Nova is an amber champange filly with some grey highlights (on her neck) existing right along with the champange. Nova was given quite a beginning in life. Her mother bossed everyone around which made Nova think she could boss everyone around too. Her mother made that happen. Nova is filled with intelligence, confidence, a "wanna be with humans" and a great confirmation.
Nova was so special, I decided to let Jenny Vaught train Nova before she was old enough to ride. They played with ground games from about age 18 months and on. They played on flat ground, moguls and sloping hills. Maintaining the requested gait on the ground was challenging. Nova developed a collected canter on her own
In the summer of 2006, Nova came dragging her leg up to the gate of the pasture. She must have been kicked.
We called the vet. The problem was her knee. We didn't see any broken bones. Her leg was splinted. She layed down a lot in her stall. She was confined to her stall. It was 90-15 degrees at the time. The nice Pine Dell people put the fan up so that it would point down on the floor to give her relief.
Finally, the splint was taken off, but a wrap remained. She could be hand walked. By now she was feeling pretty good and walking wasn't exactly what she wanted to do.
Thank goodness for her Parelli training. It helped with everything during this difficult time.
At the last, we took more pictures and did pain blocks to locate where the limping pain was coming from. The vet had to inject the pain block fluid right into her knee. Not only was this very tricky, but germs could get into her knee. Of course we were in a barn. Not only the heat made me sweat this out. We eliminated one area and still limping. We did another block for another area of the knee. This time she did not limp. It was determined that the fluid around her knee joint had leaked.
We ended up giving her Adequan injections into the painful area of her knee.
Her limping stopped. She came home to recuperate.
Her training started up again early in 2007 and has not stopped. Since she has started to being rode outside, she has stumbled. We realized that her body might have gotten just a bit "off" because of all that limping and pain back in 2006. We got her adjusted. It helped. We are still in the process of getting her the best sport massage therapist we know -Rhonda Martin but December 2007 weather is hammpering this. She is improving and decreasing the stumbling since her original adjustment.
Rhonda examined Nova and said she looked like she was two humans dressed up like a horse. The front didn't match the back. She's had three treatments from Rhonda and the stumbling has stopped. Her fox trot and flat foot walk are awesome smooth.
Rhonda later determined that Nova needed chiropractic treatment and recommended Dr. Randy from Rolling Meadows Vet Hospital. What a difference he made. She was "out" everywhere. No wonder!
In the Fall 2008 Missouir Fox Trotter Celebration, Nova was ridden by Jennifer Vaught in most of the versatility events. She was very impressive. She didn't make champion yet, but we have years to go!
I started riding Nova after a little bit of vacation from the Celebration. She's home and my main horse since October. We have jelled pretty good. I feel very balanced when riding. Here in February 2009, I did my first jumping barrels with her. She's a smooth jumper.
We are working on riding bridleless, the gaits and flying lead changes!-2/28/2009
