Good Boy Today

Danny was a good boy today! I had a cancellation and figured since it was supposed to rain ALL day tomorrow, I would sneak in a quick ride in the morning before adding in some clients from the wait list.

He was a good boy. We did about 8 minutes in the arena and he was super so we went for a hack. :)

Fitting the rehab rides in

So, turns out.... Riding for 40 minutes every day, plus hand walking for 20 minutes every day, plus doing stalls.... makes for very long days! And some days.. it just doesn't happen. But today, I was able to get home early enough to get it done. :) Mostly!

We headed to Ashland for our 40 minute walk ride and we took the creekside path, which was a nice change. It put us in the XC field at the end of our 40 minutes, which... is often the case. But I figured I could get off and walk him back for the 20 min hand walk part. We got 11 minutes in. :) But hey, that's better than no minutes.

He was a good boy today! No antics, even when the heron flew off in front of us again. :) 

It's so magical there... I'm so glad that I get to ride there!

It makes no sense.....

Today.. on our trail ride... we had a blue heron fly out from the corner of our eyes as well as a gunshot going off in the distance and startling a flock of birds out from the bush. These things caused Danny to jump, but only jump in place. Good baby!!! Seriously good baby! YET..... yesterday.... walking out into the fields and spying the downed trees was cause to spin, bolt, and retreat! I just don't get it.... 
 
I'm becoming MUCH spookier with him being on stall rest! And it's not because I mind the antics or am afraid of falling off and getting hurt. It's because I'm terrified he'll hurt himself and undo his rehab. It's very stressful!

But at least he was a good boy today. We even did our new trick that we haven't really worked on yet. ;) Ha ha!! There was a cute pink balloon all mashed up on the trail today. Dan saw it and looked at it and wanted to sniff it. Then of course he put it in his mouth. Luckily I was able to pull it out (from the saddle) before he ate it. So yay!! We did "Touch", "Pick Up" and "Give" all in one today. With no practice. :) ha ha.. But that was the plan for a future trick. And we kept the trails cleaner and hopefully saved an animal from choking or other ill fated fates.                              (You can see the heron over the lake)

We did get our hand walk in today in the dark although it did involve a few scoots. That was actually due to Fleck... he was all freaked out that Dan was leaving him and went to running in the round pen. Sigh... Luckily Danny didn't get too carried away. 

 

But we didn't die....

Good Gravy! This is getting harder instead of easier! 

I am trying my hardest to get all of Dan's rehab in, but he's not making it easy either. Some days he's sooooo good. Like the day I rode in the front field and Fleck was cantering around. Dan perked up but didn't do anything. And then other days, he's rearing up 6 times while I hand walk him. Although he was pretty snuggly at another walk. Sigh...

Today was the Pony Club jump show at Ashland. I didn't want to deal with all the commotion there and wanted a change of scenery anyways. But... I didn't want to drive to Harbins as I've got a ton to do. The horse park trails were closed. I had to get feed so I thought about riding at Halfshire. Then I could hit the trails at Ashland without having to deal with show commotion and I could hit the trails we haven't been able to reach within the time limits of our rides. Elizabeth was nice and said we could ride there so we did. She warned us that there was some downed trees right where the wooded path opens up into the big hay field and that even Jack was a little spooky. 

So we started off and went around the paddocks in the back wooded area before I realized I had missed the turn for Ashland. I guess I had forgotten about the trees although I'm not sure it would have mattered. Dan was already on high alert but holding it together. We got close to the clearing and suddenly Dan dropped his shoulder, spun, and cantered/galloped back up the path. I was a little off guard and it took me a minute to bring him back. Sigh... Come on Dan!! That's not part of our therapy! So then he was so nervous and jazzed I actaully decided to get off of him and hand walk him past it so he could see that it wasn't scary. It worked, sort of. I did manage to hang on when he tried to spin and bolt again. My shoulders will never be the same.

I was finally able to get him to walk past it enough and then we walked down to the creek where I got back on. We had a fairly uneventful ride and then when we came back that way, I was smart. We approached with a long distance and he was able to see. I made him touch a few of them and he was fine. Alert, but fine. So we managed to get back home without any major mishaps. Hopefully he didn't do any damage to the muscles. Sigh... 

And still, more rehab rides

I'd say nothing exciting to write about, except... Danny still finds ways to make it exciting. ;) 

Sigh.... We managed to have a nice hack with Kelli with only a few mild popping ups/rears. But he settled after about 5-10 minutes, so at least now I feel like we can go with company which makes it a little less boring. :) And hopefully will occupy his brain more too.

Then today we had a nice ride until the very end. :) We started in the arena and did a tiny bit of dressage. He started doing the tongue thing so I tried to find a good note to end on and end. There's only so much serpentines and walk transitions we can both handle. And we're not allowed to do lateral work yet. So I was planning on hitting the woods anyways. Plus it got super hot and muggy this afternoon suddenly. Anyways, so we ended on a good note and then headed to the woods. We had a nice hack to the lake and Dan barged on it and acted like he was going to take a swim. Which.... was tempting, but... I had my saddle on and I was afraid if he got too deep with me on he would have to porpoise and that's probably not good for his butt. Regular swimming might be good, but... not porpoising. So I pulled him up and turned him around. We splashed a bit and then headed back home. He wanted to go into the XC field by the top so we did. I was letting him graze a little bit and we were both just relaxing enjoying the quietness. I had dropped my stirrups and was working on lengthening my leg and getting him to respond to my calves without feeling the need to lift my heel into him. So we were chilling and just resting for a minute. And then suddenly, he dropped a shoulder, spun, bolted, and bucked. Again, no stirrups and he was basically grazing on the buckle. Sigh.... I managed to stay on, mostly because it was a drunk Dan, and was able to turn him pretty tight. Unfortunately I ended up turning him towards the bench swing and the benches. I was afraid he was going to either get tangled in one or jump one, but luckily he stopped. I have no idea what spooked him, if anything. A big turkey vulture was flying around, so maybe that was it?? Argh.... Hopefully he didn't do any damage. Then we walked back a little on high alert but we stayed on all fours. :) 

 
 

Healing Updates

Recheck:
The ultrasound at 6 weeks showed normal healing in all of the areas but a little bit of scarring in the accessory gluteal. So.... we are increasing the walks, but still only walking. Still no real turn out and still drugged. But... at least it's all healing and hopefully this will reduce the scarring so that it doesn't create any problems. The current plan is 20 min hand walk daily plus 35 minutes walk rides daily plus turn out in the round pen at night as long as he's behaving. Every 2 weeks I can add 5 minutes onto the walks (either under tack or in hand). If I can't ride him then I need to at least put my heaviest saddle on him for a 35 minute hand walk.

  
Danny's cute when he's drunk.

So... that's the plan. And it's tough!!! It will most likely be a lot of hand walking at O'dark thirty and riding at O'dark thirty pm.

*Hand walking at 0'dark thirty am*

 Only maybe we will do our best to avoid night time riding as it was a super stressful night tonight!! (Hopefully they won't all be this scary!).

 Poor horse! I'm the worst mom ever! We had a pleasant trail ride for our 35 minutes and then I decided to let him graze for a bit in the XC field. Well, it got dark, which was fine. But then.... we heard this noise. It was pretty creepy! Dan got all tall and I thought, well, it'll go away. But no.. it kept happening, like every 30 seconds. I think it must have been the sprinklers???? Or deer snuffling at each other, but it was so consistent. Some angry bird?? Of course it was coming from the arenas, which we had to go past to get to the trailer. So I got off and Dan grew to about 18 plus hands. I managed to get him past the arenas and back to the trailer by half sining/half talking loudly to cover up the noise. But even I was getting a little freaked out. Unfortunately because it was dark I couldn't show him what it was to show him to not be scared. So I decided to untack him and quick and get him in the trailer and get home. I don't know what else I could have done, but this was clearly not the right choice. He was a little fussy during the drive home from what I could tell. When we got to the house and I pulled down the ramp the poor guy had apparently been having a panic attack the whole way home. He was lathered and dripping sweat and trembling visibly in every muscle in his body. Then he tried to turn around in the trailer 5 times, almost succeeding. I was so stressed about him and worried he was going to hurt himself that I started yelling at him because he was being awful in the trailer and I just wanted him to straighten up so I could get him off. Then I was afraid that he would come flying off and fall down the ramp, and I had parked in the driveway so I was afraid he'd really hurt himself. So yeah.. it was a mess. I finally managed to get him still enough long enough to pull down the butt bar and he came off without any mishap. I got him to his stall and gave him his reserpine and tried to let him chill but he was still petrified! I felt so bad! The poor guy. He ended up settling once I walked him around a bit and he realized there was no danger. Then I had to give him a warm rinse as he was so lathered up. Then he got to eat and I finally just turned him out because I was afraid he was going to jump the stall door. Luckily he settled in and was soon fine. But man I felt so bad.

 So the next morning I put him and Fleck on the trailer. I figured I might not have time to ride Fleck but I wanted him there for moral support. When we got to Ashland and I opened the ramp, Dan was trembling again but not nearly as agitated. He unloaded and was tense so I took him and Fleck both for a little hand walk around the arenas. He finally settled and then we had a boring trail ride. Phew. I ended up just taking Fleck home and sneaking in a quick nap before working because I was so tired from the stress and lack of sleep. But I did feel better now that Dan wasn't traumatized for life.

 We did get in our hand walk that evening too, although he was a little naughty.

 Then today, he was such a good kid. Granted, he's on drugs, but still. I didn't quite have enough time so I put the bareback pad on and away we went. He was great! No spooks/rears or antics! And then he was extra snuggly for his walk tonight.