Al, he has long hair. Not freakishly weird hair, but not normal hair. He looks like late spring all summer long. He sheds and maybe sheds almost out in late June and then starts growing again. By the end of September he has what some horses will call a full winter coat. Not a pretty winter coat either, an ugly, fuzzy, dry winter coat.

So whats wrong…..Worms? I dont think so, I worm him regularly and I have had a fecal count done and the vet said he was clean as a whistle. Ulcers? I don’t know enough about them to know. Cushings? Maybe, ugh I hope not. He is very young to have early onset, but it is not impossible. He is 13. The man I purchased him from said, he has always had hair like this. I did have a blood panel done on him two years ago, and the vet said he was not concerned, his hair really wasn’t that long, and his blood levels looked great. So we did no further testing.

So after our fall at Old Selam I decided we were done for the year and we are going to get this figured out. I spoke to the vet at that ride and she said, yes his hair is curious. And I should definitely have him tested if I was worried about it.

Signs of Cushing’s include:

• Hypertrichosis  (long, curly hair )
• Delayed haircoat shedding
• Change in body conformation (muscle wasting and rounded abdomen or “potbelly”)
• Decreased athletic performance
• Change in attitude/lethargy
• Fat deposits, especially along the crest of the neck and over the tail head
• Laminitis
• Increased drinking and urination
• Recurrent infections
• Abnormal sweating
• Absent reproductive cycle/infertility
• Neurologic deficit/blindness

The only symptom he has is delayed shedding.

Off to the Vet.

Well that didn’t go as planned! We headed to Old Salam for the Labor Day weekend. It was hot very hot. Started out in the morning felt great the trails were super easy, and very well marked. The first loop was really, really fast, 23 1/2 miles in 2 1/2 hours. Came into the vet check my horse felt great trotted out great I felt great because I carbed up all week for the first time and what amazing difference that was. Definitely a do for next time.

At this point we were setting first, but second and third were right behind us immediately behind us and I headed out for the second loop. At about 3 miles second and third place went by Al and I like we were walking, LOL. They looked amazing. Strong and just having a great time, so we waved goodbye to them and kept on keeping on. It started to warm up a lot! And we were doing slow switchbacks on old logging roads that had a lot of A lot of rocks vegetation and logs and tree branches. I am sure that’s what it was that took us out. At some point Al lost his footing and I thought he was going to regain it, because he was stumbling for what seemed like forever. The next thing I know we’re going down and he was going down face first. He fell over on me. We both jumped up, my first concern, immediately, I am thinking oh my gosh I hope he doesn’t get away from me, because he’s not the easiest guy to catch. But after 35 miles he didn’t even hesitate. He jumped up snorted he is a snorter and looked at me like, “What the hell just happened?” I was fine bruised up is all. He had blood coming out his nose he scraped up his eye pretty good and blood coming off of his knees and his foot behind his fetlocks. But turned out it was all superficial. His nose was just scrapes up his nose from burying it in the dirt. But his ankles began to swell immediately so we walked. We walked and we walked. He wouldn’t admit that he was sore he was walking faster than me sometimes. Two times I got back on him thinking, OK maybe he walked it off and then I would ask him to trot and he would be off not a lot, but I could tell he was hurt. So we walked 6 1/2 miles in. Probably helped us from being not as sore. It was about 195° or maybe around 95 I don’t know, LOL. I passed a couple of 25 miler‘s coming out and ask them how far we had to go and they said 4 miles with a couple of really steep grades, which I was super excited about. And one big water Crossing which was good because we could stand in the river for a minute or the big creek I guess. We made it back to camp, I believe my husband was disappointed we weren’t the big winners, but we were both safe and he was glad about that. The vet said maybe he was off if I lunged him she could tell and I said no he’s off I don’t need to lunge him I can tell you. He is such a good boy and I don’t know maybe it was meant to be a bonding moment for us, we’ve been doing some stretches and I’ve been working on his legs this week since the ride and he seems so kind and sweet, which he always is but I don’t know he just seems a little more sweet this week.

I’m headed to a race this weekend. It’s in Idaho city. We had our first win and first BC in an LD a couple of years ago.

I’ve been scrambling this week to get ready, I go in late to work on Wednesdays, so I got up and packed the trailer with everything I could think of. Robin is taking his horse this time which is a first for us and so I packed all his gear as well. Today I’m going to go food shopping at lunch and tonight I’m going to bathe both horses and the goal is to get out tomorrow morning fairly early. We have to drop COLE off at the dog sitter in Mountain Home. And then after that Idaho city for hopefully four days, until Monday. This is a 50 mile race, I don’t think they’ll be a lot of competition there because of Tevis two weeks ago and there’s a Grand Canyon ride going on right now. But you never know. Al seems to be ready he’s about five weeks into his shoes which is long, but I was wanting to let his feet grow because I had to have them done so close together last time. His Shoes seem to be working out really well, I hope we don’t lose one. Not sure why I had to put that out in the universe! I’ve tried to research Riding endurance and bell boots. And I don’t see that anyone is doing it and I can’t understand why. Probably because for 50 miles something rubbing and even if it’s rubbing lightly ,after 50 miles it’s a hard rub. So I don’t know it’s a thought for the future. He is super hairy right now because if we have one cold night his hair tightens down and he gets ready for winter, but this ride is up in the mountains and hopefully we will get a lot done in early before it gets too too hot and also he’s used to having that much hair. I don’t really think it bothers him too much as long as I can get him wet and cool him off. I did purchase a collapsible fold-able bucket. Because I saw another rider, top rider, using one so I’m gonna try that. In the past I’ve used a sponge and they seem to be pretty useless. Better than nothing, I still refuse to ride with a plastic bottle hanging off the side of my horse. Maybe I’m just a snob that way LOL.