Tuesday gets a bit rocky

A good nights kip and earwax?

Charlie had a very good night I could tell by the flat as a pancake poo in his stable. But what was that great lump of earwax doing in his ear. Oops my mistake it was a lump of poo and straw.

A Rather Fetching Bay Scarf

Life doesn't always go to plan and his mornings walk was a little bumpy. Firstly his majesty decided to do an enormous spook at his reflection in the one and only school mirror he has seen 100 times.

Fine we got past that and the dogs on the yard decided to have a barking playing game and Charlie decided to leap in the air and hide behind me and attempt to wrap himself around my neck like a rather fetching bay scarf.

Finally he settled back down to mr ploddy and our morning routine continued as normal.

Fright night

Our afternoon trip did not go to plan I arrived to find a very upset horse he was hyper. I took him out for a short walk and put him back pdq. Then it became obvious when swapping rugs he had been very active and his dressing pad was half off.

I replaced it as he did an Irish jig at every sound on the yard. Something had obviously occurred as several other horses were also slightly neurotic.

Monday and the ImPatient Horse

Bedtime Success

well this morning was great the boys bed was not too bad at all and all fodder was roughly where it should be plus a nice row of poo along the back wall falttened nicely where he curls up at night.

Dressing Change 2

Another success the dressing was yet again very clean. Replaced it hopefully for the last time vet to check on Friday.

The Extra walk

Morning walks are always in the school its safer but now we are up to a glorious 12 minutes I want to start doing a second walk pm. To this end I filled a mini net with haylage let him munch and then untied and let him walk around the stable block. This is quite significant as it is a very short walk but does entail walking in the direction of the turnout fields. I hoped to get his brain keyed into walks round the block by returning him to the haylage - success so far.

Spoilt Boy

The all you can eat buffet of grass is a resounding success however the ImPatient now knows the pattern water buckets filled means whinny to be let in stable for tea. Tea eaten call me to go and get the grass.

Pictures of the Gorgeous boy

 

The Dressing

Finger pointing out the eency weency wound.

Sunday is not a Day of Rest when you are stuck in

A Lie in Whoo Hoo!

Oh Glorious heaven and extra hour in bed

Making The Bed

9 days in and we appear to be ticking over nicely. I have moved his handsomeness onto Hay/Haylage mix and decided to try feeding on the floor instead of nets. To this end I am giving him a smaller deeper bed to allow foraging room. He is on rubber matting so doesnt really need loads of bed but he is prone to curling up like a contented cat so I like him to have a comfy matress for his big bum.

He seems to be drinking a lot of water so I am supplying two tubs of water to make sure he doesnt run out.

Cripes a Cockrel

I downloaded a new Android App so I can do his walking without too much clock watching. What I hadnt realised was that the sound it makes when time is up is a very loud cockrel crow. The first time it went off his eyes were out on stalks.

Pamper session

Afternoons now he is having a pamper session rather than a little hand graze mostly because a car drove in and surprised him cue nearly leaping the bank to the field below so in his case less is certainly more. Yesterday we did feather trinning and today I feel advanced mane taming coming on.
I gave his feet a good clean and purple sprayed them just in case.

Next Dressing Change Tomorrow

So Tomorrow is the day for his next dressing change fingers crossed it is ok or it will be my fault as I did the last one on Thursday.

Nearly a week has passed

Getting into the Routine

Last night I went down the fields and cut a huge wheelbarrow full of long grass dandelions and thistle tips for Charlie he was ecstatic.

 I know how much horses like a routine and it does seem to be working.

 Walk in the morning and give him a little grass graze while its quiet.
Pop him in the loverly Harriet Burrow stable while I muck out
Afternoons back into Harriets stable for evening beds and then go and collect loads of grass.

I have given up on the soaked hay he isnt impressed and its doing my back in  and as its a nicety not a necessity we will forego it.

He is having just a couple of handfuls of Saracen Shapeup and a bit of Hi-Fi lite with carrots apples and some Global Herbs Boxrest all damped down he seems to love this.

It was evident this morning that he had a good night as there was a very tidy row of horsepoo along the back of his stable and Jan and Dave Holpin said he didnt call out when they turned his neigh bour out this morning.

Dressing Change Thursday

Today it was time to change the dressing on his back and I finally got around to reading the box..hysterically the brand name is SNOGG.

It was actually a piece of cake not quite as tidy a job as the vet did just a piece of Gauze stuck to the SNOGG plast and pop in place. Its very sticky and the hardest part was taking the old piece off.

And hooray very clean underneath you can hardly see the incision.

Golly Wednesday already

Return of the King

Golly Wednesday already. I visited Charlie Saturday and was amazed at how perky he was. The intern vet said I could bring him home Sunday! Cripes I had spent my day therapeutically digging out his bed but hadnt made it!

Sunday Morning I whizzed off to the yard and made up a lovely big bed of straw and 4pm we arrived at the vets to collect the little treasure.The lovely vet Suzie gave me a dressing change lesson and I came away with a letter of instructions and a box of sticky foam dressing roll.

He came out very alert in fact he was buzzing, not ideal.

After a quick 'I am not going in that trailer' he loaded well. Like all good horses one look at his lovely bed and he stomped it everywhere.

My Pre Xmas Fitness plan

Well I shant need to diet before Christmas The Instructions say strict boxrest walking in hand daily starting at 5 minutes and building up to 30 mins by Nov 14th.

So here begineth my trudging round in circles in the school. Being safety conscious I wear a hard hat and walk him in bridle and lungeline. he has yet to explode but you never know.

The All you Can eat Buffet

Now the tricky bit what to feed a good doer. I mistakenly asked them to give him a small feed while he was in Saracen Shape Up. I wrongly assumed he would come home on medication but non was needed so hard feed even a balancer is not needed.

So the buffet service is supplying some soaked hay and some dry hay in the morning plus chopped apples and carrots served post his morning walk.

Afternoons the buffer supplies dry hay and another apple carrot snack then his servant goes down the bottom of the fields to the muck heap with a pair of shears and collects Dandelions Bramble tips Grass and Cow parsley. I also save a minute of his walking time to hand graze him on the edges of the yard.

While I am mucking out his stable he pops into the Restaurant ( Stable) next door and tucks in JB (his best friend) haylage net. I am so lucky to have such a lovely Stable neighbour.

 

And Tomorrow I'm a nurse

So Tomorrow is dressing change day it should be simple a gauze dressing on a large sticky mat place mat on back ensuring gauze goes on the wound area. Lets pray when I take the old dressing off I dont find any discharge.

Operation Complete

Ollie just rang me the operation has been successful nothing unexpected and Charlie stood nice and still. I am told the wound is about 1.5 centimetres long. Going to visit him tomorrow and they will let me look at his xrays.

And So it Begins

This is just the start of a long road for me and Charlie posh name Loughgowna Star. As  I type this I am sitting here waiting for news on him so lets scroll back a bit in time.

I bought Charlie on March 29th 2012 my first horse since I gave up riding 2 years earlier having lost my nerve. Charlie was perfect for me an adorable horse who rescued me because the day I paid for him I lost my Dad.

I rode in a school hacked out alone and in compnay and did two fun rides in fact we had a blast. Then suddenly in Mid September all that changed. Rears when we hacked out getting bigger and bigger napping by turning 180 degrees and then finally bolting up a field bucking at every stride.

I turned him out for a week while I went on holiday and came back he was even worse. I had a Chiropractor out twice who found tightness but nothing major.

Finally enough was enough I know he is good and has a heart of gold so I rang my vets and explained the problem. We took him over lunged on hard ground and in arena he looked a million dollars. His back was examined and it was decided to x-ray.

Bang my worst fears exploded in my face my Google guide to veterinary science had been right. Charlie had Kissing Spine not severe but two bones touching.

Fast forward to today and he is currently residing at Bushy Equine Clinic awaiting surgery.