Wyoming, here we come!?

   It's official... Udex and I (and our family of course! are moving to Wyoming!! IN LESS THEN TWO MONTHS! Aaaah!! I'm a bit sad and excited at the same time! I will miss the people of Germany sooo much! Everyone I love is here! My trainers, my friends, horses.. That's the part that's shredding my heart. As for Germany itself?? I won't really miss it. The gloomy, rainy, dull climate? Buh-bye!
 Obviously this means Udex will be taking a plane ride! Wait... what? YES! Horses actually can go on planes! I'm kind of freaked out about that! I'm a bit nervous! Considering he get's a bit nervous when he's away from his herd, I'm curios to see how this is going to go about.. Also I heard that the biggest horses goes in the middle of the three stalls on the plane?? That means Udex will be in the middle between two others!? Uhh.. I don't think that would be a good idea. Maybe I will request they handle him as a stud?? In his head he seems to think that's what he is anyways.
 As for quarantine, that shouldn't be too bad! He's a gelding so that means less time in there as a mare or stallion would have [thank god!] I'm really, really, really worried about the whole not being able to go within so many feet of him. It's my baby.. in a new country?? It hurts a lot that I won't be able to go near him, but maybe I can manage a way to chuck a carrot to him some how.. tiihii. Oh well! I hope he is alright! He's pretty attached to me, and really nervous of people in general! I'm sure there will be many good people taking care of him though, so I can't feel too bad for myself and Udex.
  I do plan on filming/taking pictures of all this!! This is a huge part of our journey!! It will be amazing to fly into the big U S of A with my best friend right with me. This is basically a first for both of us. Although I was born in the USA I have lived here in Europe for over 12 years! I'm excited to start this big chapter of our story! I told Udex tonight about him coming to America! He didn't seem to mind that thought too much.. tiihii!

"Rollkur opponents care for horses. Rollkur proponents care more for success."

Updates??

  Wow! I've been so busy lately... I've neglected this blog! Aaaah! Every time I do so, something very interesting and blog worthy happens. Shame on me.
  Well to start this entry off.. Udex is still not rideable from all the kicking. His leg is no longer swollen, but all his muscles are extremely tense, painful, and stiff. I can't ride him until we have our amazing homeopathic healer, Utta Wagner, come out to do some more work on him. I hope after just a little while he'll be good as new! The good news to this though is that he no longer has to be trotted 10 minutes and walked 20. He is free to go as he will. Everyday I've been letting him play in the arena. He's really crazy with energy!! He's bucking, crow hopping, and even making a really, really, really "totilas big" extended trot at points!! It's really fun to see him this energetic!! He's also, (as of four days ago) back on his feed!!! I've also started adding two supplements to his meal.. Magnesium, and Amino Acids. Within two days of him being on those two supplements, I saw a huge difference. Not only in his mental status, but in his movement as well. If he wasn't already a flashy horse, now he practically shows off every step. He's starting to feel better and better everyday. Some times I can't believe I'm looking at my horse running around with his legs high up in the air. He's a horse that a few years ago, I could only dream of riding, yet alone owning. He's sure been a handful of work but I guess it's all worth it. Some days he's ticked me off to extremes, but even then we're still pretty good friends!!!
  I can't wait till he is better and to start lessons again!! It's been so long! I miss riding my pony!! )-: P.s. I will add pictures of this new found extremely flashy Udex!!

"Rollkur opponents care for horses. Rollkur proponents care more for success."

Udex is a beast.. and I mean it!

  As the title said, my horse is a real beast. I'm not just saying that because it's funny. Or because he's tall. I think many people refer to their horses as "beasts" or "monsters," but when I'm saying this right now I mean Udex is a full fledged, scary, crazy beast! I'll tell the story of why I'm emphasizing the fact of this.
  The night after I wrote my last article about Udex about Udex's swollen leg, he had an "accident". We were going to move him to a new stall the next morning, so we let him spend one last night in his original box just so we could make sure the new one was totally ready. Bad, bad, bad choice. Let's just say Udex must have heard that'd it wouldn't be the next morning until he was moved. He decided to make a big point that he wanted to be moved sooner. We don't know exactly what time it happened, but it was sometime in the later part of night. Anyways, Udex decided to kick and rear nonstop. While doing this he destroyed everything in his stall. I'm serious when I say everything. Here's a list...

• Salt lick tray shattered. Bits of it lying everywhere in his stall.
• Metal food dish unstable, wobbly, hanging off the edge. 
• Concrete walls missing large chunks in several places.
• Wooden barriers missing chunks and indented repeatedly with large hoof prints.
• Metal hay rack dented and kicked in several places.
• Metal bars bent out of place.

  The stall was a wreck. When the owner of the barn came to me and said "He broke it all.. everything!" I wasn't expecting him to be so serious. Wow. As you can imagine, all of that kicking and bucking had a huge impact on Udex's legs. He already had cellulitis and a slight limp in his back right leg, plus this new kicking. Oh no.
  His entire leg swelled up even bigger, and higher. Now he was swollen from above hoof to below tail!!!! The vet came out again and gave Udex more injections, and me special cream to put on his leg. Something about that cream brings back bad memories for Udex. We're talking he saw that bottle and started trying to run. Every time it got in smelling distance of him he would start kicking out and freaking. We managed to get it on though (thanks to handy twitch!)
  The vet said that there may be a tendon problem now. Too much cellulitis to tell for sure, but there's a big chance that his tendon has something wrong now. For now I have to walk him 20 minutes and then trot 10. Udex has been taken off his feed and only will be eating hay. He has so much energy right now. He will hurt himself if he keeps eating his grain. Every time he comes out his stall he's in passage just wanting to go. As soon as we go to the arena he starts to just want to run. It's hard to control 17.3 hands of total crazy!!!!!!
  Well I'm hoping it's not a tendon problem. In about a week I should know more! I think sometimes the worse problems with horses are the ones they do to themselves.

"Rollkur opponents care for horses. Rollkur proponents care more for success."

Swollen leg!?

  What a way to start the year. I don't even know how to begin this story. I guess it starts three days ago when Udex was avoiding having his back right hoof picked up. He would pace and pace and pace. When I finally would manage to pick up his hoof he would pick it up really high and kick out. Over the next few days it had just gotten worse; even to the point where he would downright refuse to lift it.

The white one is the swollen one.

The resting one is the infected hoof.

  Other then being weird during hoof time, Udex was displaying no other signs of pain, injury, lameness, or anything else abnormal... Until yesterday that is. I got to the stable in the evening and did the usual. Got all the supplies I would need for the evening (sweat blanket, grooming supplies, etc.) by his stall. I took him out and was about to do the hooves when I realized his back right leg was about 4x larger then the other one!!! Of course I was having a mini heart attack, thinking of the worse right away. "Uuuuudex!? What did you do to yourself this time!?" My friends had a look too and confirmed that I wasn't crazy, but yes indeed Udex's leg had turned into a balloon. When I touched it he picked his leg up as to kick. After a few minutes he calmed down and let me feel around on it. It didn't feel too warm, but it did feel squishy. I took him to the arena to see if he was limping any. Once again, no apparent signs of anything wrong! Not even a limp in walk or trot! While I was trotting him in-hand he actually took a canter step, threw his head, and bucked- a thing he only does when he's very fresh and happy!

holding him for the vet.

  I was stumped. Why did his leg look like it belonged to a draft horse instead of a sporthorse?? After I had walked him for about 30 minutes and saw no difference in the swelling my friends helped to do the best for Udex. We put cold water on his leg, but still no change. We also put a special cream on it, once again, no change. We called it a night and decided if it wasn't better tomorrow we would call the vet.

Holding him for the vet.

  Today was tomorrow. The leg was not any better. Still swollen. Udex still wasn't limping or displaying any signs of being uncomfortable. Needless to say, the vet got a call!! Those moments waiting for the vet to come out are always the worse. I don't know about you, but for me I always start to assume the worse.

I'm not the biggest fan of twitches but
he needs it!

  Anyways, our Vet came out as soon as possible!! The prognosis?? A wooden splinter in his leg that had gotten infected. How did he get the splinter?? Udex and the horse in the stall next to him are always fighting. The mare is very food focused and when she isn't eating 24/7 will bite/kick at Udex's stall. Him still being a stallion in the head fights back. He has some pretty powerful kicks, and when he kicks the wood it splinters off. Obviously finding a really tiny splinter through thick fur would be almost impossible. The wound had already healed, but the swelling was from an infection.
  Udex got two shots in the chest, and will take three doses of antibiotics for the next two days. On Thursday we will repeat this process again and see how he's doing. (Oh, the farrier also comes then!) For probably the rest of this week I will be hand walking him for about 15-20 minutes. Oh boy will he be fresh the day he can finally free run!
  Our vet was truly amazing! She was so calm with him and understanding. What makes her so great is that she's a horse girl. She thinks of the horse and how he's feeling before anything else. I was so impressed with the way she treated Udex!! Wow! Total respect! I know that no matter what the situation, with her as the vet it will be okay.
  Right when you think your horse is in a stall 24/7, no way can he get injured; you're wrong. Horses are really accident prone (especially mine!!) and they can really surprise you with what they can do to themselves. It's a good reminder for me that with a horse you can never be too sure. Like I said in the beginning.. What a way to start 2012! I sure hope it does get better!

"Rollkur opponents care for horses. Rollkur proponents care more for success."