Giovanna's Summer

Giovanna's summer has not been nearly as adventureous as Berhwood's.  In fact, her summer started on a highly distressing note.  Giovanna has struggled with soundness and health since soon after she came to live with me.   Or perhaps it was when she moved to Idaho.  Despite conditioning, physical therapy, corrective trimming, chiropractic work, supplements, and numerious vet exams, Giovanna's problems have remained.Those problems left her with no topline, a hollow loin, and a rather scrawny physique. She did not bear much resemblance to either of her parents, and she surely did not look like the horse I brought home in the fall of 2007.

Gio's "pained giraffe" look. 

My friend Sharon could not figure out what I was doing wrong up in Idaho. She kept telling me to work on Gio's topline, and push her up from behind on the lunge. She thought that maybe I just wasn't asking enough of her.   My vet up in Idaho said her stifles were catching, but that she should grow out of that. He was more concerned about degenerative hock disease.   Sharon had separately come to the conclusion that something was wrong with Gio's stifles, but she wasn't sure what.    

Meanwhile, I continued to rehab Gio, get her strength up, then start riding her. A few rides later, her loin would be sore, she'd bee moving around like a giraffe with her neck up in the air and a frown on her face.  So I'd back off, give her some rest, and then start the hand walking, hill work, lunging, and massage, working back to riding again.  This had continued when I moved back to Humboldt, and I just kept working on it, thinking if I did the right thing, she'd be okay.   This June, I noticed that Gio was moving more strangely than ever, and that her stifles were locking up, even when she was standing.   When I had their vet come out for Gio and Ber's annual exams and shots, I asked him about her stifles and sore loin area.  He looked at her, watched her move, and listened to the saga of the last 3 years.   The conversation went something like this:

Dr. C: We can take care of this.
Em (thinking he was going to say euthanasia): Really?
Dr. C: Yes.   We used to sever the medial tendon, but that left the horse unable to sleep standing up.  
Em: I don't want to do that.
Dr. C.: Now we make some lateral slices in the tendon, which makes it thicken up, and stops the slipping.
Em: Oh!

Our last ride, about a week before the vet visit. She was SO sore after this ride.

After a thorough anatamy lesson from Dr. C., I took a few days to think about it and do my research, as well as ask every horse person I knew about the sugery and the issue (upward pateller fixation).   The stifle is the horse's knee, in their hind limbs.  The stifle locks in place when the horse sleeps standing up.  Some horses have a defect that allows the stifle to lock when the horse is moving, which causes some real problems, including pain and changes in posture and movement in order to avoid or attempt to avoid locking the stifle.  The surgery takes care of that in 93% of horses.  5% need a second surgery, and 2% it never works for.

When Sharon came out to watch Giovanna move, she gave a gasp of horror as she followed Gio down a hill.  Evidently my mare's hocks looked pretty scary.  Sharon said that she finally understood what I was talking about, regarding how Gio felt under saddle.    After my research, I scheduled Giovanna for surgery on July 28th.  With trepedation--am I doing the right thing?  Is this really what is wrong? What if something goes wrong?--I took her in at 8 am, and left her.    When I came back to get her around 2 pm, she was glad to see me.  The staff said she'd been staring at my trailer, which I'd left parked there.   She neighed when I pulled up, and started pacing.  Dr. C. was watching her, and talked about how the surgery went.

One of our last rides, pre-surgery

The nice thing about the surgery is she could go right back to normal pasture life. No confinement, no rehab.    The next day, she had a lot of swelling in her left stifle, and oozing of blood. After calling Dr. C. I found out that she moved during the surgery which caused the needle to nick a blood vessel.    The hematoma/edema would go down eventually.    Then, at almost two weeks post surgery, I had a big scare when I picked up her left hind leg--the one that had the hematoma--and she nearly fell down to the right.   The next morning I had her at the vet's to get checked out.    After examining her, Dr. C. said that she was leaning off to the right in order to avoid the pain in the left stifle!  Continued exercise and time woudl resolve the pain.  Phew. We all breathed a sigh of relief.  Though I felt foolish afterwards, I am glad I took her in because the symptoms could have been something much worse. 

Curiously, after bringing her home from the vet the second time, the left stifle's hematoma swelled again.  It was probably the stress and exercise (Dr. C. lunged her in his exam, and she paced a lot in the pen), but it took another 2 weeks to go away.  During that vet visit, he told me to start hand walking her, and in two weeks, to start riding her. We started with 5 minutes of hand walking on level ground, and worked up to 30 minutes over various terrain.  She likes the sessions because I groom her, tack her up with saddle and bridle, and then hike around the property with her by my side. Lots of quality Gio time!   We work on ground manners and things that will translate to work under saddle. 

And Then.... drum roll please....  Sunday, August 28th, I rode Giovanna for 8 minutes.

Anna on Ber, Em on Gio, sometime in June.

I immediately called Sharon.   Giovanna is a completely different horse under saddle.   Gone is the jerkiness, gone is the drifting and feeling like she's going to fall over.  Gone is the sudden abrupt movement, and the head thrown up into the air.  She is soft, round, supple, and secure. She is curious, not scared.   And she is FUN.  Sharon said, "That's how Fahim babies are supposed to be!"    I have my horse back, better than before.  I have a horse that I didn't know I had!     How sad that she was suffering for so long. What a stoic and strong girl.   Thank you Dr. C. for helping me help her get back to where she should be.

Ber with Anna, Gio with Em, June.

Today, August 30th, I rode her for a second time, for a bit over 10 minutes. She wanted to trot but I said, "Not yet, we're still working on walk, stop, and turn with legs and seat!"    But soon, very soon....   

Right now, I'm walking on clouds. Both of my horses are sound, both of my horses are delightful to be around. They are two of the most brilliant lights of my life.

My Boy Berhwood

It has been seven years since the fateful day when Berhwood came down from Oregon for his vet check.  His name was "Will" and he was 18 months old.   He failed the vet check, because he came up lame on the flex tests for both front legs. The vet didn't want to do the rear, because it was pointless.   A horse his age should not fail the flex test!  I won't hash through the details of what transpired after I decided to keep him anyway.  All I know is I saw something in him, and I signed the contract, much to the horror of everyone around me at the time. 

Walking between two bull kelp.

I'm not a gambling person.   And I definitely would not recommend purchasing a horse that fails a vet check.   But I am not sorry I forked over the $800 plus $200 delivery for Ber.  Today, he is the horse that I thought he could become. This summer has been Ber's summer.  Once he got his very first set of shoes the first week of July, he took the world by storm and hasn't looked back.

One day, we went to the beach.   It was a nice mid-day, slightly foggy but not cold.   Ber set out confidently across the dunes. We came to a length of bull kelp laying across his chosen path.  He looked at it, and set out  confidently across the bull kelp.I could hear him saying, "Oh, I know what that is.   I've been here before, no problem!"  Knowing Ber as I do, I sank deep in my stirrups and kept myself light and secure and confident.  Good thing.  The second his right front hoof touched the kelp, Ber shot straight up into the air--must have been 3 feet.  After reaching the top of his leap, he angled forward to land in the clear sand just in front of the offending kelp.   He stood square, looked to the left, looked to the right, gave a little shake, and walked on as if nothing had happened.

I, too, rode on as if nothing happened, and I looked around in case someone was near by so I could ask them how high he jumped.  Sadly, no one saw Ber's leap.   About ten strides later, the delayed adrenaline rush hit, and my knees went weak.  Phew, what a sky ride!    I still wonder what it was that set him off. Did the kelp pop under his weight?  Or did it sink in the sand?  Perhaps it was the slippery texture.  I do know that I need to take him down with a long lead rope and let him explore the plants, sand, and surf a bit, without a rider or saddle, so he can "own" these things. However, it says a lot to me about how far he's come that he was that matter-of-fact about "killer kelp."
 

Checking out the competition.

A few weeks ago, we had another monumental milestone in Ber's training: cantering on the beach.  Ever since he got shoes, his ability to move "forward" and with energy has skyrocketed.   His trot is big and full, he over steps by several inches, and he no longer "falls" into his downward transitions as much as before.  He had never cantered under saddle, and cantering on the lunge line took exhausting levels of encouragement.  After getting his shoes, as we rode around the property where my horses live, Ber would canter up slopes--at first only when he felt like it, and then when asked.  A few times, I had cantered him a few strides, or even a full circle, on our flat exercise area at the pasture.  Sadly, his canter felt more like bucking.  He cantered like a rocking horse, throwing his front end down, in order to pull his hind end up, and then shoving his hind end down in order to throw his front end back up.  Poor guy.   We kept at it, though, knowing that it could get better with more practice.  Meanwhile, his trot and walk were becoming lovely.

Trail blazing an overgrown old highway.

The stronger he got, the more willing he was to canter.   So three weeks ago, at the beach on a perfect low tide that had left a flat firm surface, I asked him to canter.  He did, and he cantered his way into a nice canter.  I could hear him saying, "Wow, this is great. This feels Great!  I want to canter More!"  Like a young rider who wants to do nothing but canter after his first try.   He dropped down into a trot, and had a fairly magnificent forward trot.  After walking a bit, we picked up the other lead and cantered some more.     I'm not sure who was prouder, Ber or me.

Since that day, cantering has become a regular thing at the beach, as well as on the flats around the pasture. Ber is a cantering fool!. I can't wait for Stuart to visit, so we can have some photo proof!

That's Ber and Em on the wave slope.

Somehow, against the odds, Ber has grown into this handsome, strong, brave gelding.  I couldn't have asked for a better outcome.   I know it sounds so cliche, but he makes my heart swell every time I see him.    He is the horse I hoped he would become, and he encourages and motivates me to become the best riding partner I can be, for him..