No panicking!

 My day got away from me a little bit today but I was still able to take Dan to Ashland to ride. It was around noon and so hot, so I went ahead and hosed him down before we left for Ashland. That way he was cleaner too!

 

I got there and tacked him up and hopped on and we headed to the arena. We did some pillar walking and then some walk warm up. Then we did a brief bit of trotting and then I did my 5 minutes of trot halt trots each way. He started out kind of loose and sloppy. I was feeling his hind end more so today though. Like... he felt lame in the hind end today. Ugh. But as we kept going, he got better. He got more sound, more snappy in his transitions, and more on the aids. Especially on the second circle, which was tracking right and thus should have been a little harder. After a breather I asked him to do two trot to canter to trot transitions each way. He felt kind of sloppy and his left lead was actually his worse lead today as far as how it felt. He did pick up the right lead 3 of the 4 times but missed it once. But once he got it, it felt better than the left lead. 

 

So then we headed to the cross country field and moseyed our way down to the lake. Again, he felt really loose behind...borderline neurologic and also lame feeling. Nothing overt, but subtle and not consistent but... present enough. I walked him in the water complex and then asked him to do 3 trot circles each way. And he felt quite good doing those. The second set, tracking right, he even put his nose down and was snorkeling through. Hee hee. It must have felt good splashing his face! 

 

After that we hacked to the lake and then back up and again, he felt rather sloppy and weak. And maybe weak is the better word that lame or neurologic but he felt especially weak today. So... ugh! I keep thinking I'm on the right track and then... he throws me a curve ball and I panic! We kept the ride fairly short because of it and also, because Patrick was coming at 3. We did come up on a few deer as we were almost home. He's so good. He just stopped and looked. And then we did half of the parking lot poles before we got to the trailer. But... despite all of the things... no tongue today. Well, except for when we stopped to lick dirt and then he had it all over his face and was licking it up. Ha! He did seem pretty comfortable today too... not fussy, no tongue, no snatching at his shoulder. 

 

                                                        (See the deer!)

I was able to give him a little bit of a breather between getting home and Patrick coming but Patrick noticed that he felt very weak. He said that usually when he works on him Dan just holds himself up and then sets himself back down but today he said that Dan was like "Hold me!". Sigh... he told me not to cry. But... dude, I kind of want to. Because.. he's not wrong. Dan did look borderline neuro and especially weak with Patrick too. I don't know if he's just sore from me starting back riding... if he's got EPM... if I've missed something and... this is just.. how it is. Sigh... Guess I'll keep at it but be mindful and see what Keelin thinks next week.