Ask and they oblige

Decided to stick close to home this weekend.
Hand walked Luba for 30 minutes Saturday morning and trimmed her feet.
Hung around to watch her for a while.
Had a 3 month old Standardbred filly breathe on me and tickle me with her whiskers.
All in all a lovely morning at the farm.
No signs of colic or Potomac :)

Today, my friend Donna trailered over with her gelding, Skye, to join me on my typical roads and fields ride.  Luba was wound for sound. Took forever for her to line up at the mounting block and stand quietly. When she finally did, she couldn't hold back a small stomp with her back foot. As if to say, "Let's go already!"

Headed down the road to ride in the neighbour's fields. A couple miles of walking to warm up, about 5 miles @ 6.5 mph average, and then another couple of miles walking to cool down. Luba felt good and was very happy to move out - trot, extended trot and canter with a few sideways spooks thrown in for good measure.

Donna has a lovely 2 horse straight load gooseneck trailer with a ramp. She was kind enough to let me practise loading Luba.  I lead Luba on without too much fuss, Donna encouraging from behind and putting up the butt bar. Luba ate a few mouthfuls of feed while on the trailer, but that was it. I was hoping she would just tuck into her sloppy breakfast. Oh well. A couple of mouthfuls is a start.

So just waited a few minutes and then unloaded. Luba was a bit surprised, trying to find her footing on the ramp - looking for a step - and came off a bit fast. So Donna suggested we try again. This time I just stood at the back of the trailer and pointed her on and she went! Wowzers! She did that once last week at the Ganny, when Tracey was already in the trailer with her mare. This is the first time she has loaded for me like that into an empty trailer :) :) :)

So just to prove it was not a big fluke, we did it again! By this time, she had the ramp figured out and came off quite nicely.

Trailer loading with Luba always reminds me of my teacher Sonja, who says, you can't "make" a horse do anything. You ask and they oblige. Usually.

At least it is not a tie up!

Woke at 6 am, said bye to Rob and Olivia and went out to feed Luba. She ate all her breakfast and had a nice lemonade pee :) She nearly ran Chrystal over to get on the trailer and we hit the road at 8am.

Uneventful trip with good travelling weather - between 19 and 24 C as the morning wore on. Got home at noon. Unloaded and Luba started eating everything in sight and drinking.  Noticed that she did not poop on the trailer during the 4 hour trip. Hmmm.

Decided to stay and wait for poo. Eating, drinking, peeing. No pooing. At 1:30, I decided to go for a light ride to loosen her up after the drive.  Walked around the back fields, stopping to eat grass here and there.  Got back to the barn at 2:30, put her in the stall, and suddenly she hunched her back. ADR - ain't doing right. My first thought was tie up, but her hind muscles were fine. She was tucked up and didn't want me stroking her belly. Gave her some banamine (good for either scenario) and called the vet.

Dr. Ben arrived at 3:30 and diagnosed spasmodic colic (characterized by overactive gut sounds rather than the absence of gut sounds). Rectal exam revealed big follicle on her left ovary. Pulled out nice hydrated poo.  Gave her some kind of drug to "reset" her system (must ask what it was). Also gave her antibiotic because several local cases of Potomac Fever have been presenting initially as spasmodic colic and early treatment is important. We are supposed to watch for diarrhea or going off her feed accompanied by fever.  I do not usually vaccinate for Potomac, but sure will once Luba is back to her old self.  Will also start to track her heat cycles more closely to see if there is any correlation between cycling and ADR.

Went back out tonight to check her. She ate a flake of hay and was feeling good. She was quiet but seemed comfortable. Pulse a tad high (38), but nothing to keep me from sleeping tonight! Seemed to know I was worried, so pooped as soon as she came over to see me. Nice hydrated poop. EDPP. Eating, Drinking, Pooing, Peeing.

And Dr. Ben confirmed that this was not a tie up :)

Rain and Mexican

Thunder rattling the windows last night. Woke to a drizzly and then downright rainy day.

Did not ride yesterday, although Chrsytal did body work on Luba. She had lots going on in her poll (all that cow watching?) and her lumbar and hind end had some tension after the ride on Tuesday. Otherwise, she seemed okay, all things considered.

Around 11:30 I suddenly noticed that the rain had stopped! We threw on our breeches, popped in our contact lenses and off we went back to the Ganny. Headed into the central forest this time.

Luba started off feeling good and was eating like crazy and drinking out of puddles on trail. But after about 8 miles, she was wanting to go slower on the up hills. We slowed down to a walk and took a big break at the horse parking lot where she ate grass non-stop. Then she had a pee that looked like she was getting behind with her hydration. Muscles, gait and attitude all good, so we just headed back towards the trailhead by the most direct route walking all the way. Muscle sore from Tuesday? Heading back into tie-up territory?

We ended up being out almost 4 hours for almost 14 miles. Definitely more distance and more elevation than we have done since Pine Tree. HRM was wonky today - need to check that out.

Thanks to Chrystal, I did figure out how to set my Garmin map so that north is always at the top.  So now I can use it to breadcrumb my way home.

Rob got off work early enough to join us for dinner in Peterborough at La Hacienda. Great food and great company! DQ for dessert :)

Tomorrow we head home.

Untied!

Yesterday we all went riding in the Ganny.  

We went 11.5 miles. 

A good time was had by all.

Especially me.....

Luba did not tie up! 

Then Deanna and Wendy came over.

And Chrystal cooked an amazing supper.

Waiting for Chrystal and Grace who rode the 3 miles to the trailhead.

The view from here :)

Summer time flying

Captain Chrystal checking our heading

Luba's cows

The day the rains came

Luba and I travelled yesterday to Pontypool to spend a few days with our friends, the Wright-Woodhouse's.

Another hot travelling day (was 28C and humid by 9am). We hit the road by 7am. This time, I fed Luba her sloppy beet pulp breakfast with 2 oz of PnW, then gave her a dose of BCAA, another 10 oz of PnW. Seemed like a ton of elytes, but we were travelling almost 4 hours and I am trying to follow Gayle Ecker's recommendation of 4-6 oz per hour of trailering on a hot day (I am working my way up. 3 oz per hour this time). Also gave her 60cc of Herbs for Horses Ulcer Therapy Plus since she does not eat or drink well on the trailer.

We stopped in Napanee for gas. Luba looked calm, but did not want to drink. So I syringed about 6-10 syringes of water into her mouth and then she started to nibble on hay.

We arrived just before 11am and Olivia helped me set Luba up in a paddock just beside Grace and Seneca.  We have to walk through a cow pasture to get to the paddock. Luba spent most of the day watching the cows and making sure she could always see her new paddock neighbours.....

where the heck did the cows go?

I can see Grace and Seneca, but where are the cows? I know they are out there somewhere. Hmmm.

breakfast in the morning sun

I gave her 2 more ounces of PnW upon arrival. She did not drink right away, but had a nice big lemonade pee and then winked, so looks like she is also in heat. :)

Went with Chrystal to one of her massage appointments. She uses a lot of Masterson techniques on the horses. The fella she worked on is a regular client - a hunter/jumper she works on every 2 weeks. It is amazing how quickly he responded. He had a super sore back - really dropped when she palpated his back. But an hour later, he was feeling much better. Magical hands, Chrystal has!

Later in the afternoon, we went for a little ride in the Fleetwood Creek Conservation area, just down the road from the farm.  It was the perfect little ride to stretch out after the travelling. Luba was very happy to be going down the trail and boldly led a good part of the way.  She wanted a rest after the walk up the short steep hill and then was happy to move out again. I kept feeling her glutes and tried to be mindful of how forward she felt. It is great to have some hills to train on.

 I gave her another 4 oz of elyte and a dose of BCAA before we left and then 2 more oz of PnW with her supper. She drank when we got back from the ride and had another good pee, though it was not as clear as the one she had when we arrived.  She seemed like a B for cap refill before we went to bed. Not sure how much she is drinking, so will keep up with the electrolytes.

We spent the evening sitting outside, drinking sangria and eating Olivia's amazing humus with neighbour Tracy. Rain threatened, so we came in for a round of Trivial Pursuit. Did you know that Madonna's mother was born in Quebec?

Just as we went out to feed the ponies and tuck them in for the night, the rains came. Hallelujia!

My trainer working Luba

Beautiful day at the farm :)

Here is a video of my trainer working Luba on the lunge line.

Animal, vegetable, mineral?

The mineral panel is back. Luba is high for iron 2.3 ug/ml (1.3-2), copper 1.5 ug/ml (0.9-1.4) and zinc 2.4 ug/ml (0.6-1.7). Her selenium is normal 0.15 ug/ml (0.12-0.18). However, this is lower than her March test result of 0.17.


Considering her current feed, vitamin and the hay analysis I had done by Rooney's Feeds (only cost $15!!), Dr. Ben and I decided to drop down to 1 scoop per day of Nutriquin Elite (instead of 2) and add 30g of Vetre-Sel-E. That way she will get less of minerals she does not need (copper, zinc, iron) and more of what she does need to do endurance work (Vitamin E and Selenium).  We are keeping her grain to 4 cups per day  (600 g)  of Evolution Elite. If she looks like she can't hold her weight as we increase work, I can slowly bring this up. Stay the course with the progressive loading for her conditioning, including a camping/riding trip next week. Simulate a competition without the competition.


I did the math and now she was getting 1000 g of Vitamin E and 1.6 g of selenium each day. Starting today, she is getting 1550 g of Vitamin E and 2.1 g of selenium. 


We also pulled blood and it came back today. Her AST has dropped by half, confirming its 14 day half life. Her CK is 414. The reference levels for the blood chemistry from Rideau St-Lawrence Vet Services are different than those provided by Equine Profile Plus panel used by Maxville Vet Clinic. I put both of them in the table below for CK and AST since those are the ones I am obsessing about. So depending on what is "normal", she might be back to normal for AST and CK.  Not sure why they are different. Have to ask more questions and do more digging....


At any rate, she looks and feels fine from the outside. So hopefully everything on the inside is looking and feeling fine too! Hope I haven't reached my limit of Twenty Questions yet!

	2012-07-19 four weeks post tie up; 2 weeks of MagOx supplement	2012-07-06 two weeks post tie up	2012-06-23  tie up at Pine Tree	2012-03-17 annual exam
Protein 52-74	68	67	68	68	steady	can indicated dehydration if elevated
AST 150-550 or 175-340	539	1200	*******	396	declined by half in two weeks. Close to 2400 during tie up?	damaged muscles.
CK 50-250 or 120-470	414	502	*******	389	has never tested lower than 350 in 4 years	damaged, inflamed muscles, Vit E/Sel deficiency. Moderate increases (2-3x) are possible in exercising horses. Post exercise increase is less in well conditioned animals although the baseline level is somewhat higher.Similarly, horses after shipping have moderate increases in CK activity.
GGT 4-53	16	18	19	13	low end of norma	raised during episodes of overtraining or stress
Glucose 3.3-7.5	4.4	4.8	8.2	13	lower post PT	high during stressful situations
Creatinine 70-170	83	79	106	110	lower post PT	high when kidneys are working hard
Sodium 132-142	139	138	139	135	steady	can be low due to excessive sweating
Potassium 2-4.5	3.5	4.2	8.5	4.6	was high in previous years	high potassium and high chloride can be indicative of acidosis (pH imbalance). magnesium depressed by an excess of K
Na/K ratio 25-50	40	33	16	29	higher now because her K is lower
Chloride 95-105	102	103			steady	Chloride is the major extracellular anion, found together with Na+. Chloride is very important for osmolality and acid-base balance.
Calcium 2.75-3.4		3.24	3.06		steady	low calcium associated with thumps, high levels can be associated with excessive dietary supplements