Trail Ride Prep

I decided if J&J were going to bring Cody to the trail ride for me on Saturday I better put him to work so he's hopefully not a pain in the butt for them. I set up the "bridge" in the arena next to the wall with the two barrels (which I now remember I forgot to put away - doh) on the offside to simulate a close-quarters situation. I made Cody circle and change directions a few times (lazy pony) before walking him over the bridge in both directions. Then I sent him over the bridge with no issues. Well the only issue being laziness. But it was good to see he'd drive over the bridge even when it was loud and wobbly. Hopefully he'll walk into the trailer just as easy.

I worked with him for about an hour including riding. We walked (slowly), trotted (reluctantly), and even cantered on both leads (once and very spastic). We spent a few seconds on the turn on the forehand but he really will only swing his butt to the left. We tried to circle left and that was a fight more often than not, Cody is not left handed apparently. His neck seems a bit thicker on the left side as well so maybe he does need some stretch and massage in that direction like I conveniently ignored from the chiropractor.

When we finished up I cleaned up his bridle path and tried to clean up his whiskers. Cody prefers to try and eat the clippers instead of being scared of them. It makes clipping whiskers very tricky. I'm still questioning the amount of heat on his back from that Tacky Too pad. It just seems like no matter how cool it is out he sweats a good deal under the neoprene or whatever it is. I might have to go looking for some research.

When I put him out Jeff drove up on my motorcycle for a visit so we grabbed Axel and cleaned off his wound. He actually had stayed out of the mud since the night before so it was looking pretty clean, just full of flies. So we cleaned, scrubbed with Chlorhexidine, and borrowed some Swat to put on it and keep the bugs away. So far I think it's healing well, I just hope it doesn't get proud flesh or scar too bad. When it closes up I suppose I'll try the MTG on it but I think that'll be quite a while, it's a big wound.