The South Dakota Cowgirl

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All The Things That Happened This Spring: Part 2

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Part 1….

It’s a good thing that Avie came up lame when he did. The books had opened for Guymon on April 11, and closed on the 16th, giving me time to NOT enter – so I wasn’t out a $200 entry fee. Which was good because I’d already spent about 3 times that much at the vet in Texas. 

I decided to head to Kansas on Monday morning. It turns out, my friend CJ, at Perry Quarter Horses was pretty much exactly halfway between where I was in Texas, and where I needed to go in South Dakota to see the vet.  She’s one of my sister-from-another-mother-friends.

We had a great time riding, drinking, eating, and looking at their 2019 Foal Crop. They also let me ride their gorgeous red roan stud, Romeo (Bob Hes Quick). I was in heaven. That’s a cow-y dude! Plus, he’s kinda drop-dead-gorgeous.  I’m pretty sure I need to have a baby sired by him. 

On Wednesday the 24th, when I should have been headed to Oklahoma City for the BBR World Finals, I drove North towards home. Thursday morning couldn’t get here soon enough for me. 

We arrived in South Dakota to rain/snow and muddy pens, where I kept my horses overnight. I was so anxious to get Avie looked at, that I left for our appointment an entire hour early and I was only about 20 minutes away! 

When the vet came and knocked on the door of my trailer, I was ecstatic. He watched Avie move, and pulled up the xrays. First thing he says is, “well, we do have fractured side bones, and there’s some low ringbone, but we’ve got navicular changes going on in here too.’

The course of action we took was this:

We injected cortisone and hyaluronic acid into the coffin joints. He was also given an Osphos injection. Osphos will help slow the navicular changes he’s experiencing.  After the injections, I was instructed to stay off of him for 4 days.

The next step was to take him back to the vet for a follow-up. He still wasn’t 100% sound on both fronts; he was about 100% sound on the right front, but the left front, we couldn’t get sound.  Doc told me to get him reset and run him — that was the best we were going to get him. 

In the meantime, I’d spent countless hours on YouTube and the inter-webs studying what should be done to shoe a horse with navicular. I mean, he’s not the first horse I’ve had to shoe that has had navicular changes but he’s the best horse I’ve ever had to shoe this way.

Through my search I found Gene Ovnicek. I was sold. Sign me up.

Below is a playlist of a crippled navicular horse that Mr. Ovniceck gets sound through shoeing.

That led me to find someone that could map a foot and that would use a Krosscheck Leverage device.

I ended up hauling my horse dang near to Minnesota, to get him shod by someone that I felt confident could get him sound. And guess what? He’s sound.

We made our first runs, since he’s been sound, last weekend and I’ll be danged if he didn’t blow me away. It felt great! I do have to be careful now about where I take him to run him, because the concussion from the ground isn’t our friend.

So far, so good. But this rodeo season will be interesting, and different to say the least.

About ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Jenn Zeller is the creative mind and boss lady behind The South Dakota Cowgirl. She is an aspiring horsewoman, photographer, brilliant social media strategist and lover of all things western.

After a brief career in the investment world to support her horse habit (and satisfy her mother, who told her she had to have a “real” job after graduating college), she finally took the leap and stepped away from a regular income; trading the business suit once and for all for cowgirl boots, a hat, and jeans. She has not looked back.

When Jenn first moved to The DX Ranch on the South Dakota plains, she never imagined she’d find herself behind a camera lens capturing an authentic perspective of ranching, and sharing it with others. Jenn has always been called to artistry, and uses music, writing, images, home improvement, and her first true love of horses to express her ranching passion.

Horses are the constant thread and much of her work centers around using her unique style of writing to share her horsemanship journey with others in publications such as CavvySavvy, the AQHA Ranching Blog, the West River Eagle, the family ranch website, and her own website.

Using photography to illustrate her stories has created other opportunities -- Jenn’s brand “The South Dakota Cowgirl” has grown to the level of social media “Influencer”. This notoriety has led to work with Duluth Trading Company, Budweiser, Wyoming Tourism, Vice, Circle Z Ranch and Art of the Cowgirl, to name a few. She also serves as a brand ambassador for Woodchuck USA, Arenus Equine Health, Triple Crown Feed and Just Strong fitness apparel. Her photography has been featured by Instagram, Apple, TIME Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Oprah Magazine. Jenn’s work has been published internationally, has been seen in several books and has graced the covers of several magazines.

Jenn became a social media influencer by accident when she started to explore Instagram as a way to share her life on the ranch with folks that don’t get to experience it. It’s grown into an incredible platform that she uses to empower women, create an environment for self improvement and share life on the ranch.

When she’s not working, she loves to drink coffee, play with her naughty border collie named Copper, start ranch colts, and run about the country chasing cans. Her mother still thinks she doesn’t have a “real” job.

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