This past month I have been busy with Scouting commitments and a trip to Kansas, plus the first half of the month it rained a lot. Because I’ve been gone and our arena was often very muddy I was not been able to spend as much time working with the fillies as I thought I would so I did not meet many of the goals I had set last month.
I’ve been a bit worried that I’m not doing enough with the fillies when I see pictures of others saddling and doing more with their yearlings than I am. My mom and I talked about this. She had me read my application and my philosophy statement of going slowly and not pushing young horses. It made me feel better and I know the fillies will be just fine as they spend the next few months growing up.
Faith was on stall rest for almost half of the month of June so she did not pull her stitches out or roll in the mud and get the area really muddy. During the first week she developed a lot of swelling due to fluid build-up in the area. To treat this we massaged the fluids out, placed hot compresses on the area and had pressure bandages placed over it. We had to remove two of the bottom stitches to help drain the fluid after the drainage tube was removed because it started to heal over. Each day I cleaned the wound with saline and applied Vaseline below the wound to keep the serum from burning her skin. Without exercising all of the time, she gained weight so I lowered her grain consumption. On June 20th Faith had her stitches removed by the vet and she was dismissed from stall rest. At that time the area was a large, hard lump. Now that she is exercising regularly the area is now nearly flat, although there is still some healing happening and there may be a small scar from the incision.
Dakota’s area healed really quickly and she either pulled her stitch out or it dissolved because the vet could not find it.
While Faith was on stall rest my mom had an accident with Faith that resulted in a mild concussion and whiplash. She was holding Faith in the yard while I cleaned stalls. Faith was spooking at the chickens but after awhile she settled down. We think one of the chickens flew up to a roost and spooked Faith, who jumped sideways and ran, knocking my mom to the ground and trampling her. It was a good reminder that the fillies are still young and I need to make sure I’m giving them my full attention when I’m working with them.
I will be home for the next ten days and then leave for sixteen. This means that my time will again be very limited with the fillies and my goals will be very simple. I will not be able to show either of them until August and I will meet with Paul Adix for my evaluation in August, too. The fillies will have their hooves trimmed this week and I’ll be home to help the farrier. When I am home I will:
1. Work with each filly on the following skills: standing quietly for bathing and spraying of fly spray; walking, trotting and setting up willingly at halter; in-hand trail skills such as walking over logs, backing between logs and turning in a square made of logs.
2. Track expenses relating to Faith and Dakota and work to complete the project workbook.
3. Update my blog, http://www.faithanddakota.weebly.com
I’ve been a bit worried that I’m not doing enough with the fillies when I see pictures of others saddling and doing more with their yearlings than I am. My mom and I talked about this. She had me read my application and my philosophy statement of going slowly and not pushing young horses. It made me feel better and I know the fillies will be just fine as they spend the next few months growing up.
Faith was on stall rest for almost half of the month of June so she did not pull her stitches out or roll in the mud and get the area really muddy. During the first week she developed a lot of swelling due to fluid build-up in the area. To treat this we massaged the fluids out, placed hot compresses on the area and had pressure bandages placed over it. We had to remove two of the bottom stitches to help drain the fluid after the drainage tube was removed because it started to heal over. Each day I cleaned the wound with saline and applied Vaseline below the wound to keep the serum from burning her skin. Without exercising all of the time, she gained weight so I lowered her grain consumption. On June 20th Faith had her stitches removed by the vet and she was dismissed from stall rest. At that time the area was a large, hard lump. Now that she is exercising regularly the area is now nearly flat, although there is still some healing happening and there may be a small scar from the incision.
Dakota’s area healed really quickly and she either pulled her stitch out or it dissolved because the vet could not find it.
While Faith was on stall rest my mom had an accident with Faith that resulted in a mild concussion and whiplash. She was holding Faith in the yard while I cleaned stalls. Faith was spooking at the chickens but after awhile she settled down. We think one of the chickens flew up to a roost and spooked Faith, who jumped sideways and ran, knocking my mom to the ground and trampling her. It was a good reminder that the fillies are still young and I need to make sure I’m giving them my full attention when I’m working with them.
I will be home for the next ten days and then leave for sixteen. This means that my time will again be very limited with the fillies and my goals will be very simple. I will not be able to show either of them until August and I will meet with Paul Adix for my evaluation in August, too. The fillies will have their hooves trimmed this week and I’ll be home to help the farrier. When I am home I will:
1. Work with each filly on the following skills: standing quietly for bathing and spraying of fly spray; walking, trotting and setting up willingly at halter; in-hand trail skills such as walking over logs, backing between logs and turning in a square made of logs.
2. Track expenses relating to Faith and Dakota and work to complete the project workbook.
3. Update my blog, http://www.faithanddakota.weebly.com