Off to a good Start!

So yesterday Dan got a massage by Kathleen. She was amazing!! He was a bit on edge and bored so he made her "dance" with him. She was awesome and just laughed at him. I got annoyed, but... He wasn't being naughty, it's just... he wasn't being good. He was just sooo fidgety and mouthy. But he definitely was much more calm and relaxed when she wasn't in a tender spot. The good news is that his butt and pelvis feel great! Yay! I've been working so hard on that. The bad news (or maybe good news) is that his right scapula is adhered to his body wall. Oh hey... that sounds familiar. Like mother, like son. I sort of suspected that because of all the reactions and restrtictions I get when I work on him, and what Amanda and others get when they work on him. It really is a puzzle and really does require all the pieces. I think he needs fascial work and chiropractic work and probably acupuncture too, but... apparently he also really needed just good deep tissue massage. He was not a happy camper about it, but he also never said a firm no. He was fussy and wiggly and kept lipping at Kathleen, but he never bit and he never got angry. Just very fussy. He did almost rear twice, but he never got nasty with her. I'm so proud! But yep... there was a lot of work there. So I'm much more hopeful again that we can all work together to get that unadhered and get that swing phase working better again! 

So today... we went to ride!!! We were going to meet Liz at Harbins and go for a long walk since they are having the show at Ashland. But she had to cancel. And I wasn't sure how the footing would be at Harbins since it poured here last night. And I also am not too sure where to trot at Harbins and we are finally allowed to trot, so by golly we will trot! So... we went to Ashland. It's always nice to see friends and catch up. We started out on our usual track to the small lake because we wanted to stay away from the dressage arenas and XC field. I put the jump bridle on and the jump saddle on because.... we weren't going to swim because of his injections and because I figured he might be rowdy. :) (He wasn't... bad!). We started off okay and there were no issues other than multiple branches in our path. One we had to go around but most we could walk over. A few looked jumpable but they were tiny enough that we could also walk over. So we kept going. We got to the magical spot and did 1.5 min of trotting. Ahhhhh... He felt a little drunk at first, but then he got his rhythm and swung along. He felt good! Of course he usually feels good on straight aways. We got to the hay field behind halfshire and walked a little bit then trotted the last 1.5 minutes. Then we walked back through the school house path and he trotted up that hill a tiny bit. Oops. Then we got back to the creek crossing with the branch at the top in the path. I thought... it would be fun to jump that, but nope.. we're not allowed. And I had loosened the reins, partly because we've been on the buckle and partly so he could lower his head to go down the hill. Well... stinker must have read my mind because he took his nose down low and cantered off! I didn't want to pull him up right in the middle of the hill or at the "jump" because it was slick and he had the denoix shoes on behind which are more or less slide plates! So... I let him canter and he jumped the little jump. I pulled him up right after. But it was fun. It was so fun. Then of course later I had to trot a bit to make sure he was still sound. :) He was! Then we headed home. Ooopsy.... 

 The photo on the left is the little branch we jumped. :)

Fingers Crossed

 Well... we injected his hocks and his stifles. His right stifle felt pretty icky, but the hocks weren't bad, although they were fairly dry. So...fingers crossed!!!

SOOOOO READYYYYYY

 Danny was a fire breathing dragon!! We are still walking but we are so close to getting to do more. Hopefully!! We went to Ashland for a quick ride before I did more packing. They were having the horse show and there were a few other people there too, so it was a little crowded but not as bad as I expected. When we pulled in we saw Kaitlyn and Deb. I got tacked up and put the leather bit back in and used the bareback pad, because.... swimming and it's hot and... we're just walking. So we started off and it was just as Deb and Kaitlyn were set to head out. I wanted to join them as Dan desperately wanted friends and was super excited to see Dizzy, but.... Deb looked a little stressed about Grout and he was a little up and Dan was a little bouncy, so... I told them we would head the opposite direction. Deb was grateful. Dan was PISSED!! He was so sad. I felt so bad for him. He kept stopping and calling. Poor buddy. I'm sorry! But when you have a reputation for being bouncy and are being bouncy, you can't go hang with the green beans. And he was a little bouncy. We did okay though and then hit the woods and he so wanted to go play. He balled up and tried to canter. I let him for a few strides and then... I couldn't get him back for a few strides. BUT... he leapt into the most wonderful uphill of canters and because I had him in the leather bit, I had to really shorten my reins to try to reign him in. He got super round and collected and we had an amazing canter for a few strides before he dropped out of it. So yay! Maybe the neck injections did make him feel better there. :) So then he gave up and walked politely for awhile. We went to the hay fields but they were fluffing the hay and it was all the way up to the edges so we tried to go back through the woods. Well... we ended up hitting a road block! Three trees had fallen and they had made the most glorious jump.... but alas! Sigh... we had to turn around. So then we went into the hay fields and Dan got bouncy again. I had to tell him that Lucy didn't need US to fluff the hay.. they had machinery for that. Hee hee. So then he settled and we hit a small stretch of flat ground, so I decided to let him trot a little. Holy moly he went for it! He power trotted and was really striding out! It was so fun. :) But we behaved and only did a teeny bit. Then we went to the lake, but.. he ws pouting and wouldn't splash without friends, so we headed back home.
Poor guy. Hopefully we'll have a hack with friends soon. And if not, it'll be December before we know it and he'll have a long weekend at the beach with Indi!!!

Breathing

So... yesterday wasn't a terribly hot day. I had 2 patients at most before I was able to get in the car and drive, so... while it started cruddy (First appt at the house was a no show, I got stung by a bee, and... annoyed with life and life stuff), it ended decently. I had some good clients cheer me up. It also helped that I found out that our buyers farm sold, which means they can buy ours, which means we can buy the new one. So... we had to push closing date back a little bit.. to Sept 11th. And we have to make sure that we get financing and that the farm appraises, but if so, we are good to move Sept 11th. So that helped. 

So today was a better day. We met Kelli and walked around the arena for a little bit while she rode. We tried the leather bit Hugh made us today. He seemed just fine with it. Which, doesn't surprise me. I figure that I could put anything in Dan's mouth and he'd be just fine. But still, it was neat. We also tried riding with the neck rope. Ha!! That's hard! Way harder than it should be. Oh well. We watched Kelli for a bit and then we went for a nice long hack. We passed a group of 3 young bucks and everyone was cool and chill. 

So yeah.. nice ride. Now time to bush hog some fields :) 

Trying to put on our happy faces

Life is getting to me today... well, not today.. this week, this month..this year. I'm just so tired... and so cranky... and so exhausted of struggling. And.. I really wanted today to be fun. It had potential. It was and cool and chilly almost this morning... and not too terrible by the time Freddie finished and we got out to ride. 

We met Kelli and because of life, she was running later than she wanted so we started in the arena. Dan and I did our walk lateral work with the equicube and he was super. He was right on with the movements and it felt pretty good. 

So then after she finished her ride, she took a video of us trotting. He felt GREAT tracking to the right. Like, really bouncy. But then going to the left... I still feel it. I still think it's when he brings that right front forward, but heck, at this point, what do I know? Maybe it's when that right front is landing?? Maybe it is the left hind? Maybe it's the right hind? I have no clue. But... I'm so sad. So yeah... we went on a short trail ride after that and headed home. 

I'm just defeated. I'm trying to stay strong and have faith. I KNOW that God can heal him. But man, I'm tired. So tired.... and sad.

Doin' it anyways

So.... we haven't ridden since last Sunday. When he was bouncy. :) Because Tuesday we went back to Aiken for our vet visit. We were going to get his hocks and stifles injected, which meant, hopefully soon, we can trot! Except, apparently you aren't supposed to use the laser before you inject, so.. we ended up injecting his neck instead. Keelin thought his suspensories looked better and the one dot we saw was still there and unchanged and the rest of the suspensories looked better, so... scar tissue we believe. We injected his neck and he got all scrubbed up and his hair taped up like a circus pony! I can't believe I forgot to take a photo. Oh well. He'd be embarassed. He was fine for the actual injection, but he was super sore for palpation and even probing with the ultrasound. And the spots she found correlated with the spots I found a few days ago when I adjusted him, so... I'm really hoping that this is part of the magic piece with him.


Poor guy... I got up early and fed him and then gave him a bath. Then we hauled to Aiken... then he got worked on... then we hauled home. And then I stuck his butt in a stall. At 6:30 pm. And left him there. Overnight! I didn't even do bed checks because I didn't want to have him get all angry and act up. But... the next morning when I went out to do breakfast, him and Fleck were both happy as clams to have stayed in and didn't even run out of their stalls as soon as I opened them. Granted, they were about to get fed breakfast, but still. So.. huh!? :) 

Anyways... then he got til Sat off... but then at some point Friday night, he pulled a shoe. His right front. Sigh... I was going to maybe ride anyways.. just on the grass. But then Mike and I went to Madison and did some new house stuff shopping and got lunch. And then we did Insanity... and then I was hot and tired, so I didn't ride. Then today, I was going to, but I had to go euthanize Jet. I was going to ride first... but then another dog client needed to be euthanized and I didn't want sweet Roscoe sitting out in the heat all day, so I went and did him first. I'm glad I did. So by the time I finished all that and going to Kroger, it was 5pm. I was going to do invoices and just wait til Tuesday, when Freddie came to do his shoes again... but then the internet was down and Mike was gone so.... off we went!

We were just going to take a quick hack because... you know... no shoe... hot... cranky....  and of course, it started sprinkling when I got there with thunder rumbles. I almost turned around. It was one of those sunny showers that makes you a little leery of getting struck by lightning even when it's not raining! But... I thought we could stick to the woods. So we started off going to the little dam and scaring the blue heron, which scared Dan. My camera wouldn't cooperate, which is a bummer, as I would have gotten a very cool photo! Oh well. It was kind of rocky though, so poor Dan was a little ouchy. My bad buddy.. I'm sorry!!! So we got to the XC field and went into the grass. We then went to the lake and were going to splash, but it's not fun without friends apparently. And there were two friends doing a XC lesson, so Dan wanted to head back. So we did... and munched a lot too. And then we went home. But I think it did us both good to get out and just.... breathe a little. :)