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Post by Sara on Nov 16, 2008 21:45:49 GMT -5
I rode little miss today and she was just fine! We WTC in both directions and did lots of circles, serpentines and direction changes at the trot. She did not get silly even when an unfamiliar truck/trailer pulled in with a new horse, her pasture mate cedar left the arena or a small flock of black birds took flight out the pasture.
She's a sweet girl and would make a great mount for a child or small adult. She's easy to catch and handle, is fine with all four feet and had no issues having her blanket taken on or off.
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Post by schwung on Mar 23, 2009 23:14:36 GMT -5
I haven't updated Little Miss's thread in a while. She's been having some issues and we aren't quite sure what is going on with her. Some of it appears to be pain-related and some of it appears to be behavioral. She started bucking under saddle and got worse and worse about it. It really did seem to be behavioral because she had been so good before, and because she was acting out at other random times as well. For example, most of the time she's totally sweet in the cross-ties, but if she gets bored, she'll suddenly get ornery and pin her ears, even nip or threaten to kick. So we've taken a step back with her and were just doing some lunging with side reins. Allison and I had noticed that she moves completely differently going left, where she is comfortable and balanced at the canter, than the right, where she is off balance, can't bend, and will throw herself onto the forehand. And my friend that has been working with her during the week noticed that she had a big knot in her neck. So today Dr. Hannah did some bodywork and chiropractic on her. She was out in her atlas and in her neck on both sides. But when got on the stool to try and adjust her back she started pinning her ears and being very aggressive, and when Hannah touched her she swung her haunches at her and double barrel kicked. She didn't get Hannah but she did get her foot caught in the stool and got loose. Hannah felt she was pretty sore in her back as well, so we are going to set up another session for her. She was scheduled to get her teeth done today but didn't because she was in such a poor mood. Hannah also speculated about perhaps a uterine cyst or tumor as her behavior is so hot and cold and it was such an overreaction to being touched on her back. To add to the issues, Little Miss also has a problem with her knees not locking when she sleeps and she falls down. I thought she was narcoleptic but Hannah said true narcoleptics will go from wide awake to falling down, and with her she will start to nod off and then fall to her knees. She does this often (in fact she did it right in front of us while we were talking about her), and she usually has mud on her front legs from falling on them. I feel pretty certain that this is a long-standing issue and this is why she has the callouses on her front fetlocks.
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Post by Sara on Mar 23, 2009 23:59:30 GMT -5
Jaime- thanks for posting this. I was wondering how she was doing.
I noticed that she goes very differently to the right as well. She almost seemed a little "off" to me the day I lunged but didn't ride her.
Thanks for the update!
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shekaberry
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Post by shekaberry on Mar 24, 2009 18:40:25 GMT -5
What is the prognosis on our Little Miss? Is there a back issue that can be corrected/maintained with chiro or fitness (she ain't exactly in-shape)?
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Post by schwung on Mar 24, 2009 19:52:15 GMT -5
We don't really know at this point. I think Dr. Hannah wants to see her again when she has more time and maybe do some additional tests.
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Post by cat67 on Mar 24, 2009 22:01:05 GMT -5
Sorry to hear she's having issues (but glad she is getting the chiro work) - I hope she'll be back to normal soon. She is such a nice little mare.
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Post by Sara on Apr 23, 2009 19:35:49 GMT -5
Anything new on LM?
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Post by schwung on Apr 27, 2009 1:18:24 GMT -5
We got her test results back and they were negative so we know there is nothing hormonally out of whack with Missy. Dr. Hannah's been working with her, doing bodywork, lunging, groundwork, and she's responding well to it but still gets pissy about being touched in certain spots. She's also crabby about just having her blanket put on. Dr. Hannah thinks that there probably is some back/neck pain going on but her reactions are a bit over the top and some of her issues are behavioral. She does respond however to a verbal correction immediately. When I was putting her blanket back on tonight, every time she would pin her ears I would give her an "nuh uh!" and her ears would immediately fly forward. Dr. Hannah and Daphne are also experimenting with some glue-on shoes for her feet (which unfortunately didn't stay on very long) but she's not wearing shoes right now and they are going to try and see if we can't get better angles on her. Dr. Hannah also put her on some special herbs. I know they are documenting her progress with pictures and videos so I hope she does turn into a big success story! Here are a few photos today...she's not looking her best as she is only shedded out to her shoulder and looks kind of ridiculous right now (and a bit...fat).
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Post by Sara on May 3, 2009 18:29:33 GMT -5
I spent some time hanging out with LM today while I was at the barn and took the shedding blade to her. She loved it and kept begging for more.
Any chance she might get the benefit of some time with Andrea once all the ones in line for starting have taken a trip up to half-trak?
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Post by schwung on May 21, 2009 19:01:00 GMT -5
It's been a while since I updated LM's thread. Since NWESC has taken her on as a special project she has been doing well. Dr. Hannah had done bodywork several times and she was always very reactive about being touched on her back or sides. A couple of weeks ago she got her teeth done and while she was sedated she did an adjustment on her and found that her ribs, particularly on her left side, were very seriously out of alignment. She thinks this may have been the biggest issue that LM was reacting to under saddle.
Dr. Hannah and the crew from NWESC have also been lunging her several times a week and she is doing very well with that. Today, Dr. Hannah brought her assistant and she lunged her while Dr. Hannah rode her. LM did react pretty strongly when mounted and gave quite a bit of attitude on transitions and one little buck at going forward, but after that settled and while she didn't quite look happy, she obediently did several walk/trot transitions without issue as Dr. Hannah used her seat and voice commands to get her to move forward rather than her leg at all, knowing that her ribs must hurt. Dr. Hannah then did some bodywork on her afterwards and she was so much better about it - she only acted out one time when she stood on the mounting block on her right side but she was overall much more ok with being touched on her back and sides than she was when they first started (which pretty much she wouldn't allow at all).
She plans on adjusting her again under sedation as her ribs were SO out of alignment before and she doesn't think LM will allow her to adjust them without sedation. She's also had her shoes pulled and right now seems fairly comfortable barefoot. Her feet don't look pretty, but they aren't falling apart either. She's been started on a number of supplements as well - biotin for her feet, special mare formula herbs, cosequin and a liver cleanser.
So hopefully - with a combination of addressing her very valid pain issues as well as addressing the incorrect behaviors will set LM up on a road for success. I am very hopeful for her!
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shekaberry
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Post by shekaberry on May 22, 2009 14:03:13 GMT -5
How would her ribs get out of whack? Is it possible she had a foal or an injury?
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Post by cat67 on May 22, 2009 14:21:17 GMT -5
I've had a couple different horses who had a rib out so it seems to be pretty common. Cecil did, and he had been ridden so lightly at the time that I can only assume it was from playing hard in the pasture with his buddies.
I'm not surprised to hear a pain issue was discovered. She rode so nicely for so long that it makes perfect sense that she only acted up when something hurt. Kudos to Dr. Hannah for figuring it out so that she can return to her sweet, cooperative self!
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shekaberry
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Post by shekaberry on May 22, 2009 15:13:30 GMT -5
Little Miss does have a penchant for getting in pissing matches with other mares, maybe a bucking contest did this. I hope this is the reason she was being so crabby about being ridden. She was kind of fun to ride
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Post by Sara on May 23, 2009 9:08:00 GMT -5
Quite interesting! Thanks for sharing Jaime. I too was wondering how her ribs would get so out of alingment since she was going nicely one day and then not the next. Poor girl. I feel bad for riding her when she was in pain.
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Post by Sara on Jun 18, 2009 11:23:50 GMT -5
I was at Jaime's farm last night for chorse and pulled LM out for a bit to play with her. She snorted and spooked at the new tack room on the way to the cross ties. Mostly she was her normal laid-back self on the lunge line but at one point she did get pretty worked up- snorting and flagging her tail.
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