Mara twists her good leg, Warwick Schiller, and Equitana

I hate to be so negative, again, in my blog, but Tuesday evening I was given another surprise by Mara that kept me up all night. I felt that she was somehow still off LF so I trotted her up our street. I am not sure I'm imagining things, and I was glad that the chiropractor was coming in the morning.

Then I saw the neighbor's chickens in the field across the street from us and I couldn't resist a closeup look. I wandered across the field with Mara and watched them a while. We greeted Arndis the Icelandic horse who stands there in the diet pen all day long with nothing to eat: ( Then something spooked Mara and she spun a circle around me. I got control of her and then saw that she was 3-legged lame on her RF. The good leg. I couldn't believe it because we were on grass, not mud or pavement. And she didn't go down, I didn't even see a slip, just a spook.

I managed to get the poor horse home, very slowly limping along, and immediately gave her 10ml of Bute.  Her leg started burning up, hoof upwards. Then I cold hosed her leg for 20 minutes as another storm rolled in. The rain was pelting down sideways, complementing my cold hosing nicely, all her legs were getting hit with sleety rain. Gusts of wind made it hard to aim the stream of water. She would hold her leg up like, "Ow, this leg is a problem, do you see?" And I just felt terrible. Besides colic, is there anything worse than a horse who is standing on 3 legs, pleading for help? OK probably neurological damage is worse...

Later that night I went out and put that leg in a bucket of ice cold water for another 20 minutes.

Lightning and gusts of wind kept me up all night, and I had horrible thoughts of her casting herself in the stall, and laminitis. We had a mix of snow, hail, lightning and thunder the next day. I didn't know that was possible.

Before first light I went out with all these dark thoughts, sure to find her dead or near death, and she was standing there, all 4 legs swollen because I'd locked them in the paddock all night and she's used to being able to move. The RF was only slightly warmer than the others. I gave her more Bute and waited for the chiropractor.

She was still reluctant to move, but not holding her leg up anymore at least.

When the chiropractor arrived, she examined that leg and found it swollen through the tendons from the knee down. She said she wanted to see Mara move. I said, "No, she won't, she's in too much pain." But then I realized I didn't know that for a fact and we needed to know. So I dragged her out and onto the street, and did yet another trot out up the hill and back down again. She sprang forward without hesitation and even tried passing me in her enthusiasm. Feeling better? The chiropractor said she sees soreness in both front legs.

One of the reasons I feel so bad, and it's hard for me to type this, is that I trimmed her last week and sored her for the first time. I had a new rasp and I got carried away, and suddenly I realized I'd taken too much. She showed me this by being sensitive on rocks, much more than usual. So whatever happened to her, I blame myself at least partially.

I asked my chiropractor to do a thorough exam and she checked out every bone and every joint in Mara's body, including the jaw. Mara doesn't like the loin reactivity tests and glared a bit but allowed it. I'd done a lot of hard palpation on her back lately and found absolutely no reaction - that feels good. Then again, how many times has this horse had a saddle on in the last 6 weeks? *sigh*

Then the chiropractor made me feel so good about my horse. She said, "This horse is 100% fit, besides her leg. Her musculature has developed evenly all over her body, and has the perfect amount of tension in the muscles. She has no weak areas, and her conformation is very balanced, with a beautiful topline. She's also much calmer than when I first met her." (I snorted at that.)

Although Mara is wary of vets, she realized nothing really hurt today and she started trying to cuddle with the lady. It was so sweet, just like Baasha used to do, "sneaking" closer and closer until she had her muzzle on the lady's chest, and then nuzzling her politely. Like Baasha used to say, "You're here for ME. I love you."

She said she'd wait before calling the vet because Mara is so much improved since the night before.

Sure enough, that evening Mara was galloping around her pasture full speed, trying to give me a heartattack as she skidded through the mud, leaving long black lines where her hooves dug in.

Today, Thursday, she's much better, nothing there at all, but I won't take her out to trot her until tomorrow. Instead I tied her to the wall and took the donkey out into the yard to do some gardening out of sight of the horse. She cried for pretty much the entire hour.  Yah, gotta do more of that.



Mara in another windstorm today.



Nickering FEED ME: ) Wish I'd had the video on. I'll try to catch her food whinny soon.

***

I really like this guy. I haven't seen him do anything I consider unfair or forceful to horses in all the videos I've watched.

A lot of his videos are a bit of a tease, like the one below.  I think he would prefer if you bought his video series or attended a clinic, I don't know. But it got me thinking. It seems so obvious, what he says, but he lays it out in a way I hadn't heard before. Also, I'm thrilled to find out that Mara isn't in his "most difficult to train" category, woo!



***

EQUITANA!

I've been here 8 years and I've somehow never managed to make it to the "world's biggest horse expo." I'm going this year!  I hope to see Phillipe Karl and many other trainers. I find it ironic that the world's biggest horse fair is held at the same fairgrounds as the world's biggest boardgame convention, in Essen. I've actually been to the games con, even though I'm not much of a gamer. I like Dominion a lot. Anyway...

Who wants to join me for Equitana 2015 in March? We live somewhat nearby, so if you make it to Germany, I'll drive you to the fair and we'll have a nice time. Tickets cost 18E. I'll feed you some of my authentic German meals and you can stay in our upstairs room.

***

Update: tonight I watched two riders trotting their horses around Herr S's ring. My husband says as soon as Mara is well enough to ride, he'll be talking to him. 

Correction: I got the legs mixed up. She'd been having issues with her RF since December, and this week she hurt her LF. Oops.