The dreaded call

I was having a wonderful Friday morning. Sitting in front of the fire eating a chocolate chip cookie (okay I know... I'm trying to get back to eating healthy)

I was really enjoying that cookie though. 

That's when I got the text message from my barn owner saying that Louie wasn't eating. 

Now, let me take a step back and explain a little about Louie. Louie's number one priority in life is food. I have owned many horses and ponies and I have never had a horse be THIS food oriented. I mean, if I feed Pancho without feeding him (he can see Pancho from his stall) he will pitch the biggest fit. Like full blown temper tantrum. I saw him attack a pile of hay once - like a lion. He can fit 3 carrots in his mouth before needing to chew. My dad calls him Hoover (like the vacuum). 

So when I was told he wasn't eating I knew immediately something was very, very wrong. 

Trying to get cute sunset picture but Louie is obviously too busy stuffing his face

I called my vet as I was leaving my house so she could meet me there. 

We both arrived at the barn at the same time and Louie was in his stall doing the downward dog with a huge pile of untouched hay. His stomach clearly was in a lot of pain. 

We started with a shot of Banamine intravenously. Then he got a nice dose of Xylazine (sedation) so we could continue with a rectal exam. We found very hard fecal matter and quite a bit of sand. Consensus was an impaction. 

Next we did nasogastric tube. Of course Louie wasn't about that and gave us a very hard time. I am 5'6 and I'm pretty sure my vet is closer to 5'2 and when louie stands on his tippy toes he can get his head a nice 8 feet in to the air. Not the easiest task. We had to sedate him but, my vet is awesome and we finally got him to take the tube and swallow so it went down into his stomach. 

We got some reflux and we pumped a gallon of mineral oil and then we walked. And walked, and walked and walked. We walked for hours. Standing still seemed to be more painful for him because he would immediately go into downward dog or try to roll so we kept walking. Thank god my dad was there because even though I would have walked the entire time, my leg was really struggling after the first hour or so and I needed breaks. 

They're besties

Jannae kept saying she would bring lunch and I was being annoying and telling her no but she came anyways and brought Jimmy Johns (hallelujah) (Jimmy Johns is life). 

After around 6 hours of walking Louie still wasn't doing any better. He definitely didn't feel better just standing around so we walked some more. I called the vet to let her know he wasn't progressing and she decided it would be a good idea to come back and take a look at him again. 

He had a whole lot of gas trapped in there and was having pretty bad muscle spasms trying to pass the impaction. We gave him some Buscopan and hoped that would help. That's when my vet pulled me aside. Basically how to conversation went was something along the lines of - we still have a few more things we can try if he doesn't start improving but you need to talk with your family about surgery and possibly euthanasia.  

Couldn't imagine losing this incredible guy

I just went though a life altering accident that left me with a whole lot of titanium in my leg and over $100,000 in medical bills. Not to mention Louie dealing with a serious neurological problem at the same time - so I definitely had no possibly way to fund a $8,000-$12,000 colic surgery. I feel like a horrible person and a horrible horse mom that I can't afford that because I would do anything in the world for my horses. I dropped my entire life in New York and moved home for Pancho. I honestly care about them more than myself. However, with so many bills for my family and me to deal with I couldn't even take out a loan. So unfortunately there really wasn't much to talk about.

(If you would like to help me out please click here <3)  

We got to the point where we had decided that we had better take him to Idaho Equine. I knew they couldn't do a whole lot more but I had to be realistic about having his body removed. My current barn (especially since it was an ice rink at the time) would be very, VERY difficult to get his body out of either the arena or his stall and I just couldn't handle going to the barn everyday to take care of Pancho and having to see my baby horse dead in his stall until the ice melted. Idaho Equine would be a much more ideal place for removal. 

As soon as we had made this decision I heard a fart. Now, there were a few other horses in the arena so I just assumed it was one of them but my dad was convinced it was Louie. I didn't believe him so we walked him for a while longer until I heard another fart. This time he was the only one in the arena so it was either him or my dad or Jannae. None of the humans claimed it so it had to have been Louie. I was still skeptical so we just kept walking until I saw his tail go up and I watched him pass gas. Okay, yes I know gross... but I was crying I was so happy! Never have I ever been so happy for a fart. 

Our night was far from over though because we were waiting for the much anticipated poop. Louie, however, was noticeably feeling better and looked like he was about to fall on his face out of exhaustion so we put him in his stall and drove the car up to the stall so we could watch him with some heat on while we ate our (now dinner) Jimmy Johns. 

We stayed for a few hours while he slept to make sure he didn't slip back into unbearable discomfort. Then we took shifts watching him for an hour and then going home to sit in front of the fire for 20 minutes, then back to the barn to watch him for another hour. Around 1AM we made it back out for another check and Louie was looking much more alert. I was checking his belly when I stepped in something squishy. (Okay I didn't step in it, just saw it, but I thought that would be a nice comical addition to the story) POOP!! He pooped!! Thank God all mighty he pooped!! I immediately texted everyone in the world he had pooped. 

Still being the crazy horse mom I am, I stayed to watch him for a while more and he pooped again right in front of me. Almost like "okay mom, I'm feeling better let me sleep now".

Finally, I decided it was safe for me to go home and sleep for a few hours. In the morning he was right back to normal begging for food. 

We celebrated by blasting old Ke$ha songs that we could sing along to the entire car ride home.

The good, the bad, and the Louie

Oh, Louie. He is turning out to be quite an interesting pony. 

After struggling with neurological problems in his back and hind end and then suffering with a massive abscess, Louie was finally declared sound December 3rd. I got the okay to start putting weight on my leg on December 12th but wasn't allowed to ride until I had been walking unassisted for 2 weeks (lol I didn't ride that night... shhh... it was just Pancho... I swear). But alas, it was time to put the Louie to work. 

I had this magical plan when I bought him that I would give him 2-4 weeks off and then start him and we would work all winter and be ready to do cross rails at the first show of the season. HA. That clearly wasn't what happened. With him being crippled for the first 2 months I owned him and me being crippled the next 3 months... almost half a year has gone by and I am just now getting to work. 

For Christmas I was given a Pessoa Lunging System by my sister and I started Louie on a lunging routine to start to get him in shape while I practiced walking and gained strength. I've never been one to use tools but, frankly, I had no idea how to gauge how much of my riding ability was lost with my accident (see first post) and I was worried about confusing him with one of my legs being completely gone. I Lunged louie for the first few weeks in just a halter to get him used to my vocal cues. 

Let me tell you, this horse is really smart. He picked up on my vocals by the second day of lunging. The funniest thing is that he understands my cues but when we get to cantering he chooses to ignore them, but we're working on that. Also he came with the idea that "good boy" means 'I'm done and I can just stop doing whatever I'm doing and come look for a cookie' - so we've also been working on that. 

I finally introduced him to the Pessoa. The first day we just walked with the system super loose. He was fantastic. I could tell he was confused but he was looking to me for guidance which was great! Day two we tried trotting. 

His sassy pants got a bit smaller and he started to understand what the system was asking him to do and I ended up with this:

Once he figures out what is being asked with the connection he looks really nice. It definitely gives me confidence and excitement. 

Finally, one day we were working on mounting (because hell no am I having a horse who is a jerk when you're trying to get on) and I got a moment of bravery. Not a whole lot of bravery, lets not get excited, but enough that I wanted to be led around at a walk. I didn't have reins and I forgot how frightening it is to not have them even though I used to ride Pancho bridle-less at least once a week. 

It's difficult to admit, but, I was terrified of riding him. I wasn't even comfortable walking on my own and the thought of getting on him scared me half to death. So my second ride I had complete control of him but I did keep someone of the end of a lunge line just in case he blew up. He's a pretty cool kid but especially the first few months I had him he had at least 3 explosions every 10 minutes so that was a hard pass on the trust thing. 

However, I trusted him enough on my third ride to go solo. 

Most of our ride looked like I had mistakenly bought a giraffe and my body was made of jello. 

But to be fair, my body (especially leg ^^) was way more stable than I expected it to be. I really thought I would get on and have 0% control over my leg when in reality I have a nice 20% so I'll take that as a win. It's probably all thanks to Shelly kicking my butt once a week and designing workouts for me (thanks!!). 

Every now and again we would have a nice moment though! Usually when I was scratching his crest because that's his favorite. 

My next ride was nice but I had learned a few important things about Louie. He has no steering and no brakes. Super! I switched him from an eggbutt snaffle with copper lozenge to a full cheek french link snaffle. This helped immensely with the turning and gate sour problems we were having but any brakes we did have were thrown out the window. This was also our first day going over a pole on the ground. To be fair, we had a really nice and undramatic introduction to going over the pole and the two barrels that were placed in the arena. We also had a nice walk trot ride for the most part. He did spook a few times (which is way scarier when you have a bum leg) (also his spooks are like hop 6ft in the air and somehow end up on the other side of the arena) but my neck strap saved my butt. 

Everything was going well so we went over the trot pole and I asked for a canter and Louie lost his brain. I mean, I guess he was just doing what he was taught to do his whole life but it scared the crap outta me! 

My first thought was to do a pulley rein or pull his face into a wall but logically thinking my leg wouldn't be able to handle that kind of blunt force and I would be on the ground faster than I could say broken femur. I decided it was best to just sit up and let him run until he was done since I could trust my leg to keep me on at least (also neck strap). 

Not my favorite first time cantering a horse but I didn't die!

This actually helped me gain a little confidence back in my riding ability. It helped me see that I still know how to assess stressful situations to handle them in the safest and most logical way. Also helped me see that I can still stay on when a horse does freak which was a huge concern brewing in the back of my brain for the last 4 months. 

He stopped running after around 5 minutes and we continued our workout like nothing happened, which I was super proud of him for. Over all it was a very successful ride and I was so happy. 

Unfortunately, Louie colicked really bad a few days ago (more on that in my next blog post so stay tuned) and has now earned some time off.