Massage Night

Penn got his massage last night. We'll call the massage therapist K.

Penn loved it.

K got started on him before I got to the barn (boo work! Why couldn't I leave early to watch my horse get a massage?). When I walked in, Penn had this sleepy, droopy lip face on and was SO RELAXED. Kind of like a high AF kid that said, "Heeeeeey Mommm... I feel gooooooooooood." Lots of lick and chew.

I should have snapped a pic of his face, but I didn't want to be that crazy person taking pics of everything... but I should have because K loved Penn and took a bunch of pics of him, haha!

She found a ton of tension in the SI joint area. Enough that she asked if a chiro was going to see him soon because she was concerned about it (I assured her that he's on the schedule to get an adjustment on Monday). She found more tension in the right hind area and left neck (go figure, that dang diagonal pair thing again).

She'd find a tense spot (Penn disliked this search very much), but then she'd push into him and hold it on certain points and he'd be tense for a moment then all of a sudden get super droopy, ears cocked, eyes closed, hanging lower lip and he'd enter a trance for a while. I think my description of how she finds bad spots and works them was quite poor, so forgive me because I don't quite get how to find the spots... I look for knots in my own back and bear down on them, but that's not what she was doing.

She asked to see him walk and trot, so we lunged a little bit and agreed he wasn't quite comfortable behind yet.

She worked a couple more muscles, then put some patches over the SI area and underneath him.

So many dots.

Sorry, couldn't get a picture of these dots without taking a pic of his junk!

I took a ton of pics of where they went to I can reapply later. The center patch is a stronger Aeon patch even though it looks like the normal white patches. I bought a second Aeon patch and I'm holding on to it for the May 21/22 recognized show to put on him after Saturday's test. I wasn't thinking properly, I should have bought the three sets of regular patches too. I'm debating just ordering the patches myself, and sticking them on myself... I know Penn's problem spots and how both K and my usual patch lady determined where to apply them. For the cost of one visit of my patch lady, I can get two visits worth of patches from the manufacturer. I hate doing that to her, but Penn is starting to cost me a small fortune! This way Penn can get patches overnight at shows too for much cheaper than if I bought another set of patches to apply myself from my patch lady.

Anyway, that's not the point. K asked if I was going to ride him, and I said no, I was going to give him the night off. She asked if he was going to be outside tonight, and I said no, he'll be in... so she said, "RIDE HIM." I'm like, "Ok! As soon as the farrier fixes his shoe." Haha.

The farrier came shortly after K left and fixed his shoe. He was just as stumped as I was at how Penn sprung the shoe, but instead of one side coming off the hoof, it curved more so the heel of the shoe wasn't supporting his heel or the hoof wall anymore- it was creeping to the soft inside of the hoof. Either way, he came out asap and fixed it.

By this point, Penn was a totally obnoxious beast and was obviously feeling pretty darn good. He wanted to rub his nose all over the farrier and lip his hair and in general be super touchy feely with everyone in sight. He eventually got bopped for being an obnoxious prick, then he looked all sad for 3 seconds before going right back at it.

"I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings..."

I tacked him up and had a super ride on him- also very short because it was almost 8pm by the time I got on him and I did want to go home eventually that night.

I could tell an immediate difference in him when I walked off from the mounting block- he had a ton more swing in his back and went straight to the being on the bit as I shortened my reins. We repeated my ride from Wednesday in structure and movements. The trot 10m circles were MUCH better. There was no discussion about the starting bending, he just went with it. I may have peeked a bit over my shoulder and looked at the bend he had through his body. He's such a little guy, I can peek over a shoulder and see where his hind end is at! The school the previous day may have helped, but I didn't have to keep after his outside hind as much as I usually do. The leg yields were MUCH better. He tends to get slow and stale in them, but he was quite happy to keep the forward motion and cover just a hair more ground. He was a bit distracted for this ride- the horses came in a bit late for dinner because of the nice weather. He had quite a lot of motion in his back in the trot, more than I've felt in the recent past. The canter was forward and very comfortable.

This won't be Penn's last massage! K was wonderful and identified tense areas without me having to tell her where (I did ask her to spend extra time on the SI area). Penn definitely enjoyed it. K was very affordable too. The massage ended up costing a little less than I thought, but I ended up spending more than I expected because we did some patches too. I don't care. The horse feels good.

Let's just throw some more money at this.

I'm very interested to see how the show this weekend goes, and how Penn feels after a chiropractic adjustment Monday. I think we're on the right track!

Acculife Patches

Last Friday, Mikey got full body patched. I mentioned them before in a post, but neglected to get pictures. Last time he only got his hock done. This time, he had a set on the poll, back, hip, croup, butt, and the bad hock. They're supposed to relieve pain and tension, and placed correctly, calm the horse. They also contain zero medication, so they are completely legal to use any time.

One horse in the barn absolutely adores them. He is a nervous, jittery, difficult thing. I brought him in from the field after he was patched and he was completely zen. He's a different horse after he gets patched.

His topline really looks bad in this pic! Ugh!

Best of all is this view (please ignore all my crap on the floor!! The barn was neat before I got there!)

The right hock is only slightly bigger than the left!

The patch lady also took thermal images of his body for me:

Mikey's front half and right sides are the worst part for him (so the left hind is awesome haha). The bad hock looked better this time around, less bright yellow! And perhaps some of the weirdness I feel behind has more to do with his lack of shoes than I thought- his hind feet have a bit of yellow in them (warm feet) as opposed to his fronts that are red and completely cool. You can see in the bottom picture a couple round red circles on his hind quarters- those are patches. It looks like there's a set just before his flank. Perhaps he rolled those off by the time I saw him!

He really liked his patches, and I'm thrilled that they helped the lingering swelling in the hock. It's always going to be a big joint, but the smaller the better!

Mikey Jogging, AcuLife Patches, OCD Pellets

So while I was off working at my real job last week and riding Shae over the weekend, Mikey was hanging out in his stall. After the injection he needed complete stall rest for 3 days, so no hand walking Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

I walked Mikey Sunday after riding Shae and being ground crew for the weekly jump clinic. I walked for 10 min or so, and then asked my trainer to watch him jog. He was given a Grade 3 lameness at OSU, but it was barely visible, just the right hock not flexing as much as the left. He's always been weak in that hock, so I wanted her to watch him trot because she knows what his "normal" is (even if it's a lameness on that scale).

I jogged him away from her, then took him across a diagonal so she could see from the side. I had given him his head so he'd be "free" and he jogs well without shenanigans... usually. No problems on the away, but on the diagonal I asked for more, she clucked, and he tossed his head, flung his legs around, and moved out while arching his neck like a fancy boy. Everyone laughed, but she said he looks super and very close to his normal, and didn't see a reason I couldn't take him down centerline by August.

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On a side note, we talked Saturday about me taking Cody to a USDF show to finish my bronze after Rolex. She had said before I could take him, but in all seriousness, even if I had a fancy newer trailer, I'd be terrified to haul a horse as valuable as him (I'm sure we're looking at 6 figures after Rolex), when I didn't own said horse. So I asked if she could spare a weekend to play in the sandbox, and maybe bring one or two of her young horses that need to get out so it wouldn't be a total loss for her. I believe one she got in the fall last year competed in hand at Devon, so he's already got a USDF number and everything. She said absolutely, we'll go to one of the bigger shows that runs 4-6 rings. She completely understood that I didn't want to pressure Mikey to be ready, or take another year to finish my bronze, because in reality, Mikey might never be ready. He may never recover enough to help me finish my bronze, and Cody will no longer be available to me at that point.
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We had a (free) clinic Sunday with a woman who uses Aculife patches on horses to help relieve pain and tension, and aid in healing injuries and reducing swelling. The patches can be used as an alternative to acupuncture. They do not deliver any kind of medicine to the horse in any way, so are safe to use at horse shows, and have no withdrawal period, so they fully comply with all FEI and USEF drug rules. You put a max of 6 pairs of patches on the horse, sometimes 7 pairs depending on where they are. They go on acupressure points. They have a max effectiveness at around 12 hours, but you can ride with them on and leave them on for up to 3 days (which is when they usually fall off on their own). When they fall off, there's no wait period, you can pop new ones on again for another 3 days. They can be used on points that will help relieve pain, or several points for calmness. We jokingly asked if there's points on humans for losing weight, she said yupp! There are points for helping cut down on cravings. We were like, oh!

She also takes thermal images that she can send away for another team to look 7 layers deep at injuries or pain points. She can see hoof abscesses right as they're starting so you don't waste any time getting the farrier out or simply soaking the foot while you wait for the farrier. She expressly said, "Do not call me in lieu of a vet or farrier! I can help while you wait, but make sure you call them!" I trust someone who says that for sure. No asking for blind following.

If I was smart, I would have taken a picture of what the patches looked like! But a google search produced this sad, non-photographic image of the patches:

Pretend this image is real life. It's a tan and white material on the sticky side of  a clear sticky circle, approximately and inch to inch and a half in diameter.

The patches come in positive and negatives. I forget which is which, but one is white, one is tan. The tans go on the left side of the horse, the white goes on the right. Maybe white it positive? I think that's right. I get all messed up because I use red and black in the accounting world for negatives and positives, which screws me up in the electrical world because it's swapped. Anyway, straight from her pamphlet:

"AcuLife non-transdermal patch system utilizes new technology to gently stimulate acupressure points to literally prevent, and remove muscle spasms, tensions, and strains throughout the whole body."

I don't normally subscribe to stuff like that, but I've spent so much money on Mikey trying to get him back to pre-injury wellness that I'm willing to listen to just about anything that could make him heal just a little bit better, as long as it won't hurt him and the worst I'll do is throw some money away.

I watched Cody be treated as the demo horse. He is a cocky, look at me kind of horse who is not known for being very touchy-feely, especially with people he just met. She felt him all over and put some patches on him, just the right side to start. Before she put the matching patch on the left side, he was already licking and chewing, and dropped his head. After she had all of the patches on, he nuzzled the bejesus out of her, stopping just short of licking her face. Not in his character at all!

The next couple horses had similar results: yawning, licking and chewing, relaxing, heads dropping.

The horse that had the most issues and the best reaction was a little chestnut QH mare who came to her owner several years ago with a rearing problem and in need of an attitude adjustment. She was just unpleasant to be around, and hates you touching near her face. Her owner recently started her on gut support for possible ulcers, which has helped her attitude immensely. The horse came into the arena all tense and barely standing still (not uncommon for the horse, and she rarely relaxes anyway). The woman went over the horse and found 7 points just in the front half of the horse, with many more in the back of the horse. She put 7 sets of patches on the horse because of the sheer number of problem spots. Within five minutes, the mare was licking and chewing, nuzzling and gladly accepting face rubs.

Mikey was not on her list of horses for the day, but I asked her if she could look at him because of the severity of his injury. The horses that got full body thermal imaging had to have their blankets off for over an hour before being looked at, so Mikey couldn't get the thermals of his body, just the leg. She still went over the fleshier parts of his body, identifying places we could work on later after he returns to work. There was one point by the poll (she asked if he likes to fake his connection or lock his jaw- yes and yes), one point by the whithers, one by the loin, then a couple in the hindquarters. One of those was the horsey hamstring essentially, and was very very sensitive. All of those lead to his trouble with truly sitting for our collection work. I didn't want his body patched because I would have no way of knowing if it helped and he was just standing in a stall anyway, so she put two white patches and one tan patch on his  bad hind leg, slightly above the most swollen/scarred part of the hock. The white patches went on the inside and outside of the joint, and the tan went right on the front.

Yet again, I failed to take a picture. Doh. I'm not very good at this.

Now Mikey didn't have the same reaction to the patches the way the other horses did, simply because they got a full body patch job and he got a hock patch job. But my trainer reported to me on Monday that the hock was the smallest it's been since the injury. I think I might contact the woman and ask if I can buy a box of patches from her to patch Mikey's hock myself over the next few weeks. I don't mean to short change her, but it's a $50 farm call if I'm the only one (she waives the farm call for 5 or more horses) and $20 for her to do the patches. I can't afford that all the time, and I wouldn't patch his body myself, just his hock.

She did take thermals of the hock for me, and she was surprised at how good they looked based on what we had told her was wrong. Normal horses have soft yellow bodies with soft red legs. Injuries come up as bright yellow or worse, bright red/pink. She took 4 pictures of his leg, each at the quarter view.

In the second and last pictures you can really compare the two hind legs, the damaged one and the normal one. She expected there to be more bright yellow and some bright red. I didn't have her send them away for analyzing- I know what's wrong underneath.

If other people are willing to have her out again, I'll have him full body patched at that point to see if it helps him out as we get back to work. It certainly can't hurt him.

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Speaking of doing things that may or may not help the horse, but won't hurt him, I finally clicked the link to OCD Pellets from their sponsored rehab posts on Eventing Nation. This OCD stands for: Optimal Cartilage Development Pellets. Sounds right up Mikey's alley.

I read what they claim, ingredients, and then endless testimonials. And I mean ENDLESS. Mostly racehorses, most with spurs, cysts, OCD lesions, fractures, everything leg bone related under the sun. It increased bone densities, made fractures heal and almost disappear from x-rays, in general made a lot of those type of problems disappear or almost disappear, and eased the pain of osteoarthritis. All (of course) said OCD products helped immensely. None had the chip and fracture bed problem Mikey has however. To have so many raving reviews, and a good one for an 18 yr old Thoroughbred performance horse who had osteoarthritis problems, I couldn't not look into it. Especially due to the sheer number of ultra positive reviews (and more positive reviews from other websites). The product has to have SOMETHING going for it.

I stole these handy dandy factoid images from Eventing Nation, who had them courtesy of OCD Doc's Products Inc. I hope they don't mind me posting them and free advertising.

I have a feeling this product is NOT USEF legal for shows, but it doesn't matter because Mikey isn't showing anytime soon.

We had pulled Mikey off oral supplements simply because as he gets older, his digestion isn't what it used to be, and his body could end up cannibalizing the supplement for food instead of allowing it to be absorbed where it's really needed. We opted for hock injections since that was his main pain point, and they helped immensely, and for all of last year, he felt really super. Now that we've poked and prodded his right hock, it's a waiting game. I decided if there was anything I could do to help him out, I would do it because I want my partner back, and I'm so far into this monetarily that spending a couple hundred on supplements that might help, even just a little bit, is worth it to me. He's barely lame. All he needs is a little bit.

Basically, they're doing a free 4lb  pail with any first time customer order. A 4lb pail has 64 scoops in it, if you're feeding at a maintenance level. Mikey would be eating at the maximum level, so of course it's only good for 32 days. They said to feed the free pail first and if you don't see any results, send them the paid for pail back for a full refund. Good enough incentive for me!

I did email Dr. Beebe, the doctor behind the science, who replied very promptly. I gave him a brief overview of what happened to Mikey and what we've done so far, and asked two questions: Is the product effective in older horses that might have weaker digestion and how long should I give the product to show a result? I figured I'd need more than the free pail to see a result, and I was right. I got a several paragraph answer, but to sum it up: He said it works well in older horses (as I expected he would say), and I may or may not see a result in 30 days due to Mikey's age and the nature of the injury. He said to allow 4-6 weeks to see any benefits. He encouraged me to follow up with Mikey's progress.

I was good with ordering it as long as he didn't say anything bad about using it with older horses (significantly less effective etc). So off I was to look at prices (ok so it's not the first time I looked at them):

Get a look at those prices!

I decided to buy a 4 lb pail with my free 4 lb pail. I'll check on him close to when both pails should be finished up, 64 days/approx 9 weeks, and see what he looks like. I'll probably buy another two 4 lb pails at that point so he has a solid 4 months on maximum dose. It certainly won't hurt him.

I ordered his OCD pellets yesterday, along with more Chia seeds (I'm not sure they're doing any good, but I'm not going to change his supplements now while he's recovering from his injury), and I ordered a new jack for my trailer. Expensive morning.

Mikey was a good investment. I can barely afford to buy HIS drugs.