It's been a while since I've gone to the barn and felt like I got done as much as I should have. Axel seemed to be feeling okay in the pasture so I brought him in and gave him some MSM and bute and cleaned him up a bit. Flies seem to still be an issue but I'm out of fly spray so I didn't clean off all the mud on his legs, plus most of it was still wet. When I put him in the arena he was probably 95% sound at the walk. He wasn't feeling terribly feisty so I didn't put his bell boots on (I didn't think it would have been a good idea over all the mud in the first place). I scrambled up on him bareback and he walked off. I'd say he went the first 5 minutes 90% sound and maybe dipped down below that for the last 5 minutes. I tried to keep him moving the whole 10 minutes. He stopped quite a bit in the last half of the ride and started backing up a few times but I wanted to push him a little to make sure we were getting past any behavior/laziness issues and were just dealing with soreness. Overall he was pretty stable and didn't seem to get any worse the longer I rode. Lazier for sure, but his gait stayed constant.
Before I rode I picked up both front feet and held each knee bent for a minute. It seems like after the farrier was here he walked out so much better and I wondered if it had anything to do with being a little more stretched out. So I flexed his front knees and stretches his front shoulders before riding. He still braces himself when he stops (head up in the air) and when I go to dismount, though this time he didn't grunt as I slid off. I'm still not sure if that's pain related or just Axel related. I flexed his knee again after I dismounted and then did some massage on his front shoulders, back, and rear end. He seems to really enjoy having his rear end muscles massaged. And of course I scratched his itchy spot behind his girth. Anything to give him a good memory of being ridden. When we were done I gave him a couple cobs of sweet corn that Jeff decided were past their prime for our personal consumption.
I decided that I'd just do some ground work with Cody instead of riding in the arena for a change of pace. We haven't really worked on anything in a long time. He really needs some time on the lunge line building up some muscle but he also needs to remember that he has to move when I tell him to. So we started with some regular lunging but he was reluctant and it was hard to get him to move so I removed the lunge line and got him going at liberty. Without the lunge line I can weild the lunge whip a little more effectively and inspire a little more movement out of the old man. So he trotted around looking very nice for a while and then cantered around in both directions. When he was nice and awake I put him back on the lungeline to get a few more structured circles out of him as well as some change of direction. By this time he was back to his responsive self, changing directions with energy and paying attention. So I'm thinking we must get back into the habit of working on this sort of thing more and I have to make sure I don't settle for less than an energetic response to my requests.
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