In the eye of the beholder.

It's day 6 and the swelling is down by more than half, it's localized to the front part of his knee. I'm hoping this is good and an expected rate of progress. He has 4 more days of limited movement. It's not exactly stall rest since he has a small turnout area so he can get to his water trough, but close enough. He's had 2 pressure wraps, ice, and hand walking. He's ready to get moving again. I'm not sure what happens if we hit day 10 and the swelling is still there.

Tonight he was tied up to the hitching post outside the barn with just the motion controlled spotlight on for light. He was kind of illuminated in shadows. Sometimes I look at his big liquid eyes and his elegant lines and his athletic build and something catches in my throat. Sometimes his beauty just takes my breath away.

Vet report and... knees are strange.

So the most interesting (and encouraging) thing to me was when the vet came out on Wed. morning to look at Jasper's swollen knee he wasn't lame even after flexions.

He really wanted to play with the vet tech while trotting up and down the arena. She did not seem to understand this and did not play back with him. In fact, she told him to knock it off. Poor guy. He really was being clear about his needs. She was supposed to bite his head, pick up the pace, and possibly throw in a buck and a kick or two. Two words: shut. down.

He was also making a really strange hiccuping noise that he has never made before. The vet seemed just as concerned about that as his knee.


Xray of knee- you can see the bone spurs in the circle. The vet said they were tiny and are a 1 or 2 on a scale of 10. He doesn't think there is any reason Jasper won't be able to do what I want to do with him (eventing). It looks like he injured it at some point (I'm placing my money on last summer when he flailed over a rope tied across the entrance to his barn) and then recently whacked it again.

Another side view. I feel dumb that I didn't know that horses
have 3 joints in their knees until now.

Front view. Kind of cool.

The hiccuping noise seemed to happen whenever Jasper took in a sudden breath. The vet looked in his mouth and found swollen gums and a big wad of cheatgrass stuck between his cheek and gums. We're assuming he had cheatgrass stuck in his throat as well.

His treatment is 10 days of limited movement but all the walking we want to do. He's on 2g Bute and antibiotics (in case of infection from the cheatgrass) twice a day for 5 days. He had a DMSO pressure wrap on his knee for 36 hours which I took off last night. He gets 48 hours of on-and-off ice, then another pressure wrap if the swelling is not down. He's also, obviously, getting hay without any cheatgrass in it.

Cheatgrass. It doesn't look evil.

I don't believe in coincidences and I am very grateful that Jasper was making the hiccuping noise the morning the vet came out. He wasn't doing it that night so it was a very short-lived thing, but I would have had no idea that his hay was bothering him. I knew there was some cheatgrass in it but I figured that if they can chew hay up they should be able to chew up cheatgrass up too. Er... wrong.

I also decided to start giving him an injectible joint supplement called Pentosan. It's fairly new to the US and is like Adequan or Legend but apparently cheaper. Which is not all that cheap. You give 4 injections 5 days apart and it lasts for 6 months. It's all new to me but the research and reviews are favorable.

He seemed pretty willing to calmy walk around the arena tonight sniffing everything in sight and rolling 5 or 6 times. This is day 3 with no turnout. I'm not sure how long it will be until I'm walking a Velociraptor on a Leash.

Well crap.

This is not good. It's the same one he injured before. The vet comes Wednesday morning.

Gooooooooood Booooooooy

This is Claylish. She just turned 13 and loves horses. I have a horse, but he is not a kid's horse. However, I remember wanting to be around horses so much it hurt.

So she came out to the barn just to hang out. The first time she came out she, her friend, and her dad watched Jasper bolt around the arena bucking and kicking. I'm not sure what they were all thinking, but they are all quite brave in their own ways because Claylish still wanted to get on and her dad let her. Jasper's eyes got pretty big and a little worried, and he was hesitant to go forward, but ended up following me around for a while until he relaxed. She was even able to do some solo laps with him.

The second time out and look how nice they look together. I don't get to watch him under saddle... ever really unless someone is kind enough to video me riding him. It really hit me how elegant he is. He kind of still looks like he's off to the races.

You want me to go on the bit??

We had a few... er, stumbles over one of the ground poles at one point.
There is such thing as being too relaxed.

Happiness.

...and, um, *cough cough* standing STILL.

Goooooooooooooooood Boooooooooooooooooy

Run Jasper, Run...

Free lunging himself- no encouragement needed. He sure sticks his tongue out a lot! This video was taken towards end of his free lunging session (free lunging meaning I turn him loose and let him play)... I just got a new phone and was trying out the video mode. I think it works really well but won't upload to Blogger. I had to send it to Youtube first.

On another note, when I uploaded it to my computer it came out upside down. So if I try to watch it on my screen it's upside down, but when I published it to Youtube and Facebook it came out right side up...? Anyone know anything about this?

3'9

3'9!

Happy Everything! Christmas Eve morning I decided Jasper needed a view of something other than his run and the barn so we went for a loop in the woods. There wasn't much snow but everything was frozen, so after cantering through the field we took it easy and walked on the trails. On the way home there is a steep little hill that opens up into the big field. He always fights me on this and wants to accelerate instead of slow down, only this time when I pulled back on the reins his head shot up and his hind legs slipped out from underneath him. He landed on his left side and my left ankle. It happened so fast I didn't have time to react, but at the same time was having a conversation in my head about letting go of the reins.

Should I let go? Should I keep hanging on? What are you supposed to do? I think let go. But I still have them. He will take off. Oh, that's his right hoof right by my arm, he's having trouble standing up. Oh, there's his back hoof right by my ribs, I hope he doesn't step on me. I still have the reins, am I pulling him off balance? He will fight me and pull back...

For some reason he didn't pull back, and I was able to keep hanging on to the reins and get into a squatting position before I felt my ankle screaming at me to pull the knife out of it. I sat there for quite a while breathing shallowly and considering my options. I couldn't walk, which left getting back on, which would require me to put pressure on my ankle no matter what. Or crawling back. In about 10 minutes the pain began to subside... it was really strange. I was able to get back on and ride home, put Jasper away, and drive my car (stick shift) home.

That night I was on crutches, but the next day after 8 hours of sleep it felt a lot better. 2 days straight of elevation really helped and a week later I was able to go xc skiing.

I FINALLY found a schooling helmet that fits! I have a very long very oval head. This is the Ovation Sync. It is very flattering, obviously.

New Year's Day: My friend Dale was visiting from Canada and wanted to see horses. After a lesson in "combing" them, we set up a jump chute. Started at 2' and worked up to 3'9! This is the highest he's ever jumped. Ok, the highest on purpose. It was pointed out to me that he jumped a gate about his high from a standstill once. It was supposed to be a one stride but he just kind of nonchalantly trotted the whole thing.

Go buddy!

Party on, Wayne.

Whoa, can you say sensory overload? I did find out that Jasper does not have a future career as a petting zoo horse. To his credit, there were probably 200 people at the Arena Warming party and kids everywhere jumping off hay bales, riding the "bull", going for pony rides... He had to walk on a blue TARP to get to his pen. The horses next to him were NOT running away when he made his very meanest ears-pinned-back-I-will-kill-you face. They pretty much ignored him. He did some nice bucking in place...

Nom nom nom. I don't even want to know how many pounds of oats he was fed. And carrots. The horses were so saturated they quit eating them and the kids just threw them in the pens. At the end of the party it looked like a giant carrot graveyard.

The kids riding the "bull" were not as scary as when the music had people clapping in it.

Oats? Carrots? Small children? Don't mind if I do.

Serena and Roxie are borrowing my Konklusion treeless jumping saddle. Serena gave me her HDR to try even though it's a wide tree and she had it stretched even wider for Roxie. Uh, this is what it looked like when I set it on his back:

Really??? This is an X-wide tree???

Granted, after it was cinched up it did a little bit of a nose dive. But still. Either Jasper has some wacky conformation or HDRs are seriously narrow.

I really liked it. I felt like my leg was solidly in place and not moving around. I love the big knee blocks, and they saved my a** a couple of times when we did some sudden sideways airs-above-ground. I haven't had a chance to jump in it but am looking forward to giving it a try.