Back in the Saddle: Re-Discovering Self

I figured that after Rowan was born, I'd get back in the saddle as soon as possible.  However, all the baby & house happenings, along with a string of illnesses and lameness that ailed Ronin (the horse), kept me from jumping right back in. 

Finally, both Ronin and I are at a point where I can sign up for a lesson every other week and be confident that we will BOTH be able to attend.  I have to admit, it's nice to get away for a little bit and do something that I enjoy, on my own.  Riding {even just going to visit the horse} offers a much needed mental and physical outlet. But, things are definitely different since I became a mom.

First of all, I have to drag my butt up to the ranch. No matter how much I like it once I'm there {and I really like it}, I do not get excited to go. Part of this is that I'm tired, unbelievably tired and riding is a lot of work. And part of it is that when I go up to see the horse, it means missing an evening with my baby, since he's already in bed by the time I get home.

Second, I'm a scaredy-cat.  I was always on the cautious side, but now I'm a full on lunatic.  I'm scared to ride, scared to drive, scared to fly....you name it, I'm scared of it.  I guess you're not willing to take as many risks when you have more to lose. 

Also, I'm so out of shape!  While Ronin's made HUGE progress, I've turned into a soft blob. My last lesson had me huffing and puffing, even though I was sharing the lesson with another rider so I got to take breaks.  My comfort level on a horse has decreased dramatically from my last few rides before I gave it up. My seat isn't as good. My balance is off.  My core is weak.

All of these are reasons why I really need to get out there and do this, {which is actually my only motivating factor besides that my horse also needs to get out of his stall}. 

I'm not alone in this battle either.  Rogér has his own struggle to find himself again.  He may not have gotten post pardum panophobia {self diagnosed}, like I did, but his priorities have shifted away from himself as well.  And rightly so....to some extent.  But he needs an outlet too.  For Christmas, we gave him cash use at the International Swim Center {you can't buy a membership, but you pay a daily fee of $3}.  Now that he's gone a couple times, maybe he can find a groove.  His mind and body will be better for it.

We love being parents. More than we ever could have imagined.  But we're also determined to do some things on our own, for ourselves, and we don't want anxiety, excuses, or laziness be what stops us.


image credit: Norman Thelwell

Another Vet Bill for a {Champion} Horse

A few days ago, I started drafting this blog entry:

Can you believe it? Nothing has been wrong with the horse for at least a few weeks!  {I am probably jinxing things by even mentioning it}.  We're so excited to watch him perform in his first Dressage Show@ Indian Hills Ranch this Sunday.  We're going to be the dorkiest Horse Parents.  I'm about this close to making t-shirts and posters for cheering him {and his rider} on!

But before I even had a chance to post, Ronin had to see the vet, AGAIN. 

We went up to help the ferrier so that Ronin's shoes would be perfecto for his big day.  The shoeing, miraculously, went super quick and easy, but the ferrier noticed that Ronin's lip was swollen.  WHUH?! OMG it was HUGE!  {and really gross too}.  Luckily I happened to spot a vet, who was up for a clinic and squeezed Ronin in for a look.  The vet diagnosed him with a fungal infection.  Ewwwwwwww!  Anyway, he gave me some "stuff" that should hopefully fix him up. 

Luckily, this didn't hinder him from being ridden the next day.

So, the show was on Sunday, and we busted our butts to get up there in time for Ronin's first ride.  We were in such a hurry to leave that we forgot our camera! *lame*.  But you can view some pictures here {Ronin is in pictures 30-36, and Rogér and Rowan are in picture 253}:

 http://kathycolman.smugmug.com/Dressage/Equestrian/Indian-Hills-Ranch-Dressage/16676029_K84BRd#1257468699_px2V2T8

I was SO proud of Tiffany {Ronin's rider}.  She cleaned Ronin up so well, and looked calm and composed through the whole thing.  After Ronin & Tiffany's rides were over, we stuck around for maybe an hour.  I'm so glad we did because we got to hear the winners announced and, who woulda thought, Tiffany and Ronin placed 1st in one category, and 2nd in another!

WooHoo!

Horse Whoas - Injury Upon Injury

Our horse, Ronin, is an accident prone young fella.  He's been out of service many a time due to ONE THING, or ANOTHER. Now that I figured out {okay, I didn't actually figure it out. Rogér showed me} how to get pictures off my phone, I can share Ronin's latest and greatest injury! 

At least a month and a half ago, Ronin started to limp on his right leg.  We gave him a little break from riding for it to heal up, but he still seemed to be having problems, so finally we saw the vet.

On the day of the vet clinic, I went to catch Ronin, and to my surprise, I found his blanket torn and is left leg all cut up, plus the left shoe missing along with a good portion of the hoof!

He was limping so bad on the left leg, that the vet couldn't even evaluate the right leg....ugh. Anyway, he tranqued and clipped up.

Then I water-massaged his leg {that pretty much means I hosed him down for 10 mins or so}.  I wish I could tranq him EVERY time I wanted to give him a bath.  He was soooo mellow.  Look at him resting his head on the cleaning station wall!

After that, he got some liquid bandage

Two weeks later, we finally were able to get a shoe on the left hoof, but just barely.  The farrier suggested using duct tape to help hold it on!  So that's what we're doing.

So glamorous!

At our third vet visit, last Saturday, the vet finally cleared Ronin for riding.  YAY!  We're keeping our fingers crossed that it stays that way for a little while!

I'm really looking forward to getting on him next week, for the first time since I was about 3 months preggo!

Horse Whoa's - Swollen Belly and Sheath

Ronin doesn't give us much of a break between his issues and ailments!  Last night, Rogér was scheduled for a riding lesson, but ended up with a lesson in horse hygiene instead.  Of course, he didn't have to do any of the dirty work!

Right before saddling up, I noticed that Ronin's sheath was swollen.....great.  Then I realized his belly had some swelling too.  Towards the back on the right side and a little towards the front on the same side too.  All I could really think to do was to clean his sheath and check for any abnormalities, so that's what I did. Ronin was actually pretty good, considering I've never done this with him before (I had the vet do it once, cuz it's not a fun job).  I didn't find anything either.  When our instructor came, I told her about his symptoms and she suggested we take his temp.  Apparently, there's an illness called Pigeon Fever that can cause this kind of swelling.  Four minutes of an antique thermometer up Ronin's butt revealed that he did not have a high temperature.  Phew!



Rogér on Ronin Summer '09

We put him back and went home and, of course, checked the internet for these symptoms.  This should never be done!  But I always do it.  Well, according to the internet, Ronin had either nothing at all, or limes disease, or liver or heart failure and would surely need to be put to rest within a month or two.  In my internet search, I did come across one sort of amusing instructional.  You can read all about it here...if you're interested. We called the vet this morning and she didn't seem too concerned just yet, so now it's a waiting game. Let's all hope that it goes away! 

Fun times!  We can always count on our animals to throw us for a loop.  Can you believe we're adding a kid to the mix? Oh boy.

Ro's Ink

Crappy.

We've had Ronin for about 2 years now (dang!), and a few days after we got him, we realized he had a tattoo on his upper lip.  He's a thoroughbred and supposedly off the track, so the tattoo is his identification.  We never got his paperwork though because how he got to where he was was somewhat of a mystery and the guy who gave him to us didn't have the papers.  Anyway, when I first looked into finding out Ronin's past through the Jockey Club, I thought you had to pay $35.  Now that we had to pay close to $400/mo for horse boarding, we weren't in any position to throw down $35 to find out his name.  Recently though, I checked the Jockey Club website again and it turns out that tattoo research is free! yes, FREE!  I found out on Thurs. and not only could I not remember Ronin's tattoo, but also, we were going out of town so I couldn't go look at it!  How aggravating!  Now, today, I went and looked at his lip, but here's the thing....it's kinda hard to read.  I think it says "H21056".  I tried to take a picture....here's how that turned out:

 

yeah, not so great.

So I tried to enter H21056 into the Jockey Club website and it came up with a horse named Surf N Saddle who was born April 23, 2004 in California.  Promising.  But when I did a little more research, Surf N Saddle has more white spots than Ronin has.  None of the other letter/number combos come up with anything that really resembles our horse.  Like I said, crappy.

Now what?

Ronin it is. (Better than Surf N Saddle anyway, right?)

Guess who's ba-ack!

The Big D! (Domino).  Ronin's feet are fixed too, thanks to our very kind and patient ferrier, Nick.  And that makes us almost back to normal. 

We can feel winter coming on too...in fact, this Wedsnesday is supposed to sport thunderstorms.  I do love the onset of winter, with one exception,  we have a horse.  All the empty stalls are making me ponder the possibility of putting Ronin back in a stall (he's in pasture now).  This is a purely selfish debate, but seriously, who wants to go muck through a foot of mud to grab your wet, dirty horse and then spend an hour cleaning and drying him before a ride?  Two downsides to moving him back into a stall - 1.  Cost - we're not exactly swimming in our savings like Uncle Scrooge. 2. Excercise/anxiety - Ronin LOVES the pasture.  A little too much.  He's at the top of the herd, which makes me wonder if he'll try something crazy stupid if he's separated.  And with Baby Balyon on the way, are Rogér and I going to be able to get up there to work out his crazies all the time??  Do you remember last winter?

Another Ranch Day

Rogér and Ronin are making a great team these days.