Sunday Stills ~ Pests and things that annoy you

before the rocking started

Yesterday was a beautiful summer day, and much of it was spent with Cierra and Harmony. We did some work on the pasture, mowed weeds, and restocked the hay. Brad has been working with Cierra on trailer loading for a while. She was doing awesome, loading great, staying alone, windows & doors closed etc. No issues. It was time for a mini-trip up to our house.  It would be Cierra's first trailer trip since we brought her home close to a year ago. She did so well, and really enjoyed her visit at our house. Just look at her...

...she looked around, trying to understand why our dogs were barking at her...

...and wanted to play follow the leader when our son rode a bike near her. She was enjoying her visit, and the lawn, and the fresh smell of the pine trees. She was relaxed...

...so we loaded her up to head back to the farm. I don't think she was ready to go. We heard a couple loud whacks accompanied by the infamous, it's never a good thing, rocking...how quickly things changed.

Somehow her tie down came loose, and we think she tried to turn around. Cierra smacked her head, broke a bar off the window, and the inside window, and bent a manger divider bar. Ouch!! She had a nasty U shaped gash about an inch and a half wide/tall, close to her right eye :( poor baby. Things were going so well, she was completely ready. It's such a shame. I have pictures of her injury, but I can't bring myself to post them - they are icky.

After the mishap, Cierra acted fine and loaded right back up without hesitation. She was her usual sweet self, being helpful, and following the boy who doesn't like horses and liked her nasty gash even less, around the pasture. At first we tried Tricare, but the gash was still seeping and wasn't looking any better. We called the vet. She came out early Sunday evening and sedated, cleaned up, glued, and put six staples in Cierra's head to hold the cut closed. We were instructed to give her Bute for a few days, and an oral antibiotic for 5. I sure hope she heals up okay, and the wound doesn't get infected. I posted a picture of her head, after the vet came and stapled her. Be warned tho, it's still not a pretty site...if you want, scroll down to see her injury.

Cierra is fine (she's semi-sedated in the last picture) and could care less. I would rather go back to the beginning of the mini-trip, before the rocking started. I like the other pictures better. You too? Scroll up. If only it was that easy.

head tossing

Last week while adventure riding at White Mound, Nemo began to do something very uncharacteristic - toss his head. Not just a few times, but consistently. We thought maybe he got stung by a bee, or something flew up his nose. Brad checked him several times, but didn't see anything. Nemo stopped tossing his head while we took our rain break, but started up again as soon as we were back on the trail. Off and on again, he would bob his head (vertically) stretches at a time. We had quite the ride, full of distractions - and since the tossing stopped, we didn't think much of it.

Imagine our surprise when Trainer Patty called to say she wanted the vet to come out and check Nemo as soon as possible. After our trail ride they had ridden him in the indoor a couple days, and he was perfect. The first sunny day they headed outside, and he began to toss his head again. She knows Nemo well, and knew he wouldn't choose to do that for any other reason then something was wrong. They put a fly mask on him, rode him outside and he stopped tossing his head.

Needless to say we were worried. We wondered if he might have the beginning of uveitis? His breed (Appaloosa) and coloring make him more susceptible. I started Googling his symptoms,  which just fueled my worry. What if he was suffering from the painful Head Tossing Syndrome? While my head was running rampant, my practical husband reeled my "what if's" back in, as there was no need to get all worked up on the unknown.

We so wanted to be there for Nemo's appointment. Timing and distance make vet appointments at the Trainers hard, but at least we knew he would be in good hands.

Brad promptly got a call from our vet after checking Nemo out, as well as from our Trainer. Nemo's eyes are fine (whew) but he was suffering from allergies. The sun was compounding his discomfort by further irritating his nasal nerves, a form of photo sensitivity. Tossing his head while elevated, was a way of relieving the pain. Vet Dave put him on an antihistamine, and he is to wear a fly mask while outside. After a week of letting things settle down, they will begin to try backing him off the fly mask & antihistamine -  and see if there are any reoccurring symptoms. The vet said this could be an isolated incident. Time will tell.

Nemo was a really good boy for Brad when we rode last week. He did everything asked, and no sign of tossing. The fly mask really helps, here is the big guy ~ stylin'

Sunday Stills ~ The Letter B

Focused on bits: