Winter Already?

I mustered up enough motivation to run out to the barn on Monday. I'm pretty sure that's going to be increasingly more difficult to do as it's dark and cold out all the time. Boo. Both horses were standing far out in the pasture looking forlorn and bored. I stood at the gate and waited. I paced around a bit. Pretended to go up by where they get fed. Crinkled my pockets pretending to have treats. I even went into the barn where the feed is (to check on Axel's supplement). They both just stood at the far end of the pasture watching. Since it just dumped rain and snow on us seemingly out of the blue I knew the ground wasn't actually frozen and I wasn't about to go wading through the mud to get the horses. I ended up walking down the driveway next to the fence. When I headed back up toward the barn Axel decided to follow. Right through the mud. Then Cody decided to follow at high speed. Right.Through.The.Mud. Yuck.

I grabbed Axel and brought him into the barn and tried to scrape as much mud off him as possible. I'm not quite sure what the deal was, maybe I just tickled him but I was using the shedding blade and hit a spot on his right flank/rib area and he stomped down. It didn't seem like it was a directional kick but more of a "HEY WTF!" stomp. I poked a bit and couldn't find anything out of the ordinary so I just steered clear of that spot and finished grooming. I lunged Axel for a few minutes in the arena. He wasn't too excited about working and he wasn't offering any trotting or cantering. He wasn't feeling 100% but I don't think the little grooming incident was affecting him at all. He was short striding a bit but that's not terribly unusual for Axel.

His swollen bits don't seem to be getting worse. His sheath is slightly swollen on his right side and he still has a lump on his belly. It's move down to the lowest part of his stomach and is mostly on the right, almost in the center and about as big as my hand. I haven't decided what that means. They've been off round bales for a couple weeks now. I would think the swelling in his belly would take a while to go away but who knows. We'll see what happens when they get put back on round bales, I think this weekend. At least he'll be happy.

Cody had planted himself squarely in a nice muddy spot and was visiting with the neighbors over the fence while waiting for dinner. I didn't have my muck boots so I decided to just let him be for the night. He'll get his turn later when I remember my boots.

Not a happy camper!

Last Sunday Axel was in fine form. I brought him into the barn and tacked him up, lunged him for a while. He was feeling pretty lazy and wasn't interested in running and bucking at all. I finally got on and walked him around for a while. It was so nice out I decided we should head down the road a little so we could keep moving but get some fresh air. We headed into the ditch and walked along until we got to the spot between the two fields. Axel stopped to look around and be the usual lazy Axel. I asked him to turn and head between the fields and before I knew it I was on the ground next to him and he was grazing. I have no idea what happened. He wasn't pissed as far as I could tell, there was no tell tale tail swishing or ear pinning. So I don't know what his problem was but he had all four feet off the ground and I flipped over his shoulder. I'm almost positive I landed on my feet and then stumbled backward and hit the ground. I wrenched my arm, side, and shoulder trying to rescue myself and keep hold of the reins. Though I had no need to worry since Axel was more interested in grass than going anywhere.

I grabbed him and tried to lead him over to the side of the ditch so I could mount easier. He decided (after weeks and weeks of standing knee deep and running through mud) that he was not going to step in the wet part of the ditch so he launched himself over the ditch and kicked my right leg in the process leaving me with a purple goose egg bigger than my hand. Needless to say Axel spent some quality time on the lunge line in the arena after that. He actually cantered both leads soundly until he was sweated up pretty good. Probably the most exercise he's gotten in a year. He even did some trotting that looked more on the side of sound than usual. Maybe a little stretching out is good for the ole boy. I was very unhappy with him so after he ran enough I put him back outside and went home.

My next trip to the barn on Tuesday was a little calmer. I just groomed both horses and scrubbed up their legs with some Chlorhexidine to try and fend off the mud fever. It just won't stop raining and they haven't had a chance to even dry out and now it's getting too cold to get the hose out so I'm left with mud, wet rags, and long hair. Ug. If they ever dry out I'll try and shave them both up a bit but who knows when that'll happen.

Back to Work, Again

I went to the barn armed with a plan, sort of. The plan is to get Axel riding more. And to maybe put them on small squares for a few weeks to see what happens, or maybe not. I was still deciding at the time. Cody seems to have managed to stay out of the mud lately. Axel, on the other hand, has not. Most of the mud on his legs was dry but near his hoof it was still pretty wet. Since I planned to ride I need to put his bell boots on so I scraped as much mud off as I could.

It's amazing what a mess he leaves behind when I groom him. I was sneezing dirt all night. So much to Axel's dismay when I was done grooming him I tacked him up and brought him into the arena. I started by just lunging him for a while. I was hoping he was feeling as frisky as he was the other day and I wouldn't have to force him to pick up some speed. But he was pretty content just walking. So after he walked along in a circle (which he's getting almost good at) in both directions I clicked a few extra times to see what he'd do. First I got the "WTF" look from him and then he'd hop up in the air like a bronc a few times and then break into a trot for a few strides. I asked him a couple more times, I didn't really want him to trot, cantering seems to be a better gait for his knee but he just was not into it last night. He did manage a few strides of canter in each direction but there was a lot of crow hopping to get there. His trot was actually not terribly lame and I think if he'd bend his knees and pick up his feet it would go a lot better. I had forgotten his second pair of bell boots, I was going to put them on all 4 feet in hopes of inspiring a little less shuffling.

So we wrapped up the lunging after only a few minutes. Probably over 5 but I'm sure less than 10. Axel has not been pleased to wear a bridle lately. Not sure if it's just the year vacation he had or if something is bothering him. But I put his bridle on, convinced him to stand still at the mounting block, and hauled myself up on his back. He actually walked out really nice for the first lap or two around the arena on a loose rein. Then he started chewing on the bit and it seems like when he starts doing that he stops moving well. So the next 20 minutes or so I was after him to keep moving. I tried a few things like backing him up, wiggling the outside rein, holding my hands a little higher, and bending him both directions in attempts to get him to stop chewing on the bit and start paying attention. Didn't really work. He was paying enough attention to me that I was using mostly leg and seat cues to change his direction. He almost seemed like he was going to settle in near the end of the 20 minutes but as soon as we stopped to rest he started up again. If he doesn't settle in after a couple weeks of regular riding I might have to investigate his bridle and bit a little more. He did make it the full 20 minutes without a change in his lameness which was nice and after I got off he seemed the same and moved out fairly well. He wasn't interested in rolling, he wasn't really sweaty at all.

He's definitely low on muscle tone these days. It's hard to tell since he's so beefy to begin with but you can see between his back legs when he walks, normally those muscles rub together. And when I shift my weight to dismount he really braces himself and grunts a little. I should really get the chiropractor out to adjust him. He usually doesn't need it but a year off of riding and moving in general might have taken a toll. I just have to find the money. There so many other things he probably needs first like another knee injection, teeth floating, things like that.

So in the end I talked with J and he has some small squares he kind of wants to get rid of so he has room for the tractor in the barn. I hemmed and hawed over what we should do. On one hand I don't think it really has anything to do with the hay and I hate changing more than one thing at a time. On the other hand if we're going to test that theory we should do it now when it's still warm out. So he's going to put out small squares for a couple weeks and we'll see if that makes a difference. In then end we'll go back to big rounds for the winter because Cody just really needs it. My thought is keep exercising and if he gets better with both small squares and more work we'll see what happens when we add rounds back into the mix. If I wasn't worried about him eating fences posts or Cody losing too much weight, I'd say Axel could stand to drop a few pounds. He's probably better off being on the lighter side of things with his arthritis and ringbone but he's destined to be retired sooner than later and I think he'd rather be fat and happy than thin and mobile!

Really? Again Axel?

Cody was actually fairly mud-less last night. Hairy and dusty, yes, but very little caked on mud. I grabbed him first since I planned to ride a bit. It's hard to get back in the habit once you start slacking. It's just so easy to groom and throw them back into the pasture. Anyway Cody was feeling a bit frisky so we did quite a bit of lunging first. Changing directions and backing up and all that. Once I got on he seemed fairly calm and actually spent a lot of time licking and chewing. We stuck to the walk for the most part and worked on some neck reining, circles, and serpentines. We managed a couple really nice turns on the forehand and almost got a side pass but not quite. I keep trying to work more going to the left since that seems to be his stiff side but it requires a lot of fighting to get both our bodies cooperating. We did manage to make it through all this work with almost no sweating and it was in the 50s so it was nice to not have to blanket after riding quite yet.

Axel was another story. I wasn't going to do anything with him last night until I brought Cody out and noticed his belly was swollen again. Ug. So I brought him in to check it out and see if I could get it to go down by lunging. So he walked in both directions for about 10 minutes total and there was no change. I should have gotten on and ridden but it was getting late at that point. I just keep going back to the round bale. How is the round bale causing this? It's a different hay supplier than last year but it's the same hay field he's been eating off all summer just in big rounds instead of small squares. It's not even first cutting. My first few thoughts are to do a powerpac, take him off the round bale for a couple weeks and see what happens, try antihistimines, and actually ride him and see if any of that works. I actually don't think it'd be allergies, how would that last all winter? Right now I'm thinking we'll pull the round bales for two weeks and I'll try and get him more exercise then add the round bale back in and see if keeping the exercise up helps. Unless the vet comes up with something else. It probably wouldn't hurt to do a powerpac anyway since I don't keep up on deworming too well but they are kind of spendy so we'll see what the vet thinks of that.

Round in Circles

Since the rain and the wind finally stopped I was able to make it out to the barn last week on Thursday. It was still pretty chilly but at least the sun was out. The pasture wasn't as nearly swampy as I thought it would be but the horses were covered in wet mud as usual. I ended up grooming the dry parts and then lunging both horses in the arena. I would prefer to free lunge them but there's a few bales of hay still stored in the arena so that would not be a successful lunging session to say the least.

Axel actually walked out on the line pretty decently but when I asked him to keep walking he kicked up his heels and cantered away throwing in some bucks for good measure. He did manage to get the correct lead in both directions when he did canter. He had a few moments of trotting which weren't completely sound but didn't look too horrible.

Cody had his chance to kick up his heels as well. Any of his lazy summer attitude was definitely gone. It might have been the 3 days of constant wind that had him worked up but he was more alert than he's been in a long time. Hopefully he'll keep some of that energy through the winter so we can get some work done for once.