I decided it was time. Axel needs to get back to some sort of work. Not hard, mind you. The vet was very adamant that I not do something that will make his condition worse. But the last time we chatted discussed the fact that standing around not moving was not going to help his arthritis so I think getting him walking is the key. If I can get him so that we can walk him down the road or trail with a little bute before hand and no heavy duty trotting or anything like that, I think that's the way to go. I don't think it's going to make anything worse at this point. The vet also suggested that I get some Surpass which I agree with and had suggested a long time ago. So I'll add that to my list of things to get.
I made this nice little graph of his soundness since the day he got the injection. Just for fun of course, that's what I do. So it was finally cool out so I made sure to get out to the barn. The wrap on Axel's leg was so black I thought he had lost it in the pasture somewhere. You couldn't even tell the vet wrap used to be yellow but it was still on his foot and it actually kept the wound clean. I hosed him off and brought him back into the barn. It seems like he's got some scabs on the backs of his legs higher up than he usually gets for mud fever but I can't quite figure them out so I made sure to scrub them good just in case. The scabs are staying to a minimum on the rest of his legs so that's good. If it would stop flooding in his pasture maybe I could stop worrying about it so much but at this point a quick scrub is much easier to deal with than if the scratches got as bad as some of the other boarder's horses. So I scrubbed his back feet and his cut with the Norwex cloth and then some chlorhexidine, then I put some tri-care on the cut, then I wrapped his cut again, and put on his bell boots in the back. I gave him some MSM and some bute since I planned to ride a bit and it had been a long time since he's had someone on his back.
When I brought him into the arena he nearly plowed me over ready to go so I unhooked his lead rope and let him go on his way. All the doors were open so he had to check out each one and then he took off. Cantering, trotting, you name it. The lame horse was not looking so lame all of a sudden. Sure he wasn't 100% at most gaits but he sure didn't seem to care. After about 8 minutes of him running and trotting and looking around he seemed to calm down so I grabbed his lead rope and tied it up like reins and led him to the mounting block. I will admit now that it took me three tries to get on. The first two times I jumped up, was laying over his back, tried to swing my leg over and felt myself going head first toward the ground on the other side of the horse so I bailed and landed on my feet. Third time's a charm I guess and I finally made it up on his back. He walked out with a bit of a limp but it was pretty stable and he was willing (for a few minutes). I didn't want to work him any longer than 10 minutes total including his little stint as a crazy horse running around the arena so I only stayed on for maybe 2 minutes. Basically a couple laps in each direction. Since he's started having all these issues I've jumped on bareback a couple times and I've noticed when I go to dismount he's very unhappy. He puts his head way up in the air and grunts as I swing down. I'm getting down on his left side, opposite of his sore knee, so I'm not sure if his back is sore maybe or what. The last couple times I got around to trying to do some massage on his back he seemed to really enjoy himself so perhaps that's the key. Old boy needs a masseuse apparently. Too bad he's already spent his allowance! To end the evening I took him for a walk down the road just to the end of the pasture and back. I think we're lacking in the stamina department right now, he got pretty slow just after that little bit and it didn't seem like soreness, just tiredness. So we'll try and keep up the 10 minutes of moving for a while and then increase by 5 after a few weeks.
Hopefully I can pop out there quick tonight and remove that bandage and leave it off for the weekend, maybe it will scab up. I'm just hoping the proud flesh doesn't get too bad. I should have taken a photo of it last night but I forgot, maybe tonight.
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