Monday, November 10, 2014

Happy News!!!!

Dr. Natasha from Pioneer Equine Hospital came out to Brown Ranch today to take care of Wilbur's annual vaccinations, teeth floating, sheath cleaning (yes I wussed out), and worming.

Firstly- I am a little obsessed with Natasha (in a non-creepy way). She really took the time to walk me through everything that went on with Wilbur last November, invested the time to learn a little bit about him, and keeps saying what a good horse he is (which I am sure she says about every horse but still). Natasha did the vet on Ellie and I really trust her opinion- which I think is obviously an important quality to look for in your vet.
And it's not terrible that her horse, Dougie, is stalled at a barn on the Shiloh West property and we get to trail ride together.

Before we did the workup on Wilbur we got his baseline on hard ground, then threw him on a longe in the indoor ring to see where his lameness was at. I was feeling a little guilty- I hadn't actually taken Wilbs out of his pasture since he arrived and here we were dragging him around the property. He handled the stimulus like a champ and Brooke (the asst. vet) was expert horse wrangler.

What was I expecting? A much worse version of the below. After all- he'd been galloping around a pasture for a year playing hard with his buds. In fact- I was completely prepared to see a three legged horse and inject that coffin joint.

This video is from November 2013 after Wilbur had two months off in pasture.


What did we get? A sound horse. Yes! Totally sound!

No injections. Cleared for light work.

Still- I'm planning to stay my course. With irregular weather and pasture board I think that this winter will be spend focusing on ground work and some light conditioning via longe (Natasha recommended 15min 2-3 time a week). By Spring I'll be ready to throw a saddle on and start giving him some regular conditioning rides.

I think Dr. Natasha said it best today. "He looks better than we ever could have hoped for."
A little loopy during his teeth floating! Rightfully so- geez! 
I love drugs!

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