Note about last weeks post:  Yes the horse is putting weight on in his back, but the swelling was odd and not equal on both sides.  Turns out that because of the owners bad hips, when she goes to get off she hangs across the saddle until she feels she can let go and hit the ground. Doing this she is putting unnecessary pressure on each side of the withers.  Pulling the saddle toward her pushing it into the back in two different areas.  Massage with liniment and an extra pad is taking care of him and she just has to bite the bullet and hit the ground.  Much happier horse.

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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has been around for a long time, but was kept hush-hush until recently.

I know several people who are dealing with it and it is a horrible thing.  My friend’s son came home from Iraq, she was thankful he was alive and on this side of the Atlantic.  She thought her worries were over.  I warned her that they probably weren’t.  Unfortunately she found that out when she brought him to Wal-Mart to pick up some stuff.  Someone dropped something, and he hit the ground.  The poor guy is still trying to recover from his tour of duty over there.

Another friend, in the last couple of years, married someone she knew from High School close to sixty years ago.  They are pushing 80, if not there already.  His two previous wives died from breast cancer.  They had a lot of history together, is what she told me when she decided to marry him.  They had seen each other over the years at reunions.  I wasn’t sold on this one.  If you didn’t date him in High School, what would make you think you’d want to date him now.  She found out that he had PTSD.  I found out at dinner one night.  We were sitting at dinner and I questioned him about why a screw, in the back of his kitchen cabinet, had to be just perfect.  It wouldn’t be seen by anyone and he had spent a whole day on one screw.  His reply, as he slammed his fist on the table was, that attention to detail was what had kept him alive through all the years in Veit Nam.  His face was red and he was not in control of his temper.  I told him that no one was shooting at him anymore and he didn’t have to dwell on that one screw.  They never did get that kitchen finished, and we gave up trying to help them.

So when my girlfriend told me that she believed I had PTSD the other day, I was like no way, I’ve never been in a fight worse than who got control of the remote.  But then I had to think about it.  After the two horses were killed by lightning, I was a little paranoid whenever a storm hit.  I’m much better now, but it’s taken a couple of years.

I looked up PTSD and it doesn’t always come from being in a war.  It can come from other traumatic situations that you are involved in or have witnessed.  As I read more about it, I really don’t think I have a true version of it, but it was a horrible situation.  Oh I remember what brought this up.  When we had a storm a couple of weeks ago I was out bring the horses in and a bolt cracked close by.  I hesitated for a moment deciding whether to run back to the house or go to the barn and go and get the horses.  It’s funny what runs through your mind in an instant.  I thought, I’d rather die trying to get them, than to go back to the house and live with the horror of them getting killed, again.  I just couldn’t live with two more horses being killed.

So I guess that’s a good reason why my girlfriend decided I had PTSD.  Actually if I truly had PTSD I would have hit the ground and hidden, not been stupid enough to walk out to the two pastures and bring in the four horses.

If you don’t live in Florida, the lightning capital of the world, you probably can’t wrap you mind around this.  Ten horses I know of personally lost their lives that week, two of them were mine.  I heard the bolt that got them.  I still cringe when I hear a bolt close by.  Yes I know many horses that got killed in barns, but I’ll take my chances on them being in the barn as opposed to under a tree that got hit.

Do I recommend going out there and being a target, no way.  Will I do it again?  Probably. Do I have PTSD?  I don’t think so.  I’m just old and stupid.

We all assume.  We assume we will get up in the morning.  We assume Saturday will come.  We assume our horses will get hurt in the next 12 months, at least I know one of mine will.  Some horses are just born suicidal. But that’s another post.  We know what breaking down the word assume means, and I won’t go there.

What we can never assume is that our horses are not changing.  As with us, age has a horrible way of getting even.  When I used to wake up in the morning after a hunt I knew every muscle, and joint that I had abused.  It was like when you worked out too much, your body lets you know.  But it was a good hurt.  Now I wake up in the morning hurting and wonder what my body did overnight that I wasn’t aware of.

As you “mature” your body changes.  The old gravity thing.  Body parts aren’t where they used to be.  Everything starts sagging.  Not going there either.

Now we expect it with an older horse.  Their body changes too.  They lose their top line.  Muscles lose their tone.  They are harder to keep weight on.  They move a little slower and stiffer.  (Who doesn’t after how many years of hitting the ground.)  We know that we have to take these things into consideration when putting our saddle on.  The saddle that you bought for him/her years ago may not fit anymore because of the lack of weight and tone in their back.  On the other hand, after a long period of time, and groceries, the girth may not fit.

Now here is the thing we don’t consider.  The younger horse.  Yes as they grow we have to be aware and make changes.  The bridle that fit them perfect may be making the bit rise up in their mouths because their head grew.  Now my Zoey always used to be a 55 gallon drum with a leg in each corner.  Now she has a withers.  I used to use the first two billets to hold the saddle down in place so it wouldn’t ride up on her shoulders.  Now I used the first and last to keep it from sliding back.

When my friend got her new horse, a ten year old OTTB, we had his back adjusted and checked to make sure the saddle was perfect for him.  He still hasn’t gained the weight I want on him (he was a rescue), but he didn’t get thinner.  He’s been going with his head up, and back dropped.  He isn’t moving forward the way he should, and fought bending to the right.  You can put him into a frame, but he’s not comfortable with it.  He worries, but tries so hard to please.  Things weren’t adding up.

When she first started riding him he had even sweat marks on his back, so we knew the saddle was okay.  This was about a month, maybe a month and a half ago.  She’s taking it slowly with him and rides a couple of times a week.

So what is the issue here?  Ah my favorite, detective mode.  I was sitting watching her while she bathe him.  The sun was shining on his wet chestnut coat, but something caught my eye.  A shadow.  My eye kept drifting back to the spot, it wouldn’t go away from my mind.  My brain said get up and check this out.  Finally I did.  A huge swelling the size of my fist just down a little from the withers, behind the shoulder, on his right side.  I check the other side and there was a smaller lump a little lower.  Well this would explain a lot of things, but why was it there.  We got the saddle and put it on.  It seemed fine, but putting my hand where the swelling was said not so.  The owner has bad hips and mounting and dismounting is a problem for her.  She tends to lay across the saddle for a good 60 seconds before she can hit the ground or the saddle.  He has always readjusted his body to stay under her, or that’s what we thought.  He was actually fidgeting because the saddle was digging into his back.

Liniment and a few days off will help along with an extra pad and changing the saddle.  But how did something that looked so perfect cause so much trouble.  We always have to remember that the way the rider sits and moves in the saddle will cause compression and shifting of the pad and saddle.

This proves he is a good, kind horse, because he should have bucked her off and run screaming into the night.  To show her what he was feeling I made a fist and dug int into her back next to her shoulder blades.  It drives the point home.  Now this owner notices every scratch, cut, lump, bump on this animal.  I think she notices if one of his eye lashes is missing, but this never even came on the radar screen.

So don’t fall into this sense of everything is fine and normal.  It may not really be.

Check and recheck.