moved back to wordpress

i decided to move this blog back over to wordpress i find it easier to work with.
http://thepmuponcho.wordpress.com/

Slowly getting there

Poncho still has a little bit of rain rot that DOES NOT want to go away for anything. So we're trying to battle that as much as possible.

I've been a bit inconsistent with the riding lately. Between going out of town, rain, and me we've been less than stellar. I'm trying to not stress it and approach it all as, if i'm not 100% committed to the ride I just won't. We'll see where that gets us I guess.

When I have managed to ride he's been improving with his canter. Not as crooked as he's been. Our trot work is hit or miss depending on his focus level for the day. We managed to pop over a small jump the other day which he didn't think was worth the effort and only trotted over it. What a goober.

Clipped the beast and never a dull moment at the barn.

Since Poncho will be staying in work this winter I knew I was going to do some sort of clip on him. I just didn't know when I was going to do it. So when today rolled around and was a lovely day that I happened to be off I decided today was the day! It didn't go quite as I planned however. First I ended up having to go a little further than I had wanted to get a new blade. Then when I got to the barn another horse was being clipped so I had to wait my turn. No biggie though I was in no rush.

2 hours later and we were ready to get going. First I was giving him a mini bath on his back and butt to knock out some rain rot he managed to get. While we were in the process of that we hear lots of screaming outside from horses and people. I went to investigate... The donkey had managed to get loose in a field that's not her normal one and one of the horses decided she was no acceptable. So she was being ferociously chased around the field. Unfortunately I couldn't do much to help because I couldn't leave Poncho alone in the barn. But they managed to separate the horse and donkey with no injuries thankfully.

After that we were able to start clipping. It's been awhile since he's been clipped so I wasn't sure how he'd react. He was fine with the clippers, the sound was a non issue. BUT the second some of his hair fell to the ground he was terrified of it. Go figure of course he'd be afraid of his own hair. Luckily he got over that quickly. He was really good minus occasional fidgeting. I still need to fix up the lines but my small clippers battery was dead so that will wait for another. Now hopefully this clip will be good enough and I won't have to take more hair off.

 

I fell off the face of the earth

Well it's been forever since I've posted anything. The quick run down of what happened since my last post. Poncho basically sat for a year. I was back and forth on the idea of selling him and quitting horses altogether. My funk lasted for an incredibly long time. Then one day I decided to hop up and see if he was sound undersaddle. He was.

So we've spent the last couple of months trying to get some sort of routine back into our riding schedule. Between him being out of shape and my horrible knees it's been a slow process and we're still only at about 20 minute rides a few times a week. BUT we're making a come back.

We still have lots to work on from our time off. Apparently he's forgotten how to canter like a civilized pony. However his trot work is the best it's ever been. Go figure.

Here are some pictures just for the heck of it:

Where we're at.

Basically still no where really. I have however hopped on him two times. He was still quite foot sore from pulling his shoes but he seemed pleased to work.

Is it working yet?

I've had the BoT knee wrap for a little while now. I'm still not 100% sure what I think. Although I will admit he hasn't been able to wear them everyday so far. Sometimes I just can't get out to the barn to put them on and I don't want to hassle the BO with putting them on and taking them off every day. She's does enough extra for him as it is.

Only more time will tell I suppose. Although I will note that now you can see another knot on his knee where the bone growth is...ahhhh his knee just looks so yucky.

WW

Plugging along...

Well a whole lot of nothing is going on right now. We're trying the Back On Track knee wrap, it's still too soon to tell if that's going to make a difference. Only time will tell.

The detailed version.

So all this started just over a month ago. Someone who used to board at the barn was taking care of the evening duties for the BO since I was working at my real job that day. Well this girl turned Midnite out with all the geldings. Obviously Poncho is very protective of Miss Nite so sometime in during the night he got his nasty cut on the inside of his knee. Now I understand accidents happen and all but there was a note left for the girl about who was a mare and who was a gelding even still she denied that she messed up until the BO really pushed. WOW. Especially because I saw her the night I was out for Poncho's emergency vet call and she told me she had no clue what could have happened. But that's not the point.

In retrospect I wish we had done x-rays that night because then maybe we could have caught this all a lot sooner and maybe had a different outcome.


Over the following 2 weeks he was on solo turnout and was cold hosed everyday, until he got so cranky with it he kept ripping out the cross ties. But after all that the swelling was still there. He was sound at least for a time. I rode him twice just short rides, barely did anything. But with my knee problems there was about a 2 week gap from his last ride and the vet visit on Wednesday.

Wednesday he was NOT sound. Of course. X-ray machine comes out immediately.

I must say though I am super duper proud of Poncho he used to be a complete terror to do anything with but he was perfect for all this. Even the vet said something. (I've been using the same vet with him since he was 3 so she's seen him and his absolute worst - in fact the first time she met him I was sure she would reject us as clients!)

The x-rays weren't horrible per say but they weren't good. Luckily he missed damaging the joint but only by millimeters - had he hit the joint he wouldn't be here today. However the cut was so deep that it appears it hit the bone which is causing it to try and repair itself. Which is where the swelling is coming from and that probably will never go away completely. But we are just worried about getting his range of motion back in that knee because it is quite a bit off from the other.

Unfortunately because I'm poor our best plan of action is time and a BoT knee wrap. Fingers crossed.

Where we left off...

So the knee was starting to look better. I had been doing lots of soul searching trying to come up with what was the right decision to make regarding keeping him. I finally decided that it would probably be in his best interest to just sell him, everyone agreed it was the rational thing to do even though it will/would kill him.

But then his knee stopped getting better...

So the vet came out today and we're looking at about a year before he's rideable again if I can afford treatment. Basically I'm screwed. I'll go into more detail over the weekend once I can process this all.

Improvement!

His knee seems to be getting a little better...it looked better today but these pictures are from yesterday.

Before cleaning

After cleaning

Then just for giggles...

What to do with Mr. Poncho?

It's official I don't know what I'm gonna do anymore. I've hit a point where between my knees and my finances I don't know what to do with Poncho anymore.
Should I sell him?
Should I lease him out?
Should I keep him?
Obviously I don't want him to go anywhere but I also don't want it to get to the point that I feel like I'm not giving him everything he needs.

I hate having to be a grown - up sometimes!

Poncho's way of making up for my knee problems.

He decided to mess his up too!

It looks much, much better in the picture. When I got out there Wednesday evening to assess the damage it was about 2x that size and oozing like crazy! Luckily it looked worse than it was. Nothing major was affected. It was just pricey to fix up.

So now I don't need to feel too bad about not riding because Pony's out of commission for  a little while now anyways. Go figure!

WW

Heck of a story to tell in the next day or two

My knee and my riding.

On Wednesday I finally got in at the doctors to see what's going on with my knee. I did get some answers but NOT what I wanted to hear.

So the run down is...
-my hips turn inwards which
-makes my knee cap sit on the outside of my femur bone NOT in the knee groove
-there is nothing you can really do to correct it
-I can try physical therapy plus a knee brace to manage it
-I should/will grow out of it by the time I'm 30 (I turn 20 next week)
Obviously I was hoping for better news because there is absolutely no pain pill that I can take that will relieve the pain in any way shape or form. Plus the more I push it, it will give out and hurt 10x worse than it already does. As it is I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night because it hurts and from the time I wake up it only gets worse as the day goes on.

So how will this affect my riding? I have no clue what I am going to with Poncho at this point. I did a quick ride on him yesterday and it was soooo fun to ride BUT excruciating to do. Of course I can't just wait 10 years to ride again, he's not going to sit around that long. So I'm going to be stressing over this for the next several weeks while I see if there's anything this physical therapist may be able to do for me.

I'm definitely feeling pretty bad about this whole situation. And no one really seems to understand just how much all this upsets me as far as my riding goes. I wanted to go FAR and it looks like that dream died on Wednesday :(

Update soon! I promise!

I will update everyone on everything that has been going on ASAP!

What happens when I can't ride!

So I don't think i've mentioned on here before all my knee problems..so we'll just stick with they've gotten BAD and I haven't been riding too much because of it.

So what do I do when I can't ride and I get bored....

hmmm, where did all this come from?

That's right Poncho's gonna rock the mohawk look again! I think he looks sooo cute when it starts to grow out a little!

Keeping things BUT with an epic disconnect!

I've managed to ride everyday this week but Friday (I partied too hard Thursday night wooops). I wish I could say things are getting better, but if anything we are getting worse and worse. As frustrating as it is I'm trying to not let it get to me too much. We've been through rough patches before we'll get through this soon?

He's just being soooo resistant to everything! I know this horse inside and out yet I feel like here lately I don't even know the horse I'm on. On the ground he's fine. His flatwork is horrendous! The only time I can get some semi-decent work out of him is popping him over a couple of jumps but that's not really going to help in the long run. So I'm at a loss for now.

I suppose we'll keep trucking along and hope things improve in the next week...or somethings gotta give!

3 days in a row!

We've been off to a productive week so far. Three rides in a row!!!!!!!!!! Of course since he's been off for a little over a week they haven't been the best rides, oh well.

Monday and Tuesday were just flatwork rides focusing on forward and softness. They were moderately successful. But we still have a bit of work to do so that we can catch up to where we left off.

Today I decided to jump, when I got to the barn someone had set up a bunch of new jumps so why not! He was pretty freaking awesome. We had a slightly rocky start while he was figuring out his balance. But he put in some really nice jumps overall. Of course it didn't help that I had quite a bit of lack of control on the flat, but he was listening much better when I gave him something to focus on!

Here's to hoping we can keep up this good streak!

Where Poncho narrowly escapes the vet.

Most people don't really know the extent of Poncho's hatred for anything vet related. In the 8 years I've had him 6 1/2 of those years he's been unbelievably violent with anything pertaining to vet work. Previously the vet couldn't even take his temperature! However he really turned a corner when I took a temporary position working for my vet a couple years ago and he's pretty much been golden ever since. We can now give him shots without the help of at least 3 people PLUS food.

So on Wednesday the vet was coming out to do Midnite's teeth and give the horses their PHF booster due to the sudden outburst of cases in our area, eeeeeek. Poncho saw them coming and pull out the all the dental stuff....naturally he hid in the corner where no one would ever find him! Luckily he quickly realized all he got was one poke and a peppermint. Life went back to being fantastic for him! What a goober...