Category Archives: Around the Farm

So far December has been a mix of ups and downs. Things are going well at the new facility. We’re all getting settled in. The boys are all happy and everyone here is very friendly. It’s a long drive every day, but we manage! Business is down a bit; both because of our new location–too far for some of my old clients and because of the season.

Do have a new client horse at the barn right now–a big Appendix gelding, Chaser. He’s really starting to learn his job and tries very hard to figure things out. I think he’s got lots of potential as an eventer.

Good news is that I got a new (used) truck: a little bigger than my old one (thanks, Dad!). This time a Dodge 3500 dually! Now I’m ready to pull a bigger trailer in the future (when I can afford a bigger trailer)! It was time to give up the Ford truck while it was still sellable!

And good news is that Finny continues to do great after his Potomac/laminitis episode this summer. He’s back to jumping big (at least as much as we can in this cold and wet weather) and he’s working on stuff for advanced dressage tests (flying changes, etc.) since we hope to move up this coming year. I am so grateful that he came through his illness so well.

Good news is that Deke went down to visit Dr. Peters at Hagyard to get a good once-over since he didn’t seem to want to jump at the last trial we did this year. Dr. Peters was quite pleased with his condition. We did hock and stifle injections, but he seemed very healthy otherwise. He feels better already; moving free-er and stepping under himself better. So he should be good to go this year–whatever “go” we might be able to do. Not quite yet sure of winter/spring plans–which leads me to the not so good news:

Not so good news is that times are tough right now. I am not even sure I will make it to Florida this winter. Trying to sell a horse or two to help fund Florida; if not, I may have to stay home for the winter. Which also means the “big one” in Kentucky won’t be possible for Deke and I, and which means he’ll be up for sale also. It will be a huge disappointment after all the work and the qualifications reached to get to Kentucky, but sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do to survive this business.

It’s been a busy month and we have really neglected keeping the blog updated.

We’ve finally found a nice barn to move the business; leasing some stalls at Windswept Farm from Knollman Dressage, where Becky Knollman, FEI rider and trainer, operates her business. We’ve gotten everything and all the horses moved; we’ve organized and re-organized all our stuff!! And now we’re working on painting and cleaning up jumps and getting more rails cut and painted too!! A few more days and it should be back to business as usual.

We’ve moved to Lebanon, Ohio. A quaint little town with a great horse community. Lebanon is famous for antique shops and the Golden Lamb, an old restaurant and inn (oldest hotel in Ohio, since 1803) with lots of history. We expect that our business will be able to expand nicely here. It’s about a 45 minute drive from home, but will be worth the extra miles.

Everyone at the new barn has been very nice and welcoming. We’ve made lots of new friends already. We has a joint Open House with Knollman Dressage yesterday which was very well attended. Gave us an opportunity to meet more people from the Lebanon community and meet a few potential clients for the future.

Besides my horses, 2 client horses came along and 2 more will be joining us the first of December! And then also have one or two horses coming in for training and/or evaluation. So already things are looking great for establishing some new business.

Since it’s been a dressage barn for several years, the jumps haven’t been used here so we’ve been getting them back in shape, scrubbing the PVC standards, purchasing 4x4s to trim for poles, and priming and painting some standards and the new poles. The footing in the jump ring seems great; it also hasn’t been used much in a few years, but is in good shape.

So we’re excited for the future and hope to have lots of updates to post soon!

Yesterday Finny got his special wedge-y shoes off and regular shoes back on!! Hooray. One more step towards (hopefully) normal. Today he got to go for his first ride, a short walk hack. He really wanted to trot and was happy to be out doing something. But we kept it slow and brief and he felt good. Again, seems a miracle as he was in so much pain not so long ago and things had looked so grim!!

He’s lost a lot of muscle tone through the ordeal and we’ve tried to keep his weight down (less weight = less stress on those feet), so hope to start building him back up again now.

Got my final vet/hospital bill last week. Phew! It will be a while paying that one off. If you’ve ever thought about coming over for lessons, now is the time. The more I can teach, the quicker I’ll be able to pay this down.

Headed out late this morning for Thomas first run at Prelim down at the Kentucky Horse Park. Deke went along too so that I can keep him going, as both he and Thomas will head down for the AECs next weekend.

I look forward to his first run. He’s been feeling pretty good lately and ready to go. He’s been going down to KESMARC recently also, doing both swimming and the aqua-tred to get in condition since our lack of rain in Cinci has made it impossible to do any gallops.

Tomorrow he does dressage and showjumping. We’ll report tomorrow evening!

Finn is happy to be home, but getting a bit bored with his lack of activity. He is allowed hand grazing and a bit of turn out in the little re-hab pens. And he gets lots of attention and treats. But after being such an athlete, it’s hard to live that life of leisure!!

He got his Ultimate shoes glued on last week; Dr. Fraley came up from Lexington to re-xray him and glue them on. Things were still looking good. This week he got the extra wedge removed so now he’s not got quite the high-heel he had last week! He’ll keep these on at this level for the next 3 weeks or so, then we’ll re-xray again and if all looks well, he’ll move on to some regular shoes (wide-webbed with pads).

Finn wants to thank everyone for their support and prayers, particularly their support of Melissa during this time!!

It has been quite a ride, these last ten days! Mostly a horrible ride, but some good parts too.

Just about a week after getting back from their last competition, two of my three horses who went to the competition came down with Potomac Horse Fever. The first, Thomas, ended up with a pretty mild case–although his explosive diarrhea was anything but mild!! He spent just one night at Hagyard (wonderful place) as we determined what he had, and then was able to come home the next day. He never really felt that bad and didn’t get too much of a fever or other problems and is already back to light work.

Just a day or so after Thomas got home, Finn lost his appetite, stopped pooping, and had a high fever. Within a few more hours, he started to exhibit signs of laminitis. And it moved quickly! We moved quickly too and got him down to Hagyard post haste.

Finn spent the next 9 days at Hagyard battling. He was hooked up to IV drips–fluids, DMSO, oxy-tet, lidocaine; he had special farrier treatments on all four feet, hoping to help him get thru this. He’d seem better, then the next day went downhill again. X-rays shows that his feet were hanging on–no sinking or rotation yet. Venograms showed that there was trouble brewing and changes could happen at any time. Dr. Fraley, the podiatrist, switched the treatment on his feet to Ultimates (wedged hard rubber support shoe developed by Dr. Ric Redden) and then we literally prayed for a miracle. He was hanging by a thread. But Finn fought! Each day he seemed then to feel better and finally got that Finn personality back. Another set of x-rays and a venogram done a few days later showed that he was still holding on. Still no bad changes in his feet; just the good changes in his attitude and comfort level.

So now we’ve reached the point where he is able to come home to continue treatment and rest and hopefully pull through this strong, healthy, and sound. We’ve still got a long road ahead. And Finn isn’t too happy with stall rest either !!

So the horrible part of this journey is this disease–actually both of them: the Potomac and the laminitis! And the roller coaster ride we’ve been on (and feel like we’re still on).

The wonderful part of this journey is the support and care we’ve gotten and Finn has gotten–the prayers and support of all our friends and the on-line community; the superb care and treatment from our local vet, Dr. McFadden of Lebanon Equine, and at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington and the great vets and caretakers we met there: Dr. Slovis, Dr. Frazer, Dr. Sprayberry, Dr. Fraley, Paul O’Reilly, Samantha, Nadean, and the other caretakers. Finn made lots of friends there–his entertaining character and personality won them over once he was feeling better.

Everyone keep praying and keep Finn in your thoughts. He’s determined, but still needs everyone’s support.

Monday was travel day home from Stuart Horse Trials in New York. And boy, is it miserable here! I’ve been trying to ride all the horses as early as possible so I can be done. But it’s still stifling, even in the mornings. And we’re in need of rain again! I have to start getting the boys fit for Richland at the end of August, so starting next week, we’ll be off to that wonderful facility, KESMARC, again for swimming sessions. The ground is just too hard around here already and I don’t see any rain in sight for a while.

Wednesday was a visit from Dr. McF. My 22-year-old guy, Scotch, my ex-YR horse, got hock injections. He hasn’t had them in years, but one of my !!Wonderful!! clients offered to pay for them since they been using him in the last few months and taking him to some competitions. He’s actually looking to run Training next time out!! He’ll have a ball. And Scotch thanks you very much.

A second horse also got hock injections and a client horse got his last Tildrin injection in an ankle. New drug apparently with good results, so we’ll report on how that goes.

Got another client horse in for a couple weeks of training. Welcome, Rielly; 8-year-old OTTB! He’s cute and fun. And got a couple of new students starting and a couple of new working students for a bit–they’re going to help me out around the barn in exchange for riding and lessons.