Today was supposed to be a long ride day. I was hoping for somewhere between 15-20 miles and I was hoping to move along fairly quickly. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.
Maggie was sluggish, not really wanting to move forward consistently like she usually does. She just seemed unhappy and not herself. She was eating well but the first hill we climbed she was not handling it well at all. She was really struggling to catch her breath when we tried trotting. So we walked. We even had to stop a couple of times so she could catch her breath. It wasn't even a huge hill. It's a long hill but a gradual climb. Normally she zooms up this hill fleet of foot. She gets winded but nothing out of the ordinary and within a few minutes, she recovers. Today, she wasn't recovering.She was verye sweaty and it seemed to be that tacky sweat. Not good. I got off. We walked. I lead her down the steep decent and I turned towards a more level trail to see if she would perk up at all. She even hesitated a couple of times as we came down the hill. She seemed to be struggling getting herself down the hill even.. I was glad to be on my own two feet as she struggled and stumbled her way down. By the time we got down, she was no longer breathing heavy. Her nose seemed a little snotty but it was clear. Otherwise she seemed fine. She had cooled off and was drying. We headed back down the trail. She seemed to perk up a bit and we made our way a few more miles on level ground. We headed back up to the trail that connects to the Pete's Ridge trail. It has some uphill but nothing steep. She trotted along and things seemed normal. For a few minutes. As soon as she had to do a little bit of climbing, she struggled again. I got off again. I let her graze and just watched her for a few minutes. She definitely did not seem herself . It took her some time to catch her breath but finally did. I loosened her girth and we turned around.
Decision was made. We had to head back to the trailer because something was off with her. Her heart rate was also not recoving well. We had only come 8 miles and she acted like we had gone 20 with hills. It was only in the 60's and wet so the humidity level was higher than usual.
As we made our 4 miles back to the trailer, I could not imagine what was going on with her. Then it dawned on me. I did notice she was displaying signs of coming into heat. She acted JUST like this a month ago when she came into her cycle, in fact she got colicky on me.
I got her back to the trailer. She ate her beet pulp well . No other signs of distress. We loaded up and I ran out to where "T" was training for archery. The archery school training course location is an 80 acre cow pasture with a water tank that Maggie rarely will drink out of it.She dove in and took 5 big gulps. I put her in the round pen out there and let her graze for the next hour until "T" was ready to finish.
I went ahead and electrolyted her when we got home and then she gladly ate it all. It appears that this heat cycle is going to cause some performance issues for her.
She will get most of this week off , unless the weather forecast changes dramatically. We are set to get severe , heavy rain tomorrow and the rest of the week is more rain.
Maggie was sluggish, not really wanting to move forward consistently like she usually does. She just seemed unhappy and not herself. She was eating well but the first hill we climbed she was not handling it well at all. She was really struggling to catch her breath when we tried trotting. So we walked. We even had to stop a couple of times so she could catch her breath. It wasn't even a huge hill. It's a long hill but a gradual climb. Normally she zooms up this hill fleet of foot. She gets winded but nothing out of the ordinary and within a few minutes, she recovers. Today, she wasn't recovering.She was verye sweaty and it seemed to be that tacky sweat. Not good. I got off. We walked. I lead her down the steep decent and I turned towards a more level trail to see if she would perk up at all. She even hesitated a couple of times as we came down the hill. She seemed to be struggling getting herself down the hill even.. I was glad to be on my own two feet as she struggled and stumbled her way down. By the time we got down, she was no longer breathing heavy. Her nose seemed a little snotty but it was clear. Otherwise she seemed fine. She had cooled off and was drying. We headed back down the trail. She seemed to perk up a bit and we made our way a few more miles on level ground. We headed back up to the trail that connects to the Pete's Ridge trail. It has some uphill but nothing steep. She trotted along and things seemed normal. For a few minutes. As soon as she had to do a little bit of climbing, she struggled again. I got off again. I let her graze and just watched her for a few minutes. She definitely did not seem herself . It took her some time to catch her breath but finally did. I loosened her girth and we turned around.
Decision was made. We had to head back to the trailer because something was off with her. Her heart rate was also not recoving well. We had only come 8 miles and she acted like we had gone 20 with hills. It was only in the 60's and wet so the humidity level was higher than usual.
As we made our 4 miles back to the trailer, I could not imagine what was going on with her. Then it dawned on me. I did notice she was displaying signs of coming into heat. She acted JUST like this a month ago when she came into her cycle, in fact she got colicky on me.
I got her back to the trailer. She ate her beet pulp well . No other signs of distress. We loaded up and I ran out to where "T" was training for archery. The archery school training course location is an 80 acre cow pasture with a water tank that Maggie rarely will drink out of it.She dove in and took 5 big gulps. I put her in the round pen out there and let her graze for the next hour until "T" was ready to finish.
I went ahead and electrolyted her when we got home and then she gladly ate it all. It appears that this heat cycle is going to cause some performance issues for her.
She will get most of this week off , unless the weather forecast changes dramatically. We are set to get severe , heavy rain tomorrow and the rest of the week is more rain.
2 comments:
Jonna,
Raspberry leaf really helps with the "mare" issues. We buy it fairly cheap in bulk form from an herb supplier. If you buy it from
http://www.bulkherbstore.com/Red-Raspberry-Leaf-Organic-Cut
It really helped Phebes who was just beside herself miserable when in heat. A pound lasts a long time. Same stuff as Mare Magic, and the other concoctions that cost a LOT. It takes a few weeks to get into their system, but then you will notice a profound difference. You just add a little with their feed each day and they usually like it.
Of course a disclaimer: always check with the vet first ☺
EG- I have read about the raspberry leaf.. was just hesitant to try it but I will check it out... anything I can do to help her ... ofcourse, I also need to think if there is something else going on as well... I have a call into my vet.. Did Phebes act as though she didn't feel well or was she just "marish"?
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