Back on the hope train

 So, yesterday I met Kelli for a ride. I think Dan was ready. He was eyeballing me as I worked the girls and seemed very interested in doing something fun. :)

 

We got to Ashland tacked up and then did our in hand pillar work first. Then I got on and did our walking pillar work. I put the new fager bit back on him because... I don't know... I figured with the lameness curveball it was sort of going to be tough to figure out if he did get his tongue out was it because he was still lame or was it the bit and no matter which bit I used the variables were too many, so... I wanted a better ride so I went back to the "new" bit. No tongue, by the way! Yay. Anyways, I got on and did a tiny bit of pillar work under saddle. He was a bit more braced than usual, but...we carried on. Marvin wasn't doing great so I didn't ride for very long before Kelli offered to get video of us trotting. So... we trotted. And.. he was sound!!!! Yay! He actually felt pretty darn good. I tried the left lead canter and while he was weak and fell out of it quickly, he felt good. Then we tried the right. Blech. It's still pretty awful. Not nearly as awful as it was in my lesson, but still pretty icky. Kelli got videos for me to send to Keelin. And... (later obviously) Keelin said that she thought he looked pretty decent and not to panic. She said that we expected some ups and downs, so... that's reassuring. Anyways.. then I watched Kelli and Marvin and when she was done, I trotted a bit more. Dan felt even better after a bit and we practiced what we had learned in our lesson, with the connection and such. Kelli said he looked better then when she videoed. 

 

Then we went on a trail ride. A nice long one. We saw the heron take off just about right in front of us. We saw a bunch of deer. And then on the way back we saw the coyote again by the XC field. He trotted across the path in front of us and then went back into the woods, but stood and watched us. He was pretty. And big. 

 

So yeah... a pretty good day. I think my plan is to stop cantering for another 2 weeks or so and just keep doing our pillars, walks, and trotting, focusing on the connected trot (not collected.. just connected so he stays in pillar 2 and is more balanced and not on the forehand) and then, slowly reintroduce the canter on the lunge. That way he doesn't have to balance me also. And then we'll see how that goes, and then slowly add it back in under saddle. Except, we may have to canter on the beach so, hopefully we'll have gotten to that point by then. 

 

And then... I saw that one of Dan's half brothers had gone to Denali Equine and seen Dr. Kate, who had worked with Dr. DeClue. And she was talking about how great she was, and... it got me thinking. Maybe I should take Dan to her. She's in NC, so... a good 5 hour haul, but doable. So then I listened to a podcast by her and now I'm pretty convinced I need to take Dan to her. So I emailed her and sent her videos and we chatted. She said she could help that canter, but said that it would involve injections and some rehab lunging, so that we should probably wait til after the beach if I wanted to ride at the beach. So, now... Dan and I will go to the beach Dec 18 to the 21st... haul home the 21st.. then leave at 4 am to go to Denali Equine on the 22nd! Poor dude. Poor me. :) But at least we will get to go play at the beach. So, that might change my plans.. we may not canter at all, or maybe lunge a little bit.. I don't know. I don't know what to do. I don't want to make him worse, but I also wonder if lunging would help? We shall see I guess. But hopefully this will be the last little bit to get him squared away. I feel like the pillar work would eventually get it, but I'm wondering if he needs a little bit of help to unravel him first and then we can keep doing our pillars to keep him happy. I hope so... God I hope so! I just miss doing the fun things with him so much.