Needy

 Daniel has been needy today and yesterday! I went out to catch Lyric last night and he was all up in our business and almost knocked me out with his head. Then was trotting to stay with us. I think maybe he just thought I had more cookies.... But then today he was extra needy too. He was following me around the pasture and all up in my space. But with happy friendly ears and he wasn't throwing his butt at me for scratches. Weirdo! But man I do love him. Maybe, just maybe, he's trying to tell me he loves me too? 

 

Today was sooooo darn hot and I had a massage appt for myself this morning. My arm is feeling awful so I found a good sports therapy massage therapist. And it was awesome! So hopefully she can fix me! But by the time I finished that, got adjusted and then got the recycling dropped off... I didn't quite have enough time to take Dan to ashland for a ride before Dr. Barrow showed up for our vet appt. So... I decided that since it was so hot too, we would just do groundwork. His posture has sucked lately. So we did. We went to the arena and played. And he was a goober. We did our pillar walking and worked on him yielding to the halter pressure. He was getting better with it. We also played with the poles and then I tried to get him to yield his body around me but he thought I was trying to lunge him so he grabbed the lead rope a few times and took off. But I didn't get upset... I just tried to lure him back in with my "come here" cue and it worked. He was really more engaged today with me than usual. He wanted to play! But not just his games. So we had fun!

Then he got a rinse because even though it does NOT feel like Fall these last two days, he has embraced the Pumpkin Spice theme and had a neon orange butt! After, I let him hang out in the stall with some hay to cool off and dry off for Dr. Barrows. 

  

 

I pulled him out and explained where we were with things and we talked. We ended up ultrasounding his left proximal suspensory and... no tears. Just lots of chronic calcification/fibrosis and irritation. She said that it wasn't even that big/inflamed, so.. in her opinion, she didn't think the retinaculum cutting surgery was going to be that helpful for him. Which... phew, in a way. I'd really have to think hard before doing another surgery for him. I just... don't know if we have it in us. We talked about renovo and she said that she felt like renovo was better for regeneration... and he didn't really need that. She suggested we just throw some steroids in there and see what happens. If it holds him for a good 4 months... then maybe we can try something else at that point... whether it's renovo, PRP (probably more her choice at that point) or even some bone marrow stuff. So... although I'm still slightly wondering if I should have done renovo... just because others seem to rave about it... we did the steroids. He was a super good boy. She got him drunk as a skunk though. Ha ha! Rompin did him in. Oh, and we did foot rads before we did his ultrasound. He looks pretty good up front... and neutral behind. But we did talk about how he's twisting out of his shoes, so... I think we decided that perhaps instead of a denoix.. or even a steel shoe with a toe plate... maybe we just do a pour in pad... that would "float" his toes, and also keep him from twisting out of them hopefully. And give him caudal support. So... she'll talk to Patrick so... back in shoes next week. I'm so glad I spent money on those denoixs... then another $50 to get Russel to put one back on and then take one back off! Oh, and he is missing his clip on one, so maybe it wasn't even in his foot! Sigh... but it was twisted... 

 

Anyways... He was a good kid and snuggly again that evening when I turned the girls back out after their shockwave. He'll get his last shockwave again soon too. And hopefully the shockwave, the shoes, and the steroids will get him feeling good again. And then maybe, just maybe, I can keep him feeling good without him self-destructing again!

 

Solo Ride

 Today I took Danimal to Ashland and we went for a hack. We were all by ourselves today, which was pleasant. We just moseyed around, although I did make him do the water treadmill again today. We also splashed in the lake some. Oh, and... two days ago I dropped my unicorn crop in the lake and didn't want to get off and get my boots wet to get it. Today.... I saw it there still so I had my other stick (for cobwebs) so I was able to flick it forward enough with my stick to where I could reach it without getting in the water. Whoo hoo! Score. But speaking of cobwebs... I got multiple facefulls today! Yuck!

We had a nice ride. Good boy!

 

Smiles and Dinosaurs

 Got an amazing present from a talented client. Dan got to model it today. 

went on a hack. a bit footsore behind, because he's barefoot. felt a little sluggish and almost neuro again. 

but had a nice day. was a bit sassy in the beginning and trotted. Trotting he feels way better than walking. 

escorted ranger and amanda home. lost my pink unicorn crop in the lake because I didn't want to get my feet wet

NOT helping Daniel

 Sigh...

 

After I rode both lame mares, instead of coming inside and crying and just giving up and laying down to pout... I decided to take Dan for a bareback ride around the neighborhood. I didn't have time to take him anywhere, which would have been way more ideal. And while I was tempted to take him to Ashland and just throw the shockwave and needles in the car with me and make him sit in the trailer while I worked, I decided that was too much work and effort. 

 

So I grabbed his bridle and my helmet and cookies and went to grab him. I got on and we headed to the lake. I opted not to put the bareback pad on and just get on him without it because... meh, it was a neighborhood walk and I was lazy and depressed. That was a bad idea. He was hot and we got sweaty and he was a turd!

 

We started off and he was anxious and prancy and nervous. Dan?! You live here... why are you being such a twit. As we got close to the lake I had my phone out to take photos and realized I didn't really have good pockets for it. I saw a truck pulling a flat bed full of limbs coming down the street and realized Dan had seen it too and was being all weird. The guy was coming in fairly quick and just kept coming. Dan decided he was really scary and tried to spin and bolt and even threw in a tiny buck/rear or something. I managed to stay on, but barely. I didn't drop my phone and luckily it was over before I really had time to do anything but stay on. Of course Dan was still agitated but we carried on. We got to the tennis courts and he was being a twit. He kept sticking his tongue out and over the bit. Ugh... NOOOOO. Why Dan? WHY!??? I tried trotting but he kept putting his head down and twisting it trying to pull the reins free and be silly, so I gave up. 

 

We walked the whole circle with him being a hot nervous mess practically the whole way. Someone was moving downed tree branches and he kept trying to jig and shy. I had to yell at him a few times and contemplated actually getting off. Dammit Dan. We managed to get back to the lake and he finally started to settled a tiny bit. I took him to the culdesac and the field and was going to try a trot there. Just a little bit of one to see if he was sound and also to check if I could do any contact at all without his tongue coming out to help me determine what was happening. And there was a loud banging coming from the road in the corner of that field, so he got on edge again. Sigh.. I gave up and took him to the arena. Once we got in there he settled and was fine. I was able to take up soft contact and we trotted a tiny bit and he was fine. He didn't get his tongue out and didn't even try. A few chomps but nothing major and not excessive. And he let me put him "on the bit", even though it was still a very long and forward neck with a super light contact. But still. 

 

Argh... Not exactly the ride I needed bud. Sigh... 

But, the good part of the day was first thing this morning. I was getting feed ready and noticed some geese in the pasture. Not just flying over... they were in the grass feeding. Funny noticed them too and started out to investigate. Lyric quickly followed and were calmly walking up to them. Dan went to join the fun and by then the girls had moved them a tiny bit and were still calmly following them. I had videod and had just turned the video off when Dan trotted into them and sent them into the air. That of course scattered everyone... not just the geese and everyone went cantering off. Daniel... of course. ;) I do think that I need to take him sorting. I'm not sure he'll enjoy sorting so much as he would cow bowling, but... might be fun. Heck.. maybe if he can't do anything else, we can go to the airports and go geese bowling as our new job. 

I'm gonna go cry now.