There's Still Mud and Snow

This is probably the most annoying spring ever.  Last year we had our vet appointments done and were riding down the road already.  This year we are still under snow with the forecast calling for more.  On top of that, or under it, the frost went out so it's also muddy.  So so muddy.

I ran out to see if I could scrape some mud off of Axel's legs and see what was going on under there.  I got a little mud off by scrubbing with snow but I couldn't get it all.  I'm pretty sure there's some scabs under there.  I've just been spraying the CHG on top of the mud, hoping it'll at least help a little.

I chased him around in the arena with the whip and once again, darn horse is nearly sound.  Walk, trot, canter, seriously.  If he keeps this up we're going to do some ground work and get the last two years of retirement out of his system and maybe, just maybe, go for a ride or two.  I don't think some light riding is going to matter much in the grand scheme of arthritis.  I just want him feeling good enough that if he feels too good I'm comfortable kicking his butt.

I also ended up meeting one of the new boarders that works nights, so I might have a lunch time riding partner again.

Ick ... mud

Okay the mud is in full swing.  Up over my ankles and totally disgusting.  The horses kind of looked at me like, "help me please."  Heh.  I was going to just go out and try out my new grooming tool in the paddock but the other horse was trying to help so that wasn't going to work.  A horse was in the arena for some reason.  I suppose I could have put her in a stall but that just seemed like more work than I wanted.  So I took the boys out and tied them to the rail by the other barn.  Not really out of the mud but that's next to impossible at this point.


I did end up spraying both Cody and Axel's feet since it was so horrible out there.  Though I just sprayed right over the mud.  Heh.  I couldn't quite see if Axel's scabs were worse or better or otherwise but they didn't *seem* any worse so I suppose that's a good sign.

So I ended up ordering a giant dog short hair Furminator for the horses.  The horse one is super spendy and I found this one on Amazon for 20 bucks.  As far as I know they are the same thing just a different size and the reviews said the horse one was too wide.  I had to brush off as much dried mud as I could first but they were still pretty dirty, hopefully I didn't dull the blade at all. So at first glance it didn't seem like it was getting off that much hair but when I was done I went back over the horses with the regular brush and it didn't fill up with hair nearly as fast as it usually does.  Probably would have been nicer had I gotten the thing a couple weeks ago before they were so nasty.

So when I was done grooming I walked each of them down the driveway.  I've come to one conclusion.  If we end up with a TB (or even any other horse) I'm going to need to pay closer attention to what the horse is doing.  I'm sort of spoiled with my more or less bomb proof horses.  Axel was on his toes the whole walk down the drive way.  We walked back and forth a tiny bit on the road and then headed back up the drive way and Axel got behind me and decided to let off a little steam and jump around.  So my back was turned to him while he did this and it could have been a really dangerous situation with most any other horses.  Cody wasn't quite on his toes til we got to the road then he did his usual trotting thing getting himself all worked up a bit (not really all that bad but more energy than he's had all winter).  I backed him up the first part of the driveway with success and some actual speed so that was nice.  But he still wanted to trot his way back to the paddock.  So I guess taking the boys down the road first thing in the spring (aka flying kites) is good practice for handling a less than bomb proof horse.  I should probably wear a helmet when I'm doing that too but I didn't have it with me since I didn't intend on riding.  So my rules for myself when we get a new horse is to 1. wear my helmet even doing ground work and 2. pay better attention at least until the horse is settled in and we know his personality a little better.

Horses are Dangerous

No pictures, cuz the mud.  So much mud.  Anyway, horses are dangerous, I tell ya.  I can hardly use my right arm since my last visit to the barn.  I put Cody in the arena so he could roll and then I scraped a pile of hair off him before tacking him up.  I decided to grab my dressage whip since Cody has lacked a little inspiration lately.  And here's where things got dangerous. I stood Cody at the mounting block, reins in my left hand, whip in my right.  I transferred the whip to just a few fingers and then used the remaining fingers on my right hand to grab the mounting block and move it closer.  The mounting block is homemade, two by sixes, pretty heavy, and apparently the remaining free fingers on my right hand are not strong enough to move the block and I pulled a muscle in my forearm.  Ug.  So yeah, I'm a wimp.

Free lunged Cody first to get him moving, left lead canter just about every time he was asked.  Rode for about a half hour.  Not a spectacular ride.  I think I need to step back and work with him on just responding when asked.  We're stuck in a catch 22.  He's reluctant, I nag, he tries everything but what I really want, I nag more, he's more reluctant.  Rinse, repeat.  So we might have gotten a left lead canter, it was hard to tell. When I got off I lunged him to the left and got the correct lead so that was our stopping point.

I keep thinking, "I can't wait til we get a new horse to work with and Cody can retire" but I really do need to keep him in shape so I can ride him while Daniel rides Haji.  But it'll be a whole new set of issues to tackle once we move him to a new location so I guess for now I just keep him in shape and keep working on his confidence and anxiety.  Looking forward to a few rides down the road when the new horse arrives, I just hope he rides out with a new horse as well as he did with his BFF Steele.

Spring TLC for Axel

Spent a little time getting Axel cleaned up. Scraped a small horse's worth of hair off him (still waiting for my furminator to arrive). I clipped up his back legs and dyed them blue. Heh okay not really. We decided to go a little cheaper this year and got some dairy cattle teat dip. Same ingredients as the hibi-clens I was using but a lot cheaper. Might be a little lower concentration but hopefully it'll still do the trick. This stuff is dyed blue so you can see where you've sprayed so now Axel has blue socks on his back feet.

I put Axel in the arena for a bit as well and chased him around a bit, though it certainly didn't take much encouragement on my part to get him moving. He trotted out a little lame at first and then just went wild and nearly sound. His canter is especially sound (at least comparatively). I hate when he does this, makes me really want to ride him. I should keep letting him stretch his legs in the arena as much as possible, keep the old man moving.