Cody's Test

Axel is not ready to be ridden which makes me very sad. He's still lame on that front knee and he's not working out of it. Brought him in and put more DMSO on it and saddled him up for the first time since probably November. He was not pleased with having to wear a bridle or the saddle for that matter. Got on him for maybe 5 minutes. The first 30 seconds was a fit of head tossing and then he settled down but was Limpy McLimperson. As soon as I finish my rider evals and get paid from WCR I have to order more Adequan for him and I'm going to get some Surpass and try that for a couple weeks. I'm not sure if it'll have any lasting effect or if he'll just feel better during the time it's being applied but we'll see. Maybe if I can get him feeling okay he can start back to work. I think I'll have to add the MSM back to his diet as well. The MSM I could probably mix into a snack since he likes to eat it, that way it's easier for J to feed it instead of the straight powder. Poor Axel, I wish he felt better. I miss riding him and with only one horse it really puts a damper on my horse camping plans with Jeff. Especially now that I hear the trailer has it's new sheet metal welded on. It's almost time to paint!

So I decided that I should test Cody to see how he was feeling before our chiropractor appointment. Since Sunday went so well (save the trailer loading issue) I thought maybe he was feeling better about riding and it really was just time/work that sorted everything out and not necessarily a pain issue. He did yawn as soon as I got out his boots and saddle. He was pretty mellow as he has been the past few weeks otherwise so we just did a few minutes of circling and changing directions before setting out on the road. It was slow going. Lots of stopping and weaving back and forth but no backing up or bolting. The yawning increased the further from home we got but he seemed calm. Much calmer than he had been the previous times. We didn't end up going any further than the first field entrance but he turned around calmly and just sped up to a nice paced walk. I tried to make him bend and serpentine on the way back and he'd jig a little but that was about it. I'll take slow over bolting but a nice relaxed ride without having to poke and prod him to keep going would be nice.

We did a little trotting in the arena when we got back, I wanted to test out my theory that going to the left was worse than to the right. He wasn't nearly as bad as he has been but he is more reluctant to the left. We'll see what the chiropractor says. We did manage to pick up a canter to the left from the walk on the correct lead. I'm definitely comfortable on Cody in the arena now and can canter and continue to ask to maintain that canter even if he gets a little scrambly. Not sure how I'd feel out in the open, I like brakes, but eventually we should be able to have a nice canter outside. Maybe we'll start by riding out in one of the pastures in back, at least we're a little more contained there. B wants to start doing more dressage so I'll have to put some letters on my little cone and she and I can go out back and pretend. And Cody seems to be almost getting some of the lateral stuff. Right now it's almost coming across as an evasion, he'll get up to the wall instead of turning and almost sidepass. I'll be interested in seeing what things change after the adjustment.

Cody still understands the front leg stretches but he's not quite into the back leg stretches yet so I'll have to keep working on those. I want to start stretching Axel as well but since he's been so sore I haven't wanted to start, maybe if we can get to a stable point we can start that and hopefully maintain.

Both boys are looking mighty shiny these days and nice and round. I really want to get out on more trails this year and I can't wait until the truck and trailer are ready. At least with just one horse ready to go I have room in the trailer to bring someone else and their horse with.