Category: Uncategorized

Henry continues to be the horse that teaches me the most in pretty much every regard. Sometimes it’s about good things, like cross country. Other times it’s about all the super rando things you’ve never even heard of in your life that you can spend money on in pursuit of keeping them happy and healthy. Friday was the latter.

Earlier this month Henry and Presto had a routine dental appointment, during which we discovered another potential problem tooth. Last year he had to have a broken one removed (which was very not fun) and he had another one that was inevitably trending the same way. The dentist recommend that I bring him into the clinic for what was essentially described as a “filling”, to prevent the tooth from actually breaking. The earliest I could get an appointment was mid-October, but last Thursday they called and said they’d had some cancellations, did I want to bring him in on Friday instead? Heck yes. Let’s get this over with.

The real name for the procedure is infundibular restoration, and I’ll be honest it was pretty fun to watch. Mostly because it was quick and relatively straightforward with zero gore, which automatically makes it much easier than basically any other dental-related stuff. The toughest part about it was the sedation, really. Henry is a mega-lightweight; a super cheap date. He was snoozing pretty fast.

Then the tooth cleaning began. Just a quick recap of the actual issue if you don’t want to go back and read: Henry is in the relative minority of horses that have irregular or missing cementum in some of their teeth. Cementum is the stuff inside the inner pillars (infundibulum) of the tooth that give the structure it’s strength and keep it stable. In horses that have these irregularities with their cementum, as they age and the tooth erupts further and further up into the mouth and is worn down, these gaps eventually work their way to the surface of the tooth. The missing cementum makes the tooth more fragile and more prone to breaking and/or infection. Which… is obviously bad. Henry’s broken tooth from last year was due to this same issue, and I would prefer to never have to put any of us through that again if we can at all avoid it. The gap in this particular tooth was quite large and the vet gave it a 90% chance of breaking within the next year or two. The recommended treatment to prevent this: infundibular restoration (aka a “filling”).

Using the endoscope and what was essentially a big fancy water pick, the vet began by flushish all the packed material out of the tooth hole. There was a good bit of old food packed down in there, so it was mega stanky, but eventually he was able to get it all out. After that it was as simple as filling the hole with the dental composite. He would put a little bit in, set it with the curing light, put a little more in, set it with the curing light, on and on until the hole was filled. Very very similar to a human filling.

Granted, it was a pretty big hole, but still, setting up the equipment and cleaning out the hole took longer than actually filling it. The end product is a much stronger, nicely-filled tooth that should hopefully last indefinitely. The success rate for this procedure is quite high, so fingers crossed that this works for Henry too. It’s definitely much cheaper, easier, less invasive, and less problematic than having to pull a broken tooth. Once he woke up from the sedation that was the end of it – no particular aftercare. He was free to eat normally and be ridden normally.

As of now all looks good. By the time we got home from the vet he was fully returned to normal and went right back out to his pasture. Henry will be on a 6 month dental rotation for likely the rest of his life, in an effort to keep ahead of these issues with his cementum and try to prevent any further broken teeth. Apparently our equine dentist is one of only a few in the country that offers infundibular restoration at all, so it’s pretty fortunate that we have him available to us given Henry’s particular issues.

In 21 years of owning horses I had never heard of or seen this particular procedure before, but it was pretty neat… always something new to learn with horses though, right?

It should be no surprise to see who is the center of attention yet again this week. There’s just no telling a story around here without a certain little pony being right smack dab in the middle of it. And poor kid, ya know, not his fault he’s the star of the show, he’s just out here (very innocently, I’m sure) trying to do Pony things.

Like… open the door to the pump house so he can pull some more insulation out.

But noooooooo, he can’t even have a little (semi) harmless fun like that, because his tattletale big sister has to come ruin it. Like… who does she even think she is, the self-appointed Door Monitor/Fun Police? Ugh.

But hey, since she’s there, maybe he could just play with her instead?

Ok, maybe not. He’s fun but he ain’t dumb. Sisters… just the worst, right? Perhaps he should try somebody less scary bossy instead.

Except… give Ollie an inch and he takes a mile. As soon as you relent, it’s on like Donkey Kong. WELCOME TO DA THUNDERDOOOOOME! Remi falls for it every time. He’s sweet, but he’s certainly never going to outwit a tenacious pony. Get’s played like a fiddle every time.

Here’s the thing though… never trust the pony kid. Ever heard of Napoleon? Those short ones, man… they’re wiley. Ollie’s not playing by your rules. He’s just waiting for you to let your guard down and then WHAM!

Ollie can try to make himself as tall as he wants, but that’s just one battle he’s never going to win. Inevitably the big kid will eventually get the upper hand and shut him down. It just takes Remi longer to get there, since he’s more tolerant than the girls. Never fear, though… they’re still best bros. No hard feelings here. Ollie’s all about the game, not the outcome.

Plus, ya know… give it 20 minutes. Remi will forget and the cycle will repeat itself again.

So, while Presto was overall really good on our off-farm adventure on Sunday, there was one little incident that reminded me that he is indeed 3.

I don’t even remember what he spooked at, but it was over really fast. One propped stride, a stare off into the distance, and we were off again. He has this weird technique when it comes to spooking… it’s like a combination of the thoroughbred “teleport” (where they exit the premises as quickly as possible – Henry’s favorite method) and the warmblood “stop and snort” (where they plant all 4 feet and won’t move). Presto is like 50% stop and snort and 50% teleport that makes for a very… um, athletic combination. That combined with the fact that his shoulders are so narrow makes it reaaaaally easy to become unseated. I stayed on, not a problem, but I did find myself thinking “I really need to order a new neck strap…” in that particular moment.

My last neck strap was a plain brown leather one from Nunn Finer that seems to have grown legs and R-U-N-N-O-F-T. I was waiting for the Black Friday sales to order another, having narrowed it down to either the Clever with Leather padded one or the Super X Country biothane one, but I figured it might be in my best interest to just go ahead and pay a few bucks more to get one sooner. A few things made me lean the way of SXC over CWL – 1) the SXC one is thinner than the CWL one, which I prefer. 2) while generally I would pick leather over biothane in pretty much every instance, a neck strap might be one of the few exceptions. Especially for Presto, who sweats REALLY WELL. 3) more color/customization options. Especially when SXC just came out with a rainbow hardware option. 4) the SXC was a bit cheaper.

Know what dis bitch likes? RAINBOW HARDWARE. I have none of it on anything else I own, but a neck strap can be more fun right? It’s such a small detail. I’m running with it.

I ended up ordering a navy neck strap (with d ring saddle attachment, so it’s super legal no matter what) with rainbow hardware and rainbow lettering that says OH SH!T. Because I’m equal parts adult and child, I guess. Whatever. It’ll amuse me, and that’s all that matters. I’m pretty conservative (for an eventer anyway) with my color options and show turnout, but teeny little touches on a neck strap are kinda like my little secret, and will probably bring me joy every time I put it on. What else can you ask for from a dang neck strap? We’ll see how long it takes to get here from the UK. Why do they have all the best things?

And then in my mad internet scouring, looking for cheap FreeJump stirrups, I finally found what I was looking for in a consignment shop in Arizona that had mostly Western and low-end English gear. A very random find, but there they were, and for about 60% off retail. I swear, I looked at every consignment tack shop in the friggin US and every listing on facebook, and while I did find a few, none of them were very discounted. The listing on this site just had them as “FreeJump stirrups” with no info about which model, and the picture showed some really dirty, sad looking black stirrups. I wish I had saved the original picture, since the listing is gone now. Anyway, from the angle of the photo I couldn’t tell if they were the Lite or the Pro, so I called the shop and asked them to send me a couple more photos.

Anyway, I nabbed them and they’re on their way to me as we speak. I’m pretty sure I’ve got my leathers situation covered thanks to Stacie, so now with both leathers and stirrups I won’t have to worry about switching anything back and forth between Henry and Presto’s saddles. Me forgetting to switch them before hauling somewhere and ending up with no stirrups on my saddle became a recurring nightmare, because it’s 100% something I would do.

I have to admit that black stirrups don’t get me super excited though. Right now I have navy Lorenzini’s on my dressage saddle and navy FreeJumps (which are admittedly a bright navy that is closer to royal IMO, I don’t love the shade) and there’s just nothing exciting about non-colored stirrups anymore. Eventer, remember?

I have a lot of painting experience from past projects, so I’m tempted to give these a go too. Specifically leaning towards either plain dark green or navy glitter. Just a lil’ bit of glitter. Like a tiny bit. Enough to count as glitter but not enough to be like GLITTER, ya know? I can picture it in my head, just go with it. I’m definitely leaning towards that over green (a few people have said to do dark green glitter but… green is already a stretch for me, I’m not sure how I feel about it with glitter) but I’m still waffling a bit. Glitter just sounds more fun though, ya know?

If there’s one good thing to come out of the epic dumpster fire that is 2020, it’s the push towards more things being made available online. Particularly in the horse world, where we tend to be a bit slower to jump on board with all things technology. But with more people and companies being forced to adopt new ways, getting creative, and having more time on their hands, we’ve seen a really awesome uptick in equine-related webinars. I am a HUGE fan of this. It’s the introverted equestrian nerd’s dream.

I’ve lost track of how many webinars I’ve watched by now. I’m interested in just about any topic, so if I see one, I’ll probably sign up. There have been some really good ones too, everything from breeding, to kissing spines, to helmet safety, equine dentistry, course design, saddle fit, bitting, etc etc. I seriously would be here all day if I tried to list them all. I am loving it. I can’t get enough.

I think my favorite (probably no surprise to anyone) is the series put on by British Breeding. They’ve covered a wide range of topics from mare management to frozen semen to young horse development, showed us lots of stallions, and even have a foal auction happening. I’ve been totally glued to them.

The even better part is that most of them end up available online after the fact, too. For all my fellow nerds out there, I’ve gathered the links of some of the ones I can remember (I really wasn’t keeping track so I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot by now) in case anyone is interested in nerding out right along with me.

IHAD helmet safety series

Kissing Spines

British Breeding series

Picking an OTTB (part of the equitana series) (I was obsessed with one of the New Vocations horses they showed, who wants to guess which one?)

Equine Dentistry from World Horse Welfare (they also cover tons more topics in their upcoming and archive page)

Equine Dentistry from SureFOOT (again, lots more in their archive as well)

Bit Fitting

Stride Animal Health Series

Cross Country Falls

Megan’s dressage series

Saddle Fit

The TB makeover series

Strider – fall series for equestrian business

USHJA’s upcoming webinars and their archive

Of course – some of these are done by companies or people that are trying to sell you something, so certain things have to be taken with a grain of salt, but at the same time I also think you can still learn something from pretty much all of them. At the very least, they’re interesting.

If you have links to other archived webinars that you think are interesting, or know of any more that are coming up, feel free to drop them in the comments!

It’s only Tuesday and I already find myself thinking that it’s been a long week. For the past 3 nights I’ve woken up at 3:30am and laid there running through every single thing I need to do within the next 6 months in my head. I dunno why, but I do know that it’s not conducive to good sleep. I also decided to read The Testaments after I finished binge-watching The Handmaid’s Tale, so like… I’m not ok. And then RBG died. And eventing community DRAMA. My brain is a little overloaded with thinking topics at the moment.

But some good news: I got my truck back!

They ended up replacing the radiator (apparently it had a massive crack in the back of it that was somehow missed) and did something to the engine that I can’t remember the specifics of and am too lazy to dig back through the paperwork right now. Mechanic SO was satisfied (not blown away, but satisfied with only minor grumbling) at what all they did, and he checked their work. The repair shop covered all the extra costs, including the 5 additional days of rental car fees. When I went to pick it up both the tech and the GM came out to talk to me, and told me 3 times about how they road tested it, both on residential streets and on the highway, as if I should be impressed by basic due diligence. I tried not to glare, since like… if that had been done the first time we wouldn’t have been in that particular mess. But, ok. I appreciate that they seemed eager to fix their mistake, so I have to give them that much credit I suppose.

As for whether or not they caused other long term damage to the engine, we shall see. SO and I both remain a bit skeptical, but he wanted me to drive it for a while before we made any snap decisions. I was planning on getting a new truck next summer anyway, so if the engine continues to perform normally then that should still be fine. If we have any issues whatsoever, or anything seems “off”, we’ll have to move up the timeline.

Henry has still been feeling normal, knock on wood. This horse and his feet, I swear. It doesn’t help that he’s a huge baby. It’s like he looks at a rock and is instantly crippled. On my last Corro order I did go ahead and re-stock all my hoof care essentials: more Durasole, Keratex, and ThrushBuster. It makes me feel better, at the very least.

He’s been wild though, which is a good sign with him. Like I said, huge baby, so if he’s at all sore anywhere he tends to be extra mopey and grumpy. He’s been a complete lunatic a few times in his pasture though (COULD YOU JUST NOT) and was super wild with me on Saturday when we went out back to canter. Dolphin mode was fully engaged. Those are good things though, in this context. My farrier will be out this week for our regular 5 week appointment so I’ll see if there’s anything he’d like to do differently. And since I got my truck back I went ahead and made his appointment for his “filling” with the dentist, so he goes in for that procedure in a few weeks.

Otherwise nothing exciting is really happening here. The weather has cooled down a bit which is AMAZING, but it’s also raining quite a bit so riding has been a little hit or miss. The grass looks SO FREAKIN GOOD for this time of year in Texas though, so I will not complain. This time last year it was just dead crunchy sadness as far as the eye could see. Nothing gets a horse person excited quite like good pasture.

I do need to do a small update on the tiny house stuff, maybe next week. I continue to slowly but surely go through the house and throw things away or put it in the donate pile (which has now become a room… there’s a room full of donate bags… I can’t even talk about it). I have also reached the point where I’m marking all the things that I’m going to just leave in the front yard and let people come take. A lot of my riding clothes wardrobe needs to be whittled down too, and my brain can’t even go there yet with everything else that still has to happen. And THIS is why I lay awake at night…