June 4, 2012 - Planning ahead for winter already

Rory scared me this morning.  He refused to eat his grain despite repeatedly sticking his nose in the bucket while I waited for Totyo to finish eating.  He had his abdomen tucked up, and when I got him inside and took his temperature it was about half a degree lower than what I've seen as his normal.  I thought it might be colic because his gut sounds seemed too quiet.  His heart rate and capillary refill time were in the normal range, and he wasn't breathing heavily or sweating or showing any of the other common colic signs.  I put him in a stall while I put the other horses out, and then tossed him a flake of hay which he tore into right away.  When I offered his grain again a bit later he happily scarfed it down.  I'd have called the vet if he'd refused the hay I was that worried.

He stayed in for a couple of hours and his temperature went up a full degree, and heart rate down 20%, he relaxed his abdominal muscles, and his gut was noisier.  I'm thinking he just got a bit of a chill.  It's been raining off and on (mostly on) since Friday afternoon, and got down to 11 or so last night.  His new paddock doesn't have a manmade shelter (lots of trees for wind break and some to stand under - not that standing under a dripping wet tree keeps one dry :P ) and he wasn't wearing a blanket.  I haven't been out since Friday because I've been sick, otherwise I might have put a blanket on him last night.  There have been times that I've looked at him and thought he looked a little chilly, though he never seemed unhappy or cold (using the ear temperature as my check) when I went to see him.  I did put a rainsheet on him before putting him back out for the day because the forecast was for more rain and a high of 15 (though it's trying to be sunny right now :rolleyes: ).

I bought him blankets two years ago, and I'm planning to buy new ones for him this fall (I want to wait as long as possible to make sure he doesn't outgrow them before he wears them - turning 4 this summer).  I buy the high neck (Wug style) of blanket by preference but I'm considering buying Rory a regular blanket and neck rug (probably Amigo) instead for a couple of reasons.  First I don't want to just use a heavier blanket because the winters here have been getting warmer and even way back when I first started blanketing I found the heavy weight (340gm) blankets often made my QH sweat during the day.  Second horses lose a lot of heat through their necks so it seems a bit silly to pile on more insulation on the lower heat exchange areas and leave the high heat exchange naked.  Third I might have to do a modified trace clip on him if he's working hard enough - which means a partial clip of his neck.

September 26, 2011 - A sudden scare

We started with twenty minutes in the ring today.  It's nice to be able to skip the longeing and take that time for a little tour outside the ring after the "work".  Beginning at the walk I looked for Rory to give, bend, and walk exactly on the track I chose.  We repeated at the trot, having a little trouble with bending and giving inside jaw - mostly because Rroy wanted to look outside the ring.  He always failed to turn until last moment on the fourth quarter of his circles.  They got better with strong direct rein aids (short, then gone).  We cantered left first. Rory had a couple of good transitions, and managed almost three times round the ring without stopping or losing the lead.  On the right rein we repeated the walk work, then trot before going to canter.  Three times he picked up the wrong lead, and at least two more wrong leads I stifled before he actually cantered.  Finally Rory got the right lead and I did half circle and brought him back to trot to ask again.  He got the right lead and cantered twice round the ring, then dropped to trot.  I pushed back to canter and got the right lead.  Rory was a good boy and I was happy with him. 

We went out round the hay field, trotting a little over half of the long side going out.  At the end of the field we looked through trees at machinery and coils of tile drain pipe which didn't bother Rory at all.  We trotted partway back and he swerved towards the corn field at the gap in the brush line between fields.  I halted him, let him look, and then walked over to come back on corn field side of tree line.  We haven't gone that way before and Rory was very alert and looking but not spooky.  He wanted to keep going towards the cow barn and not back over to hay field and home.  Very good boy!

I hosed him off, fed him his snack, and took him back to the paddock.  Rory suddenly stopped taking carrots from me, and walked with his head low, not looking at the grass, slowing down.  In the paddock he still didn't want any carrots, but stood pawing with alternate feet.  I took his halter off and stayed to watch.  Totyo got bits of carrot so he wouldn't bother Rory.  Rory went out a little way, pawed, head low, had a poop with lots of juice and a little gas.  Went further, more pawing, turning around, pawing, another smaller poop with juice and gas.  He stood by the fence and looked at me again, then pawed a bit, before he went up to the shelter.  I followed, he whinnied for Totyo as we were coming to the side, but stayed inside.  Watched him in the shelter, still head low, occasional paw, and another tiny poop with more juice and little gas, plus a little squeal.  After a few more minutes Rory started looking around again, came over and checked for treats, licked my hands, got snuggled a bit.  He seemed okay so I left him and Totyo followed with Rory trailing behind.  Rory had a drink, then after I went back to the barn they wandered out to the hay.  It was scary - it seemed like a sudden onset of colic, though some of the classic colic signs were missing (no rolling or sweating).  I'm pretty sure it was a gas bubble working through even though he didn't seem to pass all that much gas.  I'm glad he's okay.