With all the press my new horse, Ripple Effect has gotten on the past week or so, I had almost forgotten that it is Reno’s second anniversary with me.  He definately deserves some press too…. Reno came to me in January 2009 with a life-threatening injury.  A mystery hock injury, several months old. It was a struggle to win the battle with this injury and I thought we would have to put him down more than once that winter.  I don’t think an injury in a horse has taught me more about patience, persistence and hope.  It was indeed a miracle, and by the spring he was in harness and working lightly… One day in late April, however, I arrived home to find Reno had had a fight with the fence and to my horror had severed the extensor tendon (and nearly the flexor) in the same previously injured leg.  That was the low point for me.  I’m not sure I would have had the fortitude to go on with his rehab, had it not …

Feedback is a really important part of training horses…any animal for that matter.  Being non-verbal for the most part, horses use body language to communicate their mental and emotional state, as well as their physical well being.  Its important as a trainer and as a caretaker to observe this feedback and make adjustments in our agenda to address feedback, when necessary.  Some feedback requires nothing more than acknowledgement, such as a horse wrinkling his lip with pleasure during a good grooming session.  Some feedback requires action, such as a pony pinning its ears during feeding.  In such a case, I might simply insist he share his food with me or request he back away from his supper for a moment for an attitude adjustment. Feedback can be quite complex and the body language difficult to interpret….is it fear, is it dominance, is it confusion? Using punishment or dominance with a horse that is scared or confused will produce unsatisfactory, sometimes disasterous results. Such is the art of living and working with an animal.  To complicate …

Reno’s training is primarily as a driving horse.  I believe he has been ridden sporadically by some kids, but no formal training.  He’s got a pretty cooperative personality, so I didn’t think it would be huge deal to get him going undersaddle.  I also felt I could help him rebuild his topline and atrophied musculature in his haunches putting him through some low level dressage maneuvers such as ‘shoulder in’. Our first ride was mainly a ‘meet and greet’ event.  Teaching him to pick me up at the mounting block and stand quietly.  Walk, simple turns, stop, back up.  By the end of the session we were doing some walk-trot transitions as well.  What I learned about him is that his driving experience had set-him up well to understand rudimentary rein cues undersaddle.  I had to reinforce leg and seat cues with the verbal cues he already knew…kiss, whoa, back up, easy, etc….in the beginning, but he very quickly understood what I was asking.  We ended our first ride by taking a leisurely, trail ride …

My last post about Reno was in late March and was full of optimism, as we had finally seemed to overcome his hock injury and were in ‘rehab’ mode.  There are many reasons why I have not updated his progress.  Foremost is a lack of time.  Spring is always a very busy season for me with pasture maintenance, veggie gardening (this year I have extensive plots of potatoes and corn) and this year pigs.  But in all truth, I was waiting to feel optimism again. Two weeks after my last post regarding Reno and the beginning of what should have been his rehabilitation, he had a set-back.  I found him on 4/7/9, standing alone in shock, hemorrhaging from his previously injured left hind.  He had had a fight with the fence and wrapped the poly wire around the leg, struggled (and eventually tore down a complete length of fencing), lacerating the leg below the hock right down to the canon bone.  My vet confirmed that he had severed the extensor tendon completely.  In addition, she …

Reno has been turned out with my gelding herd for 2 weeks now. My vet and I both agree that he has shown enough improvement that he now has to USE the leg to get function back. Still on oral antibiotics, we’ve had no set-backs despite alot of playfulness in the mud with the other horses. Pictured here actually ‘resting’ on the bad leg…a very good sign. He finishes his antibiotics (a full 6 weeks) in a few days. I’ll be watching him carefully for any relapse at that point. So far, so good.

Reno is a 5 year old Percheron gelding. Trained and worked in harness regularly, Reno came in from the pasture lame one day. No one really knows what happened. Just a blown up hock and a lame horse. For several weeks he would improve then appear to reinjure himself in a frustrating downward spiral. I decided to accept him as a rehab project in January when his owner, frustrated, was looking an option that did not involve euthanasia. Reno was apparently a very nice horse, one who could be handled and ridden by children, despite his size…18 hands. Above is a photo of Reno from behind on the first day. No he is not walking…he is standing. Note the contracture and atrophy on the injured left side. He virtually stood like this nearly 100 % of the time, with the left hind in the air. I put Reno in a smallish paddock with my mini fosters. He was great with the little guys and there was no drive for him to overexert himself. It was …