Horse Hearts, Herd Health, and a 3 day weekend!

The latter half of this week turned out to be interesting and, when topped off by a 3 day weekend, I would consider it pretty successful. 

On Wednesday I got to participate in an equine cardiology wet lab. The lab had 3 stations: learning to auscult the equine heart, taking an echocardiogram, and dissecting equine hearts. In the first station we listened to a healthy (but fat!) horse's heart, then heard a horse's heart that had many murmurs and atrial fibrillation. We each got to practice performing an echocardiogram on a horse, which was awesome. It was amazing to get to see the valves moving and the heart squeezing on the screen while feeling the live horse under the ultrasound wand.  Finally, a pathologist walked us through a dissection of the equine heart, including what pathologies of the heart might be present and identifiable during a necropsy. Here's a pic of me with my heart!

Thursday was the first day that my group met our Herd Health horse, Holly. Herd Health is a program sponsored by the SCAAEP (Student Chapter of the American Association of Equine Practitioners) where a group leader and a few other students are assigned a horse to care for the year. This is a great program for people who have limited horse experience to learn more about horse care and handling! I'm a group leader, and 2 other students are in the group as well (shout out to Rian and Kayla!). On Thursday we performed basic grooming techniques and a physical exam. Our horse is pretty unremarkable health-wise, besides her being old as dirt. I'll take a picture of her soon to put up, but she's a 27 year old black Quarter Horse mare.  Our group will be performing basic upkeep, including vaccines, deworming, etc., throughout the year, usually monthly. Plus she'll make a great palpator horse for large animal anatomy next semester!

We had the day off today since it's Veteran's Day, so I slept in, watched some tv shows, and went horseback riding. I'm riding a 16.3 hh Oldenburg-Thoroughbred mare, and we definitely have a lot to work on. Most of our ride today consisted of having fights and swearing in frustration. Needless to say, I wasn't pleased, and we need to keep working together on our communication. Or I need bigger spurs. 

No other plans for the long weekend; maybe I'll catch up on reading and studying. Thanksgiving Break is only a week away, and I already can't focus well. I'm going to California to spend my first holiday with my boyfriend's family. We're planning on going to Napa/Sonoma for wine tasting, and possibly San Francisco. I think it'll be my first warm Thanksgiving, which will be interesting. I'm sure I'll get another post or two in before then, so check back!