might be the answer to all the problems. Maybe.

What is the problem? Just look below or click on Lucy's hooves my last post. Lucy's hooves have always looked so good that its quite a blow that they are in such a horrible state!

I only noticed after going to take pictures of them for a post about her tripping, much their apperance brings up much more then just tripping. It could by why she doesn't want to go out for rides and why she doesn't move out as well. If she is unbalanced by her hooves she could be in pain.

So for the next couple weeks I am suspending her from all activity. Luke just called and can come out on Wedneday or next week. I am NOT happy with him! But hopefully we can get her hooves back on track asap.

And to think I had just made a new training schedule for her! Yes I make a new one like every two weeks!

So more non horsey spring days will be going by!

Evaluating our current situation

So this moring on my ride I was doing some serious thinking about Lucy. She had seemed more upset about having to go out this moring then normal, or maybe its my imagination.

Some rides she seems a lot more happy about going out, and others she isn't. But all in all she still isn't getting that excited about going out for rides. Yes she will let me catch her now, but thats only since I started bringing her out for her grain in the morings.

I'm not sure how much longer I can push her out on the trail before we are both fed up and no longer want to ride. Even though my asperations are for endurance, that doesn't mean I am going to push Lucy to doing it, but I would like her to go back to being the same horse she was before she got sick. Or maybe she was like this before and it never bothered me, but I don't think so.

I am no longer worried about her fitness, I can see now that she is going to be able to come back conditionaly wise just fine, I think her breathing is getting better to and will improve even more when we start doing more hillwork.
No, its just her attitude that is bothering me now. And the tripping, which I think is a by product of the attitude. She triped even more then usual this morning. Maybe it was just an off day for her, the whole ride she just wanted to turn around and go home. Her condition was fine, in fact I belive out average speed was 3.1, fairly good for average.
But her tripping. She almost went down on both knees today. And there wasn't even anything there for her to trip over. She is just tripping over the ground or herself. I am pretty sure I am going to talk to Nancy about it. She has been tripping ever since I brough her back into work. At first it was just every once in a while, but even then it worried me since Lucy never used to trip.

Well it could just be that she hasn't had enough time to strangthen her legs and that with time the tripping will go away.

But back to the main subject, will I ever get Lucy back to being interested in going out for rides?

I know that she would make a wonderful endurance horse, becuase:

1. She has a lean body that doesn't carry any extra fat
2. Her skin is thin and she can cool herself off quickly and easily with lots of blood vessals next to the skin.
3. She has incredible endurance, I have only seen her tired on two occations in her eight years
4. She is good at holding her pace for a long time
5. She is good at learning where to pick up the trot and where to walk to save her strangth and not injury herself.
6. She has never had any sort of metabolic heath issues.
7. She has never gone lame from something other then a wound on her body
8. She does great by herself out on the trail
9. She is easy to get fit and stay fit
10. She has study legs and big strong feet

And the number one reason why she wouldn't make a good endurance horse:

1. Well she just doesn't seem to want to be out on the trail anymore.


Sigh.

I think I get to worked up over her little attitude issues. I think I should keep her on her current conditioning program and see how she is by the end of this year so I can decide if we are going to compete next year or if I need to change her to a different disapline or just retire her to pleasure trail riding.

Of course a lot depends on Kezi. She is currently on Naproxin again. Which of course means I have an overactive cheerleader on my hands again. Its so nice to see her sound, I just wish I could belive it is going to last. Dr. Peterson seemed to think her reaction was heartening and might lead to a recovery, but I don't think he understands that when she goes sound, she looks very sound!

Oh well only time will tell. I will cross my fingers.