E17: Girl Gang! Kelly’s red mare menagerie: Managing Kissing Spine, Navicular, and Lyme, Oh My!

About This Episode

Summer is here and so are new friends! Kelly Brann reached out to us via email with not one, but TWO red mare stories to tell. These beautiful ladies have given Kelly a crash course in managing Navicular disease, Lyme, Kissing Spine, metabolic concerns, and some mystery seasonal behavior changes. Join the girls as we hear about Kelly's journey through sight unseen horse purchases, and how she navigated diagnostics and healing her beautiful girls. Learn more about our showcased foundation, Teddy’s Legacy at https://www.teddyslegacy.org/ Email us with your interesting stories. Your horse may be able to help another. redmareproject@gmail.com Taylor CL Schouten, MS, APF-I Hoofcare Practitioner Wild Hoof Equine LLC www.wildhoofequine.com Kahlan Ettere Equine management Wise Choice Equine Wellness LLC Check out our website: www.theredmareproject.com Follow along on Facebook: The Red Mare Project Instagram: Wild_Hoof_Equine

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

— Welcome Back & Introducing Kelly and Her Two Red Mares

I was going to say rump.

Welcome back to another episode of The Red Mare Project.

Coming at us live from Rolex, our new friend Kelly Brann.

Kelly is a Renaissance horsewoman who reached out to us via email.

After taking a 20-year hiatus from the horse world, two Red Mares found their way to her, each with their own set of diagnostic mysteries and healing journeys.

Join us as we discuss how Kelly manages Annabelle's navicular disease and Lyme, while also doing the detective work on the mystery that is Wicked Reese.

Welcome Kelly, Annabelle and Reese.

Welcome to The Red Mare Project.

Okay, now we're recording.

Okay.

So this girl came to us out of the blue.

She says that she was recommended our podcast from her trainer, right?

Hell yeah.

Hell yeah.

Okay.

Number one, shout out her trainer.

I don't know who her trainer is, so we have to make sure we ask that.

We will do that very soon.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

You're next.

But she sent us kind of a crazy summary.

She sent us, what is it, four pages in the email?

It's a lot.

Like when you printed it out?

Yeah.

But I will say, reading it, even though the content was really sad because Homegirl is going through it, I love how she wrote.

Dude, right?

I feel like she's our friend already.

Yeah.

She's so eloquent, but also not boring.

I just love the way that she structured the email, just super profesh, but also really approachable.

I'm excited to hear the way she talks.

She seems like she's going to be really cool.

Yeah.

There's, I think, for sure some stuff we need to go over first, because she's got a big one.

She's got two big ones actually.

And they're both red mares, which so on brand, I swear we're not looking for them, but it just seems that the universe is like, no, no, no, we understand the assignment, we got you.

We will send them.

Hey, I love that.

I absolutely love that.

If the only thing that I would change is I would wish we could actually have the horses on so they could tell us what they're feeling and what they have.

All right, so yeah, so Kelly, she sent us two mares, and her story is really cool.

We'll let her tell the backstory of how she got back into horses and stuff, because it's super cute, and how she got them is actually, she is all of us.

Yeah, so relatable.

So yes, all right, so there's two mares here.

We have Annabelle, who is described as a perfect seven-year-old quarter horse, and then there's Reese, who is a sweet, loving kind, almost six-year-old, off the track, they're bred.

So Reese seems to be a little bit more complex.

There's more questions than there are answers with her.

So maybe we should unpack what's going on with Annabelle first, just to give a little bit of context, and then we can pave the way a bit for Reese.

Click VOTE CAST.

Yeah.

Cool.

Okay.

So yeah, why don't you go ahead and go through what Annabelle has, and then we can unpack as we go.

I'm just going to read her synopsis because this lovely email is all for us and it's very long.

Cool.

So she is seven.

She's perfect apparently, and we are dealing with navicular, does not say syndrome or disease, Lyme, maybe IR, and has a history of laminitic episodes.

So all stuff that's really tied pretty closely together.

Interested in hearing how the navicular came up and what came first, ill pain or lamellar pain?

I don't know if she specifically says anywhere, maybe you saw it because you're the details girl.

If we have bony changes or if there was a soft tissue event that caused the navicular, the caudal hoof pain?

I looked at her rads and I didn't see too much that stands out to me with her navicular bone.

But usually, I sent all my, I mean, of course, I'll speak to the vet about it, but I usually send all my navicular views to Sarah.

Sarah Hathaway is our senior navicular correspondent.

Yeah, truly, truly.

But dude, I got to tell you, this is so funny.

I was looking at her solar views and a couple of the obliques, and I was trying to figure out, I was like, what the fuck is on the shoe package?

I was like, I've never seen a setup like this before.

Dude, they were snow pads.

They were rim pads.

I'm from Florida.

I couldn't, so like, I don't know what...

What's a snow pad?

It's just like a little rim pad that goes in there so they don't get snowballs in their feet, so they're not like running around on ball bearings.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Yeah, but I've never seen them in a radiograph before.

Why would you?

Why would I?

So, that was a fun little learning for me.

Like, oh, that's what that's...

Hilarious.

Duh, because I was like, this is a really weird border.

Like, I've never seen anything.

No, dumbass.

I'm from the South.

Sorry, guys.

She's a sunshine girl, which is hilarious, because the sun and Taylor do not get along.

Oh, it just burns me.

Yeah.

All right.

So, I didn't see too many really crazy things.

I did see a good bit of thrush, though.

Womp, womp.

Interesting.

Womp, womp.

Could be the calling card, could be the catalyst event.

So, if you do want more information about Navicular, we'll give you guys just like a little, you know, Cliff's Notes version, but we have two and a half really awesome episodes on it.

So...

Yeah, we see them.

Yeah, mm-hmm.

No, sorry.

Sorry.

Go ahead.

Loki's is one that's, you know, obviously a work in progress.

It's my personal story, my personal horse.

But as we said before, our senior Navicular correspondent does have her own episode and she speaks much more intelligently than I can on the subject.

And she has a rehab farm.

So please go listen to King's Heel First Landing because it's an excellent episode about the cutest horse and his determined, badass, intelligent mother.

— Annabelle's Navicular Diagnosis & Lyme Connection

So that's a good reference point.

We've got a couple of different episodes here and there.

So just about horses that have X thing and Navicular.

So, you know, pretty common pathology that horses have, unfortunately.

So, or they're all just finding us because that's what we talk about.

That's true.

That's true.

But I will say Loki's episode, we did go into a lot of detail on Loki's episode.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

So there's some really good stuff in there.

And what I think, one thing that did kind of pop out about, now has some laminitic episodes.

I may be kind of jumping the gun on this, but this mare is seven.

Like homegirls should, and like don't do this, but technically homegirls should be able to live off of like gas station food and talk about.

And be good.

Yeah, literally.

Right.

So, and the reason I'm like, that's curious is because I remember Dr.

Kellyn, who is our ECIR, like fairy godmother.

She's the queen.

Oftentimes, like if you have a horse who is laminitic or just has some type of itis going on, that could be misdiagnosed as navicular and vice versa.

Oh, true.

That's a good thing to mention.

Right.

So I would, yeah, I would like to know.

But she says maybe IR.

So not that they're mutually exclusive, but that could give us a hint into what we're looking at.

Totally.

Like a truer picture of what we're looking at.

And I'm wondering if the lime causing systemic inflammation has any bearing on either of those two things.

We're in the hoof hurts because of the lime inflammation.

Totally, yeah.

I would think unless it's like a acute soft tissue like my situation, I would think that the like laminitis, the laminitic episodes would be linked.

I would agree with that.

Right?

Because of like angry capillaries?

I would think so.

I could be speaking dumb, but that sounds like the more likely thing to be triggered by that.

I would think so too.

Because I mean, especially like, y'all go back to Loki's episode because we did go into so much detail about it.

But the short of it, so the navicular apparatus, there's a lot of soft tissue in there.

And usually, if we have a horse who's diagnosed with navicular disease, which means that there's already bony changes to the navicular bone, their soft tissue in that apparatus is already pissed off.

Which means that if you have pain in the back of the foot, just logic would reckon that...

Is that the word, how you say that?

Logic, what's the phrase?

Logic would have it?

Logic would...

What the is it saying?

It's fine, we're smart, right?

Logic would have it.

That's what it is.

Look at us go.

I don't know.

But if we...

I don't know, it don't matter.

But if we...

I reckon.

But if we already have changes, if we already have changes to the navicular bone, that means that there already is soft tissue damage or inflammation or irritation.

So the soft tissue is already involved.

Which, if you just kind of follow that line of thinking, Lyme is going to kind of infiltrate that and be an irritant.

And if you have soft tissue damage in the foot that's already really, really sensitive, which means there's not a lot of margin for itis, that's just going to be fire under that whole shit show.

But the same thing could be said of laminitis.

Exactly.

So, that's a tricky, another sticky wicket.

This time on The Red Mare Project, another sticky wicket.

Because also, I mean, I know that you can have stress-induced laminitis.

So, really, as per use, I'm really excited, not excited, I always say that, I'm interested, super pumped, to hear about the timeline where all these things started.

I know she goes into greater detail in the email, but I want to hear it from the horse's mouth.

I want to hear what she was seeing and feeling first, and then what triggered what first.

So, I don't know, it's very interesting.

And this is the straightforward case.

Yeah, this is got another horse way more complicated.

Yeah, all right.

So, let's just kind of like wrap this up into a little bow.

So, navicular, we already kind of went over that.

And again, I didn't really see a lot of changes.

So, I feel like this may be more soft tissue induced.

And I did see some thrush in there, and we don't know what her frogs look like.

She could just be really crazy prolapsed, because I've seen that too.

Yeah, they're going to be land first if they have nothing to land on in the back.

What was that beep?

Was there a beep?

I heard a beep.

Oh, I don't know.

So, check out those episodes for navicular.

And then for Lyme, we just went over Lyme in pretty, not extreme detail, because Lyme is actually kind of a tricky one.

It's above our heads.

Yeah, Lyme's tough.

But Lyme is really characterized, like some of the main hallmark features, it's going to be, they usually tend to get really, really spooky.

There's severe body stiffness that's in there.

But the spooky stuff is really big and really big body sensitivity.

Yeah.

And that's skin to muscle to hearing to everything.

The whole world is just too much for a Lyme horse.

When they're in a flare like that, there's so much inflammation and bullshit going on in their body that everything feels like too much.

Some of them, you can't brush them, you can't touch them, wind scares them.

Like it's just a lot.

But I was also, and this is, I'm looking through your eyes.

I read this with your eyes, unfortunately.

Now I'm hearing, okay, I'm hearing some other for...

I'm skipping ahead.

Okay.

I'm hearing some other stuff go on with the other horse that I'm suspicious of.

— Wicked Reese: Suspecting MFM & Kissing Spine

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, then let's jump into Reese.

So Annabelle, just to wrap it up, navicular, Lyme, maybe some metabolic concerns, but I'm really iffy of that.

I mean, granted, she's a quarter horse, but sister is seven.

And that really kind of...

I've seen it before.

I've seen it before.

I have a five-year-old mini mule who her insulin is just through the, like, off the charts.

Right.

But that's a mini mule.

True.

They are starting at a deficit in that area anyway.

This is a full-size quarter horse.

True.

And then we have some laminitic episodes, which I don't know if she's actually rotated or if she's just had some itis.

So that's all very curious.

She went on the barefoot route.

We'll let her tell that story, but...

Yeah.

Okay.

Reese.

All right.

Her name is actually Wicked Reese, which is hysterical.

Sick as hell.

So she's a six-year-old off-the-track Thoroughbred, so she comes to us with a confirmed diagnosis of kissing spine, which...

I have feelings.

Big what?

Big feelings.

So, and I looked at her radiographs, and honestly, these are...

There's some bony changes on the DSPs, the dorsal spinous processes, but it's not insane.

If you do want some more information about kissing spine, we do have a really extremely detailed one.

I think it was My Mare's episode, and I think that was the second episode, Kissing Spine Goodbye.

Yeah.

So episode two.

So check that one out.

That one goes into pretty extreme detail.

But one thing that kind of stands out to me, and I actually just learned this this past weekend.

So I did my third whole horse dissection this past weekend with Bex and Aaron, and I'm pretty sure I'm obsessed with dissections.

I think you are too, you little weirdo.

I'm doing another one in the fall.

But I will say the reason why I love them so much dissections is because they are the most insightful and impactful educational experience you can have.

Hands down.

Hands down.

But one little snippet of info that I got from this one.

So Bex has done, she works on a lot of race horses, and she said that she's been noticing that the DSPs or the dorsal spinous processes on thoroughbreds are larger.

Which means if they're bigger, there is less room, which means that there's more.

They're more likely to touch.

Yeah.

Because they got no room.

But that would make sense because if this mare is only six, she likely is in that pool of having congenitally larger DSPs.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

These are young horses.

What a tough situation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

These are both kids.

Yeah.

So yeah, the kissing spine front, and I feel like all of a sudden now, kissing spine is like coming back on scene again.

I feel like it got quiet.

I think so too.

Right.

I don't know if that's because we're in an echo chamber of kissing spine and MSM, and MSM, MFM and navicular.

I feel like those are the three things I hear about all the time, that I wonder if we've created that for ourselves, like we've created that bubble of info.

True.

I mean, it's very possible because it is like, I do feel like I get so much navicular, I get so much MFM, and I get so much kissing spine.

And I feel like it's the same for you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But, yeah, it just, it's, I don't know if it's coming back again, but I do, I am seeing a decrease in the amount or frequency of the surgery.

I was just going to say, I wonder if, because people are realizing the surgery isn't the only answer, and it's oftentimes not the appropriate answer, so I wonder if there's been a renaissance in education because of that, because I know it's not a super old thing.

We haven't known about it for that long, and the surgery hasn't been done for that long.

Initially, when a problem is discovered, that's the natural way of it happening.

Problem is discovered, there's a medical response to it.

Everyone goes directly to that one clear medical response, because that's the only answer that we have, which is the surgery, and then we learn more and we figure out other modalities and other ways to fix the pathology.

So I think maybe we're just in that part of the journey of it.

I think so too, and that's really well said, because I think we are kind of starting to sway away from it and realize like, no, there's a more conservative route to do this.

And actually, two, I don't know if anecdotes is the right word, but two stories that kind of like support that.

So even yesterday, this is crazy, even yesterday, I was working on a client horse, and this mare has fused dorsal spinous perviasis.

Her back, it's just one shark fin.

It's- God, how many?

I think eight.

Holy shit.

But her back isn't painful.

Like if you palpate- Well, I guess.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, I guess.

I don't know.

It's like her back is not painful, which is very curious.

Even her owner and I were like, well, that doesn't make any sense.

And then there was another person in the barn and I'm going to start working on this person's horse.

And she was saying that this horse was diagnosed with kissing spine.

And it was so funny.

We started chatting and we exchanged numbers.

And this is totally de-identified.

So it's fine that I share this story because I feel like this happens to a lot of people.

We exchanged numbers and I went to text her my number.

And she actually, we chatted about me working on this horse.

I think it was like six months ago.

It happened to me literally like two weeks ago.

I was like, oh, hey, yeah, hey, we're back.

I told her, the story was, and there's a reason for this whole work around, is when we chatted originally, she was like, we're going to do the surgery.

— The Surgery Decision: Kelly Pushed Back & Was Right

And I said, listen, girl, I cannot participate in this rehab if you're going to go ahead and do the surgery.

I just, for personal reasons, I'm going to excuse myself.

If you decide to go to the conservative route and not do the surgery, I'm your girl.

Let's do it.

And when I saw her yesterday, I guess she had changed her tune over that time period and she was very anti-surgery and she never did it.

So we're working together now.

Let's go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

Making friends.

So I do think that there's been like a shift away from it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's natural.

Like we see that in the human medicine world all the time, you know, like, you know, statin's work, statin, statin, statin, statin, statin, statin, and then after they've been around for so long and we realized there's a better way.

Okay.

How about lifestyle?

How about this peptide?

How about changing your diet?

You know, like, it's just the natural way of things, which that is not to disparage any vets who have done or prescribed the surgery.

Totally understand.

And it's, they have helped a lot of forces.

We just know better now.

We know that that may not be the thing that we have to do.

So, I think that's well covered.

Do you want to move on to her next pathology?

Can I tell one other really cool story?

Yes, of course.

So, the last story I want to mention, I'll make this one quick, but this is just to kind of drive home the power of training a horse correctly and how you can use that with conservative treatments.

So, my trainer, and I am going to name drop her because we're going to have her on shortly.

So, Sarah Scroth of Unlimited Dressage, she is the prodigy of Paul Belasic, who I've also ridden with him too, and he's terrific.

So, one of Sarah's clients, who's a good friend of mine, her horse has, I believe, like three contact points for kissing spine, and they take him every, I think like six or eight months or something like that, just to get him worked on and checked out, blessed, and they oftentimes inject all three DSP points, all the contact points.

And this horse is Ben and Sarah's program.

I couldn't tell you how long, but she's consistent.

She's consistent.

And when they went back this time to Radiograph, they're originally, when they first got this horse, three points.

They are down to one point.

Shut up.

One point.

Yeah.

So, what we learn from this, kids, if you train your horse correctly, and don't let them kind of dump on the forehand, I'm not gonna get into all that, but if you ride your horse correctly, you can develop correct musculature, and you can open up the back.

Mic drop.

Yeah.

And also trigger for a shame spiral for a lot of people.

So, we learn better, we do better.

You are always the sunshine.

I think we take turns.

Oh my God.

Thank you for doing that.

Okay.

I say it that way because I know that I up.

That was for me.

Do what?

That was for me.

That was for me.

It's for all of us.

I'm looking at myself.

Yeah.

It's for all of us.

We've all been there.

Okay.

So, enough of me rambling.

So, okay.

The other stuff.

Tell us about the other stuff with Reese.

Oh God.

So much other stuff.

Okay.

Weird right front lameness ever so slightly.

Wild and psychotic in winter because of undiagnosed.

Insert pathology here.

She doesn't know it's undiagnosed.

Her red flags are, she's very sensitive.

So, she's really reactive to things like her.

Even flies are just really bothering her.

Her saddle pad, she specifically mentions, you have to quickly get your saddle on because if the pad sits there for too long, it's going to slide back because she's twitching so much, her fly response is just crazy.

She can be reluctant to go forward, says in the fall, which is a really helpful hint.

Wasn't sure if she was in pain, just thinking about pain, anticipating pain, ghost pain, whatever the situation is, but reluctant to go forward in the fall.

Winter, she's total psycho.

Super protective of her body, doesn't want to be touched.

She just wants to sit in her stall or in the paddock.

It just freaks out when anything is asked of her, including fucking, running wild, total freak out moment.

Specifically says in winter.

Interesting.

Really enjoys bodywork, gets a lot of bodywork and some serious anxiety, specifically being separated from her sister.

She is on an excellent diet here.

We'll let her go more into that and how she learned how to do that.

If she's got anything cool to mention there, but her diet looks great.

Really, the rest of her pathology is just question marks, but there are some hints there that I'm really excited to get into.

What are you thinking?

I have a thought in my head, but I want to know if it matches you, your thought.

Well, she's got some of the same stuff as Leah, right?

Sure.

Some of the same stuff as Stella.

She's got, this original, this initially sounds like ulcers to me.

Sure.

But I'm more interested in the, when she says she's freaking out, when she says she's wild, what does that mean?

Is that blind panic?

Because that's a huge hit.

If it's specifically in winter, she's cold, her muscles are tense, what's going on there?

Yeah, that's true.

And she did say that her trainer sent her, I think it was the, was it the MFM episode?

It may have been.

Hold on, hold on.

I don't think she said exactly which episode it was.

Oh, I think you're right.

I think you're right.

It's because that's like the first sentence.

Yeah.

She just said she has it, oh, okay, she was sent later in a paragraph, she said, yeah, I was sent your episode of MFM, which is something I'd never heard of because I had an issue with one of my girls that I can't seem to find the answer to.

— Finding The Red Mare Project: A Community Connection

So, what's interesting, and it makes sense, like she does, like, I think recognizing if it is blind panic or if there's more to it, but I went to a vitamin E myopathy or vitamin E deficiency because it happens in the fall.

That's true.

She said that she tested for it, so I want to know what test she did.

I think it was a serum test because shortly after- That's garbage.

Pardon?

That's garbage, then.

Yeah.

So we need a biopsy regardless.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We need some biopsies.

Yeah, she did not do one.

Yeah, and this is, I'm just quoting my vet on this one, so if anyone jumps down my throat with this.

So my vet says that the vitamin E serum testing is trash, and it makes sense because it's so transient throughout the day.

The only way you can truly assess for vitamin E is through muscle biopsy.

But I wonder, because she does, oh, okay, she doesn't say she's on it.

Yeah, and omniate, one serving omniate is only 1,000 I use, so that's barely enough to sustain life.

W3 oil is on, that's negligible amounts.

I don't, yeah, I don't see that, if she did a selenium test that it would have been on serum or red blood cells.

So I'm assuming that's what happened there.

Yeah, because I mean, she's, I can't remember exactly where in the planet she is, but if she has radiographs with snow pads, I'm assuming she does not have grass for the winter.

Yeah, yeah, and that fall, getting into the fall there, she probably, okay, well, no, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

We are, yeah, but we just get excited.

So she's at Rolex, which is so fucking cool.

And today is, right, like what a dope ass backdrop.

Oh, yeah, I'm wondering how she's gonna, I wonder if she's gonna be on her phone or did she bring a computer?

I have questions.

I don't know.

I don't know, but today is stadium and I would love for her to have stadium in the background.

In the background, yeah.

But, because actually that would be pretty dope if we're just like all chatting and then we get to watch Rolex in the background.

All right, well, I think she's here.

You ready?

Yes, let's go.

Cool.

Hey.

Our new friend is here.

Hello.

Hi, how are you?

Hey, Kelsey.

Hey, are you having so much fun?

I am having so much fun.

I am so tired though.

I am definitely running out of gas.

I didn't sleep very good last night.

Today's the last day where we're going to push through.

We're going to make it happen.

Oh my God.

Did you stay in a hotel or are there like camping?

What are you in?

We rented an Airbnb.

That's what we generally do.

Yeah.

Then we could cook and go home at night and stuff.

But let me show you guys where I'm at.

Oh my gosh.

How exciting.

I know.

If it gets too loud here, just let me know and I can move.

But I was like, oh, that'd be the perfect place to sit.

Yeah.

Hotelists, what have you been doing?

Okay.

So I tell you what, the thing that I've loved to see the most, I have a few favorites.

Of course, everybody loves Voight Martin.

Alyssa Wallace was fabulous.

She's cool.

She stopped.

She's great.

We volunteered for two days.

We were right there at the action, right down where you walk in and out of the Versace Gate.

You could see all of them.

I'm not touching their horses, but I was that close.

Alyssa Wallace was great.

Emma Clugman is fabulous.

I love seeing all the thoroughbreds competing.

Monica Spitzer on her Thoroughbred Artists was doing fabulous yesterday in the cross country, and I think she won the dressage.

That was pretty cool.

Just watch some of the clinics, the shopping.

Oh, the shopping.

Yeah, the shopping.

I know.

I was like, I'm not buying anything, and then like, but it's on sale.

Oh, you have to buy something.

I'm not buying anything.

Come on.

Famous last words.

I bought a couple of things.

Yes, always.

Man, that's so cool that you're there.

I've only got to go once, and it was like, I felt so bad for my mare when I got home, because I was like, oh, well, now we're Avengers, and now we're going to do all this shit.

Oh, Annabelle has no idea what's in store for her.

I've watched this clinic with Don, double Dan, no, Dan, Dan James.

I think his name is Double Dan Horsemanship.

He does like filming for the movies, like training the horses for movies and whatnot, and he was doing all these tricks and having them rear up and run away and go land on a spot.

I was like, okay, this is what we're going to be doing now.

As soon as I get home, we are going to start trick training.

That stuff is so fun.

I'll take that over riding.

If I never get to ride my horse again, as long as I can do that stuff, it's so fun.

It's such a good bonding time with your horse, and you get to really see them and hear them.

It's very different than riding.

It's fabulous.

Annabelle loves to play anyway.

She's like a giant lab, and I think she would love it.

We already do some playing, but this is definitely next level, and I am down.

That's awesome.

You'll have to keep us updated.

Send us videos of the stuff you're doing.

Of course, we'll do.

Awesome.

Kahlan, do you want to go ahead and lay down the groundwork in the game plan for today?

Rules and Regulations.

You can say whatever you want.

If you can freely curse to your heart's content or not, whatever you want.

If there's something that you say and you want to cut out, let us know even on the spot.

If you're like, oh, I shouldn't have said that, just say, Taylor, cut that out.

She's a genius wizard.

She's our disc jockey.

Also, because we've had, this week has been a huge week for growth for us with our other project that we have going on with our retail, and then also with the podcast, we've had a lot of communication from strangers, so we want to be really careful moving forward to not make people paranoid, because a lot of what we highlight is weird stuff, and we don't want anybody to be like, oh, shit, my horse has this and this and this and this and this and this and this.

— Podcast Growth, Retail & A Big Week for the Show

So I think how we want the game plan to go is to really focus on Annabelle.

And then obviously, you'll naturally go into Reese's story.

Obviously, that's your second child.

But I want, when we get there, let's be clear about like, we don't actually have a diagnosis for this.

This is the mystery.

And then I was thinking maybe if when things kind of piece themselves back together, we could even do update episode or we could do update post about your horses to highlight like, yes, she's a badass owner, she's not paranoid, she took the steps and she's doing the detective work.

Because we don't want to come off as like true crime, but horses, we don't want to be like, something's wrong with my horse and they're all dying.

Because people tend to contact us and they're little.

People can be, yeah, because they care so much.

They're like reactive.

Yeah, exactly.

Yes.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And we want them to be responsive and like, listen to the good that you're doing listening to your horses and that's for everybody, not just the doom and gloom of it.

Yeah.

No, absolutely.

I totally get what you're saying.

Cool.

I can't think of a good clue anyway.

Yeah.

I'm really, really, really impressed with my girls.

I love them to death.

I have had my moments, but yeah, I'm not doom and gloom.

This is our life and we're making it work.

Yes.

Awesome.

That's the whole point.

I love that.

Okay.

So do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to get your, I love the story that you sent us.

You are always.

Truly.

Yeah.

So I do have two girls.

I'm normally an air traffic controller.

That's my full-time job, but I guess I used to be in horses.

I went to college for horses way back in the day.

Then just life got in the way and I quit riding, quit horse, quit all of it for 20 years.

Then one day, my husband said his friend moved nearby and had horses.

Do I want to go visit them?

I was like, nope, absolutely not.

Then he was like, but I told him that you like horses.

I was like, okay, listen, we'll go visit, but don't go saying she loves to ride or something like that.

Because if they're like, let's tack them up, I'm going to panic and run out of there.

So we did, we went over and it took one second.

It was the smell, the feel, like I was instantly.

Like head first, diving, don't care where I'm going.

So then I called the local bar.

I said, I'm going to sign up for lessons like yesterday.

And they were like, absolutely, that's great.

We don't have adult classes.

I'm like, I don't care.

Let me with the kids.

We'll do that.

And I was like, you can do it, it's fine.

I won't bother the kids, I promise.

And she did, she put, I think I pestered them enough.

She put me in a kids class.

In the first class, it was like walk, trot, and then it was, and I'm fine with that.

And then it went through, everybody lined up in the middle, we're going to take turns cantering.

And I was like, oh my God, I have to canter by myself in front of all these kids and they're looking at me.

I was terrified.

Kids are ruthless too.

Kids are ruthless.

I could hear the judgment.

It was, so yeah.

But they were great kids, honestly.

They were, they were, and it was my go.

And I took off to canter and it was like I never left it.

So I was like, okay, I need more.

I need more of this.

And that led into leasing a horse and this little feisty halflinger.

And that was kind of, I thought I'll get you back into it.

It did.

And her owners were fabulous.

They offered for me to buy a share of her and I was like all in.

And then I was like, what am I thinking?

I am a quarter worst girl to my core.

So I started shopping around.

I was like, I can't buy a horse.

I can't afford a horse.

I don't know what to do with one.

I can't buy one.

Let me make some calls.

Yes.

I called some friends and I said, do you have anybody?

Do you know anybody?

And they were like, oh yeah, we have this one red mare next door.

She's fabulous.

Everybody loves her.

Only catches.

She's on auction right now and ends in six hours.

And I'm like, oh boy, what am I going to do?

But the more I looked at her pictures, the more I watched her videos, I was just fear goggles.

I was in heaven.

I had to have her.

I had to have her.

Fear goggles all over.

So here I am.

I'm like, I'm so distracted.

I don't know how I'm making it through life.

I'm laying in bed with my husband watching a movie.

I've got my phone on to the side of me, and I signed up for a bidding number just in case, and drinking some wine.

You know how that goes.

Dude, the phone's like tucked behind, so he can't see the screen.

It's like to, like, I can't see it.

It's to the side.

Oh my God.

Trying to pay attention to the movie, trying to pay attention to this bid.

I couldn't tell him.

And it's not, it's not because he would be upset.

I don't know what it was.

I just couldn't tell him.

You felt like you were doing some of the noddies.

I was, and I didn't want him to talk me out of it, right?

Yeah, you're there.

What's the worst thing that could happen?

I buy this horse, it doesn't work out, I sell her, whatever, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Of course, that's not how it works out, but.

— Kelly's Origin Story: The Auction, the Bidding War & Annabelle

So, yeah, I'm like, I'm bidding, I'm bidding on her, and then I'm in a bidding war, and then I'm like, absolutely not.

I am not losing this horse.

So, then I'm starting to strategically bid way higher, so my auto bids win, and then it ended, and I won, y'all.

And then I turned around, my husband's like, I'm going to go to bed, and I'm like, we're not really that tired right now.

I'm just going to go downstairs, hang out.

I go downstairs, they're like, oh my God, I just bought a horse, I'm texting all my friends, I just bought a horse, I just bought a horse.

It was, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't sleep, and then I was like, wait a minute.

Holy fuck, I just bought a horse.

I don't have a brush, I don't have a hoof pick, I don't know where to board her, I don't even know how to get her here from North Carolina, what the hell am I going to do?

Then it was like panic mode.

Yeah.

But whatever, I just went into machine mode, I was like, I'm going to make it happen.

Could not wait for my husband to wake up the next morning.

I was down in bed, I'm like, I'm doing my fingers together, and as soon as he cracked an eye, I was like, I got something to tell you.

I did something last night, and I'm like, oh my God, he's probably thinking I'm running out on him.

I don't know.

He has something crazy.

But he was like, did you buy a horse?

I'm like, oh my God, yes, I did.

He was like, I was like, do you want to see her?

He was like, no, I don't.

I was like, what?

I don't know how he just guessed it.

I think because I started to talk horse 24-7.

But yeah, he did finally come around.

But he wasn't down like I was.

Girl, you are all of us.

Yeah.

God.

There is a switch that turns on deep inside a horse girl.

When you see a horse that you want, there is nothing that you would not do to get to that animal.

It's like primal.

Yeah.

I fully believe you would have run there and grabbed her and run home.

Totally.

That's so awesome.

Yeah.

I think everything happens for a reason in my brain.

I think I was meant to have her.

I was meant to have Reese.

It just happened.

Anyway, I get all the stuff, details done, she's getting shipped up.

She's in the middle of an ice storm, like in Southern New Hampshire.

Where on the planet are you?

Where in the states are you?

I am in Southern New Hampshire.

I live in Southern New Hampshire.

Got it.

Not to get my house address, but yeah.

No, you're good.

New England.

You're in New England.

Got it.

I'm in New England.

It's cold.

We have an ice storm.

Girlfriend's getting shipped up.

She's just turned three-year-old, no hair, animal.

But I'm excited to have my like rainbows and butterflies moment, you know, with her coming off the trailer.

Oh yeah.

But they get there.

They realize they can't get up our driveway.

They park in the road.

They can't get her off the trailer, by the way.

She refuses to back off.

So they're like, do you want to come get your horse?

Now I'm terrified, but I'm like, yeah, sure.

Let me go get her.

I go get her and I'm like, all right, nice to meet you.

Can you back off?

I get her off the trailer in the middle of the road, cars are angry, beeping the horn and now I'm walking this brand new horse with these little aluminum shoes on her feet, which you can't have in ice.

Yeah.

Up this icy path, I'm trying to find any little patch of snow I can find.

I'm like, this is great.

Nice to meet you.

Now you're going to die because you're going to, sorry about that, break a leg, putting you down.

This is what's going through my head.

Of course.

So anyway, we make it safely to the barn.

And then I have my like, whoo, nice to meet you for real moment.

But it wasn't, it wasn't the rainbows and butterflies that I wanted.

But it was exciting nonetheless.

But yeah, that's how I got her.

That was a long story.

But I love that story.

That's hilarious and amazing.

I know she, it was just meant to be.

Everything was great.

So yeah, I had her.

She was great.

She was feisty.

She was way above my pay grade.

She was just really green.

So I was like, I can't do this.

I had to get a trainer.

I had a trainer come in and she started.

We basically started her again from the ground up, which was amazing, super great because it was good learning for me.

For sure.

To literally start from base.

So that whole year, that whole first year I had her, she was really great.

I started writing her pretty quickly a few months in, and then we went to our first show in June of that year.

I got her in January, went to her show in June.

It was just a baby show.

Wow, that's awesome.

Waters.

Yes, that's the Waters.

What year is this?

It was in 2022.

Got it.

Okay.

All right, cool.

Keep going.

Took her to the show.

She was fabulous.

We did all the trail stuff and the Western classes and everything was great.

Except, we got to the last class of the day, started in the showmanship class, went up to Colnay and I was so excited.

And Judge says, go ahead and go to back her up because that was the first obstacle.

And girlfriend stood straight up in the air.

I literally like looked at her with my arms out and I was like, what are you doing?

Like everybody's like standing around us going, oh, you know the gas.

I know the gas.

She stood, she got back down, we finished our test.

I apologized to the judge and we still actually placed in the class.

Hell yeah.

I was so proud of her.

But that was the first moment that like something started to be like a thing.

Yeah.

My friend at the show was like, you should test her for Lyme.

And I'm like, what?

Okay, sure.

I kind of shrugged it off.

— First Red Flags: Shrugging Off the Early Clues

Directly to that?

Yeah.

To the rare up.

That's what she said.

She's a fabulous horse woman.

A lot of experience.

And I was like, okay, whatever.

So then I took her home and no sense in being home a week or two.

Bad symptoms.

Well, I'm not bad, but weird symptoms started happening.

She started to be very like body angry, don't touch me, and this girl loves, now she's like scratch me here, now scratch me there.

Now under here, she was very light sensitive.

If we were riding and the light changed, she couldn't handle it.

She was spooking and she was head tilting.

That was one of the odd things that I hadn't heard from a lot of people before, but head tilting.

And so I did call the vet out and she was very live positive.

And yeah, so we started our own doxy then.

And she got pretty much better pretty quickly.

It started rolling again.

But these are all the things that I wish I could, I know myself now could go back and watch again because I would have caught things so much earlier.

Of course.

Yeah.

So that was it.

You know, one thing I kind of forgot to mention when she did come to me, my girlfriend had size triple au-t shoes on.

That's how tiny her feet were.

Oh.

Yeah.

And I was like, oh my God, aren't they so cute?

And you know, looking back now, I'm like, what's wrong with you?

Yeah.

I think it's like when you want to fit in a size zero, you're like, oh, I want it.

No.

This is not why she was not cute at three years old, not cute at all.

Wow.

What's going on with her feet now?

Tell us that journey because that's not an overnight thing.

No, that's not an overnight thing.

And again, this is where I like love to get the story out because if I only knew then what I know now, that I think maybe some of these things would have maybe not necessarily been completely prevented, but definitely would have been not maybe as bad as it got.

And I would have been way on more top of things.

So I did get original threads from the farrier when she first got there, just to kind of have a baseline.

And I don't know that they've necessarily changed a ton with like the way things are aligned in there, but girlfriend had some feet.

And the little tiny feet was the first of it.

I had a farrier, we tried barefoot at the time.

She was a little out, she says, she said, put shoes on her.

I said, okay, I literally listened to everybody blindly.

Yeah, I didn't try to learn about feet.

You know, now I'm deep diving into everything I can.

But yeah, I just listened to everybody.

It's a journey.

Yep, had shoes on her.

And then I ended up switching to another farrier.

And he was just sure the way he wanted to.

Now, mind you, one of the huge signs that I was having as well is she was not good for the farrier.

With back feet, her back feet were naked.

She would stand there and fall asleep.

When you got to the front feet, you were wrestling her.

Yep.

Had to stand her up against a wall or move her to the another wall.

And then we started doing her in her stall.

Like she, the anxiety was pouring out of this girl.

And I was just not, it's not that I wasn't seeing it.

I saw it and I was just like, I didn't know what to do with that information.

I kind of just sat it back in the back burner.

Yeah.

My horse is not good for the farrier.

I know she, something's going on, but I was just like, I don't know what to do with it.

So let me just not talk about it.

Well, it's easier to treat it like its behavior if you have no idea.

Like, yeah, because at that point you're trying to keep yourself and your farrier safe.

Yeah.

And then you just do the learning on the back end and then do better with new information.

Like it's so much, it's such a journey.

Like you're already doing a great job, obviously.

But it's, it's, it's hard.

Yeah.

So that was all in the first year or two.

And she was great.

We were doing things.

We were going to clinics, we were going to the beach, going to do mountain trail courses.

Like she loves to go places.

She is an explorer.

And, and again, looking back, I bet, I bet there was a lot more sides.

Like I remember her being really tired at the end of this, some of these clinics and getting very, very irritable.

And I, I just kind of shrugged it off that she just couldn't hang through the day, but very well muscled.

She, we, I did a lot of stuff with her.

Like I think she should have been able to hang.

I think her feet were probably hurting her.

And she was like, you need to get off of me and get off my feet because this is not feeling good.

So those, like, I won't stand in the lineup to get a ribbon kind of thing.

Or, you know, at the end of a clinic, they're trying to explain final day things.

And my horse is, you know, she's done, baited and just pinning ears and just you can tell, like she's just screaming it out.

Not happy.

You know, it wasn't that she was, I think her feet hurt.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I mean, like for hoof care too, like even at appointments, I have this conversation with clients like all the time too.

It's that's where like the real, like that's the magic trick is being able to parse out, okay, is this like, are they communicating something?

Like, are they actually painful?

Or are they struggling to figure out how to balance?

Or is it an education thing?

And that's the magic trick to be able to piece out all of this.

And sometimes it's all three, sometimes it's two out of the three.

So that's, that can be really hard to kind of tease apart.

Well, you didn't even have her along, you know, like you didn't know it's normal.

It did kind of get progressively worse, the front knee problem.

— Progressive Lameness: Front Knee & Deeper Hoof Issues

Sure.

So it was definitely more of a clue that there was some sort of something going on in there.

Yeah.

The two parts that she really struggled with were, she can't put her left front up on a stand, like when you stretch it out.

Yeah.

She can't do that with the left front specifically.

And when you're banging nails into her feet, she's just like, no way.

Like the farrier is constantly dropping and it wasn't his fault.

It was her, like she's strong, you know?

And he was very, very patient with her.

Sure.

But I think these things should have been a lot more of a bigger red flag into our faces.

You know what I mean?

Like, why is she doing this?

You know?

So yeah, that was just kind of like another sign that I was just like pushing aside that I have regret over.

You know, I just listened a little bit more and just hopped on the infamous Facebook.

You know, I guess that's our necessary evil for information.

Right.

And I don't know.

But her toes were really, really long.

I didn't know anything about it.

I literally was just wrangling her.

He was shooing her and I was like, oh, thank you.

Here's your payment.

Yeah.

I didn't ask questions.

You know, I didn't do anything.

So there that that was happening.

Let's see.

Then she honestly started to get some of her Lyme symptoms back again in November.

This was November 23.

Okay.

So we did go without Lyme for quite a while.

Well, it stays there.

I know it stays there.

But we did go without Lyme symptoms for quite a while.

Then all of a sudden she kind of got symptomatic again, and was just angry body again, the head tilting, the same things.

So I just called the vet.

She did another Lyme test.

Tom, it was up to 16,000, the OSDF is pretty high.

So, yeah, we did another round of DOCSY, and she started to feel better again.

And then she wasn't feeling better again.

That was starting to go into winter for that year, and she was starting to have issues again.

She started to look a little lame.

And so, I had my vet come out, and my normal vet, she would just basically do our vaccines and stuff.

She wasn't a huge lameness vet, and she would tell you that.

So, she was just like, this is not my wheelhouse.

So, she came out.

Yeah, she came out, she looked at her, she said physically, there's nothing really wrong with her.

You should take her to the Equine Hospital up here in New England.

So, I did.

I respect that.

The thing was, even though I didn't know what I didn't know, I was willing to do all the things.

No expert, here's my credit cards, take them.

They will get whatever they need.

They will want for nothing.

So, yeah, we took her right on up to the hospital, dropped her off for three days, and that's when they did all the testing and stuff, and declared her navicular.

Okay.

I don't know if you got a chance to look at those x-rays.

We did do a nuclear body scan on her.

Yet, I also asked them to scope her for ulcers while they were there.

They did.

Since she had some mild stomach ulcers as well.

Yeah.

But- Which is pretty, I mean, that's to be expected with pain and travel.

The doxy, I'm sure, destroyed her gut.

Yeah.

I was on earlier.

I don't know if you've ever taken it, but it will make you feel like dog shit.

Destructive.

I didn't know.

I did give her probiotics.

I don't think they did much, but now I honestly probably wouldn't do that again.

Most of the ones on the market are just expensive snacks.

Yeah.

Yep.

I do want to go back to the lime real quick though, so just because I feel like the head tilting, is that common?

Is that?

It's strange.

I have read that in the Internet, that head tilting is a thing.

I think it's one of those things you might overlook, but I would put her on the lunge line.

Obviously, if you're riding them, you can keep them where you want them sometimes, but you put her on the lunge line, she would cock her head to the side and just go right around.

Okay.

I was like, huh?

That also makes you go to the side and go, huh?

Was it always in the same direction, or did it change based off of direction of travel?

I believe she always tilts it to the left.

Okay.

Interesting.

I just remember it being head tilting, and I was like, wait, what's that?

That's weird.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Then just really protective of her body, and then the light thing.

Was it more like shadows, like her eyes couldn't adjust to shadows, or was it she couldn't handle brightness?

It couldn't handle the brightness.

Really?

Okay.

Yeah.

We have an indoor up there, obviously, because I'm in the Northeast, and where the windows are and the light shines through, as soon as we hit any of those spots, it was just instant change in her, and it would make her almost do spook-like symptoms, but it was just because the light was the problem.

Wow.

So does she go in goggles?

Does she wear goggles now?

No, she's fine now.

It's just when she's symptomatic.

I'd like to add, I did start researching more holistic Lyme treatments.

I got the book Healing Lyme off of Amazon by Stephen Bunner.

You know what I love about that book is he's so practical.

He's like, if you're here just for the treatment, skip all this other crap, go to page 212, and there you go.

That's awesome.

If you want to deep dive into Lyme, here you go.

I did end up treating her with that as well.

That was after the second dose of Doxy, but I gave her like Fetum and Japanese Knotwood, Cat's Claw, Lyme, Nozo drops that we had at our local holistic pharmacy, and then I used the first response in the aftercare from Hilton Herbs as well.

I love that company.

— Gut Health Protocol: The Product That Made the Difference

Yeah.

That made the most difference of all of it, and it wasn't destructive to her stomach.

Yeah, for sure.

Well, that's probably part of why it makes a difference too.

So much of the immune system is in the gut microbiome and in the way that your gut interacts with the rest of your system.

So it's such a scorched earth approach, which in a lot of situations is really necessary.

But if you can avoid it now that you know, that helps her in every way.

Like, you're going to have more longevity out of the horse.

You're going to have more, like the relief of symptoms is going to look different.

You're not going to have to have the rebuilding process the same.

Like that's, it's just the way to do it.

Yeah.

The gut is so, so important to your entire body.

I have that issue with myself and it's just changed my own world.

So now I apply it to my horses.

I mean, I protect their gut a lot now.

Yes.

Good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Their guts, like my number, very high.

I don't know if it's my number one, but it's very high up there in the priority list.

Yeah.

Feet and tummies.

Feet and tummy.

Yeah.

Tell us more.

You said that she had started to look lame which is what triggered you to ask your vet, and then she told you to go to the hospital, you had a workup and she was diagnosed with vicular.

Tell us more about that lameness.

Where are we in that now?

Where are we in that part of the journey?

Where we are now in that part of the journey is that, I wrote her last week for the second time since August.

Now she's on a barefoot journey, but she does not look lame on a lunge line.

If I have her in the arena, you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with her.

She's still toe-first landing without her boots on.

But we're working.

I told her she's looking like a broodmare, and we got to get back to work.

We got to get this body back together.

Your summer bottom.

I want to dig.

I know.

I was like, this is happening, so let's go.

I guess when I wrote her the other day, I wrote her literally for less than 10 minutes at a walk.

That's where we are right now.

But we're getting there.

And my baby steps, I mean baby steps.

We're baby steps.

A hundred million thousand shillion percent understand.

Yes.

But she's good.

She's going okay in boots.

She's going okay in boots.

She wears Cavalos.

Great.

Cavalos and I use wool pads in them.

You like them?

Great.

Okay.

She loves the Cavalos.

They last forever.

I'm in the same pair I originally are.

I know they do.

I wish they worked out better for my horse, but just his general shape, they're so perfectly round.

Yeah.

They don't work for all Hoof shapes, but they're killer if they work for your horse.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

I have the slim version and they fit better.

But yeah, my thoroughbred can't wear them.

They won't work for her for sure.

Yeah.

But Annabelle, they're great.

Yeah.

I'm looking at her.

Go ahead, Kahlan.

Sorry.

No.

I was just going to ask, do you turn her out in boots?

Where are you in that?

Yeah.

She's in M-237 basically.

I originally was trying to keep them off of her night to give her feet a break.

But I'm at a boarding barn and sometimes they don't get put on quite like I would like to have put on because I'm super credibly picky now.

No.

Mommy has to do it.

Trust me.

You have to do it.

Yeah.

I've taught a couple people how to do it, but otherwise she's 23.

I go see them pretty much every day.

I give her feet breaks and stuff.

If we have in the snow, when it was snowing a lot over the winter, I would let her go out naked feet because they would just pack with snow anyway, and it was soft.

So she did get some time out the winter with nothing on.

Yeah.

Totally.

No, that's a good question about turnout, if she's going booted or not.

I'm looking at her radiographs.

I saw her 2018 ones.

Yeah.

She's just tiny, tiny, tiny.

Tiny.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So awesome work on that.

I had another thing.

I was looking back through, hold on.

We have a lot of radiographs here.

Where are her most recent ones?

Yeah. 22.

Okay.

The most recent ones were done just a few months ago.

So I think that sent you a link almost.

Yeah.

Here we go.

Okay.

I got them here.

Also, when you go back and listen to this, it was so funny.

There was such a moment.

I was looking at her radiographs when she was in shoes, and I was like, what is this package?

She had a snow rim pad on.

Yeah.

She's from Florida.

I'm from Florida.

I was like, what is this?

And then it finally clicked.

Oh, okay.

Ha, ha, ha.

Now we just don't know what it looks like.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's so funny.

There's a couple snow pad options.

Yeah, that was a funny blonde moment for me.

No, she's looking pretty good.

She's a little thin-soled, which I guess that makes sense.

Yeah.

Yeah, she got a little corium compression in here.

But yeah, whoever's working on her, hats off to her.

Very good.

Yeah, she's doing a good job.

All right, so we're still toe-first without, and we're doing some of our walks, our hot girl walks.

What else is going on in that journey?

So what else is going on with her is, well, she has gotten injections a couple of times.

ProStride is what I've been using.

I never did steroids or anything.

I have an amazing sports medicine vet.

And the very first time she came back from the Equine Hospital, they had put her at four-degree wedges.

And right out the gate, and I didn't know any better, honestly, but it was a lot.

Yeah, from nothing to just bumping her up to these two.

So I was like, let me just message my sports med vet.

I hadn't been a client of him yet, but I had met him at our barn.

And I was like, you know what, fuck it.

— Two AM Vet Call & Finding the Sports Medicine Vet

It's two o'clock in the morning.

I was at work.

I said, I said, I'm gonna email him.

You know what?

Because sometimes the vets feel like they're unreachable, right?

Yeah.

I said, fuck it, I'm gonna email him.

I emailed him and I said, listen, this is what's happening with my horse.

This is what they said.

Here's all her records.

Can you see me?

Send.

What can happen?

By 5.55 in the morning, he had emailed me back.

He had marked up all of my x-rays to tell me what was wrong with them.

He had told me that I need to get her out of the wedges.

That was completely inappropriate for her.

He was like, I can come see you today.

I was like, what?

Yes.

Yeah, shout out.

Does he have a partner in Texas?

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

How does he won the lottery?

I know.

He actually does go to Texas A&M a lot and teaches and stuff.

Yeah.

He's fabulous.

He's all up and down the East Coast.

It's hard to get him.

It really is hard to get him.

I couldn't believe I got him.

Well, not for you.

He says it's awesome.

I know.

I couldn't believe it.

We call him the all-day vet because he will spend five or six hours with your horse.

He only does one horse a day.

Maybe he will do two at the same barn, but he will do it with you all day.

He will evaluate every square inch of her.

I was like, let me tell you what she's doing.

He's like, no, don't bother.

He was like, I already know what she's doing.

I'll tell you what she's doing after I evaluate her.

And we go in like, yep, told you.

And I was like, oh my God, you're so right.

Oh my gosh, I'm so jealous of you right now.

The great thing about him is he loves to teach.

So he will draw in the sand.

He will pull out his laptop.

He will go through everything with you.

That's great.

Yeah, that's probably why he's all set five to six hours with you, because he talks nonstop.

Yeah, and you're like soaking it up every word.

You know what else he's great about?

He was like, I'm a podiatrist.

I'm not a farrier.

He was like, we need to meet with your farrier and make a plan.

Love him.

I love him.

I know, I know.

That is fantastic.

You're very lucky.

So what was the plan?

I was very lucky.

What did y'all come up with?

So we did pro stride in her coffin joints, and we did the him and the farrier met, and they took her out of the wedges completely.

I also switched farriers by now, by the way, the long toe farrier gone, new farrier in.

They put her in a shoe with a lot better break over, aluminum set back because he wanted to change the position of the shoe on her foot further back, and put leather pads and dim.

Okay.

And she was going pretty well for a long time in that set up.

Cool.

Yeah.

She liked the dim.

All right.

That really speaks to, like, it's so specific with each horse.

I have, I know, actually, now I know one horse who enjoys sole pressure or some degree of, like, frog pressure that has navicular changes.

So usually they don't like that, but that really speaks to, like, it's so unique.

You can't, there's not, like, a textbook protocol on what to do for navicular changes.

It's whatever they want.

You just have to let them go shopping.

You totally do.

That's what I've been learning too.

You just have to feel it out.

I mean, I think this girl likes some pressure on the bottom of her feet for sure.

Good for her.

So even with the pads, like, she can't, doesn't go without pads in her boots.

She likes that support in there.

She likes the wool.

Did she, did you try other pads before the wool, or how did you land on wool?

My present farrier now, who's a barefoot farrier, she, we took the boots and we tried, like, four or five different pads and filmed her walking in all of them, and the wool was the top pad.

And so that's what we went with.

Yeah.

So are you buying, like, big sheets of it and cutting it, or are you buying?

Okay, good.

I'm buying a saddle.

It's like a saddle pad liner is what it is.

Oh, perfect.

Yeah.

Love that.

Yeah, perfect.

And I just cut them out all the time.

And then I washed them and I'll dry them and.

Okay.

Yeah.

A navicular horse will make you the most creative person in the barn.

It is.

I know.

You're so, I cannot tell you the crazy shit that I have put inside his boots, or tried to do with a shoe package just to see, like, what do you like, man?

What do you like?

Tell me and we will make it happen.

Our friend Sarah, I don't know if you've listened to that episode, another navicular focused episode with our excellent farrier friend, Sarah.

She has a navicular horse and a rehab farm, and a really successful health care practice, and she's just amazing.

She took mouse pads and just stacked mouse pads inside because she worked in the corporate world.

She was like, I'm just going to take some of these and we're just going to put these in here.

She's given me the play mats for kids, the giant puzzle piece play mats.

Those are great.

Just get very creative.

Yeah, anything.

I feel like an engineer at this point.

I mean, I was coming up with all kinds of crazy stuff.

People at the bar are like, what are you doing to that poor horse now?

I'm like, just mind your business.

Mind your business.

I got it.

I totally can relate.

Yeah.

So yeah, I got a new team now.

So yeah, I don't know.

That's where we're at now.

We're really looking up, but honestly, I love this horse so much.

I know her so well now with everything I've had to go through with her.

If she is just a Liberty Horse or my big giant dog out there, I'm okay with that.

Like I love her so, so, so, so much.

I can't even tell you.

She's just the best girl in the world.

But yeah, she's like a big dog.

— Annabelle the Big Dog: Scratches, Personality & Trust

She wants, she literally will position her body where she wants her scratches.

Oh, I love when they do that.

It's so funny.

Me too.

She'll lift her back high leg up so you can really get up in there.

I'm like, what are you doing?

And every time I scratch her, she grooms me back as well, every single time.

Oh, I love that.

That's an honor.

That's like you won the lottery.

It hurts, but you just got to stay in there and take it.

Just deal with it.

Yeah.

You got to take it.

It's so worth it.

I know.

I'm just like, thank you so much.

You're so much.

I bruises on my shoulders, but I love you.

I know.

She likes to play.

So that's another thing I do with her, like just for exercise because I think it's important to keep them moving with navicular.

She's got to keep going.

So, I don't want to just throw her.

I'm not a circle lunge line kind of girl.

She probably isn't either.

She, who would be?

It's like, I don't want to do it.

I want to go on an adventure.

Yes.

The couple of things that I do with her, that I think are really cool is one of the things is, because like I said, she's like a dog, so she likes to explore.

So I just will walk the farm and let her lead me and we're not stopping for grass.

No, that's not allowed, but you can go wherever you want to go.

She has taken me to some really weird and cool places.

I'm just like, I can't believe you want to go back here, but let's go.

That's really fun to see things through her perspective just to see where she wants to do.

The other thing that I do with her, she loves to play with a yoga ball.

He loves it.

So I'll shut that indoor arena up and we will just play and she kicks it and kicks it and kicks it and runs and she'll rare up and jump on it and hasn't busted yet.

She's got to bite it and just loves it.

She is like a dog.

She's a dog.

I love her.

She's so cute.

Puppy horse.

That's great.

I love, those are like my favorite personality types because they're so fun and like, they're usually really good communicators in what they need or when something's wrong, you go from having like this big playful boisterous personality to usually they're quieter or they're a little irritable.

But like you said, when her feet were hurting, she would become like unpleasant, irritable because she was uncomfortable.

Like that just makes it so much easier.

Some of these quiet stoic horses that start.

In stoic, it makes it really hard to read when something's wrong.

Yeah.

So it sounds like you're doing a lot of cool stuff with her, and I guess hopeful is the right word, but just like encouraged that you have such a good attitude about this.

Because this is a really hard thing that I can relate to, and a lot of our listeners and a lot of our guests can relate to.

I think you're doing so much good for her and for your own mental health by having this attitude.

Yeah.

I mean, you know what?

You got to figure out what works for them.

Not small horses or major size horses.

They got to find their thing.

If she ends up being a Liberty Horse or just a walker on the farm horse, it is what it is.

I just love her.

She's like my big giant lab baby, but you got to keep them moving.

I think that's really important.

I can't just set her and forget her.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All this groundwork stuff we've done have just built such a relationship.

I've learned, but now I'm oversensitive.

I'm like, wait a minute, did you flick your ear to the left a little too much?

Is that pain?

Oh, is that a fly or are you switching your tail because you're angry?

Welcome to the club, sister.

Welcome.

I know.

I'm like, step back hot and step a half an inch too far back.

I think something's going on.

It's definitely something going on.

You are all of us.

Yeah, it's definitely over.

But you know what the hard part about it is when you get deep diving into your own horse like this, get such a relationship, really learn how to read them and listen to them.

When you see other people's horses and you're like, oh, that horse is screaming at you.

There's a reason when you're tacking her up, she's trying to bite you and she's arched her back and she's swishing her tail.

It's not because she just doesn't want to be ridden, I promise you.

It's like, just listen and there's been times where I've tacked Annabelle up and she is like nasty.

And I'm like, okay, I get it.

Take it back off.

We don't have to play that.

Yeah, I get it.

I hear you.

You know, it doesn't cost you anything to make her happy.

Like it should be fun for both of you.

And if she's having a miserable time, what kind of, that takes the fun out of the whole sport, right?

Like it, I don't want to be working with a teammate who is like thinking that they want to cut my head off, right?

Like I want us both to be having a good time.

Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

For sure.

So I did want to ask, you made a note on here that there's a bit of a concern about her being insulin-resistant.

Do you want...

Yes.

Yeah, what's up with that?

What's going on there?

She's seven.

Okay.

Homegirl's seven.

Yeah, she just turned seven this year.

And so anyway, I wrote her...

So she's been barefoot now since August of 2025.

That's when I pulled the shoes.

And that entire time, up until a month ago, I started tacking her up and working in our tack.

We play in her tack and then I finally got on her.

I was like, today's the day.

I'm going to get off the air and ride you.

And it was great.

I walked down the path and then she did not want to go back to the barn.

And I'm like, no, no, no, no, we're going back.

Like she was like, no, let's go.

But I'm like, I can't hurt you.

— Farrier Work & Reading the White Line Changes

OK, so we did that.

Couple of days later, the farrier came to trim her up.

And she was like red all the way around the white line area of her foot.

Front row.

And she was really foot-ouchy.

So like a couple days before she started to get foot-ouchy.

And in my head, y'all, this is where you have to listen to yourself.

I saw that spring grass coming in.

And I was like, I know that's not good for her.

And I was like, really should pull her off, really should pull her off.

And I didn't.

And I should have.

And I didn't.

So she kind of got a little laminatic episode going on.

Yeah.

She, so I did pull her off immediately.

Yeah.

And I bought her a muzzle.

I had a girl.

Okay.

She's not happy at all.

I need everyone to listen.

And I'm, listeners, focus.

Muzzles are not bad.

Kelly, thank you for saying that.

Yeah.

Keep, keep going.

It is what it is.

And I told her, I'm like, you know, it's, and people at the barn kind of give me side-eye a little bit, but I'm like, I have a limb force.

It's founder and I've got to put her to sleep or she's got to wear a muzzle.

It is what it is.

I don't care.

Well, and it's likely not all year, you know, you're going on your walks, she's got lots of enrichment.

It sucks a little bit, but it is the least harmful option.

Like she's naficular, she can't sit in a stall for months at a time when there's grass.

She's going to be lame from that.

She's going to be body sore from that.

So she's either lame and foundered in a stall and lame and miserable and having no mental simulation, or she has to wear a little muzzle and she's fine, like it's fine.

Yeah.

I got her a pink one.

It's with her vibe, so I think she's going to be fine.

Which one did you find that she can tolerate?

The Gigi Equine is the one that I went with.

I got the halter, I actually just went to their booth the other day, got the stickers for it just in case I broke her chin.

Yeah, so I put it on her right before I left, and she was fine in her stall.

I went to go graze grass, but I didn't introduce it to her properly.

I just wanted to try it real quick.

That's one of those things, you're in a hurry, and you're like, let me try it.

No, that's not a good idea.

We're going to try it when I get back.

But they gave me a lot of tips on introducing it, like putting grass through there, putting some treats in there.

I think she's going to be totally fine.

I really don't have any worries about it at all.

I just left her off grass while I was out of town.

But yeah, the muscle is happening and I'm happy about it.

She's already on a forage-based diet anyway.

She's been on that for over a year, probably a year and a half.

So we've already had a good start on that anyway.

So cool.

It's amazing how much like, and a lot of people don't realize, with horses that have navicular changes, and we talked about this so much in Loki's episode too, if they have bony changes, they have soft tissue changes.

And they're so much more vulnerable to the inflammatory factors that come with the sugars and the grasses and just like high sugar diets.

And even just a little bit of grass can be enough to piss them off.

And just doing a muzzle can completely change the game for how they tolerate a season.

It's huge.

No, you're so totally right.

And in the midst of all this, we did move to a different barn for a short period of time.

And so they forced, I don't want to say forced, because that sounds aggressive, but they only feed their grain and you have to feed their grain or you have to pay to feed your own grain for storage.

Right.

So I was like, all right, we'll try it.

Within two weeks, she was so out.

She, her whole body hurt.

I was like, nope, not doing this.

We're done with that.

Not doing this.

Shouldn't have done it to start with and knew better.

We're going back to, I don't care.

You can charge me $80,000.

She's going back to her forage-based diet.

Sure.

That's how I am.

Like I don't care.

I don't care.

Yeah.

Nope.

And I get it.

Like a lot of farms have to do that for the sake of convenience.

Like it's fine.

Like we get it.

We understand.

But it's wild how even just like a hay change or just those little things with these horses, they're so vulnerable to those little changes that it can be game changers.

Yeah.

And that's tough at a boarding morn too with the hay.

So like I can't really test the hay.

By the time I get the test, we're on another load.

Yeah.

You know?

But I do try to really be vigilant about is, you know, trying to at least look at the hay.

Is it soft and steamy and green?

I mean, green hay for her, like that soft green hay will definitely give her a little bit of a flare.

She needs something a little more like dry, coarsy, steamy type stuff like.

So yeah, I built her hay box in her stall and made a whole hay, like cover thing.

It's kind of like the one Snyder has, the corner hay feeder with the topper, that slow feeder on top.

Push down thing.

Yes.

I made like a slow feeder of stuff, so she has to eat out of that now.

She's very controlled.

She's very micromanaged.

Love that for you.

Awesome.

I mean, that makes sense though, because going back to the possibility of that being IR, it's kind of hard to delineate that because she really, I mean, this is all vet world, but she's seven.

She should be able to live off of like Mountain Dew and gas station food.

But Dr.

Kahlan herself even said, oftentimes navicular pain can also be misdiagnosed as laminitic pain and vice versa.

So it's kind of hard to, but then also like the bruising in the white line suggests more systemic inflammation.

— Building the Care Team: Questions to Ask a Professional

Because if you come to a vet and you tell them the story and blah, blah, blah, and they're like, oh yeah, are they on Equiox or oh yeah, I don't need to talk to your fairy or we're just put them in this package.

If they're not willing to be flexible to understand your individual animal, that's you write them off, you know, like, okay, next.

Exactly.

It sounds like you have a really good team.

I do have a good team.

Honestly, we have a good body worker.

It's really funny.

I heard your story with Vanessa and Harry.

Yeah.

I listened to that one.

When she was talking about her trainer describing her, I was like, oh my God, my trainer is the exact same way.

Then she started talking about her body worker.

I'm like, you know what?

I have a fabulous body worker too.

When I posted on the Facebook about something, my body worker replied and said, you should talk to one of my clients.

She has a horse like yours.

She sent me her link and it said, Vanessa and Harry.

I was like, it's the same people.

Her trainer and her body worker are also my trainer, my body worker.

That's awesome.

I know.

I was like, that's so crazy.

Because my trainer actually messaged me too and was like, hey, I have a client.

I was like, I know already.

Yeah, I know.

That's so funny.

How cool.

I swear, there's only like 12 of us and we all just keep running into each other.

The horse world is so sad.

We all just keep bumping into each other.

I know.

But yeah, listen to your horse.

Everything doesn't work for every.

I just try all the things.

I literally just try all the things and I try to keep it as holistic as possible.

I mean, I do believe God made these feet somewhat functional, right?

Yeah.

Mustangs seem to live fine.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Facebook is that necessary evil.

You can get bad information there, but you also...

Sometimes you only need that one person, that one person to comment something intelligent and you try it.

You're like, yep, this is it.

This was it.

Thank you.

Yeah.

But I think going back to the comment about working with our vets, I think it's what you said about educating ourselves.

I think that's so critical so we can more so participate in the conversations.

Yeah.

That I think is that delineating factor because if we just say, okay, that's fantastic, that's great.

We do need to follow protocol, but I think being able to participate and say, okay, well, I hear what's going on with this.

This horse does X, Y, and Z, just knowing this horse personally.

If they're a Houdini with muzzles, for example, the vet might need to be able to participate or give more customizable feedback for a horse that has these limitations, or whatever's going on at home, if there's certain barriers to care, how we can customize to fit that.

You know what I'm saying?

It's more of a participatory need.

And also too, lest we forget, personalities.

You're not going to get along with every single human being that you meet.

Vets are human beings.

There's an ask for every seat.

If it don't vibe, it don't vibe.

So, absolutely.

You know?

Yes, definitely.

But yeah, I know you definitely need to educate yourself.

Like I'm learning so much about anatomy these days and muscles and nerves.

And I bought the Hoof book and, you know, just, my life is work, research, force, and a little family mixed in there.

Work, research, force, family, you know?

You can't ever learn at all.

It's not, you can't ever get enough of it.

So, yeah, that's what makes it exciting.

That's what makes it worth doing.

Hi, I'm Bree, and a year ago, I bought my dream horse, Teddy.

But just eight short months later, he was diagnosed with wobblers and rapidly declined until I had to make the choice to let him go.

The only way I was able to get a diagnosis was by getting a CT scan.

Out of state, expensive, and honestly, not accessible for most people.

But it gave me an answer, even though it wasn't the answer I wanted.

That's why I founded Teddy's Legacy, a non-profit dedicated to helping horse owners get advanced diagnostics to make informed, compassionate decisions for their horses.

We also support research, education, and welfare.

I know what it feels like to love a horse and not have the information you need to wonder if you're doing the right thing.

I have a CT scan candidate who applied for a grant through Teddy's Legacy.

Someone who's in the shoes I was in not long ago.

Someone who loves her horse and is desperate for answers she can't afford to get.

If you want to learn more or support our mission, you can visit our website at teddieslegacy.org.

Do you want to, should we switch gears a little bit?

Do you want to tell us a little bit about Ms.

Reese?

Yeah, I will.

I can tell you about Ms.

Reese.

The barn that I was at, the original barn I was at when Annabelle was doing, she was off and doing rehab stuff and on the ground.

We had some hudger jumpers at our barn that was like renting a space and I was watching them, and I was just like enamored.

I was like, this is so cool.

I'm so impressed by these girls.

This looks so fun.

I was like, I want to jump.

I want to do this stuff.

I want to play.

I don't want to go show.

I'm over that now.

I totally don't even care.

That is not in my will house, but I'm to think about going to play on some fun little cross country course or, you know, I don't know, the dreams, right?

Yes, entering through the fields and jumping logs.

I'm like, I want to, I'm going to do this.

I'm like, Annabelle will never be able to do that.

I wouldn't ask her to do that.

— Rehab Decisions & What Kelly Won't Ask of Annabelle

She's not going.

I don't want her to do.

I don't want to hurt her, not risking it.

So I was like, let me just, let me just peek around, see if I can find that big gilding that I always dreamed of.

Then I'm like, I can't afford a horse.

I cannot afford another horse.

Can't happen.

But I'm just going to- I'm just going to look.

I'm just going to look in the Facebook and then once you start looking at ads, Facebook tailors it to you.

Now, all the OTTBs on the planet are now coming up on my feed.

And then my old fairy had recommended a thoroughbred seller up in Maryland Delaware area.

So then I started to look in at her stuff and looking at her rider stuff.

And here it goes.

I come across this post of this glamour shot of this red, bright beaming, powerful thing with these bold black eyes.

And was just stunning.

Her forelock was just, bam.

And it was just, it was just, I was just like, oh my God.

Like she is stunning.

So I'm watching all her videos over and over again.

And like, I can't do this.

Shut my computer.

No, no.

Fight it, Kelly.

Fight it.

I know.

I'm like, I can't.

I saw, I can think about.

I was like, you know what?

I'm just going to send her a message.

I'm going to be the tire kicker that she says she doesn't want.

Right?

I'm going to send her a message and I'm going to say, hey, can you tell me about this horse?

She's going to tell me all the bad things.

And I'm going to say, okay, it wasn't for me.

Oh, no.

She's fabulous.

She's great.

I go, but I'm an amateur, like for real an amateur.

I'm not.

And she's like, no, she's great.

She's calm.

She's sweet.

She's loving.

And I'm like, okay, all right.

And then I was like, you know, maybe I'll call her.

Maybe I'll call her because thoroughbreds have bad feet.

And I already have a- I'm not doing this again.

Yeah.

I'm not doing this again.

So I call her and I can't wait for her to tell me how terrible her feet are.

And I'll be like, that's it.

Not getting her.

Yeah.

And she, yep, I call her and she's like, I go, so tell me about her feet.

She goes, they're fabulous.

And I'm like- I'm looking at her rads right now.

These are, these are pretty, these are pretty good.

Girlfriend has awesome feet for a thoroughbreddit.

Nonetheless, then like, okay.

I was like, I just, I was just in love with her.

So now girlfriend, Racy is getting, her name is Wicked Reese.

She's very, very, very red.

Y'all can look her up.

She's, I love her so much.

She's amazing.

Her little YouTube videos are still out there.

Oh, and for when I, her little sale videos and stuff, they're on YouTube.

But she's getting shipped up.

She's on the way.

The shipper calls me like 30 minutes out and he's like, listen, we had a problem.

Last time I dropped a horse off, she lost her mind.

She was freaking out in the trailer.

She was kicking the trailer.

I had to take her off, put her back on.

Her cocks are bleeding and busted to shit.

She's only got one shoe on.

I was like, Oh my God.

They get there and I walk over to the trailer and with my little bright pink lead rope that I just bought for her, it's so cute.

And he goes, Do you have a chain actually?

And I was like, Oh boy.

Here we go.

I was like, I don't really have any.

And I was like, Oh, my showmanship lead has a chain.

Let me go get that little flimsy thing.

I go get it and come back.

He puts it all on her, walks her off the trailer and hands her to me.

And I was just like, Oh boy.

He's like, Have a nice life.

Hi.

Oh my God.

I'm like, what, what the hell?

What am I doing here?

Like this girl is out.

She is no, she doesn't care that I exist at all.

Yeah.

She's wild, head up, bleeding.

And I'm panicked.

I'm like, this is, this is scary.

But luckily I had some good friends at the barn at the time.

They all swooped in to help me.

We took her into the wash rack.

We started rinsing off her legs and I didn't know if she'd kick me.

So I was trying to just talk to her as easily as I could.

Get in and get out.

She was just, she was a nut job, y'all.

She was a nut.

So I went and put her in her paddock and just like said, be free, like good luck to me.

She ran back and forth and raced and raced around.

I was like, oh my God, she's again.

I'm dead.

I'm dead.

Yeah.

I just, I had to walk away.

I walked away, went to the barn, did some things, gave myself some chores, went back out.

She had calmed down a bunch more.

And by the next day, she was totally fine.

The next day she was fine.

She was, she was awesome.

Sweet.

Very, very sweet.

She's like a cat though.

She's like you sit down, the cat jumps in your lap and wants to snuggle with you and purr, but don't pet it because it's going to bite you or, you know, claw you.

She wants to be with you.

She's so, so sweet.

So anyway, she was great.

I mean, perfect.

I started riding her like a week later.

I'm like, I got to suck this up.

I got to go ride her, packed her up, took her to the round pen and walked truck canner right out the gate and she was great.

She was so good.

I felt so happy with her.

She, I was instantly just riding her outside and she was perfect.

She had no issues and then all of a sudden there, I was buying a new saddle for her in October and so I got her.

She came in July all the way to October.

She was perfect.

Like we were really bonding.

Everything was lovely.

I'm starting to really get to know her.

Got her new saddle for her in October.

It was on trial.

Went to go put it on her and out of nowhere, she just exploded.

Like I was like, okay, like crazy explode.

I jump off of her.

I can barely get her into the barn from the arena.

I ended up taking her into the barn, throwing her in some random stall that was nearby, ripped the bridle off her head so she didn't tangle herself, left the saddle on.

— Chaos at the Show: Reese's Explosive Behavior Erupts

She was so out of control.

I was not there anymore in her mind.

She just needed to give her some time to figure it out.

I just left her in there, let her figure it out.

I ended up giving her some alfalfa pellets just to give her brain thinking on something else.

Of course, people are like, you're rewarding her bad behavior.

I'm like, no, I'm not.

That's not how horses work.

No, I'm not.

No, I'm changing her thought process here.

I'm just trying to get her to think about something else, and she brought it back down.

Took her out, took the saddle off, tried again the next day.

She was just kind of weird.

I told my trainer, I said, listen, something's going on.

I don't know what's going on with her.

Of course, again, I'm an amateur.

She's a professional, and she's so kind to y'all.

She listens to horses.

She does not say, push them through.

That's not her.

She's like, something's going on, slow it down.

That's how she is.

Love that.

So she's like, let me take a check.

So we took her to the round pin, and she just went crazy.

She was racing around it.

Her brain was clearly outside of the round pin.

Her veins were all popping out.

You could like jump in front of her to get her to change direction.

So she wasn't running you over.

She kind of knew you were there, but she wasn't having anything.

I was like, it's Lyme.

She has Lyme.

That's what's going on here.

Call the vet.