Rainbow - UPDATE

[falseimpression]

Yes, thank you CE and Cassie... you are going to be two busy ladies!!! let's hope Rainbow and Delaney make your job as easy as possible.

[lildunhorse]

Wow! I can hardly wait to meet the little pot o' gold! ;D

[critterseverywhere]

Just a quick update...we've been without power all day & the flooding & general storm damage was pretty wild but I spent most of the day out at the barn. Rainbow's bag is a little smaller than it was yesterday, which is a good thing. Gives us a bit more time! There's always the chances that this is a false pregnancy (not all that uncommon in the old broodmares) but... Well, neither Cassie or I have ever seen a false pregnancy where the mare was obviously sucking every resource from the rest of her body & putting it into that kind of belly, carried that way without it being a real one (though we've each seen at least one false pregnancy before; seperate horses). So, I wasn't able to get a local vet out to palpate today, so Cassie is going to draw blood for that version of the preg check & send it out Monday.

Rainbow is QUITE opposed to having her flanks & udder handled (lol, of course, I wouldn't be real impressed trying to come up & handle my flanks & udders with cold hands either ) but I was able to work through that (mostly) tonight. I used a dressage whip initially to stay out of harms way, then eventually progressed to using my hands. She's a very nice little mare.

She has a bad case of rain rot (which I'm starting to think is the case with just about every horse around here who isn't either stalled at least 12 hours every day or wearing a truly waterproof/breathable blanket) which we're gently picking away at. Poor baby isn't too impressed with us picking her scabs...she can only tolerate about 5-10 minutes a stretch.

She's just loving her stall though. Free choice hay with no competition, a bit of grain & alfalfa pellets (don't want to add it in too fast!) twice a day, everyone who walks past her stall gives her petting & loving (& we deliberately place her & Delaney in the stalls in the busiest part of the barn where they would see lots of people but they're so small compared to the big warmbloods & TBs these stalls are usually occupied by that they can go to the back away from everyone if it gets to be too much...so far they don't spend much time at the back!).

We're pleased with how fast both her & Delaney are settling in. The goal is to have Rain's ground work solid enough for the farrier to do her feet next Weds and that she will be okay with whatever needs to be done for her & baby when/if (keep saying 'if' since we're still hoping...though not really believing...that it could be a false pregnancy!) she foals.

Cassie has decided that if she ends up foaling here, that her & the foal can have a front pasture to themselves...maybe Delaney for company...that she normally doesn't put horses in until it dries out so it doesn't get torn up, but just the two of them won't tear it up too badly & it's so important for foals to get plenty of excercise.


I won't be able to make it out to the barn on Sunday because of a prior commitment, but Cassie is going to work with them and I'll be back out there Monday.

[rainydayride]

Critters, I don't know how to begin to thank you - and Cassie.

[gypsygirl]

I bet they will do so well being out of the herd and into some one on one. They have hit the VIP stall lounge Thanks so much for picking them up and helping them. I can't wait to see how they respond to training. How exciting!

[critterseverywhere]

Rainbow's rainrot is drying up nicely. Poor thing isn't going to have much hair left in places when she's done, but that's okay. She has a nice warm stall right now, indoor turnout, blankets for when she leaves us to go out into the world, and summer is on it's way (my daffodils are in full bloom!)

Unfortunately, it's becoming increasingly obvious that this old girl has something really wrong in her hind end...probably suspensories. The vet will be out on Friday to do a pregancy check on her (her bag has continued to go down every day...hurrah! We're all keeping our fingers crossed that it was just a false pregnancy) and is going to look at the hind end at the same time.

Rainbow is a lot harder to teach than Delaney...which isn't too surprising. Rain has 20 years of doing things her way whereas Delaney is a clean slate. Bruce Hall is going to be at Cassie's this Thurs doing private sessions all day. Someone else offered to give up their slot so that he could work with Rain and give us a better evaluation of her. She is definitely afraid of having her feet picked up (and it's fear, not attitude). We're trying to decide if it is a learned behavior, or if it is because her hind end is so weak that she isn't really physically capable of it. The combination of Bruce & the vet should give us our answer on that by this weekend.


She is a sweet old mare to have around, and always interested in the goings-on of the barn and what you've got in your pockets

[gypsygirl]

Wow poor Rainbow. What is suspensories?

[rainydayride]

The suspensories are ligaments at the back of the lower legs.

[critterseverywhere]

www.vetpro.co.nz:888/Vet%20Talk_Equine/the_suspensory_ligament.htm

[cardicorgi]

Poor dear! Tell whomever gave up her/his slot "thank you" from us! Hopefully she won't be bald for long - my gelding's spring coat is coming in like gangbusters - maybe hers will too. Thanks CE for doing everything you're doing for Rainbow and Delaney.

[rainydayride]

suspensories

This is CE's link from above - don't know why it broke the way it did in her post (and thanks for the link.. I'd googled "suspensories" earlier and let's say, got some interesting results re human male anatomy. )

[falseimpression]

RDR,
well, we all need some chuckles at this point, don't we?

[pdevlieg]

Sweet Rain - thank you for taking her in. Maybe she just wanted a little bit of special attention so she planned the whole thing!

[critterseverywhere]

Well, I just walked in the door from Rain's session with Bruce (haven't even washed my hands yet! ...want to get things down while they're fresh in my head!).


We only did an hour session instead of a full two-hour session. Bruce could offer a pretty good assessment at that point, and it didn't seem fair to push Rain's physical or mental strength without need.

A lot of what he saw we will try to verify with the vet tomorrow. The first thing, which is something we already were aware of & is one of the major training priorities for this girl, is that her feet are in awful shape. He estimates it is going to take a good year (especially on a horse this old) of work by a skilled farrier to get her feet into shape. From the growth patterns, it looks like she had grown 'slippers' (the really, really long toes like elf-shoes), then had them trimmed off but the heel left really long. At a guess, this was probably done right before sending her through the sale to make her look/move a little better. However, the effect of this is that she is walking on 'high heels' that is putting enormous strain on her entire body. She's very sore through her shoulders, back, and haunches. The good news, is that we were able to pick up, pick out, and generally work on all four feet very quickly. She was picking up the foot as soon as you touched her leg before we were done. She obviously used to have her feet done quite regularly. She needs a little different presentation then normal though, which is probably why the farrier hasn't been able get her done (though since I wasn't there, I'm not sure exactly what they tried). It works much better if you yield her feet a bit first, ask her to move over with your hand a bit back & forth, THEN pick up the foot. It seems to get her brain thinking about this is a job, not a do-what-I-want time. Also, it appears that she has had at least one bad experience with her feet and the more standard walk right up & pick up the foot makes her quite nervous. It's not comfortable for her to hold her legs in standard positions for the farrier either (hey, she IS older), especially not for long periods. So this is going to need some special accomodation.

Cassie seems to have broken through the biggest block on her ground manners last night, which is really good news. We weren't sure if that was going to 'stick' or not! She will yield both her hind & front ends if you apply the right energy. But you definitely need to 'tell', not 'ask' with this gal!

Tomorrow is vet-day, so we'll know more then about the teeth (which are scary), whether or not she's pregnant, the suspensories, and how long the vet things it will take to get the feet into shape.

Wish us luck!

[zjaraam]

CE, thank you for the wonderful update. Poor gal. I have personally seen remarkable results with balanced hoof care and do hope we can get her a few sessions. I know a gal in the Portland/Vancouver area that I recommend whenever possible, but the distance to the coast may not work out. I could be wrong though. She lives in Ridgefield and to my surprise will go as far south as Sherwood a good 1 and 18 minutes (my friend lives there too ).