Well it seems my riding is going to be cut back a whole lot more until I can get my other horse up to scratch in order ride out alone.
I had the vet out today to see Sammy since his breathing had gotten worse. Turns out he is broken winded grade 4 which isn't the end of the world, but I still felt like crying. So I now have to weigh up whether I want him to go into surgery to get it fixed, or just leave him to only be capable of a plod around the paddock.
I can't remember the proper terms but basically one of the flaps in the back of his throat is not opening up.
They are supposed to open with every breath but one of his barely moves it just hangs down. So only one is working. He is pretty much as bad as he can get. I can ride him but if he works to hard and is forced breath really heavy, it could cause inflamation etc in the part of his throat that is working which would make it even hrader for him to breath. THe vet said the cause is the nerve along that part of the throat has been injured at some point and is no longer its job, or something like that.
I can save up up for a fairly expensive operation if I want but he said there isn't a guarantee it will fix it, it doesn't always work. There are abviously risks and its just whether I feel I should do it or not, since he isn't in any pain or anything so long as I'm not riding him hard.
My kids are in town this weekend. My daughter's 26 year old appaloosa hasn't been ridden in months and she wanted to ride her a little bit. The poor old girl is not looking her best as she has lost a bit of weight this winter, but she was feeling great. She actually cantered. Wow. We can barely get her to go at all usually. I think that she was feeling extra good since she is on such a high level of feed; literally "feeling her oats". Except it isn't oats. "Feeling my senior feed" doesn't have quite the same ring. So no trail ride, but I did take a few turns around the arena on the old girl.
DH and I had a couple friends up to ride with us today. Weather couldn't have been better, with highs in the mid 50s and sun and little wind. I now have spring fever something terrible.
We did a lovely 11 miles. One friend's horse is a greenie and the other was just coming back after a suspensory injury, so we kept the pace reasonable. The horses seemed to enjoy the weather as much as we did.
2013 mileage
...
02/17/13 george 16.2 miles 6.1 mph 143.38 total miles
02/18/13 dream 6.39 miles 4.7 mph 149.77 total miles
02/21/13 dream 3.52 miles 5.2 mph 153.29 total miles
03/03/13 dream 21.76 miles 6.4 mph 175.05 total miles
03/05/13 dream 10.67 miles 6.2 mph 185.72 total miles
03/09/13 dream 11.03 miles 5.6 mph 196.75 total miles
I actually got to ride today!! Only about 4 miles, but a friend came out from town to help me with the vet, but he was early (a first) so he was done when she got here. So, we rode!
Neither horse had been ridden in at least 3 months, but we just got on and rode down the road. I was pretty proud, since my horses are known to make a liar out of me. I felt pretty safe putting her on the 21 yo mare, but this horse dumped or friend in front of his new GF about a year ago......
It's finally starting to feel like Alabama again! It was in the high 70s today and lovely! No riding but it was just nice to be outside.
I am FINALLY going on a ride Wednesday! Me and two other barn buddies are going to a nice trail head. One buddy has a greenie also, but she hates water crossing so we are going to work on that with them. Really excited!
It's an easy trail which is nice since Sun has had over two weeks off. Going to ride her lightly tomorrow to get her back into the swing of things and then off we go on Wednesday!
I am going to try very hard to remember my camera!
Thanks for all the pictures. Dawn, looks like y'all had a great time! I thought I was going riding today but it is raining/temps dropping like crazy. It was supposed to be warm this week but cold front has moved in.
Going riding tomorrow up at Ebenezer with Barn Buddies and returning to Ebenezer Friday-Sunday for a weekend of riding so I guess not riding today is ok. Had it not been cold I'd have gone out and gave Biscuit a much needed bath!!
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