What I have discovered

First, thank you for your compassion towards my grief. My grandfather was a great man and was like a father to me. I will miss him dearly.

Here are a few things that have been boiling in my head for the past week.

I FINALY got to go for a ride with Dandy. I haven't ridden much (at all) since she was on medication to cure that infamous cough. I did hop on her bareback once, but that doesn't count. So I drug my saddle out in the cold, my bridle and brushes... Took Dandy from the pasture... don't worry she's happy about THAT! Brushed her quickly (in winter, I don't like to brush too much because I don't want to remove the protective oil from her coat, since my horses go unblanketed), saddled her up and walked towards the trail I was going to take. The road between the pasture and the trail was a bit icy, so I didn't take any chances to get on her back. We walked as slow as ever and I kept reminding Dandy to take it "easy", since she is so fast paced that you pratically have to run beside her when she walks, this was a change for her.

Felt like 10 minutes later, I finally got on her back and we proceeded down the trail... this far, everything is wonderful, she didn't cough, not even a tiny bit. We walk most of the way, except for the occasionnal trot. She did cough TINY little coughs (2 coughs) about mid ride, but after, she was good as new and even trotted on her own (I know... she doesn't listen ALL the time!). She seemed to be feeling much better and it shows in her personnality in the pasture. She is explosive, she trots all the time, galops, full-out runs, kicks, jumps and broncs... I haven't seen that in a while!!!! She is in good (too good) weight and her nose is nice and dry and her eyes have cleared up. So this is great news!!!

In not so great news, I finally confirmed something about Dandy... She is blind in her left eye. I stronly believe that she was blind from birth. It is very hard to tell that she doesn't see, but after a year of suspecting it, I finally found my answer. Thing is, she is very good at hiding it, but it is all so clear now! She was pretty clumsy on that side, when we first installed the feeder, she kept hitting that side of her head while turning it to look at (or hear) something. She never lead very well from that side, but learned to do a good job of it still! She rides like a dream, but does tend to turn her head right and she is much better at turning right, although she fully trusts me and flexes and turns very well left too. She does choose to turn right most of the time in the pasture, even if it presents a greater effort, she does keep the colt on her left side and tends to overreact if there is anything there, a horse that jumps or barking dogs, she is fine with the spooking and barking on the right side, if she sees that there is nothing there. I now know why she was so awful at lunging left and didn't know where I was and what to do. I now know why she overreacts to dogs barking on her left side but couldn't care less if dogs came running between her legs on the right side. Those are all things that I have noticed over the time I have spent training and caring for her... I thought she was just hard on one side... then I suspected blindness, her eyes were so cloudy when she abcessed in summer and then with her cough that I couldn't look into them and actually see something. Now, I see that her pupil is white. I don't think she even sees shapes or shadows from that side.

It kind of made me sad to find that out, but I had been suspecting it for a while... I even suspected that she was completely blind once, but she proved me wrong and I never doubted that again... until lately, when I started to put all the pieces together. Now it all makes sense. My poor girl! She seems to be living fine with it and seems to always have been. I will ask the vet this Spring (time for shots!) if it is something that will progress to both eyes, if it can be passed to foals, etc. As you know, I plan on breeding Dandy for another horse that I would keep. I'm just not decided if I should do it, when and if the stars align! I am not yet decided and it will depend on a lot of things (money, space, feed, etc.) if these things aren't PERFECT, than there will be no baby... I am also nervous, I don't want to harm or hurt my mare, I don't want a difficult birth or any complications, I am a nervous wreck thinking about these things. I will have the vet check her and tell me if she is in breeding condition.

So, I didn't get around to trimming Dandy's hooves, I wanted to touch up some things, she lost a bit of dead sole and her hooves look better balanced now! I also have to trim the Standards... I am looking into putting shoes on them... probably Poly shoes... has anyone ever tried them??? Any advice?? I'm talking about EponaShoes or Ground Control shoes.