Not much to report!

I haven't blogged about Pangea in nearly a month. A MONTH! Mostly I've had little to write about, honestly - I've been working insanely long hours at my two full time jobs as well as trying desperately to keep up with full time school (yes, three full time things plus riding doesn't work out very well) - and I haven't been riding very much due to the heat and Pangea's inability to cope with it. She's been doing a lot better, thankfully, but she has struggled over the past few months to keep herself cool. Lots and lots of sweat and one sunbleached coat later, and we seem to be reaching the end of summer, sort of. As I write, it is currently overcast and 68 degrees. I know it will warm into the low 90's later today, but I'll take that as "cooling off." We're not supposed to reach into the 100's again in the foreseeable future, so I am hoping it won't happen again until next summer!

Most of what Pangea has done over the past month is nothing at all, save for going in the AquaTread once a week, a few dressage rides, and a few trail rides as well. She is still teetering on the edge of comfortable enough to be strongly rideable, and I have been debating whether or not to really pursue a foxhunting career with her. Is she going to stay comfortably sound enough to do it, or not? I figure I will keep trying to find her magic combination for the rest of the year, and then reevaluate. To be honest, if she isn't going to make a foxhunter, then she'll be semi-retired and become a happy trail pony and momma. I don't want to hear ONE NEGATIVE WORD from people about her being a momma. I've made the mistake of talking about breeding in the past, and I am not keen to get the same negative response. My horse, my money, my decision, end of story! ;)

Anyway, back to Pangea's comfort. As her issues have unfolded, I have realized they are far more complicated than I ever imagined. It isn't just that she had an old stifle injury that was unattended to, it was that her entire body has been compensating for years due to that and her feet. The soreness in her body made her stand in odd positions - camped under a lot in front, for instance - which in turn made her wear her sole thin at the toe and grow a long heel... which made her body sore. Her entire body developed a sway to the right, feet included. We have come a VERY long way in helping to improve her posture, but she is still very body sore and restricted. Two chiropractic adjustments have failed to help her, and dental work didn't improve anything either. (I thought the dentist was great but the chiro was not great... we'll be looking for a new one.) Regular trims and a balanced diet have done an awful lot of good for her feet, but she is going to need boots if we want to get any further on tougher terrain. Devil's Claw Plus and Cosequin ASU were very helpful, but not quite enough. She is currently going through a course of Acetyl-D, and if that isn't helpful enough, will do a course of Adequan as well. She had a massage yesterday for the first time, as I suspected it would do her a whole lot of good, and holy lord did she ever need it! She spent the entire time trying to bite me and kicking out violently at all the knots the massage therapist uncovered. As she's not a biter or a kicker, it speaks an awful lot about the level of pain she was feeling. (At least she wasn't trying to kick the massage therapist... she was just kicking out backwards to show how she really felt about the whole thing, instead of aiming for her!) She was stuck basically from head to tail, poor thing. It's all compensatory soreness... it's all just a big mess. She'll get another one next week, and we'll see how she feels then.

The saddest part about this whole ordeal is that had somebody bothered to properly treat her injury when it first happened, none of this would be happening now. Now, it is up to me to play clean-up crew, and it isn't pretty. Truthfully, she doesn't owe me anything, and if I can't get her to where she needs to be to be a consistent riding horse, then she'll be retired to broodie and trail duty. There isn't anything that she has to do for me in order to earn her keep. Just being who she is is enough for me.

A few of the things we've been up to this past month:











Also, systematically destroying flymasks. She is very good at that.

A few shreds at first...




... to the full Phantom of the Opera.




No more nice Cashel masks for you mare... this is the fourth one you have destroyed this summer!! She wore the one Gogo had for FIVE YEARS for three days and completely ruined it. She also blew through a Quiet Ride mask and now TWO more regular Cashel masks, one with ears and one without... fail! I hear Horseman's has super cheap masks with durable mesh... gonna have to check them out for sure.

We'll see how the massage worked!

Trailventure Time!

Last Saturday, Pangea and I were set to go on our first ever roading adventure with the local hunt. She swam on Friday, and I spent some time that afternoon trying to organize and clean my stuff - after all, this was going to be our first time out in public doing something where we needed to look respectable! Unfortunately for us, the weather did not cooperate, and the hunt called off the Saturday road in anticipation of high temperatures (110-115F). I didn't complain, seeing as I had to cut my Friday prep time very short due to being followed home by this!!



I swear we got chased home by a tornado. Swear it.


On Saturday, with no obvious place that I had to be anymore, I decided that I was going to make good use of the cool early morning weather (and by cool, I mean it was still in the mid 80's at 7am) and trailered Pangea out to Benbrook Lake for some early morning conditioning. Thank you to all my cats and dogs who made this possible... my furry little alarm clocks became very alarmed when I wasn't up by 6:45am, and all started jumping on me and/or crying hysterically in an effort to make sure I wasn't dead and/or going to forget about their breakfast. Every time I rolled over and groaned, any inch of me that wasn't covered by blankets was either licked maniacally or pounced on by ferocious kitten claws. I think this is a good sign that you have had too few days off lately.

At the head of the trail, we crossed paths with a total stranger, a 70 year-old man named John on a Missouri Foxtrotter. We both happened to be heading the same way with the same idea in mind - ride before the death heat sets in - so we marched off together. John complained repeatedly about never having anyone to ride with because all of his friends at the boarding stable take too long to get their horses ready, so I think he was happy to have a friend!



John's boarding stable is right down the road from the state park where we were riding, so he knew all the ins and outs of the trails in the area. We even took a few little sidepaths that led us off into lands unknown, making weird little discoveries like this dead cur dog behind someone's house:




I thought it was a coyote at first, but closer inspection of the skull says no. It was literally right on the other side of someone's tightly fenced property and huge manicured lawn - an intruder who was shot perhaps? No idea, but it seems a very unusual place to just drop dead of your own accord. My guess is that it died elsewhere and was dragged here, for one reason or another.

We also, erm... snuck down to the water's edge. Pretty sure we were not supposed to be there, but we did it anyway!





My intrepid guide dismounted first and gingerly checked the beach footing before we proceeded out there. Apparently he's had some quicksand issues before... or something.

We spent some time relaxing in the shade afterwards before we parted ways and I headed back to the trailer. I tested out the gears before we were through - w/t/c all felt great - and then called it a day. It was a balmy 100 degrees by 10:30am.


The longer I have this mare, the more of her father I see in her. I had a request awhile back to do a comparison between the two of them, and I will definitely have to make good on that soon!

Hackventures

Having Pangea is a very interesting lesson in how to just relax and enjoy going for a ride. I get into a mindset where I feel like I should do dressage or should do conditioning because she needs this muscle here or that stamina there, when in reality there is nothing I need to actually be doing at all that I don't want to. If I feel like going on a walk trail ride, then hell, I'm going on a walk trail ride. I do miss the rigorous schedule that comes with conditioning and training a show horse, but admittedly it is nice to just get on and do whatever I want to do.



Donkey girl... look at those EARS!


Also, my boots.



Broken zipper yet again... someday I'll have nice things. I can't really justify going out and spending a zillion dollars on a new pair of nice tall boots when I'm not showing right now, so I make do for now with vetwrap and eternal trips to the cobbler.


The weather has been beautiful - sunny and in the mid-90's, which is downright chilly here for this time of year. Perfect for hackventures! So long as we can avoid the storms, of course:



They were east of us so we were safe.


Random beautiful back road I discovered... there was a Paso breeding farm across the street from where I was riding, and they all came gaiting up to the fenceline when we went by. Bless her heart, her eyes got a little round but she didn't do anything else except continue to just stroll along.




Look at the SUNFLOWERS! Boy they are getting tall.





Oh and PS, remember the horrible tail that has been half ripped out and matted with dreadlocks every day despite my meticulous care? After many, many washings I seem to have revived it a bit:



Nothing short of a miracle, I can tell you that!!

A Catch-Up Post

Contrary to the evidence, I am still actually alive! I've been a bit too swamped with life to be able to really sit down and write out a lengthy update, and now I am faced with the daunting task of playing catch-up with all the major highlights of the past week and a half. I used to be such a good blogger, bringing everyone along for every step of the journey... which is part of what made the Eventing-A-Gogo blog so popular. People always told me they really felt like they knew us... like they were really there for every step of the way. When I lost her, I lost that part of my motivation. I've never really been quite able to write in the same engaged kind of way. Maybe it will come back to me someday. I don't know.


Well, anyway. When we last left off, we were discussing Pangea's dental issues as well as her problems with thin soles and general overall stiffness. She'll be started on Adequan shortly (my ever-intelligent self of course asked the Canadian prepurchase vet for an Adequan script when she came down.... of course I then later realized the problems with filling an international prescription.... d'oh!), but in the meantime I've added BL Pellets to her daily ration to see if a little Devil's Claw helps her out. I've seen this product really help some creaky old farts to get around better, so we'll see if it has an effect on her.

In terms of her feet, boots are still probably my best bet in the long run, but I am still carefully weighing my options here and there isn't one perfect solution or easy choice to make. Despite being a trimmer, I've just never been *that* into boots, even though they of course have their important places in sport and rehab. We'll come up with a solution of some sort for the long term, but as a temporary measure, I do have this to back me up:




Casting material! It's a very good temporary and short-term way to help give her a little bit of sole protection without compromising on vertical flexion. I had no intention of leaving this cast on for any particular length of time, so all I did was use half of the roll of cast on one foot and half on the other. My main goal? Temporary protection on a rocky trail ride! (Which actually didn't have all that many rocks on it after all.... go figure!)







We made a very triumphant return to Benbrook Lake last weekend. I was a bit worried about the terrain, given that last time it got a little bit intense, but I didn't have anything to worry about. There were actually big, wide mowed paths throughout the majority of the trailways... can you say gallop tracks? Also, have you noticed that pretty much everyone we go when we are on Trailventures, we can see the city of Fort Worth? See if you can spot it in the pictures!

The last time we were at Benbrook Lake, things were a little heated on her end. She spent most of the ride jigging and hot, ending up completely drenched in lathery sweat despite it being cool and nice outside. During this ride, despite it being nearly 100 degrees (what was I thinking!?), she finished the ride nearly dry, without hardly a moment's worth of freshness or attitude. She actually sauntered - sauntered people! - on the buckle for the entire 2 hour ride. Deer crashing through the woods, Memorial Day partiers screaming and blasting music, roaring motorboats, hikers.... nothing bothered her. Who is this animal and what did she do with my Pangea!?



Look at that, clean and dry! She is really becoming a solid citizen... no more pawing, pulling back, jigging, stressing or snarky attitude! She stands immobile when tied for as long as she is tied for, doesn't jig, doesn't give me the 'tude, and comes to be caught when she sees me with a halter. Hooray progress!

The casts did their job perfectly, and are already back off. She actually seems more comfortable on rocks after her brief stint in casts, which is strange considering the fact that her feet are soft from all the recent rain/deathstorms, and her soles are still as thin as ever. Her heels have come WAY WAY down all on their own, so perhaps her feet are just finally starting to sort themselves out a little bit. She still has a very long way to go.


It is late, but there is more to write about.... namely a visit from the DENTIST! Stay tuned!

Things you find on Trailventures.....

Obviously I've been neglecting my blogging duties as of late. I've been a bit busy... and by a bit busy I mean completely and utterly overwhelmed by the chaotic business that is my life. Between trying to give all 7 of my little furry critters their needed individual attention, riding Pangea, playing with Bay Girl, working crazy hours at the rehab place, trying to find time to squeeze in trims for my bunches of new clients, studying every second that I am not standing upright, and trying to spend more than 5 seconds at a time at home with Future Hubs, I've not had much time for anything else. As it stands, I am behind on pretty much everything, and even opted tonight to not go and ride in lieu of the many other things I could no longer neglect. As it stands, there are a ton of other things that need attending to - the truck has a recall and a broken sideview mirror, the kitten needs her first shots, and I need to find SOME time to work out, among many, MANY other things - and I just keep having to force more things into my already jam-packed schedule, no matter how much they don't fit.

But I do occasionally find time to take a few Trailventures, of course! I've gotta unwind SOMEHOW!

To my pleasant surprise, shortly ago Pangea and I discovered that behind our barn lies a veritable labyrinth of old roadwork and a failed housing development, which has left the inhabitants of our barn with a nice network of forge-your-own-path trails and a few large fields for trot and canterwork. We've been out there once or twice, and it was utterly gorgeous. Now that the weather is deteriorating in anticipation of the miserable summer months to come (it's been in the 90's every day and climbing... and this is only the beginning of the end), our rides have to take place at the very end of the day as things are cooling down. It won't be long before temperatures climb into the triple digits and stay there, and the evenings don't cool down until 10 or 11 at night when it gets that hot. When that happens, we'll have no choice but to start riding in the wee morning hours before work begins at 7:30am. Seeing as this will mean leaving my house at around 4:00am at the latest, I'm not too keen for it to begin.

Pangea might have been having a really bad hair day, but she sure looks good in my jump tack!





The trails were beautiful the other night....






... and I was almost reminded of all our old evening rides in New England. I let myself fall back into sweet memory, and it was almost like I could pretend that I was far from Texas and back in my beloved Baxster Road in New York.

Until, of course, we saw these:





Oh Texas, lest we forget... you will surely remind us.

When we first saw the cows, Pangea stopped and looked quizzically at them. The cows turned, saw us, and of course all started RUNNING AS FAST AS THEY COULD right at us. (Not that longhorns run fast... but they are pretty terrifying when they are coming right for you.) I thought for sure Pangea's heart was going to fall out of her chest from banging so hard. You could visibly see her entire body vibrating with every beat. Thankfully, the cows were somewhat safely contained behind a little tiny piece of barbed wire, and we were able to make a safe getaway.



The things you find on Trailventures around here never fail to surprise me day after day. You think charging longhorns are surprising? Check out these other (rather graphic and disgusting) finds that I've stumbled across while out riding on other horses:








Gross, no? I want to know where all of these things COME from... there haven't been animals out in these pastures for months and months! The dead calf, however, does have an interesting story. There is an abandoned farm house in the adjoining property next to the rehab place, which had a cute little 3-stall barn and tack room in it. Being curious folks, we decided to scope it out and see what it looked like from the inside. That kind of went a little like this: "awww, a foaling stall! Awww, look at these two other nice stalls with runs off of them! How cute! Aww, the tack room.... EWWWW OMG EWW AHHH EWW!" Yep, there was a dead calf IN the TACK ROOM with the door shut. HOW in the heck did it get in THERE? We can only guess that it wandered in, bumped the door shut, and could never get out again, poor thing.

The property owners decided to tear the barn down a week or two ago, and it was about that time that the dogs started bringing home pieces of cow legs to chew on. (How tasty.) We found several legs, a skull, and a pelvis, all very fresh and moist despite the fact that the coyotes had already stripped off the meat. "This must be the tack room cow!" I thought to myself, even though I vaguely thought I remembered that the tack room cow was tan, and the legs brought back were black. The tack room cow had also been dead for nearly a year, locked away in the tack room... this one looked so, well, juicy and fresh. (Urp.)

And apparently, my instincts were right - I later found the REAL tack room cow, where they had dragged it when they had dismantled the barn. So the question is, where in the heck did the FRESH calf come from?

The world may never know.

Trailventures

Hooray more trail adventures! This time, Pangea and I headed to the Mineral Wells State Trailway (or well, the Weatherford section, that is!). The two trailheads are connected by a 20 mile stretch, which we obviously did not travel the entire length of. Pangea, I must say, was NOT on her best behavior for this journey and I was not too happy about it.

She started off with her usual "YOU'RE ON LET'S GO NOW" marching walk that is often fast enough to fall apart into a disorganized jigging prance. Jigging isn't high on my list of fun ways to spend a trail ride, so we spent quite a while arguing about what the proper speed for a trail ride actually is. At some point, we stumbled upon a beautiful meadow, and I let her trot around for awhile in order to try and vent a little steam. Mare, can't you just SLOW down for one second? You're shaking up my already very sore stomach ulcer!








The real issue on the trail began when I decided to turn back around, about an hour into it. My ulcer was really, really, really bothering me - I actually didn't know that I had an ulcer until that day, when I took some Ibuprofen for a headache and then wanted to die from pain for the rest of the afternoon. No amount of antacids or aloe juice could help me, or even remotely touch it. I even took a spoonful of slippery elm in a last ditch, extremely desperate effort (ugh, talk about the Cinnamon Challenge... don't ever do that), but to no avail. I was utterly miserable, and when Pangea turned for home, she shifted her now relatively quiet walk into a frantic, seasickness-inducing powerwalk that shook my stomach all over the place and literally made me want to rip my own esophagus out. Every time she broke into a jig, I turned her around and trotted back in the opposite direction, then halted and waited for awhile until we could quietly turn back around and walk on. She absolutely did not get the hint, and after about 20 repetitions of this, I finally managed to get something resembling a normal-ish speed walk. It wasn't going to last long, so I gave in and rewarded her momentary good behavior with a stretch of trot. Holy lord, she could have outpaced a racing Standardbred with the trot that she picked up. I just got up out of the saddle and hung the crap on let her cruise. When she broke into a bucking, plunging canter, I promptly turned her around again and made her trot back the other way. Interestingly, this was the point at which she decided to mysteriously be three-legged hopping lame, unable to do more than limp pathetically in the opposite direction, left hind leg completely unusable. I turned her back around, and trotted towards home again. Voila! Instantly sound, power-trotting her way back to the trailer. I turned her away from the trailer... dead hopping lame. Turned her towards the trailer... sound and powerhousing her way on. Ever wonder if they fake it? I'm not sure they really think like that but it was pretty interesting to see her being lame only when she was going in a direction she didn't want to go in. She has also on occasion done this immediately upon starting her work, and at first I would of course immediately stop... but shortly after figured out that a little bump in the ribs caused her to go forward and the lameness to immediately go away. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Maybe they're smarter than we give them credit for. In theory, if a horse realizes that by doing something they get to stop working, then who is to say that they won't continue to do it long after the problem ceases? A horse whose rider gets off right away after they buck is going to continue to buck every time anyone gets on, because then they get out of work, right? Who knows.

Either way, by the end of the trail ride she has considerably quieted, but had worked herself into quite a sweat. I was about to die from ulcer pain, so I think we both went home a little disappointed at the end of it all. Oh well, the next trail adventure hopefully will be a little less frantic.

City Slickers

What's better than one exciting day of trail riding? Why, TWO exciting days of trail riding, of course! Having had my first taste of outdoors adventure on my new mare, and not knowing when I'd have another whole weekend all to ourselves, I just had to have more!

Today's trail system of choice: the Trinity River Trails, with the kickoff point being at the Fort Worth Stockyards. The Trinity Trails used to run right near my old place in Fort Worth, but I had no idea that there were sections of it where you could ride horses! I knew that the Stockyards ran trail rides out of their stables, but I had no idea where the riders went, or that the public could also go there. For those of you that don't know, the Stockyards is basically the heart and soul of Fort Worth, where drovers used to bring their herds of longhorns through to the railways for sale. Now it's an insanely large tourist attraction with ridiculously good barbecue, a host of rowdy cowboy bars, huge country music shows, a weekly rodeo, a twice daily cattle drive down the main drag, and the same brick road and old building foundations that it always has had. On a busy weekend, the place is absolutely PACKED with people, motorcycles, longhorn cattle, carriages, cowboys, and about a million cars all trying to make their way through the chaos on the bumpy brick road. It is absolute barbecue sauce-laced pandemonium. And it's awesome.

When I googled the trails, I saw a parking location for horse trailers off of the road next to the main drag running through the heart of the Stockyards. Perfect, says me, and we load up and head out at around noon. When I arrived, I found... that there was no sign anywhere for trailer parking. Lots of parking for cars... no trailers. Excuse me Mr. Parking Attendant, where do I park for the trails? He gives me a totally blank stare and silence. Ok then... I will go down the way and ask the next parking attendant... who also gives me the exact same blank stare. Fine, I will go FURTHER down the way and ask THAT parking attendant, who was closer to where they keep the longhorns and where the petting zoo is. I left Pangea in the trailer in the other parking lot (which clearly was only for smaller vehicles), and finally found a parking attendant who SEEMED to know what he was talking about. Only as it turns out, he was only acting like he knew what he was talking about because he wanted to impress me with his vast Stockyards knowledge in order to try and score my number. He puffed out his chest, turned around in a large semi-circle, and spotted a single lone horse trailer about 1/2 a mile away from us. "Over there," he said, "and then you can ride back through the Stockyards to get to the trails over that way." Um.... are you sure? "Totally." Well... ok then, bye! I left him standing like a deflated balloon, watching his wishful score walk away with haste back to her horse trailer. Don't worry, he comes back into play later.

I got back in my truck, pulled around to the parking lot that was nearly abandoned and about a zillion miles away, and unloaded the mare. She blinked in the sunlight, watched the Tarantula (AKA the train) chugging past, and stood with relative ease compared to how she was yesterday. We still experienced some frantic bouncing and head-shaking when I mounted and she REALLY wanted to go somewhere, but she settled within a minute or so into a nice marching walk, which she then maintained for about two hours. (Jeez... do you ever tire?) She hesitated a bit when she hit the bricks crossing through the Stockyards, but I scooted around the edge of the place, trying to avoid the chaos on my way to the relatively peaceful trail system.

Only.... where are the trails.




Seriously, where are they.


Oh look I found them!








Quite the contrast to yesterday's wilderness, the Trinity River trails are perfectly manicured, flat, and groomed. And they lead basically right into Fort Worth... it was so weird riding right up to the base of a major city!





Compared to yesterday, Pangea was a dream. She steadily marched along, maintaining a very forward pace from start to finish, head low and swinging in time with her step. She fussed about going underneath the highway (can't really blame her... I got off, lead her under, then got back on and rode her back and forth under it a few times), but that was the only real incident we had. The only thing she spooked at were the varying stalagmites from Hell piercing the Earth's crust for the sole purpose of scaring her to death boulders placed along the trail with plaques of death on them. Once she got a sniff and realized they were potentially lethal but temporarily frozen in time harmless, she ambled on without another look.

On the way back, we crossed the main street at the Stockyards, right by the ever-delicious Riskey's BBQ...



... and were waylayed by the same parking attendant who was so very interested in helping me before. I rode over to him and made small talk for a moment, and then he happened to throw in a casual, "Can I just say you're looking stunning today." Like any black-hearted woman, I realized my chance to use this man for a purpose in his moment of weakness had just arisen, and I innocently smiled and thanked him with batted eyelashes. I then followed this up with a casual, "Hey, can I ride down the main road?" "Sure, anything you want!," he replied, clearly bolstered by my response. "Thanks!" I said, and immediately was off, leaving him once again deflated in my dust. I'm not exactly sure whether or not you are allowed to ride down the main road in the Stockyards - it's kind of a chaotic nightmare, and probably extremely dangerous on a rank horse - but hey, I did it anyway!





Even though I probably looked a bit out of place in my trail attire and HELMET. I couldn't count on both hands the number of cowboys who stood staring at the strange tumorous growth on the top of my head, like they had no idea what it could possibly be. All I have to say about that is this: have you ever met a smart cowboy? No? It's because of their numerous head injuries from falling off horses while wearing cowboy hats. Yeah, I said it. Take that, Slim. You put your eyes back in your head and just keep walking.


She was SO good today. SO good! A nice liniment bath, a rubdown, a good graze, and a nice roll later, and she was tucked away with dinner for the night. She'll have a few days off to relax and chill out - it was a very eventful weekend for her! - and then we'll head back to the pool mid-week. Yay for Adventure Time with mares!