Common' boys!

I managed to drag my lifeless body out to the barn before going to the farm. I came down with a nasty cold on Thursday morning. I mustered up enough energy to try out my new Rider's Rasp on the boys. Cody has decided to remove his fly mask as often as possible now. So I got him groomed up and fly sprayed and tried to even out some of the jagged edges on his hooves with the new rasp.

Axel was looking kind of bad. He was limping still and the more I looked at his legs the more I noticed he was kind of puffy. I looked around the best I could see and didn't find anything obvious so after grooming and fly spray we walked up and down the road a little to see if that would reduce any of the puffiness. In all reality I think it was mainly his back right that was swollen. So I gave him some MSM and bute and put him back outside in hopes whatever it was would clear up over the weekend.

Cody on the Road - Again

I was actually around this weekend so I made it out to the barn on Sunday. Unfortunately I got there after J&J left for town with the clydes. So it was just me and Cody left to our own devices. It was warm but I decided it was time for another trip down the road alone. We will conquor this riding alone thing someday. I still need longer straps for Cody's breast collar, I tried it on him again and it's just too short but the new pad seems to help the slipping issue. With our boots on and a lead rope with a popper at my disposal we crawled down the driveway. Then we crawled down the road. We had a few stops on the way but only had to get popped with the lead rope once. Might be something I should do early on while we're still near the barn (less chance of a freak out and more chance for establishing some sort of alpha position in our relationship). We stopped when cars drove by but we did not spin around and bolt for home. I will remember treats next time. Perhaps cody needs some clicker training! Anyway we made it further than ever before (this summer). Almost all the way down to the next block. I'd say we had one minor spaz attack that was easily curtailed. When he calmed down we turned around. When he got amped to be facing home, we went away from the barn again and tried a second time. I'll take a nice brisk walk but I won't take a spazzy vertical trot, we don't run home, mister.

Going home should equal work so we did some serpentines. The first several were very spazzy "OMG are we turning around again I wanna go home now!" but once he figured out we were just bending then he settled in. I tried a bit of leg yeilding as well but without an audience it's hard to tell if he's crossing over or not, my guess is not. We went back to the serpentines and then tried some circles. Circles to the right were okay. Circles to the left looked like half circles with the sharp turn happening when we weren't facing the barn. Left is a real problem for Cody and it shows up a lot when he's freaking out. Left = freak out more. When we got near the drive way we trotted ... right past the driveway much to Cody's dismay. But as he calmly kept going with only a bit of encouragement we stopped and I got off and we walked the rest of the way home.

While I was riding I noticed Cody would get a weird hitch in his back end. Back left to be exact. Upon furthur investigation on the ground it seemed like he wasn't quite picking that foot up far enough and as we'd cross the crown of the road that toe would drag causing a bit of a catch/stumble. So Mr Cody might have to work on some ground poles as well. You'd think with the number of things I keep coming up with to work on I'd be busy out there all the time. But it's hard to get motivated and not just play around. I'm going to stop at the tack shop on the way home tonight and see if the have one of those Rider's Rasps. Cody has some serious chips going already and Tricia has expressed great love for the rasp so I think it's time to give it a whirl.

Get Better Already, Will Ya?

Well Axel is still down in the dumps as far as that knee goes. It's big and swollen again and his limping around. I gave him some MSM and bute and then took him into the arena. Instead of lunging at the walk I just followed him around the arena with a lunge whip to keep him moving. He was off but he didn't get worse. At this point the only thing I can do is keep him moving. Though with all this swelling and soreness his knee is still much more flexible than it was before the injection. So we'll try a few more days of bute and see if the swelling goes down. Not much else I can do. There's nothing on his x-rays and since it's a joint there's really nothing else it could be but reaction to arthritis. I should probably bite the bullet and order some supplements for him and get him back going on that (done and I ordered some liniment to try). Hopefully getting him back on a joint supplement will do some good. The one I'm going to try is similar to what he was on before minus the Yucca, has more Vitamin C, no MSM (which I give separate anyway), has Collagen, little less HA, more Chondroitin, and a little less Glucosamine. So the affects should be about the same as the more expensive stuff he was getting. We'll see if my theory that he went to pot after I stopped the supplement is true. Especially since I can't do the joint injection more than every 3 months. Wish I would have gotten off my butt and ordered this stuff earlier.

So Axel got put back outside and I grabbed Cody. I had planned on maybe just getting on bareback in the arena for a few minutes but the new boarder showed up (she's been around a few months now but this was the first time I met her). I didn't really want to fight with Cody without a saddle for support so I threw on the dressage saddle. New horse, new people, I figured he'd want to pay attention to them and not me. He wasn't actually bad and after we did a bit of trotting we stopped to talk to the boarder which Cody appreciated. We finished off the night with a tiny bit of cantering and made around to the right almost 2 laps.

Finally a Ride

One of these days I'll bring out a decent camera instead of my cell phone. Until then you get weird orange tinted photos where you can't actually see just how shiny and dappled Axel is. I ended up leaving off his fly mask this time around, he's getting some rub marks on his face from it. We'll see if gets bothered too much by bugs without it. He went all last year without one and didn't seem worse from wear. I ended up just grooming him and putting some fly spray on. He was a little limpy still, maybe down to a 4 on the Axel scale but I didn't put him in the arena or anything to really see how he was feeling. I should have more time this weekend to get him moving a bit. The sore knee certainly hasn't slowed him down any. I just have to decide how much I want to push him.

So A was at the barn and suggested we go for a ride down the road. I tacked up Cody (no yawning) and put on his boots and some fly spray and we were off ... like a snail. He's soooo darned slow. I have yet to bring a whip with on the road but I might have to start especially since my reins are one piece and don't have any ends to use as poppers. We went along at a glacier's pace for maybe just under a half mile before he started moving a little better. Maybe he also needs a warm up but I'm sure most of it is barn sour. But with every car that passed and he didn't decide to bolt home I praised and patted him and we kept on. When we turned the corner at the mile mark he picked up speed, mostly because going parallel to home is better than going away from home. He had a few bursts of trot but they weren't completely spazzy and since Vinnie is a pretty solid and lazy guy Cody didn't really have anything keeping him amped up. As soon as he relaxed down to a walk and licked I asked him to turn around and he did so very calmly. The past few times even if our ride out is calm (but slow) when we turn around he turns it up to 11. So I was very happy when he didn't bolt as we changed directions for home. He did pick up a real walk finally. I should have made him work a bit more, do some serpentines or something, but I chose to let him walk calmly the whole way back.

I'm really going to have to keep riding him out as much as I can even during the winter so he doesn't get barn sour again in the spring, he was going pretty good last year (I think) and then spring came around and he was crazy again. But more time will always help. Part of his slowness I think is his application for retirement. I don't think he needs to be a pasture puff quite yet and I'd like it if he'd keep in shape and become a nice kid's horse. So he and I will keep working and one of these days one of us will win (hopefully it's me).

Two Steps Forward One Step Back

So the million dollar horse wasn't feeling up to par on Monday. Let's say on a scale from 1-10, 10 being awesome totally sound at all three gaits (something he hasn't been since this time last year) and 1 being so lame he can't move at all, holding up one foot hopping around style. Before he had his injection I'd say he was at a 3. After the injection he was at a 7 (still lame at the trot, sound at the walk and really moving out). Monday he was down to a 5. Not nearly as bad as before the injection but not as good as a week after the injection. I really don't know what the deal is. Just ups and downs I suppose. The only thing I can do right now is keep going slow, get him moving around more and back into shape. If this is really just arthritis issues then more work isn't going to make it worse, he doesn't have a broken leg or anything, it's just going to maybe hurt. My thoughts right now are to keep him going at the walk until it's been a month. Then we'll put a saddle on him and work more at the walk. I'm going to pick up some liniment as well. Of course I'm impatient but in all reality if you limped around 6 months it would take at least a month if not much more to start feeling normal again. Jeff's niece broke her foot and has been out of a cast for a month or more and she's still limping and is a little gun shy. Why should I expect Axel to be any different?

So I did ask him for a trot to see what was up and he jumped and flung his head and cantered instead. Not the best day to ask for that I guess but you don't know til you try. So I put him out after giving him some MSM and grabbed Cody. Cody managed to stay stress free while I tacked him up in the cross ties. I decided to put out some cones before I got on to ride. I'm not really worried about Cody rolling or doing something stupid while tacked so I just let him wander while I set up. I put the cones down the centerline so we could work on weaving a bit and when I got to the end and turned around, Cody had knocked every cone down and was standing behind me. So after I reset all the cones I got on to ride. Cody was slow as usual so I grabbed the dressage whip for some inspiration. It seems like he doesn't start working until I ask for a canter and then he's on his toes. Which was the case on Monday but he's starting to calm down a lot faster after a spazzy canter. He's a little hard to motivate and when I'm riding alone I'm hard to motivate so I'm guessing that's no help to him. I should get someone to come in and instruct me or something.

We did weave the cones a bit but without impulsion it's a pretty difficult task. At first Cody decided he was supposed to walk up to each cone and stop. After we got over that idea then he figured out we were weaving. I probably should have put the cones a bit further apart for him. So while we were in the arena riding Axel was out in his pasture screaming his head off. Usually he doesn't care if Cody is gone but for some reason he was very unhappy with the situation on Monday. Of course his screaming makes it harder for Cody to concentrate on the task at hand. We made a few attempts at side-passing on the wall with no success and then we did a few tiny turns on the forehand. That was pretty much it for the night. And since it was a billion degrees last night I didn't go to the barn at all. So we'll see how everyone is feeling on Monday when I can make it out again.

Tired Axel

So I put Axel in the arena and lunged him at the walk on Wednesday. I tried some body wrapping ala TTouch but it didn't seem to inspire him to pick up his feet any more. Still dragging those fronts. He moved around slowly and lazily but sound, just dragging. I tried a little more massage which he seemed to enjoy or at least tolerate well. But as soon as we walked out onto the cement he was sore. I can't quite figure if he's just hot, tired, and out of shape or if this is the knee talking. Especially since the duration of his knee troubles he was always more sound on the cement than he was in the arena footing. Wednesday it was opposite.

And I am ignoring this new lump. Sort of new lump. I think the lump was there before but it's bigger now. More ringbone maybe or just arthritic changes, we do know he's an arthritic boy. It doesn't hurt him nor is it hot and it's hard. Perhaps just a bump and it'll go down. Seems fishy if it's just arthritis that it'd show up nearly over night so for now I'm pretending it's not there. Luckily I've been photographing his legs and feet for a while now so I can keep an eye on changes.

Boy Axel, you sure go through a lot of work to get out of work.

I Guess It's Summer

I missed the farrier appointment yesterday because of the holiday but B held the boys for me. Sounds like they acted decently enough. I made it out tonight to see them after a week away. Axel was in a decent mood so I groomed him and then we went for a walk down the road. Even after the trim Axel is still dragging on the front so we'll just have to keep working and see if it improves. We went about a half mile total. Near the end of the walk he started tripping a bit and slowing down. I thought maybe he had a rock in his hoof but I didn't find anything. Granted it was in the 90s and a billion percent humidity so perhaps all of that contributes. Anyway we'll keep going slow and steady and hope for the best. And he has a new lump which for now I am going to ignore and pretend it's nothing. It's probably nothing? Definitely nothing? It's on his front right pastern. Looks like there is usually a lump there but comparing photos, it looks bigger now. It's hard but doesn't seem to bother him. Darn horse.

So I brought sweaty Cody in from the pasture to groom him and get him fly sprayed. Doing anything more than that required too much sweating on my part. I did find a few of his itchy spots. If you know Cody you'll understand why this next part is so cool, I was able to clean his "bits and pieces" for the first time. He was hanging it out when I came back in the aisle with a baby wipe and he didn't yank it back in when I started to clean it. And he didn't kick at me. He might have actually been calm about it. We may not be riding a lot but we seem to be getting somewhere in our horse and owner relationship. I'm not sure if the farrier trimmed Cody's left front a little shorter than normal to get rid of the crack he has or what. It looked pretty short and the crack was nearly gone but he seemed pretty tender footed. We'll see how it shapes up in a few days when it's had a chance to grow a bit. Luckily it's too darned hot to even think about riding lately but there's always tomorrow.

Just Some Walking

Brought Axel in, now a full week after his knee injection, groomed him and got him in the arena. I had him walk on the lunge in each direction for probably less than 5 minutes each. Still sound but dragging that right front a big (we'll see how he looks after a trim). Of course now it's a week later and I can't recall if I asked for a trot or not. But I was dared to get on bareback I think B thought Axel was going to act the fool. I jumped on with just the rope halter and lead and we did one lap in each direction at the walk. It was a perfectly sound and willing walk. It's been a long time sine I could say that. So even with some weight he's sound at the walk. My thought is that even if we can get him sound at the trot he can still do little trail rides at the walk.

I didn't feel like riding so I grabbed Cody and just groomed him quick and asked if B and Diva wanted to go for a walk down the road in-hand. Diva is getting over a nasty case of scratches so she's on vacation for a bit but a nice walk would do us all some good. Cody was slow on the way out but no calling and no wheeling around to bolt for home. We even made it nearly the whole mile. I asked him to turn around and go back as soon as he relaxed and started licking. Of course the trip back was much quicker but it was calm. We even stopped to visit some grandparents walking with their little granddaughter, she wanted to see the horses.

I think Axel and I might start walking down the road for our conditioning, it's much more interesting that lunging at the walk and easier to judge distance/time. If I was a smart person I'd have already trained Cody and Axel to pony and I could ride Cody and pony Axel but the road is just a bit too busy for me to feel comfortable doing that.