Another Month...Just Gone...

I seriously do not know where time goes in Arizona...but it just absolutely flies by. In a totally good way, I might add.

Lots happened...

The Canadian horse sold. He went back to Colorado and will be a ranch/dude/pack horse. It's like the perfect setting for him. He was just a pup of a horse. No buck, no spook and he loves people and attention. It's right in line with his preferred level of work. The horse can go all day, but anything that required quickness or agility was kinda hard for him.

I hauled him back to CO for them because it worked out great for me to grab another load of stuff from the CO place. I always worry myself sick when I sell a horse off of nothing more than a picture and my word of what he is. I don't want to oversell, or undersell a horse's abilities.

They were absolutely thrilled with him when they saw him though. Gushed over him in fact.

Yaayyyy!! Love at first sight is never a bad thing. I told them if they had any problems to let me know, but they assured me that all would be fine. He was the type they like and they would make it work. He was promptly rechristened Tiller, loaded on the trailer and away he went. LOL. I wasn't sure if I liked them renaming him with my last name or not...but they were so tickled about it, what could I say? Hahahahahahaha

I was really needing a little extra $$ too. I have been holding off getting some of my other horse's to a vet for x-rays and injections because it has kind of felt like I was hemorrhaging money here lately.

Once I had the funds, I immediately made an appointment with a recommended vet.

Jet needed his bad hock and stifle injected again. Shooter needed his stifle injected. Flash needed a new x-ray of his knee and I wanted an x-ray of Ruger's knee to see what is going on with him.

Immediately following making the vet appointment, I injured my knee pretty badly and am totally and completely stalled out on working horses. About all I can do right now is longe them (the ones who longe nicely) or work them in the round pen. I cannot even walk well enough to drive them. It's so frustrating and I am super pissed at myself to how it happened....

I hate to even admit this, but I got bucked off....Of LJ. (insert eyeroll)

The little shit has been trying me off and on out in the desert and this time he just went for it because he bucked me off HARD and I landed with my leg behind me. He has never even tried to buck with me in an enclosed area, but he sure hates going out to the open desert. I know better than to head out with him until I have loped him down pretty good in the yard and for the life of me, I'm still not sure why I just got on and rode out that morning. Must have had a brain fart and forgot who I was riding. LOL.

Anyway, it sure wrecked what I had going because my knee is not healing as fast as I had hoped. But I wasn't about to cancel my vet appointment. It will be almost a week before the horses I had injected will be able to work again anyway, so hopefully my knee will be better in another 5-7 days.

I was thoroughly pleased with this vet. On the phone, he was going into a lot of talk about x-rays and lameness exams on the horses I wanted injected and I told him that once he got here and saw them, he would realize that wasn't going to be necessary. Both Shooter and Jet's issues are obvious and I wanted x-rays on the youngsters anyway. Thankfully, once he got here, he agreed and simply sedated and injected both horses without making a big deal about it. He did take the opportunity to talk to me about IRAP injections vs. cortizone based injections and I found the information to be useful and something I will definitely consider. It was really nice having undivided attention on my horses's needs. As much as I liked my CO vet on a personal level, I was often frustrated with his tendency to be distracted and spending his exam time telling me about his ugly divorce. I knew both of them, liked both of them and did not want to hear about all of that when I was paying for his professional services. The last few years, I feel like he missed a lot of things on my horses because his attention was elsewhere.

With this guy, I was able to communicate my immediate treatment desires and goals for the horses and then he was able to give me a more long-term option. I always wondered how many times you could inject cortizone in a joint before it began to cause it's own set of issues...Particularly the stifle. I mean, on lower hocks...the goal is typically go get the lower carpels to fuse, so injections aren't needed anymore anyway. It's a different story on the stifles and upper hock joints (which I do not have injected). But what about joints that the goal is to reduce inflammation and increase mobility to? According to this vet, the better long-term option is IRAP. Some horses are always going to need extra help for injured or compromised joints. Both Shooter and Jet are uncomfortable and live in low-to-mid level pain (depending on the day) all the time. Both of them show it emotionally. Shooter gets grumpy and looks angry all the time and Jet is always a little kookoo and totally overreacts to the most ordinary stuff.

The goal today was just to help alleviate the acute inflammation they are suffering in those particular joints. This will hold them over for a few months, give me a chance to get them both moved forward in their training and decide whether it is worthwhile to continue on or call it a thing with them. I don't think it will actually come to that. I've been able to get both of these horses sound before and both of them do quite well. Just have to get them pain free again, put the time in on them and keep up with their maintenance.



I'm going to split this up because there is backstories on the young boys about why they needed x-rays....