Miss you little man!

One year ago today we said good bye.  Can't believe it's really been a year already.  Just doesn't seem possible.  I still miss you like it was yesterday.  I miss you every day.  Rest in peace sweet boy.

Wayne - Haflinger Stallion - 1986-2010

Wayne - 11-19-10






Let's call today "Hug your ponies" day.  They're never with us long enough.

Last Ride

It was a beautiful day out today, so Lady, Cody, and I took our last trail ride together.  At least for a while anyway.  Life's been kind of crazy lately, and I haven't ridden in probably a month, but Lady is such a trooper, you wouldn't really know she's had a month off.  And Cody seemed to enjoy getting out to pony along with us, though she was rather full of beans.  She hasn't been out on the trails in a while and mixed with the crisp wind, she was practicing her little Cody explosion airs above the ground every now and then.  It's nice to see some spunk, but she was usually a little ouch for a couple of strides after that.

So I say last ride, because it's probably the last time the three of us will trail ride together this year.  The weather is getting yucky, the days are short, and Cody's knee surgery on Tuesday is going to land her out of commission for the winter.  Though I'm sure Lady will be pulling lead horse duty often over the next few months to help hand walk Cody, but most likely in the arena on good footing while Cody's knee heals up.  And here's hoping by next summer I'll be riding Cody and ponying Lady!

On the eye front, Cody's eye just didn't get any better over the weekend, and by Tuesday I noticed a small spot in the middle of it.  So Dr. Collier came out Wednesday afternoon to check it out, and Cody's done a bit of a number on it.  I don't recall seeing the spot over the weekend, so she thinks she might have scratched it rummaging through the burrs and weeds (which are now all successfully cut out of the girls pasture as of last Sunday), then proceeded to itch and dig it, and made it horse.  But she's got a nice little round ulcer dug into the cornea of her eye.  So new eye ointment and plenty of bute and a fly mask till things heal.  Poor girl can't win. And it obviously hurts really bad, because trying to medicate that eye is a battle, but I think it might finally be getting a little better, or at least less ouchie, because she's actually been really good about letting me put the meds in her eye last night and again today.  So here's hoping that heals up quick and easy.

July 2011

Nine Lives

Sometimes I swear Cody is part cat.  With the number of times she's nearly killed herself, she's got to be.  Though she's definitely used up some of her nine lives.

There was the back leg through the high tensile wire fence that she very nearly bled to death from, having ripped open her hock clear down to the bone and joint.  That was the injury that resulted in my taking ownership of her.  More on that story here.  She should have been broodmare sound at best if she survived, but by some miracle, she was rideable sound with only a small scar.

There was fillet o'knee, when she somehow managed to rip open a huge flap on the front of her left knee.  Amazingly that one healed with only a hairline scar.

Then there was the Friday October 13th phone call five years ago.  "Cody's hurt pretty bad.  The vets on the way right now.  How fast can you get here."  Of course I was an hour away, that was a long drive.  When I got there, there stood Cody in the cross ties, all four legs swollen twice the size they should be, all four legs cut and bleeding, some of the cuts nearly to the bone.  Apparently she had laid down in her stall and gotten cast or something and couldn't get up, and proceeded to fight and panic and turn herself into a pretzel until she finally got back up.  There was blood all over the stall, and the divider between her stall and Lady's (wasn't the most sturdy of stalls in this old barn cobbled together barn) had been shoved over so far in Cody's panic, that Lady was literally left with nothing but a standing stall that she couldn't turn around in.  We had to take down part of the wall to get Lady out, because Lady's stall door was now the second stall door in Cody's stall.  Thankfully Lady was unhurt and didn't panic, and Cody recovered with a few more battle scars.

And of course there was knee surgery last December.

So what's that, four out of nine?

Not to mention all her other bumps, bruises, scraps, cuts, near misses, and "Cody, what the hell now?"  When it comes to accident prone, she is the queen, and has the battle scars to prove it.

More than once she freaked out while tied, pulled back, broke the lead rope and flipped herself over backwards.  This was when I first got her and didn't know about this little panic attack bad habit of hers.  Thankfully we broke that habit and she's much better these days.

There was the back flip out of the trailer.  The barn owner was making two trips to haul a bunch of us up to the show at the fairgrounds.  Cody was going in the first trip along with the barn owners mare and foal and another horse.  After a battle (foals first time loading and mare wasn't very good at loading), mare and foal were in the trailer.  But just as Cody and I stepped in to the trailer, foal panicked, mare went berserk, and Cody tried to back out of there as fast as possible, rearing, slipping, and somersaulting right out the back of the trailer.  How she came away unharmed, I'll never know.  Needless to say, we waited for the second trip, and somehow loaded with little drama.  Though the whole affair was chaos with the barn owner who was about as nutty as her horse.  Someday I'll have my own trailer.

There was Lady and Cody vs the Gate, round 1.  But that's another story for another day.  And then Lady and Cody vs the Gate, round 2.  Again, another story for another day.

There was the cowboy that decided to hobble her front feet to teach her to stop pawing.  Can we say upside down pretzel.  How she didn't break a leg, I'll never know.  I was livid.

There was the hives attack, when she suddenly broke out in hives, that broke open into sores and got infected, all within a matter of hours.  Most bizzare thing I've ever seen.  Called the vet, vet came out, gave her antibiotics, said she could go back outside.  Put her back outside the next day, and suddenly the hives came back twice as bad, which broke open into more sores and got infected, all within a matter of hours.  Call the vet, put her back in the barn, hives went away, but nearly 50% of her body was covered in weeping sores and her eyes were nearly swollen shut.  Still no idea what caused that, and thankfully it's never happened again.  That definitely falls in the "what the hell" category.  Along with the worse case of scratches I've ever seen on all four legs.

There was the kicking a fly while standing next to the gate and slicing her leg open almost to the bone on the bottom of the gate that no one realized was sharp till she cut herself open on it.  The gelding that was determined to eat her alive, leaving her looking like an appy with all the spots of ointment all over her body.  And the gelding that left a nice hoof print scar on her butt from his steel shoe.  Come to think of it, that was the same gelding that just left a scar on my face with one of his steel shoes.  Guess Cody and I match now.

There was her attempt to slit her throat, thankfully it was on the opposite side of the juggler vein.  And her punctured and ripped open shoulder.  Old farm machinery in the pasture with Cody is a recipe for disaster, but try telling those old farmers that.

And there was the kick to the knee that resulted in knee surgery last year, and is now resulting in a second surgery to try to fix that knee.

Most recent boo boo, appears to be a scratched eye from scavenging around in the burrs and weeds in her pasture because the grass is dead and gone for the year.

I know there are many many more mishaps and close calls that Cody's had over these last 8 1/2 years.  Too many to remember or mention them all, but those are some of the highlights.

So she's definitely used up some of her nine lives, but here's hoping she's still got a few more in her, and praying for another miracle.  She goes in next Tuesday for knee surgery to try again to fix her knee.

Steampunk?

Ok, so I don't completely get the whole Steampunk costuming fad, and haven't ventured into it yet myself.  But some of my costuming friends have, including my photographers from the Renaissance Photoshoot of Cody and I (still waiting for the pics of Lady and I with the dress).

But in exchange for the Renaissance photos, Lady and Cody helped out with some steampunk photos (Cody for ground pics, Lady for mounted ones)........

 

You know you have a steady eddie when there is a highly modified noise making Nerf cannon involved and she could care less!

 

Above pics (c) New Age Duchess Designs

So what the heck is Steampunk?  Good question.....and one I seem to have a hard time answering when asked.....but it seems to be a combination of Victorian era meets Wild West era meets Steam Power era meets Science Fiction.  The best example that everyone seems to come up with is Will Smith's movie "Wild Wild West".  Lots of brass and gears and strange things.  

Who knows, I may venture into it yet.  I mean, Victorian era riding outfit gone steampunk?  It could happen!  And I have the horses to make it look good!  Yeah, we'll see, I have many other costuming projects to finish this winter, and I'll be lucky to get through all of those.

Though I must say, I think my favorite Steampunk costume that I've seen so far.......Steampunk Boba Fett.....but then we already know I'm a Star Wars geek!

 

Ok, sorry about the total derailment!  Back to your regularly scheduled program, with a little more horse and a little less weird......

Blanket Washing

Today was blanket washing day.  Cody decided to help.

"Ok mom, I'll hold it down!  You scrub!"

Thanks Cody girl!  Lady decided to stay out of the way.  A little cold to be getting wet.  But blankets are washed.....well, rinsed and spot scrubbed, way too cold and insanely windy to do much more than that today.  Someday I'll actually do this during the summer instead of waiting till it's fall and cold.  But now I can get the ripped ones sewn up, and finish getting them rewaterproffed for winter. 

Step Back In Time

So this past weekend, I took a step back in time.....in a couple of ways......  Back to the Renaissance, and back to when I could still ride my Cody girl.....  Well, in pictures anyway......

 

I started making this dress a few years ago.  I picked out the fabrics specifically because the colors would go so well with Cody's beautiful red dun coat.  And I was going to get pictures riding Cody in it when it was done!

I had a few pictures taken on Cody in it a couple years ago, but it was still very much a work in progress at the time.  It was wearable, that was about it.  The bodice didn't come out right and needed to be remade, sleeves weren't done yet, beadwork was only half done, still needed to make the partlet and the caul for my hair.  So we had work in progress pictures, but I wanted pictures on Cody with the finished product.

And finally this summer, just in time for the festival season, I sewed on the last of the beadwork, tied on the bejeweled sleeves, put everything together, and after literally hours upon hours of sewing and hand beading, declared my first court gown officially complete!

And I can no longer ride my Cody girl........

Cody's knee never completely fused after her surgery like it should have.  She's pasture sound, but not rideable sound.  At least not yet......  After going back to see the surgeon and find out our options, I think we're going to try the surgery again.  Dr. Caron has never had one of these fail before, unfortunately Cody had to be the first.  But she is in great health and of sound body, the rest of her joints are fine, if we can just get the rest of that knee joint to fuse, she should be sound enough to ride again.  As soon as finances allow, we'll try the surgery again (thankfully at a reduced cost).  Probably end of this month, or first of next month. 

So here I am with my dress finally done, and I can't ride my girl.  Yes, I have sweet Lady (and I did get some pictures riding her in the dress as well and will post some when I get them from the photographer), but this dress was made for Cody.

I finally decided I was getting on my girl, even if only for a few minutes, and even if all we did was just stand there.  I wasn't sure how it would go, she hasn't had anyone or even a saddle on her back in a year and a half since she first got hurt.  And here I am climbing on her back in 10+ yards and several pounds of court gown.  Maybe that was wrong of me, but she showed no signs of concern as I carefully climbed on her back off the mounting block.  She honestly could have cared less. 

She even willingly walked off on her own without my asking and was happy to walk around, even if just slow and easy.  And she hasn't forgotten a thing.  She collected up so nice and light in the bridle.  Even did some leg yield and side passing, remembered how to turn on the haunches and forehand with light aids.  She was an absolute angel.  I nearly cried.  Heck, I am crying right now.  I miss riding her so much!

Thank you Cody girl!  It might have only been a 15 minute ride, but it was worth every second of it!  You have no idea how much you made my day! 

And how much I love that beautifully expressive face of yours.  A noble steed indeed, befitting of the Duchess stature of that dress.

  

Thanks big girl!  I needed that.

And if all goes well, we'll do this again in the spring....in more appropriate riding gear, out on the trails, with Lady as the pony and you as my mount.  I hope and pray.

Yes, you can have some grass now!  You deserve it beautiful!

All photos (c) New Age Duchess Designs

Cody's Turn

While Lady's had kind of a crazy summer with sunburn and sweet itch, Cody's hasn't been much better either. Things have been pretty up and down with her knee. I'm not entirely sure how successful I would call her knee surgery. She's definitely not rideable sound, and at this point, I have my doubts that she ever will be. But I'm at least hoping for pasture sound, which she seems to be lately, though I'm worried how things will be once cold weather begins to set in, will she be too uncomfortable to make it through winter? I don't know.

At MSU after surgery in December

But this summer she's had her ups and downs. Thankfully more ups as far as lameness than downs. She was hand walking 30 or 40 minutes 3 or 4 days a week ponying out on the trails with Lady and I without much trouble. Once she got warmed up, she seemed to move along pretty well. But Mother Nature kind of spoiled that with a long stretch of 90+ degrees with 100+ heat index. I didn't want to move much in that, let alone make my horses go for a walk in the hot sun. So cool hose downs and maybe a short walk were pretty much the name of the game. Lately, the skeeters will carry you away if you stray too far from the barn.  But even without all the walking, Cody seemed to do ok on her knee. She had a weird week at one point where she was really sore, then seemed to bounce back from it.

A couple weeks ago she came galloping and bucking full speed all the way across the pasture trying to escape one of those B-52 Bomber flies. The last time she pulled a galloping stunt like that this spring, she was three legged lame for days, it took her a week to get back to where she had been as far as lameness. She was so worried about the fly attacking her and trying to get away from it, I wasn't sure if she remembered the gate was coming up fast, let alone be able to stop in time, I'm just picturing the wreck about to happen. This is Cody after all, and "disaster" seems to be her middle name. And sure enough, her head pops up, her ears fly forward, and that look of "Oh sh*t!" crosses her face as she realizes with the fence on one side and Lady galloping along on the other side, there's no where to go but straight into the gate. Somehow she managed to execute a sliding stop that would have been the envy of any reining horse and brought new meaning to the term "draggin' ass", and only bumped her nose on the gate. And sure enough, she was three legged lame from her antics (but she did get away from that fly and managed not to crash). Oh Cody. But thankfully she seemed to walk it off after a few steps, and an hour later, was pretty much back to her "normal" level of lameness. So that there is progress. Small victories.

She is due for x-rays again. The last ones were back in April I believe. But instead of having my regular vet do the x-rays again, I decided to take her back to MSU to see the surgeon this time. Since Cody seems to be the first successful failure of this surgery, I really wanted Dr. Caron to see her again and get his thoughts, what went wrong, has the joint healed like it should have, see if maybe there's something more than just the knee adding to her lameness, what more can I do for her to try to keep her as comfortable as possible to be a retired pasture pet, especially with cold weather a few months away. Thankfully I do have options still to try, such as daily bute or a different devil's claw and yucca supplement, joint injections to the other two joints in that knee, Adequan or Legend injections, maybe one of the magnetic/ceramic knee wraps, she'd probably benefit from seeing a chiropractor.

So she was supposed to go in to MSU on Tuesday this week, I couldn't wait to see new x-rays and see what Dr. Caron thought. Especially since last week, she started getting really lame again. Good thing she's going to MSU on Tuesday. It kept getting worse, by Saturday she was three legged lame, it took her forever to walk across the pasture to come in for dinner. I cleaned out her foot, and that seemed fine, no rocks or anything stuck in there. I couldn't find any heat or swelling in her knee, but she wanted no part of walking on it. I was just sick and heart broken, her knee was giving out, just like Wayne's did. I went home in tears. Sunday she was marginally better, at least walking on it, but still horribly lame.

But when I went to pick up her foot to clean it out, I discovered a tiny weeping sore at the front of her foot on the coronet band! She blew out an abscess! No wonder she'd been so lame lately! I feel awful, and feel like an idiot, I never even thought to check for an abscess (yes, I clean and handle her feet daily, but I always have gloves on about 90% of the time that I'm handling my horses since a few years ago my body decided it was allergic to horse dander, so I totally missed the heat in her foot)! I just assumed it was her knee getting worse. But I have never been so happy in my life to have a horse with an abscess. An abscess is far more treatable than a knee giving out. And after a good cleaning and soaking, sure enough, there was the tiny pinhead sized black hole in her whiteline on the bottom of her foot where everything started. Poor girl!

This is the first abscess I've had to deal with on one of my own horses. So I called my farrier, because I know he's really good with abscesses, there are some vets that call him to come and dig out abscesses for them. Since it had already blown out the coronet band, he probably didn't need to come dig this one out, at this point it should drain itself pretty well, so soak it twice a day to help draw everything out and call him in 2 days with a progress report, or sooner if it starts building heat again or she goes dead lame again and he'll come right down. And blow out an abscess she did. What started out as a tiny hole in her coronet band about as big around as the end of my little finger turned into about an inch and a half weeping sore by Monday night. Ouch!

But so far so good soaking twice a day. At least it's not oozing any more, still pretty angry looking, but not draining. And she's walking better, but still a little ouchy, but I'm not sure if it's because of the foot, or the knee, or both, with the knee problem added in the mix, it's hard to tell. And thankfully in a better mood the last few days, Monday night while crouching down to work on that foot, I felt the careful warning scrape of teeth across the top of my ballcap letting me know how she felt about the situation, along with several dirty looks. Yesterday the heat was finally gone in her hoof wall, but still some heat right at the coronet band, so my farrier said soak her a couple more days till the heat was gone there too to make sure we get rid of any infection. I also took pictures of it and emailed them to him. He said it looked like your typical abscess and looked to be starting to heal fine, just keep an eye on it and keep him posted.  Tonight the heat in the coronet band was finally gone.

So it's been a long week. Every morning has pretty much gone something like this (and repeated every evening):

• 5:30 am - crawl out of bed
• 5:45 am - stumble to truck, hot water and breakfast in hand
• 5:47 am - eat breakfast on way to barn
• 5:52 am - arrive at barn
• 5:53 am - sweet barn kitty demands to be fed
• 5:54 am - furkids demand to be fed, Cody's pawing, Lady's weaving
• 5:55 am - both nickering at me "Feed the starving ponies!"
• 5:56 am - breakfast shortly, hold your horses!
• 6:00 am - one foot soaking

Needless to say, I am thoroughly exhausted after this week, and about to go fall in bed for the night!
 
As for the MSU knee checkup, well, we rescheduled. There's no point in taking her in for a knee checkup if she's lame on that foot from an abscess. So we'll get her foot healed up, and then hopefully we can get a better idea of where she's at with her knee, or if there's something else in the foot that's adding to the problem. 

So the MSU trip will be in two weeks. And the furkids and I will keep trudging our way through this crazy summer.

Happy barn kitty!