Lord, give me strength...

......so I don't strangle my beast.
He got in a fight with Stretch down at Jamie's and then had a run in with the fence. It appears he lost both fights, 'cuz he had these nasty scrapes ALL OVER him. [literally.] And the back of his back right pastern had a massive cut. Dad said Bullock stuck his whole finger in it when he was cleaning it out.
Ughh.

So that was a month ago, when I was at college weekend.
I get to take this last bandage off on Tuesday! No more wraps!
And then a little bit after that, he'll get to get turned out again!
w00t!

haha. :)

Surgery & Recovery

Koda had surgery on that leg awhile back. Turns out the calcium deposit harmed a co-lateral ligament on his pastern bone. I got to watch the surgery! I stood about 4 feet behind Dr. Bullock. Dad helped them lay Koda down since Bullock had recently had knee surgery and his assistant had a bum wrist. It was cool.

He was on stall rest for a month.
Now I've started walking him. Been walking him daily for a month.
This week we're going to take him out to Jamie's. He'll probably be out there until July.

Lesson & Koda

Soo.
I rode Teddy in my lesson. We did gridwork combined with some fun rollbacks!
Teddy turned into, "Teddy, the Barrel-Racing Wonder!" Hahaha. He was on fire! :) I love that. Whenever I ride Teddy, he absolutely comes alive. I don't want to brag or anything, but for the moment... of the people at SHRA right now... I think I've been Teddy's best rider. I don't know about previous riders that I've never seen ride him, of course, but yeahh.

And then I rode Koda.
Walk, trot, canter.
He got on his butt for a good two solid strides each direction in the canter. He was a lot calmer, too. And he's forward in the trot. And he's starting to be forward automatically at the walk. Yaaaay! :D I'm hoping we can start private lessons up again soon, and I'm hoping Kim will be impressed since he's been off for SO LONG. Ugghh.
But my baby's back now. ^_^ So I am happy.

SOUNDNESS! YAAAY!

Oookay.
So.

I've been riding school horses [Diesel, Jack, Rio - too cute!, Teddy, Ed, Barney, Truck] for the longest time now. And I still will, because Koda still has the bruise. However...

HE IS PERFECTLY SOUND IN THE INDOOR! Where there is about 6 inches of sand so its nice and soft... but he is STILL SOUND!

w00t!
whee!
oh, happy day. :)

Hahaha. I rode him Monday & Wednesday. MOM rode him Wednesday morning after I did. I know! hahaa. Just out of the blue, "Can I ride him after you're done?"
She walked around on her own, steering him and everything! And she even trotted. By herself. It was rather accidental the first time, but oh well. haha.
I told her we sould take a mother/daughter private lesson sometime, but she said no. I told her Vicky and Emily used to do it, but she still said no. :( Oh well. I think she rode yesterday because she wants to ride when we go to Hawaii. Something like that. Get a little experience, maybe. Dakota took care of her though. Dunno if the trail horsies - no matter how good they are at their job - will do as good of a job. *shrug*
We'll find out.

Less Swelling! + Mystery Project Horse

I GAVE KODA HIS PENICILLIN SHOT MYSELF THIS MORNING!
ITS A MIRACLE!
I just didn't think about it, and slammed it in there. haha. Okay, I didn't use as much force as that makes it sound. And I didn't even get a blood vessel! I nicked one on the way out [Kim always does] but I counted to 30 and he was still alive and standing, so I jumped for joy! =]

I also wrapped his leg again in towels that were soaked in epsom salt dissolved in warm water. They stayed on for an hour while I wrapped Barney's front right leg [it was tender last night with a small bump on the upper back part of the cannon bone], cleaned his stall, and refilled his buckets.

I'm going back later this afternoon [4-ish] to give him another shot and soak his leg one more time. When I left the wound itself had closed up some, and the heat and swelling were both down! Yessssh! =]



Oh, and today Kim is going to get a new off the track "project" for me. Kinda scared and excited at the same time...

Puncture Wound [WHY?!?!?!]

I turned Dakota out in the big arena Monday night so he wouldn't have to wear his crib collar. Tuesday morning, he was limping when I brought him in. Turns out, he has a puncture wound on his front right leg. Grrrreeeeaaaat. In Doug's words, "he just doesn't want me to ride him, does he?" Nope. Afraid not.

So, I've been hosing his leg for long periods of time to try and alleviate the MAJOR heat in his leg. Major, major heat. He also has lots of pus and whatnot in his leg, because when I press on it with my thumb and then take my thumb away... the thumbprint stays. Which means its serious.

Also, twice now [thanks to Doug's expertise] we've wrapped it in towels soaked in hot water mixed with Epsom Salt. That stuff works on everything! And we've given him one penicillin shot. Actually, Kim did. Tonight I'm going to have to suck it up and do it myself. *shudder* I've only ever given one shot, and that was giving Teddy his vaccines almost two years ago. But if the vaccines got in his bloodstream, I don't think they would kill him. Penicillin would KILL Dakota if it got into his bloodstream.... ACK! This is why Dad usually gives the shots. Plus, it takes considerably more force to give horses shots than it does to give humans or dogs shots.

Though, I've been riding Rio in lessons so I can jump. HE IS AWESOME! I was the first one to ever take him out back [AND jump] Saturday. Awesome. He was, and the experience was! =]
I was the first one to ever jump him in the stadium. He's a willing, BRAVE jumper. He only ran out on the tires, and I think that was just because we were following Rocky, who is evil. And hates the tires. Even when he launches over jumps, I can easily keep my balance. Awesome.


And now Kim says she has a "project horse" for me to work with while Koda is off. Again.
I was going to start jumping him Tuesday, which is when I found the puncture wound. Arrrgh.


Please, Lord, let something good come out of this!!!

3 Lessons - Many Rides!

Thursday - Private @ 2:00 with Kim.
Dakota in the indoor - w/t/c.
We're retraining him from the ground up, basically. FORWARD, FORWARD, FORWARD!

Friday - Private @ 2:30 with Kim.
Dakota in the big arena, ended in the indoor - w/t/c.
Same. But better.

Saturday - Group @ 10 with Kim.
RODE RIO! I was the first one to EVER ride him out back... ever. And he was pretty much perfect! He just needs some balance and bending and he'll be so totally awesome. So, obviously, w/t/c/j.
Then I rode Dakota in the indoor. w/t/c. Same as Thurs/Fri, but he was TOTALLY on his butt for at least THREE STRIDES at the canter in each direction instead of like... one stride.
Then I rode Rio again... in the indoor. w/t/c/j.