Test #3 for Cody

The bugs are getting bad again. Luckily this time I remembered to buy some fly spray. Who knows if it'll work. It's a good placebo at least. Steph was on her way to Colorado this week so it was just Tricia and I, a good time to test out Cody's attitude without Kiko or Kalani. I'll remind you that prior to the chiropractor visit, Cody would constantly try and turn around and go back to the barn when we rode him. It was a struggle just to keep him going in the right direction. The past two rides were great but we also had multiple variables. Kiko and Kalani were finally ready for the trail. Being near the top of the herd I couldn't confirm that it was the chiropractor that changed his attitude or if it was the fact he got to ride out with a couple more of his herd than usual (though we had issues when we'd ride with Corey).

So this week (we've moved our lessons to Wednesday so we can partake in Ladies' night at the bar afterwards) we headed back out to the trails. I picked up an English breast collar to try with Cody. You generally wouldn't put a breast collar on a dressage saddle but since we were trail riding and that saddle slips so bad on Cody I figured it was worth the $10 at the tack sale.

Cody was feeling a little slower than the past two rides. Granted it was over 80F. But even with his laziness/tiredness/slowness he never once tried to spin and run for home. At one point Tricia was trying to get Axel to canter and ended up cantering off to where Cody couldn't see, he just looked up for a second and went back to munching on grass. He even refrained from calling back to the herd when they called to him. He felt a little off so we didn't work him much. We did the usual trail through the woods. He still wants to canter down and up those little hills but I can keep him at a controlled trot now at least.

When we came back down the main hill we ventured off to another trail we hadn't been on yet this year. I'm on a quest to find a way into the creek and Tricia thought she saw one. Unfortunately it was swamp on the way there. Axel froze, and Cody tried to high tail it out of there (he doesn't care for mud too much). So that plan was foiled. We did find a short drop off on the opposite side of the bridge that Tricia managed to get Axel in. Cody didn't really want any part in that adventure so we sat and watched. Our little creek gets a lot deeper than anyone though. Axel ended up to his belly at one point. In an attempt to turn around and come back and avoid the deep spot they ended up going for a bit of a swim. Axel's front end went off a ledge and he dunked himself head first into the creek, butt in the air. He didn't look entirely pleased with it and Tricia managed to contain herself until he was back to ankle deep water. Then we burst out laughing, I wish I would have gotten that on film. Poor Axel, his forelock was all wet and he looked pretty pathetic. But I bet the cool water felt good. He just didn't appreciate getting water in his ears. I had a video of him all wet getting out of the creek but that's another video that keeps failing when I try and upload it for whatever reason.

So all we're left with is a video of Axel trotting around with Tricia. Unfortunately YouTube compresses the heck out of the video and it ends up looking pretty bad. I should see if they look any better on other services or if I can just put them on my own server.


The final consensus is that Cody is feeling better thanks to the Chiropractor and his attitude has improved significantly making him much more fun to ride. I'll have the chiropractor out again in a couple weeks and see how he's doing and have a follow up adjustment.