Good Progress

The weekend brought some good progress on Miss Pia's legs.  She is however, thoroughly bored of no turnout, and even more thoroughly bored of her handwalking.  Yesterday, she was a cranky, mouthy, bored mare-face and while I was constantly trying to remove her face from me/my phone/her lead rope/the ground I did realize that I am so thankful we are only on two weeks of this crap and not battling with post-op recovery right now.  (I continue to hunt for silver linings)

Pia says - "walking= sux. eating phone = better"

Actually, the horse gods seem to be smiling on our barn right now (full knock on wood..).  BO's current competition horse has been laid up with a tendon issue, but he got a big green light last week... Another mare who had mystery swelling seems to have resolved her issues, and another gelding who pulled up with a poufy hind leg is recovering as apparently he just smacked himself too...  Lots of good news all around.. Though, there were a few days there where the barn might have had more legs in bandages than not...

Regardless, Pia has been continuing with her 45-60 minute handwalks (we are both kinda tired afterward), and I have been trying my hardest to make them interesting (for her and me).  Things that I appreciate include the fact that the ring has a really nice sound system, so I just zone out and listen to music but I don't think it helps P that much.  I have been playing the increase/decrease game with P and making her stretch her stride or slow way down just to keep her brain working, and since we don't have a super scary injury I've been circling/spiraling/drawing funny shapes in the ring as much as possible.  I've been mixing up when we do our ultrasounding and icing, mostly to see if there is any magic combo, but in general, the fill in all of P's legs has been decreasing significantly. 

The only slight hiccup is that the skin on Pia's left front is all pink and warm (more than a flush from being swollen..) and I can't figure out why.  I know she is a delicate flower, and since she got clipped for her diagnostic ultrasound last week, the skin on that leg is less protected... but there's not a lot else going on to irritate it.  She could be sensitive to the gel I've been using during our sessions, but that gets rinsed off every time.  She could be annoyed by the wraps, but none of her other legs looked irritated.  My only other hypothesis, it that it could be annoyed by the "small circles" I have to do during the therapy... Maybe it's slightly chaffed from that??? Who knows.  It's not scabby, it's not flaking, it's just pink.. so I'm really not that concerned so long as it doesn't get any worse. 

Regardless, I decided to let her legs "breathe" last night and try going wrap free again. 

If you recall, last time we left the wraps off (after our vet visit last Wednesday..), she ballooned back up again.  I'm not worried about inflammation at this point, but I would really like to see her legs stay tight without wraps, so I was super excited to hear from the BO that P had some slight fill in her hind legs, but both fronts looks nice and tight.  Yessssssssssssssssssssss, small victory!

As of right now, I'm thinking that I'll give her two more days of real handwalking, then maybe we'll try our hand at going under saddle.  P was so relaxed at the end of our walk yesterday that I dared (dear god why am I admitting this on my blog..) to get on the mare bareback. 

BAREBACK. 

"Oh" you must be thinking... "She probably threw a bridle on and grabbed her helmet.."

Um... Nope.  Didn't do either of those things... But, I did tie her lead rope to the other side of her halter before shimmying up there without a brain bucket!

Although Pia didn't seem to think that I was totally insane, my shoulder-angel finally got the best of me and I slid off before really testing the waters bareback... without a bridle... or any head protection... or anyone to scream for help.

Kudos me, I made a good decision! (even if it was a bit tardy.)

So, the bareback adventure is delayed, but hopefully we'll be walking in tack by the end of the week.  and hopefully we'll continue to see good progress.

In fun blogger-dom news, tonight after my long romantic walk with Miss P, I get to meet Denali's Mom for a drink! (woo!) We finally figured out that our little life circles are pretty darn close to one another, so I'm really looking forward to meeting up in person, and having a sympathetic ear for vet bills, Seattle life, and general horsey chat time.  :) Sometimes its a small, small, world!