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.