Ahh, I can't believe I'm posting this but nobody in my family is interested or understands horses.
I feel like everything with my horse is just going downhill. It all started last month when the saddle started rubbing my mares back and giving her terrible saddle sores. (it literally looked like somebody took a knife and just sliced her open.) I had the saddle fitter come and fix my saddle. I rode again and the saddle still rubbed. So I basically got ripped off with the saddle because the saddle fitter told me there was nothing more he could do. I didn't want to just go out and buy a brand new saddle without trying other options first. So I decided to go out and by a sheep wool pad. (lots of money. I paid euros so it ended up being around $100) It worked! I was ecstatic. I was able to ride, life was good.
The day after I am done riding my horse comes up lame. I call the vet and give her a week off as I'm trying to be as patient as possible. Finally after a week I get to ride her again. Every thing goes great; she's sound and smooth, but the next day she comes up lame again! I took her down to the vets office to get her properly checked out (he specializes in lameness issues). We get x-rays and other random tests done. It turns out she has an infection in her leg. So currently I am treating that. (she's a lot better and I can't ride her for the next four weeks.) But while we were at the vets office the vet discovered she became very angry when he touched her back. We had x-rays done and found that her bones are too close together and it causes her to have back problems (just to explain in a nutshell). She will be rideable (sp??) but I have to train her like she is a baby first starting out. This is my first horse and I have never trained a baby before. (I'll have lots of help but its still not the same as knowing what to do on your own.) And to top everything off she has lost a lot of weight. She was skinny before but since she has been on stall rest they took away her oats for a week and she refused to eat any beet pulp. This is when she lost all of her weight. She is back on oats and I am giving her a third meal a day that is designed specifically to help her gain weight.
I'm just so overwelmed! I feel like I'm failing her. She trusts me to take care of her and every thing is just going wrong.
I'm trying to fix everything but it is going to be a long process. So expect many posts on how to train a 12 year old horse.
Thanks for reading. If you had the guts to make it threw (I know its spelled wrong but I can't think of the right spelling now. Sorry!):-(
Aly
I feel like everything with my horse is just going downhill. It all started last month when the saddle started rubbing my mares back and giving her terrible saddle sores. (it literally looked like somebody took a knife and just sliced her open.) I had the saddle fitter come and fix my saddle. I rode again and the saddle still rubbed. So I basically got ripped off with the saddle because the saddle fitter told me there was nothing more he could do. I didn't want to just go out and buy a brand new saddle without trying other options first. So I decided to go out and by a sheep wool pad. (lots of money. I paid euros so it ended up being around $100) It worked! I was ecstatic. I was able to ride, life was good.
The day after I am done riding my horse comes up lame. I call the vet and give her a week off as I'm trying to be as patient as possible. Finally after a week I get to ride her again. Every thing goes great; she's sound and smooth, but the next day she comes up lame again! I took her down to the vets office to get her properly checked out (he specializes in lameness issues). We get x-rays and other random tests done. It turns out she has an infection in her leg. So currently I am treating that. (she's a lot better and I can't ride her for the next four weeks.) But while we were at the vets office the vet discovered she became very angry when he touched her back. We had x-rays done and found that her bones are too close together and it causes her to have back problems (just to explain in a nutshell). She will be rideable (sp??) but I have to train her like she is a baby first starting out. This is my first horse and I have never trained a baby before. (I'll have lots of help but its still not the same as knowing what to do on your own.) And to top everything off she has lost a lot of weight. She was skinny before but since she has been on stall rest they took away her oats for a week and she refused to eat any beet pulp. This is when she lost all of her weight. She is back on oats and I am giving her a third meal a day that is designed specifically to help her gain weight.
I'm just so overwelmed! I feel like I'm failing her. She trusts me to take care of her and every thing is just going wrong.
I'm trying to fix everything but it is going to be a long process. So expect many posts on how to train a 12 year old horse.
Thanks for reading. If you had the guts to make it threw (I know its spelled wrong but I can't think of the right spelling now. Sorry!):-(
Aly