Louize Needs a Massage

I went to the barn today. I haven't ridden much this week because I've been busy and it's been really humid all week, as high as 85% humidity! Riding when it's that muggy out just kills me so I usually just go for a visit or if I do ride, it's just a little bit. I went out to the pasture and gave Louize her medicine, then Yada and Louize both got some apples. Yada finally likes apples! In fact, if she can get to my brush bag and there are apples in there, she will try to steal one. When I first got her in April, she wouldn't touch apples! If I put any apple slices in her grain she would eat around them. Now she likes them. Most likely because Louize enjoys them and Yada is all about food so she must think they have to be good if Louize eats them.

I decided to switch things up so I rode Louize. I tacked her up and got her ready. I noticed over the past couple months some stiff stifles on her. She gets some muscle cramps in her back legs when my farrier is doing her feet and she used to pick up her feet really well, now she just takes the weight off and I have to DRAG her leg off the ground and up so I can pick them. Sometimes I have to let go of her foot when she starts cramping up. Poor girl. I did a little stretching with her legs before I rode to try to soften her up a bit. Those back legs didn't stretch much. I can tell she definitely has some stiffness. I got up on her back and walked around a lot in circles, changing directions, wandering into the driveway, and checking things out. A few times I tried to get her to trot but she really didn't like that. She'd stick her ears back, get stiff, go for a couple of strides and then stop. She took a lot of leg to get going more than a few strides! I remember when I got her almost 5 years ago, it was a fight to make her stop! She's on a joint supplement and her joints seem fine for the most part. She doesn't creak or crack or anything but Jason has also been noticing some stiffness in the morning. After walking for a bit, Louize loosens up some and acts better. I'm considering getting an equine massage therapist to check her out and rub on her sore or tight muscles to see if that helps her any.

Until then, I'm going to buy some bute from the vet tomorrow and give her some whenever she's acting particularly sore or stiff. I can't give it to her every day as she already has a stomach ulcer issue and bute just eats away at horses' stomachs. Going to ask the vet for anything else I can to do try to loosen her up other than a massage therapist. I'm going to start doing a little massaging of my own, leg stretches to loosen her legs up, and ride her around every day or almost every day. Just walking to try to get some motion in and some blood flow to her muscles and joints. I won't do anything else with her for a while until she starts acting better. She started getting really stiff after the 3-hour trail ride. That might have been a little much but she really loved it! She did eat her grain fairly well after! I guess she felt better after getting some well-deserve attention since Yada gets a lot of my grooming attention lately.

Hopefully, she is just sore and a good massage and some bute will bring her out of it. I think she might be sore and stiff from A) Age, as she is 22 years old, B) Lack of exercise since I don't ride her often, and C) She has gained back 100+ pounds since the middle of March and without a lot of exercise she could just be getting stiff with adjusting to her weight. Another factor is that she does have high calcium levels (higher than my vet's scales can reach. They had to send her blood to another facility to read it) and that can cause muscle weakness and soreness. Poor girl. We'll do what we can until we decide whether or not massage will help her.

She was being really cute and loved the attention she was getting! Especially when Jason came back with his girlfriend's kids. They LOVE Louize to pieces! I had to try my hardest to not offend the little girl when she wanted to ride Louize. I honestly didn't want a small child on Louize when she was acting so stiff and sore.

Here she is, looking cute as ever! Sorry it's dark. It was poor lighting in the barn when I took this.

As a reference point to how much weight she's gained, this is what she looked like in February right before I moved her to make her healthy again. This was AFTER we moved her. Looking at this picture makes me want to cry, especially after the old barn said they didn't know what the problem was. "She's eating everything she's getting so I don't see the issue!" Really? I do. I can see every bone in her body! This was taken around the beginning of March.

Here she is, last week, soaking wet after a shower. Not a rib in sight, except for a slight outline as she was stretching down to eat!