Radio Silence
- donnalhammond
- Feb 16
- 5 min read
So, it has been interesting around here and not necessarily in a good way. Will get to that in a bit.
The weather has been great and the hammock is getting a work-out after my rides. As it is February, the peacocks are all about trying to mate. However, peacocks are dumb as dirt. This time of year, they spend most of the time admiring themselves (or attacking their reflection) in anything shiny be it the arena mirrors (riding past them makes for bomb-proof horses) or the bumper of my truck. This week two of them spent much of the morning preening for Cinnamon the chicken. Did I mention that peacocks are dumb?
Two weekends ago I scribed for four days straight at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. Days one and two I was placed in the ‘International Ring’
to scribe for three different judges from Europe. These were classes with both U.S. and international riders seeking to get scores that would qualify them to represent their country in competition at the World Cup in Switzerland later this year. For me, that meant I watched top riders on extremely high-quality horses complete complicated tests correctly – over and over. On days 3 and 4, I was placed on the National side of the event, which has riders and horse pairs of many different capabilities all trying to do things properly but not always succeeding. I am very much a visual learner. However, when taking a lesson it is all auditory teaching. So, the ability to see the different concepts executed in real time and to see the nuances that distinguished scores of 6, 7 and 8 really solidified things for me. I was exhausted after four days of intense concentration, but I also earned nearly $500 – which is good because the mare is sucking the money out of my wallet - again.
Over the past 2 weeks, she has been increasingly less energetic - even lethargic and just getting sort of thin looking. She was also off and on again just slightly lame for the first few minutes of our rides. However, all of this was quite subtle. Last week, I stepped back and realized that she was not only getting thinner but quickly losing muscle mass through her hindquarters. This was not the mare that stepped off the trailer in November. That realization resulted in a visit by the vet, who by now knows the mare quite well and who agreed with my concerns. In addition, she noted that the mare was holding her tail cocked to the left. Moreover, Laura had ridden her a few days earlier and noted that she felt unbalanced going to the left, but not the right. The initial concern is that she might have equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, which horses can get from eating forage contaminated by opossum feces. The protozoa migrate to the brain and spinal cord where they cause inflammation and lesions of the tissue. The symptoms are usually asymmetrical. She is now receiving treatment with Marquis and we will see if she improves. Some horses improve, others do not. If anything, the low positive titer suggests we may be catching it early. There is also a possibility that she has Lyme Disease, and she will be tested for that this week. The lameness, heightened touch sensitivity, lethargy, and weight loss also line up with that. The problem with both diseases is that the blood tests tell you the titer of the antibody, but that just means that the horse has been exposed sometime in the past and they are not definitive of active infection. That said, if titers drop after treatment and you see improvement, you sort of have your diagnosis post-hoc. Normally, the immune system is sufficient to keep these things at bay, but the stress of transport and increased work at a higher level could be a factor. Her vitamin E levels are just this shy of low normal, so she is also on a strong liquid vitamin E supplement to help boost those levels and support her immune function. A month of Marquis is over $1,000. Thankfully, there are several more weekends of scribing ahead. The mare is making me work….. I have told her that she will not be coming back down after this is squared away.
Additional ‘excitement’ was introduced by a guest who shall be unnamed. Having exhausted all the horsey stuff, we decided to give deep-sea drift boat fishing a try.
The day dawned with perfect weather, and we and about a dozen other individuals boarded the boat. These were serious fisherman – many carried up to three rods and their own special bait. Plus, nobody wound the line up by hand except us newbies. The serious guys had motorized reels. The trip out on the water was so soothing.
The ocean opened up in front as the harbor disappeared behind and I could have just done nothing but sit and enjoy the peace and the view as the boat rocked back and forth. The charter provided the rods and the bait, showed us the basics on how to drift fish the bottom, warned us that losing the rod over the railing would cost $150, and set us loose to fish. The boat visited several spots without much success and then I looked over and saw my colleague slowly slump against the seat and slide to the floor of the boat. The crew was quick to respond and the initial assessment was heat stroke – apparently not uncommon in the sun on the water. However, this individual was not responding well to efforts to be revived and the boat turned and sped for the harbor some 30 min away. There was a trip to the ER. There was also a very tenacious cardiology team who, over the next 10 days, imaged, poked and prodded until the true basis for the collapse was identified and treated. The other option had been to go on a paddle-boarding nature tour among the mangrove trees at a close-by state park. I shudder to think what the outcome would have been had the collapse occurred there.
I do intend to try the deep-sea drift fishing again. Apparently, per the guides talking to keep my visitor alert, February is really not the best time. So, I plan to go again towards the end of March and see if I can catch anything. Otherwise, I will just enjoy the day out on the water. Barry and the cats continue to do well.
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