Green horses are going to refuse jumps. It's part of the learning process, as they develop skills like how to read questions & how to organize their feet. Eventually they learn to do both of these things at the same time, but they don't start out that way.
Case in point: about a month ago, I took Echo next door for his second official jump lesson (the first one was back in April) with Trainer Neighbour (TN). He was growing much more confident with my single "jumps" in schooling, with far less drunken approaches & less hesitation at the base.
We'd mastered a whopping 18"
I had just started introducing canter poles to our rides the week before. I wanted him to see some different colors & shapes, as well as work through some more simple gymnastics, which are more challenging for me to do alone since my ground person is, uh, me.
Echo, being all legs & distraction, is still very green in terms of figuring out where & in what order the limbs should go to create a jumping effort. I try my best to get him very balanced on approaches, stay in the middle of him, & let him sort out the rest on his own. He is an unfailingly earnest trier & really wants to please, making my job of directing him to the right answer much easier.
Easier, but also often hilarious. For example, as we began working the lesson gymnastic, he had definitely retained the lesson about "poles are for trotting over." A little too well.
Exceptional pole trotting
We paused that & worked over a few canter poles to get
him thinking about bringing his hinds together underneath him &
pushing over an obstacle in a true jumping motion. As I mentioned, he'd
only done canter poles a couple times, the week prior, so it took a few
tries over these larger ones, but he finally figured it out:
Figuring out takeoff - uh, ignore my leaning, sigh
We went back to the gymnastic to try & translate that motion to the jumps. TN suggested we try some extra trot poles in front of the first jump to see if we could encourage him to step closer to the base. She also added an empty flower box to make it look a little more like an actual obstacle. I suspected this might be a bigger complexity jump than he could process all at once, but we'd give it a shot.
My suspicion was correct. Echo's little brain (much of which he had apparently left at home that day anyway) went, "Oooo, look at all the new things, waiiiiit, I must inspect!!!" He was sucking back hard by the time we go to the first trot pole & despite my squeezing, he came to halt in front of the fence.
In years past, I might have gotten upset. I might have grabbed a crop or, at the least, considered it a failure. But I have learned a lot about nuances in training since then.
If a green horse has what I call an honest stop, that is, they don't understand the question or they truly don't feel comfortable in their ability to complete the task, I'm ok with that. They're not trying to get out of work or communicate pain or simply be contrary, they're just trying to figure it out.
What's more, I would rather be on a horse that stops when he's unsure than one who hurls himself thoughtlessly into anything. I think both of us are safer in the first scenario - a little self-preservation is an important thing. The nuance lies in what the horse tells me & how he responds to what comes next.
I also want Echo to enjoy jumping as a positive experience. I don't want him to jump something just because he's afraid I might hurt him if he doesn't. I want 100% of his focus on doing his job safely & well, instead of having 50% distracted by fear or anxiety. I'm sure I'll need that extra focus at some point when I need to rely on his footwork & balance to get us out of trouble.
Soft, relaxed, focused
This doesn't mean I'll never give him a solid kick or a pop with a stick. It just means I'll only apply those things if I am certain that I have asked a question well within his confidence & experience levels. In this particular lesson, this particular stop clearly said to me that he wasn't completely sure of what he needed to do, but he was thinking hard about the question. He was trying to learn & I absolutely don't want to punish him for that.
After a brief examination (& some giggling at his adorable baby-ness) of things, I just calmly circled him around to try again. He was still hesitant, but with encouragement, gave it a shot. The third time, the light bulb was beginning to glow. Here's the series of attempts. Giggling commentary included.
He was also beginning to figure out how to make a jump jumpy. The canter pole translation was happening & it was getting significantly easier for me to follow his motion as it became more predictable.
Less trotty, moar jumpy
And through it all, Echo was trying & learning, all while his ears stayed pricked & his attitude positive. This is what I want for his foundation, along with a clear understanding in him on exactly how it all works. I want him to learn how to jump over things, not how to demolish them with this legs in an uncomfortable scramble (although I'm sure we'll inadvertently practice this too).
On Friday, Dr. Bob got to give me a happy report. He did not see anything concerning stifle-wise with Echo, no signs of injury. What I saw/felt was due to loss of condition from a month off on a leggy young horse. Prescription: "Ride lots to rebuild strength."
Huge sigh of relief from me. And that is my favourite prescription.
The better news:
We've been working for months on easing Echo's sacrum back to level. A lot of months (like, here's the update from May). It's not something you can, or more accurately, should, do in one big pop. If you try that, it will just pop right back out again thanks to sore, tight muscles who are loath to give up a habit. Which is why it's also important to incorporate muscle work in your chiropractic regimen.
His last adjustment was in late August & we did finally nudge it the last little bit back to level then. Both Dr. Bob & I held our breath & he suspected it may try to sneak back out again. I continued my focused SoreNoMore massage on the hip knots I've come to know well & kept staring obsessively at it.
You can see the last remaining bump on the left in early Aug
Under saddle, I pleasantly discovered continuing improvements in Echo's right lead canter - he could now keep the lead on a slight downhill turn without swapping behind or using a half-buck to unload the weaker leg. Standing behind him, I could see his HQ muscling becoming more even. I hoped, but cautiously.
After more breath-holding on Friday as Dr. Bob professionally poked that sacrum, he announced IT STAYED! Yes, I realize Echo probably heard me type that & is hard at work to undo it, but I'm still taking the win! Dr. Bob also said he wanted to hire me out for muscle work -- I told him that I doubt I'd get many clients who were interested in having their horses massaged for 15 minutes at a time when my arms get tired, as it'd take me a month to do an entire horse.
We're long overdue for some good luck, so I'm going to enjoy a nice long exhale for now.
In a fit of delusional optimism on Sunday, I decided to use some of my hoarded scrap lumber to build a set of proper jump standards. This would be an upgrade from my previous scrap standards, which have now disintegrated since I never got around to sealing them & I gave up on them after Encore got hurt.
Said optimism was obviously misguided, since I am taking Echo to the vet tomorrow. He displayed a very sore stifle last night with some odd characters. I am hoping it's just a "young, growing horse" thing or some other mild sprain, but I want it checked out right away since I am EXTREMELY gun-shy on stifles after Encore. Not like I need another vet bill, but the alternative is giving myself 47 ulcers over the weekend, sigh.
Anyway. Buildy thingies. Also excellent for distracting the Monstrous Voices Of Overthinking.
Quick How-To Guide For Simple Standard Construction
These actually cost me $0 to build. I had an eight-foot 4" x 6" left over from another project, my pile of "scraps salvaged from house construction dumpster" five years ago, plenty of paint from painting ground poles, & I always have a tub of deck screws around. It didn't take me long, about 2-3 hrs including sanding & a quick coat of paint on the bases.
Standard Preface from the Safety Nazi: Tools are awesome, but don't mess around. Wear your safety glasses, close-toed shoes, ear protection when necessary, & pay attention. Horsewomen are badasses, but work smarter, not harder. You can do most anything you set your mind to, but make sure you have been properly instructed, know your equipment, & always plan ahead.
My materials list:
8-foot 4" x 6", cut in half to make two 4' standards(I don't need anything taller & shorter = lighter)
Eight 12" (or somewhere in the vicinity, some of mine are a little longer) long boards for feet; you can use a 1" x 6" or mine are leftover deck planking boards
Tools I used: Circular saw, drill, impact driver (I won't lie, I use this for everything), 1/2" speed cutting bit (for pin holes, you could also use a spade bit), tape measure, pencil
All my junk & my sophisticated work table, don't know why photo is dark
I started by cutting the 4x6 in half. Yes, most standards are made with 4x4's but as long as you have a 4" face to fit a standard jump cup, it doesn't matter. I think the extra 2" on the long side may be a stability bonus in the end. I purposefully didn't make the cut exactly straight so that water will drain off instead of sitting there & rotting the wood from the top.
Then start attaching your legs. Attach the first one flush with the bottom of your post & work around, attaching legs in a pinwheel fashion. I put 4 screws on legs on the wide face, 3 screws on the narrow face, since it was a tight fit.
Attaching my mismatched legs (just like my actual legs)
Screwing tips (yeah, maybe I just wanted to type that): (1) set your screws about 1" in from the edge of your board to prevent cracking. (2) Drilling a pilot hole will help with the same, I did this extra step because my leg scraps were dry & old & it successfully avoided splitting them.
Pilot holes in the first foot
Measure out your pin hole centers. I started at 18" from the ground & proceeded in 3" intervals up to three feet. I did check how the cups would sit & confirmed that the top of the poles would be even with the pin hole centers, so that would be a true jump height. Measure a second point from the edge of the post however far back your cups extend (mine are 1 and 5/8"), which will give you a target to center your big drill bit on.
I'll drill where the lines cross
Drill your pin holes. Some types of cups demand straighter holes than others. I'm trying out the Dapple Equine one-piece cups (I technically did spend money to purchase these, but as they are not part of the standard itself, I'm still calling them free standards), which allow for some slop. So I eyeballed it & the ones that weren't quite straight were easy to shave a little extra off of. Drilling treated posts requires power & a sharp bit - have a spare battery handy if using a cordless drill/driver. I love these SpeedBor bits, they chew a big hole efficiently & don't require crazy torque like a ship auger does.
Drill w/ SpeedBor & completed holes
That's basically it, you now have functional standards. I knocked the edges & rough bits off with a sander to hopefully reduce my splinters when I grab them. I threw an initial trademark UAPJ (Ugly-Ass Paint Job) on the bases since the sun was setting & I wanted an extra coat there.
The finest UAPJ work
They now have two more coats on the posts themselves & I plan on putting another coat on the bases on Saturday.
Just waiting for that mythical creature, Sound Horse
I haven't gotten a chance to even set them up yet. If you have any spare good luck to send our way, I could definitely use it. I'm trying hard to hope that Dr. Bob will give us not-completely-terrible news tomorrow & I can use my pretty new standards soon...
Proud flesh: the nemesis of wound care. When you have any open wound that can't be stitched (which seems to define nearly all horse wounds), you have to wait for them to fill in on their own with granulation tissue. However, this tissue has a serious overachievement problem & inevitably multiplies into a cauliflower-esque explosion of cell growth that protrudes well above the skin surface. It then blocks the migration of healthy skin cells that would otherwise move in to close the wound.
It is particularly problematic in areas of poor blood supply & high motion, like the lower legs. Where 100% of my horses' wounds were. Of course.
If the wound in located somewhere you can apply a pressure bandage, like a standing wrap, you can prevent proud flesh. When those cells can't push outward, they seem to just give up & pout, giving the good cells room to do their magic. This was awesome for 25% of our wounds, specifically, Solo's skinned cannon bone.
You can see by mid-Sept the bone is once more covered by a sub-layer & as of this weekend, new skin has covered more than 50% of the original area. I'm keeping a non-stick pad coated with Dr. Bob's Magic Red Sauce + standing wrap on this until it's filled in more, as one less place I have to fight the evils of proud flesh.
Solo's hock has been the primary battleground. High motion, impossible to pressure wrap, with a horizontal cut destined to pull apart - it was inevitable, really. The Magic Red Sauce (I don't know all the ingredients in this concoction) is supposed to help both retard proud flesh & encourage epithelial cell growth, but its magic definitely has limits.
I was scrubbing madly with my dilute betadine, but it wasn't enough, so mid-Sept, I called Dr. Bob. He knows I do surgery on endangered species (& they live), so he gave me permission to get aggressive. Really aggressive. I dunked the knife & scissors on my multi-tool in the beta-water & charged back into battle.
The one good thing about proud flesh is that it doesn't contain any nerves, just a zillion blood vessels. So it will make an unholy mess when you hack (very carefully) away at it but your horse won't feel a thing. This wasn't a super fun addition to the twice-a-day cleanings & it made them even longer, but Solo dozed patiently while I chopped off endless tiny tissue nodules, just trying to keep it roughly even with the skin surface.
Front
Looking good today (white is Corona)
Lateral side
Today's view, still a little proud flesh, but the skin will soon swallow it
After scrubbing, I would alternate between polysporin & Magic Red Sauce. I am happy to say that after several weeks of battle, not only is the proud flesh on pouty retreat, but the front hole has finally closed, meaning no more diaper wrapping & ending the 2-roll-a-day vetwrap suffering! There is still some fill in that hock, so it gets hosed daily, but has drastically reduced with today's cooler weather.
Echo's return to work was delayed by the fact that it took me an hour to do Solo's bandage when I got home from work, after which it was basically dark. He is now back under saddle, though, for the past 10 days. He is almost completely healed. The friction burns on his chest have vanished under his new winter parka-in-progress, you can't even tell they were there.
Top is Sept 3, bottom is Sept 27
Proud flesh did rear its ugly head on his knee, so it also got the knife & is now gasping its very last, tiny breaths. A few more Red Sauce treatments & it too will vanish. The cut on the outside of his cannon is a small scab hidden in fur.
My knife hasn't been needed in several days. Both boys are sound & happy. So much so that my next story for you involves a lesson (OMG, a lesson!!?!) in which Baby Monster is making some very exciting progress.
Since I am currently using nearly all of the equine nursing tricks I've developed over the years, I wanted to share a few products I've adapted from the human world. In many cases, this is much cheaper than buying "horse" labeled products, as we all know that's an automatic 300% markup.
Horses & humans may both be mammals, but are NOT interchangeable, so product transference should always be done with caution. I check with my vet before I try anything new. And Dr. Bob himself has suggested several of them!
In my wound care kit right now:
Generic wound wash from CVS -- a mix of antiseptic & lidocaine, this stuff has become the first thing I grab for cuts & scrapes. Dr. Bob first mentioned something like this when Solo got staples in his head last year, as the lidocaine reduces itching so they don't rub on everything. I squirt on a clean cloth to apply & a bottle lasts me a long time (uh, usually).
Non-stick wound pads (biggest size available) -- fabulous for things on legs that get wrapped. In the last post, you can see one sticking out of the wrap around Solo's cannon scrape. I've found that if you leave a little sticking out above the vetwrap, it helps prevent the pad from sliding out the bottom. They absorb without peeling off healing tissue when you change bandages.
Nitrile gloves (altho medium is of course too small for my giant man-hands) -- not sterile, but cleaner than my fingers & saves me from having to wipe 5 different kinds of goop off my hands. I also like that the blue is easier for me to see when I drop it or it blows out of a trash bucket.
Polysporin -- a long time ago, a dr. told me that 10% of people develop allergic responses to Neosporin, so polysporin was a safer choice. I don't know if this is applicable to horses or not, but I've used the poly ever since on full-thickness cuts & it works well.
Colored duct tape -- I always tape wraps/standing bandages that are worn unattended. I try to get tape that is a different color than my standing wraps so I can easily see from a distance if it's still there, but I had blue left over from something else, so oops.
Gorilla tape -- I usually only use this for hoof wrapping, for which it is a godsend, but I was about to run out of duct tape, so have also used it on standings. It has not left a residue or caused any damage to my standing wraps.
The discolored gladware with 3 little syringes is my wound lavage kit. NCSU vet school taught me this method when I had to clean out Solo's healing head-holes. Add a little Betadine to water, so it's a diluted mixture, about the colour of weak tea or lighter. Use the syringes to flush out the wound. Syringes allow you to control direction & pressure of stream pretty well. Because Betadine is cytotoxic, you never want to use it full strength on an open wound & even dilute, use only when needed to prevent infection/flush out debris. It will stain whatever container you put it in, so pick something you don't plan to eat out of later.
Finally, the big fat syringe is just a dosing syringe with the tip cut off, making it easier to give dissolved stuff like SMZs without losing 1/3 of your dose stuck in the plastic tip.
What about you? Do you have favorite products you've adapted to equine use?
The first week post-carnage went fairly smoothly. The Horse Gods saw this & felt it necessary to remind me that this is an unacceptable premise. As if I need reminding.
Both horses were wrapped for the first week & I was pleased with their progress. Then Friday morning, I came out to feed breakfast & Solo was suddenly non-weight bearing on that hind leg.
He is a seriously stoic horse, so my panic level shot to maximum while I coaxed & pleaded him in hobbling hops back to the shed. I took his temperature (normal), pulse (slightly elevated at 44 bpm, but not extreme), & unwrapped his bandages to check for any signs of infection. Nothing appeared to be any worse than it had been 12 hours before. Solo was eating & drinking & pooping with a happy face, he just did not want to move that leg.
Doing fine the first week
I called the vet & parked the hose over Solo's hock. There was still a fair amount of swelling around the hock, but it's a pretty ugly wound, so that's not unexpected. Dr. Bob talked me off the ledge (he's getting way too much practice at this). He agreed infection was unlikely & thought Solo had probably just tweaked one of the many bruised tendons/ligaments sometime during the night. He increased his SMZ dose to be cautious & if we didn't see improvement by Monday, we might try a heftier antibiotic.
I hadn't thought of that possibility, but I now think he is probably right. Solo could have slipped or torqued it getting up. I'm glad to say that he is improving -- he's walking, albeit slowly, as well as standing on it, including resting on that leg, which alleviates many of my concerns about the joint. I also think, based on how he moves, all that delicate healing skin on a high motion area is pulling, especially as it dries & gets tighter, which probably doesn't feel great & he's protecting it. I know he didn't run around, Solo is a careful guy.
The cuts are healing very well. Everything is closed except for a small hole at the front, which is good for drainage (only a small amount now). We're sticking with the SMZs - after Solo had TWO resistant bacteria show up while he was at the vet school in 2017, I am uber-conservative with antibiotic use in all circumstances. Well, plus, I'm a biologist & I know better. Only when prescribed, only when truly necessary, & the lowest level possible, as appropriate to the situation.
Front view, this morning, before hosing - WEIGHTBEARING!
Side view this morning (day 9), base layer is closed
It will take a while for the cannon bone scrape to fill in completely, but it has clean margins & it doesn't worry me. I will keep wrapping until the hock is closed & dry since flies are still out in force. Why not, I've already purchased my body weight in Co-Flex/VetWrap since one bandage job takes a whole roll.
He's been wrap-free & bute-free since Friday & his last dose of SMZs is today. The cut on the outside of his leg is pretty much closed & his chest is all healthy skin again except one stripe which will soon be done. Nothing on his chest actually cut the skin, these were friction burns & they were not sore after the first day or two.
3 days ago; today it's now all healthy, normal skin
3 days ago, that one stripe is still healing
The scary-looking hole behind his knee filled in very quickly. I'll have to stay on top of proud flesh since I can't pressure-wrap the area, but it's not painful at all. No swelling & he should be back in work this week. I just keep Dr. Bob's Magic Red Sauce on it & slather Corona & Swat on the rest to keep the bugs out.
2 days ago, drying out & filling in
Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes, as always, they mean a lot! I know horses are experts at mangling themselves no matter what, but I'm going to be angry at myself for a long time for missing that jumper wire. I did a lot of modifications to the fence when I moved in & thought I had removed all of those, but I was wrong. However small the odds that the horses would hit the fence at that corner, out of all the corners -- it happened. Shame on me, but it won't fool me twice.
I'm cautiously optimistic that the worst is behind us. Thanks to Erica for helping me finish the last of the fence repairs yesterday!
Cross all the things for us & hopefully the next update will have NO ooze or vet calls.
I was working outside on Saturday when I heard the fence wires suddenly start jangling in a bad way. I had just put the horses in a small side paddock to munch on some fresh grass while I worked on their fields. I whipped my head around to see Echo flailing about as the top wire dropped (it has breakaway points for this reason) & both horses took off to the other end of the paddock.
Since I only saw the end of the action, I'm not sure exactly what happened, but my educated guess is that Solo kicked out at Echo while he was up against the fence. Solo got a hind leg over the top wire & Echo somehow got one front leg over it.
As soon as I caught them, I saw that I needed an immediate Dr. Bob inspection (of COURSE, it's a weekend, that's how horses do). I was cautiously optimistic there wasn't anything catastrophic, as both were trotting & walking around in proper mechanical order (albeit full of adrenaline), but with ugly things - & these were definitely ugly - around joints, I am always very cautious.
To make it more fun, I don't know if you've ever tried to do first aid on two horses while trying to keep a phone in the good reception spot so the vet could call you back. Well, it's impossible. A HUGE thanks to Trainer Neighbour who came over & helped me juggle all the things until the vet arrived!
Both horses were really damn lucky. Warning: photos follow.
Echo put a gnarly hole behind his left knee, but it is in a "safe" valley between vital structures. We can't wrap it due to location, but it is already filling in rapidly.
Right after it happened Sat
He has a full thickness cut on the outside of his cannon, but it is just skin, I will wrap until it closes just to keep it clean as well as to reduce swelling there & below the knee. Some wire chafes on the tops of both forelegs look bad, but no cuts there. Thanks to youth, he's not even stiff.
Keeping Corona & Swat in business
I am so very grateful it is not Sacred Leg which doesn't like touching, otherwise I would be far more miserable.
Solo's right hind got the worst of it. He exposed a chunk of cannon bone above the fetlock, which looks dramatic, but those usually heal up pretty well.
I really never wanted to see my horse's bones...
The front of his hock suffered two full thickness slices while pulling the wire down, but all the tendons are ok, just bruised. I don't have fresh pics of those, we were too busy tending.
Side view ~14 hrs later (Sun am)
A blood vessel got nicked & ruptured when I initially hosed it, so I was reminded yet again that horses have a lot of blood. I think I could have done a transfusion when I rinsed out the initial bandages (below) in the bathtub yesterday.
This morning, those cuts were already nearly closed & all the tissue looks healthy so far. My main job is to keep everything clean to prevent infection & try to keep the bugs off where I can't wrap. Both will get a full course of SMZs along with bute for swelling. Dr. Bob had me put some of the green Epsom salt gel in Solo's hock bandage, to try to draw out fluid into the diaper wrapped around it. I've never used that on a wound before, just feet -- I'm pretty impressed!
Front view Sun am, healing up
What Went Wrong & What Went Right?
It was mostly a freak accident in just the wrong place. My property came with hi-tensile wire fencing, which my neighbour built very well. I have lined much of it with a strand of HorseGuard tape, but this section was not lined. I'm glad it wasn't, because I think added tape might have made things worse in this case.
The wire itself is heavy-gauge & as I have learned during a couple other times Solo has bounced off the fence, this is an important safety feature which helps it roll off before cutting. Unfortunately, just about anything will cut when you put an entire horse's weight on it. I have seen horrific injuries from wood, electrobraid, PVC, mesh, thin tape -- horses are just way too good at carnage.
One of the multiple breakaway points did give when it was supposed to, which created the slack needed for the horses to get out & undoubtedly prevented much worse injury. However, one point that should have released didn't & I found afterwards that there was an old jumper wire hidden in a bush that I had missed which prevented that release. That's on me, as I'm sure that led to Solo's hock cuts. I cut that off & reinspected all the other connections so it will never happen again.
It finally stopped bleeding, still tweaking my bandage setup
Despite the emergency bill & the stress of double first aid, I'm very grateful that things weren't worse. No one needed stitches or sedation. Both horses are sound, will heal fully, & are experienced at letting me clean & poke & wrap sore parts without kicking my head off. After I do my penance of a couple weeks of nursing, everyone should be well on their way.
Go hug your horses & check your fences. Don't forget to look under the bushes.
In a fit of delusional optimism on Sunday, I decided to use some of my hoarded scrap lumber to build a set of proper jump standards. This would be an upgrade from 
The first week post-carnage went fairly smoothly. The Horse Gods saw this & felt it necessary to remind me that this is an unacceptable premise. As if I need reminding.
I was working outside on Saturday when I heard the fence wires suddenly start jangling in a bad way. I had just put the horses in a small side paddock to munch on some fresh grass while I worked on their fields. I whipped my head around to see Echo flailing about as the top wire dropped (it has breakaway points for this reason) & both horses took off to the other end of the paddock.
