We got sunshine today! And minimal winds! By the time I got back from my errands this morning it was warming up nicely. Poor Dan was starting to sweat. He's so hairy. I pulled their clothes and lunged Lyric. Dan and Funny stood at the fence and watched. Dan the entire time, Funny half the time. After that I changed clothes and made a sandwich and then went out to get Dan. Luckily they were eating hay at the barn area so I was able to grab him and get him to the trailer without the chain.
We got to Ashland and I tried to groom the orange out of him. Then I put the bareback pad on and his snaffle bit and we headed to the arena. Kelli wanted to lunge first so I did some pillar walking with Dan. Then we did some turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches and leg yield. And then we did more pillar walking. And then I got on because... we were bored. I noticed both under saddle and in hand he was not wanting to leg yield to the left today. I did manage to get a decent one after a few tries under saddle, so yay for that. Then we picked up the trot to see how he felt and.. he felt sound, but... he wasn't real thrilled. Although to be fair, he wasn't real thrilled at the walk either. He just... felt fussy today and was starting to get chompy. He was curling behind the vertical and then also just... seemed unhappy. He didn't stick his tongue out though... so maybe it wasn't so much anxiety as lack of contact? I don't know. Kelli watched him trot a few circles when she was done and said that he looked like he was swinging medially in the RH and that he was dragging his hind toes. She said that he looked sound.. but maybe his RH was dropping a bit more and maybe his left sacroiliac joint looked higher. She also said that he didn't look as happy as he had before. So... I don't know. I don't know if he's footsore since he's been barefoot behind. He does seem like he's worn his feet off to much less than what he usually has. Maybe it's his sacroiliac joints that need to be injected. Maybe it's his neck.. maybe it's still the darn stifle. I don't know.
I just don't know what to do. I really would like to do another lameness/performance exam with Dr. Barrow (most likely) and get her take. If his stifle is shot and that's the big thing... then, okay... but if he also just needs his SI joints or his stifles injected again and he could go back to more than just walking trails, that would be worth it. It's just... at some point, I need to stop hemorrhaging money.
So then we went on a trail ride. He was definitely happier to be out and was a good boy. He is still walking slower than he used too, although he was still leaving Marvin behind half the time. But Marvin was also a slug today, so that doens't necessarily mean anything. We did mostly flat ground but did a few hills. It was nice. I wish we could have stayed out longer, but I feel like it was a good work out for Dan as it was. He had butt foam!
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