Dork...

BO got a kiddie pool for her dog.  It's near the barn.  When I brought Princess in last night, he was terrified of it.  Blowing, dancing around, looking extremely suspicious... really, dude?  What a wimp.

But he got over it...

He's been really good *knock on wood*.  I turned him out on grass yesterday, which means walking way down past horses on both sides to get to the pasture, and he was a perfect gentleman, even on the way back to the barn--without a chain!

I longed him for a few minutes and he was fine.. going to have someone come out next week to ride him for me.  I'm like 99.9% sure he'd be fine and I'm almost willing to get on him myself, but.....  Just in case.

Back to normal! *knock on wood*

Princess River is back to the normal schedule!!  He goes out in the morning and comes in in the evening like everybody else!

And the coolest thing?  I didn't see him for TWO WHOLE DAYS!!!!  Yeah!!!!  I love him and everything, but seeing him 3 times a day for over 2 months is a bit exhausting..  Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder.

This morning he was totally chill about the whole thing.  Guess he's gotten the goofiness out of his system!

I love his expression.  "Der?"

Video from Friday of his first time out...  he was drugged.

And from Saturday, not drugged.

Not sure about riding...  I'll have to ask my vet what she thinks.  I've already recruited someone else to ride him for the first time, just in case..

Bit late in posting..  my weekend was crazy because a friend got married and I was a bridesmaid.

The moment we've all been waiting for!

Checking in

Not really anything new to say..  River is still alive, still on stall rest, still on antibiotics three times a day.

His right hind was worrying me.. I talked to my vet about it.  She suggested handwalking and cold hosing as well as keeping it wrapped.  So our evening routine is now:  antibiotics, shot of IV ace, clean his stall, unwrap his legs, get the hose hooked up, and generally putter around until he's sufficiently dopey.  Turns out IV ace + nose chain works pretty darn well.  I cold hose him for pretty much as long as I can stand it, which feels like 3 hours but ends up being like 10 minutes.  (Actually feeling like 3 hours is actually about 3 minutes, but I keep going for at least 10.)  He eats grass while I suffer.  Then I walk him around for a few minutes before putting him away and rewrapping him.  We should walk longer, I know...  but if horses are out, it's really hard to walk for long because the only place to really walk is the laneway with turnouts on both sides, and he gets goofy when the horses are out.

His right hind has been looking better, so yay!  Can't wait for him to get turned out again... for both his mental happiness and his physical well-being.

Here's a quick picture from this morning.  He's saying "OMG, Mom, I don't want to look at the stupid camera, I want to eat my breakfast!  Go away!!"

Oh well.  He's so cuddly most of the time.

There's a really nice kid who boards her horse at the barn... her horse is kind of a grumpy jerk.... not as bad as The Mare, but he's not one for cuddling either.  Her mom was there the other night and she was commenting that she'd always wanted a really sweet, friendly, loving horse, but they ended up with the grumpy guy.  I quickly told her she could have River, he loves to cuddle!  She would just have to pay his vet bills.... for some reason, she wasn't interested.  Haha

Introducing our friend, Ace! And boo, more antibiotics :(

Riv's on antibiotics for a couple more weeks.  Blah.

We went for a little walk!

3ccs of oral ace + chain = only a couple minor naughty moments!

Unfortunately, 2ccs of ace IM + chain + horse running around screaming = River trying to rear and explode

Waiting on a verdict... Post 300!

This is my 300th post!  Woohoo!  300 posts later, and my horse (when sound) is still walk-trot and low jumps if we're feeling brave.  Kind of (really a lot) pathetic.

He had his x-rays on Monday.... waiting to hear from the vet at Cornell to see what she thinks.  Clinically, he's better, but it's hard to tell if he can stop the antibiotics.

The vet was running late, so I groomed him and pulled his mane.  Fuzzy photo:

OMG MOM WHAT?!

The floofy part near his withers is from his blanket apparently rubbing his mane out.  So it's growing back as a fuzzy poof.  Which is also largely why I pulled his mane.... to help disguise his floof a bit.  Also I love the word floof.

I was finishing up when a young (13-ish) boarder came, and she was like "oh my gosh, are you just ripping his mane out??"  Well, yeah, that's how it's done.  Apparently she'd never heard of mane pulling!  But she does Western (and maybe Wenglish, I'm not sure), and I think they mostly cut manes... gag.  I haaaaaaate cut manes.  Hate them.  The BO at the Old Man's barn uses a Solocomb to cut manes...  I've informed her that she is not allowed to do her own horses' manes because she does them wrong.  I will do them properly, by pulling them, and she can pay me for it.

His hinds have been stocking up quite a bit, and he's been standing so his hind heels are elevated on a pile of bedding... I sent a pic to Super-Awesome Farrier asking what that posture indicates, and he said suspensory issues.  Ugh.  I want his cyst to get better so he can go back to turnout and hopefully whatever other problems he's developing can fix themselves.

I've started wrapping his hinds again....  the vets who did the xrays complimented his pink wraps!  Also his pink halter, pink lead, and the pink shoelaces in my black paddock boots.

Riv is really getting good at the whole "peeing when Mom is there to clean it up" routine.  He's pretty much gotten over his bladder shyness.

He kinda looks like a Saddlebred!  Haha!

Fingers crossed that his vet from Cornell thinks he can stop the antibiotics!

Nothing to do with horses at all.

If you're in the WNY area, you've heard about Blue4Ben.  If you're not in the area, here's the summary:  In late January/early February, a 4 year old boy named Ben was diagnosed with Stage IV Glioblastoma, a brain cancer that usually hits middle aged men.  He had surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible and started chemotherapy.  Within a couple of weeks, the tumor had tripled in size.  He was given a few weeks to live.  His mother had started a blog for family and friends to follow, but it quickly spread all over the area, with fundraisers and just a huge outpouring of support.  It was called Blue4Ben because blue was his favorite color, and also what he was usually dressed in to help distinguish him from his identical twin brother.  It's pretty incredible to be driving down the road and see stores and restaurants using their signs and message boards to advertise Blue4Ben, or drive through town and realize that all the houses have blue lights over their front doors to show support for Ben and his family.

Tuesday evening, about a week after Ben's 5th birthday, Ben died.  He left behind his parents, his twin brother, a younger sister, and his unborn baby sister.

His mother posted this blog entry Wednesday evening.  Not gonna lie, I sat in my room reading the post with tears streaming down my face.  I truly cannot fathom how his family has gotten through all this.  I'm just awed by their strength.  I went to the barn to give Riv his medicine and just spent a while cuddling with him.