Stiff Pony

Cherry has arthritis. This is no secret and hardly surprising. She's 20 and has worked hard for her living. The last few years it's been quite mild and easily coped with by ensuring that Cherry lives outside and is warmed up for 20 minutes prior to work.

However, it seems that the number of "stiff days" has increased of late. Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems to take her longer to warm up, and she really doesn't want to walk out of the cross-ties after standing there for a 20 minute grooming and tack up. Once she's moving, she's fine, but those initial steps make her look about 110 years old.

So I'm thinking about adding a daily joint supplement to Cherry's feed. She gets a complete vitamin/mineral supplement with her soaked hay pellets and handful of Equine Senior. She really doesn't need grain, so I give her the pellets with the ES to jazz it up a bit, and she thinks it's awesome. Works for me. It's also a perfect medium for her vitamins, occasional probiotic, and bit of salt to encourage the would-be Arab camel to drink.

Anywhoo, choosing a joint supplement is like choosing a hoof boot. There are way too many damn choices!!!! Seriously, there have to be over 500 different ones on the market. I'm fairly sure I want one with glucosamine sulfate (as opposed to HCl) and MSM, but after that I really don't know.

Well, I suppose I'll throw darts at the computer and whenever the screen breaks, I'll buy that one. Can't hurt, and if it doesn't work, I'll pick another.

Problems and Solutions

I've been having some issues lately, both with Cherry and myself. Cherry, of course, is usually a complete saint who hauls my ass around and puts up with my general lack of confidence of late. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I've just been downright nervous. I get so worked up about the "what ifs" that I can't enjoy the damn ride. However, she's also been acting like a bird-brained little twit lately, which has really been a blow to my confidence.

I'm afraid something will spook Cherry. I get tense when she gets "looky", which of course pretty much guarantees that she'll spook. Which freaks me out. Rinse, repeat.

Why it freaks me out I have no idea. It's been quite awhile since I fell off due to a spook, and that was an epic spook, let me tell you. She teleported right out from under me and somehow managed to end up halfway across the arena in the span of 2 nanoseconds. Thankfully she's a bit too old to teleport anymore. Even bareback I've managed to cling on and recover my balance fairly quickly when something goes awry. I know, I've seen me do it. So why am I so damn scared? The answer still eludes me.

However, I have found the answer to my fears of riding and the things that can go wrong when riding as well as Cherry's apparent lack of brain cells lately.

Ride more.

That's it. I have to ride more. Even if it terrifies me. Even if I have to force myself to put that saddle on Cherry's back. Even if the last thing I want to do is ride the horse I bought because she was a blast to ride.

The more I ride, the less scared I'll be. That's how it's always worked in the past. Getting back on Cherry after a lay-up was awful, even when I was a teenager. But once we were back to riding 5 days a week, things were fine again. So based on past experience, the more I ride the less it will freak me out.

The more I ride, the less of a twit Cherry will be. She's always gotten nutty when she doesn't get enough exercise. I don't know why I expected this to magically go away as she got older. It hasn't, and I really shouldn't be surprised.

I need to ride and Cherry needs to work.

Now that we have a set of hoof boots, there's no excuse not to ride anywhere I please. The fence of Cherry's paddock is literally 3 feet away from the neighboring farmer's wheat field. She's seen farm equipment up close and hasn't died yet. Cars have passed us at high speeds and she's handled it. No reason we can't ride down the gravel road anymore. And we need to.

I think I'll try a trick mentioned on FiSH to get us through the transition period. Cherry has always loved the sound of humans talking to each other, so I'm going to try talking to her when riding alone. It will help focus me as well as be soothing for her. I'm going to give it a whirl on the next road hack we go on.

So I'm decided. Ride more. At LEAST 3 days a week, though 5 days a week will be much better. Some weeks I leave for the weekend to work, so I can't ride those days. The weeks where I actually have a weekend will be 5 ride day weeks. My horse is sound, I am relatively sane, and we can do this.

Hoof Boot Pics!

Cherry and her Frankenfeet. The boots are so ugly! But that's okay. :)



















Closer picture of the boots.

Old Mac G2 Hoof Boots

We got our hoof boots today! And they fit!!!!!!! Praise be. Haven't had much luck with tack lately, so I was totally dreading trying the boots on Cherry. But surprise surprise, they seem to fit quite well.

After months of waffling and careful online research, I decided on the Old Mac G2 hoof boots. They seemed the best suited for Cherry's round feet, and from what I read, well made and durable. I figure if we go through a pair every couple years or so, I've saved more than enough money on metal horseshoes.

On the negative side, they don't fit around the pastern as well as I'd like. The actual hoof capsule part fits well with just enough room to spare for foot growth, but not enough room that they twist on her feet. However, the top part gaps more than I'd like. I think I'll have to use the stupid gaiter-sock thing or else wrap her pasterns in vet wrap so things don't get inside the boot.

Cherry took to the boots quite well. She walked and jogged up and down the barn aisle no problem. However, turning around in the cross ties was a bit of a procedure. She kept looking down at her feet like she didn't know where to put them. Change in terrain was also interesting. It was like there was a disconnect between where she thought her foot and boot were and where they actually were. I think she'll figure it out very quickly, though.

Another concern I have is interfering. She's always "winged in" with her front feet, hence all the popped splints and the broken splint bone many years ago. Now that her feet are substantially bigger, I think we might see a bit of foot hitting opposite leg issues. That's okay, I'll break out the trusty splint boots if that threat rears its ugly head.

Speaking of ugly, these boots are absolutely hideous. They make Cherry look like she's wearing Frankenstein's hand-me-downs. Fankenfeet is my favorite term, hee hee! That's okay. As long as they do their job, I really don't care what they look like.

So far so good. Tomorrow we'll take them out on a maiden voyage around the ranch. I just hand walked today, figuring if that she was going to fall on her face I didn't want to be involved.

Lame Pony and Hoof Boots

Cherry's lame. It doesn't happen often, so I should be thankful forthat, I guess. This time is different, though. In the past, she's been lame due to injury. Like, Boom! Accident! and she's lame. Once that heals, she's sound again.

I'm giving her the next few days off, then I'll re-evaluate. Right now, it's not an issue for the vet, but if there's no improvement and I can't pinpoint what's wrong, it will be.

This time, it's more like, "ouchie, my feet hurt." I guess I should be pissed at the farrier, this round of trimming has not been up to par. Though the only other alternative is to do it myself, and I don't know if I feel comfortable doing that. Seems like I'll have to if this keeps up. Grrr. There's a serious lack of good farriers in the area, so there isn't a whole lot of choice. I bet the wet-dry-wet-wet weather hasn't helped any.

Anyway, I'm in the market for hoof boots to help with the tender-footedness. Cherry's always a bit tender on gravel, and now she's really tender on gravel, so hoof boots it is. She's been barefoot for a long time, and I don't want to get back into shoes. Too expensive and I don't ride enough to justify spending $80 every 6 weeks on them.

Now, this isn't easy because there appear to be five thousand kinds of hoof boots, each of which has people who love them and people who hate them. This would be so much easier if there were only a few options.

Hoof shape was something I'd never considered before. Seems like Cherry's feet are round, with approximately the same length and width. Hum, for whatever reason I've always thought she had narrower feet. Dunno why, just one of my random notions.

Anyway, on to boot choices. They all cost about the same, so price isn't a deciding factor.

Easyboots. There's a ton of them. Eep! There's the ones with the turny screw thing, which look pretty good. The thing is, I've heard they're awesome, right up to the point where a bunch of gunk gets into the screw threads and it jams up. Not good.











The Gloves look like they'd be nice and easy, but the whole exact fit thing is a trifle intimidating. If they don't fit, they don't fit, and since you can't adjust them, you're fucked. There is a kit you can get to try out, so I guess that may be a rout to go. If I go with Easyboots, this seems the best option.











Cavallo makes a couple boots that really strike my fancy. The simple boots looks quite simple, a huge plus. They appear to be made for round feet, so another plus there. People have said though that the outside straps get annoying and they don't hold up to gravel as well as they might. Bummer, but still may be worth a shot.






The Sport boot looks awesome, though I don't think it will fit Cherry. It's made narrower than the Simple boot, but I like the outside closure a lot better.










Then there's Old Mac boots and Boas. I'm less familiar with them, but I've heard they're good, so I'm going to read up more on them.

Decisions, decisions.

Happy Birthday, Cherry!

Cherokee is 20 years old! Technically, her birthday was Tuesday, May 11th, but it's not like she knows the difference. :)

Carrots were given and pictures were taken, and Cherry didn't know why or care very much, but she did enjoy the extra bit of food!

I'm so thrilled to have a sound, healthy, happy old horse. A little bit of arthritis that flares up when it's cold is nothing to complain about. I hope that we'll be able to celebrate her 30th birthday in ten years.

20 seems like such a milestone. She's actually just starting to look her age. Her orbits have finally sunk in, and she's got "old Appy face". You know, the two dark stripes on either side of their nasal bone and dark patches right above the eyes, but the rest is roaned out. I can't wait to see the rest of her summer coat! Shedding is still in full swing, and there are no less than 3 new spots that showed up this year.

Happy birthday, Cherry! May you have many, many more.

Feeling Blah

I've been feeling pretty listless lately. I just haven't had the desire to ride, which hasn't been helped by the fact that I've literally been working for 3 weeks straight. Today is the first day off I've had in a looooong time.

Trouble is, it's raining (poo!) and I think I'm getting sick (wah!). There's a really nasty respiratory bug going around, my boos was out sick with it for a whole fucking week. Woke up with a sore-ish throat this morning, so I'm going to spend my day off drinking copious amounts of green tea and water, taking vitamins, and resisting the temptation of sugar. Not quite how I envisioned my weekend going, but oh well. Beats having to call in sick to work and losing money!

So I guess I'll just throw Cherry her food, scrape the worst of the shed hairs off her, and toss her back in her paddock again. Here's your food, bitch! Bye.

Not that Cherry minds all that much, after all, she still gets to eat.