Bringing Up Baby!
Hacked with Sharon. Got there early and lunged. I'm no fun because I won't play his games. ;) When he grabs the leadrope/lungeline.
nice hack. dan was behind because she's a paso.. he got a little bouncy on the moguls. but never did any tongue stuff and was in the figure 8 and the wonder bit. I did do a little bit of walking on the contact but out on the trails. not in the arena.
got adjusted and acupunctured and bemered at home. bush hogged after.
Today we had a tagalong :)
We had great fun at Ashland today. I decided to put Fleck's beach bridle on Dan today. It was the vespucci figure 8 and the wonder bit. I had to raise it to the top holes but it was still lower in his mouth than his real bridle. I know it's not a fair "test" as he had Funny with him and I didn't really ask him to come into the bridle. BUT... I also knew there was likely to be a pool party and it's a little less stressful for this bridle to get wet. Although at this point, I'm guessing it's moot! Anyways... for what it's worth, he didn't mess with his tongue a single time.
We had a good day. We just walked around and snacked a little bit. We spooked at the big heron as soon as we started our trail ride. Then we had two hawks fly overhead right near us. And then, we surprised a fawn and I even caught a photo of her! We played at the lake and Dan splashed a good boy and rubbed his face on Fun's bum.
Once we got back to the trailer I put her back on and switched him to his new lunging cavesson! Finally! I got one that fits and has the correct layout and is quality! Except it's almost orange leather! Ugh. Hopefully I can find some of my darkening stuff and use that. It's not terrible on Dan, but it's pretty awful on Funny (color wise.. it fits her too!). Anyways, I took him out for a short lunge session. The arena's were closed from the rain. And even though she said they may reopen at 1, and it was 12:45, and even though the arena's looked fine... I decided to be a good member and just lunge in the grass area in front of the arena's. I made sure I wasn't tearing up the grass either. :) Funny was carrying on in the trailer but Dan pretty much ignored her. Which was pretty awesome given how upset he was at Rana's. He was wonderful and lunged well. Except for him grabbing the rope 4 or 5 times and immediately spinning and going the other way. The good news is that if I just let go... ie, don't play tug of war... it's boring and he quits trying to run and spits the line out. HA!!! I'm onto you now! But he did well and looked pretty happy and sound and jaunty even! Yay! He got rinsed and then I put him on the trailer while I worked her. He was a little fussy in the beginning but settled quickly too. Good ponies!!!
Lunged beautifully, even the hard way
met Laura, so "tacked up" and headed to the gray barn. Dan likes "kid". Had a nice hack and splashed at the pool.
Arena to watch laura
tiny bit of walk work.. tongue came out. (also though it came out after walking up the hill to stadium. :( )
stressing.... pain? anxiety? teeth? bit? or just a fun game for him? habit?
Very short lunging session in the arena at ashland then a nice hack.
photos: gorgeous day
Quick work out at home. Grabbed the lead rope but I just fed the line and he decided it was no fun.
Good job today though. Nose on the ground. Getting back going the hard way too. Did VERY short session as my footing in the round pen is still deep and it was so hot and he was so good
So.... this morning I almost didn't do our groundwork because I didn't want to put any strain/stress/etc on him before our vet visit. But then I thought.... you might as well. You won't have time after and you might as well know. So I put him in the roundpen and we did our pillar work. He was super. Then we went to do our lunging and... the turd grabbed the lead rope (I only had his halter... waiting on the lunging cavesson) and turned away and went to drag me. I had the flag so I whacked him with it and flapped it hard and HE KICKED AT ME!!!! Oh no sir!!!! So then I had to get after him. Which meant he went squirting off and cantering around. And I was mad.. but got him back after a minute of him running like a fool. But then he did it again! And the dragging didn't bother me, but the kicking out at me made me LIVID. Because dude, that could have gotten my head! Not cool sir, not cool! So I chased him and got mad at him and he ran around again. So not helpful for your stifle, but... you cannot be kicking at me!!! Sigh. Argh.
So then we did some proper work and I worked very hard at staying ahead of his teeth. I made him slow his trot and be methodical, well, as much as I could. So it was nowhere near the degree of happiness he had at Rana's. Whether some of that was footing... perhaps. My roundpen is a little too deep and rutted too. Sadness. So anyways... we didn't do much more because of his shenanigans and he was blowing hard. Tubby boys out of shape!! Ack! He's never been this unfit. :( More sadness.
So then he got a bath. He's got some skin funk so we did the therapeutic bath. Then he got bemered. And then I turned him out for a little bit and luckily he was a good boy and did not roll. So then we headed to Aiken for his vet recheck.
When we got there we walked around for a few minutes and then it was his turn. And.. he was lame. Sigh. Keelin looked at me and said "Would you kill me if I told you I saw left hind lameness"? Ugh.... She flexed him up high on the left and he was super unhappy and was clearly lame. The right side wasn't too bad. So then she did a lower limb flexion and he was still pretty lame. I started to panic a little. Then she put him on a circle and before I could even worn Dannie, her tech, he had grabbed the lead rope and turned and trotted off. She tried to hold him, but he's too freakin' strong when it's in his teeth so she had to let go. He trotted into her treeline and stood there. Such a butt! This is quickly becoming a habit with him. Ugh. I had to laugh though. It's not like he gets loose and you can't catch him for an hour... or he runs amuck. It's just like he's proud of what he did and wanted to show us that he could do it if he wanted. Twit!
So then we took him inside and she palpated him. He was VERY unhappy with the churchill and palpation of his suspensory and the hock. We talked about it and he hasn't had his hocks injected in over a year! So... okay, fair enough. Maybe it's just hock soreness coupled with his antics today and the trailer ride. ??? She ultrasounded his right stifle and said there was some fibrin, but honestly that it looked as good as she would expect considering. It's not an acute stifle... just a chronic stifle. And that there wasn't as much fluid in there as she was expecting, but that the feeling she was getting was due to just... chronic irritation of the synovium. So okay.. now I'm feeling a little bit better.
So the plan is to go ahead and walk under saddle, but try to keep it to straight lines and flat ground. TRY to keep him from shenaniganing in the pasture. She said to put him back on trazadone, but honestly, now that the novelty has worn off, they aren't doing much antics. Then in 6ish weeks... early Sept we'll inject his hocks and the right stifle. That will be at the 4 month mark. Then at the 5 month mark we'll inject him with Noltrex or Arithmed and then, in theory, by the 6 month mark, we'll be back to full work. So this month, which is the 4th month, we'll cheat a little and start walking under saddle, but just walk. Then after we inject his hocks, I can hopefully start adding trot work under saddle and then by month 6, we can hopefully canter. Fingers crossed!!! I am struggling a little bit with whether to keep doing the in hand work. Part of me is panicking because it's circles and it's trotting and that just seems like the surgeons would cry! BUT... some recent research (or maybe I'm just reading what I want to read and it's actually not real research) shows that you have to load and stress the rehab sites. And if I'm doing my homework correctly, he's going to improve things by strengthening himself correctly. And that will make him sounder. And we're doing very short stints... and at the "economy trot" to help him stay upright, so that means there isn't the shear forces or torque on his joints. SO.... I'll probably keep doing it. And I'm also going to be bemering his hocks and upper suspensories too. And I can do some acupuncture to help those. And then hopefully the injections will do the trick!
Fingers crossed. Praying hard!
