Lily continues to limp

It's been pretty hectic at work and home. We remain in limbo in terms of our home plans, and are taking a month off to embrace limbo-ness. Frankly I'm sick of having the rug pulled out from under us repeatedly and am going to shift to chilling out and blooming where I'm currently planted. In 30 to 60 days, we'll have to reach some sort of decision. By then the super hot rental market will cool and we can make a more realistic choice.

Lily is also in limbo. When L came checked her she recommended we get her re-shod so her heels in the front wouldn't be so compressed. I switched farriers to one that works more in that way. Ruben speaks only Spanish, but I speak Spanish, and remarkably Lily was as good as gold with him.

Ruben is one of those Hispanic men who ends up shoeing many high dollar horses after something goes wrong. He comes recommended by a vet that specializes in lameness issues. Lily, who can be a pain to trim in the back, acted like she considered him to be an expert and therefore worthy of her best behavior.

Weird how horses do that.

Unfortunately Ruben didn't feel shoeing was going to help her, but he's going to come back out with an orthoepaedic shoe that helps a mare he has with a bad shoulder. He feels the issue is in her shoulder, mostly because of the way she responds to being shod. She doesn't jolt in pain at any point and mostly tries to stand in a way to take pressure off her shoulder.

So we shall see. She's sound at the walk for short times and we've ridden out to find good grass patches. We're working on little things, like stopping with thought, turning with a look, not fussing when a weird noise crops up.

It's fun in it's way, but I long to do much more.

But in the meantime, we embrace limbo. I sprayed her with a bengay like product. I brush her out and teach her a few tricks. I let her lean into me and give her alfalfa because she loves it and is losing weight.

I tell her she's the best horse ever. She tries to trot for me when  I ask, then stumbles. Then limps. I apologize, but she knows I have to check, and we walk back slowly, letting the kinks work out.

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It's funny, the last time she had her teeth done she had to be put in the stocks. I wasn't there, and for some reason she worries more. When L first came this last time, Lily started to worry, wouldn't let her come near her with the rasp. I took the rasp from L and carefully lay it against her shoulder, her neck, her face.

Lily relaxed and I handed the rasp back to L. Lily let her do her work with minimal fuss.

It felt good to be able to help her through, but wish her sense of security was better. Perhaps this is just what pain does to a good horse. Creates insecurity.

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Lily gets bute at the end of our little sessions, but I hesitate to give her a daily dose or anything like that. But after work, even as little work as we are doing, I want her to be able to relax.

I wish I knew what to do.

What Lily Taught Me Today

Lily is still having soundness issues. As long as I keep it at a walk, she can go for a bit, but that's it. Even a long walk is too much.

She's getting some bute and I have someone who does body work coming out to see her on Tuesday. I'm going to see what she thinks - if it's conditioning or if this is it. If this is as much as Lily will be able to manage.

If the latter is the case, that has some implications, most of which I'm going to shelf thinking of at this point.

Today, after checking that she was sound at the walk, we went for a short ride, stretching our comfort zone for riding alone.  (Well, HER comfort zone, anyway.)  We got just a ways further than we have before when all alone, mostly because I didn't want to push it. I rode in a bareback pad to ease the weight a bit.

When we came back to soft ground we did a very short trot. She was sound at a short trot counter clockwise, but bad clockwise.

We could, I suppose, always go left. Lord knows it's my tendency anyway.

My lesson from Lily today was about my knee. Since we are only riding in a halter, I'm working on more leg and body cues. I found that slightly rotating my left knee into her (and I do mean slightly) and she would turn right. I didn't even need to cue with my foot or calf.

Same with the right, although not as good as the left.

So today's lesson is it takes even less than you can imagine.

Then it was time for lunch.

Note: two flowers in the halter, as is our new tradition...

A nice day. We will see what the body work produces.

Lily limps, trailer loading work continues

This morning after feeding horses, Sierra and I took Cibolo and Lily out briefly. We were just walking, but about 45 minutes it was clear Lily was feeling bad. We ended up walking back, stopping for hand grazing.

I'll be calling the farrier, but I believe it's just time for another injection for Lily. It's been 10 months, and I imagine the effects have been wearing off for some time.

Then we went to trailer loading class for Cibolo. Now he'll get in pretty well, but won't quite get in place for the divider. I haven't been able to work consistently, so I am determined to wait it out for a while. We've really only had 3 sessions and they've been spaced out over 3 weeks. Certainly not ideal training schedule.

I'm going to stay on this track for a few more sessions to see if I can get this where it needs to be. If we stay stuck, then I'll have to consider what I need to change...

Then, once Cibolo was in, we decided to load Lily, just for fun. She's been loading great.

But then SHE started to have issues. She'd get in and then hop right out. So we spent 10 minutes until she would at least stand in place - we opted not to go for closing the door because we were supposed to be done... Plus I knew she wasn't feeling well, which doesn't seem like a good time to work on training.

It's situations like this that make me wish I lived with my horses. I believe (falsely, maybe) that if they were just HERE I could work on something like this 2 x a day for 4 days running. Then we could really get it done. Instead I'm trying to squeeze things in between a brutal work schedule, the demands of motherhood and wifedom, and various domestic duties for which I am ill suited.

Sigh.

On the good end of things I was able to push Cibolo through a stubborn moment during the ride involving a refusal and scary flapping stuff, and my confidence never wavered. A few months ago I would have gotten off and walked us through it. I didn't even consider that this time. I regained his attention and we rode through it.

Could I be done with the fear that I rode with for so long?

Time will continue to tell.