One Step Forward, 17 Steps Back

The mud is quickly drying up so Axel's mud fever won't be too much of an issue for too long (I hope). I did shave Axel's back legs on Sunday anyway. Surprisingly enough he let me shave them without yanking each foot away. He did not let me pick the scabs or even try and soften up the scabs with a wet rag. So I did the best I could and scrubbed both legs with the hibiscrub. I'm counting down the days until Axel's been on the Adequan for a few weeks and we can start working in the arena. He's gotta have some energy to work off, he certainly has some hay to work off!

Cody was pretty impatient in the cross ties when I groomed him and chatted with some folks for a while. We trotted around the arena for a few minutes to see how we were feeling and then we set out for the road. Slow down the drive way, slow and weavey for the first block, then moved to the ditch so if we decided to freak out we wouldn't get run over by a car or anything. That's when we started backing up. We made it down to the culvert finally and turned into the drain way. And then backed up. We finally made it a little further down the drain way, then we backed up. And spun around. And backed up. Snorting and huffing and puffing the whole time. Rinse and repeat. We Cody finally took several almost calm steps forward we stopped and turned around.

The trip back was fast and snorty. Trot walk trot walk trot. He finally started walking when we got back to the edge of the pasture. So we walked past the drive way and kept going. He was still a little snorty but calmer than before. We crossed the road and headed back toward the drive way, and went past it again. A car passed us and Cody remained calm so I gave him a lot of pats before we turned around (he's not afraid of cars he just uses them as an excuse to bolt). We walked down the driveway and did a few trot circles near the pasture gate before we went into the arena and did a little more work. He was a little worked up in the arena and had a pretty big trot and a kind of cruddy gallop/canter. We cooled down doing some serpentines at the walk with seat and leg cues followed by some leg and back stretches when I dismounted.

I'm hoping for some attitude change between the dentist, sheath cleaning, and chiropractor. One of those things has got to make him a slightly happier pony.